Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines

R >> Robert Mac Micking >> Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines

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In connexion with the province trade, the naval school ought to be
mentioned, as it is a most useful institution, where arithmetic,
geometry, and navigation are taught gratuitously, at an expense to
Government of nearly 2,400 dollars a-year.

The President of the Chamber of Commerce is also President of the
school, and the members of that body have the privilege of admitting
the pupils--a right which I believe they exercise liberally. At this
place, boys are very well trained up in the scientific and theoretical
part of their profession; but unfortunately, from some cause or other,
their education afterwards as practical seamen does not keep pace with
it, and they generally are as much behind our British or American
shipmasters in all relating to the sea, as can be well conceived,
although they are not unfrequently superior to them, and at least
are equal, in their theoretical attainments.

At this school, many of the Creoles and Mestizos of Manilla have
shown to the world that they did not want the ability to learn,
when they had good masters to instruct them; but good heads and
hands are seldom found together. In fact, I rather think that the
lads educated here are taught too much (if that be possible), and
by being so, have their ideas raised above their stations; for many
of them are, by a great deal, much more like gentlemen than a number
of the merchant skippers or mates in our British ships, whose horny
fists and tar-stained dress make few pretensions to outward gentility.

Among the province-trading vessels lying at anchor in Manilla
river, there are at all times to be seen some curious specimens of
ship-building, few of them being insurable.

Some of these coasters, although nearly all shaped in the European
style, have almost the whole of their rigging constructed of ropes
made from the bamboo, and are fitted with anchors made from ebony
or some other heavy wood, having occasionally a large piece of stone
fastened to them, to insure their sinking. The cables to which they
are attached are generally of a black rush, like sedge, or of bamboo;
but in the event of a gale, I should say that their crews had great
need never to embark in these frail shells, except when well assured
of being at peace with God and man.

In ordinary years these vessels are laid up for several months every
season, as it would most probably be certain destruction for any of
them to attempt proceeding to sea from October till December.

Although a large proportion of the colonial-built vessels are bad,
still there are a few constructed in the country which would be
considered fine ships in any part of the world.

When a good vessel is built there, the first voyage she makes is
usually to Spain, if she can get a freight; and after discharging
her cargo, her next voyage is to a British port, in order that she
may be fitted with copper bolts and iron work, under the inspection
of Lloyd's surveyor; after which her character is established, and
she is classed A 1 ship for a term of years.

But notwithstanding these ships being placed in Lloyd's books,
the insurance offices can seldom be persuaded to accept of risks
even in first-class vessels, when their crews are Spaniards, on
the same favourable terms at which risks are freely taken on good
British ships. They almost invariably demand an increased premium,
and occasionally decline risks by them altogether.

Now, although bad management sometimes occurs on board of Spanish
ships, our own are not exempt from it; and I believe that prejudice
causes them to refuse the insurance as much as anything else.

The Dons have got a bad name as seamen, and very true is the elegant
proverb, "Give a dog a bad name, and hang him."

CHAPTER XXXII.

Nearly the whole of the produce of the Philippines is exported from
Manilla by the foreign merchants resident there, none of the Spaniards
being engaged in commerce to anything like the same extent as the
foreigners are; the few British and the two American houses doing
an immensely greater amount of business than the whole transactions
of all the Spanish merchants, numerous though they be. The trade of
my countrymen consists principally in selling cotton manufactured
goods, and in purchasing the produce of the islands for export;
while the business of the Americans, who sell few goods, consists
almost entirely in purchasing produce for the markets of the United
States, and elsewhere. The Chinese are also large importers of their
country's manufactures, curiosities, and nick-knacks, and also very
considerable exporters.

The statistical data embodied in the following tables will inform the
reader pretty exactly of the amount of exports from the Philippines,
with the exception of the single article of rice, immense quantities
of which are carried over to China by Spanish ships, which load it
at the districts where it is grown; for as the Government charge no
export duty on its exportation in ships bearing the national flag,
they are allowed to depart from the general rule of all vessels being
obliged to load at Manilla while shipping cargo for foreign ports,
if they are merely taking rice on board, and nothing else.

