Drinks containing cacao “are better fit for pigs than for men.”  

– Girolamo Benzoni (1519–1570)

On trans-Pacific voyages a century later:
“In a short time, all the Provisions grow Naught,
except the Sweetmeats and Chocolate,
which are the only comfort of Passengers.”

– Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651–1725)

In the eighteenth century, Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus classified the cacao plant (Theobroma cacao L.) under the genus theobroma, literally “food of the gods”, a nod to its history.

Indigenous to the Americas, cacao beans were highly valued in pre-Columbian times, not only for the production of chocolate but also as means of circulation—as money, in other words. This alone may attest to the high value given to the plant by the indigenous Indian population. Cacao refers to the raw beans, while the term cocoa is usually applied to the processed powder made from the cacao beans. I decided to use “cacao” throughout this article, mainly because this is the term we normally find in the Spanish sources. Sometimes we read about pulverised chocolate (en polvo), and as will be shown later, chocolate was also sent in the form of blocks, especially when presented as a gift, as letters from missionaries suggest.

          The roots of the word “chocolate” are the Nahuatl cacaoatl, meaning “cacao water”, or xoco, meaning “sour water”, an indirect reference to the fact that chocolate as a drink was originally not necessarily sweet. ^[1]William Gates, An Aztec Herbal. The Classic Codex of 1552 (first published in Baltimore: The Maya Society, 1939; Dover edition, Bruce Byland: 2000), 276. The increased use and popularity of chocolate, dateable to the early seventeenth century at the latest, stood in harsh contrast to earlier evaluations made by the Spanish upon first contact. To them, the favourite drink of American Indian elites was food fit for pigs, not humans. In the early years after the conquest, the Spaniards did indeed pay little attention to cacao, but they soon came to realise its economic possibilities. ^[2]For a very good survey of the economic role of cacao in Spanish America, see Murdo J. MacLeod, Spanish Central America, Chapters 4 and 5, 68–95, and Chapter 12, 235–252.

          Quite a lot of research has been done on the role of cacao and chocolate in the early modern “globalised” world from both the American and recently also the Asian, especially Chinese perspective. ^[3]Marcy Norton, Sacred gifts, profane pleasures: a history of tobacco and chocolate in the Atlantic world (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2008); Cameron L. McNeil, Chocolate in Mesoamerica: A … Continue reading However, investigations have mostly concentrated geographically on one region or country, or examined either commercial, botanical and medicinal, or (agri)cultural aspects. Except for a brief but very rich and interesting study on “Chinese Chocolate” by Bertram M. Gordon, no works, to my knowledge, exist that provide a detailed overview of first, how cacao and chocolate came to Asia; ^[4]Bertram M. Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate. Ambergris, Emperors, and Export Ware”, Part IX, Chapter 44 of Chocolate. History, Culture, and Heritage, ed. by Louis Evan Grivetti and Howard-Yana Shapiro … Continue reading second, on shipments of cacao and chocolate across the Pacific, either as provision or as cargo; and, third, that combine the above-mentioned aspects in a cross-cultural and interdisciplinary study concentrating specifically on the early-modern Transpacific connection, including archaeological evidence and the role of chocolate and cacao on board ships. This is not an easy task, as information is sparse and has to be pieced together from a variety of the most diverse sources. But the great impact this new “food drug”, adopted in the course of the sixteenth to seventeenth centuries, definitely justifies the effort.^[5]A more complete account of the role of chocolate and cacao on the Manila galleons will, however, only be possible towards the end of our TRANSPACIFIC project, depending on finding more information … Continue reading

          My research into cacao in Asia and the Pacific has yielded discoveries across many different aspects, each of which deserve their own article-length treatments. This is the first of a two-part series of articles. In this first text (Part I), I focus on the question of how cacao and chocolate first came to Asia and how this new product was locally received, adopted, or rejected. The question is, therefore, how cacao and chocolate first came to the Philippines and then to East Asia. By concentrating on the archaeological evidence in the final section of the article, I aim to show that even people and societies who did not readily adopt the culture of chocolate consumption were significantly influenced by and contributed to it. In a followup article (Part II), I will explore these aspects in closer detail, focusing on the various uses of cacao and chocolate, both in pre-Columbian and Columbian America, but particularly in the Philippines. ^[6]Published as “The Role of Cacao and Chocolate in Transpacific Exchange: Part II, Cacao as Transpacific Trade Good and Global Commodity”, in Carlos Gonzalez Balderas and Marina Torres Trimállez … Continue reading I will also examine its emergence as a Transpacific and global commodity, as well as cargo on the “Manila galleons”. A potential third article would focus on the use of cacao beans as a local currency in the Philippines, in the context of contemporary economic and monetary policy.

FIGURE 1. Chromolithograph of Theobroma cacao L. (ca. 1885)
Credit: Wellcome Library, London. Wellcome Images

          Cacao, as both plant (FIGURE 1) and processed into chocolate as a drink, first came across the Pacific via Spanish imperial structures, together with the knowledge of its cultivation and preparation as a drink. ^[7]Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.): fruiting and flowering branch with separate numbered sections of flowers, fruit and seed. Chromolithograph by P. Depannemaeker, ca.1885, after B. Hoola van Nooten, … Continue reading However, the details have been rather obscured so far. Analysing the impacts of the “chocolate culture” on local societies in Asia, it is clear that chocolate did not fundamentally influence traditional food cultures in sixteenth- to eighteenth-century China or Japan, in contrast to its path to success in the Philippines, where it was finally consumed not only by the Spanish elites but also by ordinary people.

          On ships, chocolate was mainly valued as a high-calorie ration, but in some cases also as medicine. Pharmacists and doctors valued its medical properties. In China, European missionaries used it for medicinal and health purposes. But they also clearly enjoyed drinking it, even if they were not officially permitted to admit it, as the consumption of chocolate was long considered a vice by the Catholic Church. ^[8]See my “The Role of Cacao and Chocolate in Transpacific Exchange. Cacao as Transpacific Trade Good and Global Commodity”. As a rule, the Chinese and Japanese did not consume cacao or chocolate for pleasure or as a medicine. It is not mentioned in contemporary East Asian pharmacopeia and medical treatises, and in the eighteenth century it was even considered a “European witchcraft medicine” negatively affecting female fertility. ^[9]Ibid. This notwithstanding, the worldwide popularity of drinking chocolate exerted a significant impact on Chinese (and to a much lesser degree, Japanese) society, though mainly indirectly, as were the far-reaching consequences for the local manufacture of ceramics. In the second part of this analysis, we will see that this is, however, not the full story.

First of all, it is important to stress that, because of its nutritional and caloric content, and additional use as medicine, chocolate soon became part of the galleon crew and passenger provisions on board ship. It was regarded as a source of nourishment that would keep well, explaining why galleon passengers took chocolate on board. Cacao is rich in energy (between 225 and 325 kcal per 100g);
contains many essential minerals, such as potassium, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, iron, copper, and zinc; as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, and E. It is also full of flavonoids, giving it a high antioxidant activity. ^[1]Robert Rucker, “Nutritional Properties of Cocoa”, in Appendix 10 of Chocolate. History, Culture, and Heritage, ed. by Louis Evan Grivetti and Howard-Yana Shapiro (Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley … Continue reading It can provide 10–20 percent of the energy needed by a young adult individual. ^[2]Robert Rucker, “Nutritional Properties of Cocoa”, 943.

The opening epigraph by Giovanni Francesco Gemelli Careri (1651–1725), the seventeenth-century Italian adventurer who in 1697 travelled to Mexico aboard one of the famous Manila galleons, attests to the popularity of chocolate around 1700 and to the fact that it was part of the onboard provision of ocean-going ships. Later in the eighteenth century, passengers on board these galleons were only permitted to carry “two leather-covered chests or trunks on board, three and a half feet long, seven inches wide and fifteen inches deep, a mattress, a pair of bottle-cases for wine, writing materials, and ten China jars, in which to carry chocolate, caramels, sweets, biscuits, or anything else, so long as they may be kept underneath the bed.” ^[3]William Lytle Schurz, The Manila Galleon, 270, referring to regulations drawn up by Governor Valdés, definitely referring to the Philippine governor Fernando Valdés Tamón (1681–1741).

Paulina Machuca has written on the will of a scribe who went on board the Nuestra Señora de Atocha in Manila to sail to New Spain in 1625, a certain Gaspar Pagés de Moncada. ^[4]“Archivo Histórico del Municipio de Colima, Colima, sección B, caja 4, exp. 4. Mayo de 1625. “Testamento y codicilo, inventarios y almonedas de Gaspar de Moncada, difunto escribano que fue de … Continue reading He finally passed away in Colima having disembarked from the galleon when it reached the American coast at the port of La Navidad. Interesting in our context is the fact that, when boarding the galleon in Manila, Gaspar took on board a barrel of chocolate which he had bought from the captain, Pedro Cortés, a Manila resident. This is another clear indication of the fact that chocolate served as provision on board the galleons. ^[5]Paulina Machuca, “Fortuna de Mar, Enfermedad y Muerte”, 327. The question is where the chocolate came from? As we do not yet possess records about the local cultivation of cacao trees, it seems plausible to assume that the Manila resident Pedro Cortés had earlier purchased the chocolate from somebody arriving from New Spain.

Many contemporary missionaries, pharmacists, botanists and physicians also praised the medicinal properties of cacao and chocolate, especially their nutritional, tonic and invigorating qualities. Juan de Cárdenas (1563–1609), a New Spanish physician from Guadalajara, considered chocolate a healthy nutrient with excellent medicinal properties, and recommended mixing it with “precious and very medicinal spices”, such as the native Aztec Cymbopetalum pedulifolio (Nahuatl: huenacaztli), Piper sanctum (nah: mecaxochitl), Vanilla planifolia (nah: tlilxochitl), Bixa orrellana (nah: achiotl), cinnamon, pepper, star anise, and sesame seeds. ^[6]Juan de Cárdenas (1563–1609), Problemas y secretos maravillosos de las Indias (1591), f. 109v, referred to by José Pardo-Tomás, “Natural knowledge and medical remedies in the book of secrets: … Continue reading Paul Klein (Pablo Clain, 1652– 1717), a Jesuit missionary from the Philippines, recommended chocolate as agent stimulating appetite. ^[7]Pablo Clain, Remedios fáciles para differentes enfermedades apuntados por el Padre Pablo Clain de la Companía de Jesús para el alivio y socorro de los Ministros evangélicos de las doctrinas de … Continue reading Recent studies highlight the biochemical qualities of the theobromine found in chocolate that “may act as antitumoral, anti-inflammatory or cardiovascular protector molecule”. ^[8]The authors conclude on p. 4: “The main mechanisms of action of theobromine are inhibition of phosphodiesterases and blockade of adenosine receptors but, interestingly, it exhibits other important … Continue reading It has a high content of antioxidants and has even been described as a potentially novel drug. ^[9]Eva Martínez-Pinilla, Ainhoa Oñatibia-Astibia, and Rafael Franco, “The relevance of theobromine for the beneficial effects of cocoa consumption”, Frontiers in Pharmacology 6:30 (2015), 1-5, … Continue reading This explains why chocolate was also listed among the medicines carried on board a galleon, ^[10]“Factura de medicinas que se embarcan en la goleta pa el viaje qu ba a executar en este año de 1785, al mando de D Franco de Mourelle alférez de navío de la Rl Armada con destino en este … Continue reading and it was prescribed against various medical conditions, including scurvy. ^[11]Johan Heinrich Zedler (1706–1751) describes cacao and cacao seeds as liquifying the blood, being nutritious, good for the lungs, and even recommends them to people suffering from tuberculosis and … Continue reading Cacao was also considered a remedy against poisons and for healing sword wounds. ^[12]José Maria González O. P., Misiones Dominicanas en China (1700–1750), 2 vols. [Biblioteca «Missionalia Hispanica» Publicada por el Instituto Santo Toribo de Mogrovejo], vol. IX (Madrid: 1958), … Continue reading

Chocolate as a drink combined the medicinal properties of cacao with the alleged aphrodisiac properties of vanilla pods and the “heart-warming” effects attributed to cinnamon. Hot chocolate flavoured with vanilla and two other aromatics was, for example, administered as a cough remedy and as a cure for “spitting blood” (tuberculosis?). ^[13]Bernardino de Sahagún, Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España (Mexico City: 1938), 5 vols., vol. II, 326. These ingredients with psychoactive qualities contributed to personal or subjective well-being, even though these plants had no medicinal properties in the strict sense.

