A Metal Dealer and Spy from Nagasaki in Manila

1

A METAL DEALER AND SPY FROM NAGASAKI IN MANILA IN

THE FIRST QUARTER OF THE SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

Reinier H. Hesselink

This article documents the career of Luis Melo, a baptized Japanese

merchant in scrap metal and gun powder, who frequently appears in

both Spanish and Japanese sources. Combining information from both sides, an unexpectedly clear picture emerges of a merchant-mariner of

samurai background and multiple identities, who from 1605 served as an

important channel of communication between Japan’s new strongman, Tokugawa Ieyasu, and the Philippine authorities. Eventually, Luis Melo

became Ieyasu’s most important informant on the Philippines. Until the suspension of the trade between Japan and the Philippines in 1623, he

continued to make large profits trading with the Spanish.

Introduction

In 1991, the Spanish scholar Juan Gil published the results of his ar-

chival research as Hidalgos y samurai, a book that presented information

from the Contaduria section of the Archivo General de Indias in Sevilla.

This study broke new ground in presenting, among other things, figures

of the trade conducted between Nagasaki and the office of the Manila

Governor. As we have no figures at all for the Portuguese trade, these, in

fact, are the first figures related to the trade out of Nagasaki that have

come to light. In recognition of this fact, a Japanese translation of this

work appeared within only nine years of its original publication in Span-

ish.1 The figures of the Nagasaki trade with Manila concern mostly ex-

ports of iron and steel (as bars, nails, balls, wire, and filings), copper, gun

powder, saltpeter, sulfur, and hemp. Scattered in between, there are some

figures concerning the export of hams, rice, and biscuits.2

Japanese merchants, then, starting in the last years of the sixteenth

century, provided for over twenty years a steady stream of iron, steel, and

copper to cast cannon in Manila, as well as the ammunition to go with

these weapons, and also large quantities of ready-made gunpowder as

1 Translated by Hirayama Atsuko 平山篤子 as Idarugo to samurai: 16-17 seiki no

Isupaniya to Nihon イダルゴとサムライ：１６・１７世紀のイスパニヤと日本

(Hōsei daigaku shuppankyoku, 2000). 2 See the Appendix at the end of this paper.

2

well as the most important ingredients to make it. The hemp, ham, rice,

and biscuits should be understood as the necessary supplies for maintain-

ing a force of soldiers to man this war material. Immediately a conclu-

sion presents itself: Japanese merchants provided crucial military sup-

plies for the Spanish garrison at Manila at a time when it saw itself first

threatened and then actually blockaded by Dutch naval power in Asia.

This is the framework for the following paper.

During the seven years between 1599 and 1605, the number of Japa-

nese merchants selling merchandise to the office of the Manila Governor

(79) averaged a little over 11 per year. During the seven following years

between 1606 and 1612, only 10 merchants are recorded to have sold

merchandise to the office of the Manila Governor. It is, of course, possi-

ble that the records were not kept as scrupulously as before, but it seems

clear that the number of Japanese merchants reaching Manila declined

radically after 1605. The principal reason for this is the fact that the red-

seal system imposed by the ruler of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu (1542-

1616), limited the number of Japanese ships permitted to trade in Manila

to four per year. Free shipping from Japan had been the accepted form of

the Japan-Manila trade since the early 1590’s, in spite of the red-seal

system Hideyoshi had tried to impose but had not enforced. Such free

shipping became illegal under the Tokugawa and could only continue

until 1610, when the Dutch started their blockade of Manila. Although

the latter honored the red-seal letters issued by the Tokugawa Bakufu,

ships without licenses risked immediate confiscation in the waters around

Manila and, at best, the imprisonment of their crews.

Luis Melo

It therefore becomes all the more interesting to see which merchants

managed to get permission to trade in Manila. There is one merchant in

particular whose name appears over and over in the Spanish sources in

these later years. His name is Luis Melo, and he seems to have had par-

ticularly good connections with the Japanese as well as with the Manila

authorities. In the Spanish archive at Sevilla, we can find the following

information about him.

In the first notice, dating from 1602, he is called Luis Mero, and he is

recorded as a Japanese to whom 100 pesos were paid for “labor and or-

naments of a church built by the Franciscans to teach the doctrine to

Japanese Christians” in Manila.3 Indeed, from about 1595, there existed,

outside Manila’s city walls between the Chinese Parián and the suburb of

3 “Se pagaron 100 pesos a Luis Mero, japón, para la obra y ornamentos de una iglesia

que los religiosos de San Francisco fabrican para administrar doctrina a los japones

cristianos,” AGI, Contaduría 1205, f. 484r, cited in Gil 1991, p. 450.

3

Laguio, a Japanese settlement with between 500 and 1500 inhabitants.

Close by was a Franciscan monastery, called La Candelaria, the friars of

which had undertaken to convert the Japanese neighborhood (Ni-

honmachi) and to learn the Japanese language among its inhabitants for

their own mission in Japan.4

The next year, on 30 June 1603, Luis Melo is recorded to be a “Japa-

nese Christian” and to have sold a small iron anchor weighing 161 kilo-

grams for 21 pesos to the office of the Manila Governor.5 We hear noth-

ing more of him until six years later, when, on 4 June 1609, Captain Luis

Melo is again recorded to be a “Japanese Christian,” who had paid 15

pesos in import tax for 20 piculs (1200 kgs) of horsetails, valued at 25

pesos a picul (“because they were of ordinary quality”), or 500 pesos

total.6

The next year, on 16 June 1610, Luis Melo is once more recorded as a

“Japanese Christian,” who was paid 1,383 pesos, 3 tomines and 2

granos7 for 6,253.5 kgs of iron nails at 6 pesos a picul (60 kgs), and

4,213 kgs of copper at 10 pesos a picul.8 On his ship, he had brought

from Japan a number of survivors of the shipwreck of the San Francisco:

Second Lieutenant Don Ladrón de Peralta, Capitán Juan Cevicos, Scribe

Rodrigo de Galarça, Merchant Roque de Saravia, Sergeant Gerónimo de

Banegas and his wife, and the Augustinian friar Pedro Montejo.

