Galleon Trade's Economic Impact on the Philippines

• The Rizal Law is dated January 28, 2025.

Rizal Day

• Celebrated every December 30.
• Emilio Aguinaldo decreed December 30, 1898, as a national day of mourning
• National flags are to be flown at half-mast from noon on December 29th.
• All government offices are closed on December 30th.
• Filipinos celebrated Rizal Day for the first time on December 30, 1898, in Club Filipino, Manila.
• Americans gave Rizal official recognition to win Filipino sympathy.
• Rizal acquired the title of Philippine National Hero in 1901 under William Howard Taft.
• Act 137 renamed the district of Morong to Rizal province on June 11, 1901, on the recommendation of Trinidad Pardo de Tavera.
• Act No. 345, enacted February 1, 1902, set December 30 as Rizal Day.
• Act No. 243 was enacted September 28, 1901, which granted the right to use public land to erect a statue of Jose Rizal.
• The Rizal monument in Manila was unveiled on December 20, 1913.
• The Rizal monument in Daet, Camarines Norte, was the first ever erected in honor of Rizal.

Background of the Rizal Law

• Claro M. Recto, known for his anti-Americanism, noticed the ill effects of Americanization after WW2
• Recto proposed reading Rizal's novels to remind the youth of past struggles against colonial rule
• Senate Bill 438 by Senator Claro M. Recto is considered one of the strongest reasons why Recto is known as the "Father of Philippine Nationalism".
• SB 438 was sponsored by the Committee on Education headed by Senator Jose P. Laurel.

Opposition

• Senators Francisco "Soc" Rodrigo, Decoroso Rosales, and Mariano Cuenco were the unofficial candidates of the Church in the 1955 elections

Supporters

• Revolutionary Veterans known as the Spirit of 1896, the Alagad ni Rizal group, Freemasons, and Book Lovers Society supported

Opponents

• The Knights of Columbus, Catholic Action of the Philippines, Congregation of Missions and the Catholic Teachers Guild opposed.

Pros and Cons

• One veteran risked reading Rizal's novels before they became widely available, viewing the neglect of Rizal's works as "killing Rizal the 2nd time around".
• A concern was raised about compelling Catholic students to read novels with passages harmful to their faith.
• Fr. Jesus Cavanna claimed Noli had 25 patriotic pages vs 120 anti-Catholic pages and Fili had 41 patriotic pages vs 80 anti-Catholic pages
• After debate, there was a Special Provision under Section 1 allowing people to read an EXPURGATED version if UNEXPURGATED harmed their faith and required a sworn statement for this purpose.
• There is no information of any student who executed a sworn statement or affidavit that reading the Rizal Novels was offensive to his/her faith
• Religious schools may have already provided EXPURGATED versions of the Noli and Fili

Different Voices within the Catholic Church

• An article by Fr. John Schumacher revealed the Catholic Church's official statement on the Rizal Bill was controversial
• Fr. Horacio dela Costa was the representative of the Catholic Church in nation-building
• Fr. Dela Costa drafted a pastoral letter favoring Rizal, describing him as having a "moral, social, and political message for Filipinos of the 20th century."
• Dela Costa suggested annotations for mature readers.
• Fr. Dela Costa went abroad before the Rizal Bill was introduced on April 4, 1956.
• An Official Statement by Fr. Jesus Cavanna denounced the 2 novels of Rizal as anti-Catholic.
• Archbishop of Manila Rufino Santos declared the Statement fully authorized and approved by all Catholic members.
• Rizal scholars and critics have accused the Catholic Church of being anti-Rizal and anti-nationalism
• In 2011, fifty-nine years after 1952, Fr. Horacio dela Costa's draft pastoral letter came out providing a deeper understanding of cracks and gaps in the Church

Reflections

• It is questioned whether Claro M. Recto achieved his intent of spreading nationalism among the Filipino youth through reading Rizal's novels since the 1950s?
• It is not known whether Rizal Law's rationale and spirit have been achieved because not all communities were absorbed into the Christianized society

Classless Societies

• Egalitarian, loosely stratified, and recognized no titled leaders.
• No concept of class or private property, and no competition for land due to unlimited resources
• They are located in Mangyans in Mindoro, Ilongots of Nueva Ecija/Vizcaya & Isabela, Tiruray of Cotabato, Sutod of Panay, Bataks of Palawan, Agta/Aeta/Ati, Magahat in Negros Oriental, Mamanus in Mindanao

Warrior Societies

• Membership is won by personal achievement, involving privilege, duty, and prescribed norms of conduct.
• "Ferocity" in battle is synonymous to survival.
• Military skill such as pangangayaw (raid) shows scarcity of resources and competing interests over land
• Warriors observe peace pacts (bodong).
• These societies are located in Manobo of Agusan and Cotabato, Mandaya, Bagobo, Tagakaolo of Davao, Bilaan of Davao-Cotabato, Isneg and Kalangas of northern Luzon

