Introduction
In the late ‘80s, I had my first trip to Mandaon, Masbate. Along the way, we crossed about a dozen bridges without water under. In Mandaon, I saw hillocks and vast grasslands, with the trees growing on them I can almost count with my fingers—as far as I can see. I asked around why there are very few trees. One answer I got was that: When the Americans constructed the railway system for what would become the Philippine National Railways (PNR) today, they got the lumber for theirtraviesa(railway ties) from Mandaon. When there was nothing more to cut, they went to Samar. If there are a dozen or so dehydrated river beds then at some other time water could have profusely gurgled on them. It is tempting to imagine how green and lush this place was in its pristine past.
When I started surveying the Manila Galleons, my thoughts wandered back to Mandaon. I asked myself: Did not the Spaniards start it all and the Americans finish it off? There was anastillero(shipyard) in Mobo, Masbate and just across Ticao Island there was a bigger one in Bagatao, Magallanes, Sorsogon. Thoseastilleros, plus two others at the western coasts of the Bikol mainland, built and repaired Spanish vessels, from the largest galleons to the smallestkasko(canoe) used for naval campaigns and exploration of the islands. Therefore, there would be an exigent need for lumber fit for building seaworthy sea crafts. Mandaon was then a luxuriant forest that yielded excellent kinds of hard wood, the kinds that can withstand punitory thrashing in the high seas and, much later, the strenuous drubbing of railway tracks.
Bikol In the Galleon Timesis an attempt to look at what happened in the Bikol Region and with the early Bikolanos particularly in places where there wereastillerosat the time when, what used to be Ibalon, became the center of frenzied galleon building; at a time when the Dutch menacingly challenged the Spanish naval supremacy in Southeast Asia.
The engineering involved in building and in sailing the galleons was not discussed here. I peremptorily touched on the commerce that went with the Galleon Trade. I scratched the surface of the politics in the Galleon Trade. This monograph is limited to the information helpful towards the understanding that Bikol and the Bikolanos played a crucial role in the times of the Galleon—when Spain needed those ships most.
I do not carry any whiff of pretension to being a historian for I am but a student of Bikol culture and history. There is so much in our past, as Bikolanos, crying out to be brought to light by Bikolanos ourselves. Juan Alvarez Guerra, Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson, Norman G. Owen, Malcolm Mintz, Jason Lobel, Westerners all, have been most helpful towards understanding ourselves. But I shrink in anxiety that we have to wait for those guys from across the oceans to tell us what we were, who we were, what we did, what and how we can be. Novelist Stephen King has opened the doors toalternative history. Let us tell our own stories. It can be done. It must be done.
Thus, I ventured to ask why Bikol and the Bikolanos appear to be insignificant footnotes in that historical period when Spain was able to instill fear in her rivals, and more importantly, she was able to maintain her domination of the high seas for over three centuries. Weren’t the fastest, biggest, grandest, costliest, cannon ball-resistant, and most celebrated galleons built in the Bikol Region using native skills and materials that helped bring full circle the Spanish shipbuilding technology at that period of history?
The study of Bikol and the early Bikolanos and the Manila Galleons is a complex circ*mstance. The data concerning the study are really hard to come by, almost as “extinct” as the galleons themselves. I had to cope with whatever locally available exiguous documents which are mostly written in Spanish, to boot. Besides, a researcher needs efficient connections and adequate funding to be able to dig up documents stacked in some archives or museums across oceans. Memory has also escaped the people in communities where once upon a time the construction of a Manila Galleon ruled lives, dreams, and futures. We have allowed the winds to blow our own stories beyond our reach. We have allowed slivers of our soul to drift with the waves to far away shores.
Relics of the astilleros in Kabikolan failed to survive time and native insouciance. Even oral literature or oral tradition or testimony or oral history or plain orality seem to have forgotten the spell and the fascination thatonce-upon-a-timestories could beget.
Nevertheless—from here and there, anywhere and everywhere nearby—Bikol in the Galleon Timeshad to be done hoping that it may be able to open more windows to the past and perchance make out images if not colorful and blithe pictures out of the vast gray. The breadth of this monograph was hedged by available personal resour-ces, mainly financial, but the enthusiasm to dig deeper into the Bikolano contribution to the Galleon Trade as well as its impact on the Bikolano psyche is not a hauled-up sail.
