The Philippine Islands Part 31

The cla.s.sification of the deliveries depended on the districts where the crop was raised and the length of the leaf.

The tobacco trade being also a Government concern in Spain, this Colony was required to supply the Peninsula State Factories with 90,000 quintals (of 100 Span, lbs.) of tobacco-leaf per annum.

Government Monopoly was in force in Luzon Island only. The tobacco districts of that island were Cagayan Valley (which comprises La Isabela), La Union, El Abra, Ilocos Sur y Norte and Nueva Ecija. In no other part of Luzon was tobacco-planting allowed, except for a short period on the Caraballo range, inhabited by undomesticated mountain tribes, upon whom prohibition would have been difficult to enforce. In 1842 the Igorrotes were allowed to plant, and, in the year 1853, the Government collection from this source amounted to 25,000 bales of excellent quality. The total population of these districts was, in 1882 (the last year of Monopoly), about 785,000.

The Visayas Islands were never under the Monopoly system. The natives there were free to raise tobacco or other crops on their land. It was not until 1840 that tobacco-planting attracted general attention in Visayas. Government factories or collecting-centres were established there for cla.s.sifying and storing such tobacco as the Visayos cared to bring in for sale to the State, but they were at liberty to sell their produce privately or in the public markets. They also disposed of large quant.i.ties by contraband to the Luzon Island Provinces. [138]

Antique Province never yielded more tobacco than could be consumed locally. In 1841 the Antique tobacco crop was valued at P80,000. But, in the hope of obtaining higher prices, the enthusiastic Provincial Governor, Manuel Iturriaga, encouraged the growers, in 1843, to send a trial parcel to the Government collectors; it was, however, uncla.s.sed and rejected.

Mindoro, Lucban, and Marinduque Islands produced tobacco about sixty years ago, and in 1846 the Government established a collecting-centre in Mindoro; but the abuses and cruelty of the officials towards the natives, to force them to bring in their crops, almost extinguished this cla.s.s of husbandry.

During the period of Monopoly in the Luzon districts, the production was very carefully regulated by the Home Government, by enactments revised from time to time, called "General Instructions for the Direction, Administration and Control of the Government Monopolies." [139] Compulsory labour was authorized, and those natives in the northern provinces of Luzon Island who wished to till the land (the property of the State)--for t.i.tle-deeds were almost unknown and never applied for by the natives--were compelled to give preference to tobacco. In fact, no other crops were allowed to be raised. Moreover, they were not permitted peacefully to indulge their indolent nature--to sc.r.a.pe up the earth and plant when and where they liked for a mere subsistence. Each family was coerced into contracting with the Government to raise 4,000 plants per annum, subject to a fine in the event of failure. The planter had to deliver into the State stores all the tobacco of his crop--not a single leaf could he reserve for his private consumption.

Lands left uncultivated could be appropriated by the Government, who put their own nominees to work them, and he who had come to consider himself owner, by mere undisturbed possession, lost the usufruct and all other rights for three years. His right to the land, in fact, was not freehold, but tenure by villein socage.

Emigrants were sent north from the west coast Provinces of North and South Ilocos. The first time I went up to Cagayan about 200 emigrant families were taken on board our vessel at North Ilocos, _en route_ for the tobacco districts, and appeared to be as happy as other natives in general. They were well supplied with food and clothing, and comfortably lodged on their arrival at the Port of Aparri.

In the Government Regulations referred to, the old law of Charles III., which enacted that a native could not be responsible at law for a debt exceeding P5, was revived, and those emigrants who had debts were only required to liquidate them out of their earnings in the tobacco district up to that legal maximum value.

