Philippine Progress Prior to 1898 Part 19

Memoria Sobre el Desestanco del Tabaco en las Islas Filipinas, Jose Jimeno Agius, Manila, 1871.

[135] "* * * at the time of Basco there were in Camarines four and a half million mulberry trees, and this was one of the results of the industrious administration of that famous governor, and of the first patriotic attempts of the Economic Society, so ably aided by the alcalde mayor, Don Martin Ballesteros, who later became factor of the Company in said province. At the request of the Society the first seeds were sent to Manila in 1780 by an Augustinian by the name of Fray Pedro Galiano; the director of the Company decided at all cost to stimulate this production, by advancing big sums * * (and) thought of introducing Chinese laborers for this purpose, and even proposed to bring over families from Granada, Valencia, and Murcia, well acquainted with this kind of industry; and, according to report of those agents, the first crops gave good results because of the continuous sprouting of the leaves, possibly the harvesting of even nine crops in each year. They were a.s.sured too, that according to Chinese experts, the silk of the country was inferior to that of Nanking, but very much superior to that of Canton." (Azcarraga, p. 133.)

[136] "The cultivation of the indigo had already been encouraged and improved by another Augustinian, Fray Matias Octavo, with the generous aid of a worthy merchant of Manila, Don Diego Garcia Herreros, applying the method then used at Guatemala; (thus) it was possible in 1784 to make a shipment, by the warship Asuncion, which found a good market in Cadiz. With these antecedents, the Company did not have to do much to exploit this product, and limited itself to making advances to the farmers for the purchase of implements needed * * *, and buying everything that was offered for sale; thus in 1786 it was able to export one hundred and forty quintals of this valuable article, and double that in 1788." (Ibid., pp. 133-134).

[137] "With the same eagerness the Company devoted itself to promote the cultivation of the sugar cane, and very soon began to reap the harvest of its well-calculated attempts, and shipped for the Peninsula in 1786 eight hundred and sixty arrobas, and in 1788, nine thousand six hundred and sixty three arrobas for the same place, and for China and India; and thus this article continued to progress, always heading the list of exports from the country, since in a memorial or report sent to the king in 1790 by Governor Don Felix Berenguer de Marquina, it is stated that the amount of sugar exported the year before was between forty and fifty thousand piculs." (Ibid., pp. 134-135.)

[138] Azcarraga says that upon cotton, which--at different times, especially during the revolutionary war in the United States--had been recommended to the chiefs of the provinces as an article to whose cultivation they should especially devote themselves, the company placed a great deal of hope, because of its good quality; it could compete with what the English exported from the coasts of Malabar, and thus, by promoting its cultivation in great scale, at the same time that the projected textile factories of the country would be supplied with raw materials, it would supply the constant demand of China; these expectations were confirmed by the good sale which the first shipment of one hundred and fifty sacks to China had, and thus the directors adopted this article as the chief commodity for its trade. (Ibid.)

[139] Text of decree is given in Montero y Vidal, Historia, Vol. 2, pp. 302-303.

[140] Estadismo, Vol. 1, p. 273.

[141] Azcarraga, Chapters 9, 10, and 11; Mas, Part II, pp. 31-35; Vidal, Historia, Vol. II, pp. 297-307.

[142] In this way a new element was introduced which was essential for economic development: capital. Up to that time money had been scarce and it was all derived from local sources: owing to the conditions to which we have heretofore referred our community was obliged to furnish its own capital. It was necessarily small, first, on account of the slight productive forces, second, because of the easy destruction of acquired property, which was dissipated in fires and storms princ.i.p.ally. In those first days of our history, the preservation and transmission from one generation to another of created and inherited wealth was, as it is even now, a problem almost impossible of solution. The general construction of houses, manufactured from such weak and transient elements as cane and nipa, does not leave us in a condition to conserve: it leaves us rather in a condition of easy destruction, as may be readily understood. So it is, that we get the benefit of only a small part of the property acquired by the generations that have gone before us. Where will you find even the trace of so many millions of cane and nipa houses which have absorbed the money earned by past generations? Destroyed by fire and storms. In their destruction was also involved all the industrial production, all the labor converted into capital represented by furniture, books, ma.n.u.scripts, cloths, jewelry, coins, articles, of practical utility, religious, artistic and every sort of objects which ran the same precarious risk and had the same ephemeral existence as our flimsy cane and nipa houses."--Results of the Economic Development of the Philippines.

