自明季至清中葉西屬美洲的中國絲貨貿易

The Chinese Silk Trade with Spanish America from the Late Ming to Mid-Ch'ing Period

全漢昇(HAN-SHENG CHUAN)

《中國文化研究所學報》 4卷2期 (1971/12) Pp. 345-369

https://doi.org/10.29708/JCS.CUHK.197112_4(2).0003

並列摘要

Shortly after Columbus discovered. America 1492, the Spanish conquered Mexico, Peru and other parts of south America. They used Mexico as a base to launch explorations westward, and these efforts led to the seizure of the Philippine Islands and Spanish hegemony over the islands in 1565. The Portuguese controlled the African route to the Far East during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, making it impossible for Spain to communicate directly with its Asian territories via the Cape of Good Hope. The Spaniards could only hope to control their colonies from Mexico. With a view toward strengthening ties between the Philippines and Spanish America, the Viceroy of New Spain sent two or three galleons annually from Acapulco to Manila between 1565 and 1815. At first the Philippine economy was extremely backward, and the Spaniards were unable to produce goods of sufficient value to export to Spanish America. China, with its wealth and large population, lay only 700 miles to the west. China gradually began to export a variety of goods which satisfied the needs of the Spaniards, and amongst these commodities were raw and finished silk, items that soon became the most important component of the China export trade with the Philippines. The Ming government had promoted the planting of mulberry trees and silk spinning and weaving after establishing its rule over the country. The impetus to increase the supply of silk fabrics further came from the Spanish who eagerly wanted silk to ship to Spanish America. Shortly after the Ming government extended its rule over China, it began to issue paper currency, but the value of this money soon dropped as supply and velocity of circulation increased. To protect themselves from inflation the masses began to hold silver and conduct business transactions with it, Market demand for silver rose, and so did its price. The silver mines in Spanish America enabled the Spaniards residing in the Philippines to sell large quantities of silver dollars and bullion to Chinese merchants. The opportunity to obtain American silver on favorable terms encouraged the Chinese to increase their silk exports to the Philippines. Though Chinese traders shipped other goods to meet the needs of the Spaniards, silk continued to be sold in Manila at handsome profits, and it naturally constituted the largest part of Sino-Philipp ne trade. For example, in 1585, Chinese traders exported 200,000 pesos worth of merchandise mainly consisting of silks, only 10,000 pesos being in food items. The importance of the silk trade led to the establishment of a silk market called Parian in the eastern section of Manila, where the Chinese lived and traded. In Manila the bulk of Chinese silks were purchased by the Spaniards and shipped to Mexico. By 1636 each galleon carried a registered cargo exceeding 1,000 chests. Each chest usually contained 250 pieces of pearl-colored Cantonese taffeta and 72 pieces of scarlet gauze, weighing about 250 pounds. A galleon carried as much as 10,000 to 12,000 bundles of raw silk in the latter half of the eighteenth century. The silk trade increased employment opportunities and raised living standards in Mexico. For example, in 1637, 14,000 people worked in Mexico to process the raw silk imported from China. The finished silk products were not only bought by the Spaniards and the indigenous wealthy of Mexico, but they were widely distributed throughout Spanish America. Silver mining in Peru enjoyed a great boom, and the annual silver output increased, to account for around 60 per cent of the world silver output during the last two decades of the sixteenth century. Peru's wealth enabled it to buy great quantities of fine Chinese silks. Much of this silk was so cheap that it was reported the Indians living in the torrid lowlands could afford to buy and wear silk clothes. Spanish law and custom compelled the Indians to wear clothing. During the late sixteenth century each galleon's cargo typically represented an original investment in Manila of more than 1,000,000 pesos, and the total sale value in Mexico amounted to well over 2,000,000 pesos. By the mid seventeenth century some merchants claimed to have earned 400 per cent profit from the silk trade between Manila and Mexico. While the Spaniards in Manila dominated this trade in the early seventeenth century, they sometimes earned profits as high as 1,000 per cent. Such earnings were undoubtedly exceptional, but even in the long run the profit rate seems to have ranged between 100 to 300 per cent on original investment. The silk trade had become so lucrative that many Spaniards did not believe a more profitable trade existed anywhere in the world. A silk industry had meanwhile developed in southern Spain, and its products were sold in Spanish America in large volume, However in America these Spanish silks had to compete with Chinese goods, which sold at only one-third of the price of the Spanish products. Thus Spanish silks were quickly driven from the south American market, and Spanish silk producers strongly protested to the throne, urging exclusion of Chinese silks from Spanish America. To comply with their petition, the Spanish government set a quota on the quantity of Chinese silk that could be imported. At times the government even decreed that Chinese silks could not be imported. Yet many Spaniards in the Philippines continued to profit greatly from the silk trade, and eventually they succeeded in reversing this restrictionist trade policy.