As soon as the native growers were settled on their lands their condition was by no means an enviable one. A Nueva Ecija landowner and tobacco-grower, in a letter to _El Liberal_ (Madrid) in 1880, depicts the situation in the following terms:--The planter, he says, was only allowed to smoke tobacco of his own crop inside the aerating-sheds which were usually erected on the fields under tilth. If he happened to be caught by a carabineer only a few steps outside the shed with a cigar in his mouth he was fined 2 pesos--if a cigarette, 50 cents--and adding to these sums the costs of the conviction, a cigar of his own crop came to cost him P7.37 1/2, and a cigarette P1.87 1/2. The fines in Nueva Ecija amounted to an annual average of P7,000 on a population of 170,000. From sunrise to sunset the native grower was subject to domiciliary search for concealed tobacco--his trunks, furniture, and every nook and corner of his dwelling were ransacked. He and all his family--wife and daughters--were personally examined: and often an irate husband, father, or brother, goaded to indignation by the indecent humiliation of his kinswoman, would lay hands on his bowie-knife and bring matters to a b.l.o.o.d.y crisis with his wanton persecutors... The leaves were carefully selected, and only such as came under cla.s.sification were paid for. The rejected bundles were not returned to the grower, but burnt--a despairing sacrifice to the toiler! The _Cabezas de Barangay_ (_vide_ p. 223) had, under penalty of arrest and hard labour, to see that the families fulfilled their onerous contract. Corporal punishment, imprisonment, and amercement resulted; of frequent occurrence were those fearful scenes which culminated in riots such as those of Ilocos in 1807 and 1814, when many Spaniards fell victims to the natives' resentment of their oppression.

Palpable injustice, too, was imposed by the Government with respect to the payments. The Treasury paid loyally for many years, but as generation succeeded generation, and the native growers' families came to feel themselves attached to the soil they cultivated, the Treasury, reposing on the security of this constancy, no longer kept to the compact. The officials failed to pay with punctuality to the growers the contracted value of the deliveries to the State stores. They required exact.i.tude from the native--the Government set the example of remissness. The consequence was appalling. Instead of money Treasury notes were given them, and speculators of the lowest type used to scour the tobacco-growing districts to buy up this paper at an enormous discount. The misery of the natives was so distressing, the distrust of the Government so radicate, and the want of means of existence so urgent, that they were wont to yield their claims for an insignificant relative specie value. The speculators held the bonds for realization some day; the total amount due by the Government at one time exceeded P1,500,000. Once the Treasury was so hard-pressed for funds that the tobacco ready in Manila for shipment to Spain had to be sold on the spot and the 90,000 quintals could not be sent--hence purchases of Philippine tobacco had to be made by tender in London for the Spanish Government cigar factories.

At length, during the government of General Domingo Moriones (1877-80), it was resolved to listen to the overwhelming complaints from the North, and pay up to date in coin. But, to do this, Spain, always in a state of chronic insolvency, had to resort to an abominable measure of disloyalty. The funds of the Deposit Bank (_Caja de Depositos_) were arbitrarily appropriated, and the deposit-notes, bearing 8 per cent. interest per annum, held by private persons, most of whom were Government clerks, etc., were dishonoured at due date. This gave rise to great clamour on the part of those individuals whose term of service had ceased (_cesantes_), and who, on their return to Spain, naturally wished to take their acc.u.mulated savings with them. The Gov.-General had no other recourse open to him but to reinstate them in their old positions, on his own responsibility, pending the financial crisis and the receipt of instructions from the Government at Madrid.

For a long time the question of abolishing the Monopoly had been debated, and by Royal Order of May 20, 1879, a commission was appointed to inquire into the convenience of farming out the tobacco traffic. The natives were firmly opposed to it; they dreaded the prospect of the provinces being overrun by a band of licensed persecutors, and of the two evils they preferred State to private Monopoly. Warm discussions arose for and against it through the medium of the Manila newspapers. The "Consejo de Filipinas," in Madrid, had given a favourable report dated May 12, 1879, and published in the _Gaceta de Madrid_ of July 13, 1879. The clergy defeated the proposal by the Corporations of Friars jointly presenting a Memorial against it--and it was thenceforth abandoned. The Tobacco Monopoly was the largest source of public revenue, hence the doubt as to the policy of free trade and the delay in granting it. There existed a possibility of the Treasury sustaining an immense and irretrievable loss, for a return to Monopoly, after free trade had been allowed, could not for a moment be thought of. It was then a safe income to the Government, and it was feared by many that the industry, by free labour, would considerably fall off.

As already stated, the Government Monopoly ceased on December 31, 1882, when the tobacco cultivation and trade were handed over to private enterprise. At that date there were five Government Cigar and Cigarette Factories, viz.:--Malabon, Arroceros, Meisig, El Fortin, and Cavite, giving employment to about 20,000 operatives.

Up to within a year of the abolition of Monopoly, a very good smokeable cigar could be purchased in the _estancos_ [140] from one half-penny and upwards, but as soon as the free trade project was definitely decided upon, the Government factories, in order to work off their old stocks of inferior leaf, filled the _estancos_ with cigars of the worst quality.