The oil or butter extracted from the cacao beans was used for external purposes against all kinds of ulcers (as a plaster), best in combination with other components, such as aloe, myrrh, camphor, or lime water. It does not smell, does not grow rancid, is very easily absorbed, and was also suggested as a remedy for rheumatism. ^[14]D. de Quélus (possibly Jean-Baptiste de Caylus, French, d. 1722), The natural history of choco late. Histoire naturelle du cacao, et du sucre, divisée en deux traités, qui contiennent plusieurs … Continue reading It was consequently also useful on board. Mixed with flowers of brimstone, purified saltpetre, white precipitate ^[15]A white amorphous powder obtained by adding ammonia to a solution of mercury chloride. and benzoin or Benjamin, it provides an excellent pomade against ringworms, eczemas, blisters, pimples and other deformities of the skin. ^[16]Ibid., 144. Theobroma Cacao (Cocoa) leaf-cell extract, cacao butter and oil are still used today as ingredients in various modern cosmetic creams.

FIGURE 2. Accounts of the Manila Royal Hospital (1753)
AGI, Filipinas, 198, N. 7 (PARES)

As gifts and, apparently, also to provide care for the sick, chocolate was sent to the pharmacy and hospital in Manila in addition to bread, maize crackers, meat and wine (“para regalo y manuttención de los enfermos, como es pan, carne, chocolate, broas y vino, que alicuando se oferece, y otras barias cosass de cosina”; a combined expense of 101 pesos 6 reales, see FIGURE 2). ^[17]“Expediente sobre la administración de la botica y hospital real de Manila”, Archivo General de Indias(AGI), Filipinas, 198, N. 7, no pagination, image 36, … Continue reading The costs for purchasing these items, including chocolate, figured among the costs for the maintenance of the Royal Hospital in Manila. ^[18]The purchase of chocolate, meat, wine, primary ingredients for the sick, hospital staff salaries, and medicinal supplies were fixed expenses of the galleons. “Traslado del expediente formado a … Continue reading

A provision list for the goleta (schooner) La Felicidad, alias “La Mexicana” (1785), mentions one arroba of chocolate (25 Spanish pounds ≈ 11kg), under “additional supplies and subsistence allowances” (extraordinario y dietas). ^[19]“Estado y reglamento de rancho que por la Contaduría de la Real Hacienda del Departamento de San Blas se forma para la tripulación de la goleta de S. M. nombrada la Felicidad alias la Mexicana … Continue reading While the paquebot San Carlos (1785), the main ship on this expedition, carried as many as two and a half arrobas of chocolate. ^[20]AGNM, Filipinas 21, 232v-233r.

Buccaneers and “pirates” also used chocolate on board as an invigorating drink, and it formed part of their diet on board. William Dampier (1651–1715) wrote in his travel diary (1681): “There was no liquor in the ship, nothing to fortify the spirits in the shape of a dram; so a large kettle of chocolate was boiled and served out to the crew, who, when they had emptied their pannikins, went to prayers.” ^[21]William Clark Russell, William Dampier (London: Macmillan and Co. and New York, 1894), Chapter 1, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54284/54284-h/54284-h.htm#CHAPTER_I (accessed on 18 January, 2024). … Continue reading He explains that “for 3 days before we parted we sifted so much flower as we could well carry, and rubbed up 20 or 30 pound of chocolate with sugar to sweeten it; these things and a kettle the slaves carried also on their backs after we landed”. ^[22]William Dampier, A new voyage round the world describing particularly the isthmus of America, severalcoasts and islands in the West Indies, the isles of Cape Verd, the passage by Terra del Fuego, the … Continue reading Or, “[t]he 26th day we returned to Point Garachina again. In our way we took a small Vessel laden with Cacao: she came from Guiaquil. The 29th day we arrived at Point Garachina. There we found Captain Harris, who had been in the River of Santa Maria; but he did not meet the Men that he went for. Yet he was informed again by the Indians, that they were making Canoes in one of the branches of the River of Santa Maria. Here we shared our Cacao lately taken… or now we had Cacao we wanted Sugar to make Chocolate.” ^[23]William Dampier, A new voyage, Chapter I, 199.

William Dampier “describes the Acapulco ships and their route as follows (chapter ix): ‘The Ships that Trade hither are only three, two that constantly go once a Year between this [i.e., Acapulco] and Manila and Luconia [i.e. Luzon], one of the Philippine Islands, and one Ship more every Year to and from Lima. This from Lima commonly arrives a little before Christmas; she brings them Quick-silver, Cacao, and Pieces of Eight. Here she stays till the Manila Ships arrive, and then takes in a Cargo of Spices, Silks, Callicoes, and Muslins, and other East-India
Commodities, for the use of Peru, and then returns to Lima.’” ^[24]Emma Helen Blair and James Alexander Robertson (eds.), The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of … Continue reading

In 1684, he mentions “Guiaquil” (i.e., Guayaquil) as “one of the chiefest Sea-Ports in the South Seas: the Commodities which are exported from hence are Cacao, Hides, Tallow, Sarsaparilla, and other Drugs, and Woollen-Cloth, commonly called Cloth of Quito. The Cacao; grows on both sides of the River above the Town. It is a small Nut, like the Campeachy Nut: I think, the smallest of the
two; they produce as much Cacao; here as serves all the Kingdom of Peru; and much of it is sent to Acapulco, and from thence to the Philippine Islands.” ^[25]William Dampier, Dampier’s Voyages, 175; he also describes cacao from Venezuela, which they also took on board (pp. 91-94, passim). Chocolate, we can see, was quite popular as a drink on board ships in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.

The Spanish added sugar since the early seventeenth century at the latest. Santiago de Valerde Turices (fl. 1625) explored the medical uses of chocolate in his treatise Un discurso del chocolate (A discourse on chocolate, 1624): Introducing a preparation method as done in the Indies (“esta es para las Indias”). He speaks of 6 pounds of cacao, to which was added 1 pound of anise, half a pound of cinnamon, 5 pounds of sugar, and some chili, pepper, and cloves (“Receptas i modo de hazer el Chocolate para las caxas”). ^[26]Santiago de Valerde Turices (fl. 1625), Un discurso del chocolate, 1624. Digital collections of the University of California, San Diego, https://library.ucsd.edu/dc/object/bb4476232x. Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma (fl. 1630), a physician from Andalusia, wrote a Curious treatise on the nature and quality of chocolate (Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate). In it, he first explained how the Indians drank their chocolate, followed by two “modern” ways in which the Spanish prepared and drank it, paying much attention to the foam (espuma). In the second method, some hot water was dissolved with the sugar and then added to the chocolate (“echar lo restante del agua caliente con su açucar en el mismo Chocolate, y asi se bebe”). ^[27]Antonio Colmenero de Ledesma (fl. 1630), Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate, dividido en quatro puntos. En el primero se trata, que sea Chocolate y que calidad tenga el Cacao, y … Continue reading And he introduces a recipe, mixing the cacao with one and a half pounds of white
sugar (“açucar blanca, libra y media”), two ounces of cinnamon, chiles or pepper, half an ounce of cloves, and three pods of vanilla from Campeche, or anis instead; in addition to sufficient achiote to give the beverage colour, some also add almonds, hazelnuts and orange blossom water. ^[28]Curioso tratado de la naturaleza y calidad del chocolate, 4b.

Sir Hans Sloane (1660–1753), “a physician by trade” and a collector of objects from around the world added a tablespoon of honey or sugar to his “milk chocolate recipe”. ^[29]Tasha Marks, “The 18th-century chocolate champions”, The British Museum Blog, 18 May 2018, https://www.britishmuseum.org/blog/18th-century-chocolate-champions (accessed on 10 June 2024). Cornelis Bontekoe (1647–1685), a Dutch physician known also as a popular essayist and for his treatise on tea, in which he also discussed the nutritious and medical properties of coffee and chocolate, mentions anis, cinnamon, vanilla, even Spanish olive oil soap, and suggests mixing these ingredients with water, milk, eggs, sugar, and saffron. ^[30]Cornelis Bontekoe (Dekker), Tractaat van het excellenste kruyd thee:’t Welk vertoond het regte gebruyk, en de groote kragten van’t selve in gesondheyt, en siekten Benevens een kort discours op … Continue reading And “good chocolate”, according to Bontekoe, is a rich food and so kragtig (heavy) that it is as nutritious as a pound of meat. ^[31]Bontekoe, Tractaat, 302. French recipes, such as the crême de chocolate in François Massialot’s (1660- 1733) Le cuisinier royal et bourgeois, ^[32]François Massialot, Le cuisinier roïal et bourgeois; qui apprend a ordonner toute sorte de repas en gras & en maigre, & la meilleure maniere des ragoûts les plus delicats & les plus à … Continue reading also used milk, sugar, and egg yolk, in addition to chocolate. ^[33]Bertram M. Gordon, “Chocolate in France. Evolution of a Luxury Product”, Part IX, Chapter 43 of Chocolate. History, Culture, and Heritage, 569-593, here 573.

The Spanish conquest of the Philippines was a key step in a long process of Spanish overseas expansion that had already started in 1492 with the first voyage of Christopher Columbus (1451– 1506) to the Caribbean. The Spaniards “carefully planned their entry in Asia, with the aim of expanding the influence of the Crown of Habsburg in the East Indies and to try new conquests and exploitations. In their eyes, this would bring several benefits” ^[1]Ubaldo Iaccarino, “‘The Centre of a Circle’: Manila’s Trade with East and Southeast Asia at the Turn of the Sixteenth Century”, Crossroads – Studies on the History of Exchange Relations … Continue reading related not only to missionary purposes, but also to the establishment of a global, wealthy empire and enabling Spain’s participation in the spice trade. ^[2]Juan Gil, Mitos y utopías del descubrimiento, vol. 2: El Pacífico (Madrid: Alianza, 1989), 15-68. The first documented European contact with the Philippines happened in 1521 when Ferdinand Magellan (ca. 1480–1521), the famous Portuguese explorer who in 1519 led a Spanish expedition to the East Indies across the Pacific Ocean to open a trade route to Asia and reached the island archipelago. The Spanish met with fierce resistance by the indigenous people, and Magellan was finally killed in a battle with them, the Battle of Mactan, on 27 April 1521. Some forty years later, King Philip II of Spain and Portugal (r. 1556–1598; from 1580 also King of Portugal) revived plans to establish a permanent trade route across the Pacific Ocean. After three unsuccessful expeditions that ended in disaster, in 1564 he dispatched Miguel López de Legazpi (1502–1572), Governor-General of the Spanish East Indies, to sail from New Spain and conquer the Philippines. Legazpi arrived in the Philippines in 1565 and established the first permanent Spanish settlement in Cebu the same year. The Spanish city of Manila was founded in 1571, and by the late sixteenth century many coastal areas of Luzon and the Visayas were under Spanish control. ^[3]For a brief general survey, see, for example, Christina H. Lee and Ricardo Padrón, “Introduction”, in Christina H. Lee and Ricardo Padrón (eds.), The Spanish Pacific, 1521–1815: A Reader of … Continue reading

The islands were named “Philippines” in honour of King Philip. Legazpi was also ordered to find a return route to Mexico. Andrés de Urdaneta (ca. 1508–1568), who participated in Legazpi’s expedition, eventually discovered the sailing route back from Manila to Acapulco, officially called the tornaviaje (“return route”). With its establishment, the Manila galleon trade was initiated, lasting officially from 1565 to 1815. The Spanish goal was to obtain access to the spice trade, which eventually led to a complex system of commercial relations, scientific exchanges and migration between Spain in Europe, the Spanish colonies in America, and Asia, with the port city of Manila as the hub of the Asian and Transpacific trades. It was on this Manila galleon trade route that cacao also reached Asia.

