“Very seldom a few vessels came from Siam and Camboja, carrying ‘benzoin, ivory, and cotton cloth; rubies and sapphires, badly cut and set; a few slaves; rhinoceros horns, and the hides, hoofs, and teeth of this animal; and other goods.’”[17]
It was the goods that were imported into Manila by the Oriental traders, especially the Chinese, that formed the bulk of the commerce between the Philippines and New Spain. The only products of Philippine industry dealt with in the so-called galleon trade were gold, cotton cloth, mendriñaque, and cakes of white and yellow wax.[18] By buying from the Oriental traders their merchandise, and sending them to Mexico, the Spaniards in the Philippines made fabulous profits. It is due to this trade that those engaged in it amassed great wealth in a short time, and Manila became a great distributing center of the East.[19] The prosperity of Manila during the first years after the conquest is attributed to the fact that commerce was then unrestrained.[20] To the same cause was due the settlement of many Chinese and Japanese and other Orientals in the country.[21] To say, however, that the later restrictions upon commerce killed off all prosperity, would not be justified.[22]
[1] Chao Ju-kua’s Description of the Philippines.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 34, pp. 183–191.
Rizal, La Indolencia. (All quotations from this work are taken from the Derbyshire translation.):
“Indolence in the Philippines is a chronic malady, but not a hereditary one. The Filipinos have not always been what they are, witnesses whereto are all the historians of the first years after the discovery of the Islands.
“Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Malayan Filipinos carried on an active trade, not only among themselves but also with all the neighboring countries. A Chinese manuscript of the 13th century, translated by Dr. Hirth (Globus, Sept. 1889), which we will take up at another time, speaks of China’s relations with the islands, relations purely commercial, in which mention is made of the activity and honesty of the traders of Luzon, who took the Chinese products and distributed them throughout all the islands, traveling for nine months, and then returned to pay religiously even for the merchandise that the Chinamen did not remember to have given them. The products which they in exchange exported from the islands were crude wax, cotton, pearls, tortoise-shell, betelnuts dry-goods, etc.”
[2] The method of trading is thus described by Chao Ju-kua:
“When (Chinese) merchantmen arrive at that port they cast anchor at a place (called) the place of Mandarins. That place serves them as a market, or site where the products of their countries are exchanged. When a vessel has entered into the port (its captain) offers presents consisting of white parasols and umbrellas which serve them for daily use. The traders are obliged to observe these civilities in order to be able to count on the favor of those gentlemen.
“In order to trade, the savage traders are assembled (the Chinese call all foreigners savages except the Japanese, Koreans, and people of Anam.—Blumentritt) and have the goods carried in baskets, and although the bearers are often unknown, none of the goods are ever lost or stolen. The savage traders transport these goods to other islands, and thus eight or nine months pass until they have obtained other goods of value equivalent to those that have been received (from the Chinese). This forces the traders of the vessels to delay their departure, and hence it happens that the vessels that maintain trade with Ma-yi are the ones that take the longest to return to their country.” * * *