The Philippines: Past and Present Volume II Part 40

The balance of trade with the more important countries from which we get these products is heavily against us, as is shown by the following table in which I have included Switzerland, not because we get tropical or sub-tropical products from that country, but because it furnishes us embroideries, etc., which could be very cheaply produced in the Philippines. The figures are for the fiscal year ended June 30, 1913:--

---------------+--------------------+------------------+----------------- | | | Balance against | U. S. Imports from | U. S. Exports to | U. S.

---------------+--------------------+------------------+----------------- Brazil | $120,155,855 | $42,638,467 | $77,517,388 Cuba | 126,088,173 | 70,581,154 | 55,507,019 British E. I. | 116,178,182 | 15,108,956 | 101,069,226 j.a.pan | 91,633,240 | 57,741,815 | 33,891,425 China | 39,010,800 | 21,326,834 | 17,683,966 Switzerland | 23,260,180 | 826,549 | 22,433,631 Mexico | 77,543,842 | 54,571,584 | 22,972,258 Colombia | 15,992,321 | 7,397,696 | 8,594,625 Venezuela | 10,852,331 | 5,737,118 | 5,115,213 Egypt | 19,907,828 | 1,660,833 | 18,246,995 +--------------------+------------------+----------------- | $640,622,752 | $277,591,006 | $363,031,746 ---------------+--------------------+------------------+-----------------

There is no such relationship with the Philippines, which during 1912 imported $20,770,536 worth of merchandise from the United States to offset the $21,619,686 worth shipped to that country.

The Philippines could readily produce all of these products in quant.i.ties sufficient to meet the demands of the United States if there were proper development of the resources of the islands, which have rich land, good labour and suitable climate, but lack capital and competent, skilled supervision.

The situation has been admirably summed up in the following statement issued some time since by the Manila Merchants' a.s.sociation:--

"The Philippines will consume of imported commodities what they are able to pay for. Their purchasing capacity will always be measured by their production of export commodities. There is nothing that they produce, or are adapted to produce, that the United States is not at present under the necessity of buying from foreign countries whose import trade it does not, and never will, control. Thus it cannot hope for such advantages in other fields yielding tropical products as it already possesses in these Islands."

The Philippines should furnish the bulk of the tropical products imported into the United States. The commerce between the two countries should in the very near future increase to $100,000,000 per year each way and should go on increasing more and more rapidly thereafter.

CHAPTER x.x.xIV

PEACE AND PROSPERITY

Unexampled material prosperity has come to the islands, partly as a result of the establishment of peace, and the improvement in means of communication; partly from a very different cause.

Among other dire calamities which he says have befallen the Philippines Blount includes "tariff-wrought poverty," [184] and he roundly scores the Congress of the United States for its att.i.tude toward the suffering Filipino.

As a simple matter of fact, tariff legislation enacted by Congress has been the commercial salvation of the islands. The tariff law of 1909, known as the Payne Bill, was pa.s.sed August 5, 1909, and went into effect sixty days thereafter. In order to make the effect of this act more apparent, the figures from July 1, 1909, in the following statistical tables are printed in bold-faced type. These tables speak for themselves, very loudly.

Internal-Revenue Statistics

-----------+--------------+----------++-------------+------------+-------------- | Total | || | Total | Increase (+) Fiscal Year| Collections | Increase || Fiscal Year |Collections | or | | || | | Decrease (-) -----------+--------------+----------++-------------+------------+-------------- | | Per Cent || | | Per Cent 1906 [185] | $4,434,364 | -- || 1910 |$7,160,810 | +22 1907 | 4,729,515 | 7 || 1911 | 7,922,787 | +11 1908 | 5,542,022 | 17 || 1912 | 8,389,929 | + 6 1909 | 5,871,267 | 6 || 1913 |9,035,922 | + 8 -----------+--------------+----------++-------------+------------+--------------