The Colonial Treasurer-General at the time of this reform entertained very sanguine hopes respecting the rush which would be made for the Government brands, and the general public were led to believe that a scarcity of manufactured tobacco would, for some months, at least, follow the establishment of free trade in this article. With this idea in view, Government stocks sold at auction aroused compet.i.tion and fetched unusually high prices at the close of 1882 and the first month of the following year, in some cases as much as 23/- per cwt. being realized over the upset prices. However, the Treasurer-General was carried too far in his expectations. He was unfortunately induced to hold a large amount of Government manufactured tobacco in antic.i.p.ation of high offers, the result being an immense loss to the Treasury, as only a part was placed, with difficulty, at low prices, and the remainder shipped to Spain. In January, 1883, the stock of tobacco in Government hands amounted to about 100 tons of 1881 crop, besides the whole crop of 1882. Little by little the upset prices had to be lowered to draw buyers. The tobacco shipped during the first six months of the year 1883 was limited to that sold by auction out of the Government stocks, for the Government found themselves in a dilemma with their stores of this article, and the free export only commenced half a year after free production was granted. On December 29, 1883, a Government sale by auction was announced at 50 per cent. reduction on their already low prices, but the demand was still very meagre. Finally, in the course of 1884, the Government got rid of the bulk of their stock, the balance being shipped to the mother country. The colonial authorities continued to pay the ancient tobacco-tribute to Spain, and the first contract, with this object, was made during that year with a private company for the supply of about 2,750 tons.

During the first year of Free Trade, cigar and cigarette factories were rapidly started in Manila and the provinces, but up to 1897 only some eight or ten factories had improved the quality of the manufactured article, whilst prices rose so considerably that the general public probably lost by the reform. Cigars, like those sold in the _estancos_ in 1881, could never again be got so good for the same price, but at higher prices much better brands were offered.

A small tax on the cigar and tobacco-leaf trade, officially announced in August, 1883, had the beneficial effect of causing the closure of some of the very small manufactories, and reduced the probability of a large over-supply of an almost worthless article.

Export-houses continued to make large shipments of leaf-tobacco and cigars until the foreign markets were glutted with Philippine tobacco in 1883, and in the following years the export somewhat decreased. For figures of Tobacco Leaf and Cigar Shipments, _vide_ Chap, x.x.xi., "Trade Statistics."

As to the relative quality of Philippine tobacco, there are very divided opinions. Decidedly the best Manila cigars cannot compare with those made from the famous leaf of the Vuelta de Abajo (Cuba), and in the European markets they have very justly failed to meet with the same favourable reception as the Cuban cigars generally.

During my first journey up the Cagayan River, I was told that some years ago the Government made earnest efforts to improve the quality of the plant by the introduction of seed from Cuba, but unfortunately it became mixed up with that usually planted in the Philippine provinces, and the object in view failed completely. On my renewed visit to the tobacco districts, immediately after the abolition of monopoly, the importance of properly manipulating the green leaf did not appear to be thoroughly appreciated. The exact degree of fermentation was not ascertained with the skill and perseverance necessary to turn out a well-prepared article. Some piles which I tested were over-heated (taking the Java system as my standard), whilst larger quant.i.ties had been aerated so long in the shed, after cutting, that they had lost their finest aroma.

There are many risks in tobacco-leaf trading. The leaf, during its growth, is exposed to perforation by a worm which, if not brushed off every morning, may spread over the whole field. Through the indolence of the native cultivator this misfortune happens so frequently that rarely does the Cagayan Valley tobacco contain (in the total crop of the season) more than 10 per cent. of perfect, undamaged leaves. In the aerating-sheds another kind of worm appears in the leaf; and, again, after the leaves are baled or the cigars boxed, an insect drills little holes through them--locally, it is said to be "picado."

Often in the dry season (the winter months) the tobacco-leaf, for want of a little moisture, matures narrow, thick and gummy, and contains an excess of nicotine, in which case it can only be used after several years' storage. Too much rain entirely spoils the leaf. Another obstacle to Philippine cigar manufacture is the increasing universal demand for cigars with light-coloured wrappers, for which hardly two per cent. of the Philippine leaf is suitable in world compet.i.tion, whilst the operative cannot handle with economy the delicate light-coloured Sumatra wrapper. The difficulties of transport are so great that it costs more to bring the finest tobacco-leaf from the field to the Manila factory than it would to send it from Manila to Europe in large parcels. The labour question is also an important consideration, for it takes several years of daily practice for a Filipino to turn out a first-cla.s.s marketable cigar; the most skilful operatives can earn up to P50 a month.