Because Manila was now blockaded by the Dutch, Luis Melo’s ship

was searched for contraband and his Spanish passengers were taken pris-

oners. When no contraband was found, Luis Melo was allowed to sail on

to Manila. There can be only one reason for this: it must be because he

was carrying a red-seal letter from the ruler of Japan, Tokugawa Ieyasu,

whose licenses the Dutch had agreed to recognize in 1609.9 Then, on 24

April 1610, a battle ensued before Manila between the Dutch and the

Spanish, who were making a sortie, during which the friar died of splin-

tered wood on board one of the Dutch ships.10 The other prisoners were

freed after the battle and made it back to land.11

Two years later, on 17 May 1612, Luis Melo is recorded as a “Japa-

nese,” who was paid 353 pesos, 6 tomines, and 5 granos for 6,327 kgs of

4 Kawashima Motojirō川島元次郎. Shuinsen bōekishi 朱印船貿易史 (Kyoto:

Naigai shuppan kabushiki kaisha, 1921), p. 483. 5 AGI, Contaduria 1206, f. 128v, cited in Gil 1991, p. 96. 6 AGI, Contaduría 1608, f. 109, cited in Gil 1991, p. 147. 7 1 peso = 8 tomines. 1 tomin = 12 granos. 8 AGI, Contaduría 1209, f. 207r, cited in Gil 191, p. 242. 9 Margaretha E. van Opstall. De reis van de vloot van Pieter Willemsz Verhoeff naar

Aziё 1607-1612 (The Hague: Nijhoff), 1972. 10 Gonoi Takashi 五野井隆史. Nihon kirishitanshi no kenkyū 日本キリシタン史の

研究 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan, 2002), p. 355. 11 Gil 1991, p. 228, n. 36.

4

iron.12 Again five years later, on 7 July 1617, Luis Melo, by now obvi-

ously well-known to the Manila authorities, was paid 9,685 pesos on a

total of 16,643 pesos and 6 tomines worth of merchandise that he had

bought in Japan for “His Majesty” (i.e. the Spanish King) and which had

been stored in the royal storehouses, and 602 pesos, 4 tomines, and 9

granos for other merchandise, as well as 212 pesos, 4 tomines for help he

gave to seven sailors, who had been “lost in Japan.”13 Two years later, in

1619, he was again in Manila, for he is recorded there, on 26 June, to

have received 22,508 pesos for supplying Manila with, among other

merchandise, 31,020 kgs of gun powder and saltpeter at 22 pesos per

picul.14

Entries for the next year of 1620 are his last appearances in the Span-

ish archives. Luis Melo was not in the Philippines himself. He now

worked by proxy of Captain Francisco de Guevara, a Japanese who like

Luis Melo himself was known in Manila only by his Spanish name. Gue-

vara paid 30 pesos in taxes on imports (set at 6 %) Luis Melo had sent

from Japan in 1618 on the ship of another Japanese Christian, Simon

Hori. Guevara also paid 52 pesos and 4 tomines in import taxes on 4,200

kgs of saltpeter, valued at 1750 pesos or the high price of 25 pesos per

picul, which was, obviously for its strategic importance as an indispensa-

ble ingredient in making gunpowder, taxed at only 3 % of its value. This

saltpeter had been brought by Luis Melo from Japan in 1618.15

On the same day, or possibly a few days later, on 11 July 1620, Gue-

vara also received 4,000 pesos of a total of 6,297 pesos that Luis Melo

was owed for 325 bales of flour (at 4 pesos, 4 tomines per bale), another

12 AGI, Contaduría 1209, f. 869v, cited in Gil 1991, p. ? 13 AGI, Contaduría 1208, f. 197v, cited in Gil 1991, p. 440. These are likely to be the

same sailors, who, having fled from the English ships anchored at Hirado, found

asylum in Nagasaki in 1613. Richard Cocks wrote about them: “. . . . the only cross

hath been the running away of seven of our mariners in the absence of our General,

viz.: John Bowles, Christopher Evans, John Sars, Clement Lock and John Totty,

Englishmen; and Jasper Malconty and one Jacques, Flemings. But Bowles and Evans

were the instigators of the rest; they stole away the skiff and went for Langasaque

and there took sanctuary in the papist churches and were secretly conveyed away for

the Philippines per the Jesuits; but the skiff we recovered again . . . .” (Richard Cocks

to the Governor, Deputy, Committees and generality of the East India Company of

England in London, 30 November 1613, printed in: Frederick Charles Danvers and

William Foster. Letters Received by the East India Company, 6 vols. (London, 1896-

1902, reprint Amsterdam, 1968), vol. 1, p. 316). 14 AGI, Contaduría 1208, f. 236r, 244v-245r, cited in Gil 1991, p. 442. The gunpow-

der and saltpeter had been delivered to Captain Juan de Herrera at Ilocos. It is inter-

esting to see that such quantities could now be bought in Japan where, barely three

years earlier, the shogunate had been desperate to buy up all the ammunition it could

find. 15 AGI, Contaduría 1210, f. 14r, cited in Gil 1991, p. 445.

5

4,200 kgs of saltpeter (at 25 pesos a picul), 500 pikes (at 7 reales each),

120 kgs of iron wire (at 38 pesos a picul), 3,862.5 kgs of nails of all sorts

(at 6 pesos, 4 tomines a picul), 28,708 kgs of bar iron (at 4 pesos, 4 tom-

ines a picul). All this merchandise had been stored in the royal store-

houses of Manila on 20 December 1619.16

On 7 September 1620, Luis Melo was paid 4,356 pesos and 7 granos,

that were still due to him from an amount of 8,356 pesos and 7 granos from three previous transactions: the first one involved 147 pesos and

dated from 7 February 1620. The second one involved 1,911 pesos, 2

tomines and 3 granos and dated from 2 June 1620, while the third one

was dated the same day, and involved 6,297 pesos, 2 tomines and 4

granos. All these transactions had involved the sale of flour, iron, copper,

saltpeter, gun powder, pikes, metal wire and nails, which Melo had

bought with his own money in Japan.17

These are the only glimpses the Spanish records give us of Luis Me-

lo’s dealings with Manila. But it is clear from the last transactions that he

was dealing with impressive sums of money, and often had to be satisfied

to wait several years before he was paid. This indicates a great deal of

confidence both in his contacts with the Manila authorities as well as

with his suppliers in Japan. From 1610 onwards, when he had brought

the survivors of a Spanish shipwreck before Japan safely back to Manila,

Luis Melo seems to have been able to enter the big time in the Nagasaki-

Manila trade. He clearly had been coming to Manila to trade for many

years before that, at least since 1602, but probably much earlier. For our

purposes here it is sufficient to have established that, after 1605, Luis

Melo was the most important Japanese trader to deal with the Spanish in

Manila.

