Unwritten strands in larger economic history of Asia

Unwritten strands in larger economic history of Asia

By Ambeth Ocampo

MANILA: Years ago, while doing research on Malacanang, someone showed me a 19th century document on the renovation of the then summer home of the Spanish governors-general.

There was a list of workers and their salaries attached and one name, "Co Juangco," rang a bell.

It was ironic that Cory Aquino refused to live in Malacanang proper, because one of her ancestors helped enhance it a century earlier. Every Filipino knows there is always a Chinese ancestor waiting in an archival closet to be revealed.

When Aquino visited China, she was brought to the village where her ancestors were rooted. During the recent Estrada visit, he presided over the ground-breaking of a memorial in the village where Jose Rizal traces his Chinese roots.

All these make me wonder at the untapped historical materials China has on the pre-colonial Philippines. A great challenge faces the Filipino historian researching in China, not only does he have to locate the material, he must be able to read and understand these too.

Thousands of pieces of Chinese ceramics have been excavated in the Philippines, both on land and sea, mute witnesses to pre- colonial trade. Unfortunately, one sees them used as accents to interior decoration than pieces of the historical puzzle.

Knowing the Chinese, they did not brave the sea and gave these to the Filipinos free. Some sort of exchange took place and I have often wondered what the pre-colonial Filipinos exchanged for porcelain.

Grace Wong of the National Museum of Singapore, in a 1979 article, went through the Chinese sources and compiled a list of items brought into China by tribute missions from neighboring Southeast Asian countries and the corresponding gifts made in exchange by the Chinese.

This preliminary list not only gives us an insight into what was considered valuable during the Song Dynasty (960-1279) but it also reminded me of Agriculture Secretary Edgardo Angara's campaign to correct the present imbalance in trade between the Philippines and other countries.

Angara, for example, showed how our beef imports from Australia compared with the amount that country imports from us.

During the Song Dynasty, tribute missions were received in China from Southeast Asian countries including the Philippines. The Song Shi records show that a tribute mission from Ma-re, said to be on the north and western points of present-day Luzon, arrived in the year 1032 carrying "precious goods carried to the coast of Guangzhou."

This is rather vague as we do not know what these "precious goods" are. Neither is the exchange given by the Chinese recorded. Obviously, the gifts were precious but not exceptional enough to merit recording.

Earlier, in 1003, a tribute mission was received from Pu-tuan (Butuan?) that brought, "exotic goods and red parrots" for which they were gifted with copper cash like everyone else. In the ninth month of the year 1004, another Butuan mission arrived with more undescribed "exotic goods."

The Song Hui Yao notes that "Members of the missions bought gold and silverware, banners and flags, in contravention of the regulations." Not a very flattering bit of history that shows that we have not changed much in over a thousand years.

In 1011, the Butuan mission "used a sheet of gold for a letter. Gave cloves; white borneo-camphor; turtle shells; red parrots; also a Kun-lun slave."

Recent archeological finds in Butuan yielded a lot of gold jewelry, but a gold sheet for a letter? Now, that is exceptional.

So far, a short strip of silver with writing has surfaced as well as a small gold sheet with faint scribbling incised on it, these being one of our early forms of writing.

What happened to the gold sheet letter brought by the Butuan mission in 1011? What was the text on it?

This we will never know in the same way that we cannot understand what was so special about red parrots presented to the Chinese court as presents.

Not all gifts were appreciated as the Song Hui Yao noted that "the gift of a Kun-lun slave was returned. A title was bestowed on the leader of the mission, who, later on, asked for armaments and flags. These were given."

Kun-lun was a generic term used to describe the barbarians who lived outside the Great Wall, specifically those from Southeast Asia.

In a Tang Dynasty history (618-906) the Kun-lun people were described as "curly-haired and black." Did the Butuan mission bring an Aeta or Negrito slave, thinking the poor thing would provide amusement for the Chinese emperor?

By comparison, the Vietnamese sent truly fabulous presents. A mission from Jia Zhi or north Vietnam in 990 arrived with: "one chair with dragon and phoenix motifs and other precious things; twelve golden sedan chairs decorated with turtle shells, one parasol made of red silk embroidered with dragon and phoenix motifs and with a golden handle decorated with turtle shells; 30 pieces of rhinoceros horns; 40 tusks of ivory; 10,000 rolls of silk; 1,000 rolls of cotton and 1,000 rolls of woven silk."

For this loot, the title "king of Jiao Zhi" was bestowed on the person who sent the delegation.

These lists of "exchange gifts" are but strands in a larger economic history of Asia that is yet to be written.

-- The Philippine Daily Inquirer/Asia News Network