1“All the New World was subjected to the alcavala. This is a tax levied only upon whatever is sold at wholesale, and does not extend to the articles for daily consumption; it is derived originally from the Moors. The Spaniards adopted it in 1341, and established it at the rate of five per cent. It was finally placed at ten, and forced up even to fourteen per cent; but in 1750 arrangements were made which brought the rate back to what it was at first. Philip II, after the disastrous end of that fleet so well known under the pompous title of ‘invincible,’ in 1591 resolved, on account of his needs, to exact this aid from all his possessions in America. At the outset, it was only two per cent; in 1627, it rose to four.” (Raynal,Histoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens, ii, p. 310.)↑2The italics in this and a few other sentences are the same as in the printed text of theExtracto.↑3“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 theobras 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 hisLibertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas(Madrid, 1872), pp. 39–96. Malo de Luque outlines the subject briefly in hisEstablecimientos ultramarinos, v, pp. 217–234.↑4“Although the silks which Spain furnishes are in general very choice, those of Valencia are far superior [to the rest]; and both are suitable for all uses. Their only defect is that they are a little too oily, which causes much difficulty in dyeing them.” “The diversity of silks which Europe produces has not enabled us to dispense with that from China. Although in general it may be of heavy quality and uneven staple, it will always be in demand for its whiteness.” “The whiteness of the Chinese silk, to which nothing else can be compared, renders it the only suitable kind for the manufacture of blondes and gauzes. The efforts that have been made to substitute our silks for it in the manufacture of blondes have always been fruitless, although not only dressed but undressed silks have been tried for this purpose; but the results have been somewhat less unsatisfactory in regard to gauzes.”“In the last century, the Europeans brought from China very little [raw] silk; ours was sufficiently good for the black or colored gauzes, and for the catgut gauzes [marlis] which then were worn. The taste which has prevailed during the last forty years (and more generally during the last twenty-five) for white gauzes and for blondes has gradually increased the consumption of this Oriental product; the amount of this rose in modern times to eighty thousand pounds a year, of which France always used nearly three-fourths; and this importation has so greatly increased that in 1766 the English alone took a hundred and four thousand-weight of it. As the gauzes and blondes could not consume that amount, the manufacturers used part of it in making watered silks [moires] and hose.... Besides this silk of unique whiteness—which is chiefly produced in the province of Tche-Kiang, and which we know in Europe under the name of Nankin silk, from the place, where it is especially made—China produces ordinary silks, which we call Canton silks. As these are suitable for only the wefts of some silk fabrics, and are as expensive as those of Europe which serve for the same uses, very little of them is imported; and what the English and Dutch carry away of this Canton silk does not exceed five or six thousand-weight.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, pp. 660–662.)“The Chinese are no less skilful in working up their silks than in producing them; but this praise ought not to extend to those of their stuffs in which gold and silver are woven. Their manufacturers have never known how to draw these metals into thread, and their ingenuity is always confined to rolling their silks in gilded papers, or in pasting [appliquer] the stuffs to those same papers; both methods are equally faulty.” (Raynal,Étab. et com. des Européens, i, p. 662.)↑5At the end of the atlas volume of Raynal’sHistoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens(ed. of 1780, Geneva) are various supplementary sheets, containing tabulated summaries of the kinds and amounts of trade carried on by the leading European nations with their colonial possessions, chiefly those of America; from some of these we abstract items of interest which have some relation to the scope of our work. The first of these shows the amount and value of the commerce of the Company of Holland in the East Indies from 1720 to 1729 inclusive. In these ten years they sent out an average of 37 or 38 ships each year, manned by about 7,000 men; of these, 30 returned to Europe. The merchandise sold by the company amounted, in round numbers, to an average of 18,859,000 florins yearly, and the dividends distributed among the partners to 23⅗ per cent (ranging, in different years, from 12½ to 40 per cent); the amount of money sent to the Cape of Good Hope and to the Asian Islands averaged 6,560,000 florins. The average sales of spices yearly were as follows: Pepper, 4,500,000 pounds, at 11 sols, 2,475,000 florins; cinnamon, 400,000 pounds, at 5¾ florins, 2,300,000 florins; cloves, 400,000 pounds, at 4¼ florins, 1,700,000 florins; nutmegs, 250,000 pounds, at 3¾ florins, 937,500 florins; mace, 90,000 pounds, at 6½ florins, 585,000 florins—a total of 7,997,500 florins. The original capital of the Dutch East India Company was 6,459,840 florins; about 57 per cent of this was held in Amsterdam, and about 21 per cent in the province of Zeeland. The number of shares was 2,153, each of 3,000 florins. During the period 1605 to 1777, the dividends annually distributed ranged usually from 12½ to 40 per cent; in the following years they exceeded the latter rate—being in 1606, 75 per cent; in 1610, 50; in 1612, 57½; in 1615, 42½; in 1616, 62½; in 1671, 45 and 15. During 1771–77, they were uniformly 12½ per cent. These were paid usually in money; sometimes, in the earlier years, in cloves; and, in 1673, 1679, and 1697, in bonds or in contracts. In the period 1723–74, the prices of shares ranged from 788 per cent (in 1733) to 314 (in 1771).Another table shows similar figures for the years 1679 to 1774—apparently for the new organization of the company in 1674. The capital is stated at 8,071,135 florins; there were 1,345 shares, of 6,000 florins each. The dividends, during the above period, ranged from 10 per cent to nothing, the yearly average being 1–21/32 per cent; neither these figures nor the prices of shares agree with those of the first table, but the reason for the discrepancy is not obvious.↑6In 1731 and 1733 Sevilla and Cadiz “both imagined (and it is rather surprising that this had not been sooner evident) that it would be an advantage to Spain to take part directly in the commerce of Asia, and that the possessions which it had in that part of the world would be the center of the operations which it would conduct there. In vain was the objection made against them that, as India furnished silk and cotton fabrics that were superior to those of Europe in their finish, in their colors, and (above all) in their cheapness, the national manufacturers could not support competition with those goods, and would infallibly be ruined. This objection, which might have some weight among certain peoples, seemed to them utterly frivolous, in the position in which their country stood. As a fact, the Spaniards use for both their clothing and their furniture foreign stuffs and cloths; and these continual needs necessarily increase the industry, the wealth, the population, and the strength of their neighbors—who misuse these advantages, in order to keep in dependence the very nation which obtains these for them. Would not Spain behave with more wisdom and dignity if she would adopt the manufactures of the Indias? Resides the economy and satisfaction which she would find therein, she would succeed in diminishing a preponderance [of other nations] of which she will be, sooner or later, the victim.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, p. 606.)↑7“The settlements, commerce, and conquests of the English in the East Indies” are related by Raynal in hisÉtablissemens et commerce des Europeens, i, pp. 261–398. The English East India Company was founded in 1600, and made a promising beginning in the Oriental trade; but the opposition of the Dutch and Portuguese, already intrenched therein, was so great and persistent that the English company—which was compelled to encounter also, in turn, competition from other English traders, hindrances arising from the duplicity and avarice of Charles II of England, losses arising from the civil war in that country, hostilities (originating from the greed and treachery of one of the company’s own directors) with the Mogul emperor Aurungzebe, and the capture ofmanyEnglish trading vessels by French privateers—was several times almost ruined, and all English commercial prestige in the East was greatly injured. Finally, in 1702, the two rival East India companies in England united their funds and enterprises, and thereafter the affairs of the new organization prospered, in the main; and in 1763 the French were driven out of Asia, leaving the English masters of both political and commercial interests in India. In 1774 the latter drove out the Mahrattas from Salsette Island, and founded Bombay, which, although at first an insalubrious locality, on account of its fine harbor soon became the emporium of English commerce and center of that nation’s power.↑8Formerly thefardowas 1⅓ varas long, ¾ vara high, and ¾ vara less onepulgada(nearly one English inch) wide; but for a long time previous to 1726 the bale of this size had not been used, because it became necessary to break it open at Acapulco, in order to transfer the goods from the ship to the land, and it was replaced by the half-bale and half-chest, in order not to break open the package before selling it or transporting it across the country. These smaller packages were then called “bales” and “chests” (fardosandcaxones); their dimensions are given in the decree of 1726 (fol. 118 verso ofExtracto, orVOL.XLIV,ante, p. 311). This information appears in the informatory report furnished by Gabriel Guerrero de Ardila, accountant of the bureau of accounts in Mexico, to the viceroy, on March 6, 1730. (Extracto historial, fol. 193 verso, 194.)↑9Perhaps alluding to the Ribera (i.e., “shore”) or navy-yard of Cavite—that is, the standard of measure used in shipbuilding and other industries there.