Retrospect | Chinese Trading in Capiz during the 19th century

By Erwin Bonifacio

Mestizos Sangley y Chino, c. 1841 Tipos del País, watercolor by Justiniano Asuncion. Accessed from Wikimedia Commons

The trading of goods and cultural exchanges between the Chinese and Capisnons pre-dated the arrival of Spaniards on the island. According to oral history in the Municipality of Panitan during the sixteenth century, there was a Chinese named Instik Bonghi, who brought along with him porcelain, and silk among other goods to be traded.  The natives bought goods from these foreign traders, however, with the Spanish colonization of the island, these friendly trading relations were put to a hiatus.

There was also an account that in the eighteenth century at pueblo de Panay, there was the largest ministry on the island, who were the richest and most abundant because of the great trade it had within the vicinity of Capiz. Two thousand tributantes, excluding those who were living in the Parian or alcaiceria, a silk market, where the Christian mestizo de sangley lived separately, had numerous stores of everything necessary.

By 1850, there were thirty mestizo de sangley,who were merchants and shopkeepers paying their annual tributes in the province.   In 1852, the annual goods imported by Manila from Capiz, valued at P70,057 while in the ports of Iloilo, it was valued at P184,438. By 1853, the goods from Capiz traded with Manila was at P178, 535 while Iloilo experienced a sharp decline and was valued only at P91, 848 goods.  In 1854, there were four ports operating in Capiz with a total goods value at P318,050.74, which was slightly higher than of Iloilo ports (Iloilo and Guimbal) with P304,266.58, and much higher than Antique with only P26, 053. The leading port in the province was in Capiz with P181,681.41, followed by Calibo with P114,124.69, Batan with P151,47.92 and Ibajay with P7,095.72. 

Coincidentally, in 1854, goods traded to Manila from Capiz nearly tripled from 1852 and even dislodged Iloilo for two consecutive years. It was also the year when nine Chinese passengers sailed from the ports of Capiz. The booming commerce in the province could be the main reason with the steady migration of the Chinese and the mestizo de sangley. But not until the later part of the 1850s and early 1860s that the Chinese substantial role in the thriving commerce in the province began to gain a foothold as they started trading goods from Capiz to Manila.

Some of these Chinese merchants which traded in the Province of Capiz from 1857-1864 were Quia who dealt planks of molave, empty bayones and coconuts; Dy-Mangco merchandised on sugar, empty bayones and carabao leather; Ong-Chinco focused on rice and tar pitch; Ang-Cong was particular on palay, rice, carabao and leathers, guinaras and shell basket; Chijuat shipped almaciga, sigay shells, and carabao hides; Antonio Guian Quintana transacted palay, abaca, empty bayones, carabao, sinamay, leathers, sugar, balate or sea cucumber, sigay shells, and mother-of-pearl; Yong devoted to abaca; Vicente Sy-Quia Romero engaged in the trade of palay, sugar, and empty bayones and Vy-Tico traded rice, sugar, palay, empty bayones, and sinamay; Ju-san shipped empty bayones, wax, balate or sea cucumber, drawers with deer lid, guinaras, hats, pigs, carabao leathers, and añil; and, Ju-Juar on abaca.

In the 1860s, there were more Chinese licensed traders in Capiz than in the provinces of Iloilo and Antique, although, the number was also sliding by this period.  But these Chinese traders contested with three major traders in the province namely: Eugster, Lambhart and Company, one of the three German and Swiss mercantile houses, Don Antonio Ayala and Doña Margarita Roxas de Ayala.

Erwin Bonifacio is a Local Government Operations Officer III of Department of Interior and Local Goverment in the Province of Capiz. He has authored Mainabyanon nga Paghusay: Isa ka Talamdan Sa Katarungang Pambarangay  published in 2019. Email Erwin at  erwinbonifacio@yahoo.com.