A Source Book of Philippine History

To Supply a Fairer View of Filipino Participation and Supplement the Defective Spanish Accounts

Philippine Progress Prior to 1898

By Austin Craig and Conrado Benitez
Of the College of Liberal Arts Faculty of the University of the Philippines

Philippine Education Co., Inc., Manila, 1916

The following 720 pages are divided into two volumes, each of which, for the convenience of the reader, is paged separately and has its index, or table of contents:

VOLUME I

I. The Old Philippines’ Industrial Development

(Chapters of an Economic History)

I.—Agriculture and Landholding at the time of the Discovery and Conquest. II.—Industries at the Time of Discovery and Conquest. III.—Trade and Commerce at the Time of Discovery and Conquest. IV.—Trade and Commerce; the Period of Restriction. V.—The XIX Century and Economic Development.

By Professor Conrado Benitez

II. The Filipinos’ Part in the Philippines’ Past

(Pre-Spanish Philippine History A. D. 43–1565; Beginnings of Philippine Nationalism.)

By Professor Austin Craig

VOLUME II

III. [The Former Philippines thru Foreign Eyes]

(Jagor’s Travels in the Philippines; Comyn’s State of the Philippines in 1810; Wilkes’ Manila and Sulu in 1842; White’s Manila in 1819; Virchow’s Peopling of the Philippines; 1778 and 1878; English Views of the People and Prospects of the Philippines; and Karuth’s Filipino Merchants of the Early 1890s)

Edited by Professor Craig

Made in Manila—Press of E. C. McCullough & Co.—The Work of Filipinos

Editor’s Explanations and Acknowledgments

This work is pre-requisite to the needed re-writing of Philippine history as the story of its people. The present treatment, as a chapter of Spanish history, has been so long accepted that deviation from the standard story without first furnishing proof would demoralize students and might create the impression that a change of government justified re-stating the facts of the past in the way which would pander to its pride.

With foreigners’ writing, the extracts herein have been extensive, even to the inclusion of somewhat irrelevant matter to save any suspicion that the context might modify the quotation’s meaning. The choice of matter has been to supplement what is now available in English, and, wherever possible, reference data have taken the place of quotation, even at the risk of giving a skeletony effect.

Another rule has been to give no personal opinion, where a quotation within reasonable limits could be found to convey the same idea, and, where given, it is because an explanation is considered essential. A conjunction of circumstances fortunate for us made possible this publication. Last August the Bureau of Education were feeling disappointment over the revised school history which had failed to realize their requirements; the Department of History, Economics and Sociology of the University were regretting their inability to make their typewritten material available for all their students; and Commissioner Quezon came back from Washington vigorously protesting against continuing in the public schools a Philippine history text which took no account of what American scholarship has done to supplement Spain’s stereotyped story. Thus there were three problems but the same solution served for all.

Commissioner Rafael Palma, after investigation, championed furnishing a copy of such a book as the present work is and Chairman Leuterio of the Assembly Committee on Public Instruction lent his support. With the assistance of Governor-General Harrison and Speaker Osmeña, and the endorsement of Secretary Martin of the Department of Public Instruction, the Bureau of Education obtained the necessary item in their section of the general appropriation act. Possibly no one deserves any credit for conforming to plain duty, but after listing all these high officials, it may not be out of place to mention that neither has there come from any one of them, nor from any one else for that matter, any suggestion of what should be said or left unsaid or how it should be said, nor has any one asked to see, or seen, any of our manuscript till after its publication. Insular Purchasing Agent Magee, who had been, till his promotion, Acting Director of the Bureau of Education, Director Crone, returned from the San Francisco Exposition, and Acting Auditor Dexter united to smoothe the way for rapid work so the order placed in January is being filled in less than three months. Three others whose endorsements have materially assisted in the accomplishment of the work are President Villamor of our University, Director Francisco Benitez of its School of Education, and Director J. A. Robertson of the Philippine Library. And in recalling the twelve years of study here which has shown the importance of these notes there come to mind the names of those to whom I have been accustomed to go for suggestion and advice: Mariano Ponce, of the Assembly Library, Manuel Artigas, of the Filipiniana Section of the Philippines Library, Manuel Iriarte of the Executive Bureau Archives, Dr. T. H. Pardo de Tavera and Epifanio de los Santos, associates in the Philippine Academy, Leon and Fernando Guerrero, Jaime C. De Veyra, Valentin Ventura, of Barcelona, J. M. Ramirez, of Paris, the late Rafael del Pan, José Basa, of Hongkong, and Doctor Regidor, of London, all Filipinos, Doctor N. M. Saleeby, H. Otley Beyer, Dr. David P. Barrows, now of the University of California, along with assistance from the late Professor Ferdinand Blumentritt, of Leitmeritz, Dr. C. M. Heller, of Dresden, and the authorities of the British Museum, Congressional Library, America Institute of Berlin, University of California Library, and the Hongkong and Shanghai public libraries and Royal Asiatic Society branches.

It is due the printer, Mr. Frederic H. Stevens, manager of E. C. McCullough & Co.’s press; Mr. John Howe who figured out a sufficient and satisfactory paper supply despite the war-time scarcity; and Superintendent Noronha, that after the first vigorous protests against departures from established printing-house usages, they loyally co-operated in producing a book whose chief consideration has been the reader’s use. Paper, ink, special press-work and the clear-cut face chosen for the hand-set type have combined to get a great deal more matter into the same space without sacrifice of legibility; putting minor headings in the margin has been another space-saver which as well facilitates reference, while the omission of the customary blank pages and spaces between articles has materially aided in keeping down unnecessary bulk. Printed in the usual style this book should have run over twelve hundred octavo pages as against its under two-thirds that number of a but slightly larger page.

And finally, my colleague, Professor Conrado Benitez, besides furnishing promptly his part of the manuscript has been chief adviser and most zealous in carrying out our joint plan.

Austin Craig.

University of the Philippines,
March 27, 1916.

Contents

Philippine Progress Prior to 1898

THE OLD PHILIPPINES’ INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

Chapters of an Economic History

by Conrado Benitez, A. M. (Chicago)

Assistant Professor of Economics and Sociology in the University of the Philippines

PHILIPPINE EDUCATION CO., INC., MANILA, 1916

Filipino Writers Quoted in “The Old Philippines’ Industrial Development”:

  • Citizens of the Philippine Islands, “Memorial to the Council,” Manila, 1586.
  • Gobernadorcillo Nicolas Ramos, “Affidavit for Governor Dasmariñas,” Cubao, 1591.
  • Chief Miguel Banal, “Petition to the King of Spain,” Manila, 1609.
  • Governor Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero, “La Libertad de Comercio en las Islas Filipinas,” Madrid, 1872.
  • Gregorio Sangclanco y Gozon, LL. D., “El Progreso de Filipinas,” Madrid, 1884.
  • Dr. Jose Rizal Mercado y Alonso, “Annotations to Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas,” Paris, 1890.
  • Rizal’s La Indolencia de los Filipinos, Madrid. 1889.
  • T. H. Pardo de Tavera, M. D., “Philippine Census, Volume I, History,” Manila, 1903.
  • Tavera’s Resultados del Desarrollo Economico de Filipinas, Manila, 1912.
  • Antonio M. Regidor, D.C.L., (with J. Warren T. Mason), “Commercial Progress in the Philippine Islands,” London, 1905.

Made in Manila—Press of E. C. McCullough & Co.—The Work of Filipinos

Introduction

Need of more study of Philippine Economic Development.

The Spanish writers, and with them the Filipinos as well as, to a great extent, writers of Philippine treatises in other languages, have over-emphasized the political history of the Philippines. The history of this country has been regarded but as the history of the Spaniards in it, and not of its people, the Filipinos.[1] Hence arises the need of studying our history from the point of view of the development of our people, especially to trace and show the part played by them in Philippine social progress as a whole.[2]

The study of the economic history of a country is important also because economic forces play a great part in the development of any people. Indeed, some claim that all history may be explained in terms of economic motives. This is known as the economic interpretation of history.[3] Without going into the controversy centering around this theory, we can readily see that what we know as civilization has a two-fold basis, the physical and the psychical. And it is only after the physical basis is secured, that further psychical advance is possible. “Among all species, and in every stage of evolution, the extent of aggregation and its place or position are determined by external physical conditions. Even when men have become united by sympathies and beliefs, the possibility of perpetuating their union is a question of the character and resources of their environment. The distribution of food is the dominating fact. Animals and men dwell together where a food supply is found, or may be certainly and easily produced. Other physical circumstances of the environment, however, such as temperature and exposure, surface and altitude, which make life in some places comparatively easy, in others difficult or impossible, exert an influence not to be overlooked.” (Franklin Henry Giddings, The Principles of Sociology, p. 82. New York: 1911.)

We need not trace the history of early civilizations to show the influence exerted by physical factors. We need only to recall the motives, familiar to all, which led to the discovery of America, namely, the closing of the trade routes to the East through the conquest of the Turks. And the history of this country itself furnishes many illustrations. Both ancient and modern writers have had a good deal to say about the strategic position of the Philippine Islands in relation to the countries bordering around the Pacific Ocean.[4] It was that central geographical position which explained the marked predominance of Manila as a trade depot over all the other ports in the Orient, at one time in our history. That was, furthermore, the reason why the Spaniards kept the country; they wanted to use it “as a means to be nearer, and to reach more quickly, the rich country of spices, and then the continent of Asia, Japan, and the Orient in general.”[5]

Finally, we should distinguish the various causes that explain historical events. For example, a good deal of what has been known as the religious question in this country, is not concerned with religion at all, but chiefly with economics. It is not always easy to distinguish these various causes; a fact which only goes to explain the one-sided point of view which has prevailed till the present. But, that the questions connected with the means of getting a living were considered paramount, even long before the formal exposition of the economic interpretation of history, may be seen from the words of the provincials of the religious orders in a remonstrance addressed to the governor and captain-general of the Philippines, wherein they depicted the deplorable conditions in the Islands:

“Third, all the Christian Indians would be more steadfast and rooted in the holy faith, and would become effective and most suitable instruments for (gaining) new conversions of infidels (and) apostates, the infidels themselves beholding the abundant wealth and profit, and other benefits, of the Christian Indians; FOR IT IS THE TEMPORAL WELFARE EVIDENT TO THEIR SENSES WHICH, AS EXPERIENCE TEACHES US, STRONGLY INFLUENCES BOTH CLASSES OF INDIANS, TO BE CONVERTED OR TO MAINTAIN THEMSELVES IN THE CHRISTIAN FAITH.”[6]

Divisions of present work.

The present work is built around a group of ideas briefly summarized as follows: The first three chapters portray the industries and commerce at the time of the coming of the Spaniards; and explain the causes that led to their decline; the fourth chapter dwells upon the era of restriction, and the Manila-Acapulco trade, which, for over two centuries, dominated this country, and has had such depressing effect upon economic growth; the last chapter takes up the era of liberalism, during the nineteenth century, and shows how the opening of the Philippines to foreign influence resulted in the development of its natural resources. Any attempt to trace Philippine economic development in the past three centuries must necessarily start, not so much with a detailed account of how the industries developed as with an exposition of how they were not developed. On the other hand, the remarkable social progress of the last half of the nineteenth century, following the opening of the markets of the world to Philippine products, is an encouraging indication of probable social advance yet to be attained.

[1] “This modest work, which does not pretend to be without mistakes, and perhaps other flaws, has a special interest in that it treats of a matter about which the historians of those islands had hardly occupied themselves. The chronicles written by the laborious ecclesiastics, the only books of history which may be consulted about the Philippines, contain nothing but descriptions of the campaigns against the Dutch, the wars against the infidels—in the Archipelago as well as on the continent of Asia—the rebellions of the natives in some provinces, so easily suppressed, the bloody encounters with the Chinese settled in the islands, portentous miracles, progress of the missions in China, Annam and Japan, famous conflicts between the ecclesiastical jurisdiction and the civil power represented by the Governor General and the Real Acuerdo, great crimes, other notable events of different kinds and changes in the personnel and form of administration of the country.

“But in all these works, though useful and important, there is observed, among others, the absence of antecedents relative to economic and mercantile legislation, the scarcity of data to show the development of wealth of the country and of its commercial movement, the lack of a critical analysis of the legal provisions concerning such activities, and of their influence on the decadence or progress of production and commerce.” (Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero, Gobernador civil cesante de Manila, Alcalde mayor que ha sido de Cagayan y de Bulacan, Auditor honorario de Marina, etc., La Libertad de Comercio en las Islas Filipinas.—Madrid, 1872, pp. 9–10.)

[2] “ * * * The result is that Spanish writers, with them the Filipinos, and to a great extent the writers of Philippine treatises in other languages (drawing hastily upon Spanish sources), have over emphasized the political history of this Philippine record. Of course, in Spain and the Spanish countries long-standing habit makes it the tendency to look to government for everything, and to think of all amelioration of evils and all incitements to progress as coming from above; while social and economic conditions in the Philippines are such as to emphasize this tendency, the aristocracy of wealth and education standing apart from the masses and being, to the latter, identified in the main with the government, with the “powers above.” Nevertheless, it is to be insisted that social and economic progress in the Philippines during the last half-century should be considered separately and studied more practically than they have been thus far.” (Le Roy’s Bibliographical Notes.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 52, 134.)

[3] For detailed discussion of this theory, see The Economic Interpretation of History, by E. R. A. Seligman. Also, History of Civilization in England, by H. T. Buckle, Vol. I, Chapter II, Influence Exercised by Physical Laws over Organization of Society and the Character of Individuals. This chapter is reprinted in Sociology and Social Progress, by T. N. Carver.

