76
JOHN VILLIERS
Japanese junks owned or commanded by Portuguese interlopers. Much of their cargo consisted of supplies such as wheat-flour, salted meat and fish, but also woven silk, screens, cutlery, arms and armour, and lacquer ware. Some of the supplies were used to furnish the ships sailing to Mexico. Payment was made by the Spaniards in silver rials and the Japanese traders took back raw Chinese silk, gold, deerskins, brazil-wood, palmwine, Spanish wine, glass and other European curiosities as well as old Chinese pottery and porcelain found in graves in the Philippines and used by connoisseurs of the tea ceremony.28
The Macaonese felt themselves threatened by this trade between Manila, China and Japan—particularly the re-export of Chinese silk from Manila—but they were of course keen to continue trading with Manila themselves. Portuguese ships, sometimes sailing from India via Macau, would come every year to Manila with African slaves, Indian cottons, spices, amber, ivory, precious stones, toys and curiosities from India, Persian and Turkish carpets, gilded furniture made in Macau and "other commodities of great curiosity and perfection".29
In 1624 the Viceroy rejected the petition of the Senado of Macau that the Manila voyages be officially sanctioned but the Macau-Manila trade in silk was sufficiently profitable to both sides for it to survive all bans. It remained in Portuguese hands and there were in consequence some who advocated Macau transferring its allegiance from Portugal to Spain.30 In 1625 the Spanish founded a settlement which they called La Santissima Trindad at Keelung on the northern tip of Taiwan, partly as a counterweight to the Dutch settlement of Fort Zeelandia established in Taiwan the previous year and partly as an entrepot for the Chinese silk trade which they hoped might eventually supersede Macau. The Governor of the Philippines, D. Fernando de Silva, stated in 1626 that the Dutch had already diverted much of the carrying trade in silk to Fort Zeelandia. "This damage is clearly seen", he wrote, "from the fact that the fifty Chinese ships which have come to these islands have brought less than forty piculs of silk, whereas the enemy have 900 excluding the textiles and, if it were not for what has been brought from Macau the ships from Nueva España would have nothing to carry". The short-lived Spanish attempt to lessen Manila's dependence on Macau ended with the fall of La Santissima Trindad to the Dutch in 1642.
76
JOHN VILLIERS
Japanese junks owned or commanded by Portuguese interlopers. Much of their cargo consisted of supplies such as wheat-flour, salted meat and fish, but also woven silk, screens, cutlery, arms and armour, and lacquer ware. Some of the supplies were used to fur- nish the ships sailing to Mexico. Payment was made by the Spaniards in silver rials and the Japanese traders took back raw Chinese silk, gold, deerskins, brazil-wood, palmwine, Spanish wine, glass and other European curiosities as well as old Chinese pottery and porcelain found in graves in the Philippines and used by con- noisseurs of the tea ceremony. 28
The Macaonese felt themselves threatened by this trade between Manila, China and Japan-particularly the re-export of Chinese silk from Manila - but they were of course keen to continue trad- ing with Manila themselves. Portuguese ships, sometimes sailing from India via Macau, would come every year to Manila with African slaves, Indian cottons, spices, amber, ivory, precious stones, toys and curiosities from India, Persian and Turkish carpets, gilded furniture made in Macau and "other commodities of great curiosity and perfection".29
In 1624 the Viceroy rejected the petition of the Senado of Macau that the Manila voyages be officially sanctioned but the Macau- Manila trade in silk was sufficiently profitable to both sides for it to survive all bans. It remained in Portuguese hands and there were in consequence some who advocated Macau transferring its alle- giance from Portugal to Spain.30 In 1625 the Spanish founded a settlement which they called La Santissima Trindad at Keelung on the northern tip of Taiwan, partly as a counterweight to the Dutch settlement of Fort Zeelandia established in Taiwan the previous year and partly as an entrepot for the Chinese silk trade which they hoped might eventually supersede Macau. The Governor of the Philippines, D. Fernando de Silva, stated in 1626 that the Dutch had already diverted much of the carrying trade in silk to Fort Zeelandia. "This damage is clearly seen", he wrote, "from the fact that the fifty Chinese ships which have come to these islands have brought less than forty piculs of silk, whereas the enemy have 900 excluding the textiles and, if it were not for what has been brought from Macau the ships from Nueva España would have nothing to carry". The shortlived Spanish attempt to lessen Manila's depen- dence on Macau ended with the fall of La Santissima Trindad to the Dutch in 1642.
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