Cacao was shipped from Callao (Peru) to Acapulco, for example, in 1633 by the San Ambrosio, in 1680 by the Nuestra Señora de la Popa, in 1687 by a so-called navío del Perú, or in 1686 from Guayaquil (Ecuador) to Acapulco by the Limpia Concepción. ^[4]The associated voyage records are included in the ship movements section of the project’s TRANSPACIFIC Metadatabase [restricted dataset, in progress]. See also Bonialian, Pacífico … Continue reading In the early eighteenth century, we encounter yet more shipments of cacao from either Callao or Guayaquil to Acapulco. ^[5]See the table in Bonialian, Pacífico hispanoamericano, 275-276. Some of the cacao that reached Acapulco was re-exported to the Philippines. Drinking chocolate, at any rate, became so popular that the cacao tree was finally also cultivated in the Philippines. But how and when did it first get there?

Sources claim the cacao plant was introduced from New Spain under or slightly after the rule of the Flemish-born Diego de Salcedo, Governor-General of the Philippines (1663–1668), at the orders of a Jesuit priest, Juan Francisco Dávila (1615–1706). ^[6]The Philippine Islands, vol. 47, 219. Since this article had been completed, a general overview of the history of cacao in the Philippines has been published as part of the Asian Cocoa Project, see … Continue reading Salcedo’s successor was Governor- General Manuel de León (1669-1676), who took over his office on 24 September 1669.^[7]According to the information provided on the website of the Kahimyang project, cacao was planted first in Carigara, Leyte, see … Continue reading

According to a story told by Pedro Murillo Velarde (1696–1753) in his Historia de la provincia de Philipinas, Juan Francisco Dávila wanted to convince the indigenous population to stay in their villages so that he could instruct them in the ways of Christianity. ^[8]Pedro Murillo Velarde (1696–1753), Historia de la provincia de Philipinas de la Comp. de Jesus, Segunda parte que comprehende los progresos de esta provincia desde 1616 hasta el de 1716 (Manila: En … Continue reading To give them an occupation, he is said to have asked the local governor, Diego de Salcedo, to have some cacao seeds brought from New Spain to the Philippines on one of the Manila galleons. He records that the island of Mindanao is fertile and provides a lot of cacao (“dá muchisimo de cacao”) and the cacao from the northern coast is actually the best of the whole island (“y el de la Costa septemtríonal de Layavan es el mejor de las Islas”).

The entry for Teobroma cacao (sic!) in Manuel Blanco’s botanical classic, Flora de Filipinas (1st ed., 1837), ^[9]Manuel Blanco (1778–1845), Flora de Filipinas, Adicionada con el manuscrito inédito del P. Fr. Ignacio Mercado, las obras del P. Fr. Antonio Llanos, y de un apéndice con todas las nuevas … Continue reading retells the story of the pilot Pedro Bravo, who reportedly brought a cutting of cacao from Acapulco to Luzon in 1670. The source for Blanco’s anecdote was the second part of Conquistas de las Islas Filipinas, by P. Fr. Gaspar de San Agustín (1650–1724), which is preserved in manuscript form in the Archivo del Convento de San Agustín de Manila. ^[10]Gaspar de San Agustín, Conquistas de las islas Filipinas: la temporal, por las armas del señor don Phelipe Segundo el Prudente; y la espiritval, por los religiosos del orden de nuestro padre San … Continue reading In the Conquistas, Gaspar de San Agustín singles out cacao as the most valuable and precious commodity (after silver) that New Spain exported to the Philippine Islands. According to De San Agustín, one libra (1 Spanish pound ≈ 0.46kg) of cacao beans once sold for two pesos or even more, but the price subsequently dropped to one or two reales—in other words, just 12% to 25% of its original price.
San Agustín blamed the native cultivation of the cacao plant in the Philippines as the reason for this price drop. ^[11]In a some considerations concerning the matter in Father Gaspar de San Agustín’s letter Blair and Robertson comment: “The Indians are the ones who plow the lands, who sow the rice, who keep it … Continue reading

El cacao; era antiguamente el más precioso género que daba á estas Islas la Nueva España después de la plata en cuyo cambio se consumía grande parte de las ricas mercaderías que iban en los Galeones de esta carrera. Pero al presente se da tanta cantidad de cacao, que abunda para el mucho gasto que hay de este género, y á precio tan pequeño, que ya suele valer uno y dos reales la libra que antes se compraba en dos pesos, y muchos años, más. El cacao; de la Isla de Zebú, é Isla de Negros, es el mejor de todos. La causa de la abundancia es haber traído el año de 1670 un Piloto, llamado Pedro Bravo, de Lagunas, una maceta de un pié de cacao; de Acapulco. Diósele á un hermano suyo Clérigo Beneficiado de Camarines llamado el Bachiller Bartolomé Bravo. A este se le hurtó un indio natural de Lipa llamado D. Juan del Aguila, el cual lo escondió y benefició, y de este pié de cacao,
tuvo su origen lo mucho que abunda en estas Islas, este fruto tan noble. ^[12]San Agustín, Conquistas, 43.

Cacao: in the past, this was the most precious good after silver which was given to these islands by New Spain, in exchange of which one consumed large parts of the riches that came with the galleons of this route. At present, however, there is such a quantity of cacao that it compensates for all the expenditure that exists of this product, and at such a low price that it is now worth one or two reales a pound, while it used to be bought for two pesos, and for many years even more. The cacao of the Island of Cebu and the Island of Negros is the best of all. The reason for all the abundance is that in 1670 a pilot named Pedro Bravo, from Lagunas, has brought a flowerpot with a stalk of cacao from Acapulco. He gave it to a brother of his, the Clergyman Beneficiary of Camarines, called Bachelor Bartolomé Bravo. It was stolen from him by a native Indian from Lipa called D. Juan del Aguila, who concealed it and benefitted from it, and it was from this cacao plant that the abundance of this noble fruit in these islands originated.

This is definitely one of the most detailed reports on the introduction of cacao to the Philippines, telling how it arrived as a small cacao plant which was then transplanted locally.

Unfortunately, not much more can be found out about the pilot, Pedro Bravo, besides his apparent ties to Luzon’s Laguna region. We know that no nao from Acapulco arrived in Manila in 1670. The “Oficiales Reales del Puerto de Acapulco, 1669 a 1670” clearly state: “El año de 1670 no hubo nao de Filipinas”. ^[13]AGI, Contaduría, 906A, cover page for the accounts for the years 1669 to 1670. The ships that are mentioned basically come from Peru, such as the San Antonio de Padua and other pataches from Peru … Continue reading Galleons that left Acapulco between 1663 and 1670 and could have shipped the said cacao plants on board were the Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, ^[14]The Spanish galleon Nuestra Señora de la Pura and Limpia Concepción, which sank in waters close to the Dominican Republic in 1641, actually carried a chocolate service and probably chocolate on … Continue reading leaving Acapulco on March 29, 1664, and again on March 25, 1666; the San José, leaving Acapulco on March 31, 1665, again in late February 1667, and again on March 26/27, 1669; and the San Diego
or the Nuestra Señora del Buen Socorro, leaving on March 25, 1668, and again on March 18, 1771. ^[15]Murdo J. MacLeod, Spanish Central America, 246. Unfortunately, he does not provide his source, and I have as yet been unable to locate and verify this statement. That following entry may show that … Continue reading No further details are given about cacao as part of the cargo or the personal belongings of crew members or passengers, but the most probable galleon to have shipped the cacao plant is
definitely the San José (also San Joseph) in 1669. This is also attested to by another letter, which tells of the arrival of two ships (navíos) at the port of Palapag, Northern Samar, Luzon, and is dated 25 January 1970. ^[16]“Carta de Manuel de León sobre su llegada” (1670-01-25, Manila, Luzón, Filipinas), AGI, Filipinas,10, R. 1, N. 1: Carta de Manuel de León, gobernador de Filipinas, dando cuenta de su llegada … Continue reading According to Juan de la Concepción (1702–1753), the galleon arrived in Palapag in July 1669. ^[17]Juan de la Concepción, Historia general de Philipinas: conquistas espirituales y temporales de estos españoles dominios, establecimientos, progresos y decadencias… / por… Iuan de la Concepcion … Continue reading Rolando R. Garcia and his co-researchers also suspect an arrival date at Palapag before September 1969. The galleon overwintered in Palapag and probably did not reach Manila before January 1670. ^[18]See Rolando R. Garcia et al., “Manila Galleons Voyage Records”, IGBP PAGES/World Data Center for Paleoclimatology Data Contribution Series # 2002-005. NOAA/NGDC Paleoclimatology Program (Boulder, … Continue reading Against this background, it would make sense that the cacao plant reached the Philippines in 1669. At the same time, we need to be aware that this is the kind of “official story” about the introduction of cacao into the Philippines. Various individuals may have brought cacao plants or seeds to the islands, possibly even earlier.

That cacao plants reached the Philippines in the 1660s to 1670s is also attested by another source, a letter written by Álvaro de Benavente (1647–1709), the founder of the China mission of the Augustinians, in which he describes local life and customs, the flora and fauna, cultivation, trade with China, etc. Álvaro de Benavente died on March 20, 1709 in Macao, but he also spent some time in the Philippines. ^[19]“Relación de las islas Filipinas, extraída de una carta de fray Álvaro de Benavente, de la orden de San Agustín y secretario del padre provincial de Filipinas. Hace una descripción de sus … Continue reading In his letter, dated 1677 (6 June, Manila), he states that cacao had recently begun to be planted and that it was growing and bearing fruit as in America (“Ahora nuebamente an dado en sembrar cacao y se da también como en America”)^[20]“Relación de las islas Filipinas”, 2r (image 3). With reference to Father Pedro Murillo Velarde, and therefore to the mid-eighteenth century, Don Nicolas Norton Nicols already lists cacao as one of the major products of the Philippines. ^[21]The Philippine Islands, vol. 47, 259.

