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SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS [VOL. 50 



exclusively on the Chinese trade. 1 Despised, hated, and feared as 

 the Chinese were, they were nevertheless indispensable to the Islands, 

 and were practically their masters and rulers from an economical 

 viewpoint. The boots made by Chinese shoemakers in Manila were 

 so low in price that they could be sold with a large profit in New 

 Spain. As early as 1603 De Morga wrote: 



It is true that the city can neither go on nor maintain itself without these 

 Chinamen, because they are the workmen in all employments. They are very 

 industrious, and work for moderate wages. 



After the great massacre of 1603 the Spaniards felt keenly the 

 lack of the Chinese. There was no food to be found to eat, nor 

 shoes to wear, not even for very exorbitant prices. "The native 

 Indians," laments the chronicler, "are very far from fulfilling these 

 offices, and have even forgotten much of husbandry, the rearing of 

 fowls, flocks, cotton, and the weaving of robes, which they used to 

 do in the times of their paganism." 



De Morga gives a most extensive account of the manner of Chi- 

 nese trade, of the articles traded, of their transshipment to America, 

 and of the conditions of the life of the Chinese in the Philippines. 

 To enter into a discussion of this subject is beyond the scope of the 

 present paper; but I cannot refrain from relating a humorous inci- 

 dent which occurred in the history of early Spanish-Chinese trade. 

 It is taken from a tract printed in Mexico in 1638 and embodied 

 in Thevenot's "Voyages Curieux." These Chinese, says our author- 

 ity, were so eager for gain that if a particular article of merchandise 

 was a success one year, they tried the market again with it the follow- 



1 In Pieter Nuyts' (Dutch Governor of Formosa) Report on the Chinese 

 Trade to the Governor-General and Councillors of the United East India 

 Company, written in 1628, it is aptly remarked : "It is, indeed, certain that 

 the only support of the Spaniards and Portuguese in India is the China trade. 

 The wars we [i. e., the Dutch] have everywhere waged against them, with 

 the disgrace they have come to in Japan, have so weakened them, and ruined 

 their trade in other countries, that there is no other place except China where 

 they can make any profits worth mentioning. Accordingly, if we could suc- 

 ceed in depriving them of this trade, or at least in lessening their profits from 

 the same, as we have often done elsewhere, they would be compelled to aban- 

 don their best settlements, such as Macao, Manila, Malacca, and Timor ; while 

 their factory at Moluccas would lapse of itself. The authorities at Manila 

 clearly see this," etc. (Wm. Campbell, Formosa under the Dutch [London, 

 l 9°3]y P- 53)- About the same time, the merchants of Amoy petitioned the 

 authorities, complaining that the Dutch, by their constant attacks on vessels 

 trading with the Spanish, had completely destroyed the lucrative trade formerly 

 carried on beween Amoy and Manila (James W. Davidson, The Island of 

 Formosa, Past and Present [London, 1903], p. 12). 



