WALA LANG
I came across some 1920s writings of Percy H. Hill, an American who settled here and as amateur historian combed old accounts. Here are some of his gems I didn’t know about.
A MAP OF THE PAST - Capilla Real is between H and F; Palacio del Gobernador is B. Above Capilla Real is Puerta de Almacenes beside which is the Monasterio de Santa Clara. Detail of the 1717 Fernandez de Roxas Mao (British Library)
Streetnames
Changing street names are nothing new. Some 250 years ago, after the British Occupation, Calle Real became Calle Real de Palacio (the present General Luna Street) and Calle Parian became Calle Real. Calles Solano, Magallanes, Legaspi, Anda, and San Juan de Letran were previously Fonda, Farol, Cerrada, Recogidas, and de la Bomba respectively. Calle Urdaneta was Calle de Barberos after the many barbers who practiced their trade there.
Location, location
Mexican soldiers, called guachinangos (literally joker, smooth-tongued or the fish red snapper) lived near Recoletos church (now the Manila Bulletin complex) while “swashbucklers and broken adventurers” were in the narrow alleys bounded by San Agustin, NCCA, and Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila. It was the rough-and-ready quarter that the well-heeled avoided.
Palacio del Gobernador
In 1644 to 1653 the minutiae of government was run not directly by Governor-General Diego Fajardo Chacón but by his trusted friend Manuel Eustacio de Venegas. Venegas abused his authority for self-enrichment and in the process incurred powerful enemies. Fajardo saw the light and had him arrested. Venegas was sentenced to death on 61 counts and his magnificent mansion became the palace where 43 governor-generals stayed until its destruction by the earthquake of 1863. The humongous Palacio del Gobernador office building occupied by Comelec is on the site.
Capilla Real
A dispute between the governor-general and the archbishop of Manila led to the construction of a Royal Chapel in 1636. It was dedicated to Nuestra Señora de la Encarnación (Our Lady of the Incarnation), a reference to the Annunciation and the birth of Christ. Located just outside the main gate of Fort Santiago, it was the military chapel and was where the governor-general and members of the Audiencia heard Mass. The chapel was destroyed during the British Occupation (1762-1764). It was not rebuilt and the nearby Santa Clara Monastery chapel became high officialdom’s place of worship.
Spanish friars had a bad press
Hear “Padre Damaso” and you immediately think fat, bald, short, foul-mouthed, entitled, sex-starved maniac. Most were not like Rizal’s characters Damaso the seducer of Capitan Tiago’s wife; Padre Salvi, Crispin’s killer, Ibarra’s persecutor, and Maria Clara’s stalker; or the attempted rapist Padre Camorra who caused Juli to jump from a convent window. Rizal’s novels after all were propaganda pieces.
Missionaries, particularly the early ones, were idealistic and hardworking men who traveled across oceans to unknown and hostile territory bringing to indios not only religion but also progress such as it was, including literacy; plants like sugar, tobacco, coffee, and cacao; methods of cultivation and work animals, e.g. the plow and the horse. They endured loneliness and homesickness but among them were scholars who studied languages, customs and traditions, botany, and other disciplines. Early Friar accounts shed light on our pre-history.
Ins and Outs of the Galleon Trade
Manila Spaniards were occupied by the Galleon Trade, busy before a ship departed and on arrival of the incoming galleon with the silver payment for what they had dispatched earlier. In between was mainly happy, lazy time. Such was the good life of many Intramuros residents for 250 years, from 1565 until the last ship sailed in 1815.
Goods from China and the rest of Asia were brought to Manila and shipped to Mexico where they were sold at fantastic profits. Ships were relatively small and the volume of cargo space was expressed in terms of boletas or bales, units measuring 100 x 50 x 60 centimeters. The total value of goods shipped was also limited by Royal Decree to ₱500,000, imposed to protect business people in Spain.
The right to ship was therefore carefully controlled. The governor-general, the archbishop, and the religious orders had the lion’s share of available boletas. Whatever was left after the big boys’ share was distributed to colonial officials and other recipients. Manila’s alcalde and regidores (aldermen) were each allotted eight boletas. Widows and orphans and a favored few also received some, even a fraction of a boleta. The Treasury collected ₱125 for a boleta that recipients could either use, sell, or lease. The lease rate at some point was ₱500 per trip. Alternative, they could buy goods from Parian merchants, ship them to Mexico, await payment on the return ship, and after accumulating a fortune, return to Spain to live the good life, caring little for the colony or the indios.
Typically, merchants, mostly Chinese, brought in goods from China and elsewhere sold them to authorized shippers at triple the cost, paying a four percent sales tax. Financing was available from the Obras Pias (mainly a pawnshop) and moneylenders at 40 to 50 percent, payable when payment arrived on the return galleon. Undervaluation was massive, with the real value of shipments being closer to three million, six times the official maximum.
Packing, customs checks, and related activities took place by the almacenes reales on the Intramuros walls between the Monasterio de Santa Clara and the Pasig River. From there, the bales were lightered to Cavite where Galleons were anchored.
Note: This article is based on articles of Percy H. Hill included in Walter Robb, The Khaki Cabinet and Old Manila (Manila: Published by the author, 1926).
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