X 
344 ROBINSON. 
it would como nearest to G. punctatum Sch. & Then., to which it has much resem- 
blance. On the assumption, apparently warriinted, that it is the original cotton 
used in Ilocos, geography and history aid in its separation from that species, 
&s it is known that cotton was cultivated in that province before the coming of 
Europeans. Tliis by no means implies that it is native to the Philippines; the 
ppeeumption is rather that it was introduced from the western Malay Islands 
at an early date. 
There are many records of the cultivation of cotton in the Philippines, some 
of these dating back to the coming of the Spaniards, in 1521. Where definite 
localities are assigned, these are more often Ilocos, but not always. Briefly 
its history is that the Spaniards found a considerable industry here; that it 
decayed, at least so far as manufacture was concerned, owing to the importation 
of dearer and poorer Chinese and Indian materials; that the interruption in 
commerce at the end of the 18th century, due to the wars witli Great Britain, led 
to its revival ; that it has since continued as a minor industry. 
The following are a few of the more important references in Blair and 
Robertson's "The Philippine Islands." 
Probably 1586. "Ylocos .... is a land abounding in rice and cotton."^ At 
this time, cotton was exported from Manila.^ 
About 1620. "The canvas from which the sails are made in the said islands 
is excellent, and much better than wfiat is shipped from Espana, because it is 
made from cotton. They are certain cloths, which are called mantas from the 
Province of Ylocos, for the natives of that province manufacture nothing else, 
and pay your Majesty their tribute in them. They are one tercia wide, and as 
thick as canvas. They are doubled, and quilted with thread of the same cotton. 
They last much longer than those of EspaiXa." =*= 
1G29. (The Igorots) "take away blankets which the people in Ilocos make 
of excellent quality, from cotton, which is produced in abundance." =' This 
applies equally to the present day. 
In a very long description of the decay of the trade,^^ the cause assigned is 
that the money obtained by the Filipinos from the Spaniards left the former in 
such a state of comparative aflluence that they abandoned severer toil, and were 
cpntent to purchase from the Chinese and others cloth and similar products, 
which could much better have been made in the Islands and at lower prices. It 
was even proposed to prohibit such imports entirely. 
"The Armenians of India and the Chinese had likewise the control, from the 
time of the conquest of the islands, of importing into them annually the enormous 
quantities of small cotton articles [panuelos) and ordinary cambayas which the 
natives of the country consume, until intercourse with those coasts was interrupted 
in the late war with Inglaterra. Then necessity and the high price of those 
goods induced the natives of Filipinas to manufacture them, and in such abund- 
ance that the ships which arrived at Manila, after the peace, with those com- 
modities suffered great loss; and from that time the importation of those 
fabrics ceased, and the natives continued to manufacture them in the country. 
This has not been the ease, liowever, with the fine cambayas and kerchifs from 
Madrast, nor with the cotton fabricas from China;" the causes assigned being the 
superiority of Indian dyes, and the great population and large crops of China, 
leading to low^rices.^ 
^34: 382. . =^23: 279, 280 
''7: 35. «8: 78-95. 
"18: 178. «51: 253,254. 