↑10“With this, it may be said, finally came to an end the celebrated controversies which so persistently and for so long a time were waged by the merchants of Cadiz against the commerce of Filipinas, the standard of the [permission of] 500,000 dollars [duros] remaining permanent until the emancipation of the Americas [from Spanish rule] put an end to that traffic. It had the same effect on all the restrictions which for the space of almost three centuries had weighed down the Filipino commerce—for even in the year 1810 (as Comyn tells us in hisEstado de las islas Filipinas, speaking of the Acapulco galleon) only one ship, commanded by an officer of the navy, could make these expeditions, once a year; and in order to share in that commerce a merchant must have a vote in the consulate, which presupposed property to the amount of 8,000 dollars and several years of residence in the country. He was [also] obliged to contribute, in the same proportion as the other shippers, to the allowance of 15,000 or 20,000 dollars made to the commandant of the galleon, besides paying 25 to 40 per cent for freight charges, according to circumstances. [Meanwhile,] the shippers were not able to make any examination of the condition of the ships in which they risked a great part of their fortunes; and there were many other impediments, which now we would suppose could not possibly have ever existed, if we were not so habituated to stupid proceedings of this sort.” (Azcarraga y Palmero,Libertad de comercio, pp. 64, 65.)When the galleon of Acapulco ceased its voyages—the last one sailed from Manila in 1811, and returned from Acapulco in 1815—the commerce fell into the hands of individuals, to whom in 1820 permission was granted to export merchandise from Filipinas to the value of 750,000 pesos a year; and their voyages were extended from Acapulco to San Blas, Guayaquil, and Callao. (Montero y Vidal,Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 462, note.)See Raynal’s account of the policy pursued in the New World by Spain, its results on both that country and the colonies, and the elements of weakness in it, inEtab. et com. des Européens, ii, pp. 290–356.↑11Spanishcomercio, a word which has numerous meanings, according to the context; here evidently meaning a chamber of commerce, or an executive committee to look after the interests of the shippers.↑12At the outset, Pintado makes some statements to the effect that the Council of the Indias had taken the action which led to the decree of 1734, without consulting Cadiz, and had made certain inquiries and consultations with the Manila deputies alone. A marginal note by Abreu corrects this, saying, “Not only with the deputies; for the fiscal of the Council was heard [on the subject], who is impartial between the two commercial bodies.”↑13The Manila deputies, however, claimed that the decree of 1726 did not reach the islands until 1730, so that it was first put into practice in that year, the five years’ term, therefore, including the shipment of 1734. (Extracto, fol. 150, 185 and verso, 190 verso.)↑14One of the tables at the end of Raynal’s atlas volume gives an itemized list of the cargoes carried by the “last eight Spanish trading-fleets to Vera Cruz”—that is, the last eight preceding Raynal’s work. Their cargoes were of the following amounts: in 1733 (under command of Torrez), 618,595 cubic palmos; 1735 (Pintado’s), 620,000; 1757 (Villena’s), 618,557; 1760 (Reggio’s), 841,717; 1765 (Idiaques’s), 486,943; 1768 (Tilly’s), 452,282; 1772 (Cordova’s), 914,807; 1776 (Ulloa’s), 934,366. But one of these fleets carried cinnamon, that of 1735; and cloves appear only in the trifling amount of 50 quintals, in 1768. The chief articles enumerated—which appear in every year’s list—are paper, wax, iron, steel; brandy, wine, and oil; and unbleached stuffs [linens?] from Brabant. Quicksilver was carried in only 1765 and 1768, 7,506 and 8,000 quintals respectively. Wrought iron was sent in five of these shipments, but in no considerable quantity except in 1765, when also was sent 2,724 barrels of tin-plate (in other cargoes, in but trifling amounts). Silk ribbons made a solitary appearance in 1757, to the extent of 1,000 pieces—as did 1,000 “swords to be mounted with hilts,” in 1765. The last two fleets carried consignments of gun-flints, respectively 650 and 386 thousand-weight.It is evident, however, from another table (which follows the above), that Spanish commerce had much activity outside the trading-fleets; this shows the amounts of “merchandise which left the ports of Spain each year from 1748 to 1753 for its colonies on the continent of America; duties which they have paid; their current value in the New World; expenses which they have borne; their net product for the metropolis [i.e., Cadiz].” Of these goods, the only one monopolized by the crown was quicksilver, to the amount of 3,600,000 livres’ worth. The greater part of this merchandise consisted of cloth and stuffs, of silk, linen, and wool; there was a considerable amount of iron, paper, wax, brandy, wine, and oil; and to Nueva España was sent 1,000,000 livres’ worth of cinnamon, and to Caracas 10,000 barrels of flour. Of the goods sent to Nueva España (not counting the quicksilver), 6,367,297 livres’ worth were of Spanish production, and 14,401,815 of foreign. The import duties levied on the latter at Cadiz amounted to 1,185,343 livres, and the export duties on both Spanish and foreign to 1,245,059; and admiralty and avería duties besides came to 419,623. The goods on board, then, cost 23,619,137 livres, to which must be added the following charges: transportation to America, 3,617,623; import duties and alcavala in America, 4,327,473; commissions on sales and return freight, 3,231,296—a total of 34,795,529 livres. The value of this merchandise in America was arbitrated at 43,274,787 livres; deducting the above costs, a profit of 8,479,258 livres remains from the merchandise sent from Spain to Nueva España. On the return voyage, the main part of the cargoes was in gold and silver—6,480,000 livres’ worth for the king, and 37,716,047 for the merchants; the crown monopolized copper and cacao, 259,200 and 12,960 respectively; the cochineal was worth 6,426,000 livres, and the indigo 4,160,160; and various drugs, dyes, etc. made with these a total of 56,216,533 livres (all these values being those estimated in America). To this cost must be added freight charges, 1,491,543 livres; and various duties to the crown (including customs, admiralty, church, etc., the largest being for “indult and coast-guards”), amounting to 6,428,987. Consequently, when the ships arrived at Cadiz the value of the gold and silver had been reduced to 5,625,607 livres for the king, and 32,775,345 for the merchants; while the cost of the other commodities had increased from 12,020,486 livres to 14,145,922. The current value in Europe of these goods (not including the gold and silver) was 18,465,419 livres, a gain over the entire cost of 4,319,497 livres (30½ per cent)—of which 124,527 belonged to the king, and the remainder to the merchants, as the net proceeds on the commerce between Spain and Nueva España, outside of the precious metals, in both the outward and return voyages each year.↑15Churlo(orchurla; from the Latinculeo, ablative ofculeus): a sack made ofpita(i.e., agave) fiber-cloth, covered with another sack of leather, for carrying cinnamon and other articles from one region to another without losing their strength (Echegaray).↑16Palmeo: measure by palmos; evidently referring to the usual estimate of lading-space in a ship by cubic palmos.↑17That is, the spice trade with Nueva España, offered by Cadiz to Manila as an equivalent for the latter’s traffic in Chinese silks.↑
1“All the New World was subjected to the alcavala. This is a tax levied only upon whatever is sold at wholesale, and does not extend to the articles for daily consumption; it is derived originally from the Moors. The Spaniards adopted it in 1341, and established it at the rate of five per cent. It was finally placed at ten, and forced up even to fourteen per cent; but in 1750 arrangements were made which brought the rate back to what it was at first. Philip II, after the disastrous end of that fleet so well known under the pompous title of ‘invincible,’ in 1591 resolved, on account of his needs, to exact this aid from all his possessions in America. At the outset, it was only two per cent; in 1627, it rose to four.” (Raynal,Histoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens, ii, p. 310.)↑2The italics in this and a few other sentences are the same as in the printed text of theExtracto.↑3“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 theobras 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 hisLibertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas(Madrid, 1872), pp. 39–96. Malo de Luque outlines the subject briefly in hisEstablecimientos ultramarinos, v, pp. 217–234.↑4“Although the silks which Spain furnishes are in general very choice, those of Valencia are far superior [to the rest]; and both are suitable for all uses. Their only defect is that they are a little too oily, which causes much difficulty in dyeing them.” “The diversity of silks which Europe produces has not enabled us to dispense with that from China. Although in general it may be of heavy quality and uneven staple, it will always be in demand for its whiteness.” “The whiteness of the Chinese silk, to which nothing else can be compared, renders it the only suitable kind for the manufacture of blondes and gauzes. The efforts that have been made to substitute our silks for it in the manufacture of blondes have always been fruitless, although not only dressed but undressed silks have been tried for this purpose; but the results have been somewhat less unsatisfactory in regard to gauzes.”“In the last century, the Europeans brought from China very little [raw] silk; ours was sufficiently good for the black or colored gauzes, and for the catgut gauzes [marlis] which then were worn. The taste which has prevailed during the last forty years (and more generally during the last twenty-five) for white gauzes and for blondes has gradually increased the consumption of this Oriental product; the amount of this rose in modern times to eighty thousand pounds a year, of which France always used nearly three-fourths; and this importation has so greatly increased that in 1766 the English alone took a hundred and four thousand-weight of it. As the gauzes and blondes could not consume that amount, the manufacturers used part of it in making watered silks [moires] and hose.... Besides this silk of unique whiteness—which is chiefly produced in the province of Tche-Kiang, and which we know in Europe under the name of Nankin silk, from the place, where it is especially made—China produces ordinary silks, which we call Canton silks. As these are suitable for only the wefts of some silk fabrics, and are as expensive as those of Europe which serve for the same uses, very little of them is imported; and what the English and Dutch carry away of this Canton silk does not exceed five or six thousand-weight.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, pp. 660–662.)“The Chinese are no less skilful in working up their silks than in producing them; but this praise ought not to extend to those of their stuffs in which gold and silver are woven. Their manufacturers have never known how to draw these metals into thread, and their ingenuity is always confined to rolling their silks in gilded papers, or in pasting [appliquer] the stuffs to those same papers; both methods are equally faulty.” (Raynal,Étab. et com. des Européens, i, p. 662.)