Nishi Ruisu

Thus, it should not be hard to identify him by his Japanese name. As

Juan Gil has suggested, Luis is likely to have taken his Portuguese family

name of Melo from the person who had agreed to be the godfather at his

baptism.18 This must have been Captain Major Roque de Melo, who was

in Japan between 19 August 1591 and 9 October 1592. Luis Melo’s bap-

tism, then, probably took place during Lent of 1592, the traditional sea-

son for allowing new entrants into the Church. To have the most eminent

secular personage in the city of Nagasaki perform the function of godfa-

ther is, of course, a signal that the Japanese youth receiving this baptism,

later to be called Luis Melo in Manila, must have been of considerable

16 AGI, Contaduría 1210, ff. 202v-203r, cited in Gil 1991, p. 445-6. 17 AGI, Contaduría 1210, ff. 341r-342v, cited in Gil 1991, p. 445-6. 18 Gil 1991, p. 101.

6

social standing in Nagasaki himself. It is also possible that he was con-

sistently called Luis Melo in the Philippines because he possessed a cer-

tificate of baptism with this name on it.

In Japanese sources, the most important trader between Nagasaki and

Manila is called Nishi Ruisu (=Luis). I propose that he is identical with

the man we have come to know as Luis Melo in the Spanish sources

quoted above. We have to keep in mind that the port city of Nagasaki

counted very few indigenous samurai families. Nishi Ruisu, however,

described his own origin in an Apologia, submitted to the Tokugawa

bakufu in 1645,19 as follows: “I come from Ōmura in the province of

Hizen. I was connected with Lord Ōmura Tango no kami [Yoshiaki],

since the days of my father Sōgen. So, we received land at Ōura worth

700 koku for our sustenance in his domain.”20 Ōura is the name of an

area, which in the late sixteenth century still lay just outside the city of

Nagasaki. In the nineteenth century, after the opening of Nagasaki to

foreign trade in the 1850’s, it would become famous as the area reserved

for Nagasaki’s foreign residents. Today, its Catholic church is still an

important tourist attraction.

This introductory paragraph to what is really quite a long document

has some ambivalent expressions. “I was connected with Lord Ōmura

Tango no kami, since the days of my father Sōgen,” for example, is my

translation of the equally vague Japanese phrase: “Tango no kami dono21

e oya Sōgen yori daidai sujime kore aru ni tsuki.”22 The vagueness lies in

the expression sujime kore aru, ‘having a direct connection.’ Equally

vague is the phrase immediately following: “goryōnai Ōura to mōsu tokoro nite nanahyaku koku no chi on-gōriki toshite kore wo kudasare

sōrō,”23 which I translated as: “So, we received land at Ōura worth 700

koku for our sustenance in his domain.” Here the vagueness lies in the

uncertainty about who exactly received ‘the benefit from above’ ex-

pressed in the verb kudasare sōrō.

What we may infer from all this, is that Luis’ father, Sōgen, was a

direct samurai retainer of Ōmura Yoshiaki with an allotted fief of 700

19 It seems that, by the early 1640’s, his wealth as well as his Christian past had

raised the suspicions of certain Bakufu officials, so that Luis was compelled to ex-

plain himself and submit proof of his early apostasy. It is possible that someone had

denounced him. 20 Honjuji monjo 本受寺文書 (SHJ 3071.63-54): Kan’ei 21.12.15 [1645.01.12]:

Nishi Sōshin tōbensho西宗真答弁書. I am grateful to Professor Matsui Yōko 松井

洋子 of the Historiographical Institute of the University of Tokyo for retrieving for

me the original text of this document (so poorly edited in the Dai Nihon Shiryō se-

ries) and later checking my translation of it. 21 Ōmura Yoshiaki (1568-1616). 22 大村丹後守殿江従親宗源代々筋目有之ニ付。 23 御領内大浦と申所ニテ七百石之地為御合力被下之候。

7

koku, while this son writing the Apologia many years later had only “a

direct connection.” This ambiguity coupled with the implication of Nishi

Luis’ given Japanese name, i.e. Seijirō,24 leads to the conclusion that

Luis is not likely to have been an oldest son, and so probably had no

hope to inherit his father’s position and fief.

Luis’ childhood name seems to have been Kurōbei,25 “No. 9,” so he

may have been the ninth in a long row of siblings. Large families were

common in the Nagasaki area, where the Jesuits forbade abortion and

infanticide, common practices among rich and poor of Japan at the

time.26 It is likely that the whole Nishi family was, at least nominally,

Christian, for both their samurai neighbors along the bay, the Nagasaki

and Tomachi families, are on record as having been baptized. Further-

more, some of the Nishi women married into Nagasaki’s most prominent

Christian families.27

This background, then, made it only natural for young Luis to want to

leave Ōura, where he would continue to be dependent on his father

and/or older siblings, and to choose, instead, to equip his own boat and

crew in order to seek his fortune overseas.28 Along the bay of Nagasaki,

where he had grown up, there must have been ample opportunities to

learn the craft of sailors from both the East and the West. We know of

other Japanese Christian boys from Nagasaki’s first families who also

grew up to command ships on overseas trading voyages.29

Luis’ earliest appearance in the Japanese record dates from 1605,

when he is mentioned as an interpreter for an envoy from the Manila

Governor. This record is contained in the diary kept of the red-seal li-

censes given out by Ieyasu’s cabinet, and appears in the draft for an offi-

cial answer on Ieyasu’s behalf to a letter from the Governor of Manila.

The latter had requested the previous year 1604 that the number of ships

allowed to sail from Japan for the Philippines be limited, so the diary

states:

Last summer your letter and gifts arrived here as you ordered. We

were pleased to receive them. We will do as you asked and allow

24清二郎. 25 九郎兵衛. 26 Cf. Luis Frois’ Historia de Japam (Lisbon: Bibliotheca Nacional, 1983) vol. 4 , pp.

122-3: “E porque em Nangazaqui são todos christãos, os filhos se vão multiplicando

com estranha differencia dos outros lugares dos gentios, porque os não matão.” 27 Both the daikan Antonio Murayama and the machidoshiyori Luis Takagi were

married to fervently Christian women from the Nishi family. 28 Kawashima 1921, pp. 482-3. 29 Both the machidoshiyori Luis Takagi and his son Pedro commanded upon occasion

their craft on overseas voyages, cf. Iwao Sei’ichi 岩生成一. Shuinsen bōekishi no

kenkyū 朱印船貿易の研究. (Tokyo: Kōbundō, 1985), pp. 92, 121.

