Salt and Sea: Iloilo's Pre-Colonial Trade
Pre-colonial Iloilo traded salt and goods with China before Spanish rule.
Pre-Colonial Trade and Salt-Making in Iloilo: A Coastal Economy Before Empire
This video depicts the salt production and trade of salt in pre-colonial Iloilo, a coastal economy that flourished long before Spanish colonization. Long before 1565, Iloilo—centered around Oton, Molo, Jaro, and the river-mouth settlement later known as Irong-Irong—was already part of a dynamic maritime economy. Its coastal communities traded with Chinese and other Southeast Asian merchants, while salt became one of the most important products of everyday life, food preservation, and local exchange.
Iloilo’s history before 1565 cannot be understood only through colonial records. It must also be seen through archaeology, Chinese documentary references, oral tradition, and the survival of coastal practices such as salt-making. Together, these sources show a society that was commercially active, environmentally skilled, and connected to wider Asian networks.
Iloilo Before the Spanish Arrived
The area now called Iloilo lies on the southeastern coast of Panay Island in the Western Visayas. Its geography favored maritime life: it had river systems, sheltered coastal settlements, access to rich fishing grounds, and positions suitable for ports. These conditions encouraged fishing, boat-building, agriculture, handicraft production, and trade.
One of the most important early settlements was Oton, historically called Ogtong. Local heritage accounts describe Oton as a flourishing Malay settlement by the early thirteenth century, with a port that traded with Sangley merchants—Chinese traders. Oton is also associated in local tradition with the Katiringban et Madia-as, or Madia-as Confederation, a pre-colonial Panay political and cultural formation associated with Datu Paiburong.
Historians caution that some narratives about Panay’s early settlement, especially the Maragtas story of ten Bornean datus and the barter with Chieftain Marikudo, are legends rather than fully documented contemporary history. Nevertheless, these traditions preserve cultural memories of migration, leadership, and the importance of Panay as a settled and organized society before Spanish rule.
The earliest strong external written evidence for Iloilo’s commercial importance comes from Yuan-dynasty Chinese records of the 1300s. These records identify Oton—rendered in Hokkien Chinese as A-tân—as a busy trade outpost in the Visayas. This reference is significant because it shows that Panay was already known to Chinese merchants centuries before Miguel López de Legazpi arrived in the Philippines.
Ports, Merchants, and Exchange
Iloilo’s pre-colonial economy was not limited to one settlement. Local historical accounts identify three Malay ports that served visiting Chinese merchants: Ogtong or Oton, Tabucan in present-day Molo, and Salog in present-day Jaro. These ports formed a network of coastal trading points rather than a single centralized market.
Chinese merchants brought goods that were difficult or impossible to produce locally in the same quantity or quality. These included porcelain jars, plates, cups, and saucers; iron implements; silk and other textiles; beads; bronze gongs; and small bells. Surviving Chinese porcelain in museums and private collections in Iloilo is cited as material evidence of this long-standing exchange.
In return, Ilonggo and Panay traders offered products drawn from the island’s forests, rivers, fields, and seas. Historical accounts of early Chinese trade in the Philippines list goods such as raw cotton, abaca and other fibers, hardwoods, rattan, gums, resins, beeswax, edible nuts, placer gold, corals, and mother-of-pearl shells. These products connected Panay’s inland communities to coastal traders and, through them, to international markets.
Trade was therefore not simply a matter of foreign merchants arriving to sell goods. It involved local intermediaries, boat operators, port communities, farmers, fishers, forest gatherers, gold panners, and craft producers. Coastal settlements such as Oton functioned as gateways through which inland products reached foreign markets and imported goods reached local consumers.
A Maritime Society
The pre-colonial Visayas was fundamentally maritime. Boats were essential for fishing, transport, warfare, migration, and commerce. Coastal communities depended on the sea not only for fish but also for salt, shells, and access to other islands.
This maritime orientation helps explain why Iloilo developed strong trading links with China and other parts of Southeast Asia. Unlike landlocked societies, coastal Panay communities could participate directly in regional exchange networks. Their ports could receive foreign ships, store goods, host traders, and send local products outward.
The presence of Chinese merchants also suggests that local leaders and communities had the capacity to organize trade. They maintained ports, negotiated exchanges, provided security or access, and likely regulated the movement of goods. Trade required trust, communication, and established rules—features of a functioning commercial society rather than a random collection of villages.
