By regulation, the invoice was not to exceed 500,000 dollars; but this was always evaded. The vessels were crammed with goods, and generally netted 100 per cent. or even 150 on every thing taken out.[94] By applications from private merchants, the permissions have of late years been extended to their ships, and even brigs; but they still were encumbered with many useless restrictions and conditions, which of course were evaded by every means that could be devised.
By the adoption of the new constitution, and the late declaration of the independence of Mexico,[95] which began in the seizure of a convoy of nearly a million of dollars belonging to the merchants of Manila, this trade is now almost annihilated.
As has been remarked, their intercourse with the other countries is very limited. The Phillippine Company, who were in possession of the exclusive trade of Europe, have for many years taken no advantage of their privilege (the last ship which arrived from Spain was in 1817);[96] but private merchants were still debarred from doing so, till the promulgation of the constitution.[97] Foreigners have been, however, gradually admitted since 1800; and they have supplied the wants of the country by introducing European articles, and carrying off the surplus produce, when a sufficient quantity could be procured to employ their capital, which rarely happens without much delay. So rapid has been the augmentation of this trade, that though in 1813 only 15,000 pekuls of sugar were exported, it had increased in 1818 to 200,000, at from 6½ to 9 dollars per pekul. The other exports of the same year were as follows:—
Coffee, about 400 pekuls, at 28 dollars; Cotton, 1,000, at 20 to 25 dollars; Indigo, 1,000 quintals, at 90 to 110 dollars per quintal; wax, 600 pekuls at 40 to 50 dollars; red wood, &c. &c. in large quantities. In a printed account, the number of foreign vessels for that year (1818) are stated to be, English, 18; American, 10; French, 4; Portuguese, 2; Chinese Junks, 10, and 8 Spanish vessels. The value of imports as follows:
| Goods, | 2,296,272 | dollars |
| Cash, | 758,239 | |
| $3,054,511 |
The exports, 1,205,649 dollars; but this last is any thing but correct, not only from the very imperfect nature of the custom-house valuations, but from the smuggling, which is carried on to an immense amount. It will be nearer the truth to estimate the imports at about 3,8, or 3,900,000, and the exports at 3¼ or 3,500,000.[98]
The imports consist of piece-goods for the Acapulco market, and for home consumption from Bengal; cambrics and handkerchiefs of plaided patterns from Madras; woollens, wines, spirits, silks, printed cottons, hosiery, hardware, &c. from Europe (principally from France); bird’s nests, tortoise and mother-of-pearl shell, bich-de-mar [i.e., balate], wax, dried fish, &c. from Soolo, Borneo, and other islands of the Archipelago; toys, silks, nankeens, teas, and dollars from China; dollars from the United States; and from South America, silver, cochineal, and cacao. Of these articles the specie and cochineal are mostly exported to Bengal and Madras, and the produce of the Soolos and Borneo to China; the other exports have been noticed in a preceding page.
An active coasting trade[99] is carried on by the natives amongst the islands, though they suffer dreadfully from the pirates; but such is their enterprising turn, that with these in sight, they will often cross from one island to another, when they have a fair start; and frequently set out on a long trip in a small prow [i.e., prau], armed only with their spears and “campilans,”[100] though knowing the pirates to be in the neighbourhood of their track. They are well known in the piratical states, where a Manila slave always commands a higher price than any other. They have been much stigmatized in British country-ships, as the leaders of mutinies, &c.; but though no doubt can exist that they have often assisted in cutting off vessels, yet I question much whether the fault was not in a great measure to be attributed to a want of discrimination between the high spirit of the Philippine islander, and the meek sufferance of the patient Lascar—a fatal mistake, when both are trampled on, as it is to be feared they but too often are.
This trade is carried on in pontines,[101] galeras, feluccas, and prows or boats of all sizes. The pontines are stout-built vessels of European models, from 80 to 150 tons, with two long mat sails, like a Chinese junk. The “galeras” are smaller, and carry a lateen sail, like those of the Mediterranean. The feluccas have been already described, and their prows and boats resemble nearly those of their Malay brethren. Large property is often embarked in these vessels, and they are conducted entirely by natives.
They have but a few manufactures: the principal one is that of coarse gauzes, and rope from the Abaca plant, the first of which has a very extensive consumption and is universally worn by all classes of the natives. It is principally carried on in the province of Camarines, at the S. E. angle of the island.