19-22 March 1997
Barcelona, Spain
The History of the Philippines and
the Spanish Presence in the Pacific
By
FLORENTINO RODAO
In March 1997, a small
group of Spanish specialists on the Philippines
gathered together at the Universitat Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona
for a three-day conference on the History of the Philippines and Spanish Presence in
the Pacific. The discussions showed the different policies pursued by the
Spanish empire in relation to the Philippine Archipelago and how this differed
from the way matters were run in the American colonies, first in Mexico and Peru
and, after 1820, Cuba.
There are three main groups
in Spain engaged in research
on the former colony in Asia, each influenced
by the documentation that is most readily accessible. The first is an
Andalusian group founded by Lourdes Diaz-Trechuelo and continued at present by
Professor Antonio Garcia-Abasolo, from the University of Cordoba, whose
research is based on the Archivo General de Indias and deals with 16th-18th
century Philippines. A second group which is based mainly in Madrid, usually
publishes in the Revista Espanola del Pacifico and focuses on the 19th
century Philippines
and its international context, using materials from the Archivo Historico
Nacional, Foreign Ministry Archives and other documentation sources.
A third group is based in Barcelona, at the Pompeu Fabra
University and deals with
two main topics. The first topic, economic history, is covered by a research group
that used to focus on Latin America, but has 'jumped' to
the Philippines.
The members include Josep
Maria Delgado, Josep Maria Fradera, and Antonio Alonso, with Arturo Giraldez
currently teaching in the US.
The second topic, under the leadership of Dolores Folch, focuses on relations
between the Philippines and China. They
make extensive use of the archives of the company that was the largest in the
Philippines until the 1950s, the Compania General de Tabacs de Filipinas,
based in Barcelona, but also do research outside their city.
The organizer of the
conference was Josep
Maria Fradera,
therefore the discussions were biased toward economic history. The first day
was dedicated to the earliest period, just after the arrival of the Spaniards
in Manila, the attempts to expand alternatively in China or other parts n
Southeast Asia, and the difference in the way the natives were exploited
through the 'Encomienda' in contrast to the American colonies, a topic
extensively researched by Patricio Hidalgo. The discussion centred on the
scanty number of Spaniards in Manila
and the attempts they made to expand their presence. One participant suggested
the idea that for a brief period (1580s-1605) Asia
was an 'Eldorado' for Western adventurers (not only Spaniards). This hypothesis
was based on the idea that Manila was occupied
as a stepping stone towards Asia Mainland and some contemporary references do
indeed discuss the need to find occupations for the very large number of
Spaniards in the Archipelago who had come from America. The recent publication of
the book 'Spaniards in Siam,
1540/1939' prompted a debate on the quantification of migration movements using
the Manilla Galleon, the annual voyage between the Philippines
and Asia and America.
Arturo Giráldez pointed to the silverization of the Chinese economy as a
central point in the expansion into Asia by
Europeans. In his view, they mostly acted as middlemen between the producers
and end-purchasers.
The 17th and 18th centuries
were discussed the second day. Antonio Alonso, who is directing a research group on
'Costs and Profits in the Spanish Empire' emphasized
the importance of those annual silver remittances to the Philippines from Mexico, the 'Situado'. Some data
suggest that the quantity carried by these galleons was three-quarters of the
total carried by English, Dutch, and the Portuguese 'Estada da India'. Josep Maria Fradera
underlined the structural changes of Spanish dominion after the British seizure
of Manila (and Havana) in the mid-eighteenth century. The monetary
core switched from taxes to focus on revenues from monopolies like tobacco or
native liquors, and these changes prompted an effective occupation of the
islands, something that had not been undertaken before. These changes bore
fruit at the time, but the independence of Latin American colonies and the
subsequent end of the 'Situado' remittances meant the new incomes remained in
the Islands instead of being sent to Spain, which was what the original
idea had been.
The final day started with
the end of the Galleon, the alternative route attempted by the 'Compania de
Filipinas' to form a direct link with the Peninsula and the aims of the
representatives of the Philippines in the Spanish Parliaments at the beginning
of the 19th century. Again, the comparison between the situation in America (this time Cuba
and Puerto Rico) and the Philippines
emerged. The common view of a rich Cuba
and a poor Philippines
has to be adjusted when analyzing the last decades of the empire. Although Cuba's budget was bigger than that of the
government of Manila, Ines Roldan pointed out
that Havana was ridden with debt (half the
income had to be spent for servicing payment of this debt) but this was not the
case with the Philippines.
Other researchers pointed out the dynamism in the Philippine economy and its
relations with the metropolis just before 1898.
Professors Denys Lombart
(École Française d'Extrême Orient) and Peter Boomgaard (KITLV,
the Netherlands)
also participated. Quite apart from the history a conference was given on the
project to microfilm documentation in the Philippines from the Spanish
period, run by the Spanish Council for Research (CSIC) and the Philippine
National Archives. Forty thousand bundles are to be catalogued and when this is
compared to the mere two thousand that can be consulted in Madrid
or Mexico, historians can
only dream: the history of the Philippines
will have to be rewritten. Next November there will be the Fourth Conference of
the Spanish Pacific Studies Association at Valladolid, focusing on the Centenary of
1898. There, we will have time to continue our discussion, joined by scholars
of many other nationalities.
For more information:
CMUNSA
Avda Ramiro de Maeztu s/n
28040 Madrid
Spain
Fax: +34-1-5540401
E-mail: tinorodao@adv.es