Spanish architecture can be seen in old buildings in downtown Iloilo. Ancient Indonesians, Malaysians and Vietnamese, and later the Indian, Arab, Chinese, Korean and Japanese merchants were already trading with the Ilonggos, long before the arrival of the Mexicans, Spaniards and other Europeans. The ruling Spanish government encouraged these foreign merchants to trade in Iloilo but they were not given privileges like ownership of land. Foreign merchants and Spaniards intermarried with the locals, and the Mestizo class was eventually born from their union. The Mestizo offspring of the local nobilities later emerged as the ruling class of the Ilonggos (see Principalía).