The Philippines’ Early Commercial Intercourse with ChinaBy Apolinario Villalobos
The
early recorded commercial intercourse between the Philippines and China was
dated 982 A.D. when a certain Sung-Shih (History of the Sung) mentioned about
traders from Mo-yi or May-I, referring to the Philippines and sometimes the
island of Mindoro, and who came to the southern coast of China.
But
even much earlier than the said date, according to a noted historian Berthold
Laufer in his “Relations of Chinese to the Philippines”, and Austin Craig in
his “A Thousand Years of Philippine History Before the Coming of the
Spaniards”, among the goods from the Philippines were birds, pearls and
tortoise shell, to which, another historian, Chao Ju-Kua added, yellow wax,
cotton, medicinal betel nuts and “yu-la” cloth.
Proof
of the early trade relations between the two countries are the archaeological
sites that date back to the T’ang dynasty, in Babuyan islands, coastal areas of
Ilocos and Pangasinan, Manila, Bohol, Mindoro, Cebu, Jolo and Cagayan de Sulu,
and Mindanao.
Accordingly, Chinese junks would leave the southern
coast of China for the Philippines during the month of March and their travel
would take about 15 to 20 days.
The
same junks would prepare for the return trip during the month of June. Trading
was done with haste, usually three to four days at one convergence point along
a safe coast, then, they would move to other traditionally appointed place, as
some natives proved to be hostile.
The commercial intercourse brought about cultural
enhancement on both trading parties.
On
the part of the Philippines, according to Filipino anthropologist, E. Arsenio
Manuel, about 522 words in the vocabulary of Pilipino language are of Chinese
origin.
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| Iloilo Special La Paz Batchoy |
As mentioned among the pages of “Ming History”,
traders from Fukien of southern China flocked to Luzon to establish trading
colonies, so that when the Spaniards came, they found well-entrenched Chinese
communities along the Pasig River and the coastal areas of Pangasinan and
Ilocos.
While
the Philippines was under the administration the Spaniards, there was a time
when the Chinese were expelled.
Historically,
the Chinese were never interested in politically colonizing any of the islands
of the archipelago, unlike the Spaniards who came to the Philippines purely for
this purpose.
It
is for this reason that when the Hispanic administration of Manila took effect,
there was no resistance from the Chinese community.
If
the dynasties of the mainland that saw the growth of trading with the archipelago
had any intension of annexing it to their kingdom, they should have done it
long before the Spaniards came.
But
Chinese traders came and went, instead of even a single Chinese soldier. It is
for this reason that China can never cite history to attest her rights over a
major part of the South China Sea or Philippine Sea.
Their
trading ancestors could have named some islands and bodies of water in and
around the archipelago but only for their convenient reference and nothing
else.
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https://www.facebook.com/apolinario.villalobos.5/posts/312236419176297
grabe kanami sang ginhimo mo nga enhancement ba....thanks gid!
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