Philippine progress prior to 1898 : $b a source book of Philippine history to supply a fairer view of Filipino participation and supplement the defective Spanish accountsCraig, Austin
History
Philippine progress prior to 1898 : $b a source book of Philippine history to supply a fairer view of Filipino participation and supplement the defective Spanish accounts
Craig, Austin
Philippines
"In regard to the first part, which pertain to the merchandise,
the trade of the Filipinas is so necessary today in Nueva España,
that the latter country finds it as difficult as do the islands to
get along without that trade; and its lack cannot be supplied with
merchandise from these kingdoms. The wares taken to Acapulco are
plain and figured velvets, satins, and damasks; grograms, taffetas,
and picotes; headdresses and stockings; silk, loose and twisted, in
skeins, that reeled on spindles, and woven; thread; tramas, plushes,
and other silk stuffs and textiles. Of cotton, there are sinavafas,
fine glazed buckrams (bocacies), glazed linen (olandilla), fine
muslins (canequies), and semianas; and of cotton and silk, beds,
curtains, coverlets, quilts, and other pieces. (They also carry)
civet, musk, and amber; gold and pearls; crockery-ware, cabinets,
and articles made of wood and other things; and the products of the
islands themselves, of which mention has been made (in the margin:
"In number 15"). But the bulk of the commerce is reduced to the silk
and cotton textiles; for there is but little else that is rare or
elegant, or that has much export. From the skeined silk, and the silk
thread, and trama are manufactured in Nueva España velvets, veils,
headdresses, passementeries, and many taffetas, which were taken to
Perú when there were ships that went to Callao, and to other parts
of the Indias--where the black, brown, and silver-colored goods that
are sent from Sevilla do not arrive in good shape, because the sea
rots them. It is known that the skein silk of China is more even and
elegant for delicate and smooth fabrics than is the Misteca which is
produced in that kingdom; besides that, there is less of the latter
kind than is necessary in the country. By this trade and manufacture,
more than fourteen thousand persons support themselves in Mexico, La
Puebla, and Antequera, by their looms, the whole thing being approved
by royal decrees. Of the cotton textiles, linens (lienzos) are used
in Nueva España more than any other stuff, as they are so cheap that
they sell for one and one-half or two reals per vara. Therefore, they
are desired by the Indians and negroes; and when these are lacking,
even though there should be an over-supply of the linens of Europa,
they do not want them or use them, as those are dear and not so much
used by them; and they get along with their own cloths from Campeche
or La Guasteca, and others that they weave."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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