CHAPTER IX SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION

Downstream-upstream trade relations has at least four basic prerequisites for its development .First, there should be an interface, or link between two contrasting environments. Second, the products that would have stimulated trade should be available. Third, there must be groups of people who might be expected to develop highland-lowland trade. Fourth, there must be a long history of foreign maritime trade on the coastal counter part of the internal trade.¹

The first prerequisite was the interface between two contrasting environments. This interface was where the groups of people meet to trade their natural and imported products and manufactures. It was called Tabuan in Sabah,² as well as in recent times in Butuan. Other important geographical factors, however, must also be studied. Trade routes like navigable rivers, passes and forest trails were also indispensable to the development of internal trade.³

The second prerequisite was the availability of products for trade. These products were often difference because of the contrasting environments. The Lapaknon Manobos of the ilawud needed ilaya products for their own consumption for their trade relations with foreign traders. While the Agusanon Manobos of the ilaya needed ilawud products for personal, religious and other purposes.

The coastal (ilawud) dweller’s merchandise consisted of natural products (e.g. cinnamon, fishes, seashells, pearls etc.), and manufactures (e.g. bark cloth, wood implements, beaded pieces of jewelry, knives, earthenware, glass beads etc.).⁴ Added to these merchandise were the imported products, which they bought from merchants who dropped anchor for trade like swivel guns (lantakas), porcelain, iron tips for spears,

¹Joy B. Burrough, “The Development of Periodic Market in Sabah, Malaysia,” Sabah Society Journal Vol. 6 (1975-1976) p. 23.

²ibid.,

³See Fernando A. Almeda, Jr. Story of a Province Surigao Across the years (Quezon City. Philippine National Historical Society and Heritage Publishing House, 1993) p.49.

⁴Erlinda M. Burton, “Settlement and Burial Sites in Butuan City: A Preliminary Report,” Philippine Studies, Vol. 25 (1977) pp. 108-109

swords, jars,⁵ bell made of copper, pointed tapestry, pans, tempered iron pots,etc.⁶

In contrast, the upland (ilaya) dweller’s merchandise consisted of forest products like beeswax, tree resins, wild animals (fowls, pigs, wild boar, deer, etc.),⁷ root crops like camote (sweet potatoes), gabe (taro), platanos (bananas) and others,⁸ gold nuggets, slaves⁹ and many others.

The third prerequisite was the groups of people who converged at interfaces and traded with their goods. These groups of people may not be culturally homogenous, as in the case of Sappit trade, which was participated by the Jama Mapun (in the coast) and the Palawan indigenes (in the hinterlands).¹⁰ But in the case of the Sabah and Agusan, the groups of people involved in the internal trade spoke one language and shared similar culture. Lapaknon Manobos inhabited the ilawud while Agusanon Manobos inhabited the ilaya, in much the same manner as coastal Kadazans inhabited Sabah’s coasts, and hill Kadazans its inhabited Sabah’s hinterlands.¹¹

Lastly, the history of offshore international trade should also be examined. This was very important because as international trade network developed, it encouraged the growth of internal-micro trading system, which served as feeder trading system to the international trade. And besides, this international trade had introduced new products for the internal trade to be more stimulated. International trade was participated chiefly by the coastal counterpart of the internal trade.

In Agusan, the ilawud, the coastal counterpart of the ilawud-ilaya trade relations, participated in the international trade. This participation added new products to the trade relations. The growing demands of the Chinese for gold, beeswax, and slaves,¹²

⁵Rodrigo de Espinosa, “Derrotero del Piloto Rodrigo de Espinosa del Discubrimiento de las Yslas del Poniente,” (From Navidad, 17 November 1564 to Bohol, 4 April 1565), in Readings in Philippine History by Horacio de la Costa, S.J., (Manila: Bookmark, Inc., 1996) p.12

⁶ “Colleccion Documentos Ineditos de Ultramar,” Blair and Robertson, Vol. 2, p.116.

⁷Erlinda M. Burton, interview with the author, 8 November 1996.

⁸Aniceto Beray, Letter to Sr. Exmo. Capitan Grãl de estas Islas Filipinas, Talacogon, 20 June 1886: Philippine National Archives, Exp. 9, Fol. 180.

⁹William Henry Scott, “Filipino-Spanish Face-to-Face Contacts 1543-1545,” Cracks in the Parchment Curtain (Quezon City: New Day Publishers, 1982) p.57.