↑5At the end of the atlas volume of Raynal’sHistoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens(ed. of 1780, Geneva) are various supplementary sheets, containing tabulated summaries of the kinds and amounts of trade carried on by the leading European nations with their colonial possessions, chiefly those of America; from some of these we abstract items of interest which have some relation to the scope of our work. The first of these shows the amount and value of the commerce of the Company of Holland in the East Indies from 1720 to 1729 inclusive. In these ten years they sent out an average of 37 or 38 ships each year, manned by about 7,000 men; of these, 30 returned to Europe. The merchandise sold by the company amounted, in round numbers, to an average of 18,859,000 florins yearly, and the dividends distributed among the partners to 23⅗ per cent (ranging, in different years, from 12½ to 40 per cent); the amount of money sent to the Cape of Good Hope and to the Asian Islands averaged 6,560,000 florins. The average sales of spices yearly were as follows: Pepper, 4,500,000 pounds, at 11 sols, 2,475,000 florins; cinnamon, 400,000 pounds, at 5¾ florins, 2,300,000 florins; cloves, 400,000 pounds, at 4¼ florins, 1,700,000 florins; nutmegs, 250,000 pounds, at 3¾ florins, 937,500 florins; mace, 90,000 pounds, at 6½ florins, 585,000 florins—a total of 7,997,500 florins. The original capital of the Dutch East India Company was 6,459,840 florins; about 57 per cent of this was held in Amsterdam, and about 21 per cent in the province of Zeeland. The number of shares was 2,153, each of 3,000 florins. During the period 1605 to 1777, the dividends annually distributed ranged usually from 12½ to 40 per cent; in the following years they exceeded the latter rate—being in 1606, 75 per cent; in 1610, 50; in 1612, 57½; in 1615, 42½; in 1616, 62½; in 1671, 45 and 15. During 1771–77, they were uniformly 12½ per cent. These were paid usually in money; sometimes, in the earlier years, in cloves; and, in 1673, 1679, and 1697, in bonds or in contracts. In the period 1723–74, the prices of shares ranged from 788 per cent (in 1733) to 314 (in 1771).Another table shows similar figures for the years 1679 to 1774—apparently for the new organization of the company in 1674. The capital is stated at 8,071,135 florins; there were 1,345 shares, of 6,000 florins each. The dividends, during the above period, ranged from 10 per cent to nothing, the yearly average being 1–21/32 per cent; neither these figures nor the prices of shares agree with those of the first table, but the reason for the discrepancy is not obvious.↑6In 1731 and 1733 Sevilla and Cadiz “both imagined (and it is rather surprising that this had not been sooner evident) that it would be an advantage to Spain to take part directly in the commerce of Asia, and that the possessions which it had in that part of the world would be the center of the operations which it would conduct there. In vain was the objection made against them that, as India furnished silk and cotton fabrics that were superior to those of Europe in their finish, in their colors, and (above all) in their cheapness, the national manufacturers could not support competition with those goods, and would infallibly be ruined. This objection, which might have some weight among certain peoples, seemed to them utterly frivolous, in the position in which their country stood. As a fact, the Spaniards use for both their clothing and their furniture foreign stuffs and cloths; and these continual needs necessarily increase the industry, the wealth, the population, and the strength of their neighbors—who misuse these advantages, in order to keep in dependence the very nation which obtains these for them. Would not Spain behave with more wisdom and dignity if she would adopt the manufactures of the Indias? Resides the economy and satisfaction which she would find therein, she would succeed in diminishing a preponderance [of other nations] of which she will be, sooner or later, the victim.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, p. 606.)↑7“The settlements, commerce, and conquests of the English in the East Indies” are related by Raynal in hisÉtablissemens et commerce des Europeens, i, pp. 261–398. The English East India Company was founded in 1600, and made a promising beginning in the Oriental trade; but the opposition of the Dutch and Portuguese, already intrenched therein, was so great and persistent that the English company—which was compelled to encounter also, in turn, competition from other English traders, hindrances arising from the duplicity and avarice of Charles II of England, losses arising from the civil war in that country, hostilities (originating from the greed and treachery of one of the company’s own directors) with the Mogul emperor Aurungzebe, and the capture ofmanyEnglish trading vessels by French privateers—was several times almost ruined, and all English commercial prestige in the East was greatly injured. Finally, in 1702, the two rival East India companies in England united their funds and enterprises, and thereafter the affairs of the new organization prospered, in the main; and in 1763 the French were driven out of Asia, leaving the English masters of both political and commercial interests in India. In 1774 the latter drove out the Mahrattas from Salsette Island, and founded Bombay, which, although at first an insalubrious locality, on account of its fine harbor soon became the emporium of English commerce and center of that nation’s power.↑8Formerly thefardowas 1⅓ varas long, ¾ vara high, and ¾ vara less onepulgada(nearly one English inch) wide; but for a long time previous to 1726 the bale of this size had not been used, because it became necessary to break it open at Acapulco, in order to transfer the goods from the ship to the land, and it was replaced by the half-bale and half-chest, in order not to break open the package before selling it or transporting it across the country. These smaller packages were then called “bales” and “chests” (fardosandcaxones); their dimensions are given in the decree of 1726 (fol. 118 verso ofExtracto, orVOL.XLIV,ante, p. 311). This information appears in the informatory report furnished by Gabriel Guerrero de Ardila, accountant of the bureau of accounts in Mexico, to the viceroy, on March 6, 1730. (Extracto historial, fol. 193 verso, 194.)↑9Perhaps alluding to the Ribera (i.e., “shore”) or navy-yard of Cavite—that is, the standard of measure used in shipbuilding and other industries there.↑10“With this, it may be said, finally came to an end the celebrated controversies which so persistently and for so long a time were waged by the merchants of Cadiz against the commerce of Filipinas, the standard of the [permission of] 500,000 dollars [duros] remaining permanent until the emancipation of the Americas [from Spanish rule] put an end to that traffic. It had the same effect on all the restrictions which for the space of almost three centuries had weighed down the Filipino commerce—for even in the year 1810 (as Comyn tells us in hisEstado de las islas Filipinas, speaking of the Acapulco galleon) only one ship, commanded by an officer of the navy, could make these expeditions, once a year; and in order to share in that commerce a merchant must have a vote in the consulate, which presupposed property to the amount of 8,000 dollars and several years of residence in the country. He was [also] obliged to contribute, in the same proportion as the other shippers, to the allowance of 15,000 or 20,000 dollars made to the commandant of the galleon, besides paying 25 to 40 per cent for freight charges, according to circumstances. [Meanwhile,] the shippers were not able to make any examination of the condition of the ships in which they risked a great part of their fortunes; and there were many other impediments, which now we would suppose could not possibly have ever existed, if we were not so habituated to stupid proceedings of this sort.” (Azcarraga y Palmero,Libertad de comercio, pp. 64, 65.)When the galleon of Acapulco ceased its voyages—the last one sailed from Manila in 1811, and returned from Acapulco in 1815—the commerce fell into the hands of individuals, to whom in 1820 permission was granted to export merchandise from Filipinas to the value of 750,000 pesos a year; and their voyages were extended from Acapulco to San Blas, Guayaquil, and Callao. (Montero y Vidal,Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 462, note.)See Raynal’s account of the policy pursued in the New World by Spain, its results on both that country and the colonies, and the elements of weakness in it, inEtab. et com. des Européens, ii, pp. 290–356.↑11Spanishcomercio, a word which has numerous meanings, according to the context; here evidently meaning a chamber of commerce, or an executive committee to look after the interests of the shippers.↑12At the outset, Pintado makes some statements to the effect that the Council of the Indias had taken the action which led to the decree of 1734, without consulting Cadiz, and had made certain inquiries and consultations with the Manila deputies alone. A marginal note by Abreu corrects this, saying, “Not only with the deputies; for the fiscal of the Council was heard [on the subject], who is impartial between the two commercial bodies.”↑13The Manila deputies, however, claimed that the decree of 1726 did not reach the islands until 1730, so that it was first put into practice in that year, the five years’ term, therefore, including the shipment of 1734. (Extracto, fol. 150, 185 and verso, 190 verso.)↑14One of the tables at the end of Raynal’s atlas volume gives an itemized list of the cargoes carried by the “last eight Spanish trading-fleets to Vera Cruz”—that is, the last eight preceding Raynal’s work. Their cargoes were of the following amounts: in 1733 (under command of Torrez), 618,595 cubic palmos; 1735 (Pintado’s), 620,000; 1757 (Villena’s), 618,557; 1760 (Reggio’s), 841,717; 1765 (Idiaques’s), 486,943; 1768 (Tilly’s), 452,282; 1772 (Cordova’s), 914,807; 1776 (Ulloa’s), 934,366. But one of these fleets carried cinnamon, that of 1735; and cloves appear only in the trifling amount of 50 quintals, in 1768. The chief articles enumerated—which appear in every year’s list—are paper, wax, iron, steel; brandy, wine, and oil; and unbleached stuffs [linens?] from Brabant. Quicksilver was carried in only 1765 and 1768, 7,506 and 8,000 quintals respectively. Wrought iron was sent in five of these shipments, but in no considerable quantity except in 1765, when also was sent 2,724 barrels of tin-plate (in other cargoes, in but trifling amounts). Silk ribbons made a solitary appearance in 1757, to the extent of 1,000 pieces—as did 1,000 “swords to be mounted with hilts,” in 1765. The last two fleets carried consignments of gun-flints, respectively 650 and 386 thousand-weight.It is evident, however, from another table (which follows the above), that Spanish commerce had much activity outside the trading-fleets; this shows the amounts of “merchandise which left the ports of Spain each year from 1748 to 1753 for its colonies on the continent of America; duties which they have paid; their current value in the New World; expenses which they have borne; their net product for the metropolis [i.e., Cadiz].” Of these goods, the only one monopolized by the crown was quicksilver, to the amount of 3,600,000 livres’ worth. The greater part of this merchandise consisted of cloth and stuffs, of silk, linen, and wool; there was a considerable amount of iron, paper, wax, brandy, wine, and oil; and to Nueva España was sent 1,000,000 livres’ worth of cinnamon, and to