Discussion Regarding Portuguese Trade at Manila
Copy of seventeen articles which Joseph de Navada Alvarado, regidor of the distinguished and loyal city of Manila, proposed to the municipal council [ayuntamiento] of that city, in which he represents the injuries and troubles which follow and have been experienced from the Portuguese of Macan continuing the trade which they have begun to introduce in that city [of Manila]. These articles were presented to Don Juan Niño de Tavora, and afterward to Don Juan Cerezo de Salamanca, governor of those islands—who, having examined them, wrote his opinion to his Majesty, and how advisable it was to suppress the trade of Macan with the said city of Manila, as is apparent by the said letter.
Captain Joseph de Navada Alvarado, regidor of this city of Manila, represented in this city council that, as was public and well known, from the year six hundred and nineteen until the present of thirty-two, the Portuguese inhabitants of Macan have come to this city in various vessels, without fail in all the years above mentioned, laden with Chinese merchandise, in order to sell it here; and that, with their said coming, it seems that they have obtained possession of this trade, which is so strictly prohibited by various royal decrees. On account of that trade they have waxed rich, while the inhabitants of this community now find themselves in their so wretched present condition, by the great sales which have been generally made to them; and because with the said trade that which the Sangleys had by coming yearly to this said city, with the greatest abundance of goods, has ceased. It appears that necessity has always obliged them to have to buy from the said Portuguese. Notwithstanding that the prices have usually been very high, the profit which the inhabitants of this said city have made in Nueva España has been very slight; and at times it has been little more than the prime cost of the goods here, besides the heavy expenses and duties which they carry, both in these islands and in the said Nueva España. For that reason, he feels that it is very advisable for the preservation of the said inhabitants and of this community that the said trade of the Portuguese cease, and that they be ordered not to come to this city; for this is permitted by the royal will, under the penalties expressed in the said decrees in which he orders it, to which we refer, since there are so many and so fundamental reasons as the following.
The first, that the said Portuguese of Macan having tried in years past to open this trade, and having come to this city with merchandise to sell it there, this city council, seeing the damage that might grow from it (which is the damage bewailed today), opposed the said coming, and made various decisions in regard to demanding that the royal will be observed, and that the Portuguese be ordered not to return to this city. And in fact they did not come for the time being, or for many years after, until the said year of six hundred and nineteen—[since] when, not encountering the resistance which had been formerly made, they have continued the said trade, as aforesaid.
The second, for proof of the aforesaid, is that, as is notorious, the amounts of capital [invested by] the inhabitants of these islands were very great in the first years of the coming of the said ships from Macan; but with the high prices which the Portuguese have always set upon their merchandise, and (as aforesaid) because the citizens have bought from them more by force than willingly, by reason of the lack of the goods which the Chinese brought formerly, for that reason the said investments of capital have stopped, and are so greatly diminished as has been, and is seen in general; because the gains have been very slight compared with the profits that have been made in Nueva España, considering the high prices that they demand here, as has been previously stated.
The third point which ought to be considered is, that the customs duties on the merchandise brought by the Chinese to this city were worth to his Majesty from eighty to one hundred thousand pesos annually; while those on the merchandise of the ships which have come from Macan have not been worth more than twenty thousand pesos in any one year, and it is considered as certain that some years the duties have not exceeded twelve thousand. In regard to this truth, as a point so worthy of consideration—and of which this city council ought to take so much notice, as it is the body whom the increase of the royal revenues to their possible extent concerns so fully—we refer to what shall appear from the amounts of the said duties which the Sangleys now for twenty years have put into the royal treasury, and to those which the Portuguese have put in from the year six hundred and nineteen, the goods which they have generally brought being valued at about one million and a half, defrauding to a greater sum the said import and export duties so rightfully due his Majesty.
The fourth matter that must be considered for the greater proof of the aforesaid statement is, the quickness of the voyage from the said city of Macan to this of Manila, since it can be made in twelve days or a fortnight (or in one week, as has already happened), and the short time that they spend in this city selling their goods. Those were causes which could ensure the success of the contract which the citizens of this city have offered to make with them, several years—namely, to give them forty per cent clear profit upon the first cost which they [i.e., the Portuguese] had invested. But as the Portuguese have always beheld themselves powerful and masters of the said trade, they have always refused to accept it—from which one can infer the great gains which they have made and are making in the trade, since, in short, more than sixty per cent [profit] has now to be given for everything. That is a hardship which sufficiently accounts for the present condition of the inhabitants of this city who are afflicted with the many troubles which attend them by reason of the said diminution of their wealth; and for the total ruin of others, who see themselves dispossessed of what they had. For that reason they make no further investments, because they have not the wherewithal.
Fifth, it ought to be considered how long and dangerous is the voyage from these islands to the said Nueva España, and the heavy costs and expenses caused by the investments; while the returns for what is sent from here are not received even if good fortune attend them, except at the end of two years, and sometimes more.
Sixth, that with the coming of the said Portuguese and ships from the city of Macan to this of Manila, the commerce and trade which the Sangley merchants of China usually carried on every year with this city has ceased, because of the keen intelligence which the Portuguese have employed in preventing it. That they have succeeded in doing, entirely by means of a very astute plan which they have followed, by taking to the annual fairs which are usually held at Canton so many thousands of pesos to invest and to bring to this city, as, in short, has already been said. In that way the Chinese sell them all that they want, at a profit of twenty-five or thirty per cent. That arrangement is so agreeable to the Sangleys, with the said profit in their own land and without trouble, that they have ceased to come to this city as they did formerly, risking the capital which they brought hither. This has been aided greatly by the Portuguese persuading the said Sangleys that the wealth of the inhabitants of this city is very nigh gone, and to so great an extent that they cannot find an outlet even for all the goods which they bring; and that, for that reason, they give trust for the greater part of it—a thing that has never happened, nor been done, for they have always received money, and the value for everything that they have sold. To that is added also that the said Portuguese have been wont to frighten the said Sangley traders by telling them of the danger that they will experience in their coming because of the Dutch pirates and the fleets of bancons[1] with which some of the Chinese nation themselves go about committing depredations along those coasts. At the same time they have represented to the Chinese the heavy dues that they pay here, and the injuries that are inflicted upon them in this city, notwithstanding that they have [not] known that the Chinese have any complaint of this. All is with the purpose of turning them from any design that they have had of coming to this city with merchandise; for they fear that if the Chinese did so it would result in impairing their trade[2] and discrediting that which the said Portuguese hold so firmly.