I hope that Bikolanos will learn, understand, and appreciate whatever littleBikol in the Galleon Timescan share. It will be spiritually and culturally refreshing if more studies on this subject will be undertaken by Bikolano writers, scholars, and historians. This chapter of the Manila Galleon history, more particularly Bikol history, is scandalously understudied. It seems that whenever we wish to know who we were, who we are, where we are, where we will be, we turn to our conquerors for answers and validation. It seems that our subjugation persists well into these modern times because we allow it to eventuate, unwittingly or indifferently may be.
And by way of note, I spellBikoland other indigenous words with akbut I observe the spelling of similar words as used in official documents. This is consistent with my advocacy of promotingAlbay-Bikolto be able to vigorously contribute to the development of a comprehensiveBikol-Bikolembracing all languages in the region to foster clearer communication and appreciation among us, Bikolanos.
Featured image from the China Ship series, South China Morning Post, 2018
TABLE OF CONTENTS
From caravel to galleon
On this page is an illustration of a Manila Galleon(image from Wikipedia.)This is a large, heavy Spanish ship with three or four decks at its stern and one more at its bow. It is made of wood, with its framework of teak and molave, fastened together by nails, metals, and ropes; glued by some kind of paste (elemi,salongin Bikol) from saps of trees and other sources. The winds move the vessel through its sails composed of three to five masts with a lateen sail usually used in the third mast.
Ships of this kind were also calledGaleones de Manila-Acapulco.In time, the name would becomeManila Galleonto compliment the city where the ship was sailing from. Besides, the galleons, or most of them, were built in the Philippines, using Philippine timber, abaca fibers from Bikol for their riggings and ropes, and sailcloths from the Ilocos. The metals used in the ship came from China, Japan, Macao, and India but crafted by local metal smiths such as those who toiled in the astillero of Dancalan in Donsol, Sorsogon to suit Spanish galleon shipwright requirements.
Galleons evolved from the caravel and carrack as nations in Europe started to undertake new great ocean-going voyages from the 16th to the 18th centuries.
The term “galleon” had been in use long before the ship type that it now technically refers to came into existence. It originally referred to certain types of war galleys in the Middle Ages. TheAnnali Genovesimentions galleons of 80, 64, and 60 oars used for speed in battle and on missions of exploration in the 12th and 13th centuries. Later the term was applied to sails only vessels.
The Spanish Captain and naval architect Álvaro de Bazán with Pedro de Menéndez designed the definitive model of the galleon in the 1550’s.
A caravel is a small 15th century Spanish and Portuguese merchant vessel, extremely broad beamed, with a round stern and sharp convex bow. It had a forecastle projecting over the stern and a small poop aft. The main mast stood exactly amidships. Christopher Columbus’NiñaandPintawere caravels (Tunis, 1994; 619).
A carrack ornauwas a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in the 15th century Western Europe for use in voyages across the Atlantic Ocean. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle, and bowsprit at the stern. It was first used by the Portuguese and the Spaniards to explore and map the world. It was usually square rigged on the foremast and main mast and lateen rigged on the mizzenmast. The carrack was stable on the heavy seas and roomy enough to carry provisions for extended and extensive voyages. The Portuguese called itnau, the Spaniards had it as carraca ornao. The French called it caraque ornef(Konstan, 2002; 77-79).
In Portugal, carracks were built rather big for their time. They often weighed over 1,000 tons. These vessels were used for transporting cargo thus they were lightly armed. On the other hand, other European-built galleons were comparatively smaller at 500 tons. But the Manila Galleons were bigger than the carracks. They had weights of from 1,700 to 2,500 tons. Of course, there were smaller and lighter ones.
Galleons were first built in the 15th and 16th centuries. Their main use was as warships. Spain used them to launch her New World explorations, secure the treasures she captured, defend the territories she conquered, and undertake her seafaring expeditions in the world’s biggest, most challenging, and unexplored open seas. The galleons established Spain as a world power and allowed her to enjoy her world dominance for over three centuries.
As to the costs of constructing those ships, galleons were cheaper to build. Funds needed to build five galleons could only pay for three carracks. And they came in much cheaper as Spain started to build them in her newly conquered territories, particularlyNueva Españaand thenLas Islas Filipinas.
Galleons were used for war and for commerce thus they were usually armed with demi-culverin guns and in some cases demi-cannon. A demi-culverin was a “small” firearm, half the size of a large cannon. It is very long in proportion to its bore. This was popular in the 16th and 17th centuries (The Readers’ Digest Great Encyclopaedic Dictionary, Vol. I, 1976; 224).
The challenges that sailing the oceans posed were considered in building the galleons making them better than the caravel or the carrack. The new vessel would have lower forecastles and elongated hulls to achieve stability in the water, reduced wind resistance at the front thus making it faster and more maneuverable.