[4] “In many ways the next decade of the history of the Philippines may resemble the splendid development of the neighboring country of Japan. Both countries have in past times been isolated more or less from the life and thought of the modern world. Both are now open to the full current of human affairs. Both countries promise to play an important part in the politics and commerce of the Far East. Geographically, the Philippines occupy the more central and influential position, and the success of the institutions of the Philippines may react upon the countries of southeastern Asia and Malaysia to an extent that we cannot appreciate or foresee.” (Dr. D. P. Barrows, A History of the Philippines, pp. 9–10.)

“Manila was also the commercial center of the Far East, and the entrepôt through which the kingdoms of eastern Asia exchanged their wares. Here came great fleets of junks from China laden with stores. Morga fills nearly two pages with an enumeration of their merchandise, which included all manner of silks, brocades, furniture, pearls and gems, fruits, nuts, tame buffalo, geese, horses and mules, all kinds of animals, ‘even to birds in cages, some of which talk and others sing and which they make perform a thousand tricks; there are innumerable other gewgaws and knickknacks, which among Spaniards are in much esteem.’

“Each year a fleet of thirty to forty vessels sailed with the new moon in March. The voyage across the China Sea, rough with the monsoons, occupied fifteen or twenty days, and the fleet returned at the end of May or the beginning of June. Between October and March there came, each year, Japanese ships from Nagasaki which brought wheat, silks, objects of art, and weapons, and took away from Manila the raw silk of China, gold, deer horns, woods, honey, wax, palm-wine, and wine of Castile.

“From Malacca and India came fleets of the Portuguese subjects of Spain, with spices, slaves, Negroes and Kafirs, and the rich productions of Bengal, India, Persia, and Turkey. From Borneo, too, came the smaller craft of the Malays, who from their boats sold the fine palm mats, the best of which still come from Cagayan de Sulu and Borneo, slaves, sago, water-pots and glazed earthenware, black and fine. From Siam and Cambodia also, but less often, there came trading-ships. Manila was thus a great emporium for all the countries of the East, the trade of which seems to have been conducted largely by and through the merchants of Manila.” (Ibid., pp. 173–174.)

“Their position, whether in a political or a commercial point of view, is strikingly advantageous. With India and the Malay Archipelago on the west and south, the islands of the fertile Pacific and the rising empires of the new world on the east, the vast market of China at their doors, their insular position and numerous rivers affording a facility of communication and defence to every part of them, an active and industrious population, climates of almost all varieties, a soil so fertile in vegetable and mineral productions as almost to exceed credibility; the Philippine Islands alone, in the hands of an industrious and commercial nation, and with a free and enlightened government would have become a mighty empire—they are—a waste!” (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 51, pp. 74–75, Remarks on the Philippine Islands, 1819–22, by “An Englishman.”)

[5] “ * * * No one who has studied this subject with care can get rid of the idea that the religious aim was not the chief basis of the activities connected with the occupation of the Philippines. It was purely commercial. It was only later that the religious element acquired greater strength. * * * ”

“ * * * In such mercantile activities, the Philippines played the role of a central market for the distribution of products between the West and East,—a work which was of greatest importance. * * * These Islands were not only a great commercial market, but also a great religious center. * * * ”

“ * * * No one who has followed the opportunities offered to these Islands, can doubt the importance that they will have, due to their geographic position, in the modern commercial market which is opened to them with the establishment of their new means of communication with the world. (Referring to the Panama Canal.) These Islands, and not Japan, or Hongkong will bind the East with the West.” (“The Importance of the Study of Philippine Geography,”—Lecture delivered by Dr. J. A. Robertson, before the Asociación Geográfica de Filipinas, November 27, 1912.)

[6] Manila, October 7, 1701. (The Philippine Islands, 1493–1898—Blair and Robertson, Vol. 44, p. 139.)

I. Agriculture and Landholding at the Time of the Discovery and Conquest

Agriculture.

At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, agriculture in the Philippines was in a comparatively prosperous condition.[1] The Filipinos cultivated rice, which, as today, formed their chief article of food. They grew also sugar-cane, coconuts, indigo, sweet potatoes, and other tubers, various kinds of bananas, the betel-nut palm, the tamarind, lansone, and several varieties of legumes,[2] The hemp plant was likewise grown, and as we shall see later on, was used at the time for making the so-called “sinamay” cloth.[3] Cotton was cultivated, and furnished the material for weaving. Among the native fruits mentioned by Morga are: “sanctors, mabolos, tamarinds, nancas, custard-apples, papaws, guavas, and everywhere many oranges, of all kinds—large and small, sweet and sour; citrons, lemons, and ten or twelve varieties of very healthful and palatable bananas.”[4]

With the coming of the Spaniards, very many plants which are commonly considered to be indigenous in this country, were introduced.[5] The most important economic plant imported since Spanish discovery was the tobacco, which today forms one of the staple crops, though it took many years before it came to anything like its present position. The cacao nut also was imported. Among the most commonly known of the others are; maize, peanut, papaya, and, also pineapple, and sweet potato.[6] All of these plants came from Mexico.[7] Coffee was introduced from Europe.[8]

Live stock.

The Filipinos at the time of discovery had domestic animals, dogs, cats, pigs, goats and buffaloes, i.e. carabaos.[9] “There were no horses, mares, or asses in the islands, until the Spaniards had them brought from China and brought them from Nueva Espana.”[10]

The Kings of Spain in their instructions to the governors-general of the Philippines were solicitous about this matter of supplying this country with sufficient live stock to carry on farm work.[11] The early accounts of expeditions to find food for the Spaniards show that chickens were raised by the Filipinos.[12]

It has been truly said that the Filipino has been affected by the centuries of Spanish sovereignty far less on his material side than he has on his spiritual.[13] For as we read the early accounts about agricultural life at the time of discovery and conquest, and compare it with that of a decade ago, we do not find any marked change or advance.[14] The early Filipinos knew how to construct implements for the cultivation of their rice, such as for hulling and separating the chaff from the grain; and they had wooden mortars and pestles for pounding and whitening rice. Then, the women did most of the work of pounding the rice for use, whereas today, the men do it.[15] Furthermore, in the early days, the system of irrigating the rice fields that is used today was known and practiced.[16] Of course, the so-called caing̃in method of cultivation prevailed, but the considerable amounts of rice which at various times were contributed by the Filipinos for the support of the Spanish conquerors could not have been produced under such a crude system of cultivation, but only by the more advanced one, which closely resembled that of the present time.[17]

Land holding.

The lands of the ancient Filipinos were divided among the whole barangay, so that each one had his holding and no resident of one barangay was allowed to cultivate lands in another barangay unless he had acquired them by inheritance, gift, or purchase. In some barangays the lands belonged to the chief through purchase from the original owners. In some localities the chiefs or principal personages also owned the fisheries, and their rights were respected.[18]

With the coming of the Spaniards, lands were assigned to the colonists, of which they were to have perpetual ownership after four years’ residence.[19] Encomiendas of the Indians were also granted to the discoverers and conquerors.[20] It is in connection with the administration of these encomiendas that we find in the annals of the Philippines many accounts of abuses and extortions practiced on the natives, and the consequent revolts. It must not, however, be supposed that the Filipinos were actually dispossessed of their lands by the king; for, although according to the constitutional law of the Indies the land and the soil in all colonies were the domain of the king[21] and, therefore, could be assigned to deserving persons, there were royal decrees intended to protect the natives in their time-honored possession.[22] The question of land ownership has, however, from earliest times been the source of conflicts between the religious orders and the people. Without going into the technical,—and perhaps today, academic,—question of which side had the better legal argument, the fact cannot be denied that the Filipinos had always protested, throughout the various centuries of contact with the Spaniards, against what they considered to be usurpation of their lands.[23]

[1] “Historia General de Filipinas,” Jose Montero y Vidal, Vol. 1, p. 66.

[2] “Purposely introduced species comprise those of various other tropical countries that, for reason of their economic importance, have been introduced either in prehistoric or within historic times. Naturally the first plants introduced were those of the Malayan region that were familiar to the original invaders or their successors in western Malaya, and these include such species as Job’s tears (Coix lachryma-jobi L.), the more common form of use for ornamental purposes, another form cultivated for food; sugar cane (Saccharum officinarum L.), as a source of sugar; lemon grass (Andropogon citratus DC), used as a condiment; vetiver (Andropogon zizanioides Urb.), for its aromatic root; sorghum (Andropogon sorghum L.), for food; Italian millet (Setaria italica Beauv.), for food; rice (Oryza sativa L.), for food; bamboos (Bambusa vulgaris Schrad., and B. blumeana Schultes), for purposes of construction; coconut (Cocos nucifera L.), for food (this species is unquestionably of American origin, but reached the Orient long before the advent of Europeans); betel-nut palm (Areca catechu L.), for its stimulating properties; sweet flag (Acorus calamus L.), medicinal; taro (Colocasia esculentum Schott), food; yam, “ubi” (Dioscorea alata L.), for food; garlic (Allium sativum L.), for food; various varieties of the banana (Musa paradisiaca L.), for food; various zingiberaceous plants (Kaempferia galanga L., Curcuma zedoaria L., C. longa L., Zingiber zerumbet Sm., and Z. officinale Rosc), for condiments, etc.; betel-pepper (Piper betel L.) for use with the betel-nut for chewing; bread fruit (Artocarpus communis Forst.), and the jak fruit (A. integrifolia L. f.), for food; amaranths (Amaranthus gangeticus L., A. caudatus L.), for ornamental purposes and food; “libato” (Basella rubra L.), for food; champaca (Michelia champaca L.), for its fragrant flowers (this may have been introduced later by the Spaniards); siempre viva (Bryophyllum pinnatum Kurz), for medical purposes; horse radish tree (Moringa oleifera Lam.), for food and medicine; sappan (Caesalpinia sappan L.), for dyeing; the tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.), for food; indigo (Indigofera tinctoria L.), for dye; “caturay” (Sesbania grandiflora Pers.), for its edible flowers and its resinous exudation; the pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan Merr.), for food; the cow pea (Vigna sesquipedalis L.), for food; the asparagus pea (psophocarpus tetragonolobus DC.), for food; “batao” (Dolichos lablab L.), for food; the mungo (Phaseolus radiatus L.), for food; various citrus fruits, such as the pomelo (Citrus decumana Murr.), the lime (C. lima Lunan.), and varieties of the orange (C. aurantium L.), for food; the santol (Sandoricum koetjape Merr.), for food; the lansone (Lansium domesticum Jack), for food; some euphorbias (E. tirucalli L.), for medicine; “iba” (Cicca disticha L.), for food; crotons (Codiaeum variegatum Blume), for ornamental purposes; castor oil plant (Ricinus communis L.), for medicine; croton oil plant (Croton tiglium L.), for medicine and for poisoning fish; balsam (Impatiens balsamina L.), for medicine and for ornamental purposes; cotton (Gossypium sp.), for textile purposes; silk cotton tree (Ceiba pentandra Gaertn.) for its fibrous floss; various Eugenias (E. jambolana Lam., E. malaccensis L., E. jambos L., and E. javanica L.), for food; “papua” (Nothopanax fruticosum Miq.), for medicine and for ornamental purposes; jasmine (Sasminum sambac Ait.), for its fragrant flowers; “solasi” (Ocimum basilicum L., and O. sanctum L.), for condiments; sesame (Sesamum orientale L.) for its oily seed; the bottle gourd (Lagenaria leucantha Rusby), for food; the sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica Roem. and L. acutangula Roxb.), for food; the “condol” (Benincasa hispida Cogn.), for food; and the “ampalaya” (Momordica charantia L.) for food.

From an examination of the above list it will readily be seen that a great number of species were purposely introduced in prehistoric times from various parts of the East, chiefly through Malaya, for one reason or another, usually for their food value or for other reasons of economic importance. It is quite certain that none of the species enumerated above are natives of the Philippines, and it is equally certain that none reached the Archipelago without the aid of man. Again it is equally certain that, with possibly very few exceptions, all these species were introduced by the early Malay invaders, by their successors, or by peoples of various other nationalities with whom they came in contact, long before the advent of the Europeans in the Orient.”—“Notes on the Flora of Manila with special reference to the Introduced Element. E. D. Merrill. The Philippine Journal of Science, Vol. VII, No. 3, Sec. C. Botany, pp. 192–194.

[3] “If we exclude the abacá plant (Musa textilis Née) and the various trees yielding timbers, gums, and resins, a few palms, some bamboos, the rattans, etc., it will be found that practically all the species now found in the Archipelago that are of the greatest importance in the economy of the native, whether for food, for condiments, for clothing, for dyes, for ornamental purposes, and very many for medicinal purposes, have originated outside of the Philippines, and have purposely been introduced at one time or another.” (The Flora of Manila, E. D. Merrill, Ibid.)

[4] Sucesos de las Islas Filipinos, Antonio de Morga, Chap. 8. In Blair and Robertson Vol. 16, p. 87.

“Instead of olives and other pickled fruit, they have a green fruit, like walnuts, which they call “paos.” (Pahó.) Some are small, and others larger in size, and when prepared they have a pleasant taste. They also preserve “charas” in pickle brine, and all sorts of vegetables and greens, which are very appetizing. There is much ginger, and it is eaten green, pickled, and preserved.” (Ibid. p. 97).

[5] Merrill: Flora of Manila.

