This paper has attempted to analyze the characteristics of the Philippine trade structure from the late 19th century to the first half of the 20th century, paying attention to the recent discussion on"intra-Asian trade."Partly because of the difficulty of gaining access to the original trade statistics of the late 19th century Philippines, and partly because of the lesser importance of the Philippines in the"intra-Asian trade"in the 20th century, the Philippines has not been received keen attention in the discussion of the"intra-Asian trade."
However, as has been discussed in this paper, first, it is clear that after the opening of Manila as an international port, the Philippines was incorporated within the sphere of influence of the British empire and through this process, the Philippines continued to maintain its important relationships with Asian entrepots such as Hongkong and Singapore. In the original trade statistics in the late 19th century, Hongkong was included in"China"or"British Asian colonies"and Singapore was included among"British Asian colonies."The confusion of these classifications has made it extremely difficult to depict the actual role of these entrepots in Philippine trade in the previous studies. Thus, the author has clarified this point in this paper, based on a precise examination of the original statistics.
Second, trade with Hongkong and Singapore played very important role in maintaining economic connection between the Philippines and other Asian countries in the late 19th century. Through these entrepots, rice was imported from French Indochina (Cochin-China) and Thailand, while British cotton goods were imported through Hongkong. On the other hand, export crops such as Manila hemp, sugar and tobacco were shipped to the United Kingdom via Singapore (details are not given in this paper, due to space limitation). Based on these facts, we argue that the larger part of the trade between the Philippines and Hongkong or Singapore, which should be counted as the"intra-Asian trade,"might be composed of the re-export of Philippine agricultural crops to the United Kingdom and the re-import of British cotton goods to the Philippines in the late 19th century. This characterizes the fact that"intra-Asian trade"grew with the expansion of the British empire in Asia in the late 19th century. Therefore the Philippine component of"intra-Asian trade"diminished, when Philippine trade was restructured under the U.S. colonial government in the first half of the 20th century.