Note 3 — COMMERCE OF THE PHILIPPINES WITH NUEVA ESPAÑA

“This new despatch threw into consternation the commercial interests here.” The governor asked advice from the fiscal, who, as the order came not as a formal royal decree, thought that it might be regarded as only the viceroy’s expression of opinion, and the governor might take such measures as he deemed best. The citizens were informed of the viceroy’s requirement, and asked the governor to investigate the foreign trade then carried on at Canton—saying that they were informed that “toward the end of the preceding year, 1731, various large vessels—French, English, and those belonging to the companies of Olanda and Ostende—entered the port of Canton in China with more than three millions in wealth, in silver and other commodities; and the presumption was that those goods [which they bought] could have no other destination than the Americas, to be introduced there by way of the Northern Sea [i.e., Atlantic Ocean].” Such investigation was accordingly made by official authority, and thirteen witnesses were examined—Armenians, French, and Portuguese. These agreed in their testimony, as eyewitnesses, that “in the city of Canton, in the kingdom of China, the French had maintained a factory for the space of seven years, as also had the English during two years; but these had been suppressed in the preceding year of 31 by the governor of Canton, on account of a controversy which the French and English had with the Chinese traders. Nevertheless, many of their ships, and [others] from Europa, remained there; and accordingly the witnesses had seen in the preceding year two French ships, four English, three Dutch, and one from Denmark, all of great burden and capacity, which carried thither a great amount of wealth in silver of Mexican and Peruvian coinage, and some small quantity in bullion. With this the foreigners bought silks—raw, in bundles, quiña, and others in colors, and woven fabrics—gold bullion, porcelain, and tea; and the witnesses were certain that they bought these commodities for the commerce with Perù and other parts of the Indias, as was evident from the money [that they used], and as the witnesses knew by having heard it from the foreigners themselves.” The citizens also represented to the governor their objections to the proposed restriction on their commerce; they declared that it was not the Acapulco trade which was injuring that of Spain in America, as Cadiz had claimed, but the importation of Chinese goods by the European countries—fifteen or more ships at a time, with more than four millions of pesos, buying these at Canton, “with no other object than to introduce these into the Americas by the agency of the Spaniards themselves.” “The truth was, that this complaint did not begin until the foreign ships found their way to Canton.” The Spanish merchants ought not to complain of the small quantity of Chinese silk traded by Manila, when they themselves formed the channel for the far greater commerce therein of the other European nations, “in which the Chinese goods, made in imitation of the European goods, and folded double like them, occupy the same place.” Moreover, the money returned to the Filipinas Islands did not all go, as Cadiz claimed, to foreign countries; but the greater part of it was invested in the obras pias, and in the fortunes of the citizens. It must also be noted that the Chinese champans carried home considerable cargoes of sibucao, sugar, and other products of the islands, in exchange for their stuffs. The royal officials at Manila, consulted by the governor, declared that the customs and other duties on the commerce would be greatly diminished by the prohibition of Chinese silks to the Acapulco trade—to the extent of more than 31,000 pesos a year, as was the case in the years 1719 and 1720, when the champans failed to arrive at Manila; besides which, the treasury lost 12,000 pesos, in the license-fees paid by the Chinese merchants who came to reside in the islands and sell their wares, and 6,000 more from other incomes dependent on the Chinese. The governor called together a conference of the religious superiors and the leading citizens; at which the matter was discussed pro and con; the sense of the meeting was expressed by the Dominican Fray Juan de Arrechedera, commissary of the Inquisition, who was asked to place his opinion in writing, and this was signed by those present, and attested by the governor, as president of the assembly. Arrechedera took the ground that the viceroy’s notification was not a formal royal decree; that if carried out it would mean the ruin of the islands, which surely the king could not intend or mean; that the matter should properly be decided by the king himself, after Manila had opportunity to be heard before him; and the viceroy could only regulate the commerce according to the royal orders, and had no authority to change the present conditions without those orders. The Jesuit provincial did not sign this opinion, but rendered his own separately, warning the Manila merchants that the viceroy might be offended at their attitude, and confiscate their goods if they did not obey him. The royal officials advised the governor to allow the silks to be sent to Acapulco, and meanwhile to secure the good-will of the viceroy for intercession with the king in Manila’s behalf. The matter was finally settled, however, by the royal decree of 1734, obtained through the efforts of the Manila agents at the court, which revoked the viceroy’s orders and permitted the silk trade to continue. (Concepción. Hist. de Philipinas, x, pp. 254–303.) Cf. the sketch of the Manila-Acapulco trade by Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero in his Libertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas (Madrid, 1872), pp. 39–96. Malo de Luque outlines the subject briefly in his Establecimientos ultramarinos, v, pp. 217–234. ↑