[6] However, both Dr. Tavera (Census of the Philippine Islands, Vol. I, p. 329), and Montero y Vidal (Historia General de Filipinas, Vol. I, p. 66.), state that the sweet potato was being cultivated here at the time of the conquest. Pigafetta also mentions it in his account.

[7] The American element in the Philippine flora is of peculiar interest as showing the effect of commerce on the vegetation of a country. Even with the limited communication between the Philippines and Mexico, it is surprising to consider the number of American forms introduced here through the medium of the galleons in the years when all communication between Spain and the Philippines was via Mexico. From the time of the Spanish conquest up to the year 1815, a period of nearly 300 years, the government galleons sailed annually for Manila, first from Navidad and later from Acapulco, on the western coast of Mexico. These galleons carried not only the civil, military, and ecclesiastical authorities between Spain and the Philippines via Mexico, but also other travellers, merchants, etc., as well as large quantities of merchandise.

At an early date various Spanish officials, but, apparently, chiefly the priests, introduced here the various species of economic value, food plants, medicinal plants, fruits, etc., that were familiar to their countrymen in tropical America, most often bringing seeds, but in some cases most certainly living plants. Undoubtedly many species were introduced at that time that failed to become established here. Among the American species purposely introduced from Mexico may be mentioned the following: “Maize (Zea mays L.), introduced for food; the “pineapple” (Ananas sativus Schultes), for its edible fruit and its fiber; maguey (Agave cantula Roxb.), for its fiber; the tuberose (Polianthes tuberosa L.), for its fragrant flowers; the spider lily (Hymenocallis tenuiflora Herb.), for ornamental purposes; the canna (Canna indica L.), for ornamental purposes; arrowroot (Marania arundinacea L.), for food; “aposotis” (Chenopodium ambrosioides L.), for medical purposes; four o’clock (Mirabilis jalapa L.), for ornamental purposes; “libato” (Anredera scandens Moq.); various species of Anona (A. muricata L., A. reticulata L., and A. squamosa L.), for their edible fruits; the avocado (Persea americana Mill.), for its edible fruit; the Mexican poppy (Argemone mexicana L.), for ornamental purposes or for medicine; “camanchile” (Pithecolobium dulce Benth.), for its tanbark and its edible fruit; “aroma” (Acacia farnesiana Willd.) for its fragrant flowers; “ipel-ipel” (Leucaena glauca Benth.), as a hedge plant; the sensitive plant (Mimosa pudica L.), for ornamental purposes; “cabellero” (Caesalpinia pulcherrima Sw.), for ornamental purposes; “acapulco” (Cassia alata L.), for medicinal purposes; the “peanut” (Arachis hypogaea L.), for food; indigo (Indigofera suffruticosa Mill.), for dye; “madre cacao” (Gliricidia sepium Steud.), for hedges and for ornamental purposes; the lima bean (Phaseolus lunatus L.), for food; the yam bean (Pachyrrhizus erosus Urb.), for its edible root; the bilimbi and carambola (Averrhoa bilimbi L., and A. carambola L.), for their edible fruits; physic nut (Jatropha curcas L.), for medicine, as well as J. multifida L. for ornamental purposes; cassava (Manihot utilissima Pohl), for food; the cashew nut (Anacardium occidentale L.), for its edible fruit; “ciruelas” (Spondias purpurea L,.), for its edible fruit; “cotton” (Gossypium braziliense Macf.), for textile purposes; “cacao” (Theobroma cacao L.), the source of chocolate and cacao; acheute (Bixa Orellana L.), for dye; the “papaya” (Carica papaya L.), for its edible fruit; various species of cacti (Nopalea and Cereus), for ornamental purposes; the guava (Psidium guajava L.), for its edible fruit; the “chico” (Achras sapota L.), for its edible fruit; the “chico mamey” (Lucuma mammosa L.), for its edible fruit; the “sapote negro” (Diospyros ebenaster Retz.), for its edible fruit; the temple flower (Plumeria acutifolia Poir.), for its fragrant flowers; the periwinkle (Lochnera rosea Reichb.), for its ornamental flowers; “campanello” (Thevetia neriifolia Juss. and Allamanda caihartica L.), for ornamental and medicinal purposes; some species of convolvuli (Ipomoea nil Roth, Quamoclit pinnata Boj., Colonictyon aculeatum House), for ornamental purposes, and the “sweet potato” (Ipomoea batatas Poir.), for food; lantana (Lantana camara L.), for ornamental purposes; “dama de noche” (Cestrum nocturnum L.), for its fragrant flowers; “tobacco” (Nicotiana tabacum L.); the tomato (Lycopersicum esculentum Mill.); the peppers (Capsicum frutescens L. and C. annuum L.), for condiments and for food; some ornamental Bignoniaceae (Crescentia alata HBK., and Tecoma stans Juss.); (?) the squash (Curcubita maxima Duch.), for food; some ornamental Compositae (Tagetes erecta L., Helianthus annuus L., Cosmos caudatus HBK., and C sulphureus Cav.), and “ayapana” (Eupatorium triplinerve Vahl), for medicine.”

(Merrill: Flora of Manila, pp. 198–199.)

[8] On the whole, agriculture was not the chief aim of Spanish colonization. “How little attention, on the whole, the conquistadores directed to agricultural colonies, considering their various services in the transplantation of domestic animals, cereals, and vegetables from the Old to the New World, is very clearly shown by Peter Martyr, who condemns the expedition to Florida with the words: “For what purpose do we need such products as are identical with those of southern Europe?” It is true that Columbus’s second voyage of discovery had a settlement in view, and for that reason was provided with domestic animals, seeds, etc. It was a failure, however, owing to the mutinous spirit of the Spaniards. The regions which were best adapted to agricultural colonies, as, for example, Caracas, Guiana, Buenos Ayres, were neglected by the Spaniards for centuries. (“The Spanish Colonial Policy,” Wilhelm Roscher (1904), pp. 2–3.)

“It is a strange thing that the Spaniards who go to those regions (The Philippines) honestly to make a small fortune do not engage more in agriculture, in a country where there is so much virgin land and of such great fertility, where labor is extremely cheap, and the crop easily and profitably sold.” (La Libertad de Comercio en Filipinas, Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero, p. 27.)

“ * * * the Spaniards cared but little for the cultivation of the lands.” (The Ecclesiastical System in the Philippines, Manuel Buzeta, O. S. A., and Felipe Bravo, O. S. A., Madrid, 1850. From their Diccionario de las Islas Filipinas. In Bl. and Rb., Vol. 28, p. 285.

[9] Montero y Vidal, “Historia General de Filipinas,” Vol. I, p. 67.

[10] “Beef is eaten, cattle being raised abundantly in stockfarms in many different parts of the islands. The cattle are bred from those of China and Nueva España. The Chinese cattle are small, and excellent breeders. Their horns are very small and twisted, and some cattle can move them. They have a large hump upon the shoulders, and are very manageable beasts. * * * There is abundance of flesh of wild game, such as venison, and wild boars, and in some parts porcupines. There are many buffaloes, which are called carabaos, which are raised in the fields and are spirited; others are brought tame from China; these are very numerous, and very handsome. These last are used only for milking, and their milk is thicker and more palatable than that of cows. Goats and kids are raised, although their flesh is not savory, because of the humidity of the country. These animals sicken and die for that reason, and because they eat certain poisonous herbs. Ewes and rams, although often brought from Nueva España, never multiply. Consequently there are none of these animals, for the climate and pasturage has not as yet seemed suitable for them. There were no horses, mares, or asses, in the islands, until the Spaniards had them brought from China and brought them from Nueva España. Asses and mules are very rare, but there are many horses and mares. Some farms are being stocked with them, and those born (mixed breeds for the most part) turn out well, and have good colors, are good tempered and willing to work, and are of medium size. Those brought from China are small, very strong, good goers, treacherous, quarrelsome, and bad-tempered. Some horses of good colors are brought from Japan. They have well-shaped bodies, thick hair, large fetlocks, large legs and front hoofs, which make them look like draft-horses. Their heads are rather large, and their mouths rather hard. They run but slowly, but walk well, and are spirited and of much mettle. The daily feed of the horses consists throughout the year of green provender, besides rice in the husk, which keeps them very fat.” (Morga’s Sucesos, 1609, Bl. and Rb. Vol. 16, pp. 89–91.)

[11] “The islands, as I am told, need stallions, mares and cows, and other domestic animals. In order that they may be bred there in numbers, I am writing to the viceroy of Nueva España, to send to the said islands twelve mares, two stallions, twenty cows, and two bulls. You shall ask him for these as you pass there, and shall take them with you in your vessels as you go upon your voyage; and whatever you think needful for the animals can be brought from China and Japan. You shall order those farmers who are about to go to the said islands, and the chiefs, to tame and breed buffaloes, so that with all these animals there may be sufficiency to carry on the farming, and for other needful services.” (Instruction to Dasmariñas of Felipe II, Aug. 9, 1589;—Bl. and Rb. Vol. 7, p. 156.).

Also, Instructions to Tello, 1596, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 9, p. 236.

[12] “There are plenty of fowls like those of Castilla, and others very large, which are bred from fowls brought from China. They are very palatable, and make fine capons. Some of these fowls are black in feather, skin, flesh, and bones, and are pleasant to the taste. Many geese are raised, as well as swans, ducks, and tame pigeons brought from China.”

(Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinos, Chap. 8.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 90.)

[13] “The material surroundings of the Filipino before the arrival of the Spaniards were in nearly every way quite as they are today. The “center of population” of each town today, with its great church, tribunal, stores and houses of stone and wood, is certainly in marked contrast; but the appearance of a barrio of little distance from the center is today probably much as it was then. Then, as now, the bulk of the people lived in humble houses of bamboo and nipa raised on piles above the dampness of the soil; then, as now, the food was largely rice and the excellent fish which abound in river and sea. There were on the water the same familiar bancas and fish corrals, and on land the rice fields and coconut groves. The Filipinos had then most of the present domesticated animals,—dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and pigs,—and perhaps in Luzon the domesticated buffalo, although this animal was widely introduced into the Philippines from China after the Spanish conquest. Horses followed the Spaniards and their numbers were increased by the bringing in of Chinese mares, whose importation is frequently mentioned.

“The Spaniards introduced also the cultivation of tobacco, coffee, and cacao, and perhaps also the native corn of America, the maize, although Pigafetta says they found it already growing in the Bisayas.

“The Filipino has been affected by these centuries of Spanish sovereignty far less on his material side than he has on his spiritual, and it is mainly in the deepening and elevating of his emotional and mental life and not in the bettering of his material condition that advance has been made.” (Dr. D. P. Barrows, A History of the Philippines, pp. 106–107).

[14] “The planters keep working the soil almost as they used to do three centuries ago.” Memoria sobre los Montes de Filipinas, Sebastian Vidal y Soler; Madrid, 1874, p. 74.)

[15] Antonio de Morga, “Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas,” chap. 8. Rival’s note to this says: This work, although not laborious, is generally performed now by the men, while the women do only the actual cleaning of the rice. (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 79).

[16] “The lands which they inhabited were divided among the whole barangay, especially the irrigated portion, and thus each one knew his own.” Customs of the Tagalogs, Juan de Plasencia, O. S. F.; Manila, October 21, 1589. Blair and Robertson, Vol. 7, p. 174.

[17] See Chapter II, as to evidences of prosperity of the Filipinos at the time of the coming of the Spaniards.

Caing̃in system described: “They reported that the country was so fertile that when natives desired to plant their rice they only burn a part of the mountain and, without any further plowing or digging, they make holes with a stick in the soil, and drop some grains of rice in them. This was their manner of sowing; and, after covering the rice with the same earth, they obtained very heavy crops.” (Historia de la Provincia del Santo Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores, Diego Aduarte, O. P., Manila, 1640.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 32, p. 199.)

[18] “Customs of the Tagalogs,” Juan de Plasencia: “* * * * The lands on the ‘tingues’ or mountain-ridges, are not divided, but owned in common by the barangay. Consequently, at the time of the rice harvest, any individual of any particular barangay, although he may come from some other village, if he commences to clear any land may sow it, and no one can compel him to abandon it. There are some villages (as, for example, Pila de la Laguna) in which these nobles, or maharlicas, paid annually to the dato a hundred gantas of rice. The reason of this was that, at the time of their settlement there, another chief occupied the lands, which the new chief upon his arrival, bought with his own gold; and therefore the members of his barangay paid him for the arable land, and he divided it, among those whom he saw fit to reward. But now, since the advent of the Spaniards, it is not so divided. * * *

“The chiefs in some villages had also fisheries, with established limits, and sections of the rivers for markets. At these no one could fish, or trade in the markets, without paying for the privilege, unless he belonged to the chief’s barangay or village.” (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 7, pp. 174–175.)

Also, T. H. Pardo de Tavera, Census of the Philippines, 1903, Vol. I, p. 325.

[19] Expedition of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. (Résumé of Contemporaneous Documents, Talavera, July 6, 1541.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 2, p. 54.)

[20] The origin of the encomienda “was in the REPARTIMIENTO, which at first (1497) meant a grant of lands in a conquered country; it was soon extended to include the natives dwelling thereon, who were compelled to till the land for the conqueror’s benefit. In 1503 ENCOMIENDAS were granted, composed of a certain number of natives, who were compelled to work. The word ENCOMIENDA is a term belonging to the military orders (from the ranks of which came many officials appointed for the colonies) and corresponds to our word commandery. It is defined by Helps (practically using the same language of Solorzano, the eminent Spanish jurist), as a right conceded by royal bounty, to well-deserving persons in the Indies, to receive and enjoy for themselves the tributes of the natives who should be assigned to them, with a charge of providing for the good of those natives in spiritual and temporal matters, and of inhabiting and defending the provinces where these ENCOMIENDAS should be granted to them.” (Note, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 2, p. 54.)