Trade with the United States

----------------------+------------------+----------------+---------------- | Imports from the | Exports to the | Fiscal Year | United States | United States | Total ----------------------+------------------+----------------+---------------- 1899 | $1,150,613 | $3,540,894 | $4,691,507 1900 | 1,656,469 | 3,635,160 | 5,291,629 1901 | 2,666,930 | 2,572,021 | 5,238,951 1902 | 4,035,243 | 7,871,743 | 11,906,986 1903 | 3,944,082 | 13,863,059 | 17,807,141 1904 | 4,843,207 | 11,102,860 | 15,946,067 1905 | 5,839,512 | 15,678,875 | 21,518,387 1906 | 4,333,917 | 11,580,569 | 15,914,486 1907 | 5,155,478 | 12,082,364 | 17,237,842 1908 | 5,079,670 | 10,332,116 | 15,411,786 1909 | 4,693,831 | 10,154,087 | 14,847,918 1910 | 10,775,301 | 18,703,083 | 29,478,384 1911 | 19,483,658 | 16,716,956 | 36,200,614 1912 | 20,970,536 | 21,619,686 | 42,390,222 1913 (at the rate of) | 26,264,218 | 23,573,865 | 49,838,083[186]

Total Trade, including that with the United States

Column headings: FY: Fiscal Year; ID: Increase (+) or Decrease (-); PC: Per Cent

-----+-------------------+--------------------+-------------+------------------ | | | | Foreign Tonnage | Imports | Exports | Total | Cleared FY +-------------+-----+-------------+------+ Customs +-----------+------ | Value | ID | Value | ID | Collections | Amount | ID -----+-------------+-----+-------------+------+-------------+-----------+------ | | PC | | PC | | | PC 1899 | $13,116,567 | -- | $14,640,162 | -- | $3,106,380 | 336,550 | -- 1900 | 20,601,436 | +57 | 19,821,347 | +35 | 5,542,289 | 636,034 | +89 1901 | 30,276,200 | +47 | 23,222,348 | +17 | 8,982,813 | 987,094 | +55 1902 | 32,029,357 | + 6 | 24,544,858 | + 6 | 8,528,938 | 1,104,968 | +12 1903 | 32,978,445 | + 3 | 33,150,120 | +35 | 9,540,706 | 1,542,200 | +40 1904 | 33,221,251 | + 1 | 30,226,127 | - 9 | 8,493,868 | 1,542,138 | -- 1905 | 30,879,048 | - 7 | 32,355,865 | + 7 | 8,263,444 | 1,417,396 | - 8 1906 | 25,799,290 | -16 | 31,918,542 | - 1 | 7,553,206 | 1,455,055 | + 3 1907 | 28,786,063 | +12 | 33,721,767 | + 6 | 8,194,708 | 1,293,266 | -11 1908 | 30,918,745 | + 7 | 32,829,816 | - 3 | 8,318,020 | 1,464,448 | +13 1909 | 27,794,482 | -10 | 31,044,458 | - 5 | 8,539,098 | 1,392,333 | - 5 1910 | 37,067,630 | +33 | 39,717,960 | +28 | 8,286,073 | 1,715,268 | +23 1911 | 49,833,722 | +34 | 39,778,629 | +0.2 | 8,678,810 | 1,808,308 | +15 1912 | 54,549,980 | + 9 | 50,319,836 | +26 | 9,363,296 | 1,939,079 | + 7 1913 | 56,327,533 | +11 | 56,683,326 | +17 | 8,246,026 | 1,868,811 | - 4 -----+-------------+-----+-------------+------+-------------+-----------+------

------------+---------------+-------------------+----------------- | Receipts from | Amounts of | | Percentage | Business on which | Increase (+) Fiscal Year | Tax on | Percentage Tax | or Decrease (-) | Business | is Collected | ------------+---------------+-------------------+----------------- | | | Per Cent 1906 | $666,996 | $200,098,983 | -- 1907 | 677,847 | 203,354,298 | + 2 1908 | 643,707 | 193,112,160 | - 5 1909 | 631,877 | 189,563,361 | - 2 1910 | 759,718 | 227,915,673 | +20 1911 | 885,804 | 265,741,443 | +17 1912 | 951,775 | 285,532,500 | + 7 1913 | 1,110,000 | 333,000,000 | +17 ------------+---------------+-------------------+-----------------

The Philippine government collects as internal revenue one-third of one per cent of the gross business done by merchants and manufacturers in the islands. The fiscal year ending June 30, 1909, was the last before the opening of free trade with the United States. The figures for the four subsequent years therefore show the resulting stimulus to business.