8

[only] four ships to make the trip [to Luzon] each year. We are

sending one saddle with all accessories and ten spears as a token of

our appreciation. More anon. Keichō 10.09.13.30 [Seal] We have

given a red-seal document to the Luzon [language31] interpreter Ni-

shi Ruisu with the official chap of the 14th day of the 9th month.32

He brought us one beautiful carpet and a round tea bowl. He was

accompanied by [the priest] Muan.”33

So, by 1605, Nishi Luis was already a man of sufficient importance in

the Philippines to take part in a mission to Ieyasu.34 This indicates that he

must have been living there at least semi-permanently for a considerable

period, something that was also suggested by the fact that, as Luis Mero,

in 1602 he had been paid the sum of one hundred pesos for work on the

church for the Japanese community, of which he must have been a prom-

inent or even a leading member. As a pedigreed samurai, of course, he

was automatically someone of importance in the Manila community of

overseas Japanese, which was mostly made up of poor expatriates who

had come to the Philippines as slaves, common sailors, or persecuted

Christians.

In 1605, moreover, an attempt was made by the Spanish of Manila, in

the absence of their Governor Pedro de Acuña, to drive out the Japanese

from Luzon.35 It is not likely that Nishi Luis was involved in this affair,

for he must have been traveling to Japan while it occurred, but there can

be no doubt that such xenophobia on the part of the Spanish must have

made Nishi Luis rethink the feasibility of being a permanent resident of

the Philippines. Therefore, this event may have provided the stimulus for

him to eventually reestablish himself in his homeland, at first in or near

Nagasaki and later in the city of Sakai.

The Apologia quoted above continues as follows:

At the time when Gongen Sama [i.e. Tokugawa Ieyasu] resided in

Suruga, he made it known that he was looking for someone knowl-

edgeable about Luzon. Because it was his lord’s wish, Lord Ōmura

Tango no kami respectfully sent word that I had often crossed the

seas, and so in the 6th month of the 12th year of Keichō [1607], I

30 1605.10.25. 31 I.e. Spanish. 32 1605.10.26. 33 Ikoku shuinchō 異国朱印帳, printed in Murakami Naojirō, Ikoku ōfuku shokanshū

/ Zōtei ikoku nikki shō異国往復書簡集・増訂異国日記抄 (Tokyo: Shunnansha,

1929), pp. 278-9. 34 The mission failed to persuade Ieyasu to officially extend his protection to mendi-

cant missionaries from the Philippines. 35 William L. Schurz, The Manila Galleon (New York: Dutton, 1939), p. 117.

9

was called to Sunpu and had an audience with the shogun through

the mediation of Lord Honda Sado no kami. After I had explained

the situation of Luzon in detail, his Lordship gave me permission to

cross the seas as I had done before and I received a red-seal license.

On top of that I received the haori his Lordship was wearing [on

that occasion]. I am very grateful to have received all these bless-

ings.36

As we have seen, Luis’ relations with Ieyasu’s court at Sunpu predated

the date given here by at least two years. The audience mentioned here,

moreover, is not recorded in the Sunpuki, the official diary of Ieyasu’s

Castle. There is no need, however, to doubt the essential truthfulness of

Nishi Luis’ own declaration of having had a personal audience with Ieya-

su, only we should be careful not to take too seriously Luis’ description

of the way he was introduced to Japan’s ruler. We have seen that it is

likely to have occurred in connection with the coming of an envoy from

the Philippines. It was, of course, politic and polite for Nishi Luis to

pretend, later in his Apologia, that it was his father’s former liege lord

who had been responsible for this introduction.

As for the audience itself, we are reminded of the informal infor-

mation sessions Ieyasu had with that other old sea dog of renown, Wil-

liam Adams.37 The red-seal license given by Ieyasu in 1607 still exists

and forms part of the document collection which also includes the Apo-

logia.38 The text of the red-seal license is unusual: “When this ship re-

turns to Japan next spring, it makes no difference wherever she arrives.

Keichō 12, 6th month, 2nd day.39 [To] Luis.” It has been suggested that

this phrasing indicates that the recipient was still mainly living in Manila

at this time.40 It is likely that Luis made the journey back to Manila in the

fall and returned once more to Japan in the summer of 1608.41

Once more, he reported back to Ieyasu. This time he is recorded, in

the Tōdaiki, to have offered the retired shogun, on 29 August 1608, “ten

rolls of silk crepe, two rolls of brocade and one roll of figured satin.”

According to the same source, on the previous day gifts from the Gover-

36 Nishi Sōshin tōbensho. 37 Cf. The Original Letters of the English Pilot Will Adams Written from Japan

between AD 1611 and 1617. Yokohama: Japan Gazette Office, 1896, pp. 7-9, 23, 53-

4. 38 Honjuji monjo, see above note 38. It was published in Dai Nihon Shiryō 大日本史

料 (hereafter DNS), 12-4, p. 964 (facsimile on the facing insert); also in Kawashima

1921, p. 488. 39 1607.07.25. 40 Nagazumi Yōko 永積積洋子. Shuinsen朱印船 (Tokyo: Yoshikawa Kōbunkan,

2001), p. 119. 41 Kawashima 1921, p. 489.

10

nor of Manila had been presented.42 In his Apologia, Luis continues:

“Because of the above situation, every time I went to Luzon I would,

after coming back to Japan, always be ordered to appear before his Lord-

ship to explain to him in detail what had happened.”43 When he left again

for the Philippines that year: “I received a red-seal document containing

His Lordship’s Policy on Overseas Japanese and was fortunate to be

ordered to take these with me.”44 In other words, Luis had become, if not

an official envoy himself, at least the carrier of official correspondence

from the retired shogun.

We have no record of red-seal licenses given to Nishi Luis for 1609,

1610, and 1611,45 although we know, from the Spanish record quoted

above, that he made trips between Nagasaki and Manila in both 1609 and

1610. Especially in 1610, when he managed to get through the Dutch

blockade in spite of being searched and his Spanish passengers being

taken prisoners by the Dutch, he must have carried a valid red-seal li-

cense.46

The Apologia mentions the award of another red-seal license in 1612:

“On the 8th day of the 8th month of Keichō 17 [1612.09.03], I received

another red-seal document, specifically allowing me to enter any port on

my return to Japan, for which I was very grateful.”47 Acknowledging his

important role as a messenger to the Philippines, this year the scribe of

the diary of Sunpu Castle briefly noted Luis’ audience with the retired

shogun: “Eighth month, fourth day.48 Captain Ruisu of Luzon was re-

ceived in audience. He presented silk and two jars of honey.”49 It would

seem that this red-seal license had been prepared on the day before his

audience. Again it reads: “This ship has the right to come to any harbor

[in Japan]. Keichō 17.08.08. [To:] Ruisu.”