[21] “According to the constitutional law of the Indies the land and the soil in all colonies were the domain of the king; therefore the encomiendas, which were granted only to discoverers and other men of conspicuous merit, were to be considered not so much as landed estates as public offices. (Compare “Recopilación,” ’IV 8, 9, 11.) The encomendero was appointed and sworn (law of 1532) for the express purpose of giving his natives military protection (law of 1552) and of promoting politically and religiously their conversion to civilization (laws of 1509, 1554, 1580). Whoever neglected to do this lost his encomienda (laws of 1536, 1551). It is characteristic that the Spaniards so readily combined the functions of discoverers, pacificators, and founders of settlements; as a matter of fact most of the Indian races were led to civil life, in our sense of the word, by them. In order to prevent extortion no encomendero could own a house in his village or stay there more than one night (law of 1609, 1618). Not even his nearest relatives or his slaves could enter the encomienda (law of 1574, 1550, and often). He was forbidden to maintain any industrial establishment in the encomienda (law of 1621), or to take into his house any of the inhabitants (law of 1528). That the natives were free men, that they could not be sold by an encomendero, was recognized in many laws. (“Recopilación,” VI, 2, I, II). After the legislation of 1542 some of the natives were the immediate subjects of the king, and the rest dependents attached to the encomiendas. The former paid three-fourths of their taxes to the treasury, and the latter the same proportion to their landlords. The right of holding an encomienda was granted, regularly for two generations, except in New Spain, where, on account of the very unusual services rendered by the conquerors, it was granted for three and even four generations. (Ibid. VI, 11, 14.) During the 18th century many of the families of the landlords died out and their possessions were not again granted. The authorities always interested themselves in the cause of the natives, until at length Charles III abolished the encomiendas.” (W. Roscher (1904) “The Spanish Colonial System,” pp. 4–5.)

[22] “Let such allotments be made without prejudice to the natives, retaining for them their arable lands, gardens, and pastures, so that all shall be cared for.” (Foundation of the Audiencia of Manila, Felipe II; Aranjuez, May 5, 1583.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, p. 292.)

“I was petitioned on behalf of the said islands, to order that encomiendas be granted with the condition and obligation upon the encomenderos that some patch of ground should be cultivated, and that the farmers and natives should be aided so that they also may till and cultivate. I charged Gomez Perez strictly in his instructions with this, and now I charge you too. You shall grant lands and homesteads, cattle and horses for breeding and farming, both to the natives, and to the settlers and farmers. Inasmuch as the execution of this is important, you shall advise me of the conditions of former days and what ordinances you shall enact, so that what is advisable may be done during your term.” (Instructions to Tello, Felipe II, Toledo, May 25, 1596.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 9, p. 237.)

(To the same effect, Instructions to Dasmariñas, Felipe II, San Lorenzo, August 9, 1589. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 157).

[23] On July 25, 1609, Don Miguel Banal, a Filipino chief of Quiapo, sent a petition to the King, for redress against what he considered a usurpation of his lands. The petition begins thus: “Sire:—In former years the archbishop of these Philippine Islands, on petition of the natives of the village of Quiapo, which is near the city of Manila, wrote to your Majesty, informing you that the fathers of the Society of Jesus—under pretext that the former dean of this holy church of Manila, whom your Majesty has lately appointed archbishop, had sold them a garden lying back of our village—have been insinuating themselves more and more into our lands and taking more than what was assigned them by the dean; and that we had scarcely any land remaining in the village for our fields, and even for our houses. The petition begged your royal Majesty to remedy this and protect us under your royal clemency, since we are natives, who cannot defend ourselves by suits, as we are a poor people, and it would be a matter with a religious order. (Nothing was heard from the King, and in the meantime, petitioner was forcibly ejected from his own lands, and a house built by him thereon, destroyed.) For I fear that I can find no one to aid me in the suits that the fathers are about to begin against me, or who will appear for my justice, since I have even been unable to find any one who dared to write this letter for me. This letter is therefore written by my own hand and in my own composition, and in the style of a native not well versed in the Spanish language. Also in the meanwhile will you order the fathers not to molest me in the ancient possession that I have inherited from my fathers and grandfathers, who were chiefs of the said village.” (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 14, pp. 327–329.)

A letter from Felipe III to Silva, refers to above petition and orders thus: “Having examined it in my Council for the Yndias, it has appeared best to order and command you, as I do to inform me of what has occurred in this matter, and is occuring, and in the meantime to take such measures as are expedient. Madrid, on the 7th of December, 1610.” (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 17, pp. 151–152.)

II. Industries at the Time of Discovery and Conquest

Shipbuilding.

One of the most important industries in the Philippines during this period was shipbuilding. We would naturally expect this industry to be developed among the Filipinos, for they belong to a seafaring race that for centuries had been pushing their way northward and taking possession of the islands of this part of the Pacific; furthermore, once settled in this country, they had abundant supply of good timber for building purposes.[1] Morga described the various kinds of ships and boats used by the Filipinos.[2] There seems to be no doubt that the Filipinos have forgotten much of what they knew about shipbuilding.[3]

The Spaniards took advantage of the abundance of materials in this country, and engaged in shipbuilding on a large scale. Shipyards were established at various places,[4] and to them the Filipinos were compelled to go and work. To the honor and glory of Spain, some of the largest ships in the world at that time were built in the Philippines.[5]

When the role played by the Filipinos in the history of Spanish achievement in the Philippines comes to be finally written, their share, in the form of service, direct—and indirect—and suffering of different kinds, will occupy a considerable part of the account.[6] First of all, the many lives sacrificed in connection with the building of ships should be considered.[7] Then, the effect on the industries of the country was disastrous.[8] Besides, very frequently the laborers were not paid their wages.[9] And worse than the physical cruelties practiced on them, the Filipinos were not only helping the King in the extension of his empire, but also those who actually abused them[10] to get rich. It is not strange, therefore, that we should find good intentioned persons, among them the early religious men—who wrote to the King and prayed for redress.[11] In this connection, it is of interest to add that the Filipinos who served as seamen in the galleons suffered as much as their brethren who built the ships.[12]

It is clear now why it is that the shipbuilding industry caused many revolts.[13] An interesting effect of the hardships suffered by the Filipinos was the migration of many of them to New Spain, and their settlement there.[14]

Fishing.

As, next to rice, fish formed an important part of the diet of the Filipinos, we find them engaged in the fishing industry at the time of discovery and conquest. Magellan and his party saw many fishing boats near the coasts of the islands passed by them. “All the shores of this bay (Manila) are well provided with abundant fisheries, of all kinds.”[15] The other islands were described to have many large fisheries also.[16] The inland waters, too, furnished the inhabitants with abundant fish supply.

Most of the devices used today for catching fish were known then to the ancient Filipinos. “The natives’ method of catching them is by making corrals of bejucos. They catch the fish inside these corrals, having made the enclosures fast by means of stakes. They also catch the fish in wicker baskets made from the bejucos, but most generally with atarrayas (a species of fishing net), esparaveles (a round fishing net, which is jerked along by the fisher through rivers and shallow places), other small barrederas (a net of which the meshes are closer and tighter than those of common nets, so that the smallest fish may not escape it), and with hand lines and hooks.”[17] The salambao was also used.[18]

Fishing for pearl oysters and other precious products of the sea was also a developed industry at the time of discovery and conquest. These products were exported to other countries.[19]

Mining and metal work.

The early accounts abound in glowing descriptions of the mining wealth of this country. “In many (indeed in most) islands are found amber and civet, and gold mines—these especially in the mountain ranges of Pangasinan and Paracale, and in Pampanga.[20] Consequently there was hardly any Filipino who did not possess chains and other articles of gold, according to the chroniclers. Indeed, many of the early settlers in the country saw no other evidence of wealth but the mines and metals.[21]

The early Filipinos did not only know how to work mines, but also knew the art of metal working. From the precious metals they made jewelry and all kinds of ornaments.[22] They also used metal for some of their weapons.[23] And the most noteworthy evidence of their progress in working metals was their use of firearms.[24]

Chief among the industries connected with the various kinds of palms found in the Philippines was the distillation of the sap into alcohol, a process known to the Filipinos long before Spanish arrival. “They draw a great quantity of wine from the palm-trees; one Indian can in one forenoon obtain two arrobas of sap from the palm-trees that he cultivates. It is sweet and good, and is used in making great quantities of brandy, excellent vinegar, and delicious honey.”[25] “Their drink is a wine made from the tops of coco and nipa palm, of which there is great abundance. They are grown and tended like vineyards, although without so much toil and labor. Drawing off the ‘tuba,’ they distilled it, using for alembics their own little furnaces and utensils, to a greater or less strength, and it becomes brandy. This is drunk throughout the islands.”[26]

Other uses similar to those of today were made of the different parts of the coconut and other palms.[27]

Textile industries.

Weaving was one of the industries well-known to the Filipinos long before the coming of the Spaniards. Contemporary writers all speak of the great quantity of cloths, especially cotton, woven in the country.[28] Says Sande: “All know how to raise cotton and silk, and everywhere they know how to spin and weave for clothing.”[29]

Besides cotton, the fibers of the abacá or hemp plant was also used for weaving; in fact, the latter must have been used even before the former.[30] They wove cloths also from Piña, and from silk imported from China.[31] The women knew the art of making lace and of embroidery.[32]

Miscellaneous industries.

That the Filipinos first seen by the Spaniards were not wandering savages, as commonly assumed by later day writers, is shown by the manner in which they built their houses—which very much resembled those of today[33],—and fixed their settlements.[34] It is from such and other similar facts that Rizal,[35] and other writers,[36] claimed for the early Filipinos a higher degree of culture than they were given credit for.

Among the other industries at the time of discovery and conquest were: the manufacture of gun-powder; hunting for edible birds’ nests, and exporting them to China; preparing hides, especially of deer, for export to Japan.[37] “As they possess many civet cats, although smaller than those of Guinea, they make use of the civet and trade it.[38] They also carved the statues of their anitos.”[39]

Conclusion.

To quote Rizal, “All the histories of those first years, in short, abound in long accounts about the industry and agriculture of the natives. Mines, gold-washings, looms, farms, barter, naval construction, raising of poultry and stock, weaving of silk and cotton, distilleries, manufactures of arms, pearl fisheries, the civet industry, the horn and hide industry, etc., are things encountered at every step, and, considering the time and the conditions in the islands, prove that there was life, there was activity, there was movement.”[40]

Other evidences could be presented to strengthen the conclusion advanced here.[41]

The only question that remains to be answered is that asked by Rizal: “How then, and in what way, was that active and enterprising infidel native of ancient times converted into the lazy and indolent Christian, as our contemporary writers say?” In connection with the discussion of ancient industries we had occasion to see that the Filipinos had neglected and even forgotten many such industries. Of this fact there is plenty of reliable proof.[42]

What were the causes that led to the decay of these old industries? “First came the wars, the internal disorders which the new change of affairs naturally brought with it.”[43] Then, as already pointed out, the effect of shipbuilding was fatal to the very lives of the people.[44] Add to these the abuses practiced by the encomenderos, and it is easy to understand the reason for the decline of the industries at the time.[45] However, in this connection, the benefits arising out of Spanish conquest should not be forgotten.[46]

[1] “For the above reason there is a large supply of lumber, which is cut and sawed, dragged to the rivers, and brought down, by the natives. This lumber is very useful for houses and buildings, and for the construction of small and large vessels. Many very straight trees, light and pliable, are found, which are used as masts for ships and galleons. Consequently, vessels of any size may be fitted with masts from these trees, made of one piece of timber, without its being necessary to splice them or make them of different pieces. For the hulls of the ships, the keels, futtock-timbers, top-timbers, and any other kinds of supports and braces, compass-timbers, transomes, knees small and large, and rudders, all sorts of good timber are easily found; as well as good planking for the sides, decks, and upper-works, from very suitable woods.” (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.—Chapter 8, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 84–87.)

[2] “Their ships and boats are of many kinds; for on the rivers and creeks inland they use certain very large canoes, each made from one log, and others fitted with benches and made from planks, and built up on keels. They have vireys and barangays, which are certain, quick, and light vessels that lie low in the water, put together with little wooden nails. These are as slender at the stern as at the bow, and they can hold a number of rowers on both sides, who propel their vessels with ‘bucceyes’ or paddles, and with ‘gaones,’ on the outside of the vessels; and they time their rowing to the accompaniment of some who sing in their language refrains by which they understand whether to hasten or retard their rowing. Above the rowers is a platform or gangway, built of bamboo, upon which the fighting men stand, in order not to interfere with the rowing of the oarsmen. In accordance with the capacity of the vessels, is the number of men on these gangways. From that place they manage the sail, which is square and made of linen, and hoisted on a support or yard made of two thick bamboos, which serves as a mast. When the vessel is large, it also has a foresail of the same form. Both yards, with their tackle, can be lowered upon the gangway when the weather is rough. The helmsmen are stationed in the stern to steer. It carries another bamboo framework on the gangway itself; and upon this when the sun shines hot, or it rains, they stretch an awning made from some mats, woven from palm-leaves. These are very bulky and close, and are called ‘cayanes.’ Thus all the ship and its crew are covered and protected. There are also other bamboo frameworks for each side of the vessel, which are as long as the vessel, and securely fastened on. They skim the water, without hindering the rowing, and serve as a counterpoise, so that the ship cannot overturn nor upset, however heavy the sea, or strong the wind against the sail.

