The Spanish Crown's Policy Towards the Chinese in Colonial Philippines
In dealing with the Chinese, Spain's policies revealed the basic compromise between religious-cultural ideals and economic interest decreed the presence of Chinese merchants and artisans, who filled occupations which the Spaniards scorned and for which the indios were believed unsuited. No less necessary was the China-Manila trade carried on by the Chinese, as part of the Manila Galleon trading system, in which many powerful Spanish residents had sizable investments. There were also the taxes and miscellaneous contributions of the Chinese, of interest both to government and to private individuals and institutions.
Balanced against economic interest was the mandate to Catholicize and hispanize the Philippines and all its inhabitants. It appeared to the Spaniards that the Chinese could not easily be converted or hispanized.
Moreover, intimate contact between unconverted Chinese and barely-converted indios stood as a possible threat to the lasting conversion of the latter, which was, after-all, the major Spanish concern.
Within a few years after the Spanish conquests of the Philippines, the relations between Chinese and Spaniards fell into a pattern of distrust and latent hostility. Basic to this pattern was a prevailing condition of economic interdependence coupled with seemingly irreconcilable cultural differences. Within this context, the term "sangley", the Spanish name for the Chinese immigrants, quickly came to apply to any individual stereotype and the Chinese became not simply one of two ethnic groups of equal status under the Spanish, but a despised cultural minority.
While considered a cultural minority in the Spanish plan, the Chinese were still, compared with the Spaniards, a numerical majority and hence potentially dangerous. Thus, if the indios seemed to need protection from the Chinese for religious-cultural reasons, no less dd the Manila Spaniards need it for security reasons. Therefore, as Spain's Chinese policy took form there were three major elements: 1) Taxation , 2) Control, 3) Conversion.
Reference:
Wickberg, Edgar. (2000). The Chinese in Philippine Life 1850-1898.
Ateneo De Manila University Press
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=55742.0