[143] "The taking of Manila in 1762 by the English had subsequently great influence on our future. They, during the occupation of Manila, had an opportunity to know the natural resources of this country, the condition of abandonment and neglect of agriculture and commerce, and the contempt that was felt for them, and realize the possibilities that existed for material development as understood by the British. As a result of such contact with the Filipinos English commerce was able to understand the conditions of our archipelago until then entirely unknown, owing to the conditions of their tutelar sequestration, and, on their part, the authorities and prominent persons of Manila had occasion to observe, during the short period of the occupation of Manila, what the English were who had been reputed as the enemies par excellence of the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion. It is said that they appropriated to themselves the money that they found in the treasury, which, on the other hand, we must a.s.sume, was found empty, both because Anda y Salazar took with him what he could find there to organize the war, and because private persons concealed their treasure. From whatever source it may have come, either brought by them as was really the case, or taken from the Filipinos, the fact was, that in order to maintain themselves, they spent a great deal of money and placed in movement the dormant activity of all whom they found within their reach." (Ibid.)

[144] Azcarraga, pp. 151-152; also Mas, under Comercio Exterior, p. 2.

[145] "The first result was the collision of the new arrivals with the exploiters of the old order, whose peaceful possession of a livelihood which suited them--because n.o.body questioned it or disturbed it--was suddenly threatened by the compet.i.tion of more active, more industrious, better prepared and richer individuals, supported by firms located in the most important centers of the commercial world. In the same manner as, by arrival of the Spaniards, the old Filipino caciques were subjected to the Spanish officials, now the caciques who dominated during the period of tutelar sequestration found themselves immediately supplanted and converted into something lower than the new caciques of the economic order. They (the former) understood that such supremacy would give them (the latter) supremacy in everything. To defend their position they had recourse to the anti-foreign sentiments of the entire community; foreigners had always been regarded as the enemies of Spain and G.o.d; they must be the enemies of the Filipinos, too. The crusade was not new; it had been used before with excellent results at the time of the English domination. This campaign was hardly started when the cholera for the first time made its appearance in Manila. Taking advantage of that event, which was also called providential, the rumor was started that the foreigners had poisoned the waters of the Pasig, with the results that in 1820 the people of Manila exterminated the foreigners who were then residing at the capital." (Tavera, Ibid.)

[146] Le Roy, The Americans in the Philippines, Vol. 1, p. 33, Diccionario Geografico-Estadistico-Historico de las Islas Filipinas, Manuel Buzeta and Felipe Bravo, (Madrid, 1850-1851).

[147] Bowring, A Visit to the Philippines (London, 1859), p. 301.

[148] Mas, under Comercio Exterior, pp. 28-29; also Azcarraga, Chapter 13.

[149] "The merchants and even all the residents of Manila during the epoch of the Acapulco (trade), firmly believed that the interruption of its voyages would be the infallible and total ruin of the colony, and that upon them depended even the maintenance of the inhabitants of the farms. However, experience has demonstrated the error in which they were." (Mas, Ibid., pp. 2-3.)

After giving a table of imports and exports for 1810, Mas says: "From this statement it is seen that at that epoch the commerce of the Philippines was reduced mostly to receiving funds from New Spain, and, in return, remitting articles of China and India; that the importation of foreign goods consumed in the Philippines amounted to 900,000 pesos, and the exportation of the products of the country, such as sugar, indigo, hide, etc., did not amount to 500,000 pesos. The gains, therefore, from that traffic, for which Manila was only a port of exchange, were divided between the merchants who had the monopoly of the galleon, but the wealth of the territory received but small advantages from it." (Ibid.)