The versatility of the galleons was noted. A galleon could be conveniently refitted for wartime and peacetime roles. Galleons became the prototype of all three- or more-masted, square rigged ships, and even the full rigged ships which came later.
The gateway of the galleon trade
It was on June 1, 1565, when the first galleon sailed to Acapulco, Mexico from San Miguel, Cebu, Philippines. It was the 300-ton San Pablo under the command of Captain Felipe de Salcedo, grandson of El Adelantado Miguel Lopez de Legazpi. He was sometimes called “El Viejo” (The Elder). He was with Fray Andres de Urdaneta, OSA, as pilot. As a pilot, Urdaneta reputedly used only a compass and his knowledge of wind and tide for navigation. Trouble brewed in the vessel as San Pablo sailed its uncharted course. Urdaneta was compelled to assume command. At that time, Felipe de Salcedo was said to be only 15 years old. Had it not been for the wisdom of Urdaneta, that voyage could not have achieved anything but mutiny if not another untold gruesome tragedy whose eerie story would lay stilled in the dark bosom of the Pacific Ocean.
San Pablo was one of the four galleons used by Miguel Lopez de Legazpi to come to the Philippines. The Legazpi expedition was sent by Don Luis de Velasco under the direction of King Philip II. Legazpi’s fleet was composed of the galleons San Pedro, San Juan de Letran, San Pablo, and San Lucas escorted by a brigantine. A brigantine, also called brig or bergantin, was a two-masted seacraft with square sails.
Before Miguel Lopez de Legazpi launched his naval journey to the Philippines, he had nothing to do with seafaring or going on expeditions. He actually was practicing a land-based civilian profession. He was a bureaucrat turned businessman who spent most of his time in the relative comfort of an office, in contrast to the lives of typical conquistadores of his generation who distinguished themselves by annexing territories through the often-bloody military campaigns. He was essentially a landlubber. Interestingly, Legazpi is remembered as a captain and a navigator. A closer look at his curriculum vitae shows that he was not even qualified for both positions (de Borja, 1966; 18).
Legazpi was born in the town of Zumarraga, Gipuzkoa, Spain in 1503. He was the second son of Juan Martinez de Legazpi and Elvira de Gurruchategui. His father was a royal scribe in Areria, one of the three districts of Gipuzkoa. In 1528, Legazpi was working as a secretary of the colonial administration in Mexico — the Ayuntamiento. He became a town mayor and then a high official of the Casa de Moneda (Minting House). He was a rich landowner. From 1528-1564, he amassed great wealth and fortune.
Legazpi was married to Isabel Garces and fathered nine children, five boys and four girls. He was 61 years old when the expedition to the Philippines was launched. Legazpi was a Basque (de Borja, 1966; 18).
It was another Basque who worked for Legazpi’s leadership over the 1564 naval expedition to the Philippines: Fray Andres de Urdaneta, OSA. Urdaneta was born in the town of Ordizia in Gipuzkoa in 1498. He was orphaned at an early age. Before his parents died they expressed desire for Andres to become a priest.
Before becoming a man of the cloth, he was first a soldier. He joined Spain’s military campaigns in Italy and France. He was conferred the rank of a Captain. In one of their military campaigns, he was captured by the Portuguese and brought to Portugal. While in Portugal, he was said to have confessed that he fathered a daughter whom he abandoned in Lisbon to escape prosecution by the Portuguese Monarch. However, there is no clear proof that he ever contracted marriage (de Borja, 1966; 18).
Urdaneta settled in Mexico in 1538 and got a job in the colonial government. In 1552, at the age of 54, he got tired of his military and naval career and joined the Augustinian Order. On September 24, 1553, he received an order from King Philip II to join an expedition to the Western Isles (Moluccas). He recommended to King Philip II that Legazpi should head the expedition. Considering the experiences of Urdaneta’s recommendee, there were oppositions from several quarters, especially in Mexico. But Urdaneta said that he won’t go without Legazpi. On the other hand, Legazpi expressed willingness to undertake the enterprise even if he had to use his personal resources with request for reimbursem*nt. Later, the well-off Legazpi would die with much of his wealth minified. King Philip II gave the orders to Don Luis de Velasco, Viceroy of Nueva España, to facilitate the voyage. Legazpi and Urdaneta selected a number of fellow Basques to man the key positions of the expedition.