It is right, however, to inform the reader, that although the subjoined
table may approach very nearly to the truth in most respects, as it
has been gradually and very carefully collected by the largest British
mercantile establishment at Manilla, the nature of whose business
requires that they should be as well acquainted with all facts such
as the table embraces, as from the nature of existing circumstances
there it is possible to be, yet at that place there is at all times a
greater or less degree of difficulty in obtaining correct statistical
information of the trade; and this is considerably increased by the
Government not choosing to communicate the particulars they collect
at the Custom-house, erroneous though they be.

In an underhand way, however, these particulars can be obtained from
some of the Indian copyists employed in that establishment, if they
are paid for it; and, in fact, they are in the habit of communicating a
note of the different cargoes of ships coming in, or going away loaded,
to some of the merchants. Yet these notes are nearly always more or
less erroneous, from various causes. To obviate these inconveniences,
several of the principal export merchants are in the habit of mutually
furnishing each other with a correct statement of the various cargoes
they ship; but still, as there are many exporters besides themselves,
some degree of error must pervade even their carefully-gleaned
information. But there is one thing to be borne in mind, that the
following table is most likely to be considerably under the truth,
and certainly is not over it.

General Statement of Exports from Manilla during 1850.

---------------+--------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+-------+----------------
| To | To the | To the | To | To | To | To |
| Great |Continent|Australian| China. |Singapore|California|United |
|Britain.| of | Colonies | | Batavia,| and the |States.| Total
| | Europe. | | |& Bombay.| Pacific. | |
---------------+--------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+-------+----------------
Sugar | 146,926| 50,830 | 142,359 | -- | 12,749 | 29,144 | 77,919|459,927 peculs.
Hemp | 16,073| 5,568 | -- | -- | 544 | -- |102,184|124,367 "
Cordage | 96| 476 | 3,753 | 1,732 | 680 | 2,137 | 210| 9,084 "
Cigars | 10,319| 11,867 | 12,561 | 9,262 | 26,859 | 1,707 | 914| 73,439 mil.
Leaf Tobacco | -- | 42,629 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 42,629 quintals
Sapan-wood | 37,068| 14,436 | -- | 18,942 | 17,337 | -- | 9,015| 96,798 arrobas.
Coffee | 165| 9,670 | 1,481 | 100 | 250 | 1,072 | 2,063| 14,801 peculs
Indigo | 259| 213 | -- |uncertain| -- | -- | 3,753| 4,225 quintals
Hides | 3,340| 213 | -- | 1,069 | -- | -- | -- | 4,622 peculs.
Hide Cuttings | -- | -- | -- | 536 | -- | -- | 2,419| 2,955 "
Mother-of-pearl| | | | | | | |
Shell | 820| 338 | -- | -- | 260 | -- | 74| 1,492 "
Tortoise-shell | 2,081| 580 | -- | 555 | 1,912 | -- | 469| 5,597 catties.
Rice | -- | 6,576 | -- |uncertain| -- | 1,467 | -- |Uncertain.
Beche de Mer | -- | -- | -- | 4,348 | -- | -- | -- | 4,348 peculs.
Gold Dust | -- | -- | -- | 5,068 | -- | -- | -- | 5,068 taels.
Camagon, or | | | | | | | |
Ebony-wood | 235| 1,213 | -- | 794 | -- | -- | -- | 2,242 peculs.
Grass-cloth | 175| 13,252 | -- | 500 | -- | 650 | 22,975| 37,552 pieces.
Hats | -- | -- | 9,400 | 5,115 | 9,115 | 500 | 25,870| 50,000 hats.
---------------+--------+---------+----------+---------+---------+----------+-------+----------------

The quantity of rice and paddy shipped to China from the provinces
cannot be ascertained with any degree of exactness; what goes from
Manilla is very small, because, before arriving there, it has, by its
transport expenses, added to the price at which it is obtainable in
the districts where it is produced, which, of course, prevents its
being shipped from the capital. At a guess, however, I should suppose
that about a million cavans, each of which, one with another, weighs
about a China pecul, or 133 1/3 lbs, is an average yearly export,
should the Government not prohibit the article from being exported
for a longer period than usual, which is annually regulated by the
scarcity or abundance of food in the country.

