NATIVE PRODUCE.
The Leyes de Indias emphatically recognize the wrongs and injuries
of which the Indians are constantly the victims, and seek to furnish
remedies against them: they annul dishonest contracts--they order the
authorities rigorously to punish acts of oppression--they declare
that the transactions of the Spanish settlers have frequently been
"the ruin of the Indians"--they point out the mischiefs produced by
the avarice in some cases, and inaction in others, of the mestizos,
who are commonly the go-betweens in bargains of colonists with
natives. The local ordenanzas, which are numerous and elaborate,
have for their object to assure to the Indian the fruits of his
labours--to protect him against his own imprudence and the usurious
exactions of those to whom he applies in his difficulties; they
provide against the usurpation of his lands, declare the sovereign
the rightful owner of property which there are no heirs to claim,
and insist that everywhere the Indian shall draw from the soil he
cultivates the means of comfortable subsistence: the accumulation
of properties acquired from the Indians by ecclesiastical bodies is
prohibited, notwithstanding which prohibition enormous estates are
held by the monkish fraternities. There are also arrangements for
setting apart "common lands" for general use, independently of private
estates. Many of the provisions are of so vague a character as to
insure their non-observance, and others so particular and special in
their requirements as to make their enforcement impossible. The 71st
article, for example, compels the Indians "to plant useful trees,
suited to the soil"--to sow wheat, rice, maize, vegetables, cotton,
pepper, &c., in proper localities--to maintain "every species of
appropriate cattle"--to have "fruits growing in their gardens and
orchards round their houses"--to keep "at least twelve hens and one
cock" (a very superfluous piece of legislation), and one "female
sucking pig;" they must be encouraged to manufacture cloths and
cordage; and failing in these duties for the space of two years,
they are to lose their lands, which, by public proclamation,
shall be appropriated to others. There is, in fact, no absolute
territorial right of property among the Indians. It can always be
seized and reappropriated by the Spanish authorities. Lands are held
on condition that they are cultivated. There are lands possessed
by Spaniards and by corporations of the clergy principally, which
pay a nominal rental to the crown, but the rental is so small as
to be of no account. There is no difficulty in obtaining gratuitous
concessions of territorial surface on the sole obligation of bringing
it into cultivation. Long usage and long possession have no doubt
created supposed rights, which are able to maintain themselves even
against competing private claims or the obvious requirements of public
utility. Questions arise as to what is meant by "cultivation," and
the country is full of controversies and lawsuits, of which land is
generally the subject-matter. The larger proprietors constantly speak
of the difficulty of obtaining continuous labour--of the necessity of
perpetual advances to the peasant--of the robbery of the ripe harvests
when raised. Hence they are accustomed to underlet their lands to petty
cultivators, who bring small and unsatisfactory returns to the owners
and to the market. They complain of the jealousy and ill-will of the
Indians, their intrigues and open resistance to foreign settlers, and
of the too indulgent character of the "Law of the Indies." It appears
to me that there is abundant field for advantageous agricultural
experiments, not perhaps so much in the immediate vicinity of large and
populous places, as on the vast tracts of uncared-for territory, which
demand nothing but attention and capital, perseverance and knowledge,
to render a prodigal return. No doubt the agriculturist should have
possession absolutely and irrevocably secured to him. Once installed
by the government he must be protected against all molestation of his
title. I do not believe in the invincible inertness of the Indians
when they are properly encouraged. I heard of a native in one of the
most distant villages I visited in Pinay, who had been recommended
by a friar to take to sugar-growing. He did so, and obtained five
hundred dollars for the produce which he, for the first time, took
down to Iloilo. He will get a thousand the second year; and others
were following his example. A little additional labour produces
so much that the smallest impulse gives great results, especially
where employed over a vast extent. But Indian indolence is not only
prejudicial from the little assistance it offers to agricultural
activity in preparing, sowing, watching and gathering the harvest;
it is unable to furnish any of those greater appliances which must
be considered rather of public than of private concern. Hence the
absence of facilities for irrigation, the imperfect state of the
river navigation, the rarity of canals, the badness of the roads in
so many localities. The seasons bring their floods, and the mountain
torrents create their gullies; but the water escapes into the sea,
and the labourer brings his produce, as best he may, amidst the rocks
and sand and mud which the cataracts have left behind them. I have
seen beasts of burden struggling in vain to extricate themselves,
with their loads, from the gulf into which they had fallen, and in
which they were finally abandoned by their conductors. I have been
carried to populous places in palanquins, whose bearers, sometimes
sixteen in number, were up to their thighs amidst mire, slough,
tangled roots, loose stones and fixed boulders. De Mas says that
the labourer absorbs three-fifths of the gross produce, leaving
two-fifths to the proprietor and capitalist; but the conditions of
labour are so very various that it is difficult to reach any general
conclusion, beyond the undoubted fact that neither capitalist nor
labourer receives anything like the amount of profit which, under a
better system, would be enjoyed by both; that the cost is far greater,
and the returns far smaller, than they should be; and that the common
prosperity suffers from the position of each. Whatever may be said
of the enervating effects of climate and the want of motive to give
activity to industry, it is probable that all nations, even the most
industrious and the most opulent, have passed through their stages of
indolence and inactivity. China affords an example that climate alone
is no insuperable barrier to energetic exertions in all departments
of the field of production, and that the possession of much is no
necessary check upon the desire of obtaining and enjoying more. The
value of lands is very various. De Mas says that the quiñon (of 1,000
square fathoms), in Pangasinan, sells for from 220 to 250 dollars;
in the Laguna, 250 to 300; in Ilocos Sur, 300; in the neighbourhood
of Manila, 1,000. He seems to consider sugar as, on the whole,
the most profitable investment. He gives several tables of the cost
and charges of sundry tropical productions, but the many elements
of uncertainty, the cost of raising, the vicissitudes of climate,
the attacks of insects, the fluctuations in the amount and value of
accessible labour, and all the ebbs and flows of supply and demand,
make all calculations only approximative. His apuntes, however, are
well worth consulting by those interested in detailed inquiry. He gives
as a result of rice cultivation a minimum profit of 24 per cent., a
maximum profit of 76 per cent. per annum. This would seem sufficiently
inviting, especially as the Spaniards are reported to be fonder of
agriculture than of any other pursuit, and fonder of being owners of
lands than of any other property, according to their old refrain:--
"No vessel on the sea,
But the house that's mine for me,
And all the lands around which I've been used to see." [27]
Indigo will render, according to De Mas, 100 per cent. Coffee, on the
same authority, will double its capital in four years. Cocoa returns
90 per cent. Attempts to introduce mulberry cultivation for silk have
had little success, though the specimens sent to Europe have obtained
prizes for their excellent quality. The worms require a more continuous
attention than the Indians are willing to give, and the same may be
said of those spices, nutmegs, cinnamon, and any produce which demands
unremitting care. The spontaneous productions of the Philippines do
not easily obtain the benefit of a more enlightened mode of culture.
