The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 13]

DECREE REGULATING COMMERCE
WITH NUEVA ESPANA
The King: The king my lord and father (may he
rest in peace!) by various decrees prohibited trade
and commerce of the Western Indias with the Philipinas Islands and China generally, to obviate the loss
that resulted therefrom to these kingdoms and to their
trade and commerce; and he ordered and commanded that no vessel whatsoever should go from the
provinces of Peru, Tierra Firme, Guatimala, or any
other part of the Western Indias, to the said kingdoms
of China and the Philipinas Islands, under the penalties which were for that purpose imposed. But
further, considering the importance of the preservation of the parts of those lands that are reduced to our
obedience and to the Christian faith (which had
been established there), and likewise for the greater
extension of the gospel and of our holy Catholic faith,
he allowed and gave permission for two ships to go
each year from Nueva Espafia to the said Philipinas
Islands, each of three hundred toneladas, in which
were to be conveyed reenforcements of troops and
other things necessary, and the goods for trade which
were to come thence to Nueva Espafia, and which
were shipped on account of the royal exchequer; the
cost of sending these ships was to be taken from the