page_title: Sangley
section_title: Economy
hierarchical_section_title: Sangley / Economy
caption_attribution_description: English: Tipos del País (19th Century Watercolor) by José Honorato Lozano
context_page_description: Sangley is an archaic term used in the Philippines beginning in when it was Spain to describe and classify a person of mixed Chinese and Filipino ancestry.
  Intsik is the native term used to refer to the Chinese in general.
  Tsinoy is a term currently used by some to refer to a person of Chinese descent born in the Philippines.
  The Chinese had entered the Philippines as traders prior to Spanish colonisation. That development increased some work and business opportunities. Many emigrated to the Philippines, establishing concentrated communities first in Manila, then in other cities.
context_section_description: Most of the sangleys worked as skilled artisans or traders.  Aside from shopkeeping, the sangleys earned their livelihood as carpenters, tailors, cobblers, locksmiths, masons, metalsmiths, weavers, bakers, carvers and other skilled craftsmen.  As metalsmiths, they helped to build the Spanish galleons in shipyards located in Cavite.  As masons, they built Intramuros and its numerous structures.
  The Spanish gave the mestizos de sangley special rights and privileges as colonial subjects of the Spanish Crown and as baptized converts to the Catholic Church.  They were given preference to handle the domestic trade of the islands. In addition, they were allowed to lease land from the friar estates through the inquilino or lessee system, that allowed them to sublet those lands.
  Later, the mestizos de sangley came to acquire many native lands, chiefly through a legal instrument called pacto de retro or contract of retrocession.  Through this instrument, a moneylender extended loans to farmers, who in exchange for cash, pawned their land with the option of buying it back.  In the event of default, the moneylender recovered the loan by foreclosing on the land from the farmer. Many local farmers lost their lands to mestizos de sangley in this manner.
  The Spanish Galleon Trade (1565–1815) tied China to Europe via Manila and Acapulco, Mexico.  Acting as a transshipment port, Manila attracted Chinese traders from Xiamen (Amoy); they traveled in armed ships to trade with the Spanish.  Chinese luxury goods, such as silk, porcelain and finely crafted furniture, were exchanged for silver from Mexican and Peruvian mines.  Twice a year the galleons sailed across the Pacific Ocean from Manila to Acapulco and back. The goods were later shipped to Spain via Veracruz, a Gulf Coast port on the Atlantic side of Mexico.
  As the Spanish galleons carried mostly Chinese luxury goods destined for Europe, Mexicans called them náos de China (Chinese ships). The Spanish galleon trade was mainly a business affair involving Spanish officials in Manila, Mexico and Spain, and Chinese traders from Xiamen.  The highly lucrative galleon trade carried few products originating from the Philippine islands or involving resident domestic traders.  The trade was so profitable that Mexican silver became an unofficial currency of Southern China; an estimated one-third of silver mined from the Americas flowed into China during that period.  The Spanish galleons also transported Filipino crew and militia men to the Americas, among which were many Sangleys; Some of them chose to settle in Mexico, Louisiana, and parts of present United States, specially California. Americans called these immigrants Manilamen and the Mexicans called them los indios Chinos.
  Apart from the Portuguese-led Macao-Manila trade in the 17th century and the British-controlled Madras-Manila trade in the 18th century, it was chiefly the Spanish-ruled Manila-Acapulco trade that sustained the colony for much of the colonial period. When the trade ended with the last ship's sailing in 1815, the Spaniards needed new sources of revenue. With the penetration of the British Empire into the Far East and the successful revolts of the criollos in the Spanish Americas, Catholic Spain quickly lost its position amongst the Western powers.
  After losing Mexico when it became independent in 1821, Spain took over direct control of the Philippines.  It had been governed by the Virreinato de Nueva España or Viceroyalty of New Spain (Mexico) during much of the colonial period.  Coinciding with the advent of steamships and the consequent expansion of the global economy, the Spaniards decided to open up the Philippines to foreign trade. They appointed Governor-General Basco y Vargas, who was instrumental in establishing the tobacco monopoly in the Philippines, though with much help from other Spanish interests and reliance on Filipino local elites, called the principalía.
  As the subsistence economy shifted to an export crop economy, for sugar, abaca and tobacco, in 1834 the Spanish allowed both non-Spanish Westerners and Chi
caption: A native Filipino trades with a Sangley vendor
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