About the interesting feature of his Christian name appearing on these

red-seal licenses, Nishi Luis writes in his Apologia:

As Luzon is a Christian country, they will not give you any infor-

mation if you are of a different religion. When I explained this to

42 當代記 cited in Kawashima 1921, p. 489-90. 43 Nishi Sōshin tōbensho. 44 Ibid. 45 It is possible that our records, the Ikoku shūinchō and the Ikoku tokai shūinchō 異

国渡海朱印帳, are incomplete. Cf. Murakami 1929, pp. 296-305. 46 Irikura, James K. Trade and Diplomacy between the Philippines and Japan, 1585-

1623. PhD dissertation Yale University, 1958: Japanese ships were left alone by the

Dutch, but Iberian and Chinese ships were attacked (pp. 180-1). See also the Relacion

de lo sucedido en las Islas Filipinas quoted below. 47 Nishi Sōshin tōbensho. 48 1612.08.30. 49 駿府記 in DNS 12-10, p. 3.

11

His Lordship, he allowed me to pretend to be a Christian, so that I

could conduct my trade and get information about internal or exter-

nal matters. For this reason, the red-seal letters were issued to me in

[my Christian name] Ruisu. (For the same reason, the different doc-

uments issued to me by daimyo in Japan also have my name as Ni-

shi Ruisu).50

It is clear that Luis realized that if he wanted to come back to Japan, he

needed to be an apostate in his home country, and “pretend to be a Chris-

tian” while overseas. In other words, he had not only two names, Luis

Melo and Nishi Ruisu, but also two identities, Christian and apostate, so

that he might “get information about internal and external matters.”

By 1614, Nishi Luis seems to have settled in Nagasaki again, for in

May of that year he is recorded to have received another red-seal license.

The Shuinchō, kept by the Zen priest Sūden (1569-1633), has:

A ship sailing from Japan to Luzon. [This red-seal license] was giv-

en to Nishi Luis from Nagasaki. There was a letter [of recommen-

dation] from Honda Kōzuke. I [, Sūden,]51 wrote it in Sunpu on 8th

day of the 4th month in the year of the Tiger.52 He offered me a

monetary gift. Ruisu came accompanied by a messenger from Gotō

Shōsaburō and I handed him the letter. On the 10th day of the same

month53 a message came from Gotō Shōsaburō saying that when the

red seal had been pressed on the document, the paper had folded.

For this reason the pass should be rewritten. This I did and handed

him the new document as well as the one that had a blank spot in

the seal. The above was written on the 8th day of the 4th month of

Keichō 19.54

This entry in the Shuinchō is interesting for the light it sheds on the

procedure to be followed in the acquisition of red-seal licenses. A letter

of recommendation stating that this was Ieyasu’s will needed to be pre-

sented. Nishi Luis had already had many dealings with Ieyasu’s right

hand, Honda Masasumi (1565-1637), when he had brought the ex-

shogun’s communications to the Governor of the Philippines in 1608.55

50 Nishi Sōshin tōbensho. 51 I.e. the keeper of the record. 52 1614.05.16. 53 1614.05.18. 54 Murakami 1929, p. 315. 55 In his Apologia, Luis states: “In the same year [1608], when the Captain of a trad-

ing ship from Luzon entered port in Uraga in Sagami, the Captain was given an

official letter of thanks [from Ieyasu] for the precious presents received, and an addi-

tional letter by Lord Honda Sado no kami. (When in the Philippines, I received, from

the Governor of Luzon, Honda Sado no kami dono’s additional letter when I was

12

Honda may also have been routinely present at the meetings Ieyasu held

with Nishi Luis. The document prepared by Sūden then was handed over

on the presentation of a writing fee.

On this specific occasion, the seal validating the license as Ieyasu’s

will does not seem to have been pressed on the document in Sūden’s own

office, but somewhere else, possibly in the office of Gotō Shōsaburō,

another one of Ieyasu’s high-ranking advisors mentioned here. When

through some oversight the paper had folded while the seal was being

pressed, it had come out with an ugly white streak through it. Because

such a carelessly pressed seal would signal a lack of respect towards the

retired shogun, the document had to be redone. The entry shows that

Nishi Luis clearly had the support of the highest echelons in the newly

established Tokugawa Bakufu.

We find a similar entry in Sūden’s journal for 1615, but this time

Luis’ letter of recommendation came from the Governor of Nagasaki,

Hasegawa Sahei (1567-1617).56 The latter was known for his firm anti-

Christian attitude, so we should expect anyone recommended by him for

an overseas voyage to a Christian country to have made his apostasy

abundantly clear and convincing. This, however, did not necessarily

entail public knowledge of the apostasy. To the outside world, Sahei may

have pretended that Nishi Luis had connections within the Tokugawa

Bakufu too powerful to be refused the letter of recommendation, without

which Sūden clearly would not issue the indispensable red-seal license.

So, Nishi Luis’ continued good connections within the Tokugawa

Bakufu demonstrated here must have signaled to his fellow citizens of

Nagasaki that, from 1615 on, Luis’ Christianity was, at best, suspect. At

this time, the Nagasaki Christian community was still convinced that it

would be able to hold on to its beliefs. It would take until 1617, for ex-

ample, before the first of the four Christian machidoshiyori (or mayors),

about to return to Japan. Because it proves that I really once went overseas as an

official envoy, I have kept it).” Nishi Sōshin tōbensho. This letter from Honda is also

part of the Honjuji monjo collection. 56 “A ship sailing from Japan to Luzon. This [red-seal license] was given to Nishi

Luis [on the recommendation] of a note from Hasegawa Sahei. I wrote it in the Nan-

zenji. At the time I wrote out 5 red-seal letters for Siam etc. There was no writing fee

presented at the time, but it came later. [These red-seal licenses] were written on the

20th day of the 7th month,56 but dated Genna 1.09.09 [1615.10.31].” (Murakami 1929,

p. 316).

On Sahei, see: Mitake Hidetoshi三岳秀俊. “Nagasaki bugyō Hasegawa Sahei

ronkō – kinsei gaikō seisaku no ichikōsatsu” 長崎奉行長谷川左兵論考ー近世外交

政策の一考察 in Shien史園 69 (1956): 75-97; and Shimizu Hirokazu清水弘一.

