Location: Iloilo City
Category: Sites/Events
Type: Site
Status: Level II – Historical marker
Marker date: 29 September 1975
Installed by: National Historical Institute (NHI)
Marker text:
PORT OF ILOILO
OPENED INTERNATIONAL TRADE BY ROYAL ORDER OF THE SUPREME SPANISH GOVERNMENT ON 29 SEPTEMBER 1855. NICHOLAS LONEY, FIRST BRITISH VICE-CONSUL AND FIRST FOREIGN MERCHANT IN ILOILO, LANDED AT THIS PORT ON 31 JULY 1856. VISITED BY SIR JOHN BOWRING, GOVERNOR OF HONGKONG, IN 1859. THE FIRST DIRECT EXPORTATION, CONSISTING OF 270 TONS OF SUGAR, WAS SHIPPED ON THE RIG PET TO MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA, ON 2 MARCH 1859, AND THE FIRST DIRECT IMPORTATION, CONSISTING OF SUGAR MILL MACHINERIES, CAME ON THE HENRY DARLING FROM GLASGOW, GREAT BRITAIN, IN 1863.