¹⁰Eric S. Casiño, The Jama Mapun: A Changing Samal Society in the Southern Philippines (Quezon City: Ateneo de Manila, 1976)p.71.

¹¹Erlinda M. Burton, “Settlement and Burial Sites in Butuan City: A Preliminary Report,” Philippine Studies Vol. 25, First Quarter (1977) p. 111. Also, Joy Boenisch Burrough, “The Development of Periodic Market in Sabah, Malaysia,” Sabah Society Journal Vol. 6 (1975-1976) p.23.

¹²Wiliam Henry Scott, Slavery in the Spanish Philippines (Manila: De La Salle University Press, 1991) p.55.

intensified their trade relations with the Lapaknon Manobos of the ilawud,¹³ who in turn traded with the Agusanon Manobos of the ilaya, who produced these products.

On the other hand, the growing demands of the Agusanon Manobos of the ilaya for porcelain wares,¹⁴ intensified their trade relations with Lapaknon Manobos of the ilawud, who in turn traded with the Chinese, who brought these items.¹⁵ The Lapaknon Manobos of the ilawud, became trade middlemen. However, they were not pure middlemen, because they also contributed some products for the exchange in either direction.

Agusan therefore is a province of contrasting environments, the coastal and the forested upland these are locally known as ilawud and ilaya. Ilawud, being a coastal environment, was an active port where foreign junks used to drop anchor for trade.

To meet the foreign demands of beeswax and gold, ilawud indulged in an inland trading with the ilaya, especially with the areas known today as Amparo, Esperanza, Talacogon, Sagunto and Bunawan areas where beeswax and gold nuggets were in abundance. This inland trade was made possible through the Agusan river-which, until now is the only way to reach most of the river towns in Agusan.

The increasing demand of porcelain wares in the ilaya for ritual and other purposes, and the increasing demand of beeswax, tree resin and gold in the ilawud made the internal trade indispensable. This internal trading system served as a feeder micro-trading system to the expanding international trade, the source of the demand for beeswax and precious metals.

Archaeological sources as well as Chinese annals spoke of Butuan external trading transactions dating to as early at 10^th century A.D. However, it is certain that this internal trade was at its peak during the coming of the Spaniards. Historical documents speaking of Butuan as a regular port of call abound. The Manobos were reduced into the encomienda of Butuan under Guido de Lavezares in 1582. This was the start of the colonization of the Manobos in the ilawud and ilaya.

¹³Mardonio M. Lao, “Butuan Before the Spanish Occupation: An Introduction,” Mindanao Journal Vol. 6, No. 2 (1979-1980) p. 249.

¹⁴Miguel de Loarca, “Relations of the Filipinas Islands,” Blair and Robertson, Vol. 5. p. 121.

¹⁵Rodrigo de Espinosa, “Derrotero del Piloto Rodrigo de Espinosa del Discubrimiento de las Yslas del Poniente, (From Navidad, 17 November 1564 to Bohol, 4 April 1565),” in Horacio de la Costa, S.J., Readings in Philippine History, (Manila: Bookmark, Inc., 1966) p.12.

Recommendations

The story of Butuan as a local trading center and as a trade intermediary to an international trade remains to be a jigsaw puzzle among the historians. While many parts of the jigsaw had been placed in their right positions, many parts are still missing – a number of them actually, that the whole picture could not be easily deciphered.

This study, as of its present status must be subjected to further investigation and research in the future. Studies like these are naturally open-ended because of the many unlighted parts, priorities among the recommendations are:

1. The reported sites in the river towns of Agusan del Sur should be systematically excavated and conserved. The results of these archaeological excavations are very important in the future enrichment of this work.
2. Works of early explorers and other documents (published or unpublished) should be made available for local researchers to work on. Many of the survivors of Magellan and Llegazpi expeditions published or at least wrote their own versions of the voyages.
3. And a much more systematic and advanced archaeological techniques should be employed in our sites for a more reliable reconstruction of our past.

 This research will become more exciting as important documents will appear into the limelight. As for Agusan, it was only in 1970’s, almost five centuries later, that the ancient villages of Suatan, Ambangan, Masao and Butuan (ilawud) and later on its internal trading partners, Amparo, Esperanza, Talacogon, Sagunto and Bunawan areas (ilaya) were rediscovered and thus, its colorful partly past rebuilt.