Salt: A Small Product with Great Importance
Salt may seem ordinary today, but in pre-modern societies it was indispensable. It preserved fish, meat, and other foods in a hot and humid climate where refrigeration did not exist. Salt also made possible the production of dried fish, fermented foods, and preserved seafood that could be stored or transported.
For coastal communities in Iloilo, salt was therefore both a necessity and a potential commodity. A household that could make salt could preserve its catch, prepare food for travel, and exchange surplus salt with inland communities that had less direct access to seawater. Salt thus linked the coast with the interior.
Salt also mattered economically because it was relatively durable. Unlike fresh fish or fruit, salt did not quickly spoil. It could be carried in baskets, jars, or sacks and traded over distances. In this way, salt-making gave coastal Ilonggos a product that could participate in local barter and wider commercial networks.
Traditional Ilonggo Salt-Making
Before Chinese-style evaporating ponds were introduced, Ilonggo communities made salt by evaporating seawater in bamboo poles cut lengthwise in half. This method used three abundant resources: seawater, sunlight, and bamboo. It was simple in principle but demanding in labor.
The basic process involved collecting seawater and placing it in split bamboo troughs. Under the heat of the sun, the water slowly evaporated, leaving salt crystals behind. Workers then collected the salt for household use or exchange.
This technique reflects practical environmental knowledge. Bamboo was widely available in the Philippines, lightweight compared with stone or metal containers, and easy to split into long channels. Its natural nodes could help hold liquid, while its shape made it suitable for shallow evaporation. The method also avoided the need for expensive equipment.
The Ilonggo method was part of a wider Philippine tradition of solar salt-making. Across the archipelago, coastal communities developed techniques suited to local conditions: some used sand beds, others used clay vessels, wooden troughs, or bamboo. What united these methods was the use of the sun to remove water and concentrate salt.
Steps in Bamboo Salt Production
Although exact pre-colonial practices varied by community and period, the bamboo method can be understood through the following stages:
- Selecting a coastal site — Salt-makers needed access to clean seawater, open sunlight, and space for bamboo troughs.
- Preparing bamboo — Bamboo poles were cut lengthwise in half, creating long troughs or channels.
- Collecting seawater — Workers gathered seawater, often carrying it in bamboo containers.
- Filling the troughs — Seawater was poured into the split bamboo.
- Solar evaporation — Sun and wind gradually removed water, concentrating the brine.
- Crystallization — As evaporation continued, salt crystals formed.
- Harvesting — Salt was scraped or collected from the bamboo.
- Use and trade — The salt was used for cooking and preservation, and surplus amounts could be exchanged.
This process required patience. Salt-makers had to watch the weather, protect brine from rain, and repeat the work across several days of sunshine. It was a form of skilled coastal labor, not merely a casual household task.
Salt and Food Preservation
Salt’s greatest value was preservation. In a tropical environment, fish spoil quickly. Salting allowed fishers to extend the life of their catch and create products such as dried or salted fish that could be eaten later or sold in markets.
This had wider economic effects. A fisher with access to salt could avoid losing an entire catch to spoilage. A trader could move preserved fish inland or between islands. A household could store food for lean seasons, voyages, or festivals. Salt therefore supported food security as well as commerce.
Salt also shaped taste and food culture. Beyond preservation, it became central to seasoning, fermentation, and the preparation of many local dishes. Its importance explains why communities invested labor in producing it despite the difficulty of the work.
Salt in Local Exchange
It is reasonable to infer that salt circulated through pre-colonial systems of barter and tribute-like exchange. Coastal communities could trade salt for rice, root crops, fruits, livestock, textiles, forest products, or labor. Inland communities, which were farther from the sea, would have had particular reason to value salt.
The exact prices, quantities, and trade routes of pre-colonial Iloilo salt are difficult to reconstruct because written records from that period are limited. However, the economic logic is clear: salt was useful, portable, and produced from a resource controlled by coastal communities. These qualities made it suitable for exchange.
Salt-making also created specialized knowledge. Those who understood tides, weather, evaporation, and the best materials for containers held practical expertise that could be passed down through families and communities. In this sense, salt production was part of Iloilo’s pre-colonial technological heritage.
Chinese Influence and Later Innovation
Chinese trade did not end with the arrival of Spanish colonizers. Instead, Chinese merchants and settlers continued to play a major role in Iloilo’s economy. During the colonial period, Chinese traders established a commercial district in the parian of Molo, supplying goods to the growing settlement.