Mateo de Saz, became the Captain of the galleon San Pablo while concurrently holding the post of Master-of-Camp (roughly the equivalent of a colonel) and second in command of the expedition. In the galleon San Pedro, the 500-ton flagship, were Martin de Ibarra, a native of Bilbao, as Master. He was with Francisco de Astigarribia who was named as Boatswain; Esteban Rodriguez as First Mate; and Pierre Plin, a French Basque, as Second Mate.
In the galleon San Juan de Letran were Juan de la Isla, possibly a Biz-kaian, and his brother Rodrigo, as Mate; Andres de Ibarra, a Mexican Basque, a First Lieutenant; Martin de Goite, as Captain of Artillery; Luis de Haya, Master Seargent; Andres de Mirandola, a nephew of Legazpi and an Auditor of the Royal Treasury; Felipe de Salcedo, grandson of Legazpi; Guido de Lavezares, Treasurer of the expedition; and Andres de Carchela, Accountant.
With Legazpi were the Basque Augustinian missionaries Fray Diego de Herrera, Fray Andres de Aguirre together with Fray Martin de Rada and Fray Pedro de Gamboa who were both from Navarre (de Borja, 1966; 25). Legazpi left the Port of La Navidad, Mexico on November 21, 1564. The fleet had about 450 sailors, crews, and soldiers. While still near the Port of Navidad, San Juan de Letran returned to port for repairs. The voyage continued with three galleons and the brigantine with a complement dramatically reduced to 150 sailors and 200 soldiers (Fish, 2011; 62). San Pedro, the fleet’s flagship, had Legazpi and Urdaneta aboard.
There are differing accounts on the composition of Legazpi’s fleet. One has it that the galleons were the Capitana as the flagship, the San Pablo, and the San Pedro escorted by the tenders San Juan and San Lucas (Mairin, 1964; 101). Fish counted in the San Pedro as flagship with the San Juan de Letran, the San Lucas, and the San Pablo, the fleet being escorted by a brigantine. Fish’s narrative is more consistent with widely accepted accounts on the subject. Her account finds corroboration from de Borja’s.
De Borja has it that on November 21, 1564, ten days after the fleet left Port of La Navidad, San Lucas deserted. She was unheard of until 1565. Until then, her whereabouts remained mysterious. A later report would have it that the San Lucas was sighted somewhere off Mindanao. No reason has surfaced why San Lucas deserted Legazpi’s fleet. On February 13, 1565, the island of Samar was sighted. On April 27, 1565, the San Pablo anchored off the island of Cebu. They had travelled 9,000 nautical miles from Mexico to Cebu for about 93 days (Mairin, 1964; 101).
Since the arrival of Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 at what will be known as the Philippines and the expeditions that followed, the problem of how to go back to Mexico remained an enigma for quite a time. They found no return route eastward. Their voyages were often a one way trip. Divine intervention was exalted when the voyagers could get back to where they came from. But the fleet under Legazpi would not lean any further on divine intervention for their mortal undertaking. They thought about and sought for a route back relying on the experience and wisdom of Fray Urdaneta who had been with earlier expeditions to these parts of the world.
Once Legazpi somehow got settled in his newfound territory, he ordered Urdaneta back to Mexico for two major purposes: find that return route and obtain help for the new colony. Under Urdaneta’s direction, the San Pablo left San Miguel, Cebu moving as far as 38 degrees North latitude to obtain favorable winds then turned East towards the New World, and Mexico. The name of the place, San Miguel, the first settlement of the Spaniards in Cebu, was given by Legazpi. Before Legazpi left Cebu to conquer Manila, he formally declared the place a permanent Spanish town and called it “Villa del Santisima Nombre de Jesus” (de Borja, 1966; 23). As it were, trouble beset the San Pablo’s voyage; Urdaneta assumed command (Mairin, 1964; 101).
Historian Lorraine Crouchette of California noted that some natives (Cebuanos) sailed on the galleon the San Pablo when she made her historic first crossing of the Pacific Ocean in 1565 (<filipinokastila.tripod.com/Filmex.html> November 15, 2011). This is one aspect in the history of the San Pablo that has not been seriously and closely looked into. There seems to be no Hispanic account of Cebuanos being with the San Pablo. It is not entirely impossible for this to occur. The San Pablo must have needed extra seamen or mere handymen on her uncharted voyage back to Nueva España as Legazpi would have also needed as many of his soldiers and crew to be with him to undertake his conquest of the new territory. It must be noted too that when Legazpi left Acapulco he was already short of 100 sailors, crews, and soldiers who returned to port with the San Juan. And then the desertion of the San Lucas further emasculated El Adelantado’s force.