“It may happen that the entire hull of these vessels, which have no decks, may fill with water and remain between wind and water, even until it is destroyed and broken up, without sinking, because of these counterpoises. These vessels have been used commonly through the islands since olden times. They have other larger vessels called ‘lapis,’ and ‘tapaques,’ which are used to carry their merchandise, and which are very suitable, as they are roomy and draw but little water. They generally drag them ashore every night, at the mouths of rivers and creeks, among which they always navigate without going into the open sea or leaving the shore. All the natives can row and manage these boats. Some are so long that they can carry one hundred rowers on a side and thirty soldiers above to fight. The boats commonly used are barangays and vireys, which carry a less crew and fighting force. Now they put many of them together with iron nails instead of the wooden pegs and the joints in the planks, while the helms and bows have beaks like Castilian boats.” (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas.—Ch. 8, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 82–84.)

[3] “The Filipinos, like the inhabitants of the Marianas, who are no less skilful and dexterous in navigation, far from progressing, have retrograded; since, although boats are now built in the islands, we might assert that they are all after European models. The boats that held one hundred rowers to a side and thirty soldiers have disappeared. The country that once, with primitive methods, built ships of about 2,000 toneladas, today (1890) has to go to foreign ports, as Hongkong, to give the gold wrenched from the poor, in exchange for unserviceable cruisers. The rivers are blocked up, and navigation in the interior of the islands is perishing, thanks to the obstacles created by a timid and mistrusting system of government; and there scarcely remains in the memory anything but the name of all that naval architecture. It has vanished, without modern improvements having come to replace it in such proportion as during the past centuries has occurred in adjacent countries.” (Rizal’s note to Morga.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 84.)

[4] “The shipyards of the galleons built during Don Juan de Silva’s term were thirty, forty, fifty, sixty, seventy, and eighty leguas from the city of Manila, in different places; namely, on the island of Marinduque, where the galleon San Juan Bautista was built, which is forty leguas from Manila; in the province of Camarines at Dalupanes were built Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe, and the Angel de la Guardia (i. e. Guardian Angel), fifty leguas from Manila; in the province of Ibalon at Bagatan were built San Felipe and Santiago, eighty leguas from Manila; in Mindoro was built the galleon San Juan Bautista, fifty leguas from Manila; in Marinduque was built the almiranta San Marcos, forty leguas from Manila; in Masbate was built the royal flagship Salvador, seventy leguas from Manila, in the point where the fleets anchor; in the port of Cavite, six galleys; in the city of Manila, two.” (Sebastian de Pineda; Mexico, 1619.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 173–174.)

[5] “Governor Don Diego de Salcedo, considering the many oppressions that were experienced by the provinces near Manila from the continual cutting of timber and building of galleons—a necessary evil and one in which the wrongs that are committed in it can be obviated only with great difficulty—very prudently determined to build the galleon Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro in the province of Albay. He entrusted its execution to the commander Diego de Arévalo who was most experienced in maritime matters. He appointed him alcalde-mayor of the adjoining province of Camarines for the better expedition of the timber-cutting, putting him under greater obligations (to do well) by the future reward of commander of the galleon which he was about to build. In order that that galleon might be built more quickly and finished sooner, he sent as chief overseer his lieutenant master-of-camp, Don Agustin de Cepeda Carnacedo, who was then master-of-camp of the army of these islands for his Majesty, in order that he might live in the port of Albay. He did that with so great care that in little more than one year the largest and best galleon that had yet been seen in the islands was built—and very few so large have been seen in European seas, and extremely few that are larger. For that purpose the woods of Filipinas are the best that can be found in all the universe.” (Casimiro Diaz, O. S. A.; Manila, 1718. Conquistas, in Bl. and Rb., Vol. 37, pp. 250–251.)

[6] “Those who cut these woods and build these ships and galleys are Indian natives of the said islands. They are carpenters, who are called cagallanes or pandais, in their language. Those Indians who are no more than woodcutters, and serve only as hewers and planers of wood, are paid each seven or eight reals a month, and are given daily rations of one-half celemin of rice. Those of better trades than the latter generally earn ten to twelve reals a month. Those who are masters—the ones who lay out, prepare, round, and make the masts, yards, and topmasts are each paid three or four pesos of eight reals a month, and double rations.” (Philippine Ships and Shipbuilding, Sebastian de Pineda (1619).—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, p. 174.)

[7] “When a fleet was being prepared in Cavite there were generally one thousand four hundred of these carpenters there. Just now there are very few, for when the Mindanao enemies burned one galleon and two petaches in the past year, one thousand six hundred and seventeen, which were being built in the shipyard of Pantao, sixty leguas from the city of Manila, they captured more than four hundred of the workmen, and killed more than two hundred others; while many have died through the severe work in the building. And because they have been paid for five years nothing except a little aid, many have fled from the land; and so few remain that when the last ships sailed from the city of Manila last year, six hundred and eighteen, there were not two hundred of those Indians in Cavite.” (Ships and Shipbuilding, Sebastian de Pineda, 1619.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 174–175.)

* * *

“As above stated, it will be necessary for Governor Don Alonso Fajardo to devise immediate means for building galleons and to repair the six at Manila. I regard the present building of ships in that country as impossible. For with the former ships and fleets and with the depredations and deaths caused by the enemy in those districts the natives are quite exhausted; for, as I said above, in the former years of six hundred and seventeen the Mindanao enemy captured four hundred native carpenters and killed more than two hundred others. The year before that, six hundred and sixteen, in the expedition made by Don Juan de Silva to the strait of Cincapura, where he died, it was found from lists that more than seven hundred Indians, of those taken as common seamen (of whom more than two hundred were carpenters), died on that expedition. Before that, in the year six hundred and fourteen, the said Mindanao enemy captured in the islands of Pintados nine hundred odd Indians, of whom but few have been ransomed. In the shipbuilding and in the hauling of wood many have died. Consequently, on account of all combined, there is a lack of natives for the above works. Therefore your Majesty must order the said Don Alonso Fajardo, governor and captain-general of the said islands, that in case galleons are to be built, it should not be in the islands—on the one hand, on account of the short time that those woods last, and on the other because of the lack in that land of natives (occurring through the above-mentioned causes, and because those natives in the islands are serving in the fleets as common seamen and carpenters).” (Ibid., pp. 182–183.)

[8] “The shipbuilding carried on in these islands on your Majesty’s account is the total ruin and death of these natives, as all tell me. For, in addition to the danger caused by it in withdrawing them from the cultivation of their lands and fields—whereby the abundance of foods and fruits of the country is destroyed—many of them die from severe labor and harsh treatment. Joined to this is another evil, namely, that every Indian who takes part in the shipbuilding is aided by all the neighborhood where he lives with a certain number of pesos, on account of the small pay that is given them in behalf of your Majesty. Hence many are being harassed and worn out by these methods, and a great expense is being caused to your Majesty’s royal treasury.” (Letter to Felipe III, Alonso Fajardo de Tenza, Cavite, Aug. 10, 1618; Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 130–131.)

[9] “Item: That the governor be warned to endeavor to avoid, as far as possible, the injuries inflicted upon the natives in the cutting of wood and in personal services; for they sometimes draft them in the planting season or at harvest, so that they lose their fields, as I have seen. In addition to this, many times they do not pay the Indians, because there is no money in the treasury, which is continually short of funds. This often arises from the fact that they do not estimate and consider the needs of the Indians with the amount of money that is available; and consequently all the Indians complain. Finally, when the said Indians are paid, it is done by the hand of the chiefs or cabezas de barangay, who generally keep the money.” (Reforms Needed in Filipinas, by H. de los Rios Coronel.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 315–316.)

[10] “The loss of so many ships caused us great sadness of heart. The greatest hardship fell to the Indians, for they cannot live without ships. When one is lost it is necessary to build another, and that means the cutting of wood. Six or eight thousand Indians are assembled for that task, and go to the mountains. On them falls the vast labor of cutting and dragging the timber in. To that must be added the blows that are rained down upon them, and the poor pay, and bad nourishment that they receive. At times, religious are sent to protect and defend them from the infernal fury of some Spaniards. Moreover, in the timber collected for one ship there is (actually enough) for two ships. Many gain advantage at the cost of the Indians’ sweat, and later others make a profit in Cavite, as I have seen.” (D. F. Navarrete, O. P.; 1676, from his Tratados Históricos.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 38, pp. 42–43.)

[11] ”* * * I must remind your Majesty that the islands are at the end of their resources, as far as the Indians in them are concerned; for it is they who bring the timber from the forests for the said shipbuilding. I have thought of an expedient for this, in order not to complete the destruction of the Indians; it is, to ask the viceroys of your Majesty in Nueva España and Pirú to send vessels here. * * *” (Letter to Felipe IV, by Sebastian Hurtado de Corcuera, Cavite, July 11, 1636.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 26, p. 289.)

[12] “Item. That it be ordered that the common seamen who serve in the said ships, who are always Indian natives, be all men of that coast, who are instructed how to navigate; and that they be made to wear clothes, with which to shelter themselves from the cold; for, because they do not, most of them die in high latitudes, of which he (the writer) is a witness. Inasmuch as the factor enrolls other Indians who live in the interior, and who do not know the art of sailing, and as they are a wretched people, they are embarked without clothes to protect them against the cold, so that when each new dawn comes there are three or four dead men (a matter that is breaking his heart); besides, they are treated inhumanly and are not given the necessaries of life, but are killed with hunger and thirst. If he were to tell in detail the evil that is done to them, it would fill many pages. He petitions your Majesty to charge your governor straitly to remedy this.” (Reforms Needed in Filipinas, Hernando de los Rios Coronel, 1619–1620.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 299–300.)

[13] “This has been the cause of tumults and insurrections, such as that of Palapag in 1649, and that of the province of Pampanga in 1660; and, in the time of Governor Don Juan de Silva, that of 1614, because of the considerable felling of timber which was occasioned by so much shipbuilding as was caused by the undertaking against the Dutch. Then, most of the provinces of these islands mutinied and almost rose in insurrection; and there was danger of a general outbreak, had not the religious who were ministers in the provinces reduced the minds of the natives to quiet; for they, overburdened by so heavy a load, were at the point of desperation.” (Casimiro Diaz, O.S.A.; Manila, 1718, Conquistas.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 37, p. 212.)

[14] “Those islands have so few natives, that if your Majesty does not expressly order no vessels to be constructed in them, not any of their people will be left, for as a result the events that have happened in those islands for the last eight years, both murders and captivities, many of those who have been left, who are constantly coming to Nueva España, every year as common seamen in the vessels that regularly sail, remain in Nueva España. In the galleon Espíritu Santo which came last year, six hundred and eighteen, were seventy-five native Indians as common seamen, but not more than five of the entire number returned in the said galley. If your Majesty does not have that corrected, the same thing will occur every year, and should your Majesty not correct it, the following things will occur. The first is the great offense committed against our Lord, for many (indeed most) of those native Indians of the Filipinas Islands who come as common seamen are married in those said islands; and, inasmuch as they are unknown in Nueva España, they remarry here. Another wrong follows which is very much to the disservice of your Majesty and your royal treasury, which is caused by the said Indian natives of the Filipinas Islands who come as common seamen and remain in Nueva España; and if it is not checked in time, it will cause considerable injury to these kingdoms. This consists in the fact that there are in Nueva España so many of those Indians who come from Filipinas Islands who have engaged in making palm wine along the other seacoast, that of the South Sea, and which they make with stills, as in Filipinas, that it will in time become a part reason for the natives of Nueva España, who now use the wine that comes from Castilla, to drink none except what the Filipinos make. For since the natives of Nueva España are a race inclined to drink and intoxication, and the wine made by the Filipinos is distilled and as strong as brandy, they crave it rather than the wine from España. Consequently it will happen that the trading fleets (from Spain) will bring less wine every year, and what is brought will be more valuable every year. So great is the traffic in this (palm wine) at present on the coast of Navidad, among the Apusabalcos, and throughout Colima, that they lead beasts of burden with this wine in the same way as in España. By postponing the speedy remedy that this demands, the same thing might also happen to the vineyards of Piru. It can be averted, provided all the Indian natives of the said Filipinas Islands are shipped and returned to them, that the palm groves and vessels with which that wine is made be burnt, the palm-trees felled, and severe penalties imposed on whomever remains or returns to make that wine.

“Incited by their greed in that traffic, all the Indians who have charge of making that wine go to the port of Acapulco when the ships reach there from Manila, and lead away with them all the Indians who come as common seamen. For that reason, and the others above mentioned, scarcely any of them return to the said Filipinas Islands. From that it also results that your Majesty loses the royal revenues derived from those islands, inasmuch as all those Indians are tributaries there, and when absent pay nothing.” (Ships and Shipbuildings, by Sebastian de Pineda, 1619.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, pp. 183–185.)

[15] Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinos, Chap. 8.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 108.

[16] Relación de las Islas Filipinas, Miguel de Loarca; Arévalo, June, 1582.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, p. 73.

[17] Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Antonio de Morga, Chap. 8.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 96.

[18] Report of Conditions in the Philippines, Antonio de Morga, Manila, June 8, 1598.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 10, pp. 85–86.

