Cigar cases, or covers, are made to a small extent in the neighbourhood of Manilla, and most of the patterns used for them are pretty, gay-looking affairs. The fineness of these pouches or cases varies to an almost infinite extent, and so does the price they sell at.
The mats on which the natives all sleep are largely manufactured, and employ a great number of people, as everybody throughout the island uses one or more of them. Some of those made in Laguna province are finer and better finished than any others I have seen elsewhere. They are plain or coloured, and of all patterns, and could be manufactured to any degree of fineness, according to the price promised to the workmen.
Ropemaking is extensively carried on; the best cordage manufactured in the islands being made from the fibres of the plantain-tree, which is known in commerce by the name of Manilla hemp.
At Santa Mesa, in the neighbourhood of Manilla, the rope is spun up by the aid of steam and good machinery, established there for the purpose, and still carried on by an old shipmaster, who produces by far the best rope of all that is made. It is also manufactured in several other places by the common hand-spun process, but from being unequally twisted when made by the hand, it is very much inferior to what has been subjected in its manufacture to the uniform steadiness of pull which the regularity of the steam machinery occasions, all of which is consequently much more suited to stand a heavy strain, from being twisted by it. The price of this rope is altogether dependent on the price of hemp, as the value of the labour employed seldom or never varies, although the raw material of which it is composed constantly does; the usual addition made to the current price of hemp being four dollars a pecul of 140 lbs. English, for the machine-made rope, generally known as “Keating’s patent cordage,” supposing the material so spun to be converted into an assorted lot of from one to six-inch cordage.
The hemp employed in the manufacture of the patent cordage is generally selected for its length of fibre, and lightness or whiteness of colour; and when whale-lines are made, only the very finest lots of hemp procurable at the time are used; but the charge for spinning them is increased to six dollars a pecul, the extra labour being so considerable, that even with the additional charge, the maker, Mr. Keating, informed me that he was much better recompensed by the larger sizes of the rope he spun than by these.
Bale or wool lashing is also made to a small extent for shipment to Sydney, &c.; the quality of the hemp used in making it being of an inferior description, and of a brownish colour. As it is very much more loosely twisted than any other descriptions of rope made here, the charge for spinning it is reduced to two dollars per pecul, and the cost of it will be that amount added to the price of hemp at the time of its manufacture.
The hand-spun rope never sells so well as that made by machinery, and is usually obtainable at from one to two dollars per pecul less than the latter, according as it is well or ill spun.
The export of rope varies from about 9,000 to 15,000 peculs annually; by much the largest quantity usually going to the United States, although there are considerable shipments to the Australian colonies, China, Singapore, and Europe. A large quantity of it is also taken by vessels visiting the port, for their own use.
The manufacture is encouraged by its freedom from any export duty, to which hemp exported in an unmanufactured state is subject, to the extent of 2 per cent.
Besides this cordage, there is another sort of rope made at the Islan de Negros, from a dark-coloured plant,—a description of rush,—which is found growing there in abundance; and as it is not damaged by exposure to the influence of water, it is very extensively used by the native coasting-vessels of small size for cables, for which it is found to answer very well.