In salt production, Chinese influence appears to have brought technological change. Historical accounts state that Chinese producers introduced brick-floored evaporating ponds during the Spanish period. These ponds allowed producers to evaporate larger quantities of seawater in a more controlled way than the earlier bamboo-trough method.
This development should be understood as an addition to, rather than a replacement of, local knowledge. Ilonggo communities had already developed a workable salt-making system using bamboo and sunlight. Later methods improved scale and efficiency, but the earlier technique demonstrated local ingenuity and adaptation to Panay’s coastal environment.
The Budbud Tradition of Southern Iloilo
The strongest living link to Iloilo’s salt-making heritage is budbud, a traditional sea salt associated especially with Miagao in southern Iloilo. The word budbud comes from Kinaray-a and means “to sprinkle,” referring to the repeated sprinkling of seawater onto prepared sand.
Budbud salt-making is documented as dating back to at least 1823, according to Elias N. Failagao’s History of Miag-ao, first published in 1979. It was once a major cottage industry along Miagao’s coast, with historical accounts reporting production of as many as 10,000 sacks of salt annually.
The method is more elaborate than the simple bamboo-trough process. Salt-makers, called asinderos or asinderas, prepare a sandy shoreline by cleaning and raking it into grooves. They then sprinkle seawater over the sand using a long bamboo container called a bayong. This is repeated over several sunny days until the sand becomes highly saturated with salt.
The salted sand is then collected and placed in a filtering structure known as a salimbuwag. Fresh seawater is poured through the sand, producing a concentrated brine. This brine may be mixed with extract from the balunos vine, which is traditionally believed to help crystallization and affect the salt’s texture and flavor.
Finally, the concentrated brine is placed in split bamboo sections called duyduyan. Under the sun, the water evaporates over several days, leaving coarse white salt crystals. The result is budbud salt, valued for its clean, traditional character.
Continuity and Change
Budbud salt is not proof that the exact same process existed in the pre-colonial period. Its earliest firm documentation places it in the nineteenth century. However, it preserves several elements associated with older Philippine salt-making: the use of seawater, bamboo, sunlight, sand filtration, and skilled manual labor.
This continuity matters. It shows that Iloilo’s relationship with salt was not a brief historical episode but a long coastal tradition. The tools and exact techniques changed over time, but the underlying knowledge—how to turn seawater into a useful, storable product—remained central to communities along Panay’s coast.
Today, budbud-making faces serious challenges. Salt-makers cite shrinking shorelines, seawalls, climate change, and the physically demanding nature of the work as reasons for the industry’s decline. Only a small number of communities and producers continue the tradition.
Why Pre-Colonial Iloilo Matters
Pre-colonial Iloilo challenges the idea that Philippine history began with Spain. The evidence points to a society already engaged in regional commerce, with ports receiving Chinese merchants and local products moving through maritime networks.
It also shows the importance of ordinary technologies. Salt-making may not have produced monuments or written chronicles, but it sustained households, preserved food, and connected coastal and inland communities. It represents the practical intelligence of people who learned to work with the sea, sun, bamboo, and sand.
Finally, Iloilo’s salt heritage reminds us that trade was not only about luxury goods. Porcelain, silk, gold, and beads attract attention, but salt was equally essential to survival. A society that could produce and exchange salt had one of the basic building blocks of a resilient coastal economy.
Conclusion
Pre-colonial Iloilo was a coastal society with far-reaching connections. Its ports at Oton, Molo, and Jaro welcomed Chinese merchants, while local communities supplied forest, agricultural, marine, and mineral products for exchange. Chinese records from the 1300s identify Oton as a busy Visayan trade outpost, confirming that Iloilo’s commercial importance long preceded Spanish colonization.
Salt-making was another expression of this coastal economy. Ilonggo communities used split bamboo and solar evaporation to transform seawater into salt, a product essential for preservation and trade. Later Chinese-introduced evaporating ponds expanded production, while the budbud tradition of Miagao preserves a living connection to this older heritage.
In the end, Iloilo’s pre-colonial history is a history of the sea: of boats and ports, merchants and intermediaries, fishers and salt-makers. It is also a reminder that some of the most important products of the past were not precious metals or imported porcelain, but the everyday goods—such as salt—that made life, trade, and survival possible.
Comments
Post a Comment