Page 90 - Chinese and japanese porcelain silk and lacquer Canepa

Silk Trade to the Northern
(half or more were probably indigenous, and one quarter were Europeans, mostly
Spaniards, but also included a few Portuguese, French, Italian, Greek, Flemish and
German individuals). Most merchants participated in the trade of locally mined Netherlands/Dutch Republic
281
gold for European clothing, Chinese woven silk cloths and porcelain, olives, wine,
and spices. A will made that year listing the bequests of María de Amores, an and England [2.2]
282
Indian woman who had twice married a Spaniard husband, includes a ‘Chinese lijilla
[lliclla]’. 283 In June of 1598, the storekeeper Miguel de Aldaz provided ‘seventy-eight-
and-a-half yards of colored damasks, eight-and-a-half yards of simple taffeta, and
five-and-three quarters ounces of silk, all from China’ to be given as gifts for visiting
indigenous Cayapas (or Chachi) and Yumbo ambassadors. As noted by Lane, all these
silks were purchased directly by the royal treasury for some four hundred pesos, despite
the fact that they had been illegally imported from Acapulco. In September, Aldaz 281 The Spaniards occupied the Inca city of Quito in 1534,
284
provided ‘twenty-six-and-a-quarter yards of colored damasks, three hats, three yards and renamed it San Francisco de Quito. In 1563,
it was established as one of the royal Audiencias
colored taffeta, three embroidered shirts with three [matching] blankets, six knives, of the viceroyalty of Peru. Kris Lane, Quito 1599.
City and Colony in Transition, Albuquerque, 2002,
thirty-nine strings of beads, ninety needles, and eighteenth trumpets [sic], all from pp. 1, 3, 19, and 157.
Castile and China’ that served ‘to clothe the six Indians of the Province of Barbacoas 282 bid., p. 56.
I
who came to this court in peace’. That September, an encomendero and his wife 283 Frank Salomon, ‘Indian Women of Early Colonial
285
Quito as Seen Through Their Testaments’, The
purchased a suit of clothes for their young son Martin from the shop of the merchant Americas 44, no. 3 (January 1988) pp. 334–335. Cited
in Phipps, 2013, p. 44.
Diego Rodríguez de León. This purchase, registered just a few days after Philip II’s
284 Archivo Nacional de Historia, Quito (hereafter
death, consisted of various garments made with Chinese satin, silk, and taffeta, the cited as ANHQ) Real Hacienda, box 36, bound
libramientos, fol. 21. Cited in Lane, 2002, p. 46.
finest Segovian broadcloth, a measure of Mexican grogram, all black and trimmed with
285 ANHQ Real Hacienda, box 36, bound libramientos,
the best Italian and Portuguese embroidering threads. The encomendero must have fol. 28v. Cited in Lane, 2002, p. 46.
been wealthy for he paid 230 pesos, which was more than twenty times the value of an 286 ANHQ NP, 1:6 DLM, ff. 618–19. Mentioned in Lane,
2002, p. 159. Trade to the Northern
average indigenous man’s outfit. 287 Santa Fe was founded by Juan de Garay along
286
Written sources indicate that silks circulated as far south as present-day Argentina with nine other Spaniards and more that seventy Netherlands/Dutch Republic [2.2.1]
mestizos from Paraguay. It was a necessary stopping
by the early seventeenth century. A few references to silk are found in wills of residents point on the river route to the Río de la Plata and
on the overland route that connected the inland
of Santa Fe La Vieja, which was occupied by the Spaniards from 1573 to 1660. The territories with Tucumán, Chile and Peru. Santa Fe
287
will of Feliciano Rodríguez, one of the first residents of the city where he served as gave the necessary support for the foundation of Until the beginning of the seventeenth century, the principal sources of silk in the
Buenos Aires in 1580, which gave Spain the control
regidor (governor) in 1582 and then mayor in 1585 and 1594, taken in April 1606, of the coastal territories that were constantly Northern Netherlands were Italy and the Levant. Initially the silk, both raw and
threatened on the west by the Portuguese
lists ‘fourteen baras [yards] of taffeta, twelve of them blue, and the other two green settlers in Brazil. For historical information of the thrown, that came from Italy was acquired via Antwerp, but after 1550 the silk trade
from China’; and the will of Pedro Martín, taken in January 1641, lists ‘three yards archaeological site, see the digital catalogue, moved to Amsterdam. By the time the Spanish troops of Philip II seized control of
288
Carlos Raúl Falcó (coord.), Santa Fe La Vieja