[150] Mas, Ibid., p. 4.

[151] Azcarraga, p. 18.

[152] An item in the memoir published by the Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais (Manila, 1860), containing a list of its achievements, is to the effect that on August 8, 1834, "abaca" was exported for the first time. (See Bl. and Rb., Vol. 52, p. 317.)

Azcarraga (p. 19) gives the following figures for hemp:

Piculs exported.

1840 83,790 1845 102,490 1850 123,410 1853 221,518 1857 327,574 1858 412,502

[153] Azcarraga (p. 167) gives the following figures for Iloilo:

Foreign Countries. Manila.

Piculs of Sugar. Piculs of sugar.

1859 9,344 77,488 1860 40,176 72,592 1861 44,256 29,312 1862 102,464 98,912 1863 170,832 80,000

[154] Azcarraga, pp. 168-169.

[155] Jagor, (Spanish edition, Madrid, 1874), p. 255.

[156] "From these dates (referring to the opening of the ports) the prosperity of the Philippines advanced steadily and rapidly without interruption until the outbreak of the Philippine revolution six years ago. To this period is due the propagation of the hemp fields of Ambos Camarines, Albay, and Sorsogon; the planting of the innumerable coconut groves; the sugar haciendas of Pampanga and Negros; the tobacco fields of Cagayan and the Ilocos provinces; the coffee of Batangas, and the utilization everywhere of the specially adapted soils for the production of these admirable articles of trade. One thing is to be noticed, and is important in estimating the future development of the islands. The money that was invested here was not brought in by capitalists but was made here. Haciendas arose from small beginnings, and this continued prosperity apparently suffered no diminution or check until it was interrupted by the ravages and desolation of warfare. * * *" (Barrows, Census of the Philippine Islands (1903), Vol. 1, p. 446.)

[157] Bowring, p. 410.

"The Filipinos gave a proof of their intelligence and of their aspirations by sending their children to Manila to be educated, buying furniture, mirrors, articles of luxury for their homes and persons; buying pianos, carriages, objects imported from the United States and Europe which came their way, owing to foreign trade. These articles caused a revelation which produced a revolution in the social mind, thanks to that veritable revolution of an economic character which permitted the only possible development--the material development." (Tavera, Ibid.)

[158] Jagor, ibid., p. 256.

[159] "The needs of commerce, demanded not by the poor but by the powerful, were attended to; for that reason roads were made, bridges were built, new highways of communication were opened, public safety was organized in a more efficient manner, the abuses of the dominators had greater publicity and, therefore, were fewer and more combated, the mail service was improved, Spaniards and other Europeans penetrated into the provinces, the natives themselves were permitted to go from one pueblo to another and change their residence, and the Filipinos were able to place themselves in contact with the civilized world, emerging from their prolonged and harmful sequestration, thanks to the workings of economic forces." (Tavera, Ibid.)

[160] "During the previous epoch the so-called natural resources const.i.tuting the extractive industries--consisting of the collection of the spontaneous products of nature--were exploited: whereas freedom of trade brought about the development of agriculture which had already been initiated by the Real Compania. In Ilocos, indigo was made, in Batangas, Pampanga, Bulacan, Laguna and the Visayas, sugar-cane was cultivated and sugar made; in Albay abaca was produced. Bigan, Taal, Balayan, Batangas, Albay, Nueva Caceres, Cebu, Molo, Jaro, Iloilo began to be covered with solidly constructed buildings; their wealthy citizens would come to Manila, make purchases, become acquainted with the great merchants, who entertained them in their quality as customers whose trade they needed; they visited the Governor-General, who would receive them according to the position that their money gave them; they came to know the justices of the Supreme Court, the provincials of the religious orders; they brushed up, as a result of their contact with the people of the capital and, on returning to their pueblo, they took in their hearts and minds the germ of what was subsequently called, "subversive ideas" and, later still, "filibusterismo."

