galleon trade – Morrighan's Muse

If you happen to have many colonies under your control, it can be quite an expensive habit to maintain. And when it came to the Philippines, it proved to be a drain on Spain’s treasury. Expenses incurred in the colony were usually paid via an annual subsidy sent from Mexico, another of Spain’s colonies.

But with each year’s maintenance proving to be more expensive than the year before, the Spanish government had to come up with a plan. So Francisco Leandro de Vianna, royal fiscal in Manila, came up with a tobacco monopoly.

Tobacco was already widely consumed by both the Spaniards and the indios, as well as foreigners in Manila, and though it would take some time before King Carlos III would issue a royal decree to set the plan in motion (when later on, Governor General Basco claimed that such a monopoly would make the colony self-sufficient), when he did, the tobacco monopoly was born on February 9, 1780.

By this decree a monopoly was created which remained in operation for a hundred years. This monopoly strictly supervised the growing and grading of the leaf and had factories in Manila for the manufacture of cigars, cigarettes and smoking tobacco . In the field the chief appraiser residing at the provincial capital had a force of subordinates known as “alumnos aforadores”. These were in charge of districts composed of municipalities and in each municipality there was a “caudilo” (headman) who was also the “gobernadorcillo” (little governor) who by the aid of his ” tenientes ” (lieutenants or overseers), supervised the growing of tobacco being remunerated for this service by a percentage of the crop produced.

via Tobacco Monopoly – Wikipilipinas: The Hip ‘n Free Philippine Encyclopedia.

Though slavery did not exist in the Philippine islands under Spanish rule (there could have been exceptions, of course), this did not prevent the mistreatment of tobacco workers. And of course, a lot of bribery and harassment, from the tobacco fields all the way to the cigar factories in Manila.

“Tobacco is an important crop in the Philippines, and from the year 1781 was cultivated in Cagayan as a government monopoly. In the villages of that province the people were called out by beat of drum and marched to the fields under the gobernadorcillo and principales, who were responsible for the careful ploughing, planting, weeding, and tending, the work being overlooked by Spanish officials. Premiums were paid to these and to the gobernadorcillos, and fines or floggings were administered in default. The native officials carried canes, which they freely applied to those who shirked their work.

“…I have referred to the series of abuses committed under the monopoly: how the wretched cultivators had to bribe the officials in charge of the scales to allow them the true weight, and the one who classified the leaves, so that he should not reject them as rubbish and order them to be destroyed; in fact, they had to tip every official in whose power it was to do them any injustice. Finally, they received orders on the treasury for the value of their tobacco, which were not paid for months, or, perhaps, for years. They sometimes had to sell their orders for 50 percent of the face value, or even less.

However, even the Spanish official conscience can be aroused, and at the end of 1882 the monopoly was abolished.

Here it is only right to honourably mention a Spanish gentleman to whom the natives of the Cagayan Valley in a great measure owe their freedom. Don Jose Jimenez Agius was Intendente General de Hacienda, and he laboured for years to bring about this reform, impressed with the cruelty and injustice of this worst form of slavery. The Cagayanes were prohibited from growing rice, but were allowed as an indulgence to plant a row or two of maize around their carefully tilled tobacco-fields.

Possibly this circumstance has led the author of the circular I have before quoted to make the extraordinary statement: “Tobacco, as a cultivated crop, is generally grown in the same field as maize.” Does he think it grows wild anywhere?

via The Inhabitants of the Philippines, by John Foreman, 1910

The tobacco monopoly was abolished in June 1881, at around the same time when Filipinos were thirsting for independence from Spanish rule. Smoking is believed to have helped fuel the fight for independence. According to historical documents, among the expenses by the First Philippine Republic in the late 1890’s were cigarillos distributed to the soldiers of the budding “Philippine Army.”

Compaña General de Tabacos de Filipinas, better known as Tabacalera today, was founded in 1881, just before the abolition of the monopoly took effect the following year. It was founded by the Marquis of Comillas, Antonio Lopez y Lopez.

But before I conclude my post for letter “T” in the A to Z challenge, here’s one more little tidbit about tobacco in the islands.

Filipinos, it turns out, smoked like it was going out of style. In those days, even children as young as 2 or 3 years old smoked these huge cigars. And they were H-U-G-E. When I started this blog, one of my first posts was on a newspaper article about an “embarrassing use of an instrument of hospitality.”

It was not unusual to have a “family cigar” hanging on a string from the ceiling and this would be lit and passed around from one family member to another, then to you, their lucky guest. You, as the guest, would be offending the host if you said, “no, thank you.”

Here are a few pictures from Old Manila for your ~~smoking~~ viewing pleasure.

Smoking the Family Cigar in Northern Philippines

Blogging A to Z Challenge

Picture if you will, a four-deck, 100-gun, 2,500-ton vessel crossing the Pacific loaded with treasure and not making landfall for six months. Picture it as short and broad—with high fore and stern castles—carrying so much silver and gold, it draws 40 feet of water while skirting coral reefs 30 feet deep. It’s no wonder that close to 100 of them sank from 1570 to 1815, leaving a trail of treasure across the globe, while enhancing the image of adventure on the high seas aboard the MANILA GALLEONS. – See more at: http://www.numa.net/2012/07/the-manila-galleons-treasures-for-the-queen-of-the-orient/#sthash.6RhutZwd.dpuf

– Via The Manila Galleons: Treasures for the “Queen of the Orient”

Before the Spaniards colonized the Philippines in the 16th century, Manila already had trade relations between China, Japan, India, Siam, Cambodia, Borneo and the Moluccas. After the Spaniards claimed the Philippine islands for the the crown, it soon became a highly profitable port as Spain maintained trade relations with the same countries.