The best quality of Philippine tobacco is produced in the northern provinces of Luzon Island, the choicest selections coming from Cagayan and La Isabela. The Provinces of Nueva Vizcaya, Ilocos Sur y Norte, La Union, Nueva Ecija, and even Pampanga, yield tobacco.

In the Visayas, tobacco is cultivated in Panay Island and on the east coast of Negros Island (district of Escalante) and Cebu Island--also to a limited extent in Mindanao. The Visaya leaf generally is inferior in quality, particularly that of Yloilo Province, some of which, in fact, is such rubbish that it is difficult to understand how a profit can be expected from its cultivation. The Escalante (Negros, E. coast) and the Barili (Cebu W. coast) tobacco seemed to me to be the fullest flavoured and most agreeable leaf in all the Visayas.

A tobacco plantation is about as pretty as a cabbage-field.

In 1883 a company, styled The General Philippine Tobacco Company ("Compania General de Tabacos de Filipinas"), formed in Spain and financially supported by French capitalists, was established in this Colony with a capital of 3,000,000. It gave great impulse to the trade by soon starting with five factories and purchasing four estates ("San Antonio," "Santa Isabel," "San Luis," and "La Concepcion"), with buying-agents in every tobacco district. Up to 1898 the baled tobacco-leaf trade was chiefly in the hands of this company. Little by little the company launched out into other branches of produce-purchasing, and lost considerable sums of money in the provinces in its unsuccessful attempt to compete with the shrewd foreign merchants, but it is still a good going concern.

PRICES AND WEIGHTS OF SOME OF THE BEST CIGARS MANUFACTURED IN MANILA PACKED IN BOXES READY FOR USE OR SHIPMENT.

Per Thousand. In Boxes of Per Thousand. In Boxes of lbs. Pesos lbs. Pesos

30 500 10 17 45 50 30 200 25 17 40 50 17 150 25 12 30 50 25 125 25 16 24 50 23 70 25 12 20 100 17 60 50 16 18 100 18 50 50 4 1/2 13 100

Cigars and cigarettes are now offered for sale in every town, village, and hamlet of the Islands, and their manufacture for the immense home consumption (which, of cigars, is about one-third of the whole output), and to supply the demand for export, const.i.tutes an important branch of trade, giving employment to thousands of operatives.

CHAPTER XVIII

Sundry Forest and Farm Produce Maize--Cacao--Coprah, Etc.

Maize (_Zea mays_), or "Indian Corn," forms the staple article of food in lieu of rice in a limited number of districts, particularly in the South, although as a rule this latter cereal is preferred.

Many agriculturists alternate their crops with that of maize, which, it is said, does not impoverish the land to any appreciable extent. There is no great demand for this grain, and it is generally cultivated rather as an article for consumption in the grower's household than for trade. Planted in good land it gives about 200-fold, and two crops in the year = 400-fold per annum; but the setting out of one caban of maize grain occupies five times the surface required for the planting of the same measure of rice grain. An ordinary caban of land is 8,000 square Spanish yards (_vide_ Land Measure, p. 271), and this superficie derives its denomination from the fact that it is the average area occupied by the planting out of one caban measure of rice grain. The maize caban of land is quite a special measure, and is equal to 5 rice cabans. Estimating, therefore, the average yield of rice-paddy to be 50 cabanes measure per ordinary caban of land, the same superficie, were it suitable for maize-raising, would give one-fifth of 400-fold per annum = 80 cabanes measure of maize per rice caban of land.

The current price of maize, taking the average in several provinces, is rarely above that of paddy for the same measure, whilst it is often lower, according to the demand, which is influenced by the custom of the natives in the vicinity where it is offered for sale.

It is eaten after being pulverized between stone or hardwood slabs with the surfaces set horizontally, the upper one being caused to revolve on the lower one, which is stationary. In many village market-places one sees heads of maize roasted and exposed for sale. This is of a special quality, grown in alluvial soil--the intervals of rivers which overflow at certain seasons of the year. Three crops per annum are obtainable on land of this kind, so that the supply is constant all the year round. Before the American occupation, the price of the raw maize-heads to the market-sellers was about 60 cuartos per 100, which they retailed out roasted at one cuarto each (3 1/2 cuartos equal about one penny); the profit was therefore proportionately large when local festivities created a demand.

