Other Nations Enter Into Competition.
Spain lost not only through war, but through peace. Her inelastic commerce invited competition, and British, Dutch, and other merchants began to cut down the great profits of the Philippine trade. These nations sent their ships to Canton, established factories, and bought goods for themselves, cutting off the Spanish monopoly of the traffic with the East. In 1731 foreign ships expended over $3,000,000 of Mexican coin in China for goods. These were smuggled into New Spain, not without help from Spaniards on shore. This proved a serious competition. The old hundred-per-cent. profit was no longer to be had. Acapulco was so beset with smugglers, whose merchandise found its way clandestinely to the city of Mexico, that, at times, buyers could not be found for the galleon-goods except at much reduced rates.