page_title: Tondo (historical polity)
section_title: Redistribution of Chinese goods
hierarchical_section_title: Tondo (historical polity) / Economic activities / Trade / Redistribution of Chinese goods
caption_attribution_description: Extent of Silk Route/Silk Road. Red is land route and the blue is the sea/water route. Satellite composition of the whole Earth's surface.
context_page_description: In early Philippine history, the Tagalog settlement at Tondo or Tundun was a major trade hub located on the northern part of the Pasig River delta, on Luzon island.
  Together with Maynila, the polity on the southern part of the Pasig River delta, it established a shared monopoly on the trade of Chinese goods throughout the rest of the Philippine archipelago, making it an established force in trade throughout Southeast Asia and East Asia.
  Tondo is of particular interest to Filipino historians and historiographers because it is one of the oldest historically documented settlements in the Philippines. Scholars generally agree that it was mentioned in the Laguna Copperplate Inscription, the Philippines oldest extant locally produced written document, dating back to 900 CE.
  Following contact with the Spanish Empire beginning in 1570 and the defeat of local rulers in the Manila Bay area in 1571, Tondo was ruled from Manila. Tondo's absorption into the Spanish Empire effectively ended its status as an independent political entity; it now exists as a district of the modern City of Manila.
context_section_description: The most lucrative of Tondo's economic activities involved the redistribution of Chinese goods, which would arrive in Manila bay through Tondo's port and be  distributed throughout the rest of the archipelago, mostly through Maynila's extensive shipping activities.
  The Chinese migrations to Malaya and the Philippines shore began in the 7th century and reached their peak after 1644 owing to the Manchu conquest of China. These Chinese immigrants settled in Manila, Pasig included, and in the other ports, which were annually visited by their trade junks, they have cargoes of silk, tea, ceramics, and their precious jade stones.
  According to William Henry Scott (1982), when ships from China came to Manila bay, Lakandula would remove the sails and rudders of their ships until they paid him duties and anchorage fees, and then he would then buy up all their goods himself, paying half its value immediately and then paying the other half upon their return the following year.  In the interim, these goods would be traded throughout the rest of the archipelago. The end result was that other locals were not able to buy anything from the Chinese directly, but from Tondo and Maynila, who made a tidy profit as a result.
  Augustinian Fray Martin de Rada Legaspi says that the Tagalogs were "more traders than warriors", and Scott notes in a later book (1994) that Maynila's ships got their goods from Tondo and then dominated trade through the rest of the archipelago.  People in other parts of the archipelago often referred to Maynila's boats as "Chinese" (Sina or Sinina) because they came bearing Chinese goods.
caption: Tondo and Maynila's shared trade relations with China make the Manila bay area one of the northernmost points on the route of the Silk Road.
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