Diego de Salcedo himself had just arrived in the Philippines in 1663, having been appointed as the new Governor-General on December 2, 1661, by King Philip IV. Once having arrived in New Spain, he had to wait several months before he could continue his journey because the galleon San José was delayed in its voyage from Manila. The galleon only reached Acapulco on April 20, 1662, after a horrible eight-month trip marked by more than 100 deaths due to scurvy, and it then dropped anchor in Acapulco until early 1663. Salcedo finally sailed on board the San José, leaving Acapulco on March 25, 1663. ^[22]See his biography in the Real Academia de Historia, https://dbe.rah.es/biografias/15163/diego-de-salcedo.For an overview on the situation during his arrival see also José Miguel Herrera Reviriego, … Continue reading

Obviously, some small quantities cacao from Soconusco (present-day Chiapas)—considered the best quality cacao of all the Indies—also found their way to the Philippines during the seventeenth century, together with that from Guayaquil. ^[23]Murdo J. MacLeod, Spanish Central America, 439, footnote 18, with reference to Biblioteca Nacional de España, Madrid (BNM), MSS/3178, f. 206, http://bdh.bne.es/bnesearch/detalle/bdh0000087349.

Fructos mas principales que ay en las Provi.as sujetas a la Aud.cia Rl. de Guatimala
Anis lo mejor en San Salvador y San Miguel, açucar, çarça parilla, cueros en Ondura, plata en las minas del lugar de Teguçigalpa que esta 16 leguas de Vall.d [Valladolid], cacao el mejor de todas las Indias en Soconusco que llega a Filipinas.
En la juridisción de Valladolid, y Honduras y Costa Rica, gran cantidad de mulas que las lleban a Panama por tierra. ^[24]Juan Díez de la Calle (1599–1662), Memorial, resumen y compendio breve de cédulas, decretos y ordenanzas y otras cosas curiosas y necesarias para con más acierto ejecutar los despachos del Real … Continue reading

The most important fruits and vegetables in the provinces subject to the Audiencia [the highest tribunal] of Guatemala
Anise, the best in San Salvador and San Miguel, sugar, sarsaparilla, leather in Honduras, silver in the mines of Teguçigalpa which is 16 leagues from Valladolid, and cacao, the best of all the Indies in Soconusco, which reaches the Philippines.
In the jurisdictions of Valladolid, Honduras, and Costa Rica, there is a large quantity of mules that carry [these products] to Panama on the land way.

In a Spanish manuscript originating probably in the early 1660s, cacao is mentioned as one of three major commodities traded by the local Chinese community (Sangleyes) of Manila’s Chinese quarter (Parián): “A comprarle el género como la cera, las mantas, el cacao, y este acude tres o 4 días con el precio señalado del Parián”. ^[25]“Avisos de El comercio de Filipinas, [en manos de los sangleyes], y su estilo hasta hoy”, directed to Doctor Francisco Orieta de Filipinas (between 1601 and 1700), BNE, MSS, 11014, 1r-3v, here … Continue reading Given the possibility that cacao was already being widely traded in the Philippines in the 1660s, it becomes clear that more cacao reached the Philippines than we can directly trace back through existing cargo manifests, an aspect I will treat in greater detail in the second article of this series. Moreover, we can assume that, independently of this story of the official introduction of cacao to the Philippines, there may have been other private initiatives to transplant and locally cultivate cacao.

Pilot Pedro Bravo from Laguna, the story goes, gave the potted cacao stalk to his brother, Bartolomé, an incumbent priest (clérigo beneficiado) in Camarines. It was then stolen by a Philippine indio from Lipa (in present-day Batangas), named as Don Juan del Águila. Don Juan subsequently kept it secret, cultivated the plant and greatly profited from it. ^[1]The Philippine Islands, vol. 47, 224. And “it was from this cocoa plant that the abundance of this noble fruit in these islands originated”. ^[2]Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, vol. 2, 401.

In his botanical entry, Manuel Blanco also refers to another famed chronicler, Juan de la Concepción (1724–1786), and his Historia general de Philipinas. ^[3]Juan de la Concepción (1724–1786), Historia general de Philipinas: conquistas espirituales y temporales de estos españoles dominios, establecimientos progresos y decadencias, Manila, en la … Continue reading Juan de la Concepción, too, tells the story of Juan Dávila, who asked the local governor, Diego de Salcedo, to bring the plant
from Spanish America to the Philippines. When Salcedo took over government in 1663, Blanco continues, “it is very probable that, with the shipment of cacaos that came on his order, some other individuals also took some seeds or plants with them. And at the same time, the cacao spread across Carigara, where Juan Dávila was active, as well as across other parts, including among the Tagalogs. In the early 1670s, when Ignacio de Mercado Morales (ca. 1648–1698) ^[4]See his biography in http://dbe.rah.es/biografias/33527/ignacio-de-mercado-morales (accessed on February 18, 2021). was working as the parish priest of Lipa, he confessed to having distributed the seeds of this tree to many individuals. ^[5]Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, vol. 2, 401-402, vol. 4, 33: “Con que por mi mano repartí semillas á muchas personas de tal suerte que hoy dia es rara la provincia, ó pueblo donde no haya muchos … Continue reading De Mercado had been praised for his enthusiasm and success in introducing the cultivation of cacao in the Philippines. ^[6]Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, vol. 4, “Apuntes para Servir a la Biografía del P. Fr. Ignacio del Mercado”, V: “Siendo Párroco de Lipa, trabajó con gran celo y entusiasmo por introducir el … Continue reading He would go on to include its uses and profitability in a manuscript titled Libro de medicinas de esta tierra y declaraciones de las virtudes de los árboles y plantas que están en estas Islas Filipinas (Book of medicines of that country and statements on the virtue of trees and plants to be found on the Philippines). ^[7]The Libro de medicinas de esta tierra y declaraciones de las virtudes de los árboles y plantas que están en estas Islas Filipinas is repeatedly referred to in Manuel Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, … Continue reading

El sembrar de esta fruta en esta tierra, lo que nunca pudieron conseguir, y á otra el año de 1670. Lo consiguió un Indio del pueblo de Lipa en la provincia de Belayan que por dicha tubo un arbolillo, y gozo el fruto del para hacer un almacigo que serían hasta quarenta granos que todos se lograron en una quenta que hizo, y dieron fruto todos. El año de 1671, siendo Yo prior de dicho pueblo con que por mi mano Repartí semillas a muchas personas de tal suerte, que oy día es rara la provincia o pueblo, donde no ayga muchos árboles de cacao. ^[8]Quoted from the stand-alone modern edition: Ignacio de Mercado, Declaraciones de las virtudes de los árboles y plantas que están en este libro (Madrid: Academia Nacional de Medicina, 1936), 100, … Continue reading

The sowing of this fruit on this land, what they could never achieve, was [finally realised] in the year 1670. It was achieved by an ‘Indio’ [here used as a reference to an indigenous individual] of the village of Lipa in the province of Belayan [Balayan] who obtained a small tree, and used its fruits to sow a seedbed of some forty beans, all of which in turn sprouted and bore fruit. In 1671, when I was prior of this said village, I distributed seeds to many people by my own hand. As a result, it is today uncommon for a province or village not to have many cacao trees.

De Mercado extolls the plant as señor cacao (Lord Cacao), and explains that (along with the seeds), he also wished to spread word of its many properties, as identified by Dr Francisco Hernández (ca. 1516–1587), royal court physician and respectable protomédico of Mexico. ^[9]Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, vol. 4, 33 (Declaración de las Virtudes de los Arbóles y Plantas que Están en esta Tierra): “Y, ya que repartí las semillas, quiero repartir también las virtudes … Continue reading Hernández de Toledo was the first Spanish doctor and botanist to write an extensive treatise on cacao. ^[10]Francisco Hernández de Toledo, Quatro libros de la naturaleza y virtudes de las plantas y animales (México, 1615); Rerum medicarum Novae Hispaniae Thesaurus, seu Plantarum, Animalium, Mineralium … Continue reading

Before we return to Manuel Blanco, who reports in detail about the local spread of cacao, we should also consider the narrative in Juan de la Concepción’s Historia General de Philipinas:

En el año de mil setecientos y seis, murió en Ylog, de Isla de Negros, en edad de no- venta, y un años, y sesenta, y tres de Misiones en estas Islas, el padre Juan Davila natural de Sevilla, y de la Compañia de Jesus, este Padre , atendió al bien espiritual y temporal de los Indios, solicitando tuviesen algunas conveniendas, que les obligasen a esar de pie firme en los Pueblos; para este empeño al Señor Governador Don Diego Salcedo que mandase traher de Nueva España algunos pies de Cacao,, para plantarlos en Bisayas; Consiguiólo el Padre, estando en Carigara, en donde se empezo a plantar a su direccion con buen suceso; de alli se propagó a otros Pueblos y Islas de Pintados, con provecho grande de los Indios, y publica utilidad de las Islas; siendo esta bebida aquí mas necesaria, que en otras partes, y en alivio de debiles estomagos, y es yà su abundancia tanta, que la hace bebida comun a todo genero de Personas; aunque es verdad, que lo producen mejor, y mas substancioso unas Islas que otras. ^[11]Juan de la Concepción, Historia general de Philipinas, vol. 9, ch. IV, 150-151, cited from Biblioteca Nacional del Perú Digital, https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14428/64124.

In 1706, he passed away in Ylog [Ilog], Island of Negros at the age of ninety-one, and with sixty-three missions on these islands, Father Juan Davila, native of Seville, and from the Company of Jesus. This Father took care of the spiritual situation and the conveniences of the Indians, requesting various benefits and advantages for them, that would oblige them to stay on firm feet in their villages. For this reason, he requested it from the Lord Governor, Don Diego Salcedo, that he should give the order to bring from New Spain some pieces of cacao in order to plant them in the Visayas. The Father obtained these and, being in Carigara, he started to plant them locally with great success. From there they spread to other villages and islands as portrayed on this map (see below) to the great benefit of the Indians and the public profit of the islands; this beverage being more necessary there than in other parts [of the Philippine archipelago], and to the relief of weak stomachs. There is meanwhile such an abundance [of cacao] that it has turned into a common beverage, accessible to all kinds of people. Although it is true that some islands produce better qualities and larger quantities than others.

Cacao plants in Batangas, according to de la Concepción, could grow as high as nine or twelve feet, and there were very many of them, just as in Cebu and other regions. ^[12]Blanco, Flora de Filipinas, vol. 2, 402. In the followup article to this analysis (Part II), I will turn to discussing the cultivation of cacao trees in the Philippines in the second half of the eighteenth century.

China

The consumption of cacao and chocolate in China has received little attention. ^[1]The chapters by Bertram M. Gordon on “Chinese Chocolate” and by Beatriz Puente-Ballesteros on “Chocolate in China” are notable exceptions. Most of the sparse evidence we have on the local consumption of chocolate stems from missionaries or is related to foreign gifts to the emperor and members of the social and ruling elites.

