The Philippine Islands, 1493-1898, Volume 35, 1640-1649 / Explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commercial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the close of the nineteenth century

TRADE WITH ENGLISH NOT DESIRED

Sire:

Don Alonso de Cardenas, in a letter to your Majesty of November 23 of last year, states that your Majesty was pleased to have him informed in a letter of September 14, that, inasmuch as the proposition of the East-Indian merchants of that kingdom regarding permission to trade in Manila and other ports of Philipinas, has not been thought advisable, he may close the discussion as civilly as possible. He should try to ascertain whether the said company1 of English merchants is introducing any regular navigation from that kingdom to the Philipinas, in what form, whether it may be expected that it will continue to acquire strength, and any other information that he may be able to obtain, and advise you of what he may discover. Conforming to these instructions he has begun to mistrust that the merchants cannot accomplish what they have proposed, and has learned that the said Company of India is not sending any vessel directly to the Philipinas; but that two or three vessels that they despatch annually to the city of Bantan, in the kingdom or province of Simatria2—which is subject to the king of Surat, called Magol—proceed yearly to Manila and return to Bantan where the English of this company have commerce and settled communication, and where one of them lives, with the title of president of the company. This company is not confirmed by the parliament, nor does it enjoy the privileges that they wish for its establishment. However, they expect both these shortly in reference to which a merchant of the said company told him [i.e., Alonso de Cardenas] that the commerce of India would increase, and that six or seven vessels would be sent annually to Bantan, whence two or three would go to Manila and other ports of the Philipinas. The above is the extent of his knowledge acquired in order to inform your Majesty. The Council having examined it, and Don Francisco de Melo and the marquis of Valparayso concurring in their opinion, it is fitting that Don Alonso be advised that we have received his communication, and approve his care in acquiring and sending this information; and that a copy of this letter be sent to the Council of the Indias—although in the condition of affairs, no difficulty is looked for in the course of this matter. Your Majesty will order what is most pleasing to you? At Madrid, January 30, 1647.

[Signed in paraph]

[Endorsed: “+ In Madrid, January 30, 1647.” “The Council of State, in which Don Francisco de Melo and the Marquis de Valparayso concur in regard to the response of Don Alonso de Cardenas, respecting his orders as to declining the proposition that was made by English merchants of Eastern India for trade in the port of Manila and other ports in the Philipinas.”

“Let it be so.”—Evidently the instruction of the king, which is signed in paraph.]

1 The East India Company of England (formed in 1600) encountered great opposition and hindrances in its early history; they had to compete with the long-established Portuguese and Dutch trade, and could obtain little aid from the English government. In 1619 they formed an alliance with the Dutch company of the same name, but this soon proved ineffective. They had obtained control of Surat in 1612, but were thus involved in continual quarrels with the Portuguese. This company did not secure recognition from the English parliament until 1657; this brought them much prosperity for a time, but they afterward lost much of what they had gained, and in 1680 were expelled by the Dutch from Bantam. See Raynal’s account of early English trade in the East Indies, in his History of European Settlements and Trade (Justamond’s translation), ii, pp. 1–40.

2 An oversight of the writer; Bantam is in Java, not Sumatra.

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