From the preceding table, the reader will observe that the exports
of 1850, when compared with those of 1847, of which the following is
a statement, have increased in some respects, and fallen off in others.

Statement of Exports from Manilla during 1850.

---------------+--------+---------+-------+-----------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------------
| To | To the |To the | To the | To the | To | To | To |
| Great |Continent|United | Pacific |Australian| China. |Singapore.|Batavia.|
|Britain.| of |States.| and |Colonies. | | | | Total
| | Europe. | |California.| | | | |
---------------+--------+---------+-------+-----------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------------
Sugar |104,246 | 18,755 | 92,149| 4,150 | 174,777 | -- | -- | -- |394,077 peculs.
Hemp | 16,592 | 2,438 | 98,440| -- | -- | 300 | 1,888 | -- |119,658 "
Cordage | 20 | 546 | 7,038| 404 | 4,430 | 825 | 1,425 | -- | 14,688 "
Indigo | 58 | 78 | 2,166| -- | -- | 149 | 118 | -- | 2,569 quintals
Sapan-wood | 12,055 | 11,960 | 28,891| -- | 160 | 5,210 | 18,814 | 1,817 | 78,907 peculs.
Hides | 1,366 | 183 | 1,821| -- | -- | 2,389 | -- | -- | 5,759 "
Hide Cuttings | -- | -- | 1,893| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 1,893 "
Gold Dust | -- | -- | -- | 3,970 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 3,970 taels.
Coffee | -- | 9,244 | 395| -- | 4,267 | -- | -- | -- | 13,906 peculs.
Rice | 23,760 | 4,520 | -- | 300 | 772 |uncertain| 875 | -- |Uncertain.
Paddy | 1,870 | 13,978 | -- | -- | -- |uncertain| -- | -- |Ditto.
Cigars | 16,010 | 11,176 | 548 | 787 | 9,674 | 6,706 | 19,169 | 5,943 | 70,013 mil.
Leaf Tobacco | 5,440 | 115,016 | -- | -- | -- | -- | 5,280 | -- |125,733 arrobas.
Mother-of-Pearl| | | | | | | | |
Shell | 708 | 92 | -- | -- | -- | 16 | -- | -- | 816 peculs.
Grass-cloth | -- | -- | 56,171| -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 56,171 pieces.
Hats | -- | -- | 1,600| -- | 10,932 | -- | 5,560 | -- | 18,092 hats.
---------------+--------+---------+-------+-----------+----------+---------+----------+--------+----------------

The quantity of hemp shipped during the years 1848 and 1849, was
greater than the quantity indicated in either of these tables, but
as the increased export was principally caused by speculation in
the United States, the average annual export may probably not be
greater than the amount set down in the table of 1850, although,
in the previous year, about 30,000 peculs more were shipped.

Of the exports to the continent of Europe only a small proportion
goes to Spain, probably not exceeding a third part of the quantities
set down in the table for the continent.

Bremen, Hamburg, and Antwerp, are the three towns in the north
with which most business is done, and Bordeaux and Havre de Grace,
are nearly the only places to which the other exports are shipped
for Europe, exclusive of the ports of Cadiz, Malaga, and Bilboa,
in the Peninsula.

Having furnished the preceding tables of the amount of the exports
from the only outlet for foreign trade with the islands, excepting in
rice to China, as before mentioned, the reader may be able to form
some opinion of their veracity and value. And as it may be of some
service, I shall give a short sketch of each of the most important
of the articles there set down, premising it with a memorandum of the
weights and measures now in use through the islands. The pecul is equal
to 140 lbs. English, or 137 1/2 lbs. Spanish; the Spanish lb. being
two per cent. heavier than the standard British lb. The quintal is
102 lbs. English, and the arroba 25 1/2 lbs. English. The cavan is a
measure of the capacity of 5,998 cubic inches, and is subdivided into
25 quintas. The Spanish yard, or vara, is eight per cent. shorter
than the British yard, by which latter all the cotton and other
manufactures are sold by the merchants importing them, although the
shopkeepers who purchase them retail everything by the Spanish yard.