"The opening of the Suez Ca.n.a.l brought us nearer to Europe, and, carried along by the current of economical nature, came the ideas and principles of a political character which did no less than to revolutionize the ideas predominant in a country which had existed so completely separated from the nations of the modern world. Already the "brutes loaded with gold" dared to discuss with their curate, complain against the alcalde, defend their homes against the misconduct of the lieutenant or sergeant of the police force; such people were starting to emanc.i.p.ate themselves insensibly as a consequence of their economic independence. Their money permitted them effectively to defend questions involving money first, then, those of a moral character--they were becoming actually "insolent" according to the expression of the dominators: in reality, they were beginning to learn to defend their rights." (Tavera, Ibid.)

[161] For a good discussion of the growth of population since Spanish conquest down to 1903, see Census of the Philippine Islands, Vol. 1, pp. 442-445.

[162] This principle is stated as follows: "The beginnings of social evolution * * * are always to be found in a bountiful environment.

Moreover, density of population follows abundance of food, whether the supplies are obtained from the soil directly, or indirectly, in exchange for manufactures; and other things being equal, the activity and the progress of society depend, within limits, on the density of population.

A spa.r.s.e population, scattered over a poor soil, can carry on production only by primitive methods and on a small scale. It can have only the most rudimentary division of labor; it cannot have manufacturing industries, or good roads, or a rapid interchange of intelligence; all of which, together with a highly developed industrial organization and a perfect utilization of capital, are possible to the populations that are relatively dense.

A highly developed political life, too, is found only where population is compact. Civil liberty means discussion, and discussion is dependent on the frequent meeting of considerable bodies of men who have varied interests and who look at life from different points of view. Movements for the increase of popular freedom have usually started in towns.

Education, religion, art, science, and literature are all dependent on a certain density of population. Schools, universities, churches, the daily newspaper, great publishing houses, libraries, and museums come only when the population per square mile is expressed by more than one unit, and their decay is one of the first symptoms that population is declining. * * *."--Franklin H. Giddings, The Principles of Sociology, (New York, 1911), pp. 366-367.

[163] "These changes show how important it was to establish at different points, extending over two hundred miles of the Archipelago, commercial centers, where it was desirable that foreigners should settle. Without these latter, and the facilities afforded to credit which hereby ensued, the sudden rise and prosperity of Iloilo would not have been possible, inasmuch as the mercantile houses in that capital would have been debarred from trading with unknown planters in distant provinces, otherwise than for ready money." Jagor, Travels in the Philippines. (London, 1875), p. 304.

Azcarraga, pp. 168-177; 197-198.

Le Roy, Bibliographical Notes, 1860-1898.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 52, pp. 112-114.

[164] Jagor gives credit to the two American houses in the Philippines for the development of the abaca into an important article of export. These American houses in the first years sank large sums of money in advance loans, and were only able to get the business on a paying basis when, in 1863, they were permitted to establish warehouses and presses in the provinces at the princ.i.p.al points where the crop was produced, and to deal directly with the producers. Jagor (Spanish edition, p. 264); Le Roy, The Americans in the Philippines, Vol. 1, pp. 33-34.

For an interesting discussion of the struggle between England and the United States for supremacy in the Philippines, and the role played by the English banks in that struggle, see a pamphlet ent.i.tled Commercial Progress in the Philippine Islands, by Antonio M. Regidor and J. Warren T. Mason, (1905).

[165] This prefix does not seem, however, to be genuine in the language, so that the Chinese have mistaken the first syllable Ta for their own word (adjective preposed) ta "great", and dropped it with their usual contempt for foreign nations. But all this is conjectural.

[166] apparently Sanskrit ... some such sound as ... Vaisadja.--Parker (China, London, 1901.)--C.