“Kinsei shotō Nagasaki daikan no ichi yakuwari ni tsuite: toku ni Hasegawa Fujihiro

wo chūshin toshite” 近世初頭長崎代官の一役割についてー特に長谷川藤広を中

心として in Nagasaki Dansō 長崎談叢 58 (1975): 50-70.

13

Luis Takagi, dared shock his three colleagues and fellow citizens by

retiring in favor of his son, who had made an official statement of apos-

tasy before Bakufu officials in Edo that year.57 In this way, his son Pedro

Takagi, from then on known as Takagi Sakuemon, had secured Bakufu

support for the survival of his descendants as the first citizens of Nagasa-

ki until well into the nineteenth century.

In this connection, Luis writes in his Apologia:

Although it was not really necessary for me to formally apostatize, I

was mindful of the future and asked His Lordship in secret to allow

me to stop pretending to be a Christian, and so from Genna 3 [1617],

I no longer went abroad and became an apostate and a regular citi-

zen. Originally, I was a member of the Hokke sect, so now I am all

the more so.58

“His Lordship” here refers again to Tokugawa Ieyasu, who may have last

seen Luis upon his return from the Philippines in the summer or fall of

1615. This statement on his apostasy is immediately followed in the Apo-logia by: “In Genna 2 [1616], I bought a place in Sakai, and in Genna 6

[1620] I started to live there.”59 Thus, it was to escape from the still

Christian city of Nagasaki that Nishi Luis started to build a new home in

the city of Sakai.60

In 1617, Nishi Luis is mentioned, once more, as the recipient of a red-

seal license for a trip to Manila, the first record we have of such a docu-

ment issued to him by the cabinet of the second shogun Tokugawa

Hidetada (1579-1632).61 As we have seen, according to the Spanish rec-

ords he was in Manila in 1617, as well as in 1618 and 1619, so again we

have to conclude that Luis did not rigorously keep to the facts in his Apo-

logia. For 1617, we also have a document showing that he borrowed 500

me of silver at 50 percent from the Hakata merchant Suetsugu Hikobei to

be invested in an overseas trading venture with a ship under a Chinese

captain leaving from Higo, again probably destined for Manila.62

57 Father and son received both clothing with the shogun’s crest and bars of silver as

a reward, see: Machidoshiyori hattan yuisho 町年寄発端由緒 , quoted in Etchū

Tetsuya越中哲也. “Machidoshiyori daikan Takagike keifukō (jō)” 町年寄代官高木

家系譜考(上) in Nagasaki Dansō 長崎談叢, no. 61 (1978): 61, 63. 58 Nishi Sōshin Tōbensho. 59 Ibid. 60 V. Dixon Morris. Sakai: The History of a City in Medieval Japan. (PhD disserta-

tion, University of Washington, 1970), p. 224. 61 Iwao 1985, chart opposite p. 220. 62 The document is dated Genna 3.02.14 [1617.03.21]. Cf. Suetsugu monjo, quoted in

Kawashima 1921, p. 150-1; Iwao 1985, p. 331. The Captain is recorded under the

name Shiikuwan (shikan 四官?). For an analysis of such documents see: Nakamura

14

From the Spanish source quoted above, it is clear that, in 1618, Luis

sent large shipments of essential supplies to Manila, for which he still

owed import taxes in 1620.63 That is, he himself had brought a large

cargo of 4700 kilograms of saltpeter, to be used to make gun powder,

while others had carried other, less dangerous merchandise for him. Thus,

although his expenses seem to have exceeded his income this year, he

was gambling on a political situation that would allow him to make great

profits and pay off his debts the following year. This line of reasoning is

suggested by the documentary evidence that, on 16 October 1618, Luis

returned only 660 me of the 750 me he owed on his loan from Suetsugu

Hikobei of the year before, while he promised to return the remaining 90

me the next year.64

There is an interesting notice, for this same year of 1618, in a con-

temporary Spanish source describing the situation in the bay of Manila:

The [Dutch] enemy being in the mouth of the bay in the beginning

of November, a Japanese ship came to Ilocos, which is a province

of this island of Manila, and was told that the enemy controlled the

bay which he would have to enter to come to this City. But he

feared nothing as he had a license or patent of his Emperor, which

the Dutch respect for its contents and for which they give free pas-

sage to all Japanese ships wherever they may be sailing on these

seas. And so he continued on his way until he encountered the

Dutch who stopped him for two or three days. The Dutch asked him

if he was carrying any ammunition, which is what they do not allow.

[The Japanese captain] denied he did, even though he was carrying

much hidden underneath a great quantity of sacks filled with flour.

With this the Dutch let him enter the bay, giving him an insolent

message to hand to the Governor of Manila.65

Tadashi 中村質. “Nagegin shōmon ni kansuru ichi kōsatsu” 投銀証文に関する一考

察 in Nihon Rekishi 日本歴史 no. 216 (1966): 56-74; and Koyama Yukinobu 小山幸

伸. “Shoki Nagasaki shijō ni okeru shōnin no shihon: Suetsugu Heizō to Hakata

shōnin no undō wo chūshin ni” 初期長崎市場における商人資本―末次平蔵と博

多商人の運動を中心にーin Chūō daigaku daigakuin kenkyū nenpō 中央大学大学

院年報 no. 21 Bungaku kenkyūka 文学研究科, 1972, pp. 75-80. 63 See above: 52 pesos and 4 tomines for 70 piculs of saltpeter, valued at 1750 pesos,

as well 30 pesos more for other imports that were taxed at twice the rate and had been

brought to the Philippines on the ship of Simon Hori. 64 Suetsugu monjo, quoted in Kawashima 1921, p. 150-1. The 1619 date comes from

the wrapper around document: 丁銀六百六拾目請取之。元和四年八月廿八日Chōgin roppyaku rokujū me kore wo uketori. Genna yonnen hachigatsu nijūhachi

nichi. 65 Relacion de lo sucedido en las islas Filipinas y otras provincias y reinos circun-

vecinos desde Julio de 1618 hasta el presente de 1619, quoted in: Pablo Pastells.

15

It would, of course, be too much to ask of this account to mention the

name of the plucky Japanese captain who brought much-needed ammuni-

tion to a Spanish garrison harassed and taunted by the Dutch. But it is

highly probable that he was none other than Nishi Luis,66 even if arriving

before Manila in the beginning of November after paying off a debt in

Nagasaki on 16 October implies an astonishingly rapid crossing from

Kyushu to Luzon with the very first of the southern monsoons of that

year.67 There would not have been many Japanese sailors as experienced

as Nishi Luis, who we know had made the trip countless times before. It

is also doubtful that many Japanese merchants would dare to smuggle

ammunition to the Spanish through the Dutch lines, even when in pos-

session of a red-seal license, but we have seen that Nishi Luis had al-

ready successfully braved the Dutch blockade of Manila eight years ear-

lier, in 1610. What is more, as Luis Melo, Nishi Luis is on record, in the

Spanish source quoted above, to have brought 4700 kilograms of saltpe-

ter to Manila in 1618.

