Through ignorance and a misconception of the nature of the country,
many people are in the habit of adducing the scantiness of manufactures
among the Indians, as an evidence of their backwardness in civilization
and the arts which it teaches.
But this is not so in reality, for if our readers reflect on the
subject a short time, it can scarcely fail to occur to them, that
the fertility of the soil, and the abundance of primary materials,
even of those made use of in the manufactories, is the true reason
why they neglect manufactures, and turn all their attention to growing
the raw produce, from which spring the materials for conducting them.
It is this cause which makes the Americans send their cotton-wool to
Manchester, to be there, at some thousands of miles from the place
of its growth, made into cloth--and the shepherds of Australia to
send their wool to Yorkshire for a like purpose.
This appears paradoxical, but it is true. A day's labour on a fertile
tropical soil is better recompensed when it is directed to grow cotton,
than it would be, were the same labour applied to weaving the wool
into cloth; for although this climate is suitable for the growth of
cotton in the fields, it does not at all follow that it is so for
weaving cloth, as has been proved to be the case in the United States.
In that country, where manufacturing industry has so much energy
of character in those carrying it on to back it up, and to secure a
satisfactory result, it appears very strange that we should be able
to beat them in the manufacture of their own produce.
But although many efforts have repeatedly been made by speculative
and sanguine men to weave all the descriptions of cotton cloth made
in Great Britain by the power-loom, they have never been able to
do so in the United States. Even when they have actually carried
machinery and men from Manchester to work it, across the Atlantic,
the produce of the looms has been of a different quality of cloth
to that which the same cotton yarn would have produced by the same
machinery in Great Britain. This can only be accounted for, I believe,
by estimating the effects of climate. The moisture of the atmosphere,
the difference of water, and other causes, have been assigned as
the cause of this very remarkable circumstance, and perhaps some,
or all of them, have their share in producing it.
In the Philippines, the natural shrewdness of the people, who show
considerable aptitude in the arts which experience has taught them
will pay them best, is demonstrated by the neatness of execution
which characterises many of their handiworks, demanding no small
portion of skill, care, and perseverance; the elaborate execution
of the gold ornaments worn by the women frequently exhibiting signs,
in a very high degree, of skilful and neat workmanship.
I have seen chains, &c., of native make, quite as beautifully and as
curiously worked as any I have seen in China, where those ornaments
are made in more perfection than the European gold or silversmiths
have as yet been able to attain.
But probably the piña cloth manufactured in the Philippines, is the
best known of all the native productions, and it is a very notable
instance of their advance in the manufacturing arts.
There is perhaps no more curious, beautiful, and delicate specimen of
manufactures produced in any country. It varies in price according to
texture and quality, ladies' dresses of it costing as low as twenty
dollars for a bastard sort of cloth, and as high as fifteen hundred
dollars for a finely-worked dress. The common coarse sort used by the
natives for making shirts costs them from four to ten dollars a shirt.
The colour of the coarser sorts is not, however, good; and the high
price of the finer descriptions prevents its becoming generally a
lady's dress; and the inferior sorts are not much prized, chiefly
because of the yellowish tinge of the white cloth. The fabric is
exceedingly strong, and, I have been informed, rather improves in
colour after every successive washing.
Piña handkerchiefs and scarfs are in very general use by the Manilla
ladies, although they are rather expensive; the price of the former,
when of good quality, being from about five to ten pounds sterling
each, while for a scarf of average quality and colour about thirty
pounds is paid. The coarser descriptions can be had for much less
money than the sums mentioned; and the finest qualities would cost
from three to four times more than the amounts I have set down.
Besides the piña there is also a sort of cloth made by the natives
called jusè (pronounced husè), or siriamaio, which makes very beautiful
dresses for ladies. It is manufactured from a thread obtained from
the fibres of a particular sort of plantain tree, which is slightly
mixed with pine-apple thread; and the fabric produced from both of
these is very beautiful, being fine and transparent, and looking,
to the unaccustomed eye, finer than the ordinary sort of piña cloth.
It can be made of any pattern, and is generally striped or checked
with coloured threads of silk mingled with the other two descriptions.
The manufacture of both these articles is carried on to a small extent
in the immediate neighbourhood of Manilla; but in the provinces of
Yloylo and Camarines the best jusè is produced, the price of which is
very much lower than piña, as a lady's dress of it may be got at from
seven to twenty dollars; and for the latter amount a very handsome
one would be obtained.
In addition to these manufactures, which the natives have appropriated
and made their own, from the greater facilities found in the
Philippines than in other places less adapted by nature for their
prosecution, the Government has been at some pains to force them
to engage in the manufacture of cotton yarn and cloth by imposing
high duties on those descriptions of foreign manufactured goods
most suitable for the native dress, either from their partiality to
particular colours, or from other causes.
And for this reason solely a number of kambayas of blue and white
checks are made in the country by the native hand-loom, these colours
being in general favourite ones of the Indians; the custom-house
duty on such goods, and on other favourite colours, being 15 and 25
per cent., according to the flag of the vessel importing them; the
Spaniards guarding their own shipping, and securing to it a monopoly
of the carrying trade by that difference of the import duty. Should
these goods come from Madras, which is their native country, the duty
charged on them is 20 and even 30 per cent.
Although these rates of duty may be considered high enough, they
are in reality very much more than that per-centage, because the
duty is charged by the authorities on a very high fixed valuation,
or on the _ad valorem_ principle, which actually is equivalent to
increasing the rates of duty, were that only charged upon the actual
market price. Since the beginning of this year (1851), however,
I understand some changes have been made in the tariff by altering
the valuations of goods.
