Part 17 (1/2)
[76] 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 Derbys.h.i.+re 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 ma.n.u.script 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-sh.e.l.l, betelnuts dry-goods, etc.”
[77] 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 a.s.sembled (the Chinese call all foreigners savages except the j.a.panese, 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 pa.s.s 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 anch.o.r.ed 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.” * * *
[78] 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, panic.u.m, etc.
That the islands maintained relations with neighboring countries and even with distant ones is proven by the s.h.i.+ps from Siam, laden with gold and slaves, that Magellan found in Cebu. These s.h.i.+ps 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 gla.s.s, 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 was.h.i.+ngs of gold, and peopled with natives,” as Morga says; ”very populous, and at a port frequented by many s.h.i.+ps 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.”
[79] ”Their customary method of trading was by bartering one thing for another, such as food, cloth, cattle, fowls, lands, houses, fields, slaves, fis.h.i.+ng-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.)
[80] ”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 embarra.s.sed 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.)
[81] ”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 pa.s.sage 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).
[82] ”70. (Interprovincial trade of the various products shall not be prohibited, as such prohibition is in violation of law vii, t.i.tulo xviii, book iv and law xxv, t.i.tulo i, book vi, in accordance with which laws trade is to be encouraged. The Indians may cut timber in accordance with law xiv, t.i.tulo 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.)
[83] There were other earlier decrees to the same effect as the following: