annuals, tariff regulations, etc., are fully listed by the Library
of Congress and Pardo de Tavera, under the headings above noted
for general references on economic matters. The most comprehensive
survey of trade statistics, and one which almost serves the purpose
by itself alone, is contained in the Monthly Summary of Commerce of
the Philippine Islands, for December, 1904, published at Washington by
the Bureau of Insular Affairs. It presents classified tables covering
Philippine imports and exports for the fifty years 1855-1904; they
were prepared from the best available Spanish trade statistics,
reduced to terms of American gold currency at the average rate of
exchange for each year, and, so far as the writer has checked these
figures, they are the most reliable that are presented anywhere. [82]
Among the very few Spanish writings, Azcárraga's Libertad de Comercio
(Madrid, 1872) and Jimeno Agius's Población y comercio (1884) deserve
special mention, also once more the useful little book of Sancianco y
Goson, for brief but useful data for 1868-80 in its appendices. [83]
For 1891-98, La Política de España en Filipinas has some scattering
figures on trade and commerce, year by year, highly unsatisfactory for
the most part. Besides the general references upon the Spanish customs
tariffs, one will find in Senate Document no. 134, 57th Congress,
1st session (Washington, 1902), in its Exhibit D, a comparison of
the 1901 tariff with the Spanish tariff of 1891. [84]
Currency.--The List of the Library of Congress, under the heading
Finance, cites a few Spanish and foreign treatises on Philippine
currency prior to 1898, and the earlier American official reports
on the subject. One will get more enlightenment upon the actual
conditions prevailing during the last years of Spanish rule from
memoranda and testimony in certain of these American reports than from
any of the printed sources of date earlier than 1898. Nevertheless,
the petition of the Manila Chamber of Commerce in 1895 reproduced in
La Política de España en Filipinas, v, no. 105, brings out in part the
highly unsatisfactory conditions produced by the Spanish government's
inaction and disregard of well-established economic principles. In
ibid., vii, p. 217, is given the text of the decree of April 17, 1897,
providing for the new Philippine silver peso which was beginning to
circulate in the islands when American arms intervened, and which
was proclaimed as a "settlement" of the Philippine currency evils,
yet would obviously not have proved sufficient, unsupported as it was
by provisions to sustain it in the face of the decline of silver. In
much of the loose talk about economic depression in the Philippines
since the wars of 1896-98 and 1899-1901, not enough attention has
been paid to the fact that "hard times" had really begun before,
during 1891-95 particularly, and that an unstable currency and
exchange fluctuations had then played their part in producing these
conditions; also that it was the Filipino laborer and small producer
who was especially mulcted of his due by conditions produced in part
officially and in part by governmental neglect. [85] In addition to
the American documents listed by the Library of Congress, reference
should be made, as regards currency and exchange evils before 1898,
to the survey of the subject by the Schurman Commission (Report of
the Philippine Commission, 1900, i, pp. 142-149), and the testimony
of Manila bankers and business men in the same report (vol. ii);
to magazine articles by Charles A. Conant printed as appendices in
Report of the Commission on International Exchange (Washington, 1903);
and, for a few details on previous conditions, with exchange tables,
to the reports of E. W. Kemmerer, Chief of the Division of Currency,
for 1904 and 1905. [86]
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT--SPANISH ADMINISTRATION
Our object here being primarily the political progress of the Filipino
people, we are concerned incidentally, as it were, with the subject
of Spanish administration considered by itself alone. A good study
of that subject, be it said, is lacking, and it may be recommended
as an opportunity worth improving.
No one who has read even a little about the Philippines and
Filipinos need be told that it is necessary to trace the political
development of this people along two lines--unfortunately, it proved
for Spain, lines that are divergent in considerable degree. Hence
the subdivision of this heading, regarding, first, development
under Spanish Administration and then the Filipino Propaganda,
first of Reform and finally of Revolution. We are concerned in
the first instance, that is, with reforms and progress realized in
consequence of measures "from above." It has already been said that
very considerable progress had been made by the Spanish government
from about 1860 onward, and was being made when the Tagálogs
appealed to arms in 1896. [87] It is also true that the stimulus
to the Filipino reform propaganda came in considerable degree from
the movements toward betterment of the government itself, and from
the agitations for reform in Spanish home politics. [88] But the
development of the Filipino people, social, political, and economic,
proceeded at last more rapidly, or less haltingly at least, than the
progress in reform from above; the reform measures were only partial,
often unpractical or ill-adapted to Philippine conditions; abuses
of administration continued under so-called Liberal periods as well
as in times of full clerical domination; in the action and reaction
of Spanish politics, in which so often are party divisions merely
nominal and superficial, the course of progress was so irregular and
uncertain as to lend justification to the feeling of the Filipinos
that they were being treated with insincerity; and all the while,
in the midst of bitter partisan and religious controversy, conducted
on both sides by writers most rabid and intemperate, the two peoples
were constantly growing apart from each other, and were losing the
mutual good-feeling of past years which, though always superficial
in large part (as in any such domination of one race by another),
had nevertheless had a foundation of genuine esteem.
The administrative organism.--For present purposes, it almost suffices
to refer simply to the List of the Library of Congress under the
headings Finance, Law, Political and Social Economy, and to Pardo de
Tavera's Biblioteca under the names of authors cited in the above List
and the alphabetical headings Aranceles, Balanza, Boletín, Colección,
Disposiciones, Exposición, Guía, Memoria, Proyectos (those of 1870 for
all sorts of reforms proposed after the Spanish Revolution of 1868),
and Reglamentos. The bibliography of Colonization published by the
Library of Congress, besides these special works on the Philippines,
lists also works on Spanish colonies and works on colonization in
general. [89] Of the compilations, annuals, etc., listed in these
bibliographies, special attention may be directed to those cited
under the names of Rodriguez San Pedro (to 1869) and Rodriguez Berriz
(to 1888). The most complete reference work on Spanish legislation,
executive regulations, etc., is the Colección legislativa de España,
and this work contains provisions enacted at Madrid with regard to
the Philippines down to and including 1898. For the full official
record, not only of enactments at Madrid, but of the forms under
which these were carried into effect in the islands themselves, the
Philippine governmental regulations, proclamations, etc., covering
this entire period down to the end of Spanish rule, the official
gazette of the Philippines (published under the name La Gaceta de
Manila, 1860-1898) is the final source; but the writer knows of no
full collection thereof in any library of the United States, though
there is of course one in the archives at Manila. In this connection,
it should be remarked that the governor-general had very wide, and
in some respects not very exactly prescribed, powers, one of the most
indefinite and sweeping of which was that requiring any general law or
special provision of Madrid, before it actually acquired force in the
Philippines, to be published with the governor-general's "cúmplase"
("let it go into effect"). This might be, and usually was, a mere
formality; but it was capable of being used so as at least to postpone
the execution of a legislative decree or ministerial order which was
distasteful to the chief authority of the Philippines, was violently
opposed by the influential interests in the islands (particularly the
ecclesiastical element), or, as happened in some cases, was manifestly
inapplicable to Philippine conditions. Of course, the governor-general
could readily be overruled, but even so, he could, if he desired,
secure thus a delay and possible reconsideration of the matter,
and the frequent changes of party administration in Spain encouraged
delays of this and like sorts, not a few reform decrees remaining thus
dead letters in the Philippines. It is often important, therefore,
to discover not only what was the law or regulation provided for the
Philippines in Madrid, but how it was put into force in the islands,
or if it actually took effect at all. For this purpose, the Official
Guide of the Philippines (Guía de forasteros to 1865, Guía oficial
from 1879 to 1898) supplements in some respects the official gazette
and the collection of Rodriguez Berriz. [90]
Of surveys and summaries of Spanish administration in the Philippines
listed in the Bibliography may be mentioned Cabezas de Herrera's
Apuntes (1883) and Fabié's Ensayo histórico (Madrid, 1896), also
José de la Rosa's La administración pública en Filipinas. [91] In the
compilation by Jesuit fathers published at Washington in 1900 under
the title El archipiélago filipino, there is to be found in vol. i,
a survey of the governmental organization and the various activities
of the government both under civil and ecclesiastical control. This
is reproduced in English in vol. iv of Report of the Philippine
Commission, 1900. In vol. i of this report of the Schurman Commission
(part iv, chapter i, also pp. 122-123) is an abstract of the Spanish
system of government which, so far as the framework of that government
is concerned, serves the purpose for one who can not readily consult
the Spanish official sources from which it was drawn. [92] The major
portion of this abstract is occupied by a translation and summary of
the law reforming the Philippine local governments in 1893, commonly
called the "Maura Law" after the Colonial Minister who promulgated
it. [93] As put in force by Governor-General Blanco, however, it was
somewhat altered and revised, and many of its more promising provisions
for local autonomy had in most towns remained in reality dead letters
up to the time when revolt broke out in the Tagálog provinces in
1896; elections under the new law were suspended, and martial law
established. For this law in its original text and as promulgated
by Blanco, with regulations and model forms for the municipalities,
see Felix M. Roxas's Comentarios al reglamento provisional de las
juntas provinciales (Manila, 1894). [94]
The administration in actual operation.--What most interests us is the
actual working of this machine in Manila, the provinces and towns, and
the works above cited will mostly provide for us only its skeleton on
paper. To make it an effective machine, we must resort to personal
testimony, occasional revelations thrown upon it by such of our
writers as looked beyond mere routine, and perhaps most of all to the
periodical literature of the times. [95] Few of the resident writers
of the old régime thought it was quite patriotic, or would serve their
personal interests, to discuss matters as frankly, for example, as
did Sancianco y Goson. [96] Testimony before the Schurman Commission
(vol. ii of its report) in 1899 brings out, here and there, revelations
as to how the former government was actually administered. [97]
Philippine government reports under American rule bring to light here
and there revelations about the former administration, especially in
fiscal and judicial matters. The customs collections benefited the
treasury far less than they should have done; perhaps fully as much
as was turned in was "absorbed" in one way and another. [98] Special
surtaxes on the customs and port dues were collected at Manila for
the improvement of its harbor from 1880 to 1898, amounting during the
last five years alone to 3,500,000 pesos. Yet the work, when at last
inaugurated, dragged along in desultory fashion and the value of the
breakwater constructed and the equipment in hand in 1898 amounted to
no more than $1,000,000 gold. [99]
Taxation.--No one of the works on administration just cited treats
this subject in a comprehensive or satisfactory manner. The only
special study of the subject that is known to the writer is Carl
C. Plehn's Taxation in the Philippines (Political Science Quarterly,
xvi, pp. 680-711, and xvii, pp. 125-148), and the author of this
excellent survey had to drag his data forth from the official records
and compilations. This survey gives all the most necessary information
as to kinds of taxes, their incidence, and amounts; but for the most
part there lie outside of its scope the questions one wishes to have
answered as to methods of collection and the working of the fiscal
administration in general, the actual receipts and expenditures for
government purposes, and particularly the special local revenues
so far as separate from general revenues. Sancianco y Goson again
helps to fill the gap, as regards the system of taxation prevailing
before the abolition of the tobacco monopoly and the reform of the
tribute and the corvee in 1884. [100] Anyone who has had experience
with Spanish fiscal tables need not be told that they do not always
show what they appear to show. It is thus that the writers who have
reproduced in English since 1898 Philippine budgets for various years
[101] have unwittingly misled their readers as to the real cost of
government under Spain. The figures shown in these budgets were the
totals of net collections (and expenditures), for ordinary purposes,
for the central government of the islands alone. They did not include
the purely local licenses and other taxes, the surcharges on general
taxes for local government (to be expended under supervision of the
central authorities), the percentages that went to collectors, the
other fees forming part or all of the compensation of some judicial and
other officials, special surcharges for port works and other purposes
not covered in the ordinary budget, etc. Naturally, no estimate was
included of the value of the forced-labor levy. The products of
"squeeze" and "pickings," in some cases so fully established as
to be notorious, were of course not included; nevertheless, they
represented part of the cost of government to the people. Finally,
an ecclesiastical establishment, really a part of the government
itself, drew support from the people in many ways beyond what would
have been provided had not the power of government been behind it,
under a system of voluntary contributions, for instance, apart from
the communities which paid rent to the friars as landlords. [102]
The Spanish-Philippine debt of 40,000,000 pesos, incurred in 1897 in
consequence of the insurrection, has not had sufficient notice as
being originally the cause at Paris of the payment of $20,000,000
by the United States to Spain in connection with the clause of the
treaty providing for the cession of the Philippines. Had the islands
remained under Spanish sovereignty, they would have carried this
their first public debt, expended wholly for war purposes, part of
it being loaned for the payment of military operations in Cuba. [103]
Legal and judicial.--In the introduction to the List of the Library of
Congress, under the heading Law, and on the pages of the List cited in
that note will be found the formal bibliography of the subject. [104]
Some references upon the actual conditions of the administration of
justice in the Philippines have already been given. For this purpose,
note also a comparison of the old criminal procedure with that
introduced in 1899 in Military Governor on Civil Affairs (Rept. War
Dept., 1900, i, part 10), pp. 17-20. The compilation of Rafael Morales
y Prieto [105] is also to be specially mentioned for the criminal
law and procedure, 1880 to 1894, and also for an appendix containing
circulars as to judicial fees of various sorts. For brief summaries in
English of the old judicial organizations see Exhibit J of the Report
of the Taft Philippine Commission, 1900, a résumé by Chief Justice
Arellano, especially for a statement as to the conflict of laws and
codes, old and new, and as to the relative degree of authority of
these codes; and Census of the Philippine Islands (Washington, 1905),
chapter on the Judiciary. [106] Justice Willard's brief Notes on the
Spanish Civil Code (Manila, 1903) also merits consultation.
Science and material resources.--So far as the scientific work of
the period has a direct bearing upon our present purposes, it relates
rather to the section on Economic Development. But the materials are
sufficiently listed in the Bibliography, and the subject is introduced
here only to say that this is one of the lines along which, in recent
years, Spanish administration was beginning to make progress. This
was true, however, chiefly of forestry and mineralogy, and was due
almost entirely to the Spanish officials Abella y Casariego, Centeno y
García, and Sebastian Vidal y Soler, and to the stimulus of the work of
foreign investigators, especially Germans. The work of the Jesuits in
meteorology should also be specially mentioned. It will be noted that
little headway was made in the matter most vital for the Philippines,
viz., agriculture; nor can we say that even a beginning was made in
industrial chemistry or other researches calculated to foster either
incipient or undeveloped industries, while the public health service
was lamentably defective and scientific research relating thereto
amounted practically to nothing. Reference may be made to the already
large list of publications of the present Philippine government's
Bureau of Science, Board of Health, Agriculture, Forestry, and Mining
bureaus as showing the state of scientific investigation before 1898,
also for bibliographical data. [107]
Moros and pagan peoples.--Ethnology as a science does not claim a
place here. [108] We are concerned with the Spanish advance toward
the establishment of effective control over large areas either partly
occupied or kept in a wild state of nature by backward or warring
tribes; though considerable headway was made in the last half of the
nineteenth century, Spanish sovereignty over these areas was after
all only nominal in 1898. Moreover, especially as regards the Moros,
the materials and bibliography have been presented in other volumes
of this series. [109] Attention is called to a useful compilation of
Spanish campaigns against the Moros by Lieut. W. E. W. McKinley, [110]
especially for its reviews of Malcampo's campaign of 1876, Terrero's
of 1886-87, Weyler's of 1888-91, and Blanco's of 1894-96. [111]
The American military reports from 1899 to date and reports on the
Moro Province since 1903 contain scattered data on Spanish relations
with the Moros and also the hill tribes of Mindanao. Similarly, the
reports and publications of the Philippine Ethnological Survey from
1902 to date contain references to Spanish contact in recent years
with the pagan peoples of Luzón, Mindoro, and Palawan. [112]
POLITICAL DEVELOPMENT--FILIPINO PROPAGANDA AND REVOLUTION
Religious Question.--It need scarcely be repeated that the "friar
controversy" enters not only into this, but every phase of our
discussion, and in one form or another, is touched upon in almost
all our sources of information about the Philippines. For one thing,
however, we are not here concerned with a historical judgment upon
the work of the friars in the Philippines, though it is proper to
note that there has of late been evident a reaction in their favor
from the tendency common in the United States immediately after 1898
to judge them wholly by recent events, and their work is now more
fairly viewed in its three-century perspective. We are, moreover,
excused from entering upon a comprehensive survey of literature about
the friars and their work in general by the fact that the subject has
been constantly to the fore throughout this series. What is needed
here is only the citation, supplementary to the Bibliography and to
the great accumulation of bibliographical references in other volumes
of this series, of certain titles easily overlooked (some because of
recent publication) and of such special passages in all these works
as elucidate particular matters of importance.