Kambayas are used as sayas, or outer petticoats, by the native or
Mestiza girls, and are generally made of cotton cloth, although,
of late, jusè and silk sayas appear to be more generally worn than
they used to be.
Tapiz of silk and cotton is also manufactured in the country. This
piece of dress is used as a sort of shawl, and is wrapped tightly
round the loins and waist, above the saya, being generally a black
or dark blue ground, with narrow white stripes upon it, which, when
the garment is worn, encircles the body.
The great advantage which the natives have over foreign manufacturers
of these coloured cloths consists not so much in the duty, although
that is an immense protection, as in the quickness with which they
are able to meet the changes of taste in the patterns and designs
of such fancy goods. For it is evident that before designs of new
styles can reach Great Britain, and the goods be manufactured there,
and shipped off to Manilla, many months must elapse, during which the
native manufacturers have been supplying the market with these new and
approved styles of goods, and of course reaping all the advantages of
an active demand, exceeding the supply, by the high prices obtainable
for the new designs. For the market of Manilla varies as much, and
the tastes of the people are as inconstant and capricious with regard
to their dress, as the natives of almost any country can be.
It will scarcely be believed, that in this remote quarter of Asia,
many of the natives of the country are as much _petits maîtres_ in
their own way, as a gallant of the Tuileries or of St. James's. It
would astonish most people to see some of these poor-looking Indians,
or Mestizos, wearing a jewel of the value of four or five hundred
dollars in the breast of their shirts, or in a ring on their fingers.
No doubt some of them prefer keeping their money in this way, as it is
easily transportable, and is always about their persons, to leaving
their dollars or gold ounces concealed somewhere about their houses,
from which they may frequently be obliged to be absent. Though, as
it is a common custom for the natives to have a piece of bamboo in
which to deposit their ready-money, and as there is so much bamboo
work about the house, of course it is not very difficult for them
to select one piece, which from its being out of the way, and rather
unapproachable, renders it a secure deposit for their hoards.
Towels, napkins, and table-cloths, are also manufactured by them, from
the cotton of the country, and Governor Enrile taught some of their
weavers how to make canvas from cotton. It is now very extensively
used by the native shipping, and bears the name of the distinguished
and philanthropic individual who taught them how to make it, being
known by the name of _Lona de Enrile_, which name may it long bear,
and remain as the most honourable memento any governor could leave
behind him, of his beneficent and wise interest in the affairs and
administration of an important colony.
At several places in Luzon, and in Cebu, &c., the natives make
a species of cloth from the plantain-tree, known by the names of
_Medrinaque_ and _Guiara_ cloths. The former description is in the
greatest consumption, being stouter and more valuable than the other
sort, and is mostly all bought up by the natives themselves, although
a small portion of it is also exported.
The bulk of all the _Medrinaque_ exported goes to the United States,
to the extent of about 30,000 pieces annually; and sometimes as much
as double that quantity is sent, although last year there were only
about 23,000 pieces purchased for that market, a large quantity having
gone to Europe, which is a novel feature of the trade in the article.
Although the silkworm is bred to some small extent in the country,
the silk manufacture is not extensively carried on, as the market can
so easily and quickly be supplied from China with any description of
goods in demand. Some articles of dress are, however, successfully
made by the Indians, to oppose the China silks in the market, such
as tapiz for the women, and panjamas for the men.
In various parts of the country, the manufacture of earthenware is
pursued to a small extent. It is generally of a very coarse description
for cooking purposes, water-jugs, &c., and does not interfere with
the sale of the finer China ware, with which the natives are supplied
for most of their household purposes by the Chinese dealers in the
article, that of China make being very much finer than any they have
as yet produced in the country.
In the colours and patterns of their dresses the natives are great
dandies; the women, as usual, being more particular in those affairs
than the men. Very seldom, indeed, does a native Indian or Mestiza
beauty sport the same saya for two gala days consecutively. And a
very large proportion of their earnings are spent in self-adornment,
their _tanpipes_, or wardrobes, being very well supplied with clothes,
all of them of different patterns. Blue and purple appear to be the
colours most admired, because, although the tastes and caprices of the
people may vary in an infinite degree as to the patterns or styles of
their dresses, they do not differ much in their choice of the colours
which compose them. A dark complexioned beauty is never improved
by a yellow dress; and any woman at all old or ugly looks hideous
indeed when dressed in that colour. Apparently the Government were
not ignorant of this when they imposed a heavy duty on blue, purple,
or white articles of dress, and allowed yellow and other colours
disliked by the natives to come into the country on the payment of a
less duty. They have even gone the length of allowing yellow cotton
twist of foreign manufacture to be imported duty free.
Truly this was very cunning of them--this apparent liberality to
a foreign nation, ignorant that the colour would scarcely ever be
used. Its affected moderation would most certainly tend to stop any
complaints which might be made about the high duties imposed on our
manufactures imported into the colony.
But perhaps the authorities had some design on the native beauties,
when they held out such an inducement for them to wear unbecoming
dresses. Who can say if the official who drew the scheme up had not
a wife, jealous of the influence of some dark Indian beauty, to whom
she thus held out the inducement of cheap dress, to disarm the power
of her charms! Or, it may be, as the priests are at the bottom of
most things in Spain, who can tell but their influence was exerted
to get this law passed in the pious hope of inducing those feelings
of self-abasement and humility which the sense of being ugly, or even
plain-looking, generally induces among the fair?