_ 96 _ pay export duty, Ormuz would bring the King at least five hundred thousand cruzados. I have written a memorandum about this, giving useful and important information for His Majesty’s treasury and the good government of the State of India, and this is in the hands of Pedro Alvares Pereira and the Governor of the Casa do Porto. I remark by the way that a viceroy either because he knew little India or for other occult reasons, attempted to lease out the customs house of Ozmus, and if I had not attended to this it would have been leased for less than one hundred thousand cruzados a year, while the franchise that were being given to the lessees amounted to thirty thousand cruzados per year. The wages of the fortress had to be paid from these, and the King would not have had more than twenty, or even fifteen thousand cruzados It is essential that the customs of India should be collected for His Majesty, and that the viceroys conform to the method I have given so that dues are not stolen. The wages that are normally paid in Ormuz, can amount to a total of sixty thousand cruzados including those of the captain and chief treasury officer and other
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