As suggested by Frederick W. Mote and Bertram M. Gordon, products from the Americas started to enter China in the sixteenth century via three trade routes: by land from Southeast Asia into Yunnan; by sea to southern Chinese ports via Chinese and foreign ships; and via the overland silk road from West Asia. ^[2]Frederick W. Mote, “Yüan and Ming”, in K. C. Chang (ed.), Food in Chinese Culture. Anthropological and Historical Perspectives (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1977), 198; Bertram W. Gordon, … Continue reading Most probably, I would suggest, cacao and chocolate reached China as a rule via the Philippines. Compared to other missionary reports, we possess relatively good
Franciscan documentation on cacao and chocolate in China. ^[3]For example in Fortunato Margiotti (ed.), Sinica franciscana. Relationes et epistolas fratrum minorum hispanorum in Sinis qui a. 1684–92 missionem ingressi sunt (Roma: apud Collegium S. Antonii, … Continue reading Franciscan missionaries were very active in both the Philippines and China. But other missionaries, like Jesuits or Dominicans, including nuns, were also involved in the cacao business. ^[4]See, for example, José Maria González O. P., Misiones Dominicanas en China (1700–1750), 2 vols. [Biblioteca «Missionalia Hispanica» Publicada por el Instituto Santo Toribo de Mogrovejo], vol. … Continue reading

A very interesting source from the later seventeenth century attests to the fact that the new food drug was also popular among Catholic nuns. A Catholic nun from Macao, Sister Ana de Jesús, in a first letter (dated March 1681), thanks her sister in Manila for sending, among other things, cacao. She notes that all the shipped cacao beans arrived properly preserved, and in better state than those making the long overseas journey in ceramic jars (en tibor). Though it is unclear if this was sent in a better suited earthenware container or some other method of packaging. As a result, the chocolate prepared with these beans was more drinkable (con mejor disposición) than in other years. She also asked for tobacco and soap in a future package. ^[5]“Carta de Sor Ana de Jesús [Macao] a Sor Magdalena de la Concepción [Manila], Convento de Santa Clara de Macao, 15 de marzo abril de 1681”, in “Autos sobre barcos portugueses San Pablo y … Continue reading

The same sister Ana de Jesús requests in a letter dated March 6, 1686, some five years later, for more cacao, which she missed dearly, to be sent from the Philippines:

…como tengo conocido tu noble corazón te suplico sirvas enviarme algún chocolate o cacao que es mi regalo del cual he tenido falta este año…^[6]“Autos sobre barcos portugueses San Pablo y Nuestra Señora de la Piedad”, Filipinas, 70, N. 1, f. 230v and 184v (images 464 and 1262). She goes on to add (f. 184v): “….El hilo y Paypay ba … Continue reading

…as I know your noble heart, I beg you to send me some chocolate or cacao which is my gift that I have been lacking this year…

Such short references clearly attest to the fact that chocolate and cacao were probably sent to Macao on many occasions from the Philippines in the late seventeenth century. For example, the Franciscan missionary Pedro de la Piñuela (1650–1704), wrote in a letter to Francisco de Santa Inés (d. 1713), the Provincial Minister of the order in Manila: “My asthma is not too bad, and this year, as my companion brought a bit of chocolate, it served me really well.” ^[7]Beatriz Puente-Ballesteros, “Chocolate in China”, 93 (“Piñuela to Santa Ines, Chaocheufu, 3 January 1687”). Bernardino de las Llagas Mercado O.F.M. (1655–1708), as quoted by Beatriz Puente-Ballesteros, requested “a bit of chocolate and to look after me, like after a poor orphan”. ^[8]Beatriz Puente-Ballesteros, “Chocolate in China”, 93, with reference to Fortunato Margiotti (ed.), Sinica franciscana. Relationes et epistolas fratrum minorum hispanorum in Sinis qui a. 1684–92 … Continue reading In a letter to a fellow Franciscan stationed in Canton, Antonio de S. Domingo (1649–1701), dated 25 September 1699, de la Piñuela writes:

Esta misión tiene necesidad de un alibio [sic] de chocolate. Concurren enfermos a esta casa y algunos guespedes y otros que están en los ministerios, o por los frios grandes o por flacos de estomagos tiene[n] necesidad de algún confortivo, en especial los días de aiuno. A más los señores clérigos y otros no[s] suelen hazer favor sacandonos de algun empeño, y no tenemos otra demonstración para las gracias más que ofrecerles un poco de chocolate. ^[9]Anastasius van den Wyngaert, Georgius Mensaert (eds.), Sinica Franciscana. Relationes et epistolas Fratrum Minorum saeculi XVII et XVIII (Quaracchi-Firenze: Ad Claras Aquas, 1942), vol. 4, 316-321.

This mission requires a relief of chocolate. Sick people come to this house and some guests and others who are in the ministries, be it because of great cold [humoral] or for weaknesses of the stomach, that they are in need of a comfortative remedy, especially during the fasting days. And even more so the clerics and others who used to do us favours in taking some efforts, and we do not have any other demonstration of thanks than offering them a bit of chocolate.

Pedro de la Piñuela had come to China in 1676, where he lived for twenty-eight years, promoting the Franciscan mission. He is best known for writing ten books in Chinese under the name Shi Duolu ⽯鐸琭 (hao: Zhenduo 振鐸), one of them a medical work titled Bencao bu 本草 补 (Supplement to Materia Medica, 1697), in which he introduces plants that did not originally grow in China (“fei Zhongbang bentu suo chan” ⾮中邦本⼟所產) and whose curing effects were unknown. ^[10]Bencao bu 本草补, by Pedro de la Piñuela (1650–1704), foreword, 2a; online available from the Bibliothèque National de France (BNF, chinois 5332), … Continue reading He provided a detailed description of their medicinal uses together with Western pharmaceutical formulas. He explained how cacao could be used to treat fistulas and smallpox, as
well as ease childbirth. ^[11]Ye Junyang, “La vida misionera del franciscano Pedro de la Piñuela (1650–1704) en China”, Pedralbes 37 (2017), 59-93; Ye Junyang, Pedro de la Piñuela [⽯铎琭, Shi Duolu] (1650–1704): … Continue reading While he did not explicitly discuss the cacao tree or chocolate in his treatise, several letters, including those above, refer to chocolate. Once, he even asked to be sent some cacao pods so that he could sow the seeds and grow the trees in China: “envieme un par de mazorcas de cacao y la regla de sembrarle, que sirve para medicina para los asmáticos”. ^[12]P. Fr. Petrus de la Piñuela, “Epistola ad P. Laurentium A Plagis, 1. Ian. 1679”, in Georgius Mensaert, Fortunato Margiotti and Rosso (eds.), Sinica franciscana. Relationes et Epistolas Fratrum … Continue reading

Various Franciscan missionaries referred to the use of chocolate as a pharmaceutical produce and a medicine. For example, on 24 February 1686, Buenaventura Ibañez (Wen Dula ⽂都辣, 1607– 1691) complained that “he could eat neither meat nor chicken and only a little fish, but that a good bowl of chocolate with vanilla, pimento, and cinnamon in the mornings was helpful.” ^[13]Bertram M. Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate”, 596, with reference to R. P. Fr. Severiano Alcobendas, Las Misiones franciscanas en China. Cartas, Informes y Relaciones del Padre Buenaventura Ibañez … Continue reading By the early eighteenth century, Fray Antonio Concepción, a Franciscan medical surgeon who worked in southern China from 1705 to 1743, frequently requested chocolate for pharmaceutical purposes. In a collection of forty-eight of his letters from the early eighteenth century, he referred to chocolate on ten occasions, mostly thanking those who had sent it. ^[14]Ibid., 596. On 16 April 1712, for example, he thanked a superior in Canton for the receipt of eight gantas (= 24 litres) of chocolate ^[15]It is not clear from the text, in which form the chocolate was sent. As the term “chocolate” and not “cacao” is used, one could suspect that it was chocolate blocks, but it remains unclear. that had been distributed to his fellow missionaries as instructed (‘Recibí asimismo las 8 gantas de chocolate que V. C. mandó, las cuales re repartieron según la disposición de V. C.’). On two other occasions he speaks of 130 pesos worth of chocolate he wanted to make and give to the Jesuit fathers at the court in Canton. ^[16]Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate”, 596, with reference to vol. 9 of Sinica Franciscana. Relations et Epistles Fratrum minor hispanorum in Sinis qui antis 1697–98 missionem ingressi sunt (Madrid: … Continue reading

The Catalan Dominican friar Pedro Mártir Sanz y Jordá (Pere Sans i Jordá, 1680–1747), writing from Fujian Province on 9 December 1716, confirms the receipt of sacramental wine and chocolate from Manila. ^[17]José Maria González O. P., Misiones Dominicanas en China, vol. 2, 14. Years later, on 14 October 1743, he would write to the procurator of the order in Canton, Arcangelo Miralta, that he felt unwell due to that year’s prolonged absence of chocolate to drink and had even resorted to imbibing European wine as a medicinal substitute: “he sentido mucho la falta del chocolate y todo este año ando indispuesto; y para curarme hice servir de chocolate al vino Europeo”. Besides annual supplies of cacao, Sanz also requested he be sent the special copper pot (chocolatera) and whisk (molinillo) necessary for the preparation of chocolate, as well as cinnamon to enhance the mix, should the procurator be able to obtain them from Manila:

Puede enviarme una chocolatera de cobre con su molinillo, por si acaso viene el chocolate; porque me hallo falto de entrambas cosas… hacerme venir de Manila un poco de cacao, supliríamos con él la falta de chocolate de Manila; pero con la advertencia que cuando lo envíe, haga venir canela para labrarlo. ^[18]Ibid, 79.

All these examples speak of chocolate being consumed by missionaries and their close friends or superiors. As Bertram M. Gordon has noted, “there is no evidence in the letters that any of it was given to local Chinese, except possibly for Chinese who were accepted into the mission. Further research might change this picture. To the degree that chocolate was known in China, it must undoubtedly have been restricted to the upper levels of society”. ^[19]Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate”, 596. As suggested by the evidence above, by the early eighteenth century, cacao had become cheap enough (even when sourced in China from the Philippines) for it to be consumed more widely. This notwithstanding, I have not yet been able to find any further evidence that cacao trees were imported to or cultivated on a large scale in China. ^[20]Referring to a travel journal by the Spanish friar Antonio Vázquez de Espinosa, (d. 1630), Johannes Beckmann states that the Philippines actually developed as a centre of the chocolate trade in East … Continue reading

In sixteenth-century Europe, chocolate was sold and prepared by apothecaries along with ingredients of the usual pharmacopoeia. ^[21]The Philippine Islands, vol. 47, 274. This was considered to be a medicine and a therapeutic agent and was often enriched with other special ingredients and aromatic essences, such as vanilla, amber and orange. In the eighteenth century, the chocolate was mainly prepared by spice-dealers, enriched only with cinnamon or vanilla and sugar. Also China missionaries, including nuns, consumed chocolate for pleasure and as a remedy against certain health issues, for example, in cases of asthma, common cold, or pectoral diseases, as well as melancholy and even depression. ^[22]The medical uses of chocolate are described in various sources, some of which we have introduced in this article. See also, for example, Fray Agustín de Farfán, Tractado breve de medicina (Madrid: … Continue reading Churches and religious orders like the Franciscans or Augustinians, or missionaries like Pedro de la Piñuela, consequently cultivated some trees for their own use here and there, confirming the statement by Bertram quoted above. However, I could not find any evidence for larger scale transplantation or uses like in Europe.

