And above all, when Chinese merchandise is in the western Indias and money is flowing toward China, trade and commerce with Hespaña will necessarily fall off, together with the income of the custom house at Sevilla, while money will be scarce there and throughout España.
Let it be further noted that among the sworn promises which his Majesty made to the kingdom of Portugal, there is one clause (the copy of which accompanies this) in which it is said that traffic with Yndia, Guinea, and other regions belonging to the kingdom of Portugal, both discovered and to be discovered, will not be wrested from them or any innovation made in present conditions; and the officials who are to go out for the said commerce and on the ships for that purpose shall be Portuguese. According to this clause, no alteration can be made in the commerce with China, Maluco, Amboino, Banda, and other parts of the Eastern Yndias. The Castilians shall not go there, nor shall the Portuguese go from here to the Castilian Yndias. [30]
The Lord Cardinal Archduke, [31] to whom his Majesty has entrusted the government of Portugal, seeing and considering all these dangers, wrote many times to his Majesty that it would be greatly to his interest to prohibit this commerce; and besides what he says in many of his letters, in one letter of December 23, of last year, 89, he wrote as follows:
"In this despatch is sent a report of all that has been written to your Majesty by the viceroy Don Duarte, and by the governor Miguel de Sosa, and other persons, affirming that it is of no use to your Majesty, and unsafe for the state of Yndia, to continue the commerce which has begun to be opened from the Indias of the Castilian crown to China; and what your Majesty has had written in regard to it--in order that your Majesty may have it examined. According to the information which I possess in this matter, I advise your Majesty to order, under heavy penalties, that no one shall further this commerce from the said districts to China, nor from China the other way, because it is known that if there is no remedy applied, we will lose the customs receipts of the state of Yndia, and the trade of the merchants. It seems to me that the lack of confidence and the suspicion which the ships and embarkations of the Castilians cause in the Chinese are of even greater consequence. The latter is referred to in the letter which the city of Nombre de Dios wrote to your Majesty, on this matter."