and from the gifts of the merchants. Captain Arguelles told Careri in 1696 that his commissions would amount to twentyfive thousand dollars or thirty thousand dollars, and that in all he would make forty thousand dollars; that the pilot would clear twenty thousand dollars and the mates nine thousand dollars each. The pay of the sailors was three hundred and fifty dollars, of which seventy-five dollars was advanced before the start. The merchants expected to clear one hundred and fifty to two hundred per cent. The passenger fare at the end of the eighteenth century was one thousand dollars for the voyage to Acapulco, which was the hardest, and five hundred dollars for the return. Careri's voyage to Acapulco lasted two hundred and four days. The ordinary time for the voyage to Manila was seventy-five to ninety days." "One such voyage," wrote Careri, "is enough to destroy a man or make him unfit for anything as long as he lives."

The business of the colony was confined almost entirely to this demoralizing galleon trade with Mexico. "The people of Manila," said Archbishop Rojo, "are only busy for two or three months each year getting ready their bales for the Acapulco ship and during the rest recline at ease. This ease is the pillow and stimulus of other vices, and one of the effects which is experienced is the multitude of clerks and the huge amounts of copying paper which are consumed throughout the year.'

9914

The trade continued until 1718, when the merchants of Seville and Cadiz succeeded, over the protest of the viceroy, in having the importation of Chinese silk into Mexico forbidden. But the merchants of Manila were also active and sent a representative to Madrid, who, after a long struggle before the Council of the Indies, succeeded in getting the law modified so that in 1734 the trade was reopened, and the amounts of exports and imports increased to five hundred thousand dollars and one million dollars, respectively. The last galleon sailed from Manila in 1811 and returned in 1815. Thereafter the trade was in the hands of private persons, but was limited to seven hundred and 14 Rojo's Narrative, B. & R., XLIX, p. 193.

fifty thousand dollars a year and confined to designated ports in Mexico and South America. The direct trade with Spain was carried on by a public ship until 1783, when it was granted to the Royal Philippine Company as a monopoly. This company ceased to exist in 1830.

In the early years there was some communication between Spain and Japan, and this continued until the massacre by the latter of the Christian missionaries. At that time many of the converted Japanese escaped to Manila, where they were allowed to reside. The missionaries did all in their power to encourage Japanese and Chinese to come to the islands because they hoped thereby to increase the number of their converts. The Chinese were trading with the natives at Manila before the arrival of the Spaniards, and after the founding of the Spanish city they settled there in such numbers as to create apprehensions. In 1580 Governor Ronquilla inaugurated the policy of segregating the Chinese, Japanese and the Malays from Borneo, and subjecting them to special laws and restrictions.15 He built the Parian under the guns of the fort and the alcaceria or silk market, where all except such as were married to Filipino women were required to live and transact their business. As the number continued to increase, the Parian was relocated and laid out as a barrio. It soon grew into a Chinese town with its own church, cemetery and priest. But it was always under military guard. The Parian became the commercial quarter of Manila where all kinds of Chinese, Japanese and European goods, wares and merchandise were sold.

The Chinese were the artisans and laboring men, the carpenters and blacksmiths, as well as the merchants of the city. In the course of time the entire community became dependent upon them. They had the same characteristics then as now. They were willing and anxious to work, and as neither the Spaniards nor the Indians were particularly ambitious in that direction, their opportunities were practically unlimited. It was inevitable

15 Vide Extracts from the Laws of the Indians, Relative to the Chinese in the Philippines, B. & R., XXII, p. 151.

that they should become the possessors of most of the wealth of the community. A good idea of the extent of the business is gained from the following contemporary letter quoted by Argensola.16

"The city is remarkable for the size of the buildings, which have surprised me. I shall mention only one, which is the chief one. It has an Alcayceria that contains all kinds of silks and gold, and mechanical trades; and for these things there are more than four hundred shops, and generally more than eight thousand men who trade therein. When the trading fleet comes in from China with their merchandise . . there are always more than thirteen thousand or fourteen thousand men. They bring wonderful things that are found in Europa."