Heshiheng 赫⼠亨/ 赫世亨 (ca. 1645–1708), a Manchu official referred to in Western sources as Hesihen or Henkama, wrote two palace memorials in the Manchu language which touch upon the issue of chocolate at the Manchu court while serving as Supervisor-General in the Imperial Printing Office of the Hall of Military Glory (Wuyingdian zong jianzao 武英殿總監造). ^[23]Zhongguo diyi lishi dang’anguan 中国第⼀历史档案馆, Kangxi chao Manwen zhupi zouzhe quanyi 康熙朝满⽂朱批奏折全譯, Kangxi 45/5/24 (1706), “Wuyingdian zong jianzao Heshiheng … Continue reading These two palace memorials have been analysed in detail by Beatriz Puente Ballesteros ^[24]Puente-Ballesteros, “Chocolate in China”. This book chapter is probably the best survey of the role of chocolate at the early modern Manchu court. and are also discussed by Martin Gimm, who stresses the cultural historical significance of these documents as probably one of the first to mention chocolate in China. ^[25]Martin Gimm, “Henkama, ‘Väterchen Heng’. Ein Mediator zwischen Kaiser Kangxi und den Jesuitenmissionaren in der Epoche des „Ritenstreites“ im 18. Jahrhundert”, Monumenta Serica Journal … Continue reading The Kangxi emperor (r. 1662–1722) was very interested in Western knowledge, including mathematics and pharmacology. In an edict dated 1706 (Kangxi 45/6/22), the Emperor expresses his interest in Western antidotes to poison and a substance referred to as cokola, the Manchu rendering of chocolate. This is transliterated in the Chinese translation as chuokela 綽科拉, while the Chinese rendering of cacao is gagao 噶⾼. Kangxi obviously considered cokola to be a kind of medicine.

Hesihen oversaw the affairs with Europeans in Beijing and consequently had frequent and intense contacts with European missionaries and scientists. Following Kangxi’s request for antidotes and cokola, Hesihen contacted the apothecary Giuseppe Baudino S. J. (1657–1718) to inquire about the latter. He learned that cokola was not a medicine but a preparation originating from the Americas, consisting of cacao, vanilla, anise, achiote (ajiote), cinnamon, pepper, sugar and Piper sanctum (Náhuatl: mecaxochitl, see below; Chinese: mogajuche 墨噶居⾞):

“When I asked Boo Jung I [Chinese Bao Zhongyi 鮑仲義, i.e., Baudino] about the recipe for preparing chocolate, he said that “it is of hot nature [i.e., thermo influence] and bittersweet in taste and that it comes from A me li g’a (America) and Lioi Sung (Luzon). In total, it is composed of eight ingredients. Three of them exist in the Middle Kingdom: u gui (cassia), cin jiyoo (“green pepper”), and šatan (“sand sugar”). The other five do not exist here [in China:] g’a g’ao (cacao), wa ni liya (vanilla), a nis (anise), a jiyo te (ajiote), and me g’a gioi ce (megasuchil). I only know of these eight ingredients, but how many ounces (liang 兩) of each of the eight ingredients is used to make the recipe, I do not know. I only know that they are put into a copper or silver jar with boiling sugar water, are mixed and stirred with a boxwood roller, and that [the liquid] is then drunk. Sioi I Šeng [Chin. Xu Risheng 徐⽇升, i.e., Pereira] and others also know this method of mixing, stirring, and drinking. …

As the jars used by the Westerners to cook chocolate (cokola) are all made of copper, ^[26]It is interesting to read that Westerners usually used copper jars to cook chocolate, a fact that is, for example, also confirmed by Pedro Sanz (see above). And the chocolate was also sent in blocks, … Continue reading we had especially made a silver jar and a boxwood roller which were put into a wooden box and had fifty pieces of chocolate (cokola) packed into a covered basket made of willow branches, … and these have been presented … to Your Majesty. The remaining hundred pieces of chocolate (cokola) and the theriac (deriyage) have been stored inside [the Palace]. Whether chocolate (cokola) should be continued to be sent [to you] or not, shall be decided after having received an Imperial Edict.

I respectfully submit a palace memorial with regard to these matters.” ^[27]Translation by Puente-Ballesteros, “Chocolate in China”, 77. See also Gimm, “Henkama, ’Väterchen Heng’”, 117. Puente-Ballesteros analyses this memorial in detail and also discusses the … Continue reading

Baudino actually tried to encourage the emperor to drink chocolate, ^[28]Puente Ballesteros, “Chocolate in China”, 65. but the emperor finally decided that chocolate must no longer be sent, in Chinese translation: chuokela bu bi song 綽科拉不必送. ^[29]Gimm, “Henkama, ‘Väterchen Heng’”, 117.

Actually, we know that as early as 1678, chocolate was used in diplomatic encounters between Franciscans and high local officials: In a letter dated 5 March 1678, the already mentioned Franciscan missionary Buenaventura Ibañez tells Fray Miguel de Santa María that the year before he had received as alms half a load of cacao with all the necessary ingredients for the preparation of chocolate. One day, the King of Canton (rey de Canton) visited them in their house and during a conversation he convinced them to one of his Tartaric beverages consisting of milk, Chinese wine (vino chinico), and cow butter, ^[30]It is interesting that as a Han Chinese, Shang was presenting a drink that obviously resembles a Tibetan drink, containing butter. It sounds a bit like a variant of kumiss, a beverage usually … Continue reading while they took chocolate. They prepared a dish for him, and, tasting it, gave it to him as a present. ^[31]R. P. Fr. Severiano Alcobendas, Las Misiones franciscanas en China. Cartas, Informes y Relaciones del Padre Buenaventura Ibañez (1650–1690). Con Introducción, Notas y Apéndices [Bibliotheca … Continue reading The “King of Canton” was certainly Shang Zhixin 尚之信 (1636–1680), son of Shang Kexi 尚可喜, the “King of the Pacification of the South” (Pingnan wang 平南王), who had received far-reaching competencies by the Manchu rulers as the de facto governor of Guangdong Province. When Ibañez returned to China in 1672, the administrative and military power lay already in the hands of his son, Zhixin. Shang Zhixin had very good relations with local Franciscan missionaries. He financed them, for example, to set up the first Franciscan church in Guangdong (Church of Our Lady of the Angels) and the Church of San Francisco outside the city walls ^[32]Ye Junyang and Manel Ollé, “The Economy of the Spanish Franciscan Mission in China during the 17th Century: The Funding Sources, Expenditures, Loans, and Deficits”, Hispania Sacra, LXXIII 148 … Continue reading or provided them with a room which had previously been occupied by his younger sons to study in, adding beds, chairs, and tables for the Europeans. ^[33]The close relations between Shang Zhixin and the Franciscan missionaries are also investigated by Marina Torres Trimállez, “La Rebelión de los Tres Feudatarios 三藩之乱 en China … Continue reading Soon after, they were moved to another house that included an official reception room, two chambers, and a courtyard. ^[34]Marina Torres Trimállez, “La Rebelión de los Tres Feudatarios”, 622. Opposite these rooms they had another room which was divided into a kitchen and living quarters for their four servants. He … Continue reading

According to Ibañez, chocolate used to be received annually as alms to the Franciscan mission in China. ^[35]Alcobendas, Las Misiones franciscanas en China, 111. Many of the documents and letters of these missionaries speak of chocolate, not of cacao. This would suggest that they received it in the form of blocks or a paste. Ibañez explains that one year he had been requesting half a carga of cacao (about 2 fanegas or 100 litres) to be dispatched from New Spain with the necessary instruments and ingredients to turn it into chocolate (“de la Nueva España me mandase de limosna media [car]ga de cacao con los aderentes necessarios para hazerlo chocolate”). ^[36]Ibid. Especially eighteenth-century documents sometimes distinguish between chocolate and “powders” (polvos). ^[37]See, for example, González., Misiones Dominicanas en China, vol. 2, 470. I will investigate this aspect in more detail in another article, hoping to find more information from Chinese customs … Continue reading

A major challenge in reconstructing the history of cacao in China consists in the fact that, in Han Chinese sources, there is no standard word for cacao. Above, we already mentioned cokola, chuokela 綽科拉, and gagao 噶⾼, but we also find other terms, such as kia-tu-kao. ^[38]Op. cit., 271. Also kia-tou-kao is mentioned (p. 215). The corresponding characters are however, unclear, as the presumably Chinese term comes from a Spanish source that only provides a romanized transcription. The cacao plant was likely conflated with a native Southeast Asian plant that had been shipped to China for many years: Chebulic myrobalan (Terminalia chebula), whose dried fruit (the so-called Chebulae Fructus) is known in Chinese as hezi 訶⼦. Cynthia Yeung drew my attention to a statement in Yinghuan zhilüe 瀛環志略 (Concise records of the world, 1849), a nineteenth-century descriptive geography of the world, where cacao (kekezi 可可⼦) seems to refer also to hezi. ^[39]Yinghuan zhilüe 瀛環志略 (1849), by Xu Jishe 徐繼畬 (1795–1873), 2.4b: “Cacao (beans) [kekezi] is also the name of a fruit, and among medicinals cacao is also used by Westerners to … Continue reading According to this text, hezi was reportedly used by Westerners as a substitute for tea. It was not unusual for Chinese herbalists and non-specialists to use different characters for newly introduced names, and flora were often mistakenly mixed up with plants and/or substances the Chinese were already acquainted with.

The Diccionario Español-Chino mentions yet two other transcriptions for cacao: gegao 格膏 and gugu ⾕古, “used to make zhugulü 朱古律”, that is, chocolate. ^[40]Lüsong Huawen hebi zidian 呂宋華⽂合璧字典. Diccionario Español-Chino. Enciclopédico por Tam Pui-Shum 譚培森 (no place of publication: no publisher, 1927), 162. National Library of … Continue reading A chocolatera is “a vessel used to cook chocolate” (煑朱古律之器). ^[41]Lüsong Huawen hebi zidian, 299.

Bertram M. Gordon introduces three nineteenth-century French texts which refer to so-called “Chinese chocolate”. Despite its late publication date, I discuss here briefly the earliest of these texts, Le Confiseur moderne, ou l’Art du confiseur et du distillateur by J.-J. Machet (first published 1803; consulted edition from 1817), as the description is quite interesting. ^[42]J.-J. Machet, Le Confiseur moderne, ou l’Art du confiseur et du distillateur, contenant… les opérations du confiseur… et… les procédés… de quelques arts qui s’y rapportent, … Continue reading This work includes a description of vacaca chinorum as a compound of four ounces of cacao almonds, one ounce of vanilla, one ounce of fine cinnamon, forty-eight grains of ambergris, and three ounces of sugar: “Amande de cacao, 4 onces. Vanille, 1 once, Cannelle, 1 once. Ambre gris, 48 grains. Sucre, 3 onces”. ^[43]Machet, Le Confiseur moderne, 90. The powdered spices are mixed with the cacao and the sugar to form a paste, which is then placed into a tin box and stored. ^[44]Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate”, 598. According to Machet, it was an excellent drink to regain strength lost by exhaustion. The Chinese, he continues, make great use of this paste in their chocolate: “les Chinois font grand usage de cette pâte dans leur chocolat”. ^[45]Machet, Le Confiseur moderne, 91; Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate”, 598. Gordon discusses the possible origin of the term vacaca chinorum, also referring to “Houacaca powder” (Oaxaca powder; poudre d’Ouacaca), as mentioned by Louis Lémery (1677–1743), published 1755, as a mixture of Oaxaca powder, certainly cacao, with amber, musk, and vanilla ^[46]Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate”, 599. in his work Traité des Alimens. ^[47]Louis Lémery (1677–1743), Traité des aliments où l’on trouve par ordre, et séparément la différence et le choix qu’on doit faire de chacun d’eux en particulier; les bons et les mauvais effets … Continue reading Be this as it may—further research is required in this context—the statement that the Chinese “make great use of this paste in their chocolate” can definitely not be taken literally. Even around 1800, the Chinese did not widely consume chocolate. Or, did Machet refer to the Sangley community in Manila? As Gordon suggests, special ingredients such as cinnamon or ambergris which were associated with China or Asia in contemporary Europe “may have given rise to the
concept of Chinese chocolate”. ^[48]Gordon, “Chinese Chocolate”, 599.

