The Provincial Chinese and the Progress of Iloilo Textile in Nineteenth-Century Philippines

Abstract

This paper examines the role of provincial Chinese in the progress of Iloilo textile in nineteenth century Philippines. It argues that the provincial Chinese played a pivotal role in Iloilo’s urban morphogenesis, which is contrary to the prevailing view that Iloilo’s progress has been spurred only by Western global enterprise, especially with the emergence of the sugar trade primarily operated by the British. The facets of Iloilo’s pre-colonial and colonial trade, specifically the textile business run by the Chinese, served as tour de force that brought about internal transformations in the local economy prior to European trade expansions in the overseas colonies in the second half of the nineteenth century. This study falls under the domain of urban history but with special emphasis on the interplay of material culture with that of the political economy of port cities in Asia during the nineteenth century. Its research framework has been drawn from advocates of microhistory. The framework employs privileging first-hand accounts and primary sources to explore historical experiences of a particular sector of the society (provincial Chinese), tracking clues through multiple sources to unearth hidden connections (provincial Chinese and urban progress), reconstructing webs of social networks (provincial Chinese with Ilonggos, Spaniards and other Europeans), and scaling analysis to highlight specific historical contexts or perspectives provincial Chinese and the textile trade). Many of the information in the study has been gathered through extensive library and archival research, especially nineteenth century records and documents of Iloilo Chinese found in the National Archives of the Philippines (nap) and other libraries and archives in the country. Data analysis has been undertaken through clustered themes and sub-themes that revolved around textile trade and the participation of provincial Chinese on it.