The gross business on which the percentage tax was collected in 1909 was $190,000,000 (P380,000,000). The increases over that year have been:--

------+---------------------------------+------------- | Increases over 1909 | +------------------+--------------+ Percentage Year | United States | Philippine | of Increase | Currency | Currency | ------+------------------+--------------+------------- 1910 | $38,000,000 | P76,000,000 | 20.0 1911 | 76,000,000 | 152,000,000 | 40.0 1912 | 96,000,000 | 192,000,000 | 50.5 1913 | 143,000,000[187]| 286,000,000 | 75.3 +------------------+--------------+------------- | $353,000,000[187]| P706,000,000 | ------+------------------+--------------+-------------

The gross business increased by a fifth in one year; by two-fifths in two years; by more than a half in three years; and by more than three-quarters in four years.

In the year 1909 the total exports and imports of the Philippine Islands amounted to $59,000,000 (P118,000,000). The increases over that year have been:--

------+----------------------------------+------------- | Increases over 1909 | +-------------------+--------------+ Percentage Year | United States | Philippine | of Increase | Currency | Currency | ------+-------------------+--------------+------------- 1910 | $18,000,000 | P36,000,000 | 30.5 1911 | 31,000,000 | 62,000,000 | 52.5 1912 | 46,000,000 | 92,000,000 | 77.9 1913 | 61,000,000[188]| 122,000,000 | 103.4 +-------------------+--------------+------------- | $156,000,000 | P312,000,000 | ------+-------------------+--------------+-------------

The total trade increased by nearly one-third in one year; by more than a half in two years; by more than three-quarters in three years; and more than doubled in four years.

---------------------------------------+---------------+---------------- | United States | Philippine | Currency | Currency ---------------------------------------+---------------+---------------- Total increase of business as above | $353,000,000 | P706,000,000 Total increase of trade as above | 156,000,000 | 312,000,000 +---------------+---------------- Total increase of business and trade | $509,000,000 | P1,018,000,000 ---------------------------------------+---------------+----------------

An attempt has been made to make political capital out of one of the heavy drops in hemp values. [189]

It is astonishing how fully Providence sometimes squares accounts with the falsifier. Whatever may be thought of the advisability or inadvisability of the hemp duty rebate, there is no escape from the conclusion that it does not determine the price of hemp. While it is true that there has been a time during the past two years when the hemp grower received half, or less than half, the price for his product which he obtained ten years ago, it is also true that during the latter part of this same period he has received very much higher prices than either he or any of his ancestors ever before obtained. This apart from the fact that the price ten years ago was quite abnormal, due to crop shortage resulting from a bad state of public order. It is a poor rule that does not work both ways. If the hemp rebate is responsible for the recent slump in prices, it must also be responsible for their having later "kicked the beam."

The facts set forth in the following tables are also significant of improved conditions:--

Banking

-------------+--------------+----------------- | Total | Fiscal Year | Resources of | Increase (+) | Commercial | or Decrease (-) | Banks | -------------+--------------+----------------- | | Per Cent 1906 | $15,351,690 | 1907 | 17,054,358 | +11 1908 | 17,454,214 | + 2 1909 | 18,138,425 | + 4 1910 | 22,856,455 | +26 1911 | 24,557,697 | + 7 1912 | 35,885,728 | +46 1913 | 31,210,177 | -13 -------------+--------------+-----------------

Postal Savings Bank

-------------+---------------------+----------------------------- | Depositors in the | Total Amount Due Depositors Fiscal Year | Postal Savings Bank | at Close of Year +--------+------------+--------------+-------------- | Number | Increase | Amount | Increase -------------+--------+------------+--------------+-------------- | | Per Cent | | Per Cent 1907 [190] | 2,331 | | $254,731 | 1908 | 5,389 | 131 | 515,997 | 102 1909 | 8,782 | 63 | 724,479 | 40 1910 | 13,102 | 49 | 839,123 | 16 1911 | 28,804 | 120 | 1,049,737 | 25 1912 | 35,802 | 24 | 1,194,493 | 14 1913 [191] | 38,075 | | 1,252,189 | -------------+--------+------------+--------------+--------------

Coastwise Tonnage Cleared