Petty Plutocracies

• Dominated by rich men who attain membership through birthright, property, and performance of ceremonies.
• Relative wealth comes from agriculture (payew).
• Located in Cordillera Region, the most advanced community in Luzon
• Rebel Priest Fr. Conrado Balweg was also the head of Cordillera People's Liberation Army (CPLA) 1986

Principalities

• Dominated by a recognized aristocracy with birthright claim to allegiance from followers
• Aristocracy is called datu' class (Kadatuan)
• SULTANATO has extensive international trading relations
• Datu's role is resolving petty differences and redistributing wealth rather than accumulating it.
• Located in Muslim Mindanao
• The MNLF (1969/1973) and MILF (1977) are examples of principalities
• Most advanced society due to trade and Islamization

Historical Reasons for Political Unrest

• Wealth, freedom, and political autonomy allowed for social and political cohesion prior to the national state formation

Galleon Trade origins

• Manila was a trans-shipment port of Chinese goods traded with Mexican silver and Peruvian gold.
• Seville merchants protested because they weren't part of the trade and Manila was only trans-shipment port and asked King Philip to terminate trade in 1585 because it would render Spain bankrupt

Prior to Spanish conquest

• Barter system existed with India, Japan, and China
• Traded goods were gold, fabric, pearl, ironware, and foodstuffs

Other names for the trade

• In Mexico, it was called La Nao de China (the Chinese ships) because the galleons carried Chinese goods.
• For the British and Europeans, it was called the MANILA GALLEONS.
• The Spanish clerics prohibited other Europeans to engage in it

Galleon ships

• Full rigged sailing ship built primarily for war, developed in the 15th and 16th centuries
• Name came from "galley" synonymous with "war vessel"
• The largest galleons that operated profitably were built by the Spanish and Portuguese
• Manila galleons of Spain made an annual trip between Acapulco, Mexico, and the Philippines lasting 2 centuries, from 1565-1815 (250 years).
• Goods traded were porcelain, silk, ivory, spices and other exotic goods from China to Mexico in exchange for Mexican silver
• Filipinos engaged in trade with their own pearls, herbal medicine, bird's nest (nido) and other exotic food and spices
• Filipinos built and repaired the galleon ships and were also used as crew
• Filipinos are the 1st group of Asians in the New World (Mundus Novus of Italian Amerigo Vespucci).

Filipinos and their culture in Mexico

• Filipino crew were called chinos by Mexicans since the galleon carried Chinese goods.
• They were identified in their ethnic identity as Filipinos who will be known for their ceviche (kilawin), mediquillos (herbal medicine), mangoes and tamarind, piña cloth, and even sabong or cockfighting.
• Filipinos love to sing, are very noisy and love to drink.
• Filipinos make lambanog

Technology of Distillation

• Filipinos introduced the technology of distillation during the galleon era.
• Filipinos began planting coconut trees and fermenting sap into tuba then distilled it to make lambanog
• Mexicans replaced coconut sap by agave plant and distilled into tequila

Philippine-Mexico Relations

• Mexico was a favored colony, called Nueva España (New Spain)
• It was the base of Spanish conquistadores including Miguel Lopez de Legazpi
• Mexican Influences in the Philippine Islands: Our Lady of Antipolo, Black Nazarene, Nahuatl words such as avocado, cacao, maize, chico, camote, chocolatl.
• Filipinos' was a "colony of a colony" receiving an annual subsidy from Mexico known as 'situado"; peso as currency
• Filipino influences in Mexico: tuba, niyog (coconut), nipa, kilawin (ceviche), manton de Manila (Manila shawl), piña, & abaca
• Filipino communities in Mexico such as Acapulco, Zihuatanajo, Oaxaca, etc. now called Mexipinos after centuries of intermarriage.
• Filipinos fought side by side with the Mexicans against the Spaniards in their revolution (1810).
• Ramon Fabie was a Filipino leader during the Mexican revolution
• Before the tag TnT, the Filipinos were already in the New World because of the Galleon Trade
• They traversed Baja and Alta California to New Orleans

Did the Philippine Islands and Spain benefit from the Galleon Trade?

• No, because only a handful of unscrupulous merchants and Spanish clerics benefited from the galleon trade
• It resulted in neglect of agriculture and economic underdevelopment.
• The galleon trade also caused deficit and Isolation from cosmopolitan influences

Opening of the Philippines to World Trade

• The British saw the islands' agricultural potential in the period they occupied Manila from 1762-64

Why open the Philippines to World Trade in 1834?

• Spanish neglect of the Philippine Islands was weakness exploited by the British even after the reforms initiated by Spanish Jose Basco y Vargas
• Britain and the United States pushed Philippine products to international trade.
• The British opened the Philippines to World Trade in 1834, making the Philippine Islands a de facto British colony.
• Anglo-American merchants developed hemp, tobacco and SUGAR as commercial crops for foremost export product by the early part of 19th century
• The galleon trade's demise by 1815 indicated Spain's monopoly economy and monopoly inimical to progress.
• Newer forms of colonial practice replaced Spain's archaic policies
• The commercialization of agriculture necessitated commercial houses by Anglo-American merchants
• "Spain kept the cow while the British and the Americas drank the milk," which meant "we were the milking cow."
• Galleon Trade was the 1st Transpacific Trade, which was the 1st instance of globalization

Economic shifts

• Subsistence Economy changed to Cash Crop economy.The new economy was characterized by ilustrados, or educated elite.
• The rise of the ilustrados resulted from the boom in Philippine exports (hemp, tobacco, coffee and SUGAR)
• Economic development in the latter half of 19th century transformed the landscape and bred social classes, or Ilustrados
• Hispanization of the elite created social divisions.

