CHAPTER IX

PRODUCTS OF INDUSTRY

Iron-Working.—­Little iron work is now done in the valley of the Abra for the competition of the Ilocano smiths of Santa and Narvacan, in Ilocos Sur, and the cheap products brought to the coast, and as far inland as Bangued, by Chinese traders, have swamped the native industry.

Forges are still found in many villages of eastern Abra, particularly those of the upper Buklok river, but the real center of the industry is in and around Balbalasang, on the eastern side of the mountain range.

We have in northern Luzon a situation similar to that found throughout the archipelago, namely, that the most flourishing smithies are usually those farthest removed from the coast traders.  Where communication is easy and trade unrestricted, the native industry has vanished, or is on the wane.  To-day the forges of the Bontoc Igorot, of the Tinguian-Kalinga border villages, and of Apayao, are turning out superior weapons, but elsewhere in the northwestern districts the pagan people have either lost the art, or make only very inferior articles.

It is certain that iron-working has long been known, not only in the Philippines, but throughout Malaysia, and it is likewise evident that these regions secured the art from the same source as did the people of Assam, Burma, and eastern Madagascar, for the description of the Tinguian forge and iron-working which follows would, with very little modification, apply equally well to those in use in Southern Mindanao, Borneo, Java, Sumatra, Assam, Burma, and Madagascar. [227]

Long before the arrival of the Spanish in the Philippines, the Chinese had built up such a lively trade in iron bars and caldrons that it was no longer necessary for the natives to smelt their own iron ore; if indeed they ever did so. [228] This trade metal was widely distributed, and then reworked by the local smiths.  Even to-day the people of Balbalasang make the long journey to Bangued, or even to Vigan, to secure Chinese iron, which they carry back to their mountain forges.

There is no positive proof that the Filipinos formerly mined and smelted iron, but there is a strong probability that they did so, prior to the introduction of trade metal.  It has already been noted that the Tinguian type of forge and the method of handling and tempering iron is widespread in Malaysia; and, as will be seen later, this process is not that in use among the Chinese, so that it is unlikely that the art was introduced by them.  In furnishing iron ready for forging, they were simply supplying in a convenient form an article already in use, and for which there was an urgent demand.  In the islands to the south we find that many of the pagan tribes do now, or did until recently, mine and smelt the ore. Beccari [229] tells us that the Kayan of Borneo extract iron ore found in their own country. Hose and McDougall