Note 24 — COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINES WITH NUEVA ESPAÑA

90–92. [On September 4 following, a conference was held by the representatives of the commerce of Sevilla, to consider the question of the Philippine commerce in Chinese silks and the royal decree forbidding that trade; a copy of the memorial sent from Manila, and other documents bearing thereon, were submitted to that body by the consulate of Cadiz, who had already taken action thereon, and now asked for the support and coöperation of the Sevilla merchants. In a formal resolution by the latter, they express their entire concurrence with the views of Cadiz, and request the king to enforce the decree of 1720. They make light of the statement regarding the great amount of spices carried to Nueva España by Chacón’s fleet, and intimate the probability that the remonstrance by Manila is really instigated by the traders of Nueva España, who, on account of the enormous profits which they make by sending money to the Philippines for investment, must be most affected by the proposed restrictions on the Manila commerce. Sevilla answers the argument of Manila that only one hundred and twenty-live toneladas of Spanish silks are sent to Nueva España, by declaring that even that small amount will soon be reduced to nothing unless the king strictly prohibit the introduction by the Filipinas ships into Nueva España of fabrics woven of silk and gold or silver; also that the silk-mills of España will be ruined and abandoned, and consequently the cities of that country will be inundated with poor people and criminals. On the day before this conference, a similar one was held by the consulate of Cadiz and representatives from the merchants of that city, who made a vigorous remonstrance against the injuries caused to Spanish commerce and industry by the Manila-Acapulco trade, and especially by the frauds and the infractions of law therein, on which they expatiated in the above conference. In the report drawn up by them they mention several of these. For instance, the merchants of the City of Mexico sent large sums of money to Acapulco for preparing the Manila galleon for its voyage; “and in the three months during which the ship was detained at that port it unloaded an enormous cargo, held its fair, and returned laden with silver, without wintering in that kingdom, on account of the easy and prompt disposal of all that it carried. This cargo was usually 10,000 or 12,000 bales, half of silken fabrics and half of linen goods, [lencería], the proceeds from which reached four millions of pesos; and all this in pesos, eight-real and four-real pieces, since in exchange for the said goods they did not desire or carry any produce, nor even doubloons, nor bars of silver, for all must be new pesos and of Mexican coinage, these being the coins which are current in Turquìa, to which country they were going, since the greater part of the said goods come thence.” Reliable witnesses have told of mule-trains entering Mexico laden with Chinese stuffs, which must amount to almost the value of the goods carried by the eighteen vessels in the trading-fleet which that year came from Spain under Don Manuel de Velasco; and the market of the latter was ruined by the former. “Although the silk fabrics which the ships bring from Philipinas have not the quality or durability of those from España, and the linen goods are all of cotton, and do not last half as long as do those from France, yet as the former are sold cheap, and have a good surface, and are showy, while they last the commerce of España is checked and suspended.” The merchants of Mexico send so much money to Acapulco that not enough is left to send the trading-fleets back to Spain, which are compelled to winter at Vera Cruz in order to obtain the proceeds of their cargoes and equip the vessels for the return voyage. “So sweeping and irreparable is the great injury which these goods from China, or from the Turks (which is the more certain), cause to the most important cities of España that when the said ship was not allowed to carry those goods Sevilla had more than 12,000 looms for the manufacture of silks of every kind; and with these, even without other stuffs, so great a number of people were employed on them, and so great was the opulence of that city and of all its domain, as is made evident by the great services which on all occasions Sevilla rendered to his Majesty, with sumptuous buildings—churches, hospitals, government buildings, and private houses. But without greater casualty than that of the importations in the ships from China, that city found itself in a straitened and miserable condition, not two hundred looms being left in it, on account of there being no consumption for its fabrics; and the great mass of poor people, who then supported themselves by their labor, are now miserably perishing. No less proof is afforded by what is occurring in Granada; for there more than 12,000 looms were employed only on taffetas (both double and plain), satins, plushes, and all kinds of silk-weaving; and more than 50,000 persons, men and women, were engaged in the industry and labor of making silk goods. For this reason, the amount of silk worked up each year was more than 180,000 libras, from which proceeded considerable profits to the royal exchequer, for the duty on each libra amounted to thirteen reals and three cuartillos; but, with the one but sufficient reason of the importations of Chinese goods, [that industry] has so fallen away that the amount of silk sold in that city at each gathering of silk does not reach 40,000 libras, and the number of looms operated, on coarse stuffs, is less than 2,000—a similar condition to those of Sevilla.... The same troubles are suffered by Cordova, Jaen, Ezija, Priego, and Alcalà la Real, with many other places which in both the Andalucias were growing and being maintained by the said manufactures. It is not less worthy of attention that the silk-growers of the aforesaid kingdoms of Sevilla, Granada, Cordova, and Murcia are, for lack of sale for the silk that they produce, giving up the cultivation of the mulberry-trees, and abandoning their farms and the places where they dwell.” Cadiz cites the action of Conde de Monclova, viceroy of Peru, who prohibited the shipment of Chinese goods from Acapulco to South America, making them contraband and confiscable, recognizing “their poor quality and lack of durability, and the great detriment which this trade caused to the merchants [of Peru], who go down to Portovelo to hold the fair [at the arrival] of the galleons, which has been the greatest in the world;” and urges the king to enforce strictly the decree of 1720. Such action would greatly benefit the realms of Spain, and would not cause injury to the Philippines, because none of the said Chinese stuffs are made in the islands; “and the only ones who could grieve over it are the Turk, and other princes of Assia, Mahometans, and enemies of our holy Catholic faith.” As for the complaint of Manila that the propagation of that faith depends on the silk trade, Cadiz refuses to believe this, and refers the king to a document in Manila which refutes that notion. This is “a memorial or report made by a minister of that Audiencia, N. Calderòn, in which is inserted another, written by Father Fray Victorio Ricci,24 of the Order of Preachers, who was for many years a missionary in the empire of China, and afterward in the Philipinas Islands; it was sent by the Supreme Inquisition to its commissary in the islands, in order that he might send to his Majesty information on the points therein.... In these papers it will be clearly evident that the progress and propagation of the faith is not diminished by depriving the islands or the kingdoms adjacent to them of the commerce prohibited to them, or by the restriction which his Majesty has laid on it;” the above prohibition, therefore, is not the cause of the ruin of the citizens of Filipinas.]