Nearly the whole of the produce of the Philippines is exported from Manilla by the foreign merchants resident there, none of the Spaniards being engaged in commerce to anything like the same extent as the foreigners are; the few British and the two American houses doing an immensely greater amount of business than the whole transactions of all the Spanish merchants, numerous though they be. The trade of my countrymen consists principally in selling cotton manufactured goods, and in purchasing the produce of the islands for export; while the business of the Americans, who sell few goods, consists almost entirely in purchasing produce for the markets of the United States, and elsewhere. The Chinese are also large importers of their country’s manufactures, curiosities, and nick-knacks, and also very considerable exporters.

The statistical data embodied in the following tables will inform the reader pretty exactly of the amount of exports from the Philippines, with the exception of the single article of rice, immense quantities of which are carried over to China by Spanish ships, which load it at the districts where it is grown; for as the Government charge no export duty on its exportation in ships bearing the national flag, they are allowed to depart from the general rule of all vessels being obliged to load at Manilla while shipping cargo for foreign ports, if they are merely taking rice on board, and nothing else.

It is right, however, to inform the reader, that although the subjoined table may approach very nearly to the truth in most respects, as it has been gradually and very carefully collected by the largest British mercantile establishment at Manilla, the nature of whose business requires that they should be as well acquainted with all facts such as the table embraces, as from the nature of existing circumstances there it is possible to be, yet at that place there is at all times a greater or less degree of difficulty in obtaining correct statistical information of the trade; and this is considerably increased by the Government not choosing to communicate the particulars they collect at the Custom-house, erroneous though they be.

In an underhand way, however, these particulars can be obtained from some of the Indian copyists employed in that establishment, if they are paid for it; and, in fact, they are in the habit of communicating a note of the different cargoes of ships coming in, or going away loaded, to some of the merchants. Yet these notes are nearly always more or less erroneous, from various causes. To obviate these inconveniences, several of the principal export merchants are in the habit of mutually furnishing each other with a correct statement of the various cargoes they ship; but still, as there are many exporters besides themselves, some degree of error must pervade even their carefully-gleaned information. But there is one thing to be borne in mind, that the following table is most likely to be considerably under the truth, and certainly is not over it.

General Statement of Exports from Manilla during 1850.

The quantity of rice and paddy shipped to China from the provinces cannot be ascertained with any degree of exactness; what goes from Manilla is very small, because, before arriving there, it has, by its transport expenses, added to the price at which it is obtainable in the districts where it is produced, which, of course, prevents its being shipped from the capital. At a guess, however, I should suppose that about a million cavans, each of which, one with another, weighs about a China pecul, or 133 lbs, is an average yearly export, should the Government not prohibit the article from being exported for a longer period than usual, which is annually regulated by the scarcity or abundance of food in the country.

From the preceding table, the reader will observe that the exports of 1850, when compared with those of 1847, of which the following is a statement, have increased in some respects, and fallen off in others.

Statement of Exports from Manilla during 1850.

The quantity of hemp shipped during the years 1848 and 1849, was greater than the quantity indicated in either of these tables, but as the increased export was principally caused by speculation in the United States, the average annual export may probably not be greater than the amount set down in the table of 1850, although, in the previous year, about 30,000 peculs more were shipped.

Of the exports to the continent of Europe only a small proportion goes to Spain, probably not exceeding a third part of the quantities set down in the table for the continent.

Bremen, Hamburg, and Antwerp, are the three towns in the north with which most business is done, and Bordeaux and Havre de GrÂce, are nearly the only places to which the other exports are shipped for Europe, exclusive of the ports of Cadiz, Malaga, and Bilboa, in the Peninsula.

Having furnished the preceding tables of the amount of the exports from the only outlet for foreign trade with the islands, excepting in rice to China, as before mentioned, the reader may be able to form some opinion of their veracity and value. And as it may be of some service, I shall give a short sketch of each of the most important of the articles there set down, premising it with a memorandum of the weights and measures now in use through the islands. The pecul is equal to 140 lbs. English, or 137½ lbs. Spanish; the Spanish lb. being two per cent. heavier than the standard British lb. The quintal is 102 lbs. English, and the arroba 25½ lbs. English. The cavan is a measure of the capacity of 5,998 cubic inches, and is subdivided into 25 quintas. The Spanish yard, or vara, is eight per cent. shorter than the British yard, by which latter all the cotton and other manufactures are sold by the merchants importing them, although the shopkeepers who purchase them retail everything by the Spanish yard.