The _Cacao-tree_--(_Theobroma cacao_, or "Food of the G.o.ds," as Linnaeus called it)--a native of Central America, flourishes in these Islands in the hot and damp districts.

It is said to have been imported into the Philippines towards the end of the 17th century from Mexico, where it has been in very ancient use. Gaspar de San Agustin records the following [141]:--"In the year 1670 a navigator, Pedro Brabo de Lagunas, brought from Acapulco a pot containing a cacao-plant which he gave to his brother, Bartolome Brabo, a priest in Camarines, from whom it was stolen by a Lipa native, Juan del Aguila, who hid it and took care of it, and from it was propagated all the original Philippine stock."

Outside the tropics the tree will grow in some places, but gives no fruit. The Philippine quality is very good, and compares favourably with that of other countries, the best being produced between lat.i.tudes 11 and 12 N.

The cultivation of cacao is an extremely risky and delicate business, as, often when the planter's hopes are about to be realized, a slight storm will throw down the almost-ripened fruit in a day. A disease sometimes attacks the roots and spreads through a plantation. It would be imprudent, therefore, to devote one's time exclusively to the cultivation of this product at the risk of almost instantaneous ruin. Usually, the Philippine agriculturist rightly regards cacao only as a useful adjunct to his other crops. In the aspect of a cacao plantation there is nothing specially attractive. The tree itself is not pretty. The natives who grow the fruit usually make their own chocolate at home by roasting the beans over a slow fire, and after separating them from their husks (like almond-skins), they pound them with wet sugar, etc., into a paste, using a kind of rolling-pin on a concave block of wood. The roasted beans should be made into chocolate at once, as by exposure to the air they lose flavour. Small quant.i.ties of cacao are sent to Spain, but the consumption in the Colony, when made into chocolate [142] by adding sugar, vanilla, cinnamon, etc., to counteract the natural bitterness of the bean, is considerable. In making the paste, a large quant.i.ty of sugar is added, varying from one-third of its weight to equal parts, whilst one pod of vanilla is sufficient for 1 1/2 lbs. of cacao. Chocolate is often adulterated with roasted rice and _Pili_ nuts. The roasted _Pili_ nut alone has a very agreeable almond taste. As a beverage, chocolate is in great favour with the Spaniards and half-castes and the better cla.s.s of natives. In every household of any pretensions the afternoon caller is invited to "merendar con chocolate," which corresponds to the English "5 o'clock tea."

The cacao-beans or kernels lie in a fruit something like a gherkin, about 5 inches long and 3 inches in diameter, and of a dark reddish colour when ripe. The tree bears its fruit on the main branches, or on the trunk itself, but never on twigs or thin branches. The fruit contains from 15 to 25 beans, in regular rows, with pulpy divisions between them like a water-melon. The kernels are about the size, shape, and colour of almonds, obtuse at one end, and contain a fatty or oily matter to the extent of one-half their weight. In order to make "soluble cocoa" as sold in Europe this fatty substance is extracted.

The beans are planted out at short distances in orchards, or in the garden surrounding the owner's dwelling. The tree, in this Colony, does not attain a great height--usually up to 10 feet--whereas in its natural soil it grows up to 30 feet at least. Like coffee, it bears fruit in the fourth year, and reaches maturity in the sixth year. The fair annual yield of a tree, if not damaged by storms or insects, would be about three pints measure of beans, which always find a ready sale. The tree is most delicate; a slight laceration of the root, or stagnant water near it, may kill it; it needs a moisture-laden sultry air, which, however, must not exceed 75 Fahr.

If all went well with the crop, large profits might accrue to the cacao-planter, but it rarely happens (perhaps never) during the six months of fruit-ripening that losses are not sustained by hurricanes, disease in the tree, the depredations of parrots, monkeys, rats, and other vermin, etc. Practically speaking, cacao-planting should only be undertaken in this Colony by agriculturists who have spare capital and can afford to lose a crop one year to make up for it in the next. The venture pays handsomely in fortunate seasons, but it is not the line of planting to be taken up by hand-to-mouth colonists who must seek immediate returns, nor as a sole occupation.