Note 18 — Chapter VIII · The Philippines Three Hundred Years Ago.
Reading edition
The Commercial Importance of Manila.—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 gew-gaws and knickknacks, which among Spaniards are in much esteem.”18