Ilustrado

• The term "Luz" means LIGHT.
• Enlightened because they were educated in schools and exposed to LIBERALISM.

Ilustrados descriptions

• Educated (Manila, Europe)
• Concerned about Material Progress of the Islands, but Islands were compromised because of Corruption, Bureaucratic Redtape, Incompetence & Chaos
• Dissatisfied with Spanish Colonial Rule because of the economy, bad government, lack of civil liberties, clerical conservatism and deficient education
• The motto during the French Revolution (1789-99) was Aspired for ELF (egalité, liberté, fraternité = Equality, Liberty, Fraternity/Brotherhood)

Education Under Spain

• 1863 Royal Decree provided 1 primary school for boys and another for girls in every town
• Education in the Islas Filipinas was assigned to the Jesuits
• While there were indigent scholars, the pursuit of education was geared towards affluent families
• Prestigious schools included Colegio de San Jose, Colegio de San Juan de Letran, Universidad de Santo Tomas

Narrowing Ethnic Divisions

• Spanish Creoles, Chinese Mestizos, and Malays fostered feelings of a wider identity and called themselves, FILIPINOS.
• Rizal despised bureaucratic redtape.
• Graciano Lopez-Jaena rejected Bureaucratic Tyranny's Anti-Thesis.
• Marcelo Del Pilar despised the Spanish.

Sangley

• Fast & Richardson thought philippine nationalism essentially a bourgeois creation.
• Hokkien Seng-li or Siang Lai =literally means "frequently comes" = merchant, business, livelihood
• Ethnic Chinese (Sangley) and Chinese Mestizos (Mestizo de Sangley) were two kinds of Chinese.
• Ethnic Chinese were close knit, didn't intermarry/convert to Catholicism and remained Confucian & Sinocentric.
• Ethnic Chinese fell from grace of Spanish officialdom, suffered trade restrictions, and were victims of pogrom (ethnic cleansing) or massacre.
• Chinese Mestizos were open, intermarried and converted to Christianity -They were Loyal to business in Islas Flipinas and favored in commerce and trade.
• They assimilated into the fabric of Philippine society and given More privileges like indulto de comercio pacto de retroventa, and able to marry at 16 without parental consent
• The Chinese Mestizo class was the wealthiest class in 19th century Philippines.

Chinese Mestizo demographics

• In the mid-19th century, their population was 240,000 in comparison to 7-10,000 Spanish Mestizos
• Binondo was established in 1594 by Governor and Captain-General Luis Perez Dasmariñas, and is now known as the Oldest Chinatown in the World
• In 1850, the Chinese mestizo population increased to about 240,000
• Gremio de Mestizo Sangley (Guild of Chinese Mestizos) in 1882 institutionalized the chinese mestizo class

Chinese Mestizos: baptismal names

• Msetizos retained the name of the Chinese Father: Co, Tan, Lim, Yap, Ong, Uy

Chinese Mestizos: profile

• They were agents of the Commercialization of Agricultural Products who Had access to Education and were often Hispanized

Chinese Mestizos and the Filipino Identity

• Chinese Mestizos influenced by liberal education clamored for reforms and demanded equality
• They became the voice of the inarticulate masses who sympathized with the plight of the indios
• They banded together with the indios and called themselves Filipino, against the common enemy, the peninsulares

Prominent Chinese Mestizos in the 20th century

• Jaime Cardinal Sin, SC Justice Jose Abad Santos, UP President Vidal A. Tan, Educators & historians Teodoro M. Kalaw
• Ferdinand Marcos Sr., and Corazon Aquino are chinese mestizos. This is due to Rizal also being a Chinese mestizo, he is a foremost mestizo known for his works

Talambuhay ni Rizal

• He dedicated the El Fili to the 3 martyred priests after the impact of 1872 GOMBURZA execution
• Rizal would go to Europe to study while Paciano would take care of the family
• Based on Bracken's letters with the Katipunan: 14 March 1894, Josephine Bracken (19 y/o) and George Taufer arrived in Dapitan

He was a Radical Rizal

• Family = Calamba Incident (1887-1888)
• Lovelife = Leonor Rivera betrothed to Charles
• Friendship

Rizal's Schools:

Binan, Ateneo, Universidad de Santo Tomas, Universidad Central de Madrid, Universitat Heidelberg

Rizal organizations:

• Circulo Hispano-Filipino(1882), La Solidaridad and International Association of PH

This lesson explores the economic impact of the Galleon Trade on the Philippines, including its benefits and consequences. It examines Anglo-American merchants, and the Philippines' reliance on trade. It also considers the opening of the Philippines to world trade in 1834.