BRIDGING THE GAP
Iloilo's textile exports in the 19th C.
As stated in the previous column, Iloilo's textile production had already reached a remarkable degree of development by the 19th century. In fact, Iloilo by this time was already known as " the textile center" of the Philippines and was exporting a considerable quantity of hand-woven materials to other parts of the country and places abroad.
Iloilo's textile products were commonly called as "sinamay" or "hablon". Sinamay is a Hiligaynon word which means "to weave by hand", while hablon is derived from the Hiligaynon term "habol", which means "to weave". The most valuable of the native manufactured textiles was "sinamay" made of piña or pineapple fiber. Together with Camarines in southern Luzon, Iloilo was considered as the best producer of piña. Sinamay was either pure or mixed with silk imported from China. The coarser fabrics, on the other hand, were woven from cotton, abaca, and maguey fibers.
Because of the great demand for mixed sinamay as exports to Luzon and other countries, silk was increasingly imported from China by way of Manila. It was promptly used in the weaving of large quantities of native goods annually produced in the populous towns of Iloilo such as Molo, Jaro, Arevalo, Mandurriao, Guimbal, Miag-ao, Sta. Barbara and Janiuay. It was estimated that about $400,000 worth of raw silk was annually sent to Iloilo in the late 1850s (Loney to Farren).
The second most important textile material used in the manufacture of cloth in Iloilo was cotton. Cotton was grown in Iloilo in the 19th century but was not produced in sufficient quantity for export or for local consumption (Zuniga 1893). In the 1850s about 300 tons of this article were annually brought to Iloilo from Batangas. A certain number of vessels on their way back to Iloilo from Manila would call in the port of Batangas for cargoes of cotton to be used in Iloilo for the native "tiral" or looms.
Finished cotton textile materials were principally made of native yarn manufactured from cotton grown in several towns of the province of Iloilo and in Batangas, as well as from German and British manufacture. The finer ones were well and closely woven, and the ordinary kinds of cheap appearance adapted for more common use.
As to abaca or hemp, the limited quantity produced in Iloilo was of a fine long white fiber used in the manufacture of native textiles which, according to Nicholas Loney, British vice-consul in Iloilo, "was equal to what was known in the London market as "lupiz"(Loney to Farren 1857). However, in the 1850s, little attention was paid to it as an article of export. But though Iloilo produced little surplus hemp for shipment, the smaller coasting vessels usually carried to Iloilo some 350 tons from the neighboring islands and provinces of Leyte, Samar, Negros, Camarines, and Albay. Abaca from these places were exchanged with rice and other goods of local manufacture in Iloilo.
A considerable amount of coarser fabrics made of the leaves of the sago palm, of hemp and other fibers known in Manila either as saguran, guinaras and madrinaque were shipped to the United States, Spain and, in lesser quantity, England. One very important use of the coarser fibers was in the manufacture of mosquito nets which were exported to Manila and to Mexico. Such fabrics were also chiefly used in the stiffening or lining of dresses, especially in the United States and Europe. In the case of Spain, such materials were further used at the government factories in packing the leaf tobacco.
In 1854, the woven goods of all kinds exported from Iloilo to Manila constituted more than 50% of the total value of the province's exports and were valued at more than $400,000 (Loney to Farren 1857). The goods represented by this amount were not, it should be pointed out, used in the city and province of Manila alone but also entered into the consumption of Laguna, Pampanga, and other provinces of Luzon. The quantity exported to Europe, through Manila, was estimated to be worth $20,000 annually (Morga 1890).
In addition to the export to the capital, about $30,000 to $40,000 worth of cotton and silk patadyongs or wrap-around skirts and handkerchiefs were sent yearly from Iloilo to Guimaras, Leyte and Samar (Loney to Farren).
In the early 1860s, the value of exports from Iloilo's textile industry was estimated to be nearly a million dollars, including those to the neighboring islands (Loney to Farren 1861). Towards the 1870s, however, as a result of Iloilo becoming a sugar entrepot in Western Visayas the weaving industry lost its primary importance.