Philippine E-Journals

Chinese Influx

Discipline: History

 

Abstract:

The Spanish colonizers found the Chinese residents in the Philippines industrious, tractable and peaceful. They saw in them utility in the economic life of the country. They needed them as laborers and artisans, and from those who were engaged in trade, they hoped they could procure the products and goods they might need in their very life in the Islands. They considered the native products of the archipelago insufficient for their needs. The Spanish merchant class in due time thought of utilizing these Chinese traders for their commercial enterprises. They hoped they could profit from CHINESE INFLUX their merchandise which Spain or their Latin American colonies did not have which they could send to Spain or to Mexico or Peru. The missionary Spaniards, on the other hand, believed that the Chinese residents could be converted to Christianity and their souls saved for their L or d. They hoped further to use the services of these Chinese in their dream of evangelizing in the Chinese mainland. Spanish merchants and missionaries believed they could use Manila as a base for their operations on the Chinese mainland.