L30/14/376/1

From Anonymous - [In Spanish]:

Not dated c. 1780

From: 1780 To: 1780

Translation: Trading of Indies. The silk from China will carry to Asia the money that the Kingdom of Valencia lacks in its Textile Mills, the cinnamon of “Sanguanga”, improving it, will be the most interesting thing of this trading, it could also be other spices that English, Dutch and Portuguese bring, a Company established and helped powerfully by His Majesty to this aim, it will be a useful and profitable aim, to this Company it would also facilitate the idea of building industry and the dockyard on the Luzon island. Enough, my friend that my quill has run away from me; I myself ought to go much more before to deliberate on this answer. Am I maybe raving in my thinking, if this is like that, laugh at me, be happy of the skill of those who are in command and of the public happiness that they obtain, but if I wasn’t as wrong, wait for the Minister’s zeal who will observe and will recollect their mistakes. The Catholic King closed the eyes since the horrible loss of the “Habana”, and for not making a mistake acting by himself, he himself has left at the mercy of a few Ministers and it is a condition of these not to change their opinion for not confessing any mistake, showing weakness or being worthless in his presence. Neither His Majesty has nature to make Ministers change, nor to see new faces, and so the mistakes that there are they will be for ever. I do not intend to say that there are not zealous, clever and laborious Ministers, but the ones who adopted the newness we are talking about are not the most expert and they are the most favoured. Moreover a spirit of parties and factions in which there are a lot of people and His Excellency will see the origin of the misfortunes. It is true that there is not true happiness in the world, but we must wish all the ones that man calls as such about our Nation, our Mother Country and our Religious, benign and kind sovereigns. May God bless them for many years. PostScript: My friend, I had finished it when I received the one of the 15th of the current, remembering the conversation we had at our Lord’s house in 69 about “La acequia Imperial de Aragon” (The Imperial Irrigation Channel of Aragon ) and now His Excellency realises and confesses to me because of the success of the place of Mallen that similar Companies of certain and known funds are useful to the state and whoever the interested or partners are, it would be worth more that they were Spanish. Now, we have heard of a Monsieur Prader who gives name to another Company to irrigate the fields of [Cartarena] and Loira, but in my opinion, his wealth is imaginary, consisting only of the numeral and frutile combinations of a lottery in stock of 16 “pesos” with which he is looking for 4.000.000 of “pesos” which are needed for this work; he himself is asking the King for some favours which cost money: I am sorry this Frenchman has got neither his own nor anyone’s funds because he was a merchant and he went bankrupt and he enters this project by expediency, but His Excellency will realise he is finding protection in the party’s partners. This project ought to be the aim of the well-known Associations of Madrid, which have 4 million “pesos” left over in the treasury and the credit for much more with low interest. The irrigation of these lands is as easy as useful to the state and private and it’s to these aims that our Associations ought to devote the great funds that they collect from the whole nation, they would find their profits and the Nation would receive the assistance from a body which is fed with the best substance of that. Doesn’t His Excellency provoke me to talk about the population of Sierra Morena which His Excellency calls [del olvido]. His Excellency knows I haven’t passed again through these mounts since I retreated to this loneliness and although there is a popular rumour I don’t know if it is true: I received, with a lot of curiosity our [D.N.] who went to [N] coming from [Carolina], where he enjoyed himself with other friends for three days but His Excellency knows about his nature, so I hardly paid attention to his news, so my friends do not expect me to tell him my way of thinking until I can pass through the places and see them with my own eyes. God be with you.

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West Indies, TRADE & INDUSTRY, silk, spices, China