Japan

Chocolate is said to have been introduced into Japan in 1797. ^[49]Yasugi Yoshiho 佳穂⼋杉, Chokorēto no bunkashi チョコレートの⽂化誌 (Kyōto: 2004), 195; alsoTatsuya Mitsuda, “From Reception to Acceptance: Chocolate in Japan, c. 1870–1935”, … Continue reading The Ranryō hō (FIGURE 5) lists it under the category on “impotence” (in’i 陰痿). Such notions were consistent with eighteenth-century Western descriptions of chocolate as “very proper to preserve health and to prolong the life of old men… Before Chocolate was known in Europe, good old Wine was called the Milk of old Men; but this Title is now apply’d with greater reason to Chocolate, since its Use has become so common….” ^[50]Quélus, The natural history of chocolate, 56.

The Nagasaki bunken roku ⾧崎聞⾒録 (Record of Things Seen and Heard in Nagasaki) by Hirokawa Kai 広川獬 is purportedly the first Japanese source to mention chocolate, here written in Hiragana as chokorāto ちょこら⼀と (FIGURE 6). Nagasaki bunken roku confirms that it was introduced by the Dutch, the “Red-haired people” (紅⽑⼈). And we are provided with interesting further information: the shape of chocolate resembles an animal horn (seijūkaku 形獸⾓), its colour resembles asen yaku 阿仙薬 (Acacia catechu), its taste is bland (awa 淡), but it is not clear how this horn-shaped block of chocolate was made or what it is made from. When consuming it, one first prepares boiled water. The chocolate block is then cut into three parts, one third of it is grated and put into the boiled water. Then an egg and a little cane sugar are added. These three “tastes” (that is, chocolate, egg, and sugar) are put into a tea strainer, and everything is well blended by a whisk like the way you prepare matcha. Before it can be drank, the so-called “crab’s eyes” are to be removed. ^[51]Nagasaki bunken roku ⾧崎聞⾒録, by Hirokawa Kai 広川獬 (1797), 5.3a, Digital Archive of the Kokuritsu kumon shokan 国⽴公⽂書館, https://www.digital.archives.go.jp/img/4250182

This is a very detailed description of how the Dutch prepared their chocolate drinks from the original blocks. The crab’s eyes are illustrated on a drawing in Ranryō yakkai (p. 48b), labelled as cancer. Judging from the image, these could be the husks of the cacao beans, some of which were probably overlooked and not removed when the chocolate blocks were produced. ^[52]Ranryō yakkai, 48b. Possibly, the illustrations on this page show various parts or phases of cacao: the final chocolate block, the outer husk, the inner grains, and then what it looks like when cut into half.

Left of the illustrated chocolate bar block, we find the kanji 海⽜ (that is, sea cow). This might refer to an association of the Japanese with the shapes of sea cows when they saw these chocolate blocks. On the upper right part of the page, the terms norasayauノラサヤウ or nowosayau’ノヲサヤウ in katakana and noosayaa(b) (?) in Dutch are written, with two small illustrated circles. If these are not the cacao bean husks, it might be snuff boxes, as my colleague Cheng Weichung suggested. ^[53]I am very grateful to Cheng Weichung for sharing his ideas concerning the snuff boxes with me. The modern Dutch word is snuifdoos. Snuff boxes were very popular at that time, especially for tobacco, and cacao powder could have presumably been snuffed in order to increase its supposed medical and/or enjoyment effect. I have been trying to solve the riddle behind the Dutch and Japanese word shown here on this illustration. Could these reflect archaic forms of the modern Dutch word nootzaad (lit. nut seeds)? Or something else? ^[54]If we think of snuff boxes, the first part of the word, noos or noosa, might refer to the old Dutch word nosa (from Dutch neus, Middle Dutch nose) for the English term nose. But then the problem … Continue reading

FIGURES 3-4: Chocolate in the Ranryō yakkai 蘭療薬解 (1806) Waseda University, Tokyo

FIGURE 5: Chocolate in the Ranryō hō 蘭療⽅ 107a (1804) Waseda University, Tokyo

FIGURE 6: Chocolate in the Nagasaki bunken roku ⾧崎聞⾒録 5.3a (1804) National Archives of Japan, Tokyo

Chocolate was introduced rather late into Japanese society, and the Ranryō hō also confirms that cacao was not grown in Japan. ^[55]Ranryō hō, 107a. This does not mean that it was never consumed or used, or that the Japanese were not confronted with the product before the nineteenth century. Nogami Takenori, referring to Hachi Eito ⼋杉佳穂, ^[56]Hachi Eito ⼋杉佳穂, Chocolate no bunkashiチョコレートの⽂化誌 (Kyōto: Sekai shisōsha, 2004), 198-199. suggests that the Japanese might first have come in contact with it during their diplomatic mission to Pope Paul V (papacy 1605–1621) in Rome via Spanish America during the years 1613 to 1620, the so-called Keichō Embassy 慶⾧使節. ^[57]Nogami Takenori 野上建紀, “Chocolate cup no henzen to ryūtsū” チョコレ⼀トカップの变遷と流通, Kindai kōko ⾦⼤考古 64 (2009), 22-28, here 24. And he also draws attention to the Japanese community on Luzon, which already existed in the sixteenth century. ^[58]Various Japanese had migrated to and settled on Luzon in the course of the sixteenth century. When in 1593 the Governor of Manila received a letter from Toyotomi Hideyoshi 豊⾂秀吉 (1537–1598) … Continue reading In Manila, the Japanese might well have tasted and consumed chocolate as early as the mid-sixteenth century, and some merchants may have sent some chocolate to friends and family members in Japan. In April 1798, the diary kept by Leopold Willem Ras (ca. 1760–1823), a Dutch merchant and diplomat, reports that various items had been stolen by coolies, among them a silver coffee jug and a great deal of chocolate, as well as wine and beer glasses. ^[59]Leonard Blussé, Cynthia Viallé & Willem Remmelink, Isabel van Dalen (eds.), The Deshima Diaries, Marginalia 1740–1800 (Tōkyō: Japan Netherlands Institute, 2004), 716, entry 40. Cinnamon was … Continue reading Nevertheless, cacao and chocolate did not have any far reaching impact on Japanese society at that time.

Notwithstanding the fact that cacao and chocolate were not adopted into local Chinese and Japanese food culture, cacao and the increasing popularity of drinking chocolate among Europeans still had a very significant impact on their societies locally, especially in coastal China. We consequently observe that a country like China, where the consumption of chocolate was “rejected” (if we want to use this word), still found itself dragged into its commercial orbit by producing the cups, containers and jars in which chocolate was drunk, stored and/or prepared. This is proved not only by ship and cargo manifests but also by archaeological evidence. ^[1]More information on the ceramics trade admittedly stems from cargo and tax registers. Future archaeological research will hopefully also bring to light more physical cargo items from sunken galleons. The chocolateros and pozuelos, jars and cups made for storing cacao and drinking chocolate respectively, became a standard item in many cargoes of the galleons that sailed from Manila to Acapulco.

Chinese kilns started to produce chocolate cups exclusively for the Spanish American market. Chocolate cups for exportation with motives painted in red were, for example, produced in the Dehua kilns in Fujian from the eighteenth century on. ^[2]Roberto Junco Sánchez, Guadalupe Pinzón and Etsuko Miyata, “The Chinese Porcelain from the Port of San Blas, Mexico”, Chapter 14 of Chunming Wu, Roberto Junco Sánchez, Miao Liu (eds.), … Continue reading Already in the seventeenth century, if not earlier, Dehua also exported Kraak blue and white chocolateros. ^[3]Junco et al., “Chinese Porcelain of San Blas,” 250. As Meha Priyadarshini has shown, these chocolatero vessels were modelled after the Chinese containers known as guan 罐. ^[4]Meha Priyadarshini, Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico. The Material Worlds of an Early Modern Trade [Palgrave Studies in Pacific History] (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2018), 12. Clearly, a deeper cultural understanding of European “chocolate culture” was not necessary for manufacturing the appropriate cups, jars, plates, and containers. Chests or round ceramic boxes may have been used to store cacao beans and/or the paste used in making chocolate, while copper pots were used in making the chocolate drink. On paintings portraying members of the social elites drinking chocolate, the chocolate is almost always served in blue-and-white cups, similar to the shape of Chinese teacups. ^[5]Meha Priyadarshini, Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico, Fig. 4.6, 117, 120. The 1713 French smuggling vessel, L’Éclair (“El Relámpago”) of the French captain Jean Boislore (fl. 1710–1735), interestingly carried twenty-three copper whisks for the preparation of chocolate on board on its voyage from Canton to Cavite. ^[6]“Relación de los cuadernos, libros de sobordo, carta y cuentas hallados en el patache el Relámpago (Cavite) a 8 de marzo de 1714”, AGI, Escribanía 405B, leg. 5, exp. 4, f. 120r. Such tools, necessary for the preparation of chocolate were, thus, obviously also manufactured in China for exportation.

The late seventeenth century was the time when exports of ceramics bowls and cups specifically destined for drinking chocolate increased. Some contemporary Chinese junks shipped large quantities of these to the Philippines, many or even most of which were re-exported to New Spain and Peru, as we have also seen above. In 1686 a junk owned by a certain Tianqua, for example, carried more than 6,000 chocolate cups and bowls. ^[7]Registry of the Tianqua, June 5, 1686; see AGI, Filipinas, 64, N. 1, ff. 446v-447r. See also Fang Zhenzhen ⽅真真, Mingmo Qingchu Taiwan yu Manila de fanchuan maoyi (1664–1684) … Continue reading

Conversely, Chinese chocolate ceramics styles influenced the ceramics industry in Mexico. In Puebla, the Chinese blue-and-white chocolateros prompted the initiation of a new style of local ceramics called loza poblana, which were further disseminated throughout Spanish America ^[8]Meha Priyadarshini, From the Chinese Guan to the Mexican Chocolatero: A Tactile History of the Transpacific Trade, 1571–1815. PhD dissertation (New York: Columbia University 2014), 4, 11, 22, 202. (See FIGURE 7). ^[9]Tin-glazed earthenware chocolatero’(chocolate jar) with iron lid. Puebla, ca. 1700. The shape of this jar has four lobed panels each jar is derived from the Chinese guan and the surface is divided … Continue reading We can thus observe mutual interactions and reciprocal effects in both directions across the Pacific.