Caracas 10,000 barrels of flour. Of the goods sent to Nueva España (not counting the quicksilver), 6,367,297 livres’ worth were of Spanish production, and 14,401,815 of foreign. The import duties levied on the latter at Cadiz amounted to 1,185,343 livres, and the export duties on both Spanish and foreign to 1,245,059; and admiralty and avería duties besides came to 419,623. The goods on board, then, cost 23,619,137 livres, to which must be added the following charges: transportation to America, 3,617,623; import duties and alcavala in America, 4,327,473; commissions on sales and return freight, 3,231,296—a total of 34,795,529 livres. The value of this merchandise in America was arbitrated at 43,274,787 livres; deducting the above costs, a profit of 8,479,258 livres remains from the merchandise sent from Spain to Nueva España. On the return voyage, the main part of the cargoes was in gold and silver—6,480,000 livres’ worth for the king, and 37,716,047 for the merchants; the crown monopolized copper and cacao, 259,200 and 12,960 respectively; the cochineal was worth 6,426,000 livres, and the indigo 4,160,160; and various drugs, dyes, etc. made with these a total of 56,216,533 livres (all these values being those estimated in America). To this cost must be added freight charges, 1,491,543 livres; and various duties to the crown (including customs, admiralty, church, etc., the largest being for “indult and coast-guards”), amounting to 6,428,987. Consequently, when the ships arrived at Cadiz the value of the gold and silver had been reduced to 5,625,607 livres for the king, and 32,775,345 for the merchants; while the cost of the other commodities had increased from 12,020,486 livres to 14,145,922. The current value in Europe of these goods (not including the gold and silver) was 18,465,419 livres, a gain over the entire cost of 4,319,497 livres (30½ per cent)—of which 124,527 belonged to the king, and the remainder to the merchants, as the net proceeds on the commerce between Spain and Nueva España, outside of the precious metals, in both the outward and return voyages each year.↑15Churlo(orchurla; from the Latinculeo, ablative ofculeus): a sack made ofpita(i.e., agave) fiber-cloth, covered with another sack of leather, for carrying cinnamon and other articles from one region to another without losing their strength (Echegaray).↑16Palmeo: measure by palmos; evidently referring to the usual estimate of lading-space in a ship by cubic palmos.↑17That is, the spice trade with Nueva España, offered by Cadiz to Manila as an equivalent for the latter’s traffic in Chinese silks.↑
1“All the New World was subjected to the alcavala. This is a tax levied only upon whatever is sold at wholesale, and does not extend to the articles for daily consumption; it is derived originally from the Moors. The Spaniards adopted it in 1341, and established it at the rate of five per cent. It was finally placed at ten, and forced up even to fourteen per cent; but in 1750 arrangements were made which brought the rate back to what it was at first. Philip II, after the disastrous end of that fleet so well known under the pompous title of ‘invincible,’ in 1591 resolved, on account of his needs, to exact this aid from all his possessions in America. At the outset, it was only two per cent; in 1627, it rose to four.” (Raynal,Histoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens, ii, p. 310.)↑2The italics in this and a few other sentences are the same as in the printed text of theExtracto.↑3“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 theobras 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 hisLibertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas(Madrid, 1872), pp. 39–96. Malo de Luque outlines the subject briefly in hisEstablecimientos ultramarinos, v, pp. 217–234.↑4“Although the silks which Spain furnishes are in general very choice, those of Valencia are far superior [to the rest]; and both are suitable for all uses. Their only defect is that they are a little too oily, which causes much difficulty in dyeing them.” “The diversity of silks which Europe produces has not enabled us to dispense with that from China. Although in general it may be of heavy quality and uneven staple, it will always be in demand for its whiteness.” “The whiteness of the Chinese silk, to which nothing else can be compared, renders it the only suitable kind for the manufacture of blondes and gauzes. The efforts that have been made to substitute our silks for it in the manufacture of blondes have always been fruitless, although not only dressed but undressed silks have been tried for this purpose; but the results have been somewhat less unsatisfactory in regard to gauzes.”“In the last century, the Europeans brought from China very little [raw] silk; ours was sufficiently good for the black or colored gauzes, and for the catgut gauzes [marlis] which then were worn. The taste which has prevailed during the last forty years (and more generally during the last twenty-five) for white gauzes and for blondes has gradually increased the consumption of this Oriental product; the amount of this rose in modern times to eighty thousand pounds a year, of which France always used nearly three-fourths; and this importation has so greatly increased that in 1766 the English alone took a hundred and four thousand-weight of it. As the gauzes and blondes could not consume that amount, the manufacturers used part of it in making watered silks [moires] and hose.... Besides this silk of unique whiteness—which is chiefly produced in the province of Tche-Kiang, and which we know in Europe under the name of Nankin silk, from the place, where it is especially made—China produces ordinary silks, which we call Canton silks. As these are suitable for only the wefts of some silk fabrics, and are as expensive as those of Europe which serve for the same uses, very little of them is imported; and what the English and Dutch carry away of this Canton silk does not exceed five or six thousand-weight.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, pp. 660–662.)“The Chinese are no less skilful in working up their silks than in producing them; but this praise ought not to extend to those of their stuffs in which gold and silver are woven. Their manufacturers have never known how to draw these metals into thread, and their ingenuity is always confined to rolling their silks in gilded papers, or in pasting [appliquer] the stuffs to those same papers; both methods are equally faulty.” (Raynal,Étab. et com. des Européens, i, p. 662.)↑5At the end of the atlas volume of Raynal’sHistoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens(ed. of 1780, Geneva) are various supplementary sheets, containing tabulated summaries of the kinds and amounts of trade carried on by the leading European nations with their colonial possessions, chiefly those of America; from some of these we abstract items of interest which have some relation to the scope of our work. The first of these shows the amount and value of the commerce of the Company of Holland in the East Indies from 1720 to 1729 inclusive. In these ten years they sent out an average of 37 or 38 ships each year, manned by about 7,000 men; of these, 30 returned to Europe. The merchandise sold by the company amounted, in round numbers, to an average of 18,859,000 florins yearly, and the dividends distributed among the partners to 23⅗ per cent (ranging, in different years, from 12½ to 40 per cent); the amount of money sent to the Cape of Good Hope and to the Asian Islands averaged 6,560,000 florins. The average sales of spices yearly were as follows: Pepper, 4,500,000 pounds, at 11 sols, 2,475,000 florins; cinnamon, 400,000 pounds, at 5¾ florins, 2,300,000 florins; cloves, 400,000 pounds, at 4¼ florins, 1,700,000 florins; nutmegs, 250,000 pounds, at 3¾ florins, 937,500 florins; mace, 90,000 pounds, at 6½ florins, 585,000 florins—a total of 7,997,500 florins. The original capital of the Dutch East India Company was 6,459,840 florins; about 57 per cent of this was held in Amsterdam, and about 21 per cent in the province of Zeeland. The number of shares was 2,153, each of 3,000 florins. During the period 1605 to 1777, the dividends annually distributed ranged usually from 12½ to 40 per cent; in the following years they exceeded the latter rate—being in 1606, 75 per cent; in 1610, 50; in 1612, 57½; in 1615, 42½; in 1616, 62½; in 1671, 45 and 15. During 1771–77, they were uniformly 12½ per cent. These were paid usually in money; sometimes, in the earlier years, in cloves; and, in 1673, 1679, and 1697, in bonds or in contracts. In the period 1723–74, the prices of shares ranged from 788 per cent (in 1733) to 314 (in 1771).Another table shows similar figures for the years 1679 to 1774—apparently for the new organization of the company in 1674. The capital is stated at 8,071,135 florins; there were 1,345 shares, of 6,000 florins each. The dividends, during the above period, ranged from 10 per cent to nothing, the yearly average being 1–21/32 per cent; neither these figures nor the prices of shares agree with those of the first table, but the reason for the discrepancy is not obvious.↑6In 1731 and 1733 Sevilla and Cadiz “both imagined (and it is rather surprising that this had not been sooner evident) that it would be an advantage to Spain to take part directly in the commerce of Asia, and that the possessions which it had in that part of the world would be the center of the operations which it would conduct there. In vain was the objection made against them that, as India furnished silk and cotton fabrics that were superior to those of Europe in their finish, in their colors, and (above all) in their cheapness, the national manufacturers could not support competition with those goods, and would infallibly be ruined. This objection, which might have some weight among certain peoples, seemed to them utterly frivolous, in the position in which their country stood. As a fact, the Spaniards use for both their clothing and their furniture foreign stuffs and cloths; and these continual needs necessarily increase the industry, the wealth, the population, and the strength of their neighbors—who misuse these advantages, in order to keep in dependence the very nation which obtains these for them. Would not Spain behave with more wisdom and dignity if she would adopt the manufactures of the Indias? Resides the economy and satisfaction which she would find therein, she would succeed in diminishing a preponderance [of other nations] of which she will be, sooner or later, the victim.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, p. 606.)