Early Trade Contacts

C. Relations with the Indians & Chinese

Trade relations with Chinese started in the 10th century (A.D. 982 is the year given in the Sung annals) and reached its zenith in the 14th and 15th centuries. Trade relation of the Philippines with the Indians reached its peak in the late 13th century.

Chao Ju-Kua described the Chinese trade with Ma-i (Mindoro) and praised the honesty of he Filipinos. Early Chinese trading junks brought goods and immigrants to the Philippines. Under the Ming Dynasty, China exercised nominal suzerainty over the Philippines, and some Filipinos paid tribute to China.

The last Filipino tribute embassy came to China in 1421, according to the Ming-Shih or dynastic annals of the Ming.

C. Early Relations with Japan

Historical records show that Japanese pirates (wako), kingdom builders, and settlers had come to Luzon before and immediately after the Spanish colonization.

Japanese traders, especially from Nagasaki, frequently visited Philippine shores and bartered Japanese goods for Filipino gold, pearls, and native earthen jars.

Certain shipwrecked Japanese sailors and immigrants settled in the Philippines and intermarried with Filipinos. According to Japanese records, the early Spaniards found Japanese settlements in Manila and Agoo, La Union Province.

E. Early Relations with the Muslim World

In 1380, according to the tarsilas (Muslim chronicles), the Arab missionary-scholar Mudum landed in Sulu and there laid the foundation of Islam in the Philippines.

In 1390, Rajah Baginda, prince of Menankabaw, Sumatra, led an army of Muslim invaders to Sulu and overcame native opposition with firearms.
Abu

Bakr, Muslim leader from Palembang, Sumatra, reached Sulu in 1450, and married the daughter of Rajah Baginda. After Bagindas death, he founded the Sultanate of Jolo, with himself as sultan.

The Muslim conquest of Maguindanao was attributed to Sharif Kubungsuan, Muslim leader of Johore, who landed in Cotabato in 1475. He married a native princess and founded the first Muslim Sultanate of Maguindanao. Kabungsuan as sultan of Maguindanano had larger domain than the Sultanate of Sulu. The Sultanate of Maguindanao was also instrumental in the Islamization of Mindanao.

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