The coasting trade, which is a very important nursery for the marine
of the Philippines, is carried on exclusively by the national vessels,
no foreign ships being allowed to engage in it.
Manilla, being the only port open to the foreign merchants, is the
grand emporium or centre to which nearly all the productions of the
islands are brought, which regulation gives employment to an infinite
number of colonial shipping, in carrying them to that market. Every
day there are several arrivals from the various sea-ports of the
different districts of the islands, of brigs, schooners, pontines,
galeras, caracoas, and pancos, all of them being curious specimens
of every variety of ship-building, from the black and low snake-like
schooner, or handsome brig, to the most rude description of vessel
built. Where iron nails are scarce and expensive, some of these are
fastened together apparently in a manner the most unsatisfactory
possible for their crews or passengers, should they have to encounter
a gale of wind during their voyages.
Nearly the whole of the coasting trade is in the hands of the Indians,
or Mestizos of Chinese descent, called _Sangleys_, although several
Spaniards and European Mestizos at Manilla also own a better class of
ships than those described, constantly engaged in going and returning
from the provinces.
Still, from some cause or other, they do not appear to carry the on
trade so successfully as the provincial shipowners, most of whom have
only one or two small vessels, which they keep constantly running
between their native place and Manilla, and whose sole business
it is, after despatching either of them, to purchase up from the
cultivators of the soil, such small lots of their produce as are
cheap at the time, such as sugar, rice, &c., which they are able to
do at greatly lower terms, when buying them by little at a time, than
it would be possible for the agent of a merchant in Manilla to do,
whose operations it would probably be necessary should be conducted
upon a more extensive and quicker scale, and whose knowledge of the
district and of the vendors could seldom be equal to that of a native
Sangley, or Indian born among them.
In consequence of all the produce being originally purchased by small
lots at a time, it is of very variable quality; and on a cargo of
Muscovado sugar, for instance, being purchased from one of these
traders by a foreign merchant of Manilla, for exportation, it is
perfectly essential to open the whole of the bags in which it has
come up to Manilla from the provinces, and to empty their contents
into one great heap, which causes it to get well mingled together,
and ensures the requisite regularity of sample, after which it has
to be rebagged and shipped off to the foreign vessels that may be
waiting to receive it in the bay.
Of course the expense of all this is very considerable, for not
only is there all the labour and cost of bags, &c., incurred twice,
but there is the freight and insurance by the province vessel, which
has brought it up to Manilla, to be added to the natural cost of the
sugar at the place of its growth and manufacture.
All these restrictions on trade affect the quantity of sugar sold
by the native planters, and in a very material degree depress the
agricultural activity of the people, who suffer from them. But probably
there are no greater sufferers from such restrictive regulations than
the Government which so ignorantly sustains or has imposed them. So
little anxious have they been to encourage the trade, that formerly,
at various times, they very nearly all but ruined it, by imposing
import duties on all the produce of the provinces that came to
Manilla from them, for sale. This, added to the export duties at
the time of its shipment to foreign markets, so much increased the
cost of those articles in Manilla, that the foreign merchants there,
finding they could procure similar merchandise at other places for less
money, of course would not buy it; and the native traders, finding
their produce unsaleable except at losing prices, could not make any
further purchases from the native agriculturists, which caused so much
distress in the country, that the provinces got into a high state of
disaffection on several occasions, from the same cause; upon seeing
which the Government were wise enough to repeal their restrictive
laws, and allow the free interchange of commodities between all the
provinces of the Philippines.
For instead, as was supposed, of its falling upon the exporting foreign
merchants, and on those who bought their cargoes of Manilla produce
from them at the port of discharge, the tax fell upon the native
agriculturists, inasmuch as they had to reduce the former prices of
all their produce which paid the tax, and to equalise them to the
rates at which similar merchandise was procurable in other markets,
where no tax of the sort existed;--and this, of course, compelled the
cultivators of these articles in the Philippines to sell the produce
of their farms for less money than they formerly obtained for the same
goods. By so doing, it was equivalent to reducing the former wages of
their labour, or of the produce of their land--the effects of which
were speedily felt and comprehended by them, although some of the
officials, who imposed it, might scoff at the causes they assigned,
and reiterate their crude and erroneous notions of political economy,
to prove that it could not affect them, but must be paid by the great
merchants, or by the consumers of their produce in Europe. They quite
forgot that these could be supplied with the same things from other
places, where they were not subjected to the tax, and of course were
procurable cheaper.
Owners of vessels suitable for the coasting trade, who reside
in Manilla, have one advantage over the provincial ship-builders;
namely, that when the government service gives employment to shipping,
they are in a better position for offering for it, than persons at
a distance from the capital can be.
The freight of tobacco, for instance, gives a good deal of employment
to ships, and as government rates are in general rather better than
any charters obtainable from private merchants, the procuring of
a government contract for carrying any of the articles which they
monopolize, of which the above-mentioned is one, is an object of some
competition. These freights are usually settled by tenders, sealed and
delivered to an officer appointed to receive them, by the Yntendente,
or officer at the head of the Finance Department. I was acquainted
with a gentleman, who, having several idle vessels suitable for
this carrying trade, was of course most anxious to get the contract,
to give employment to his ships; and having found out who the other
contractors for it were, and all of them happening to be cautious
men, not likely to offer for it at a losing price, he resolved to
play a bold game, and made his tender for the conveyance of it out
in some such words as these: "I offer freight for the tobacco, at
one _cuarto_ less than any body else will take it at," and signed
his name; a _cuarto_ being the very smallest copper coin current at
Manilla. Of course he got the contract; which--as he anticipated from
knowing the men who offered for it--turned out to be a very good one;
and, as the Yntendente of the time was an intimate friend of his,
he ran little risk of being taken advantage of, by a lower sum being
named to him as the lowest tender than what was actually the case.