↑7“The settlements, commerce, and conquests of the English in the East Indies” are related by Raynal in hisÉtablissemens et commerce des Europeens, i, pp. 261–398. The English East India Company was founded in 1600, and made a promising beginning in the Oriental trade; but the opposition of the Dutch and Portuguese, already intrenched therein, was so great and persistent that the English company—which was compelled to encounter also, in turn, competition from other English traders, hindrances arising from the duplicity and avarice of Charles II of England, losses arising from the civil war in that country, hostilities (originating from the greed and treachery of one of the company’s own directors) with the Mogul emperor Aurungzebe, and the capture ofmanyEnglish trading vessels by French privateers—was several times almost ruined, and all English commercial prestige in the East was greatly injured. Finally, in 1702, the two rival East India companies in England united their funds and enterprises, and thereafter the affairs of the new organization prospered, in the main; and in 1763 the French were driven out of Asia, leaving the English masters of both political and commercial interests in India. In 1774 the latter drove out the Mahrattas from Salsette Island, and founded Bombay, which, although at first an insalubrious locality, on account of its fine harbor soon became the emporium of English commerce and center of that nation’s power.↑8Formerly thefardowas 1⅓ varas long, ¾ vara high, and ¾ vara less onepulgada(nearly one English inch) wide; but for a long time previous to 1726 the bale of this size had not been used, because it became necessary to break it open at Acapulco, in order to transfer the goods from the ship to the land, and it was replaced by the half-bale and half-chest, in order not to break open the package before selling it or transporting it across the country. These smaller packages were then called “bales” and “chests” (fardosandcaxones); their dimensions are given in the decree of 1726 (fol. 118 verso ofExtracto, orVOL.XLIV,ante, p. 311). This information appears in the informatory report furnished by Gabriel Guerrero de Ardila, accountant of the bureau of accounts in Mexico, to the viceroy, on March 6, 1730. (Extracto historial, fol. 193 verso, 194.)↑9Perhaps alluding to the Ribera (i.e., “shore”) or navy-yard of Cavite—that is, the standard of measure used in shipbuilding and other industries there.↑10“With this, it may be said, finally came to an end the celebrated controversies which so persistently and for so long a time were waged by the merchants of Cadiz against the commerce of Filipinas, the standard of the [permission of] 500,000 dollars [duros] remaining permanent until the emancipation of the Americas [from Spanish rule] put an end to that traffic. It had the same effect on all the restrictions which for the space of almost three centuries had weighed down the Filipino commerce—for even in the year 1810 (as Comyn tells us in hisEstado de las islas Filipinas, speaking of the Acapulco galleon) only one ship, commanded by an officer of the navy, could make these expeditions, once a year; and in order to share in that commerce a merchant must have a vote in the consulate, which presupposed property to the amount of 8,000 dollars and several years of residence in the country. He was [also] obliged to contribute, in the same proportion as the other shippers, to the allowance of 15,000 or 20,000 dollars made to the commandant of the galleon, besides paying 25 to 40 per cent for freight charges, according to circumstances. [Meanwhile,] the shippers were not able to make any examination of the condition of the ships in which they risked a great part of their fortunes; and there were many other impediments, which now we would suppose could not possibly have ever existed, if we were not so habituated to stupid proceedings of this sort.” (Azcarraga y Palmero,Libertad de comercio, pp. 64, 65.)When the galleon of Acapulco ceased its voyages—the last one sailed from Manila in 1811, and returned from Acapulco in 1815—the commerce fell into the hands of individuals, to whom in 1820 permission was granted to export merchandise from Filipinas to the value of 750,000 pesos a year; and their voyages were extended from Acapulco to San Blas, Guayaquil, and Callao. (Montero y Vidal,Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 462, note.)See Raynal’s account of the policy pursued in the New World by Spain, its results on both that country and the colonies, and the elements of weakness in it, inEtab. et com. des Européens, ii, pp. 290–356.↑11Spanishcomercio, a word which has numerous meanings, according to the context; here evidently meaning a chamber of commerce, or an executive committee to look after the interests of the shippers.↑12At the outset, Pintado makes some statements to the effect that the Council of the Indias had taken the action which led to the decree of 1734, without consulting Cadiz, and had made certain inquiries and consultations with the Manila deputies alone. A marginal note by Abreu corrects this, saying, “Not only with the deputies; for the fiscal of the Council was heard [on the subject], who is impartial between the two commercial bodies.”↑13The Manila deputies, however, claimed that the decree of 1726 did not reach the islands until 1730, so that it was first put into practice in that year, the five years’ term, therefore, including the shipment of 1734. (Extracto, fol. 150, 185 and verso, 190 verso.)↑14One of the tables at the end of Raynal’s atlas volume gives an itemized list of the cargoes carried by the “last eight Spanish trading-fleets to Vera Cruz”—that is, the last eight preceding Raynal’s work. Their cargoes were of the following amounts: in 1733 (under command of Torrez), 618,595 cubic palmos; 1735 (Pintado’s), 620,000; 1757 (Villena’s), 618,557; 1760 (Reggio’s), 841,717; 1765 (Idiaques’s), 486,943; 1768 (Tilly’s), 452,282; 1772 (Cordova’s), 914,807; 1776 (Ulloa’s), 934,366. But one of these fleets carried cinnamon, that of 1735; and cloves appear only in the trifling amount of 50 quintals, in 1768. The chief articles enumerated—which appear in every year’s list—are paper, wax, iron, steel; brandy, wine, and oil; and unbleached stuffs [linens?] from Brabant. Quicksilver was carried in only 1765 and 1768, 7,506 and 8,000 quintals respectively. Wrought iron was sent in five of these shipments, but in no considerable quantity except in 1765, when also was sent 2,724 barrels of tin-plate (in other cargoes, in but trifling amounts). Silk ribbons made a solitary appearance in 1757, to the extent of 1,000 pieces—as did 1,000 “swords to be mounted with hilts,” in 1765. The last two fleets carried consignments of gun-flints, respectively 650 and 386 thousand-weight.It is evident, however, from another table (which follows the above), that Spanish commerce had much activity outside the trading-fleets; this shows the amounts of “merchandise which left the ports of Spain each year from 1748 to 1753 for its colonies on the continent of America; duties which they have paid; their current value in the New World; expenses which they have borne; their net product for the metropolis [i.e., Cadiz].” Of these goods, the only one monopolized by the crown was quicksilver, to the amount of 3,600,000 livres’ worth. The greater part of this merchandise consisted of cloth and stuffs, of silk, linen, and wool; there was a considerable amount of iron, paper, wax, brandy, wine, and oil; and to Nueva España was sent 1,000,000 livres’ worth of cinnamon, and to Caracas 10,000 barrels of flour. Of the goods sent to Nueva España (not counting the quicksilver), 6,367,297 livres’ worth were of Spanish production, and 14,401,815 of foreign. The import duties levied on the latter at Cadiz amounted to 1,185,343 livres, and the export duties on both Spanish and foreign to 1,245,059; and admiralty and avería duties besides came to 419,623. The goods on board, then, cost 23,619,137 livres, to which must be added the following charges: transportation to America, 3,617,623; import duties and alcavala in America, 4,327,473; commissions on sales and return freight, 3,231,296—a total of 34,795,529 livres. The value of this merchandise in America was arbitrated at 43,274,787 livres; deducting the above costs, a profit of 8,479,258 livres remains from the merchandise sent from Spain to Nueva España. On the return voyage, the main part of the cargoes was in gold and silver—6,480,000 livres’ worth for the king, and 37,716,047 for the merchants; the crown monopolized copper and cacao, 259,200 and 12,960 respectively; the cochineal was worth 6,426,000 livres, and the indigo 4,160,160; and various drugs, dyes, etc. made with these a total of 56,216,533 livres (all these values being those estimated in America). To this cost must be added freight charges, 1,491,543 livres; and various duties to the crown (including customs, admiralty, church, etc., the largest being for “indult and coast-guards”), amounting to 6,428,987. Consequently, when the ships arrived at Cadiz the value of the gold and silver had been reduced to 5,625,607 livres for the king, and 32,775,345 for the merchants; while the cost of the other commodities had increased from 12,020,486 livres to 14,145,922. The current value in Europe of these goods (not including the gold and silver) was 18,465,419 livres, a gain over the entire cost of 4,319,497 livres (30½ per cent)—of which 124,527 belonged to the king, and the remainder to the merchants, as the net proceeds on the commerce between Spain and Nueva España, outside of the precious metals, in both the outward and return voyages each year.↑15Churlo(orchurla; from the Latinculeo, ablative ofculeus): a sack made ofpita(i.e., agave) fiber-cloth, covered with another sack of leather, for carrying cinnamon and other articles from one region to another without losing their strength (Echegaray).↑16Palmeo: measure by palmos; evidently referring to the usual estimate of lading-space in a ship by cubic palmos.↑17That is, the spice trade with Nueva España, offered by Cadiz to Manila as an equivalent for the latter’s traffic in Chinese silks.↑
1“All the New World was subjected to the alcavala. This is a tax levied only upon whatever is sold at wholesale, and does not extend to the articles for daily consumption; it is derived originally from the Moors. The Spaniards adopted it in 1341, and established it at the rate of five per cent. It was finally placed at ten, and forced up even to fourteen per cent; but in 1750 arrangements were made which brought the rate back to what it was at first. Philip II, after the disastrous end of that fleet so well known under the pompous title of ‘invincible,’ in 1591 resolved, on account of his needs, to exact this aid from all his possessions in America. At the outset, it was only two per cent; in 1627, it rose to four.” (Raynal,Histoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens, ii, p. 310.)↑2The italics in this and a few other sentences are the same as in the printed text of theExtracto.↑3“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 theobras 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 hisLibertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas(Madrid, 1872), pp. 39–96. Malo de Luque outlines the subject briefly in hisEstablecimientos ultramarinos, v, pp. 217–234.↑4“Although the silks which Spain furnishes are in general very choice, those of Valencia are far superior [to the rest]; and both are suitable for all uses. Their only defect is that they are a little too oily, which causes much difficulty in dyeing them.” “The diversity of silks which Europe produces has not enabled us to dispense with that from China. Although in general it may be of heavy quality and uneven staple, it will always be in demand for its whiteness.” “The whiteness of the Chinese silk, to which nothing else can be compared, renders it the only suitable kind for the manufacture of blondes and gauzes. The efforts that have been made to substitute our silks for it in the manufacture of blondes have always been fruitless, although not only dressed but undressed silks have been tried for this purpose; but the results have been somewhat less unsatisfactory in regard to gauzes.”