Page 147 - Vol_2_Archaeology of Manila Galleon Seaport Trade

118 N. T. Cuevas

the center of trade ceramics production in China (www.koh-antique.com), the
province mass produced porcelains; and northern Fujian established more kilns
(Minbei) than southern Fujian (Minnan) (www.koh-antique.com/fujian).
The historical records do not disclose that Fujian wares were actually exported to
the Philippines. However, what latter day scholars describe as “mass produced,
hurriedly potted, and invariably of inferior quality” blue-and-white wares and
further describe as copies of celadon from Longquan kilns and Qingbai ware from
Jingdezhen kilns may have included Fujian wares. Archaeologist Robert Fox
describes the products of these provincial kilns as “people’s ware” (Fox 1979). One
can surmise that the large production of Fujian wares ultimately responded to the
Southeast Asian demand for ceramics trade.
The study of Tatel (2002) on the patterns of external exchanges in the late 16th
to the early 19th century in Porta Vaga in Cavite City mentions that the Spaniards
developed a system of external trade as a result of the absence of trading ports near
China (Tatel 2002). They sought to monopolize the Southeast Asian commerce by
the way of the Manila-Acapulco trade through regular journeys of the heavily-
ladden galleon ships. The Manila-Acapulco trade attracted Chinese merchants to
engage in Manila commerce, and their junks were full of goods. Tatel cites a
historical document by Antonio de Morga (1609) that a total of thirty to forty
Chinese junks traveling in groups arrived in Manila Bay from the ports of
Guandong (Canton) Province, Chinceo or Quanzhou and Ucheo or Fuzhou pre-
fectures (likely in Amoy, Fujian Province) (Iaccarino 2011: 99). The Minnan Ren or
locals of southern Fujian province were known to be the dynamic merchants who
moved to Manila conducted trade with the mainland via junks (Desroches 1997).
Large trade ships regularly docked on Philippine ports that were big enough to
accommodate them, such as those in Manila, Mindoro, Pangasinan, Cebu, Jolo
(Sulu province) and Cotabato (Maguindanao province) (Junker 2000: 195).
Sites such as the Porta Vaga in Cavite City, Beaterio de la Compaña de Jesus and
Ayuntamiento sites in Intramuros, Manila, the Arroceros Forest Park and the
Mehan Garden sites outside Manila, and Boljoon in southern Cebu are some of the
numerous locations of historical and archaeological importance that provide
evidences of Fujian and Hizen wares found in the Philippines. The National
Museum worked on these sites during the early years of 2000.

6.2 Evidence of Fujian and Hizen Wares in the Philippines

The turn of the 17th century witnessed the Philippine economy stabilizing as a
result of the unrestricted commercial exchange and growth of the Manila Galleons
(Cuevas 2014: 28). Evidence of commercial exchanges in the archaeological
records of the historically known ports in the Philippines showed the presence of
ceramics from Fujian province and Arita in Japan.