As Urdaneta sailed to as far north as to be off Japan and veered to an easterly course, he thought that “the trade winds of the Pacific might move in a gyre as the Atlantic winds did.” He reasoned that by sailing far to the north before heading east, trade winds will be found to bring them back to the west coast of North America. His hunch paid off and they were able to reach the coast of Cape Mendocino, California. They followed the coast to the south and reached Acapulco on October 8, 1565, after travelling 12,000 miles (20,000 kilometers) in 130 days. Fourteen of San Pablo’s crew died and only Urdaneta and Felipe de Salcedo had the strength to cast the anchor (Mairin, 1964; 101). In most parts of their voyage, the crew did not have even a glimpse of land. It was a most formidable odyssey. Most of the ship’s crew suffered from malnutrition, disease, and terrible living conditions. It was learned much later that Felipe de Salcedo failed to adequately provision the vessel. Think of a teenager being placed at the helm of an uncharted voyage. His biggest credential for the conferred grand responsibility was being the grandson of a highly esteemed “explorer.”
It is interesting to ask whatever happened to the natives of Cebu who went with Urdaneta. How many jumped ship in Acapulco? Were they required to remain with San Pablo for itstornavuelta? The documents remain silent, or it is not farfetched that this event was never put on record.
Captain Pedro de Unamuno who “discovered California on a voyage from Manila to Acapulco on October 18, 1587, has a more graphic account about how the “Luzones Indios” were marked down. In Acapulco, Urdaneta discovered that a crew, identified as Alonso de Arellano, of the San Lucas which deserted on the way to Cebu, beat them across the ocean arriving in Barra de Navidad in Jalisco, Mexico in August 1565. Urdaneta reported what the officers and crew of San Lucas did. They were promptly arrested. Credit was given to Urdaneta for his more precise and professional report about his voyage (Mairin, 1964; 101). The way back to Mexico would now be known as the “Urdaneta Route.”
In the 1565 voyage of the San Pablo back to Acapulco, she carried a cargo of cinnamon bark from Mindanao. Cinnamon is one of the spices highly valued by the Europeans. This kicked in Philippine trade with Mexico. Thus was opened the gateway to what would go down to history as the Galleon Trade. The San Pablo came back to the Philippines again but on her return trip to Acapulco in 1568 she got wrecked—the first ever “Manila” Galleon to suffer such devastation.
The San Pablo was not made in the Philippines yet. It was one among those built in the ports of La Navidad, Zihuatanezo, and Acapulco in Nueva España (Mexico). It was from these ports where the galleons came during the first year of the Galleon Trade.
While getting more acquainted with his new found territories, Legazpi ordered Felipe de Salcedo and Capt. Luis de Haya to explore the island of Panay and Capt. Andres de Ibarra to reconnoiter Masbate. In May 1570, he sent an expedition to Manila under the command of Martin de Goite and his seventeen-year old grandson Juan de Salcedo who arrived with the return expedition of his older brother, Felipe, in 1569 (de Borja, 1966; 28). It is noted that there is no mention as to which galleon Felipe commanded in 1569 or if he held a position in that vessel; the San Pablo having been wrecked in 1568 on her return trip to Acapulco. In 1568, two unnamed vessels left Mexico for the Philippines. On June 11, 1569 San Lucas left the Philippines while San Juan departed from Mexico (Cruikshank, 2006).
Over the years (1565 to 1815), 110 galleons—with only eight of them built in Mexico and the rest in the Philippines, most of them in Cavite and Oton (inPanae, as the documents had it), and with over a dozen very notable ones in the astilleros of Bikol—plied the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade. Over 40 of those would get lost or fall to enemy hands. Many of those ships carried some of the richest cargoes ever transported across the Pacific Ocean (National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 178 No. 3, September 1990). Some other sources, however, have it that over 110 galleons were built. Fish and Schurz, who have been studying the Manila Galleons, have attempted to come up with a list of all the galleons that plied the Manila-Acapulco run but their lists seem far from being complete.
In that period, the galleons had an average weight of 400 tons, “the weight of two jumbo jets.” Being so heavy, the ship travelled at about four to eight knots or four and one-half to nine miles (roughly 7.2 to 14.5 kilometers) per hour (National Geographic Magazine, Vol. 178 No. 3, September 1990). That speed was already appreciated as “fast.” Most people walk that “fast”! Thus, as a matter of course, it took over four months to reach Acapulco and a little more to be back to Manila.
