[Exact and circumstantial information is of course, necessary for the guidance of the home government in all measures relating to the resources, needs, development, and administration of the islands, and annual reports on all these matters are demanded from governors and intendants by the laws of the Indias. Essential as this requirement is, it has always been neglected.] What those officials sometimes write, when questioned about these matters, are but generalities; their reports and information are reduced to how much has been produced and how much spent, in the résumé of the royal exchequer accounts. Thus it is not known with what necessity and justice certain extraordinary expenses have been incurred, what number of employees the king has in that colony, what causes have occasioned the increase or decrease in the product of the revenues, and, finally, how the means and resources of the people who contribute to the royal income can be augmented so that the latter can likewise be increased, all which the government ought to know. [It is true that the governors are laden with multifarious routine duties, which often prevent them from attending to these important matters, and from examining conditions personally, for which they have to depend upon the reports of their subordinates; and these are apt to be actuated by self-interest and they do not like reforms, so their statements are not very reliable. The reports made by the municipalities, commercial consulate, and other bodies are of the same sort, as being always from the standpoint of their corporation; and neither authorities nor corporations have the same stimulus to thoroughness, accuracy, and energy as has the private person who undertakes an enterprise. It is through the latter class that great projects and advances are made, but such persons hesitate to present plans for these to the authorities there, because the authorities do not examine them personally, "but by means of a contentious, voluminous, and annoying expediente," and likewise have no authority to adopt these plans until they are referred to Madrid--where, too, they are not encouraged to bring such projects before the royal government, and these, moreover, would have to be sent to Manila first (apparently to contend there with the aforesaid expediente). Bernaldez continues:] In order, then, to awaken this interest of enterprising private persons in the agriculture, manufactures, and commerce of Filipinas, it is necessary to have there a body expressly devoted to this object, and authorized to adopt provisionally any plan for improvement and progress which may be proposed to it and examined by it with the aid of its special knowledge of the country; and this body ought to be the superior council of the royal exchequer of the islands.... This council, as such, has very little occupation; its ministers, like all who are employed in Filipinas, attend to their official duties