As with all the political literature of the Philippines, 1860-1898, the
reader is to be warned against the exaggerations of both sides. Always
and everywhere, religious privileges and prejudices have aroused
discussion both violent and intolerant; and in this case we find,
on one side, a defense of religious and ecclesiastical privileges of
a medieval character and in a tone and temper inherited from those
times. Nor, even setting the purely ecclesiastical and religious
questions aside, need we expect to find in this literature any
review or discussion written in a calm and scientific spirit. Spanish
political literature is almost entirely polemic, and Spanish polemics
is sui generis. So, as with the friars and their defenders, we
find here the principles of modern political science, which appeal
properly to cool reason and the tolerance of liberalism, put forward
by Spaniards and Filipinos in a language and with a spirit that hark
back to times which we have come to think of as far remote from ours.
The bitterness of tone, the intolerance and contempt of the Filipino,
and the flaunting of "race superiority," which came to characterize
the writings of the friars and their defenders in this period--and
which played no small part in leading the Filipinos to the brink of
separation--are shown to the full in the numbers of La Política de
España en Filipinas, 1891-98. The purpose of this organ was to combat
in Spain the program of those who would further liberalize the régime
of society and government in the Philippines. W. E. Retana, at first an
associate editor with José Feced, was after 1895 its sole editor. Just
what were the relations of the Madrid establishments of the Philippine
religious orders with the business department of this periodical is not
known; but it is admitted that "the friars helped by subscriptions"
at least, and it has generally been supposed that their connection
with it was really closer, in short that it was practically an organ
of theirs. [113] In it will be found the pro-friar and anti-liberal
account and view of events and matters current during the years of its
publication, and also various studies of earlier years written from
the same point of view. The case for the friars, especially for the
period from 1863 on, may also be found quite typically set forth in
a single volume of five hundred pages by a Philippine Augustinian,
Padre Eladio Zamora (Las corporaciones religiosas en Filipinas,
Valladolid, 1901). [114] Testimony given before Hon. William H. Taft
in 1900 regarding the friars and their part in the old régime, by the
Spanish archbishop and heads of the orders themselves as well as by
Filipinos on the other side will be found in Senate Document no. 190,
56th Congress, 2nd session.
Friars' Estates.--The above document, which is entitled Lands
held for ecclesiastical or religious uses in the Philippines, also
gives information on the friars' rural estates. One will find no
comprehensive treatment of this subject before 1898, though it is
usually touched upon, often with great inaccuracy, in the anti-friar
pamphlets. For further data upon the subject in American official
reports, see: Report of War Department, 1900, i, part 4, pp. 502-508
(General Otis); Report of Taft Philippine Commission, 1900, pp. 23-33;
ibid., 1903, i, Exhibits F, G, H, and I; ibid., 1904, i, Exhibit I
(Report on Examination of Titles to Friars' Estates); and Report of
Secretary of War, 1902, appendix O (Rome negotiations of 1902). [115]