“The fishing is done with salambaos, and with fine-meshed nets; with which they block up the bay and kill the small fish. These nets ought not to be employed, and the size of the mesh should be regulated so that the supply of fish will not be exhausted; for already experience has demonstrated that they are not so abundant as formerly.”

Night fishing was also practiced. “What we call pitch in this region is a resin from which the natives make candles in order to use in their night-fishing, and is the same as the copal of Nueva España, or at the most differs from it very little in color, smell, and taste.” (Expedition of Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. [Résumé of Contemporaneous Documents, 1558–68.]—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 2, p. 153.)

Artificial fish-culture seems to have been introduced by the Japanese before the Spanish arrival. “The greatest of the Japanese industries, which they taught the natives, was breeding ducks and fishes for export. The rivers and coast waters of the Archipelago provided splendid feeding grounds for numerous varieties of fish and fowl, and the Japanese assisted nature’s breeding process, particularly in the case of fishes in a manner followed by present day experts. The roe were transported to safe places for development, tanks were used to guard small fish from harm, and various other precautionary measures were adopted properly to rear the fish. To the early Spaniards, the pisciculture of the Filipinos was regarded almost as a new art, so much more advanced it was than fish breeding methods in Europe.” (Commercial Progress in the Philippine Islands, Antonio M. Regidor and J. Warren T. Mason, 1905.)

[19] In some of these islands pearl oysters are found, especially in the Calamianes, where some have been obtained that are large and exceedingly clear and lustrous. Neither is this means of profit utilized. (By the Spaniards, he means, as is clear from the preceding paragraph, which states that, “if the industry and efforts of the Spaniards were to be converted into the working of the gold, as much would be obtained from any one of these islands as from those provinces which produce the most in the world. But since they attend to other means of gain rather than to this, as will be told in due time, they do not pay the proper attention to this matter.”) In all parts, seed pearls are found in the ordinary oysters, and there are oysters as large as a buckler. From the (shells of the) latter the natives manufacture beautiful articles. There are also very large turtles in all the islands. Their shells are utilized by the natives, and sold as an article of commerce to the Chinese and Portuguese, and other nations who go after them and esteem them highly, because of the beautiful things made from them.

“On the coasts of any of these islands are found many small white snail shells, called siguei. The natives gather them and sell them by measure to the Siamese, Cambodians, Pantanes, and other peoples of the mainland. It serves there as money, and those nations trade with it, as they do with cacaobeans in Nueva España.” (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Chap. 8.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 103.)

[20] Description of Filipinas Islands, Bartholome de Letona, 1662.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 36, p. 201.

“All these islands are, in many districts, rich in placers and mines of gold, a metal which the natives dig and work. However, since the advent of the Spaniards in the land, the natives proceed more slowly in this, and content themselves with what they already possess in jewels and gold ingots, handed down from antiquity and inherited from their ancestors. This is considerable for he must be poor and wretched who has no gold chains, calombigas (bracelets), and earrings.

Some placers and mines were worked at Paracale in the province of Camarines, where there is good gold mixed with copper. This commodity is also traded in the Ilocos, for at the rear of this province, which borders the seacoast, are certain lofty and rugged mountains which extend as far as Cagayan. On the slopes of these mountains, in the interior, live many natives, as yet unsubdued, and among whom no incursion has been made, who are called Ygolotes. These natives possess rich mines, many of gold and silver mixed. They are wont to dig from them only the amount necessary for their wants. They descend to certain places to trade this gold (without completing its refining or preparation), with the Ilocos; there they exchanged it for rice, swine, carabaos, cloth and other things that they need. The Ilocos complete its refining and preparation, and by their medium it is distributed throughout the country. Although an effort has been made with these Ygolotes to discover their mines, and how they work them, and their method of working the metal, nothing definite has been learned, for the Ygolotes fear that the Spaniards will go to seek them for their gold, and say that they keep the gold better in the earth than in their houses.

There are also many gold mines and placers in the other islands, especially among the Pintados, on the Botuan River in Mindanao, and in Sebu, where a mine of good gold is worked, called Taribon. If the industry and efforts of the Spaniards were to be converted into the working of the gold, as much would be obtained from any one of these islands as from those provinces which produce the most in the world. But since they attend to other means of gain rather than to this, they do not pay the proper attention to this matter.” (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos; Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 101–103.)

[21] Memorial to the Council by Citizens of the Philippine Islands; July 26, 1586.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 6, p. 223.

“In this island, there are many gold mines, some of which have been inspected by the Spaniards, who say that the natives work them as is done in Nueva España with the mines of silver; and, as in those mines, the vein of ore here is continuous. Assays have been made, yielding so great wealth, that I shall not endeavor to describe them, lest I be suspected of lying. Time will prove the truth.”

Las nuevas quescriven de las yslas del Poniente, Hernando Riquel y otros. Mexico, January 11, 1574.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p. 243.

[22] “They are the best and most skilful artificers in jewels and gold that we have seen in this land. Almost all the people of Los Camarines pursue this handicraft.” Letter from Guido de Lavezaris to Felipe II, Manila, July 17, 1574.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p. 273.)

“During these five days, the Moros had, little by little, given two hundred taels of impure gold, for they possess great skill in mixing it with other metals. They give it an outside appearance so natural and perfect, and so fine a ring, that unless it is melted they can deceive all men, even the best of silversmiths.” (Relation of the Voyage to Luzon, 1570.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p. 81.)

“There are some chiefs in this island who have on their persons ten or twelve thousand ducats’ worth of gold in jewels—to say nothing of the lands, slaves, and mines that they own. There are so many of these chiefs that they are innumerable. Likewise the individual subjects of these chiefs have a great quantity of the said jewels of gold, which they wear on their persons—bracelets, chains, and earrings of solid gold, daggers of gold, and other very rich trinkets. These are generally seen among them, and not only the chiefs and freemen have plenty of these jewels, but even slaves possess and wear golden trinkets upon their persons, openly and freely.” (Reply to Fray Rada’s ‘Opinion,’ Guido de Lavezaris and others; Manila, June, 1574.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p. 267.)

[23] “About their necks they wear gold necklaces, wrought like spun wax, and with links in our fashion, some larger than others. On their arms they wear armlets of wrought gold, which they call calombigas, and which are very large and made in different patterns. Some wear strings of precious stones—cornelians and agates; and other blue and white stones, which they esteem highly. They wear, around the legs some strings of these stones, and certain cords, covered with black pitch in many foldings, as garters.” (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 76–77.)

[24] “The people are the most valiant yet found in these regions; they possess much good armour—as iron corselets, greaves, wristlets, gauntlets, and helmets—and some arquebuses and culverins.” (Letter from Guido de Lavezaris to Felipe II, Manila, July 17, 1574.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p. 273.)

“At the waist they carry a dagger four fingers in breadth, the blade pointed, and a third of a vara in length; the hilt is of gold or ivory. The pommel is open and has two cross bars or projections, without any other guard. They are called bararaos. They have two cutting edges, and are kept in wooden scabbards, or those of buffalo-horn, admirably wrought.”

(This weapon has been lost, and even its name is gone. A proof of the decline into which the present Filipinos have fallen is the comparison of the weapons that they manufacture now, with those described to us by the historians. The hilts of the talibones now are not of gold or ivory, nor are their scabbards of horn, nor are they admirably wrought.—Rizal.)

(Morga’s Sucesos, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 81 and note 65.)

“Since they have seen the Spaniards use their weapons, many of the natives handle the arquebuses and muskets quite skilfully. Before the arrival of the Spaniards they had bronze culverins and other pieces of cast iron, with which they defended their forts and settlements, although their powder is not so well refined as that of the Spaniards.” (Ibid., p. 82.)

“This intercourse and traffic had acquainted the Filipinos with many of the accessories of civilized life long before the arrival of the Spaniards. Their chiefs and datos dressed in silks, and maintained some splendor of surroundings; nearly the whole population of the tribes of the coast wrote and communicated by means of a syllabary; vessels from Luzon traded as far south as Mindanao and Borneo, although the products of Asia proper came through the fleets of foreigners; and perhaps what indicates more clearly than anything else the advance the Filipinos were making through their communication with outside people is their use of firearms. Of this point there is no question. Everywhere in the vicinity of Manila, on Lubang, in Pampanga, at Cainta and Laguna de Bay, the Spaniards encountered forts mounting small cannon, or lantakas. The Filipinos seem to have understood, moreover, the arts of casting cannon and of making powder. The first gun-factory established by the Spaniards was in charge of a Filipino from Pampanga.” (Dr. D. P. Barrows, A History of the Philippines, pp. 101–102.)

[25] (Relación de las Islas Filipinas, Miguel de Loarca; Arévalo, June, 1582.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, p. 169.)

[26] Antonio de Morga, Sucesos, Chap. 8.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 80.

[27] “The coconuts furnish a nutritious food when rice is scarce. From the nut-shells they make dishes, and (from the fibrous husk) match-cords for their arquebuses; and with the leaves they make baskets.” (Relación, Miguel de Loarca; Arévalo, June, 1852.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, p. 169.)

See also First Voyage Around the World, Antonio Pigafetta.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 33, p. 105, for description of how the palm sap was obtained, oil made, and of other uses of the coconut.

[28] Relación, Miguel de Loarca; June, 1582.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, pp. 34–188.

Conquest of the Island of Luzon. Manila, April 20, 1572.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p. 171.

[29] Relation and Description of the Philippine Islands, Francisco de Sande; Manila, June 8, 1577.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 4, p. 98.

“Cotton is raised abundantly throughout the islands. It is spun and sold in the skein to the Chinese and other nations, who come to get it. Cloth of different patterns is also woven from it, and the natives also trade that. Other cloths, called medriñiques, are woven from the banana leaf.” (Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas, Antonio de Morga; Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 106.)

Cotton was woven into sail. “The canvas (lienzo) from which the sails are made in the said islands is excellent, and much better than what is shipped from España, because it is made from cotton. There are certain cloths (lienzos) which are called mantsa from the province of Ilocos, for the natives of that province manufacture nothing else, and pay your Majesty their tribute in them. They last much longer than those of España.” (Philippine Ships and Shipbuilding, Sebastian de Pineda, 1619.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 18, p. 178.)

[30] Relation of the Western Islands called Filipinas, Diego de Artieda, 1573.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p. 203.

Fray Rada’s Opinion, Guido de Lavezaris and others, Manila, June, 1574.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, p....

“The island of Zubu produces a small quantity of rice, borona, and millet and little or no cotton; for the cloth which the natives use for their garments is made from a kind of banana. From this they make a sort of cloth resembling colored calico, which the natives call medriñaque (Relación, Miguel de Loarca, June, 1582.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, pp. 43–45.)

[31] T. H. Pardo de Tavera, Census, 1903, Vol. I, p. 329.

[32] Ibid. “The women have needlework as their employment and occupation, and they are very clever at it, and at all kinds of sewing. They weave cloth and spin cotton, and serve in houses of their husbands and fathers. (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 79.)

[33] “Their houses are constructed of wood, and are built of planks and bamboo, raised high from the ground on large logs, and one must enter them by means of ladders. They have rooms like ours; and under the house they keep their swine, goats, and fowls.” (Antonio Pigafetta, First Voyage Around the World.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 33, p. 153.)

“The houses and dwellings of all these natives are universally set upon stakes and arigues (i. e., columns) high above the ground. Their rooms are small and the roofs low. They are built and tiled with wood and bamboos, and covered and roofed with nipa-palm leaves. Each house is separate, and is not built adjoining another. In the lower part are enclosures made by stakes and bamboos, where fowls and cattle are reared, and the rice pounded and cleaned. One ascends into the houses by means of ladders that can be drawn up, which are made from two bamboos. Above are their open batalanes (galleries) used for household duties; the parents and (grown) children live together. There is little adornment and finery in the houses, which are called bahandin.

“Besides these houses, which are those of the common people, and those of less importance, there are the chiefs’ houses. They are built upon trees and thick arigues, with many rooms and comforts. They are well constructed of timber and planks, and are strong and large. They are furnished and supplied with all that is necessary, and are much finer and more substantial than the others. They are roofed, however, as are the others, with the palm-leaves called nipa.” (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 117–118.)

[34] “The edifices and houses of the natives of all these Filipinas Islands are built in a uniform manner, as are their settlements; for they always build them on the shores of the sea, between rivers and creeks. The natives generally gather in districts or settlements where they sow their rice, and possess their palm trees, nipa and banana groves, and other trees, and implements for their fishing and sailing.” Ibid., p. 117.)

[35] Especially in La Indolencia de los Filipinos, in “La Solidaridad,” 1890, which develops the idea advanced by Sangcianco y Gozon.

[36] ”* * * As already seen, we must reject so often reiterated of late years that the early missionaries found nomadic or half-fixed clans and taught them the ways of village life. Village life there was already, to some extent, and it was upon this that the friars built. Doubtless they modified it greatly until in time it approached in most ways as closely to European village life as might be expected in tropical islands whose agricultural resources are not as yet well developed. From the first there would be a tendency to greater concentration about the churches, beginning with the rude structures of cane and thatch, which are replaced before 1700 in all the older settlements by edifices of stone, frequently massive and imposing, especially, so as they tower over the acres of bamboo huts about them, from the inmates of which have come the forced labor which built them. From the first, too, it was to the interest of the Spanish conquerors, lay and priestly, to improve the methods of communication between the communities which formed their centers of conversion or of exploration and collection of tribute. Yet to represent either the friars or the soldiers as great pathfinders and reconstructors of wilderness is the work of ignorance. When Legaspi’s grandson, Juan de Salcedo, made his memorable marches through northern Luzon, bringing vast acres under the dominion of Spain with a mere handful of soldiers, he found the modern Bigan a settlement of several thousand people; his successors in the conquest of the Upper Kagayan Valley, one of the most backward portions of the archipelago to-day, reported a population of forty thousand in the region lying around the modern Tuguegarao, and so it was quite commonly everywhere on the seacoasts and on the largest rivers. Some very crude deductions have been made as to the conquest period by writers of recent years who assume that the natives were at the beginning mere bands of wandering savages, and that all the improvements visible in their external existence to-day were brought about in these early years.” (James A. LeRoy, The Americans in the Philippines, Vol. I, pp. 8–10.)

