Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 3.djvu/356

 d4iQ INTERCOLONIAL COMMERCE. gation lasts but five months, the galleon makes but one voyage a-year. In a free trade, two could certain- ly be made without difficulty. Besides the principal galleon to Mexico, a smaller vessel occasionally sails to Lima, by the same route, and with the te- dious and distant voyage along the coast of America. Humboldt justly observes on this navigation, that " When Peru, liberated from the yoke of the monopoly of the Philippine Company, shall be al- lowed to trade without restriction to the East In- dies, in returning from Canton to Lima, the pre- ference will most likely be given to a track which goes to the south of New Holland, through seas where they are sure of favourable winds." * For the principal articles of exportation from the Phi- lippines, Manilla is but a place of transit. The cargos of the galleon consist of the manufactures of China and Hindustan, with the produce of the Spice Islands, and western parts of the Archipe- lago ; raw and wrought silk and cotton goods, cloves nutmegs, and pepper. The return cargo is chiefly silver, amounting to from one million to one million three hundred thousand Spanish dol- lars ; or from L. 2^5,000 to L. 292,500 Ster- ling; some cochineal, cocoa, Spanish wines, oil, wool, and bar-iron. All this occupies but a small
 * Political Essay on New Spain, Vol. IV. chap. 12.