of the Spaniards, all the natives lived in their villages, applying
themselves to the sowing of their crops and the care of their
vineyards, and to the pressing of wine; others planting cotton,
or raising poultry and swine, so that all were at work; moreover,
the chiefs were obeyed and respected, and the entire country well
provided for. But all this has disappeared since the coming of the
Spaniards." (Testimony of Nicolas Ramos, chief of Cubao village
and governor of same, under oath, in compliance with order of
G. P. Dasmariñas "forbidding" the Indians to wear Chinese stuff;
April 9, 1591.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 8, p. 87.)
[71] "* * * Many islands and villages are devastated and almost wiped
out, partly by the Spaniards or because of them, and partly by famines
of which, or at the beginning of them, the Spaniards were the reason;
for either by fear or to get rid of the Spaniards the natives NEGLECTED
THEIR SOWING, and when they wished to sow then anguish came to them,
and consequently many people have died of hunger." (Augustinian
Memoranda, 1373.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 34, p. 279.)
"After the end of the war the need of the city began, for, because
of not having Sangleys who worked at the trades, and brought in
all the provisions, there was no food, nor any shoes to wear,
not even at excessive prices. The native Indians are very far from
exercising those trades, and have even forgotten much of farming,
and the raising of fowls, cattle, and cotton, and the weaving of
cloth, which they used to do in the days of their paganism and for
a long time after the conquest of the country. In addition to this,
people thought that Chinese vessels would not come to the islands
with food and merchandise, on account of the late revolution. * * *"
(Antonio de Morga's Sucesos, 1601.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 42-43).
[72] In La Indolencia, Rizal further says:
"It was necessary to subject the people either by cajolery or force;
there were fights, there was slaughter; those who had submitted
peacefully seemed to repent of it; insurrections were suspected,
and some occurred; naturally there were executions, and many capable
laborers perished. Add to this condition of disorder the invasion of
Limahong, add the continual wars into which the inhabitants of the
Philippines were plunged to maintain the honor of Spain, to extend
the sway of her flag in Borneo, in the Moluccas and in Indo-China;
to repel the Dutch foe: costly wars, fruitless expeditions, in which
each time thousands and thousands of native archers and rowers were
recorded to have embarked, but whether they returned to their homes was
never stated. Like the tribute that once upon a time Greece sent to the
Minotaur of Crete, the Philippine youth embarked for the expedition,
saying good-by to their country forever: on their horizon were the
stormy sea, the interminable wars, the rash expeditions. Wherefore,
Gaspar de San Agustin says: 'Although anciently there were in this
town of Dumangas many people, in the course of time they have very
greatly diminished because the natives are the best sailors and most
skillful rowers on the whole coast, and so the governors in the port
of Iloilo take most of the people from this town for the ships that
they send abroad. * * * When the Spaniards reached this island (Panay)
it is said that there were on it more than fifty thousand families;
but these diminished greatly; * * * and at present they may amount
to some fourteen thousand tributaries.' From fifty thousand families
to fourteen thousand tributaries in little over half a century!
We would never get through, had we to quote all the evidence of the
authors regarding the frightful diminution of the inhabitants of the
Philippines in the first years after the discovery. In the time of
their first bishop, that is, ten years after Legaspi, Philip II said
that they had been reduced to less than two-thirds."
[73] La Indolencia de los Filipinos:
"In order to make headway against so many calamities, to secure their
sovereignty and take the offensive in these disastrous contests, to
isolate the warlike Sulus from their neighbors in the south, to care
for the needs of the empire of the Indies (for one of the reasons why
the Philippines were kept, as contemporary documents prove, was their
strategical position between New Spain and the Indies), to wrest from
the Dutch their growing colonies of the Moluccas and get rid of some
troublesome neighbors, to maintain, in short, the trade of China with
New Spain, it was necessary to construct new and large ships which,
as we have seen, costly as they were to the country for their equipment
and the rowers they required, were not less so because of the manner in
which they were constructed. Fernando de los Rios Coronel, who fought
in these wars and later turned priest, speaking of these King's ships,
said: 'As they were so large the timber needed was scarcely to be
found in the forests (of the Philippines!), and thus it was necessary
to seek it with great difficulty in the most remote of them, where,
once found, in order to haul and convey it to the shipyard the towns
of the surrounding country had to be depopulated of natives, who get it
out with immense labor, damage, and cost to them. The natives furnished
the masts for a galleon, according to the assertion of the Franciscans,
and I heard the governor of the province where they were cut, which
is Laguna de Bay, say that to haul them seven leagues over very broken
mountains 6,000 natives were engaged three months, without furnishing
them food, which the wretched native had to seek for himself.'
"And Gaspar de San Agustin says: 'In these times (1690), Bacolor has
not the people that it had in the past, because of the uprising in
that province when Don Sabiniano Manrique de Lara was Governor of
these islands and because of the continual labor of cutting limber
for his Majesty's shipyards, WHICH HINDERS THEM FROM CULTIVATING THE
VERY FERTILE PLAIN THEY HAVE'."
[74] "The Indians, upon seeing that wealth excited the rapacity of
the encomenderos and soldiers, abandoned the working of the mines,
and the religious historians assert that they counseled them to a
similar action in order to free them from annoyances. Nevertheless,
according to Colin (who was 'informed by well-disposed natives'),
more than 100,000 pesos of gold annually, conservatively stated,
was taken from the mines during his time, after eighty years of
abandonment. According to a 'manuscript of a grave person who had
lived long in these islands,' the first tribute of the two provinces
of Ilocos and Pangasinan alone amounted to 109,500 pesos. A single
encomendero, in 1587, sent 3,000 taheles of gold in the 'Santa Ana,'
which was captured by Cavendish." (Rizal's Notes to Antonio de Morga's
Sucesos, 1609, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 101.)
"If this is not sufficient to explain the depopulation of the islands
and the abandonment of industry, agriculture and commerce, then
add 'the natives who were executed, those who left their wives and
children and fled in disgust to the mountains, those who were sold
into slavery to pay the taxes levied upon them,' as Fernando de los
Rios Coronel says; add to all this what Philip II said in reprimanding
Bishop Salazar about 'natives sold by some encomenderos to others,
those flogged to death, the women who are crushed to death by their
heavy burdens, those who sleep in the fields and there bear and nurse
their children and die bitten by poisonous vermin, the many who are
executed and left to die of hunger and those who eat poisonous herbs *
* * and the mothers who kill their children in bearing them,' and you
will understand how in less than thirty years the population of the
Philippines was reduced one-third. We are not saying this: it was said
by Gaspar de San Agustin, the preeminently anti-Filipino Augustinian,
and he confirms it throughout the rest of his work by speaking every
moment of the state of neglect in which lay the farms and fields
once so flourishing and so well cultivated, the towns thinned that
had formerly been inhabited by many leading families!
"How is it strange, then, that discouragement may have been infused
into the spirit of the inhabitants of the Philippines, when in the
midst of so many calamities they did not know whether they would see
sprout the seed they were planting, whether their field was going to
be their grave or their crop would go to feed their executioner? What
is there strange in it, when we see the pious but impotent friars of
that time trying to free their poor parishioners from the tyranny
of the encomenderos by advising them to stop work in the mines,
to abandon their commerce, to break up their looms, pointing out to
them heaven for their whole hope, preparing them for death as their
only consolation?"--(La Indolencia.--Rizal.)
[75] "* * * Doubtless if we could see the whole character of the
Spanish rule in those decades, we should see that the actual condition
of the Filipino had improved and his grade of culture had risen. No one
can estimate the actual good that comes to a people in being brought
under the power of a government able to maintain peace and dispense
justice. Taxation is sometimes grievous, corruption without excuse;
but almost anything is better than anarchy.