CHAPTER XXXIII.

It is not my intention, even were it in my power, which it is not,
to attempt an exact and complete description of all the productions
of the group of islands composing the Philippines, to which nature
has with no niggardly hand dispensed great territorial and maritime
wealth. And as the limits of this work prevent much expansion, I will
confine the following observations to an outline of the principal
articles produced in the country, beginning the catalogue with the
most important of them all, namely, rice.

The cultivation of paddy, or rice, here, as all over Asia, exercises
by far the greatest amount of agricultural labour, being their most
extensive article of cultivation, as it forms the usual food of the
people, and is, as the Spaniards truly call it, _El pau de los Indios_;
a good or bad crop of it, influencing them just as much as potatoes
do the Irish, or as the wheat crops do in bread-consuming countries.

In September and October, when, in consequence of the heavy previous
rains since the beginning of the wet season, the parched land is
so buried as generally about that time to present the appearance of
one vast marsh, it is ploughed lightly, after which the husbandman
transplants the grain from the nurseries in which he had previously
deposited it, in order to undergo there the first stages of vegetation.

In December, or in January, the grain is ready for the sickle, and in
general repays his cares and labour by the most abundant harvest. There
is no culture more easy and simple; nor any which gives such positive
good results in less time, as only four months pass between the times
of sowing and reaping the rice crop.

In some places the mode of reaping differs from the customs of
others. At some places they merely cut the ears from off the stalks,
which are allowed to remain on the fields to decay, and fertilize
the soil as a manure; and in other provinces the straw is all reaped,
and bound in the same way as wheat is at home, being then piled up in
ricks and stacks to dry in the sun, after which the grain is separated
by the treading of ponies, the horses of the country, upon it, or by
other means, when the grain is again cleared of another outer husk,
by being thrown into a mortar, generally formed out of the trunk of
some large tree, where the men, women, and children of the farm are
occupied in pounding it with a heavy wooden pestle, which removes the
husk, but leaves the grain still covered by a delicate skin. When
in this state it is known as pinagua; but after that is taken off,
the rice is clean.

For blowing away the chaff from the grain, they employ an implement
worked by a handle and a wheel in a box, which is very similar to
the old-fashioned fanners used in Scotland by the smaller farmers
for the same purpose.

In the neighbourhood of Manilla, there is a steam-mill for the purpose
of cleaning rice; and there are several machines worked by horse-power
throughout the country. But although there are many facilities for the
employment of water-power for the same purpose, I am not acquainted
with any mill moved on that principle.

The qualities of rice produced in the different provinces, varies a
good deal in quality. That of Ylocos is the heaviest, a cavan of it
weighing about 140 lbs. English, while Camarines rice weighs only about
132 lbs., and some of the other provinces not over 126 lbs. per cavan.

Although in all the provinces rice is grown to a considerable extent,
yet those which produce it best, and in greatest abundance, and form
what may be called granaries for the others, which are not so suitable
for that cultivation, may be considered to be Ylocos, Pangasinan,
Bulacan, Capiz, Camarines, and Antique.

It is best to ship rice in dry weather; and should it be destined
for Europe, or any other distant market, it should leave by the
fair monsoon, in order that the voyage may be as short as possible,
to ensure which, all orders for rice purchases for the European
markets should reach Manilla in December or January, as the new crop
just begins to arrive about the end of that month. It takes about
a month to clean a cargo at the steam-mill, and after March, the
fair monsoon for homeward-bound ships cannot much be depended upon;
and were the vessel to make a long passage, the cargo would probably
be excessively damaged by weevils, by which it is very frequently
attacked. Ylocos rice is considered to be the best for a long voyage,
as it keeps better than that grown in other provinces.

The price of white rice is rarely below two dollars per pecul, or
above two and a half dollars per pecul, bagged and ready for shipment.