Life was hard and dangerous on those ships. Space was cramped, the food was bad, everything smelled, and the work was never done. Add to these the uncertainties in weather conditions and the absence of even thermometers and other weather-measuring devices to have an idea of what lies ahead in the voyage (Bacon, 2004).
Vessel of fortune, vessel of perdition
Whenever a Manila Galleon set sail for Acapulco from Cavite, church bells tolled, the crowds cheered, the archbishop of Manila would personally bless the trip. High ranking officials of the colonial government found their way to Cavite. It would be a festive and joyous event. On the safe voyages of the Manila Galleon depended the colonial Philippine economy in the 17th and 18th centuries. In other words, hope and relief and exultation were its most precious passengers.
It was logical that the hub of these voyages was Manila for it was the center of trade in the Orient due to its geographic location. Merchants from neighboring Asian countries and even from the Mediterranean and India would go to Manila to trade. The Chinese and the Japanese were constant trading partners. The galleons, however, were anchored in the nearby province of Cavite.
The Chinese and other Asians came to Manila with their wares and goods. Spanish merchants bought them, packed them, loaded them into chests, and transported them to Cavite where the galleons were waiting.
Galleons had loads of cargoes often worth not less than a million pesos. An Acapulco-bound galleon usually carried stockings, skirts, combs, fans, clocks, robes, tapestries, church vestments, religious items, cotton goods, diamonds, rubies, pearls, bracelets, necklaces, brass ware, ivory, jade, jasper, Chinese silk, Persian rugs, Indian cotton, spices from Moluccas, Java, and Ceylon. From the Philippines would come European-style jewelry made by Filipino artisans, wax, hemp, bed covers from Ilocos, and gauze from Cebu (Tiotuyco, 1991; 392) and even basi wine (Rotor, 2012).
The threats of weather disturbances, diseases, and privateers could not hold back a scheduled trip nor dampen the enthusiasm of merchants, passengers, and galleon personnel. The departures and arrivals of galleons were anxiously anticipated. Once in Acapulco, Spanish-American merchants would purchase the commodities often displayed in a trade fair. Trading was on a silver standard, meaning the goods were bought with Mexican silver. So that there were reports that almost one-third of the silver mined in Mexico and neighboring countries found its way to the Orient through the Philippines.
Much of the cargoes would be transported overland to the Port of Veracruz on the Gulf of Mexico where they were loaded on Spanish treasure ships bound for Spain. On the way to Spain and while still in the Caribbean seas, some of those treasure ships would be lost to wreckages and violent hurricanes thus the Caribbean became a prized site for sunken treasures and intrepid treasure hunters.
Back in Manila, the Spanish merchants would bide their time and waited for the Galleon’s return (tornavuelta; tornaviajeaccording to Fish). For nine to ten months, they did nothing but live the pampered lives ofseñoritosand señoritas, donsanddoñasor nibble their nails, so to speak, as they waited for the galleon’s return.
When the ship came, their investments would rake in profits of up to 300% or even 400%. News from Mexico and Spain would also be delivered. Thosetornavueltaswere likewise anxiously anticipated by colonial officials because they toted the much hankered forreal situado(subsidy) for the colonial government. Thereal situado, which were in silver pesos of Mexican mint, amounted to more or less two million pesos—the budget of expense for the year. Thus, long delays in thetornavueltamade the Spaniards in Manila edgy with anxiety. The Manila Galleons were not only about trade and commerce; they too had much to do with cultural exchange.
The Manila Galleons were the richest in all the oceans. They were coveted by pirates and privateers. The British alone took no less than four of them—the Santa Ana in 1587, the Encarnacion in 1709, the Covadonga in 1743, and the Santisima Trinidad y Nuestra Señora del Buen Fin in 1762.
The Galleon Trade was purely a Spanish affair. Only Spaniards in Manila could trade with Asians. This was done to entice the Spaniards not to leave the Philippines for their services especially in times of military exigencies. But building the galleon and other ships was definitely the natives’ misfortune.
The Spaniards in the Philippines abhorred manual labor, most of them pretending to be proud noblemen thus beyond the performance of menial tasks. One historian mused, “Every Spaniard no matter what he happened to be in Spain or Mexico, was transformed into ahidalgo(proud nobleman) the moment he stepped on the wharf at Cavite,” (Cushner, 1962; 604).
One significant thing should be clarified though. Many of the so-called Spaniards in Manila were actually of Mexican progeny. Juan Salcedo and his elder brother Felipe Salcedo were born in Mexico. So that the Hispanic culture of the Philippines was more identified with the Mexican variety. Some proofs could be practices like thetiangge(flea market) which comes from the Aztectianquizth, or names of commodities like thekakaw, again from the Azteccacahuatl,tsokolatefromxocoatl,singcamasfromxicama(Tiotuyco, 1991; 392).