There remains, however, the discrepancy with the information Nishi

Luis provides in his Apologia, where, it may be recalled, he states that he

had not visited the Philippines since 1617. While it is, of course, possible

to take this statement at face value and decide that Luis Melo’s appear-

ance in Manila as stated in the Spanish sources must be some mistake, or

even to conclude that Luis Melo and Nishi Luis are not the same person

at all, I think there is a third possibility, and one more in character with

the enterprising samurai we have come to know in this paper.

In 1644, when he composed his Apologia, the demonization of the

Iberian nations by the Tokugawa authorities was in full swing. The Por-

tuguese had been expelled in 1639, and sixty-one members of an un-

armed Portuguese delegation from Macao had been summarily executed

in Nagasaki in 1640. The demonization of the Spanish empire was even

further along, for the Spanish had already been denied access to Japan for

more than twenty years. In the late 1620’s, plans had even been drawn up

for a Japanese invasion of the Philippines,68 which were still on the Sho-

Historia General de Filipinas (Barcelona: Viuda de Luis Tasso, 1925-36), vol. VII 1,

pp. xxix-xxx. 66 Gil 1991, p. 442. 67 Francesco Carletti mentions in his account even more rapid crossings from Japan

to Manila, cf. Reise um die Welt. Tübingen / Basel: Horst Erdman Verlag, 1966, p.

133. 68 Iwao Sei’ichi 岩生成一. “Matsukura Shigemasa no Rosō-shima ensei keikaku” 松

倉重政の呂宋島遠征計画 in Shigaku Zasshi 史学雑誌 vol. 45, no. 9 (1934?): 81-

109.

16

gunate’s drawing board in 1644.69 Spain clearly had become Japan’s

most important enemy, while the only Europeans still allowed to come to

trade in Japan were the Dutch, since 1641 safely quarantined on the is-

land of Deshima in the bay of Nagasaki. In other words, the plucky cap-

tain had in the past deceived Japan’s present ally, the Dutch, to help what

had now become a common foe.

In this atmosphere, it was of course out of the question that Nishi Luis

could be forthright about his later contacts with the Philippines, let alone

admit that he had once smuggled such large cargoes of saltpeter through

Dutch lines, as he seems to have done in both 1618 and 1619. It was

better to risk being caught in an inaccuracy about when exactly he had

stopped going back and forth between Japan and the Philippines (which

with reference to the Shuinchō would have been easy to do, but could

always be excused by Luis’ old age and failing memory) than to risk

further questioning about the nature of the cargoes he had been in the

habit of transporting. The story of the ammunition smuggler, in other

words, helps explain why there is a discrepancy between Nishi Luis’

appearances in the Philippines in 1618 and 1619 according to the Spanish

sources and his own denial of these visits in his Apologia.

To come back to the loan Luis had received in 1617, he must have

made the remaining payment of ninety me, for in 1619 we find the same

lender extending another loan for 6 kan of silver, cosigned by Nishi Luis,

to be invested in the latter’s last trip to Luzon.70 Again, Nishi Luis man-

aged to bring a cargo of flour, iron, copper, saltpeter, gun powder, pikes,

iron wire and nails of all sorts.71 But he must have realized that he was

taunting the gods: only four years into the future, trade and all other rela-

tions between Japan and the Philippines would be suspended for more

than two centuries.

Luis was well advised to stop going to Manila before the Spanish

authorities found out that he was no longer a Christian, or had never been

a real one. For all the services he had rendered towards the survival of

the Spanish colony in the face of the very real Dutch enemy as well as

the mostly imaginary Chinese and Japanese enemies (as witnessed by the

outbursts of Spanish xenophobia in 1603 against the Chinese and in 1605

69 See my Prisoners from Nambu: Reality and Make-Believe in Seventeenth Century

Japanese Diplomacy (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2002), p. 81. 70 Genna 5/09/23 [1619/10/30]: the borrower is Takashima Taka’emon (Kawashima

1921, p. 152; Iwao 1985, p. 331). Nishi Luis is mentioned as the recipient of a

shuinjō for the same year (Shimai monjo 嶋井文書, cited by Iwao 1985, p. 117). 71 325 bales of flour, another 4,200 kgs of saltpeter, 500 pikes, 120 kgs of iron wire,

3,862.5 kgs of nails of all sorts, 28,708 kgs of bar iron. See above.

17

against the Japanese),72 he might very well have ended up in jail or on

the gallows for spying.

After he had moved to Sakai, Nishi Luis seems to have become a

renowned tea master.73 For a year or two, his name still pops up here and

there in the sources connected with the Manila trade, Luis conducting his

business by proxy. In February1620, for example, a Portuguese resident

of Nagasaki, Emanoel Rodrigues, arrived in Manila with a cargo of iron,

carrying 600 kilograms of nails for the account of Nishi Luis.74 We also

have a list, dated 28 March 1621, for a cargo consisting mostly of food

stuffs brought to Manila by the same captain which mentions 30 jars of

biscuits for the account of Nishi Luis.75

About his later years, between 1621 and 1646, we know very little

apart from the fact that he contributed money to build the Honjuji, a tem-

ple in Sakai, to which he left all his possessions and where he was buried

after he had died on 2 March 1646. The extent of his wealth can be seen

from the enormous, five-storied stone grave monument, which was erect-

ed over his grave.76

Conclusion

It is not often that we can trace the career of a Japanese merchant like

Luis Melo/Nishi Luis in such diverse sources as his own private papers,

the records of the shogunal administration, as well as those of the Philip-

pine authorities. Luis’ own papers were preserved through the immense

fortune he acquired in overseas trade which allowed him to become the

sponsor for a temple located in the city of Sakai. It is profoundly signifi-

cant, moreover, that the records kept by the office of the Governor of the

Philippines start in 1599, or the year after the death of Toyotomi Hideyo-

shi, whose Korean campaigns had since 1592 monopolized all war mate-

rials available in Japan.