Nearly all the tobacco collected in Cagayan is yearly brought to
Manilla during the north-east monsoon. The contracts for this purpose
generally embrace a term of three or four years, during which the rate
paid by Government to the person who engages to bring all the bales
(or cases) of it which they may require at one fixed freight, never
fluctuates, even although the amount shipped by them is very much in
excess of the usual quantity, and he may be forced to charter vessels
from his neighbours at a much higher rate than the Government pay him,
in order to fulfil the conditions of his contract. Considerable care
is requisite in loading this tobacco, as, should there be a mistake
made even of one bale, the contractor is forced to account for it to
Government at the price they sell it at, which is about three times
as much as they pay for it; and this regulation is no doubt found to
be very requisite, in order to prevent fraud.
After the tobacco has been manufactured into cigars, the contractor
has to deliver it at various stations throughout the islands, these
places being generally the head-quarters of the fiscal or _estanco_
department of the different maritime provinces from which the other are
supplied. Besides the coasting trade from the provinces to Manilla,
and that in the government service, there is a trade carried on
by various provinces between themselves, such as conveying rice or
paddy from the grain-districts to other provinces where less of it
is grown, from the attention of the natives being directed to some
other agricultural produce more suitable than paddy to their soil and
climate, as from Antique to Mindora or Zamboanga, or from the island
of Samar to that of Negros, or to Mesamis. Thus in the hemp provinces,
little paddy is planted, as it is more profitable for them to make
hemp, or to weave Sinamais cloths, &c., than to do so. This commerce,
however, is not of any great extent; the principal--indeed the only
great--market of the country being Manilla, where traders from all
parts of the Archipelago meet to buy and sell.
It has been mentioned elsewhere that foreign men, as well as foreign
ships, are at present excluded from engaging in the provincial trade;
which is about as illiberal and unwise an act as any country could
be guilty of, and should be changed, not for the benefit of foreign
traders, but for the good of the country.
In connexion with the province trade, the naval school ought to be
mentioned, as it is a most useful institution, where arithmetic,
geometry, and navigation are taught gratuitously, at an expense to
Government of nearly 2,400 dollars a-year.
The President of the Chamber of Commerce is also President of the
school, and the members of that body have the privilege of admitting
the pupils--a right which I believe they exercise liberally. At this
place, boys are very well trained up in the scientific and theoretical
part of their profession; but unfortunately, from some cause or other,
their education afterwards as practical seamen does not keep pace with
it, and they generally are as much behind our British or American
shipmasters in all relating to the sea, as can be well conceived,
although they are not unfrequently superior to them, and at least
are equal, in their theoretical attainments.
At this school, many of the Creoles and Mestizos of Manilla have
shown to the world that they did not want the ability to learn,
when they had good masters to instruct them; but good heads and
hands are seldom found together. In fact, I rather think that the
lads educated here are taught too much (if that be possible), and
by being so, have their ideas raised above their stations; for many
of them are, by a great deal, much more like gentlemen than a number
of the merchant skippers or mates in our British ships, whose horny
fists and tar-stained dress make few pretensions to outward gentility.
Among the province-trading vessels lying at anchor in Manilla
river, there are at all times to be seen some curious specimens of
ship-building, few of them being insurable.
Some of these coasters, although nearly all shaped in the European
style, have almost the whole of their rigging constructed of ropes
made from the bamboo, and are fitted with anchors made from ebony
or some other heavy wood, having occasionally a large piece of stone
fastened to them, to insure their sinking. The cables to which they
are attached are generally of a black rush, like sedge, or of bamboo;
but in the event of a gale, I should say that their crews had great
need never to embark in these frail shells, except when well assured
of being at peace with God and man.
In ordinary years these vessels are laid up for several months every
season, as it would most probably be certain destruction for any of
them to attempt proceeding to sea from October till December.
Although a large proportion of the colonial-built vessels are bad,
still there are a few constructed in the country which would be
considered fine ships in any part of the world.
When a good vessel is built there, the first voyage she makes is
usually to Spain, if she can get a freight; and after discharging
her cargo, her next voyage is to a British port, in order that she
may be fitted with copper bolts and iron work, under the inspection
of Lloyd's surveyor; after which her character is established, and
she is classed A 1 ship for a term of years.
But notwithstanding these ships being placed in Lloyd's books,
the insurance offices can seldom be persuaded to accept of risks
even in first-class vessels, when their crews are Spaniards, on
the same favourable terms at which risks are freely taken on good
British ships. They almost invariably demand an increased premium,
and occasionally decline risks by them altogether.
Now, although bad management sometimes occurs on board of Spanish
ships, our own are not exempt from it; and I believe that prejudice
causes them to refuse the insurance as much as anything else.
The Dons have got a bad name as seamen, and very true is the elegant
proverb, "Give a dog a bad name, and hang him."