A hundred cavans of ordinary province rice will usually produce 85
per cent. of clean white, and about 10 per cent. of broken rice,
which can be sold at about half the price of the ordinary quality:
the remaining 5 per cent. is wasted in cleaning.

Rice exported by a Spanish ship, goes free; but if exported by any
foreign ship, even when it is sent to a Spanish colony, it pays 3
1/2 per cent. export duty, and when sent to a foreign country by a
foreign ship, it pays an export duty of 4 1/2 per cent. In order to
be more explicit, it may be well to give a _pro forma_ invoice of rice.

5,000 peculs of white rice, bought ready for shipment
at the mill, at $2-1/4 per pecul $11,250 00

Charges :--

Export duty on valuation, which can generally
be managed to be got at a good deal under
the market price; say at $1-1/2 per pecul,
at 4-1/2 per cent. $337 50
Boat and coolie hire, shipping 200 00
------
537 50
----------
$11,787 50

Commission for purchasing and shipping,
&c., at 5 per cent. 589 37
----------
$12,376 87

This is about equal to its price if purchased and cleaned in another
manner; for instance:--

1,000 cavans province rice, costing, say, 10-1/2
rials per cavan, = $1,312 50

will generally produce 85 per cent. clean white
rice, fit for shipping, and 10 per cent. broken
rice, which can be sold at about 5-1/4 rials
per cavan, = 65 62

thus 150 cavans (equal to about 820 peculs) will ---------
cost $1,246 88

Add the expenses of receiving on board the native
boats, measuring there, landing, re=measuring,
cleaning, bags and bagging, averaging from about
70 to 80 cents. per pecul of cleaned rice, say at
75 cents, = 615 00
---------
$1,861 88

or equal to $2-27/100 per pecul for clean white rice, ready for
shipment.

_Sugar._--Although the cane is cultivated to a greater or less
extent throughout all the islands, there are four descriptions of
sugar well known in commerce, grown in the Philippines, and these
come respectively from the districts of Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cebu,
and Saal, after which districts they are named; and the growth of
other places producing similar sugars to any of these descriptions,
usually passes under one of these names in the market, although Yloylo
is sometimes, though rarely, distinguished as a separate quality. The
mills employed for expressing the juice from the cane are nearly all
of stone; and firewood is usually employed to boil the sugar; for
although they have for some years introduced the plan of employing
the refuse of the cane for that purpose, it is not yet very general.

A large quantity of the Muscovado sugar made in the country, resembling
the descriptions produced in the provinces of Pampanga and Pangasinan,
is brought to Manilla for sale, in large conical earthern jars, called
_pilones_, each of which weighs a pecul. The Chinese or Mestizos who
are engaged in the purifying of sugar are the purchasers of these lots,
and most of them are in the habit of sending an agent through the
country, with orders to buy up as much of such sugar as they require
to keep their establishments at work. They are in the habit of paying
these travellers a rial, which at Manilla is the eighth part of a
dollar, for every pilone he purchases on their account at the limits
they give him. When enough has been collected in one neighbourhood
to load a casco or other province boat, it is despatched to their
camarine at Manilla, where after being taken from the original pilone,
if it has come from Pampanga, it is mixed up together, and placed in
another one, with an opening at the conical part, which is placed over
a jar into which the molasses distilling from it gradually drop, when
the colour of the sugar from being brown becomes of a greyish tinge.

At the top of the pilone, so placed with the cone turned down, a
layer of clay is spread over the sugar, as it has the property of
attracting all the impurities to itself; so that the parts of the
sugar in the pilone next to the clay are certain to be of the whitest
and best colour, whilst the sugar at the bottom, or next the opening
of the cone, is the darkest and most valueless, until it has had its
turn of the clay; for when the Chinamen perceive that the top part of
the sugar in the pilone or earthen jar has attained a certain degree
of whiteness, they separate the white from the darker coloured, and
the greyish tinged sugar from the dark brown coloured portion at the
foot of the jar; and after exposing the white and greyish coloured
to the sun, they are packed up, while the dark brown portion, after
being mixed with that of a similar colour, is again consigned to the
pilone to be clayed.

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