The rights of property require thorough investigation and recognition
in a country which has not been surveyed or cadastred; where the
foreign population is migratory and uncertain; where documentary titles
are, for the most part, wanting, and appropriation of the soil has
been little controlled by the supreme authorities; where there is no
land-tax, and the religious bodies hold immense territories generally
underlet to the natives. The smallness of estates necessarily adds
to the cost of production, and it would not be easy to induce wealthy
capitalists to settle unless facilities were given for the acquisition
and cultivation of extensive properties. Such capitalists would
introduce the improvements in agricultural science which are now
wholly wanting; they would bring with them able heads and hands to
conduct, and better instruments to give practical effect to superior
knowledge. A desire is frequently expressed for the formation of
agricultural societies, but these are rather the children than the
parents of progress, and the numerous and respectable body which
already exists in Manila, the "Sociedad Economica," has not been
instrumental in introducing any very important changes. There is in
the Spanish mind too great a disposition to look to "authority" as the
source and support of all reforms; but the best service of authority
in almost all cases of productive industry is non-interference and
inaction; it is not the meddling with, but the leaving matters alone,
that is wanted; it is the removal of restrictions, the supersession
of laws which profess to patronize and protect, but whose patronage
and protection mean the sacrifice of the many to the few. Government,
no doubt, can greatly assist the public weal by the knowledge it
can collect and distribute. Nothing is more desirable than that
the rich territorial capabilities of the Philippines should be
thoroughly explored by efficient scientific inquiry. Geologists,
chemists, mechanicians, botanists, would teach us much respecting
the raw materials of these multitudinous islands, so inviting to the
explorer, and so little explored. Mountains, forests, plains, lakes,
rivers, solicit the investigation, which they could not fail to reward.
Of the indigenous productions found by the Spaniards the dry mountain
rice seems to have been the principal article cultivated by the
Indians for food, the arts of irrigation being little known, and the
mode of culture of the simplest character. The missionaries taught
the Indians to divide their lands, to improve their agriculture,
to store their harvests, and generally to meliorate their condition
by more knowledge and foresight. Maize and wheat were introduced from
America, though for a long time the use of wheaten bread was confined
to the service of the mass. There is now an adequate supply for the
wants of the consumer. Melons, water-melons and various fruits,
peas, pumpkins, onions, cucumbers, garlic and other vegetables,
soon found their way from Mexico to the church gardens, and thence
to more extensive cultivation. Coffee sprang up wild in the island
of Luzon, ungathered by the natives. Tobacco was introduced under
the patronage of the government, and is become the most important
source of revenue. Pepper and cassia grew unnoticed, but the cocoa-nut
tree and the plantain were among the most precious of the Indian's
possessions, and the areca was not less valued. Indigo was indigenous,
and the wild cotton-tree was uncared for; nor can it be other than a
subject of regret that to the present hour so inadequate an attention
has been paid to the natural production of the islands, and means so
little efficient taken for improving their quality or extending their
cultivation. At the present time there are few large estates having
the benefit of well-directed labour and sufficient capital. Of those
possessed by the religious communities little can be expected in the
way of agricultural improvement, but the cultivated lands are generally
in the hands of small native proprietors. Where the labourer is hired,
his daily pay is from a half rial to a rial and a half (3 1/2d. to
10d.), varying in the different provinces.
The quiñon is the ordinary measure of land; it is divided into 10
baletas, these into 100 loanes, which represent 31,250 Castilian
varas. Three labourers are supposed sufficient for the cultivation
of a quiñon. In 1841 the Captain-General Urbiztondo published a
decree encouraging the importation of Chinese agricultural labourers
by landed proprietors, and with a special view to the cultivation
of sugar, indigo and hemp. The decree was expected to produce a
beneficial revolution--it has been a dead letter. Imported labour,
subject to all sorts of restrictions, cannot in the long run compete
with free indigenous labour. The question is a very grave one in its
ramifications and influence on colonial interests, when they come into
the field against the free trade and the free labour of the competing
world. I doubt altogether the powers of the West Indies--dependent upon
imported and costly immigrants--to rival the rich fields of the East,
when capital and activity shall turn to account their feracious soil,
more genial climate, and more economical means of production. Progress
there is but the natural development of the elements which Providence
has allotted to them, whereas in the West India colonies everything
is forced and unnatural, purchased at an immense cost and maintained
by constant sacrifices.