“The friar missionaries did not bring about the first settlement and conquests under Legaspi; they did not blaze the way in wildernesses and plant the flag of Spain in outlying posts long in advance of the soldiers, the latter profiting by their moral-suasion conquests to annex great territories for their own plunder; they did not find bloodthirsty savages, wholly sunk in degradation, and in the twinkling of an eye convert them to Christianity, sobriety, and decency, * * *; they did not teach wandering bands of huntsmen or fishermen how to live peacefully in orderly settlements, how to cultivate the soil, erect buildings (except the stone churches), and did not bind these villages together by the sort of roads and bridges which we have today, though they had considerable share in this work, especially in later time; they did not find a squalid population of 400,000 to 750,000 in the archipelago, and wholly by the revolution wrought by them in ways of life make it possible for that population to increase by ten or twenty times in three centuries.” (Ibid., pp. 10–11.)

[37] Relación de las Islas Filipinas, Pedro Chirino, S. J., Roma 1604.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 12, p. 188.

[38] Morga’s Sucesos.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 105.

[39] Census of the Philippine Islands, 1903, Vol. I, p. 329.

[40] In La Indolencia de los Filipinos, Rizal continues thus:

“And if this, which is deduction, does not convince any minds imbued with unfair prejudices, perhaps of some avail may be the testimony of the oft-quoted Dr. Morga, who was Lieutenant-Governor of Manila for seven years and after rendering great service in the Archipelago was appointed criminal judge of the Audiencia of Mexico and Counsellor of the Inquisition. His testimony, we say, is highly credible, not only because all his contemporaries have spoken of him in terms that border on veneration but also because his work, from which we take these citations, is written with great circumspection and care, as well with reference to the authorities in the Philippines as to the errors they committed. ‘The natives,’ says Morga, in chapter VII, speaking of the occupations of the Chinese, ‘are very far from exercising those trades and have even forgotten much about farming, raising poultry, stock and cotton, and weaving cloth AS THEY USED TO DO IN THEIR PAGANISM AND FOR A LONG TIME AFTER THE COUNTRY WAS CONQUERED.’”

“The whole of Chapter VIII of his work deals with this moribund activity, this much-forgotten industry, and yet in spite of that, how long is his eighth chapter!

“And not only Morga, not only Chirino, Colin, Argensola, Gaspar de San Agustin and others agree in this matter, but modern travelers, after two hundred and fifty years, examining the decadence and misery, assert the same thing. Dr. Hans Meyer, when he saw the unsubdued tribes cultivating beautiful fields and working energetically, asked if they would not become indolent when they in turn should accept Christianity and a paternal government.

“Accordingly, the Filipinos, in spite of the climate, in spite of their few needs (they were less then than now), were not the indolent creatures of our time, and, as we shall see later on, their ethics and their mode of life were not what is now complacently attributed to them.”

Rizal has the following, to say about the abundance of wealth in this country:

“Wealth abounded in the islands. Pigafetta tells us of the abundance of foodstuffs in Paragua and of its inhabitants, who nearly all tilled their own fields. At this island the survivors of Magellan’s expedition were well received and provisioned. A little later, these same survivors captured a vessel, plundered and sacked it, and took prisoner in it the chief of the Island of Paragua (!) with his son and brother.

“In this same vessel they captured bronze lombards, and this is the first mention of artillery of the Filipinos, for these lombards were useful to the chief of Paragua against the savages of the interior.

“They let him ransom himself within seven days, demanding 400 measures (cavanes?) of rice, 20 pigs, 20 goats, and 450 chickens. This is the first act of piracy recorded in Philippine history. The chief of Paragua paid everything, and moreover voluntarily added coconuts, bananas, and sugar-cane jars filled with palm-wine. When Caesar was taken prisoner by the corsairs and required to pay twenty-five talents ransom, he replied: ‘I’ll give you fifty, but later I’ll have you all crucified!’ The chief of Paragua was more generous: he forgot. His conduct, while it may reveal weakness, also demonstrates that the islands were abundantly provisioned. This chief was named Tuan Mahamud; his brother, Guantil, and his son, Tuan Mahamed. (Martin Mendez, Purser of the Ship “Victoria”: Archivos de Indias, Ibid.)

[41] I have already said that all of it is thickly populated, and that it has a great abundance of rice, fowls, and swine, as well as great numbers of buffaloes, deer, wild boars, and goats; it also produces great quantities of cotton and colored cloths, wax, and honey; and date palms abound. In conclusion, it is very well supplied with all the things above mentioned, and many others which I shall not enumerate. It is the largest island which has thus far been discovered in these regions. As I say, it is well populated and very rich in gold mines. There is much trade with China. That part of it which has thus far been conquered and pacified, the governor has begun to allot to the conquerors.” Conquest of the Island of Luzon, Manila, April 20, 1572. (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 3, pp. 171–172.)

“This province (Pampanga) possesses many rivers and creeks that irrigate it. They all flow and empty into the bay. This province contains many settlements of natives and considerable quantities of rice, fruits, fish, meat, and other foods.” (Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos, 1609.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 108.)

(Rizal’s Note:—“This province had decreased so greatly in population and agriculture, a half century later, that Gaspar de San Agustin said: ‘Now it no longer has the population of the past, because of the insurrection of that province, when Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara was governor of these islands, and because of the incessant cutting of the timber for the building of his Majesty’s ships, which prevents them from cultivating their extremely fertile plain.’ Later, when speaking of Guagua or Wawa, he says: ‘This town was formerly very wealthy because of its many chiefs, and because of the abundant harvests gathered in its spacious plains, which are now submerged by the water of the sea.’” (Ibid.)

“In reply to the fourth question he stated that, before the coming of the Spaniards, all the natives lived in their villages, applying themselves to the sowing of their crops and the care of their vineyards, and to the pressing of wine; others planting cotton, or raising poultry and swine, so that all were at work; moreover, the chiefs were obeyed and respected, and the entire country well provided for. But all this has disappeared since the coming of the Spaniards.” (Testimony of Nicolas Ramos, chief of Cubao village and governor of same, under oath, in compliance with order of G. P. Dasmariñas “forbidding” the Indians to wear Chinese stuff; April 9, 1591.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 8, p. 87.)

[42] ”* * * Many islands and villages are devastated and almost wiped out, partly by the Spaniards or because of them, and partly by famines of which, or at the beginning of them, the Spaniards were the reason; for either by fear or to get rid of the Spaniards the natives NEGLECTED THEIR SOWING, and when they wished to sow then anguish came to them, and consequently many people have died of hunger.” (Augustinian Memoranda, 1373.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 34, p. 279.)

“After the end of the war the need of the city began, for, because of not having Sangleys who worked at the trades, and brought in all the provisions, there was no food, nor any shoes to wear, not even at excessive prices. The native Indians are very far from exercising those trades, and have even forgotten much of farming, and the raising of fowls, cattle, and cotton, and the weaving of cloth, which they used to do in the days of their paganism and for a long time after the conquest of the country. In addition to this, people thought that Chinese vessels would not come to the islands with food and merchandise, on account of the late revolution. * * *” (Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos, 1601.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 42–43).

[43] In La Indolencia, Rizal further says:

“It was necessary to subject the people either by cajolery or force; there were fights, there was slaughter; those who had submitted peacefully seemed to repent of it; insurrections were suspected, and some occurred; naturally there were executions, and many capable laborers perished. Add to this condition of disorder the invasion of Limahong, add the continual wars into which the inhabitants of the Philippines were plunged to maintain the honor of Spain, to extend the sway of her flag in Borneo, in the Moluccas and in Indo-China; to repel the Dutch foe: costly wars, fruitless expeditions, in which each time thousands and thousands of native archers and rowers were recorded to have embarked, but whether they returned to their homes was never stated. Like the tribute that once upon a time Greece sent to the Minotaur of Crete, the Philippine youth embarked for the expedition, saying good-by to their country forever: on their horizon were the stormy sea, the interminable wars, the rash expeditions. Wherefore, Gaspar de San Agustin says: ‘Although anciently there were in this town of Dumangas many people, in the course of time they have very greatly diminished because the natives are the best sailors and most skillful rowers on the whole coast, and so the governors in the port of Iloilo take most of the people from this town for the ships that they send abroad. * * * When the Spaniards reached this island (Panay) it is said that there were on it more than fifty thousand families; but these diminished greatly; * * * and at present they may amount to some fourteen thousand tributaries.’ From fifty thousand families to fourteen thousand tributaries in little over half a century!

We would never get through, had we to quote all the evidence of the authors regarding the frightful diminution of the inhabitants of the Philippines in the first years after the discovery. In the time of their first bishop, that is, ten years after Legaspi, Philip II said that they had been reduced to less than two-thirds.”

[44] La Indolencia de los Filipinos:

“In order to make headway against so many calamities, to secure their sovereignty and take the offensive in these disastrous contests, to isolate the warlike Sulus from their neighbors in the south, to care for the needs of the empire of the Indies (for one of the reasons why the Philippines were kept, as contemporary documents prove, was their strategical position between New Spain and the Indies), to wrest from the Dutch their growing colonies of the Moluccas and get rid of some troublesome neighbors, to maintain, in short, the trade of China with New Spain, it was necessary to construct new and large ships which, as we have seen, costly as they were to the country for their equipment and the rowers they required, were not less so because of the manner in which they were constructed. Fernando de los Rios Coronel, who fought in these wars and later turned priest, speaking of these King’s ships, said: ‘As they were so large the timber needed was scarcely to be found in the forests (of the Philippines!), and thus it was necessary to seek it with great difficulty in the most remote of them, where, once found, in order to haul and convey it to the shipyard the towns of the surrounding country had to be depopulated of natives, who get it out with immense labor, damage, and cost to them. The natives furnished the masts for a galleon, according to the assertion of the Franciscans, and I heard the governor of the province where they were cut, which is Laguna de Bay, say that to haul them seven leagues over very broken mountains 6,000 natives were engaged three months, without furnishing them food, which the wretched native had to seek for himself.’

“And Gaspar de San Agustin says: ‘In these times (1690), Bacolor has not the people that it had in the past, because of the uprising in that province when Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara was Governor of these islands and because of the continual labor of cutting limber for his Majesty’s shipyards, WHICH HINDERS THEM FROM CULTIVATING THE VERY FERTILE PLAIN THEY HAVE’.”

[45] “The Indians, upon seeing that wealth excited the rapacity of the encomenderos and soldiers, abandoned the working of the mines, and the religious historians assert that they counseled them to a similar action in order to free them from annoyances. Nevertheless, according to Colin (who was ‘informed by well-disposed natives’), more than 100,000 pesos of gold annually, conservatively stated, was taken from the mines during his time, after eighty years of abandonment. According to a ‘manuscript of a grave person who had lived long in these islands,’ the first tribute of the two provinces of Ilocos and Pangasinan alone amounted to 109,500 pesos. A single encomendero, in 1587, sent 3,000 taheles of gold in the ‘Santa Ana,’ which was captured by Cavendish.” (Rizal’s Notes to Antonio de Morga’s Sucesos, 1609, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 101.)

“If this is not sufficient to explain the depopulation of the islands and the abandonment of industry, agriculture and commerce, then add ‘the natives who were executed, those who left their wives and children and fled in disgust to the mountains, those who were sold into slavery to pay the taxes levied upon them,’ as Fernando de los Rios Coronel says; add to all this what Philip II said in reprimanding Bishop Salazar about ‘natives sold by some encomenderos to others, those flogged to death, the women who are crushed to death by their heavy burdens, those who sleep in the fields and there bear and nurse their children and die bitten by poisonous vermin, the many who are executed and left to die of hunger and those who eat poisonous herbs * * * and the mothers who kill their children in bearing them,’ and you will understand how in less than thirty years the population of the Philippines was reduced one-third. We are not saying this: it was said by Gaspar de San Agustin, the preeminently anti-Filipino Augustinian, and he confirms it throughout the rest of his work by speaking every moment of the state of neglect in which lay the farms and fields once so flourishing and so well cultivated, the towns thinned that had formerly been inhabited by many leading families!

“How is it strange, then, that discouragement may have been infused into the spirit of the inhabitants of the Philippines, when in the midst of so many calamities they did not know whether they would see sprout the seed they were planting, whether their field was going to be their grave or their crop would go to feed their executioner? What is there strange in it, when we see the pious but impotent friars of that time trying to free their poor parishioners from the tyranny of the encomenderos by advising them to stop work in the mines, to abandon their commerce, to break up their looms, pointing out to them heaven for their whole hope, preparing them for death as their only consolation?”—(La Indolencia.—Rizal.)

[46] ”* * * Doubtless if we could see the whole character of the Spanish rule in those decades, we should see that the actual condition of the Filipino had improved and his grade of culture had risen. No one can estimate the actual good that comes to a people in being brought under the power of a government able to maintain peace and dispense justice. Taxation is sometimes grievous, corruption without excuse; but almost anything is better than anarchy.