Controlling corruption, muffled cries, stilled anguish
The Manila end of the Galleon Trade must have been highly promising and exceedingly profitable that it spawned jobbery, malfeasance, and viciousness which consequently compelled the issuance of some royal measures intended to control the anomalies in the Galleon Trade. In fact, “the profits of the Galleon Trade were obviously astonishing,” (Fish, 2011; 437).
So the King decreed that the commodities from Manila should be valued at not over 500,000 pesos. But what were shipped amounted to four times that authorized. It was reported that a shipment worth 1,289,281 pesos in Manila would fetch a selling price of 3,000,000 minimum to a maximum of 3,998,249 pesos in Acapulco. This motivated rackets and frauds in the conduct of the trade (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 299-300).
Some of those royal measures were: Cargo could not be consigned to Mexican merchants; in 1593,permisofor silk products had to be obtained to protect the interests of silk producers in Andalucia, Spain their products being given stiff competition by the galleon goods in Mexico; the annual value of cargo from Manila should not be worth over 500,000 pesos; only two ships with a maximum capacity of 300 tons each could sail per year with only one point of entry, Acapulco. Then theboletasystem was introduced. Spanish merchants had to buyboletas(tickets) for the right to a space in the ship measuring about a meter in length, 2/3 of a meter in width, and 1/3 of a meter in depth. Aboletawould cost 125 pesos (Almario, ed., 1991; 392).
Those regulatory norms were honored more in breach than in obedience. Appearances and practices were like gnashing teeth behind sweet smiles.
But as demand for Oriental goods increased, bigger galleons were built, the number of voyages went up too so that by the end of the 18th century these were six times over their initial limit.Boletasthemselves became a merchandise which did not even have to leave the ports. Merchants started to trade theirboletasuntil some of them made a living out of selling their tickets to other merchants who needed more space. Isn’t this what we now callscalping? Ascalperis one who purchases a ticket or tickets for a popular, fast selling event and would resell those tickets at exorbitant prices. Here’s a more modern twang for an ancient Hispanic legacy.
There were other malpractices spawned by the Galleon Trade, smuggling for instance, which to this day lingers in the ports of the country. There was such an occasion that even happened in San Jacinto, Ticao.
The Galleon Trade was beneficial only to privileged Spaniards, such as the Spanish governor, the merchants with consular duties and rights, theinsulares, and the Spanish residents in Manila, especially those in the favor of the governor general. There was nothing in it for the Filipinos, especially for the tens of thousands of them who were forced to work in the astilleros where the galleons were built.
Aside from the miseries shipbuilding occasioned on the natives, it depopulated many villages and spread hunger to the families of the men hauled off for shipyard labor. Consequently, families broke down, agriculture and many local industries were neglected as entire communities were conscripted to build galleons under the oppressively painfulpolos y servicios. As early as the 1600’s, many profitable native industries such as weaving and cottage industries faced ruin because of galleon building. The Philippine economy atrophied. The natives doled out so much of themselves only to be squeezed for more. Fray Fernando de los Rios Coronel wrote to the King that, “. . . they (the natives) are badly paid and badly treated, while their wives and children are left to starve to death, and their crops go to ruin . . .” (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 18; 333).
As it were,polos y servicios(forced labor) was a Spanish tax in kind whereby all native males between ages 16 to 60 years were required to serve in the public works, including building galleons, for 40 days every year without compensation. A galleon was completed in a year at the least and in two at the most. Those conscripted to build a galleon could not leave after the compulsory 40-day service. They had to be in the astillero until work was done. Outside the 40-day forced labor, whatever compensation they received would be hardly enough to pay for their exertions and lost economic potentials. Their fields remained unproductive; their family or personal enterprises and even community industries crumbled as they were neglected. Oftentimes the 40-day service would turn into a year or two and even more.
It was only in 1884 when thepolos y servicioswas abolished, too late to assume any relevance and meaning for the natives. It was replaced by thecedula personalor the poll tax which ranged from 1.50 to 37.50 pesos to be paid by every native aged 16 to 60 years old. It was a hefty sum at that time. Thecedula personalalso indicated racial classification. Again, thecedula personalwas another form of oppressive squeeze for the natives. Later, Gat Andres Bonifacio tore hiscedula personalin the historic Cry of Pugadlawin on August 23, 1896 to mark the start of the Katipunan’s armed struggle against the abusive Spanish colonizers.