It was especially the city of Nagasaki that had profited from these

campaigns, which allowed the city to greatly expand and add a number

of war industries to its traditional function as the entry port of the trade

brought to Japan by the Portuguese from Macao. The suspension of the

72 Iwao Sei’ichi. Early Japanese Settlers in the Philippines. (Tokyo: The Foreign

Affairs Association of Japan, 1943), p. 43; Schurz 1939, p. 117. 73 Kawashima 1921, p. 499. 74 Gil 1991, p. 442. 75 Kusano shiryō 草野史料, quoted in Tsūkō ichiran 通行一覧, vol. 4, pp. 591-2.

One ‘jar’ contained about 21 kilograms of biscuits. 76 Kawashima 1921, p. 500; Nakada Yasunao, “Nankai no bōekishō Nishi Ruisu” 南

海の貿易商西類子 Rekishi Dokuhon歴史読本, vol. 23, 2 (1978): p. 70 published a

photograph of it.

18

Korean war effort and the repatriation of Japanese troops would have

meant a great setback for the city, unless another market for its war in-

dustry could be found. The Philippines, always supplied with difficulty

from Mexico, turned out to be a grateful recipient for the wares offered

by the merchants from Nagasaki.

The turning point in this development was 1605, when Ieyasu granted

the request of the Governor of the Philippines to limit the number of

Japanese ships allowed to sail for the islands. Both fear of the Japanese

as a possible fifth column in the Philippines as well as the generally im-

proved defensive situation of Manila may have prompted this request.

Ieyasu, for his part, may have welcomed the opportunity to stockpile the

war materials produced in Nagasaki for his own use.

Although Luis continued to travel between Japan and the Philippines,

his trading activities seem to have become really large scale for a few

years after 1615, that is: immediately after the fall of Osaka Castle, when

the Tokugawa dynasty no longer had any pressing need to stockpile war

materials to deal with the Toyotomi faction. In these same years, howev-

er, the ecclesiastical authorities in the Philippines smuggled a number of

Roman Catholic priests into the still Christian environment of Nagasaki,

replenishing with new forces the numbers of priests who had been exiled

from Japan in 1614.77

It took a while for the authorities of Nagasaki to become aware of this

problem but the arrest and apostasy of Thomas Araki in 1619, a Japanese

priest ordained in Rome, provided the shogunate with a window on the

extent to which Ieyasu’s edict of 1614 had been flouted, especially from

the direction of the Philippines. Thus, it was only a matter of time before

the authorities realized that it was not advisable to continue the trading

relationship with its own ideological adversary. In 1623, therefore, the

trade between Japan and the Philippines was suspended, not to be re-

sumed until the nineteenth century.

It is not unlikely that Luis Melo/Nishi Luis knew of the great number

of new priests who had entered Japan since 1615, and he must have fore-

seen the cessation of the Japan-Philippine relationship long before it was

actually broken off. We have seen how he took the precaution to move

from Nagasaki to Sakai, and how he avoided traveling to the Philippines

after 1619. His last exploits in the waters around Manila had been adven-

turous enough to last him the rest of his life.

In conclusion, we can say that the life of this Japanese merchant-

mariner, spy and smuggler was framed by the peculiar circumstances of

the turn of the sixteenth into the seventeenth century in Japan. His samu-

rai background, family position, and youth spent along Nagasaki Bay

77 About twenty missionaries clandestinely entered Japan in 1615-16, nine

from Macao and eleven from the Philippines.

19

made him uniquely suited to make use of the opportunities offered by

these circumstances. None of these, however, guaranteed the success he

made of his life. That was due to his own combination of pluck and cau-

tion, foresight and insight, charm and charisma.

Appendix

Purchases from Japan by the Office of the Manila Governor, 1599-

1605:78

Iron79 Copper Gunpowder Saltpeter Hemp

159980 5,684 (3) 2,648 (21) 261 (15) 3,931 (10)

1081

160082 966 (3) 526 (10) 900 (18) 1,848 (12)

6 552 (2)

700 (steel 10) Sulfur

160183 5,848 (1884) 225 (20) 75 (2085) 2,745 (10)

12 748 (1486) 1,531 (11)

801 (nails 7) 124 (?)87

Saltpeter 160288 10,214 (in bars 3) 58 (6) 3,536 (20) 269 (?) 2,168 (10)

20 11,191 (in bricks 2)

2,335 (cannonballs 5.5) Hams

5,095 (cannonballs 7) 30 (389)

3,358 (cannonballs ?)

7,674 (nails 6)

60 sacks (metal filings 3)

78 Figures from: Archivo General de Indias (hereafter: AGI, Sevilla, Spain), section Contaduria,

here recalculated into their approximate metric weights from the archival forms cited in Juan Gil, Hidalgos y Samurais. España y Japón en los siglos XVI y XVII. Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1991. 79 Imports from Japan in kilograms (rounded off to the nearest whole kilogram) unless annotated

otherwise. Prices in pesos per picul (=60 kg) in parentheses unless annotated otherwise. 80 AGI, Contaduria 1205, cited in Gil 1991, p. 83. 81 Number of merchants selling to the Manila Governor this year. 82 AGI, Contaduria 1205, cited in Gil 1991, p. 90. 83 AGI, Contaduria 1205, cited in Gil 1991, pp. 90-1. 84 reales per picul. 85 reales per arroba (11.5 kg). 11 silver reales = 375 marevedis = 1 ducat . 86 reales per picul. 87 (?) = price in pesos unclear. 88 AGI, Contaduria 1205, cited in Gil 1991, p. 92. 89 tomines per ham.

20

Iron Copper Saltpeter Hemp 160390 5,921 (1791) 4,880 (18) 585 (12) 3,550 (10)

14 4,022 (nails 6)

161 (8)

2,587 (2)

1,059 (cannonballs 7)

Rice

160492 2,861 (nails 6) 20 bales 213 (20) 26(?) 9,191 (10)

10 388 (steel 12) Hams

5,600 (2) 75 (393)

1,442 (cannonballs 7) Biscuits

840 (10)

Copper Hemp

160594 3,761 (2.5) 563 (10) 2,620 (18) 288 (16) 2,689 (10)

7 4,260 (3)

9,257 (9)

1,361 (3.5) Hams Sulfur

3,220 (nails 7) 76 (4.595) 58 (2)

434 (coarse nails 3.6)

90 AGI, Contaduria 1206, cited in Gil 1991, p. 96. 91 reales per picul. 92 AGI, Contaduria 1206, cited in Gil 1991, p. 97-8. 93 reales per ham. 94 AGI, Contaduria 1206, cited in Gil 1991, pp. 98-9. 95 reales per ham.