“In the last century, the Europeans brought from China very little [raw] silk; ours was sufficiently good for the black or colored gauzes, and for the catgut gauzes [marlis] which then were worn. The taste which has prevailed during the last forty years (and more generally during the last twenty-five) for white gauzes and for blondes has gradually increased the consumption of this Oriental product; the amount of this rose in modern times to eighty thousand pounds a year, of which France always used nearly three-fourths; and this importation has so greatly increased that in 1766 the English alone took a hundred and four thousand-weight of it. As the gauzes and blondes could not consume that amount, the manufacturers used part of it in making watered silks [moires] and hose.... Besides this silk of unique whiteness—which is chiefly produced in the province of Tche-Kiang, and which we know in Europe under the name of Nankin silk, from the place, where it is especially made—China produces ordinary silks, which we call Canton silks. As these are suitable for only the wefts of some silk fabrics, and are as expensive as those of Europe which serve for the same uses, very little of them is imported; and what the English and Dutch carry away of this Canton silk does not exceed five or six thousand-weight.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, pp. 660–662.)“The Chinese are no less skilful in working up their silks than in producing them; but this praise ought not to extend to those of their stuffs in which gold and silver are woven. Their manufacturers have never known how to draw these metals into thread, and their ingenuity is always confined to rolling their silks in gilded papers, or in pasting [appliquer] the stuffs to those same papers; both methods are equally faulty.” (Raynal,Étab. et com. des Européens, i, p. 662.)↑5At the end of the atlas volume of Raynal’sHistoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens(ed. of 1780, Geneva) are various supplementary sheets, containing tabulated summaries of the kinds and amounts of trade carried on by the leading European nations with their colonial possessions, chiefly those of America; from some of these we abstract items of interest which have some relation to the scope of our work. The first of these shows the amount and value of the commerce of the Company of Holland in the East Indies from 1720 to 1729 inclusive. In these ten years they sent out an average of 37 or 38 ships each year, manned by about 7,000 men; of these, 30 returned to Europe. The merchandise sold by the company amounted, in round numbers, to an average of 18,859,000 florins yearly, and the dividends distributed among the partners to 23⅗ per cent (ranging, in different years, from 12½ to 40 per cent); the amount of money sent to the Cape of Good Hope and to the Asian Islands averaged 6,560,000 florins. The average sales of spices yearly were as follows: Pepper, 4,500,000 pounds, at 11 sols, 2,475,000 florins; cinnamon, 400,000 pounds, at 5¾ florins, 2,300,000 florins; cloves, 400,000 pounds, at 4¼ florins, 1,700,000 florins; nutmegs, 250,000 pounds, at 3¾ florins, 937,500 florins; mace, 90,000 pounds, at 6½ florins, 585,000 florins—a total of 7,997,500 florins. The original capital of the Dutch East India Company was 6,459,840 florins; about 57 per cent of this was held in Amsterdam, and about 21 per cent in the province of Zeeland. The number of shares was 2,153, each of 3,000 florins. During the period 1605 to 1777, the dividends annually distributed ranged usually from 12½ to 40 per cent; in the following years they exceeded the latter rate—being in 1606, 75 per cent; in 1610, 50; in 1612, 57½; in 1615, 42½; in 1616, 62½; in 1671, 45 and 15. During 1771–77, they were uniformly 12½ per cent. These were paid usually in money; sometimes, in the earlier years, in cloves; and, in 1673, 1679, and 1697, in bonds or in contracts. In the period 1723–74, the prices of shares ranged from 788 per cent (in 1733) to 314 (in 1771).Another table shows similar figures for the years 1679 to 1774—apparently for the new organization of the company in 1674. The capital is stated at 8,071,135 florins; there were 1,345 shares, of 6,000 florins each. The dividends, during the above period, ranged from 10 per cent to nothing, the yearly average being 1–21/32 per cent; neither these figures nor the prices of shares agree with those of the first table, but the reason for the discrepancy is not obvious.↑6In 1731 and 1733 Sevilla and Cadiz “both imagined (and it is rather surprising that this had not been sooner evident) that it would be an advantage to Spain to take part directly in the commerce of Asia, and that the possessions which it had in that part of the world would be the center of the operations which it would conduct there. In vain was the objection made against them that, as India furnished silk and cotton fabrics that were superior to those of Europe in their finish, in their colors, and (above all) in their cheapness, the national manufacturers could not support competition with those goods, and would infallibly be ruined. This objection, which might have some weight among certain peoples, seemed to them utterly frivolous, in the position in which their country stood. As a fact, the Spaniards use for both their clothing and their furniture foreign stuffs and cloths; and these continual needs necessarily increase the industry, the wealth, the population, and the strength of their neighbors—who misuse these advantages, in order to keep in dependence the very nation which obtains these for them. Would not Spain behave with more wisdom and dignity if she would adopt the manufactures of the Indias? Resides the economy and satisfaction which she would find therein, she would succeed in diminishing a preponderance [of other nations] of which she will be, sooner or later, the victim.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, p. 606.)↑7“The settlements, commerce, and conquests of the English in the East Indies” are related by Raynal in hisÉtablissemens et commerce des Europeens, i, pp. 261–398. The English East India Company was founded in 1600, and made a promising beginning in the Oriental trade; but the opposition of the Dutch and Portuguese, already intrenched therein, was so great and persistent that the English company—which was compelled to encounter also, in turn, competition from other English traders, hindrances arising from the duplicity and avarice of Charles II of England, losses arising from the civil war in that country, hostilities (originating from the greed and treachery of one of the company’s own directors) with the Mogul emperor Aurungzebe, and the capture ofmanyEnglish trading vessels by French privateers—was several times almost ruined, and all English commercial prestige in the East was greatly injured. Finally, in 1702, the two rival East India companies in England united their funds and enterprises, and thereafter the affairs of the new organization prospered, in the main; and in 1763 the French were driven out of Asia, leaving the English masters of both political and commercial interests in India. In 1774 the latter drove out the Mahrattas from Salsette Island, and founded Bombay, which, although at first an insalubrious locality, on account of its fine harbor soon became the emporium of English commerce and center of that nation’s power.↑8Formerly thefardowas 1⅓ varas long, ¾ vara high, and ¾ vara less onepulgada(nearly one English inch) wide; but for a long time previous to 1726 the bale of this size had not been used, because it became necessary to break it open at Acapulco, in order to transfer the goods from the ship to the land, and it was replaced by the half-bale and half-chest, in order not to break open the package before selling it or transporting it across the country. These smaller packages were then called “bales” and “chests” (fardosandcaxones); their dimensions are given in the decree of 1726 (fol. 118 verso ofExtracto, orVOL.XLIV,ante, p. 311). This information appears in the informatory report furnished by Gabriel Guerrero de Ardila, accountant of the bureau of accounts in Mexico, to the viceroy, on March 6, 1730. (Extracto historial, fol. 193 verso, 194.)↑9Perhaps alluding to the Ribera (i.e., “shore”) or navy-yard of Cavite—that is, the standard of measure used in shipbuilding and other industries there.↑10“With this, it may be said, finally came to an end the celebrated controversies which so persistently and for so long a time were waged by the merchants of Cadiz against the commerce of Filipinas, the standard of the [permission of] 500,000 dollars [duros] remaining permanent until the emancipation of the Americas [from Spanish rule] put an end to that traffic. It had the same effect on all the restrictions which for the space of almost three centuries had weighed down the Filipino commerce—for even in the year 1810 (as Comyn tells us in hisEstado de las islas Filipinas, speaking of the Acapulco galleon) only one ship, commanded by an officer of the navy, could make these expeditions, once a year; and in order to share in that commerce a merchant must have a vote in the consulate, which presupposed property to the amount of 8,000 dollars and several years of residence in the country. He was [also] obliged to contribute, in the same proportion as the other shippers, to the allowance of 15,000 or 20,000 dollars made to the commandant of the galleon, besides paying 25 to 40 per cent for freight charges, according to circumstances. [Meanwhile,] the shippers were not able to make any examination of the condition of the ships in which they risked a great part of their fortunes; and there were many other impediments, which now we would suppose could not possibly have ever existed, if we were not so habituated to stupid proceedings of this sort.” (Azcarraga y Palmero,Libertad de comercio, pp. 64, 65.)When the galleon of Acapulco ceased its voyages—the last one sailed from Manila in 1811, and returned from Acapulco in 1815—the commerce fell into the hands of individuals, to whom in 1820 permission was granted to export merchandise from Filipinas to the value of 750,000 pesos a year; and their voyages were extended from Acapulco to San Blas, Guayaquil, and Callao. (Montero y Vidal,Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 462, note.)See Raynal’s account of the policy pursued in the New World by Spain, its results on both that country and the colonies, and the elements of weakness in it, inEtab. et com. des Européens, ii, pp. 290–356.↑11Spanishcomercio, a word which has numerous meanings, according to the context; here evidently meaning a chamber of commerce, or an executive committee to look after the interests of the shippers.