47. [They further declared] that the injury caused by the large amount of freight which was earned into Nueva España by the ships from China, rivaled, if it did not exceed, that from the other importations. For, although the merchants of Mexico did not touch on this point in their memorial, the silence in which they kept back this subject (although it was a more odious source of damage) readily explained what interests were concerned in tolerating and continuing those ships, at the same time when the latter had so injured and driven out the commerce of España that no words were sufficient to explain the grief and resentment [of the Sevillans] over the great losses which had been caused to it. For although the ships which were bringing in the cloth and other goods (a matter to which the consulate of Mexico attached much weight) were ruining the commerce of España, in those important lines of linen goods, and others which they were bringing in, [nevertheless] the knowledge, suspicion, or information of what they were could perhaps make the [resultant] damage to the Spanish commerce less serious, such knowledge causing the refusal to injure that commerce; but that could not be guarded against in the ships from China, for their cargo was composed of all the silks and other goods generally which could be traded in by the merchants of España, of those which are manufactured in these kingdoms; and, whatever might be lost in that region on the part of the commerce of España by reason of foreign importations, it lost everything through those from China.
48. That, his Majesty having granted to the island of Luzòn (in which was located the city of Manila) and to the other islands around it only this, that every year there should go to the port of Acapulco one ship to obtain the situado for the maintenance of the fortified posts, conveying only what pertained to white and colored cotton stuffs, pepper, porcelain, raw silk, and other similar commodities which are produced by the islands which obey [the king of España], and with the prohibition of every kind of woven silk stuffs as contraband--for which reason the latter have always been burned on account of the notion of their being made in China and Japòn (which are countries governed by idolaters, Mahometans, and heretics, who are not under the dominion of this crown)--the abuse of this permission had reached such a state that the ship came with a lading of eleven or twelve thousand bales from China and Japòn, so dexterously packed by those infidels that the largest bale which the commerce of España was shipping to the Indias did not include the volume or the value that was enclosed in a bale of those silks, which was less than a vara deep. Moreover, they put therein imitations of all the satins, velvets, ribbons, mantles, hose, and every kind of silks, which were manufactured in España; [and these were] so showy and beautiful that, not only for this reason but on account of the very moderate prices at which they were sold throughout Nueva España, no other kind of silks were used than those of China. The result of this was that all the silk factories in España (which were paying so enormous duties to the royal treasury) had been broken up and destroyed; and the fortunes of those who were trading in the Indias were ruined by the great losses which they had encountered, since the Spanish commerce was deprived of a line of goods so important and rich as is that of the silk, in all its kinds of fabrics.