“Before the coming of the Spaniards, it seems unquestionable that the Filipinos suffered greatly under two terrible grievances that afflict barbarous society—in the first place, warfare, with its murder, pillage, and destruction, not merely between tribe and tribe, but between town and town, such as even now prevail in the wild mountains of northern Luzon, among the primitive Malayan tribes; and in the second place, the weak and poor man was at the mercy of the strong and the rich.

“The establishment of Spanish sovereignty had certainly mitigated, if it did not wholly remedy, these conditions. ‘All of these provinces,’ Morga could write, ‘are pacified and are governed from Manila, having alcaldes mayores, corregidors, and lieutenants, and dispense justice. The chieftains (principales), who formerly held the other natives in subjection, no longer have power over them in the manner which they tyrannically employed, which is not the least benefit these natives have received in escaping from such slavery.’” (Dr. D. P. Barrows, History of the Philippines, p. 166.)

III. Trade and Commerce at the Time of Discovery and Conquest

Centuries before Spanish discovery the Filipinos were in regular intercourse with the neighboring countries of China, Japan, Borneo, and others. In the work of Chao Ju-kua, a Chinese geographer of the thirteenth century, there is a chapter on Philippine trade, from which we learn that the “foreign traders import porcelain, commercial gold, iron vases for perfumes, leaden objects, glass, pearls of all colors, iron needles,”[1] black damask, and other silk fabrics, fish nets, and tin, and also silk umbrellas, and a kind of basket woven from rattan. In exchange, the Filipinos exported cotton (perhaps the “kapok” or tree cotton), yellow wax, strange cloth (foreign cloth: sinamay, a light fabric made from abacá,—and other textiles of the country.—Blumentritt’s note), coconuts, onions, (camotes?—Blumentritt’s note), and fine mats; also pearls, shells (i. e., tortoise-shell.—Blumentritt’s note), betelnuts, and jute (yuta) textiles. (Yu-ta seems to be the abacá.—Blumentritt’s note).[2]

Domestic trade.

The first Spaniards who came to the Philippines observed a lively commercial intercourse, not only among the peoples of the different islands, but also with the near-by countries.[3] The chief method of exchange was by means of barter,[4] though oftentimes gold dust was used.

With the coming of the Spaniards, domestic trade was upset. First of all, restrictions were imposed upon trade; communication between the villages was restrained.[5] Though later ordinances allowed freedom of commerce between villages and provinces,[6] the spirit of restriction predominated until modern times.[7]

Then, the government officials, though in many decrees and ordinances prohibited to engage in trade,[8] used their position as a means of gaining profits in trade.[9] This evil prevailed till later days.[10] However, as seen by Dr. Tavera, trading by the officials was not without its good effect.[11]

Trade relations with oriental countries.

The coming of the Spaniards opened a new market to the products of the Orient, and Manila soon became the great distributing center of the East.[12] “The merchants and business men form the bulk of the residents of the islands, because of the great amount of merchandise brought there—outside of native products—from China, Japan, Maluco, Malacca, Siam, Cambojia, Borneo, and other districts.”[13]

From China, from thirty to forty ships sailed every year usually in March, and reached Manila in fifteen or twenty days; here the traders sold their goods, and, with the exception of some of the larger dealers, returned towards the end of May or during the first days of June, in order to avoid the stormy season. Morga gives a detailed list of the goods imported from China.[14]

The merchandise brought by the Chinese were unloaded into champans (bancas), and taken to the Parian (Chinese quarter), or to other houses and magazines outside of the city, and there freely sold. No Spaniard, Sangley (Chinese trader), or any other person was allowed to go to the ship to buy or trade merchandise, food, or anything else. The purchase price was paid in silver and reals, for the Sangleys did not want gold, or any other articles, and would not take other things to China.

From Nagasaki, Japan, came Japanese and Portuguese merchants, who brought excellent wheat-flour and highly prized salt meats.[15] The bulk of the merchandise was used in the country. Returning to Japan, during the months of June and July, they carried with them raw Chinese silk, gold, deerskin, and brazil-wood for their dyes; also honey, manufactured wax, palm and Castilian wine, civet-cats, large tibors in which to store their tea, glass, cloth, and other curiosities from Spain.

From the Moluccas, Malacca, and India, the Portuguese imported many articles,[16] and in return took with them to the Moluccas rice, wine, crockery-ware, and other wares needed there; to Malacca, gold and money, besides a few special trinkets and curiosities from Spain, and emeralds.

Smaller vessels belonging to natives of Borneo also came to Manila, bringing well-made palm-mats, a few slaves, sago, and tibors; large and small jars, and excellent camphor; these articles were bought more by the Filipinos than by the Spaniards. The Borneans took with them wine and rice, cotton cloth, and other wares of the Philippines.

“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.” * * *

“When foreign traders come to one of their villages, they must not touch the ground, but must remain aboard their vessel, which is anchored in the middle of the current, and announce their presence by beat of drum. Thereupon the savage traders approach in their light craft, in which they carry cotton, yellow wax, strange cloth, coconuts, onions, and fine mats, and all those things they offer for sale in exchange (for the articles of the Chinese). In case of misunderstanding in the price of the goods, it is necessary to summon the chief of the traders of that place, so that he may present himself in person, and arrange the tariff to the satisfaction of all.” * * *

[3] The first thing noticed by Pigafetta, who came with Magellan in 1521, on arriving at the first island of the Philippines, Samar, was the courtesy and kindness of the inhabitants and their commerce. “To honor our captain,” he says, “they conducted him to their boats where they had their merchandise, which consisted of cloves, cinnamon, pepper, nutmegs, mace, gold and other things; and they made us understand by gestures that such articles were to be found in the islands to which we were going.”

Further on he speaks of the vessels and utensils of solid gold that he found in Butuan, where the people worked mines. He describes the silk dresses, the daggers with long gold hilts and scabbards of carved wood, the gold sets of teeth, etc. Among cereals and fruits he mentions rice, millet, oranges, lemons, panicum, etc.

That the islands maintained relations with neighboring countries and even with distant ones is proven by the ships from Siam, laden with gold and slaves, that Magellan found in Cebu. These ships paid certain duties to the King of the island. In the same year, 1521, the survivors of Magellan’s expedition met the son of the Rajah of Luzon, who, as captain-general of the Sultan of Borneo and admiral of his fleet, had conquered for him the great city of Lave (Sarawak?). Might this captain, who was greatly feared by all his foes, have been the Rajah Matanda whom the Spaniards afterwards encountered in Tondo in 1570?

In 1539 the warriors of Luzon took part in the formidable contests of Sumatra, and under the orders of Angi Siry Timor, Rajah of Batta, conquered and overthrew the terrible Alzadin, Sultan of Atchin, renowned in the historical annals of the Far East. (Marsden, Hist. of Sumatra, Chap. XX.)

At that time, that sea where float the islands like a set of emeralds on a paten of bright glass, that sea was everywhere traversed by junks, paraus, barangays, vintas, vessels swift as shuttles, so large that they could maintain a hundred rowers on a side (Morga); that sea bore everywhere commerce, industry, agriculture, by the force of the oars moved to the sound of warlike songs of the genealogies and achievements of the Philippine divinities. (Colin, Labor Evangelica, Chap. XV.)

Legaspi’s expedition met in Butuan various traders of Luzon with their boats laden with iron, wax cloths, porcelain, etc. (Gaspar de San Agustin), plenty of provisions, activity, trade, movement in all the southern islands.

They arrived at the Island of Cebu, “abounding in provisions, with mines and washings of gold, and peopled with natives,” as Morga says; “very populous, and at a port frequented by many ships that came from the islands and kingdoms near India,” as Colin says; and even though they were peacefully received discord soon arose. The city was taken by force and burned. The fire destroyed the food supplies and naturally famine broke out in that town of a hundred thousand people, as the historians say, and among the members of the expedition, but the neighboring islands quickly relieved the need, thanks to the abundance they enjoyed. (La Indolencia, Rizal.)

Dr. J. A. Robertson in a note to the English translation of this work says:

“There is no doubt of the frequency of interisland trade among the peoples of the Philippines at an early period. Trade was stimulated by the very fact that the Malay peoples, except those who have been driven into the mountainous interiors, are by their very nature a seafaring people. The fact of an interisland traffic is indicative of a culture above that possessed by a people in the barbarian stage of culture. Of course, there was considerable Chinese trade as well throughout the islands.”

[4] “Their customary method of trading was by bartering one thing for another, such as food, cloth, cattle, fowls, lands, houses, fields, slaves, fishing-grounds, and palm-trees (both nipa and wild). Sometimes a price intervened, which was paid in gold, as agreed upon, or in metal bells brought from China. These bells they regard as precious jewels; they resemble large pans and are very sonorous. They play upon these at their feasts, and carry them to the war in their boats instead of drums and other instruments. There are often delays and terms for certain payments, and bondsmen who intervene and bind themselves, but always with usurious and excessive profits and interests.” (Antonio de Morga, Sucesos; Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 128.)

[5] “The natives are free to move from one island to another, and from one province to another, and pay their tribute for that year in which they move and change their residence in the place to which they move; and to move from a Christian village that has instruction to another village possessing it. But on the other hand, they may not move from a place having instruction to one without it, nor in the same village from one barangay to another, nor from one faction to another. In this respect, the necessary precautions are made by the government, and the necessary provisions by the Audiencia, so that this system may be kept, and so that all annoyances resulting from this moving of the settled natives of one place to another may be avoided.

“Neither are the natives allowed to go out of their villages for trade, except by permission of the governor, or of his alcaldes-mayores and justices, or even of the religious, who most often have been embarrassed by this, because of the instruction. This is done so that the natives may not wander about aimlessly when there is no need of it, away from their homes and settlements.” (Morga’s Sucesos.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 162–163.)

[6] “17. (Commerce is to be free to all Indians of whatever jurisdiction they be, throughout the Philippines; and no license is required, nor can any fee be charged. This will ensure a good supply of provisions and other necessities, and promote the cultivation of the land. Good treatment must be shown to them, and their passage from one place to another facilitated, under penalty of a fine of 100 pesos, and a charge in the residencia of the one who transcends this order.)” (Ordinances of Good Government by Corcuera, 1642, and Cruzat y Gongora, 1696.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 50, p. 203).

[7] “70. (Interprovincial trade of the various products shall not be prohibited, as such prohibition is in violation of law vii, título xviii, book iv and law xxv, título i, book vi, in accordance with which laws trade is to be encouraged. The Indians may cut timber in accordance with law xiv, título xvii, book iv. The desire to gain, however, shall not be allowed to cause the Indians to send out of any province the products necessary for its conservation. This may be prohibited with the consent of the father minister, from whom the alcalde-mayor shall ask a certification for his own protection. Without the certification, he shall not make such prohibition, under penalty of the penalties of the preceding ordinance. The natives shall pay no fees for the privilege of interprovincial trade; and, if any alcalde-mayor violates this, he shall incur a fine of 100 pesos, besides the responsibility of making good all the loss occasioned by his action. This shall be a charge in the residencia.) (Raon’s Ordinance, February 26, 1768.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 50, pp. 250–251.)

This is one of the reasons adduced by Rizal to explain the decay of agriculture in this country:

“Of no little importance were the hindrances and obstacles that from the beginning were thrown in the farmers’s way by the rulers, who were influenced by childish fear and saw everywhere signs of conspiracies and uprisings. The natives were not allowed to go to their labors, that is, their farms, without permission of the governor, or of his agents and officers and even of the priests as Morga says. Those who know the administrative slackness and confusion in a country where the officials work scarcely two hours a day; those who know the cost of going to and returning from the capital to obtain a permit; those who are aware of the petty retaliations of the little tyrants will well understand how with this crude arrangement it is possible to have the most absurd agriculture. True it is that for some time this absurdity, which would be ludicrous had it not been so serious, has disappeared; but even if the words have gone out of use other facts and other provisions have replaced them. The Moro pirate has disappeared but there remains the outlaw who infests the fields and waylays the farmer to hold him for ransom. Now then, the government, which has a constant fear of the people, denies to the farmers even the use of a shotgun, or if it does allow it does so very grudgingly and withdraws it at pleasure; whence it results with the laborer, who, thanks to his means of defense, plants his crops and invests his meager fortune in the furrows that he has so laboriously opened, that when his crop matures, it occurs to the government, which is impotent to suppress brigandage, to deprive him of his weapon; and then, without defense and without security he is reduced to inaction and abandons his field, his work, and takes to gambling as the best means of securing a livelihood. The green cloth is under the protection of the government, it is safer! A mournful counselor is fear, for it not only causes weakness but also in casting aside the weapons strengthens the very persecutor!”—(La Indolencia.)

[8] There were other earlier decrees to the same effect as the following:

“6. (Alcaldes-mayor and corregidors are not to accept any presents, even of food, during the term of their office, as their hands will be bound thereby. They must pay a just price for what they purchase. During the term of their office they are not to purchase a ranch or any lands in the territory of their jurisdiction; neither are their secretaries or alguacils-mayor to buy them: for many evils follow therefrom. They are to build no sailing craft under any consideration, ‘under penalty of loss thereof and two hundred pesos, applied half to fines for the treasury and fortifications, because of the great harm caused to the natives by such constructions. For when you need any vessel, you can charter one.’ Likewise they are forbidden to engage in any trade with the natives and citizens of their jurisdiction, either directly or through agents.”) (Ordinances of Good Government, by Corcuera, 1642.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 50, p. 195.)