FIGURE 7. Tin-glazed chocolatero, Puebla (ca. 1700) Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Japanese kilns, too, produced for the American market. The Dutch East India Company (VOC) started ordering larger quantities of chocolate cups in 1659, and local production of chocolate and coffee cups in the kilns of Arita 有⽥, in Kyūshū, also began around that time. A large number of coffee and other cups dating from the late seventeenth to the early eighteenth century have been excavated in Arita at the site of Akae-cho ⾚絵町, most of them produced in kilns in the district of Uchiyama 内⼭. ^[10]Nogami Takenori, “Chocolate cup no henzen to ryūtsū”, 24. Although most of the ceramics were coffee cups, chocolate cups have been found as well. Cups and bowls for drinking chocolate produced in Japan (probably Arita) have been found in Mexico and Antigua, Guatemala, ^[11]Ibid., 25. and as far away as Havana, Cuba. ^[12]It is a blue and white chocolate cup, possibly produced in Arita between the 1650s to 1670s. Tanaka Shigeko ⽥中恵⼦ went to Cuba in 2006 and sent Nogami Takenori 野上建紀 some photos of … Continue reading Hizen 肥前 porcelain was also exported to Acapulco. These Japanese ceramics were part of the Manila galleon trade, as shown, for example, by cargo manifests (e.g., FIGURE 8). Japanese porcelain was exported from the port of Nagasaki via Manila to Acapulco and, from there, distributed to various Spanish American cities. ^[13]Nogami Takenori, “The Trade Networks of Japanese Porcelain in the Asia-Pacific Region”, Chapter 8 of Historical Archaeology of Early Modern Colonialism in Asia-Pacific: The Southwest Pacific and … Continue reading Nogami Takenori assumes that it was above all Chinese junks, using relay ports in Taiwan and southeast China, which shipped Japanese porcelain from Nagasaki to Manila. ^[14]Nogami Takenori, “On Hizen Porcelain and the Manila-Acapulco Galleon Trade”, Indo-Pacific Prehistory Association bulletin 26 (2006), 124-130, 127: “Although there are no records of Hizen … Continue reading Fang Zhenzhen’s research on the Manila customs confirms the shipment of ceramics from Taiwan into the port of Manila: in 1682, a thousand chocolate cups (mill escudillas de chocolate) were shipped on this route, possibly having first been shipped from the Arita kilns to Taiwan. ^[15]This was briefly before Taiwan was integrated into Qing rule between 1683 and 1684. The Zheng 鄭 family had maintained close trade relations with Japan in the years and decades before, after they … Continue reading In the seventeenth century, Chinese kilns also started to imitate the Imari 伊万⾥ style ^[16]Amari porcelain was typically decorated in underglaze blue, red, and gold, and covered by an overglaze. The term refers to a brightly coloured style of Arita. of Japanese porcelain (FIGURES 9A-B). Tall cups were very common in Spanish America for drinking chocolate out of (Figs. 9C-D). ^[17]George Kuwayama, Chinese Ceramics in Colonial Mexico (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 74.

FIGURE 8. Galleon cargo of chocolateros from Japan and China (1723)
AGI, Filipinas, 229, N. 1, f. 494v (PARES)

For example, in 1723, the galleon Santo Cristo de Burgos carried 220,000 “chocolate bowls” of chinaware from Japan with saucers and covers (“dos mill ciento y veinte pozuelos de chocolate de losa de Japon con sus platillos y tapaderas”; for 11 pesos), as well as 262 “chocolate bowls” of white, green and coloured chinaware from China (“doscientos y sesenta y dos de pozuelos de chocolate de losa de China blancos verdes y colorados”) for 6 tomines, ^[18]1 tomín = 12.5% or 1/8 of a peso: 1 peso de oro común (1 peso of 8 pieces / “pieces of eight”) = 8 reales or tomines = approx. 0.575 g; 1 silver tomín = approx. 0.56g. refer to FIGURE. 8. ^[19]Chocolateros from Japan and China (last 3 items), in “Carta del Tribunal de Cuentas de México con el libro de sobordo del Santo Cristo de Burgos”, AGI, Filipinas, 229, N. 1, f. 494v (image … Continue reading These are relatively low prices and it will be further in the future to investigate why they are so low. The goods belonged to a certain María Rosa Baro. In 1726, the galleon was lost when it caught fire on the high seas on its way to Acapulco.

In the British Museum, we find a porcelain cup and a saucer for hot chocolate, with an underglaze cobalt-blue banded design and an overglaze enamel design of blossoming cherry and plum trees from the Arita kilns, dated to the early eighteenth century (1700–1730s). ^[20]The British Museum, Registration number, Franks-1056.

Chinese ceramic jars (chocolateros) were also used for storing cacao beans. ^[21]Meha Priyadarshini, Chinese Porcelain in Colonial Mexico. As Guillermo Ruiz-Stovel points out, the pozuelo “was yet another unique Chinese contribution to the chocolate drinking culture that flourished across the Spanish empire”. ^[22]Guillermo Ruiz-Stovel, Chinese Shipping and Merchant Networks at the Edge of the Spanish Pacific: The Minnan-Manila Trade, 1680–1840, PhD dissertation (University of California, Los Angeles, 2019), … Continue reading He has calculated that between 1740 and 1754 alone 518,500 pozuelo bowls, worth 10,837 pesos, were exported from China to Manila, most of which were of high quality. ^[23]Ruiz-Stovel, Chinese Shipping and Merchant Networks, 441, 443. In 1741, the Santa Rosalia, proceeding from Mexico to Guayaquil-Paita under Captain José Freyre, had plates, drinking bowls and chinaware on board. ^[24]Bonialian, El Pacífico hispanoamericano, 303.

A letter sent from Manila in 1631 by Ascanio Guazzoni, the commercial agent of Santi Federighi (?–1643), ^[25]He belonged to a powerful merchant family of Florentine origin. a Mexican merchant who was the head of Mexico City’s merchants guild in the 1630s, attests to the use of Chinese porcelain cups for drinking chocolate. He sent a box containing bowls of fine chinaware from Macao, which, he states, are “nowadays used to drink chocolate.” ^[26]osé L. Gasch-Tomás, The Atlantic World and the Manila Galleons. Circulation, Market, and Consumption of Asian Goods in the Spanish Empire, 1565–1650 [The Atlantic World. Europe, Africa, and the … Continue reading

Although the exact date and ship on which the first cacao plant or seeds officially reached the Philippines and were locally transplanted remains unclear, what is more remarkable is to observe the impact the ‘cacao and chocolate culture’ had on Asian societies, not only in the Philippines, where it started to be consumed by Spanish elites and local people, but also in China, where it had far-reaching indirect consequences.

It is consequently undeniable that in the trade and exchange between Spanish America and Asia, including China, chocolate was far from being as marginal as one might initially suspect. Being a luxury commodity consumed by social elites in the beginning, it gradually developed as a popular drink consumed by wider echelons of society in the Philippines and other parts of Asia, for example, Siam (modern Thailand).^[1]Monsieur Simon de La Loubère (1642–1729), A new historical relation of the kingdom of Siam; done out of French, by A.P. Gen. R.S.S. La Loubère, Simon de, 1642–1729, A. P, Chapter IX, “Of the … Continue reading Japan was influenced to a lesser extent, but Japanese kilns also fired ceramics used in the chocolate culture.

In addition, chocolate and cacao played a major role in the diet of Europeans living in Asia and thus enriched local food cultures, including in China. Dishes containing chocolate are nowadays part and parcel of the daily diet in places like Macao or the Philippines.

Although still more research is required to better assess the role of cacao and chocolate on board the Manila galleons, it is to be assumed that many galleons shipped cacao as cargo to Manila, especially in the eighteenth century. In 1784, the only year for which we thus far have reported figures, the San Josef, coming from Acapulco, imported 29.734 metric tons of cacao, valued at 8,078 pesos at Manila customs. ^[2]National Archives of the Philippines (NAP), 6208 Aduana, August 1784, no pagination. In total, 29,733.50 kg were imported. I am very grateful to Guillermo Ruiz-Stovel for sharing this information … Continue reading The Nuestra Señora de Begoña even carried cacao from Caracas and Maracaibo (Venezuela). ^[3]“Expediente sobre el comercio entre Filipinas y Nueva España” (1712-06-25, Manila, Luzón, Filipinas), AGI, Filipinas, 206, N. 1, f. 165v. In part II of this analysis, I will discuss the role of … Continue reading Chocolate was valued as a medicine by missionaries, who sometimes cultivated their own cacao trees, and as a shipboard medicine. And, this should not be forgotten, it played a not insignificant role as a diet on board the galleons, being highly esteemed by passengers, crew members and buccaneers or “pirates”, as we have seen above. ^[4]See, for example, William Clark Russell, William Dampier (London: Macmillan and Co. and New York, 1894), Chapter 1, https://www.gutenberg.org/files/54284/54284-h/54284-h.htm#CHAPTER_I (accessed on 18 … Continue reading

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Images

Fig. 1: Cacao (Theobroma cacao L.): fruiting and flowering branch with separate numbered sections of flowers, fruit and seed. Chromolithograph by P. Depannemaeker, c.1885, after B. Hoola van Nooten (1885). Wellcome Collection, reference: 16417. https://wellcomecollection.org/works/y6watkqa/images?id=cnuzbv5m.

Fig. 2: “Expediente sobre la administración de la botica y hospital real de Manila”, AGI, Filipinas, 198, N. 7, no pagination, image 36.

Fig. 3: Ranryō yakkai 蘭療薬解 (1806), by Hirokawa Kai et al., 40a, Waseda University Library, Tokyo.

Fig. 4: Ranryō yakkai 蘭療薬解 (1806), by Hirokawa Kai et al., 48b, Waseda University Library, Tokyo.

Fig. 5: Ranryō hō 蘭療方 (1804), by Hirokawa Kai 広川獬, Kurisaki Tokuho 栗崎 徳甫, and Yamaguchi Soken 山口素絢 (1759–1818), 107a, Waseda University Library, Tokyo.

Fig. 6: Nagasaki bunken roku 長崎聞見録, by Hirokawa Kai 広川獬, 5.3a, National Archive of Japan Digital Archive.  

Fig. 7: Tin-glazed earthenware ‘chocolatero’ (chocolate jar) with iron lid. Puebla, ca. 1700. The shape of this jar has four lobed panels each jar is derived from the Chinese guan and the surface is divided in a similar manner to designs seen on Chinese examples. ca. 1700, preserved in the Metropolitan Museum, New York, https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/4470. See also Meha Priyadarshini, From the Chinese Guan to the Mexican Chocolatero: A Tactile History of the Transpacific Trade, 1571–1815. PhD dissertation (New York: Columbia University 2014), 4, Fig. 1.5.

Fig. 8: ‘Chocolateros’ from China and Japan, in “Carta del Tribunal de Cuentas de México con el libro de sobordo del Santo Cristo de Burgos”, AGI, Filipinas, 229, N. 1, fol. 494v (image 1048).

Fig. 9a: Chocolate cup, preserved in the Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico City. China, Kangxi period, early 18^th century, underglaze blue porcelain with overglaze red enamel and gold. Imari style in imitation of Japanese porcelains. See George Kuwayama, Chinese Ceramics in Colonial Mexico (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1997), 74.

Fig. 9b: Same cup as 9a, different perspective, preserved in the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Mexico City. Nogami Takenori 野上建紀, “Chocolate cup no henzen to ryūtsū” チョコレ一トカップの变遷と流通, Kindai kōko 金大考古 64 (2009), 22-28, here 30. Courtesy of the photographer, Dr. Nogami Takenori.

Fig. 9c: Coloured cup unearthed in Manila, preserved in the National Museum of the Philippines. Nogami Takenori, “Chocolate cup no henzen to ryūtsū”, 30. Courtesy of the photographer, Dr. Nogami Takenori.

Fig. 9d: Cup unearthed in Mexico, preserved in the Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia (INAH), Mexico City. Nogami Takenori, “Chocolate cup no henzen to ryūtsū”, 30. Courtesy of the photographer, Dr. Nogami Takenori.

Fig. 10: Porcelain with underglaze blue and overglaze red and green enamels. China, Kangxi period, 1690–1700, preserved in the Museo Nacional del Virreinato, Mexico City. George Kuwayama, Chinese Ceramics in Colonial Mexico, 49.