Thecedula personalwas introduced by Joaquin de Jovellar y Soler who became colonial governor from April 7, 1883 until April 1, 1885. Jovellar was an economist and reputedly an expert on fiscal matters. It is interesting to note that this Spaniard thought of setting up a railway system in Luzon in 1893. Albay’s ancient town of Quipia was renamed Jovellar in that man’s honor upon the intercession and insistence of an influential resident Spaniard Don Cipriano Andueza.
No less than 12,000 native laborers and skilled workers were needed to build a galleon. When a galleon was built so would be a galley or brigantine or almiranta or corvette which served as consorts to the bigger vessel. It took one to two years to finish a vessel. Those 12,000 during that time would already be a staggering demographic statistic reckoning with the population then obtaining. If at one time in the history of Kabikolan, theCamarinesonly had 20,000 inhabitants what would have happened if all able-bodied males were sent to the astilleros?
Building a big ship and her required consort vessels in not less than a year and over two years at the most must have been an extremely bewildering and frenetic undertaking given, for one, the period’s state-of-the-art carpentry, shipbuilding technology, and the enormous need for good and required lumber.
The harrowing experiences and unforgiving circ*mstances workers in the astilleros were going through triggered the Sumuroy Revolt on June 1, 1649, and the Pampanga Revolt in 1660.
In Samar, Juan Sumuroy remonstrated against the never ending and debilitating hauling of timber over mountains and wearisome terrain and across the seas to the shipyards of Cavite; so were the Kapampangans forced to cut and haul heavy logs to far-off astilleros. These, as if the natives were not already forlorn being overburdened and overtaxed by the Spanish government and being separated from their land and their families for very long periods of time if not permanently.
Fray Fernando de los Rios Coronel noted that Governor Juan de Silva’s huge shipbuilding projects “brought the country to the extreme of poverty, even worse than if the enemy had sacked it.” Fray Casimiro Diaz remarked that Governor Silva’s shipbuilding projects in Marinduque, Mindoro, Camarines, Sorsogon, Masbate, Cavite, and Manila almost kindled a general armed uprising in those provinces if not for the timely intervention of the religious ministers (Blair and Robertson, Vol. 37; 212).
Sumuroy killed Fray Miguel Ponce, S.J. It set off the rebellion. The rebelling workers in the town of Catubig, Samar burned the church and killed another Spaniard. The Sumuroy rebellion persisted until July 1650 when Juan Sumuroy was assassinated. Diaz wrote that the rebels fought “more like lions than like men.” It meant that the situation they were in were simply beyond human endurance; it was a desperate response to a desperate circ*mstance. There would be no option better than death. The rebels were more than willing to lay their lives trying to set themselves free than go to through the motions of life being slaves in the shipyards.
In the meantime, those in the Bikol astilleros stilled their griefs, buttoned up their pains in their sinking chests keenly taking note of the unfolding events in the Visayas and in Pampanga. In fact, they had fetched up their stakes by killing a religious minister in Sorsogon and analferez(a military officer) surnamed Torres in Masbate.
Featured image from the China Ship series, South China Morning Post, 2018
About the author:
RAFFI BANZUELA (Rafael A. Banzuela Jr.) is an essayist, fictionist, poet, translator, historian. He studied at the Divine Word College and Aquinas University of Legazpi; taught at the Bicol University and Aquinas University; and did stints in government work, journalism, and radio broadcasting. His radio program “Satuya Ini” (This Is Ours) was named the Best Program Promoting Culture and the Arts, Radio Provincial Area category, at the 8th KBP Golden Dove Awards.
His published works also include: Selebra (Celebrate), 2011, a collection of poems, and Albay Viejo (Old Albay), 2010, a collection of prose works on Albay. His recent book for Bansay Bikolnon is a mini biography of Potenciano V. Gregorio Sr., the composer of the song Sarong Banggi. He also edited works by known Bikol poets and an anthology by young writers. He washonored with these awards: Outstanding Albayano Artist (Literary Arts) in 2013; the NCCA Writers’ Prize in 2013; Gawad Pambansang Alagad ni Balagtas in 2015 by the Unyon ng nga Manunulat ng Pikipinas; and Gawad Kampeon ng Wika by the Komisyon sa Wikang Filipino in 2017.
Fellow Bicol writers look up to Banzuela as living proof that writing in Bicol can persevere. His writing, rooted in his love for Bicol, is notable for his rich vocabulary and blend of reminiscence, folktale, history, and essay, sharpened by untiring historical research.
