y fixed for their departure from Manila, 515
Chinamen had been sharp enough to obtain baptism as Christians,
in order to evade the edict, besides 1,108 who were permitted to
remain because they were studying the mysteries and intricacies of
Christianity. 2,070 were banished from Manila, the expulsion being
rigidly enforced on those newly arriving in junks.

Except a few Europeans and a score of Western Asiatics, the Chinese who
remained were the only merchants in the Archipelago. The natives had
neither knowledge, tact, energy, nor desire to compete with them. The
Chinese were a boon to the Colony, for, without them, living would
have been far dearer--commodities and labour of all kinds more scarce,
and the export and import trade much embarrassed. The Chinese and
the Japanese are really the people who gave to the natives the first
notions of trade, industry, and fruitful work. The Chinese taught them,
amongst many other useful things, the extraction of saccharine juice
from the sugar-cane, the manufacture of sugar, and the working of
wrought iron. They introduced into the Colony the first sugar-mills
with vertical stone crushers, and iron boiling-pans.

The history of the last 150 years shows that the Chinese, although
tolerated, were always regarded by the Spanish colonists as an
unwelcome race, and the natives have learnt, from example, to despise
them. From time to time, especially since the year 1763, the feeling
against them has run very high.

The public clamoured for restrictions on their arrival, impediments
to the traffic of those already established there, intervention of
the authorities with respect to their dwellings and mode of living,
and not a few urged their total expulsion. Indeed, such influence
was brought to bear on the Indian Council at Madrid during the
temporary Governorship of Juan Arechedera, Bishop of Nueva Segovia
(1745-50), that the Archbishop received orders to expel the Chinese
from the Islands; but, on the ground that to have done so would have
_prejudiced public interests_, he simply archived the decree. Even up
to the close of Spanish rule, the authorities and the national trading
class considered the question from very distinct points of view;
for the fact is, that only the mildest action was taken--just enough
to appease the wild demands of the people. Still, the Chinaman was
always subject to the ebb and flow of the tide of official goodwill,
and only since 1843 were Chinese shops