The Chinese were a source of constant worry to the authorities, and the policy pursued was that of restriction and regulation. It was never satisfactory. The enforcement or nonenforcement of the strict regulations was used by the officials as a means of graft, and many accumulated wealth through the possession of discretionary powers in this respect. Fear, jealousy, envy, race hatred, and policy tempted the Spaniards to destroy the Chinese, and this they did at pretty regular intervals. They were probably justified in their distrust and fear. The yellow peril had already appeared upon the horizon. The shadow of a probable invasion was always over the land. After the visit of the mandarins, the Spaniards thought it advisable to abandon the Moluccas, in order to devote their entire strength to preparing for defense against the Chinese. In 1603 there were only about eight hundred Spaniards in the city of Manila and its environs, while there were about twenty thousand Chinese, who were often bold and insolent. The revolt against Rajah Brooke in the near-by country of Sarawak two centuries later shows what they were capable of doing. In the troubles of 1603 the Chinese probably took the initiative; if so, they paid the penalty of annihilation.

16 Conquesta (1609), B. & R., XVI, p. 296.

But after the massacre the Spaniards began to fear that they had overdone the matter, and that the citizens, Spaniards as well as Indians, would be under the dire necessity of going to work. This, we are told, "conspired to sadden the minds of the Spaniards." Morga says that "after the end of the war the need of the City began, for, because of not having Chinese who worked at the trades, and brought in all the provisions, there was no food, nor shoes to wear, not even at excessive prices. The native Indians are very far from exercising those trades, and have even forgotten much of farming and the raising of fowls, cattle and cotton, and the weaving of cloth, which they used to do in the days of their paganism and for a long time after the conquest of the country. In addition to this, people thought that Chinese vessels would not come to the Islands with food and merchandise on account of the late revolution."17

So the governor sent a letter to China explaining why it had been necessary to kill the Sangleys and expressing the hope that the little incident would not prevent their friends from coming to Manila in the future. The Chinese, as usual, did not take the killing of their compatriots too seriously, and their goods were soon coming to Manila in quantities sufficient to supply the necessities of the inhabitants. The good people had learned a lesson, and thereafter a few Chinese were always left to do the work. In 1639, when they had increased to forty thousand, they killed only twenty-two thousand. After the slaughter in 1662 about eight thousand were left, but by 1755 they had again accumulated wealth, and at the instigation of the Spanish merchants, who had organized a society to take over all the buildings and grounds occupied by the Chinese communities, the governorgeneral ordered all the Chinese except such as had become Christians to be expelled from the islands. There were only 515 Christians, but with characteristic Celestial shrewdness about one thousand others announced that they were earnestly studying the

17 This was written about thirty-five years after Manila was founded. Rizal in a note to his edition of Morga's Sucesos cites this passage to sustain the view that the coming of the Spaniards and Chinese destroyed the industry and agriculture of the country.

doctrines and expected soon to become Christians, and they were permitted to remain.

The destruction of the Chinese in the provinces after the departure of the British again produced a shortage in the labor supply, and the order of expulsion was revoked. In 1804 it was ordered that only those engaged in agriculture should be allowed to live in the country. But a Chinaman will not long remain an agriculturist. He travels rapidly from a garden plot to a tiende and by easy stages to a wholesale house in Calle Rosario. A few years later they were permitted to engage in any branch of industry providing a permit was first obtained from the proper government official. It is needless to say that in many cases these permits cost a great deal of money.

During later times the Chinese greatly increased in number. In 1876 there were over thirty thousand, and in 1886 the number had increased to one hundred thousand. Many were smuggled in from Borneo, a custom which to some extent has survived to the present time. In 1886 the Chinese were forbidden to reside in the provinces or to trade with the Moros. Two years later they were forbidden absolutely to live in Mindanao. Such was their status when the country passed under the sovereignty of the United States, and her exclusionary acts were made operative.

The Spanish system of government rested like a dead weight upon the millions of common people. There was little to encourage any one to aspire to improve his condition; nothing was required of the native but to be good and obey orders. Slavery, the encomienda, the trade restrictions, forced labor, personal service in many forms, all served to prevent the growth of selfrespect and personal independence. The perpetual quarrels of the officials and the ecclesiastics, the oppressive acts of the military officials and alcades, rendered the government an object of hatred to the people. With examples of official corruption constantly before them it is not surprising that they were not imbued with high ideals of government and were inclined to accept the view that the first duty of every public servant was to