↑12At the outset, Pintado makes some statements to the effect that the Council of the Indias had taken the action which led to the decree of 1734, without consulting Cadiz, and had made certain inquiries and consultations with the Manila deputies alone. A marginal note by Abreu corrects this, saying, “Not only with the deputies; for the fiscal of the Council was heard [on the subject], who is impartial between the two commercial bodies.”↑13The Manila deputies, however, claimed that the decree of 1726 did not reach the islands until 1730, so that it was first put into practice in that year, the five years’ term, therefore, including the shipment of 1734. (Extracto, fol. 150, 185 and verso, 190 verso.)↑14One of the tables at the end of Raynal’s atlas volume gives an itemized list of the cargoes carried by the “last eight Spanish trading-fleets to Vera Cruz”—that is, the last eight preceding Raynal’s work. Their cargoes were of the following amounts: in 1733 (under command of Torrez), 618,595 cubic palmos; 1735 (Pintado’s), 620,000; 1757 (Villena’s), 618,557; 1760 (Reggio’s), 841,717; 1765 (Idiaques’s), 486,943; 1768 (Tilly’s), 452,282; 1772 (Cordova’s), 914,807; 1776 (Ulloa’s), 934,366. But one of these fleets carried cinnamon, that of 1735; and cloves appear only in the trifling amount of 50 quintals, in 1768. The chief articles enumerated—which appear in every year’s list—are paper, wax, iron, steel; brandy, wine, and oil; and unbleached stuffs [linens?] from Brabant. Quicksilver was carried in only 1765 and 1768, 7,506 and 8,000 quintals respectively. Wrought iron was sent in five of these shipments, but in no considerable quantity except in 1765, when also was sent 2,724 barrels of tin-plate (in other cargoes, in but trifling amounts). Silk ribbons made a solitary appearance in 1757, to the extent of 1,000 pieces—as did 1,000 “swords to be mounted with hilts,” in 1765. The last two fleets carried consignments of gun-flints, respectively 650 and 386 thousand-weight.It is evident, however, from another table (which follows the above), that Spanish commerce had much activity outside the trading-fleets; this shows the amounts of “merchandise which left the ports of Spain each year from 1748 to 1753 for its colonies on the continent of America; duties which they have paid; their current value in the New World; expenses which they have borne; their net product for the metropolis [i.e., Cadiz].” Of these goods, the only one monopolized by the crown was quicksilver, to the amount of 3,600,000 livres’ worth. The greater part of this merchandise consisted of cloth and stuffs, of silk, linen, and wool; there was a considerable amount of iron, paper, wax, brandy, wine, and oil; and to Nueva España was sent 1,000,000 livres’ worth of cinnamon, and to Caracas 10,000 barrels of flour. Of the goods sent to Nueva España (not counting the quicksilver), 6,367,297 livres’ worth were of Spanish production, and 14,401,815 of foreign. The import duties levied on the latter at Cadiz amounted to 1,185,343 livres, and the export duties on both Spanish and foreign to 1,245,059; and admiralty and avería duties besides came to 419,623. The goods on board, then, cost 23,619,137 livres, to which must be added the following charges: transportation to America, 3,617,623; import duties and alcavala in America, 4,327,473; commissions on sales and return freight, 3,231,296—a total of 34,795,529 livres. The value of this merchandise in America was arbitrated at 43,274,787 livres; deducting the above costs, a profit of 8,479,258 livres remains from the merchandise sent from Spain to Nueva España. On the return voyage, the main part of the cargoes was in gold and silver—6,480,000 livres’ worth for the king, and 37,716,047 for the merchants; the crown monopolized copper and cacao, 259,200 and 12,960 respectively; the cochineal was worth 6,426,000 livres, and the indigo 4,160,160; and various drugs, dyes, etc. made with these a total of 56,216,533 livres (all these values being those estimated in America). To this cost must be added freight charges, 1,491,543 livres; and various duties to the crown (including customs, admiralty, church, etc., the largest being for “indult and coast-guards”), amounting to 6,428,987. Consequently, when the ships arrived at Cadiz the value of the gold and silver had been reduced to 5,625,607 livres for the king, and 32,775,345 for the merchants; while the cost of the other commodities had increased from 12,020,486 livres to 14,145,922. The current value in Europe of these goods (not including the gold and silver) was 18,465,419 livres, a gain over the entire cost of 4,319,497 livres (30½ per cent)—of which 124,527 belonged to the king, and the remainder to the merchants, as the net proceeds on the commerce between Spain and Nueva España, outside of the precious metals, in both the outward and return voyages each year.↑15Churlo(orchurla; from the Latinculeo, ablative ofculeus): a sack made ofpita(i.e., agave) fiber-cloth, covered with another sack of leather, for carrying cinnamon and other articles from one region to another without losing their strength (Echegaray).↑16Palmeo: measure by palmos; evidently referring to the usual estimate of lading-space in a ship by cubic palmos.↑17That is, the spice trade with Nueva España, offered by Cadiz to Manila as an equivalent for the latter’s traffic in Chinese silks.↑
1“All the New World was subjected to the alcavala. This is a tax levied only upon whatever is sold at wholesale, and does not extend to the articles for daily consumption; it is derived originally from the Moors. The Spaniards adopted it in 1341, and established it at the rate of five per cent. It was finally placed at ten, and forced up even to fourteen per cent; but in 1750 arrangements were made which brought the rate back to what it was at first. Philip II, after the disastrous end of that fleet so well known under the pompous title of ‘invincible,’ in 1591 resolved, on account of his needs, to exact this aid from all his possessions in America. At the outset, it was only two per cent; in 1627, it rose to four.” (Raynal,Histoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens, ii, p. 310.)↑
2The italics in this and a few other sentences are the same as in the printed text of theExtracto.↑
3“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 theobras 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 hisLibertad de comercio en las islas Filipinas(Madrid, 1872), pp. 39–96. Malo de Luque outlines the subject briefly in hisEstablecimientos ultramarinos, v, pp. 217–234.↑
4“Although the silks which Spain furnishes are in general very choice, those of Valencia are far superior [to the rest]; and both are suitable for all uses. Their only defect is that they are a little too oily, which causes much difficulty in dyeing them.” “The diversity of silks which Europe produces has not enabled us to dispense with that from China. Although in general it may be of heavy quality and uneven staple, it will always be in demand for its whiteness.” “The whiteness of the Chinese silk, to which nothing else can be compared, renders it the only suitable kind for the manufacture of blondes and gauzes. The efforts that have been made to substitute our silks for it in the manufacture of blondes have always been fruitless, although not only dressed but undressed silks have been tried for this purpose; but the results have been somewhat less unsatisfactory in regard to gauzes.”
“In the last century, the Europeans brought from China very little [raw] silk; ours was sufficiently good for the black or colored gauzes, and for the catgut gauzes [marlis] which then were worn. The taste which has prevailed during the last forty years (and more generally during the last twenty-five) for white gauzes and for blondes has gradually increased the consumption of this Oriental product; the amount of this rose in modern times to eighty thousand pounds a year, of which France always used nearly three-fourths; and this importation has so greatly increased that in 1766 the English alone took a hundred and four thousand-weight of it. As the gauzes and blondes could not consume that amount, the manufacturers used part of it in making watered silks [moires] and hose.... Besides this silk of unique whiteness—which is chiefly produced in the province of Tche-Kiang, and which we know in Europe under the name of Nankin silk, from the place, where it is especially made—China produces ordinary silks, which we call Canton silks. As these are suitable for only the wefts of some silk fabrics, and are as expensive as those of Europe which serve for the same uses, very little of them is imported; and what the English and Dutch carry away of this Canton silk does not exceed five or six thousand-weight.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, pp. 660–662.)
“The Chinese are no less skilful in working up their silks than in producing them; but this praise ought not to extend to those of their stuffs in which gold and silver are woven. Their manufacturers have never known how to draw these metals into thread, and their ingenuity is always confined to rolling their silks in gilded papers, or in pasting [appliquer] the stuffs to those same papers; both methods are equally faulty.” (Raynal,Étab. et com. des Européens, i, p. 662.)↑
5At the end of the atlas volume of Raynal’sHistoire ... des établissemens et du commerce des Européens(ed. of 1780, Geneva) are various supplementary sheets, containing tabulated summaries of the kinds and amounts of trade carried on by the leading European nations with their colonial possessions, chiefly those of America; from some of these we abstract items of interest which have some relation to the scope of our work. The first of these shows the amount and value of the commerce of the Company of Holland in the East Indies from 1720 to 1729 inclusive. In these ten years they sent out an average of 37 or 38 ships each year, manned by about 7,000 men; of these, 30 returned to Europe. The merchandise sold by the company amounted, in round numbers, to an average of 18,859,000 florins yearly, and the dividends distributed among the partners to 23⅗ per cent (ranging, in different years, from 12½ to 40 per cent); the amount of money sent to the Cape of Good Hope and to the Asian Islands averaged 6,560,000 florins. The average sales of spices yearly were as follows: Pepper, 4,500,000 pounds, at 11 sols, 2,475,000 florins; cinnamon, 400,000 pounds, at 5¾ florins, 2,300,000 florins; cloves, 400,000 pounds, at 4¼ florins, 1,700,000 florins; nutmegs, 250,000 pounds, at 3¾ florins, 937,500 florins; mace, 90,000 pounds, at 6½ florins, 585,000 florins—a total of 7,997,500 florins. The original capital of the Dutch East India Company was 6,459,840 florins; about 57 per cent of this was held in Amsterdam, and about 21 per cent in the province of Zeeland. The number of shares was 2,153, each of 3,000 florins. During the period 1605 to 1777, the dividends annually distributed ranged usually from 12½ to 40 per cent; in the following years they exceeded the latter rate—being in 1606, 75 per cent; in 1610, 50; in 1612, 57½; in 1615, 42½; in 1616, 62½; in 1671, 45 and 15. During 1771–77, they were uniformly 12½ per cent. These were paid usually in money; sometimes, in the earlier years, in cloves; and, in 1673, 1679, and 1697, in bonds or in contracts. In the period 1723–74, the prices of shares ranged from 788 per cent (in 1733) to 314 (in 1771).