When Andres de Urdaneta discovered a return trade route from the Acapulco-New Spain (present-day Mexico) which avoided the much-feared trade winds, the Galleon Trade was born. The Spaniards brought silver from Mexico, which was then used to purchase Asian goods such as silk from China, spices from the Moluccas, lacquer ware from Japan and Philippine cotton textiles. It is estimated that as much as one-third of the silver mined in New Spain and Peru went to the Far East.

The annual voyage generally began in July, and involved transporting between 500 and 1,500 tons of silver between Acapulco and Manila. The transpacific voyage lasted on average about five months from the Philippines to Mexico and four months from Mexico to the Philippines. There is a good possibility one or more of the Spanish galleons made contact with the Hawaiian Islands during the 16th and/or 17th centuries long before the English explorer Captain James Cook “discovered” them in 1778.

In the Philippine archipelago, the galleons had to avoid Chinese, Japanese and Malayan pirates, as well as the Dutch and English pirates that waited for them in the open waters. In the early 1600s, the Dutch attempted to take this valuable transpacific route away from the Spanish, but were unsuccessful.

via Exploration and Colonization « TranspacificProject.com.

According to Dennis O. Flynn and Arturo Giráldez, in their article, “Born with a Silver Spoon”: The Origin of World Trade in 1571,” Journal of World History 6 (1995):201, “Manila had no other purpose other than the trade in silver and silk…The Pacific route of silver to China was Spain’s only avenue for entry into the lucrative Asian marketplace because the trade out of Europe in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was controlled first by the Portugues and later by the Dutch. Spain’s Manila galleons initiated the birth of Pacific rim trade more than 420 years ago.”

Eventually Spain would close off all trading relations with other countries except Mexico, establishing a government monopoly that involved ships that would sail one or two times a year between Manila and Acapulco until the Mexican War of Independence put an end to the Galleon Trade.

Due to the route’s high profitability but long voyage time, it was essential to build the largest possible galleons, which were the largest class of ships known to have been built. In the 16th century, they averaged from 1,700 to 2,000 tons, were built of Philippine hardwoods and could carry a thousand passengers. The Concepción, wrecked in 1638, was 43 to 49 m (140–160 feet) long and displacing some 2,000 tons. The Santísima Trinidad was 51.5 m long. Most of the ships were built in the Philippines and only eight in Mexico. The Manila-Acapulco galleon trade ended in 1815, a few years before Mexico gained independence from Spain in 1821. After this, the Spanish Crown took direct control of the Philippines, and was governed directly from Madrid. This became manageable in the mid-19th century upon the invention of steam power ships and the opening of the Suez Canal, which reduced the travel time from Spain to the Philippines to 40 days.

– Via Manila Galleon, Wikipedia

In 1887, many items brought over by the Galleon trade were exhibited at the Madrid expo.

Between both countries, more than just goods and spices were traded between its peoples. Many of the Spaniards in the local government, the military, the Church and the merchants were either in Mexico or had lived there for a few years before settling in the Philippines.

Along with loads of silver, the galleons also brought supplies from America, such as horses, books and new kinds of plants and foods. Fruits and vegetables are probably the largest contributors of Latin American words to the Filipino vocabulary. It is estimated that there are about 250 Nahuatl words in the Filipino language.

Some Latin American foods became so popular that their Nahuatl names have entered languages around the world – xocolatl (chocolate), xitomatl (tomato), potatl (potato), ahuacamolli (guacamole) and mizquitl (mesquite). Even the name of the popular American chewing gum, Chiclets, is rooted in the Nahuatl word tzictli, which means “sticky”. And of course, corn or mais and tobacco were originally grown in the Americas. Their names can be traced back to the Arawak people of the Caribbean. Other fruits and vegetables such as the pineapple, the peanut, papaya, lima beans, cassava, chico/zapote and balimbing came from Central and South America, too.

Many traditional Filipino melodies and dances such as La Paloma and Sandunga Mia also originated in Mexico.

via Mexico is not just a town in Pampanga.

The galleon trade saw its demise when Mexico gained its independence and in 1834, free trade was formally recognized. With its excellent harbor, Manila became an open port for Asian, European, and North American traders. In 1873 additional ports were opened to foreign commerce, and by the late nineteenth century, three crops—tobacco, abaca, and sugar—dominated Philippine exports.

The ivory heads of Mary and Joseph were among the numerous such parts imported to America via the Manila Galleon trade. The style of the figures' polychromy, however, reveals that they were set into their wooden bodies in Ecuador. Artists there practiced a distinctive technique to embellish the garments of their sculptures, applying gold patterns over the colored backgrounds rather than scratching them through, as in true estofado. — The ivory heads of Mary and Joseph were among the numerous such parts imported to America via the Manila Galleon trade. The style of the figures’ polychromy, however, reveals that they were set into their wooden bodies in Ecuador. Artists there practiced a distinctive technique to embellish the garments of their sculptures, applying gold patterns over the colored backgrounds rather than scratching them through, as in true estofado.

These days, maritime archaeologists study the underwater wrecks of the many galleons that sank along the Galleon trade route, often complete with all their treasures. You can learn more about the ancient trade routes from maritime archaeologist Frank Goddio here, and view pictures and even videos of their efforts to catalog their underwater findings.

Blogging A to Z Challenge