of taffeta from China’. 289 (1573–1660): Testimonio Arqueológico-Urbano de Antwerp in 1585, a total of 22 types of raw, prepared and dyed Italian and Levantine
una Ciudad Americana Meridional en el Período
The import of Chinese silk from Acapulco into the viceroyalty of Peru was once Colonial Temprano, Santa Fe, no date. I am greatly silk were being traded in Amsterdam. 291
again prohibited in 1641, just three years before the fall of the Ming dynasty. Philip indebted to the archaeologist Luis María Calvo, Very little information concerning the importation of Chinese silk into the
Director Department Estudios Etnográficos y
IV ordered that ‘Whenever any ships sail from the port of Acapulco and other ports Coloniales, Santa Fe, Argentina, for bringing to my Northern Netherlands in the early seventeenth century can be found in textual sources
attention these archival references and for providing
of New Spain to make the voyage to Peru on the opportunities permitted, it is our me with information on the site. written in English. Dutch textual sources indicate that ‘silk’ and ‘silk cloths’ were
will and we order our officials of those ports to visit and inspect those ships with 288 The original text in Spanish reads: ‘Ytem catorze among the treasures brought back to Amsterdam by Jacob van Neck on his return
baras de tafetan, las doze de ellas de azul, y las dos
complete faithfulness and the advisable rigor. They shall endeavor to ascertain whether verde de la China’. Archivo del Departamento de from Bantam in July 1599. In all probability he would have acquired these silks in
292
such ships are carrying any silks, or merchandise from China, or the Philippine Estudios Etnográficos y Coloniales (hereafter cited Bantam. According to a journal written in 1613 by the Englishman, John Saris, three
as ADEEC), Expedientes Civiles (hereafter cited as
Islands. They shall seize such, and declare those found as smuggled goods. They shall EC), vol. 52, fols. 116–130. The term bara or vara was or four Chinese junks came there each year, with an abundance of raw and woven silk,
a measurement that equaled approximately one
divide them, and apply them as is contained in the laws of this title’. From the yard or 83 cms. Krahe, 2014, Glossary, p. 275. silk thread, fine and coarse porcelain, and vast quantities of Chinese cash. 293
290
documentation discussed above it is possible to conclude that large quantities of raw 289 The original text in Spanish reads: ‘tres varas de 291 Sjoukje Colenbrander, When Weaving Fluorished. The next known reference of the presence of silk in the Northern Netherlands
tafetán de la China’. ADEEC, Escrituras Publicas, The Silk Industry in Amsterdam and Haarlem, 1585–
silk and woven silk cloths arrived to the viceroyalty of Peru, either through official or vol. 1, fols. 12v/13v. from Dutch textual sources dates to 1604. In August of that year, a great quantity of
1750, Amsterdam, 2013, p. 15.
clandestine trade, during the late sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. While the raw 290 Felipe IV in Madrid, 9 of April of 1641, in Recopilación 292 Vol. VI, book 36, fol. 38. Keuning, 1940, p. lxxx: V. silk from the cargo of the richly laden Portuguese carrack Santa Catarina, captured
de leyes, Book VIII, Title XVII, law XV. For a more Resultaten en gevolgen van de reis van Van Neck.
silk was used alongside that from New Spain in Lima’s textile industry, woven silk accurate transcription of the original text in Cited in Canepa, 2014, p. 35. by Admiral Jakob van Heemskerck off Patane on the east coast of the Malay Peninsula
cloths circulated widely not only to other cities of the viceroyalty, but also among a Spanish, the present author made a slight change 293 Ernest M. Satow (ed.), The Voyage of Captain John while en route from Macao to Goa, was sold by the newly established VOC at a
to the English translation published in Emma Helen
multi-ethnic clientele from all the colonial social classes, who could afford them and Blair and James Alexander Robertson (eds.), The Saris to Japan, 1613, London, 1697, p. 216. public auction held in Amsterdam. Silk merchants came to the city from all over
Philippine Islands. 1493–1898, Cleveland, 1904, Vol. 294 David W. Davies, The World of the Elseviers,
used them in both secular and religious contexts. XVII: 1609–1616, p. 45, note 9. 1580–1712, The Hague, 1954, no page no. Europe. 294 The following year, the cargo was described by Levinus Hulsius in his Achte

88 Silk, Porcelain and Lacquer Trade in Chinese Silk 89