Another table shows similar figures for the years 1679 to 1774—apparently for the new organization of the company in 1674. The capital is stated at 8,071,135 florins; there were 1,345 shares, of 6,000 florins each. The dividends, during the above period, ranged from 10 per cent to nothing, the yearly average being 1–21/32 per cent; neither these figures nor the prices of shares agree with those of the first table, but the reason for the discrepancy is not obvious.↑
6In 1731 and 1733 Sevilla and Cadiz “both imagined (and it is rather surprising that this had not been sooner evident) that it would be an advantage to Spain to take part directly in the commerce of Asia, and that the possessions which it had in that part of the world would be the center of the operations which it would conduct there. In vain was the objection made against them that, as India furnished silk and cotton fabrics that were superior to those of Europe in their finish, in their colors, and (above all) in their cheapness, the national manufacturers could not support competition with those goods, and would infallibly be ruined. This objection, which might have some weight among certain peoples, seemed to them utterly frivolous, in the position in which their country stood. As a fact, the Spaniards use for both their clothing and their furniture foreign stuffs and cloths; and these continual needs necessarily increase the industry, the wealth, the population, and the strength of their neighbors—who misuse these advantages, in order to keep in dependence the very nation which obtains these for them. Would not Spain behave with more wisdom and dignity if she would adopt the manufactures of the Indias? Resides the economy and satisfaction which she would find therein, she would succeed in diminishing a preponderance [of other nations] of which she will be, sooner or later, the victim.” (Raynal,Établissemens et commerce des Européens, i, p. 606.)↑
7“The settlements, commerce, and conquests of the English in the East Indies” are related by Raynal in hisÉtablissemens et commerce des Europeens, i, pp. 261–398. The English East India Company was founded in 1600, and made a promising beginning in the Oriental trade; but the opposition of the Dutch and Portuguese, already intrenched therein, was so great and persistent that the English company—which was compelled to encounter also, in turn, competition from other English traders, hindrances arising from the duplicity and avarice of Charles II of England, losses arising from the civil war in that country, hostilities (originating from the greed and treachery of one of the company’s own directors) with the Mogul emperor Aurungzebe, and the capture ofmanyEnglish trading vessels by French privateers—was several times almost ruined, and all English commercial prestige in the East was greatly injured. Finally, in 1702, the two rival East India companies in England united their funds and enterprises, and thereafter the affairs of the new organization prospered, in the main; and in 1763 the French were driven out of Asia, leaving the English masters of both political and commercial interests in India. In 1774 the latter drove out the Mahrattas from Salsette Island, and founded Bombay, which, although at first an insalubrious locality, on account of its fine harbor soon became the emporium of English commerce and center of that nation’s power.↑
8Formerly thefardowas 1⅓ varas long, ¾ vara high, and ¾ vara less onepulgada(nearly one English inch) wide; but for a long time previous to 1726 the bale of this size had not been used, because it became necessary to break it open at Acapulco, in order to transfer the goods from the ship to the land, and it was replaced by the half-bale and half-chest, in order not to break open the package before selling it or transporting it across the country. These smaller packages were then called “bales” and “chests” (fardosandcaxones); their dimensions are given in the decree of 1726 (fol. 118 verso ofExtracto, orVOL.XLIV,ante, p. 311). This information appears in the informatory report furnished by Gabriel Guerrero de Ardila, accountant of the bureau of accounts in Mexico, to the viceroy, on March 6, 1730. (Extracto historial, fol. 193 verso, 194.)↑
9Perhaps alluding to the Ribera (i.e., “shore”) or navy-yard of Cavite—that is, the standard of measure used in shipbuilding and other industries there.↑
10“With this, it may be said, finally came to an end the celebrated controversies which so persistently and for so long a time were waged by the merchants of Cadiz against the commerce of Filipinas, the standard of the [permission of] 500,000 dollars [duros] remaining permanent until the emancipation of the Americas [from Spanish rule] put an end to that traffic. It had the same effect on all the restrictions which for the space of almost three centuries had weighed down the Filipino commerce—for even in the year 1810 (as Comyn tells us in hisEstado de las islas Filipinas, speaking of the Acapulco galleon) only one ship, commanded by an officer of the navy, could make these expeditions, once a year; and in order to share in that commerce a merchant must have a vote in the consulate, which presupposed property to the amount of 8,000 dollars and several years of residence in the country. He was [also] obliged to contribute, in the same proportion as the other shippers, to the allowance of 15,000 or 20,000 dollars made to the commandant of the galleon, besides paying 25 to 40 per cent for freight charges, according to circumstances. [Meanwhile,] the shippers were not able to make any examination of the condition of the ships in which they risked a great part of their fortunes; and there were many other impediments, which now we would suppose could not possibly have ever existed, if we were not so habituated to stupid proceedings of this sort.” (Azcarraga y Palmero,Libertad de comercio, pp. 64, 65.)
When the galleon of Acapulco ceased its voyages—the last one sailed from Manila in 1811, and returned from Acapulco in 1815—the commerce fell into the hands of individuals, to whom in 1820 permission was granted to export merchandise from Filipinas to the value of 750,000 pesos a year; and their voyages were extended from Acapulco to San Blas, Guayaquil, and Callao. (Montero y Vidal,Hist. de Filipinas, i, p. 462, note.)
See Raynal’s account of the policy pursued in the New World by Spain, its results on both that country and the colonies, and the elements of weakness in it, inEtab. et com. des Européens, ii, pp. 290–356.↑
11Spanishcomercio, a word which has numerous meanings, according to the context; here evidently meaning a chamber of commerce, or an executive committee to look after the interests of the shippers.↑
12At the outset, Pintado makes some statements to the effect that the Council of the Indias had taken the action which led to the decree of 1734, without consulting Cadiz, and had made certain inquiries and consultations with the Manila deputies alone. A marginal note by Abreu corrects this, saying, “Not only with the deputies; for the fiscal of the Council was heard [on the subject], who is impartial between the two commercial bodies.”↑
13The Manila deputies, however, claimed that the decree of 1726 did not reach the islands until 1730, so that it was first put into practice in that year, the five years’ term, therefore, including the shipment of 1734. (Extracto, fol. 150, 185 and verso, 190 verso.)↑
14One of the tables at the end of Raynal’s atlas volume gives an itemized list of the cargoes carried by the “last eight Spanish trading-fleets to Vera Cruz”—that is, the last eight preceding Raynal’s work. Their cargoes were of the following amounts: in 1733 (under command of Torrez), 618,595 cubic palmos; 1735 (Pintado’s), 620,000; 1757 (Villena’s), 618,557; 1760 (Reggio’s), 841,717; 1765 (Idiaques’s), 486,943; 1768 (Tilly’s), 452,282; 1772 (Cordova’s), 914,807; 1776 (Ulloa’s), 934,366. But one of these fleets carried cinnamon, that of 1735; and cloves appear only in the trifling amount of 50 quintals, in 1768. The chief articles enumerated—which appear in every year’s list—are paper, wax, iron, steel; brandy, wine, and oil; and unbleached stuffs [linens?] from Brabant. Quicksilver was carried in only 1765 and 1768, 7,506 and 8,000 quintals respectively. Wrought iron was sent in five of these shipments, but in no considerable quantity except in 1765, when also was sent 2,724 barrels of tin-plate (in other cargoes, in but trifling amounts). Silk ribbons made a solitary appearance in 1757, to the extent of 1,000 pieces—as did 1,000 “swords to be mounted with hilts,” in 1765. The last two fleets carried consignments of gun-flints, respectively 650 and 386 thousand-weight.
It is evident, however, from another table (which follows the above), that Spanish commerce had much activity outside the trading-fleets; this shows the amounts of “merchandise which left the ports of Spain each year from 1748 to 1753 for its colonies on the continent of America; duties which they have paid; their current value in the New World; expenses which they have borne; their net product for the metropolis [i.e., Cadiz].” Of these goods, the only one monopolized by the crown was quicksilver, to the amount of 3,600,000 livres’ worth. The greater part of this merchandise consisted of cloth and stuffs, of silk, linen, and wool; there was a considerable amount of iron, paper, wax, brandy, wine, and oil; and to Nueva España was sent 1,000,000 livres’ worth of cinnamon, and to Caracas 10,000 barrels of flour. Of the goods sent to Nueva España (not counting the quicksilver), 6,367,297 livres’ worth were of Spanish production, and 14,401,815 of foreign. The import duties levied on the latter at Cadiz amounted to 1,185,343 livres, and the export duties on both Spanish and foreign to 1,245,059; and admiralty and avería duties besides came to 419,623. The goods on board, then, cost 23,619,137 livres, to which must be added the following charges: transportation to America, 3,617,623; import duties and alcavala in America, 4,327,473; commissions on sales and return freight, 3,231,296—a total of 34,795,529 livres. The value of this merchandise in America was arbitrated at 43,274,787 livres; deducting the above costs, a profit of 8,479,258 livres remains from the merchandise sent from Spain to Nueva España. On the return voyage, the main part of the cargoes was in gold and silver—6,480,000 livres’ worth for the king, and 37,716,047 for the merchants; the crown monopolized copper and cacao, 259,200 and 12,960 respectively; the cochineal was worth 6,426,000 livres, and the indigo 4,160,160; and various drugs, dyes, etc. made with these a total of 56,216,533 livres (all these values being those estimated in America). To this cost must be added freight charges, 1,491,543 livres; and various duties to the crown (including customs, admiralty, church, etc., the largest being for “indult and coast-guards”), amounting to 6,428,987. Consequently, when the ships arrived at Cadiz the value of the gold and silver had been reduced to 5,625,607 livres for the king, and 32,775,345 for the merchants; while the cost of the other commodities had increased from 12,020,486 livres to 14,145,922. The current value in Europe of these goods (not including the gold and silver) was 18,465,419 livres, a gain over the entire cost of 4,319,497 livres (30½ per cent)—of which 124,527 belonged to the king, and the remainder to the merchants, as the net proceeds on the commerce between Spain and Nueva España, outside of the precious metals, in both the outward and return voyages each year.↑
15Churlo(orchurla; from the Latinculeo, ablative ofculeus): a sack made ofpita(i.e., agave) fiber-cloth, covered with another sack of leather, for carrying cinnamon and other articles from one region to another without losing their strength (Echegaray).↑
16Palmeo: measure by palmos; evidently referring to the usual estimate of lading-space in a ship by cubic palmos.↑
17That is, the spice trade with Nueva España, offered by Cadiz to Manila as an equivalent for the latter’s traffic in Chinese silks.↑