Last week, I had the pleasure of meeting Nicholas Sy and Veronica. They are both academics from the Philippines and the meeting proved fruitful at least for me. For, I learnt of how there was an active slave trade from San Thome to Manila in Portuguese times.
That the Dutch and the British were involved in this racket in the 17th Century is an open fact. They were sending people as indentured labour to the West Indies, Fiji, and Surinam to work on sugar plantations. And while it is well known that the Portuguese were pioneers in the African slave trade, it was news to me that they were doing the same from India in the 15th Century, the destination being the Philippines. That was a Spanish colony, and the local population served the conquerors by farming and shipbuilding. Wood was cut in the mountains and sent down to build ships, and with the bulk of the populace involved in this lucrative trade, farmhands were needed, which is where Indians came in. The Portuguese were, therefore, shipping out people to serve the Spaniards through the Filipinos.
What a trade cycle!
