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Updated: June 9, 2025
A large quantity of the Muscovado sugar made in the country, resembling the descriptions produced in the provinces of Pampanga and Pangasinan, is brought to Manilla for sale, in large conical earthern jars, called pilones, each of which weighs a pecul.
They are sold by the cavan, weighing nearly a pecul, if of good quality, at about two dollars per cavan. Pitch, or tar, is brought from Tayabas to Manilla, in boxes or baskets, and is employed, I believe, principally by the shipwrights there, in the prosecution of their business. Some of the natives also use it for making torches, it being cheaper than oil.
"A proprietor, generally a Dutchman, used to let his estate, say 300 acres or more, with proper buildings upon it, to a Chinese, who lived upon it and superintended it, and who re-let it to free men in parcels of 50 or 60 acres on condition that they should plant it in canes for so much for every pecul, 133 lbs., of sugar produced.
There are thirty-three different varieties enumerated by the Chinese traders and others skilled in its classification; for being brought to Manilla in large quantities for that purpose, for the China market, it has become a peculiar business of itself by the dealers in it, and varies in price, according to quality, from fifteen to thirty dollars per pecul of 140 lbs. English.
Cebu seldom loses so much as Taal, generally not more than 3 per cent. on a voyage of about two months' duration. All sugar is sold to the export merchants by the pecul of 140 lbs.
And as it may be of some service, I shall give a short sketch of each of the most important of the articles there set down, premising it with a memorandum of the weights and measures now in use through the islands. The pecul is equal to 140 lbs. English, or 137 1/2 lbs. Spanish; the Spanish lb. being two per cent. heavier than the standard British lb. The quintal is 102 lbs.
To understand this table, suppose an agent in Manilla purchases a quantity of hemp for a merchant in London, at 5 dollars per pecul, the cost of packing, shipping, and the 5 per cent. commission for buying, &c., will make it cost, when put on board ship in Manilla Bay, 20l. 19s. 4d. per ton, if drawn for at the exchange of 4s. 6d. to the dollar.
The best is now grown in Cebu, although, from Samar, Misamis, and Batangas, the Manilla market is also supplied, but it is only saleable at about twenty-three dollars per pecul, while the Cebu grown fetches about twenty-seven dollars per pecul. Very little is exported, and the chocolate made in Manilla is nearly all consumed there.
"Why, damn it, William," the other exploded, "nothing's more valuable to a Chinese than his belly. They'll give eighteen hundred dollars a pecul for birds' nests any day. As for your insinuation that we used to diddle them I never ran opium up from India to rot their souls.
They employ Chinese miners, to whom they pay six dollars for every pecul of tin delivered on the coast in a pure state, which they sell readily in Java for sixteen dollars per pecul; thus getting ten dollars clear profit, less about half a dollar per pecul, which it costs to send the tin to Batavia for sale.
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