"Before the coming of the Spaniards, it seems unquestionable that the
Filipinos suffered greatly under two terrible grievances that afflict
barbarous society--in the first place, warfare, with its murder,
pillage, and destruction, not merely between tribe and tribe, but
between town and town, such as even now prevail in the wild mountains
of northern Luzon, among the primitive Malayan tribes; and in the
second place, the weak and poor man was at the mercy of the strong
and the rich.
"The establishment of Spanish sovereignty had certainly mitigated,
if it did not wholly remedy, these conditions. 'All of these
provinces,' Morga could write, 'are pacified and are governed from
Manila, having alcaldes mayores, corregidors, and lieutenants,
and dispense justice. The chieftains (principales), who formerly
held the other natives in subjection, no longer have power over
them in the manner which they tyrannically employed, which is not
the least benefit these natives have received in escaping from such
slavery.'" (Dr. D. P. Barrows, History of the Philippines, p. 166.)
[76] Chao Ju-kua's Description of the Philippines.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 34, pp. 183-191.
Rizal, La Indolencia. (All quotations from this work are taken from
the Derbyshire translation.):
"Indolence in the Philippines is a chronic malady, but not a
hereditary one. The Filipinos have not always been what they are,
witnesses whereto are all the historians of the first years after
the discovery of the Islands.
"Before the arrival of the Europeans, the Malayan Filipinos carried
on an active trade, not only among themselves but also with all the
neighboring countries. A Chinese manuscript of the 13th century,
translated by Dr. Hirth (Globus, Sept. 1889), which we will take
up at another time, speaks of China's relations with the islands,
relations purely commercial, in which mention is made of the activity
and honesty of the traders of Luzon, who took the Chinese products
and distributed them throughout all the islands, traveling for nine
months, and then returned to pay religiously even for the merchandise
that the Chinamen did not remember to have given them. The products
which they in exchange exported from the islands were crude wax,
cotton, pearls, tortoise-shell, betelnuts dry-goods, etc."
[77] The method of trading is thus described by Chao Ju-kua:
"When (Chinese) merchantmen arrive at that port they cast anchor
at a place (called) the place of Mandarins. That place serves
them as a market, or site where the products of their countries are
exchanged. When a vessel has entered into the port (its captain) offers
presents consisting of white parasols and umbrellas which serve them
for daily use. The traders are obliged to observe these civilities
in order to be able to count on the favor of those gentlemen.
"In order to trade, the savage traders are assembled (the Chinese
call all foreigners savages except the Japanese, Koreans, and people
of Anam.--Blumentritt) and have the goods carried in baskets, and
although the bearers are often unknown, none of the goods are ever
lost or stolen. The savage traders transport these goods to other
islands, and thus eight or nine months pass until they have obtained
other goods of value equivalent to those that have been received
(from the Chinese). This forces the traders of the vessels to delay
their departure, and hence it happens that the vessels that maintain
trade with Ma-yi are the ones that take the longest to return to
their country." * * *
"When foreign traders come to one of their villages, they must not
touch the ground, but must remain aboard their vessel, which is
anchored in the middle of the current, and announce their presence
by beat of drum. Thereupon the savage traders approach in their
light craft, in which they carry cotton, yellow wax, strange cloth,
coconuts, onions, and fine mats, and all those things they offer
for sale in exchange (for the articles of the Chinese). In case of
misunderstanding in the price of the goods, it is necessary to summon
the chief of the traders of that place, so that he may present himself
in person, and arrange the tariff to the satisfaction of all." * * *
[78] The first thing noticed by Pigafetta, who came with Magellan in
1521, on arriving at the first island of the Philippines, Samar, was
the courtesy and kindness of the inhabitants and their commerce. "To
honor our captain," he says, "they conducted him to their boats where
they had their merchandise, which consisted of cloves, cinnamon,
pepper, nutmegs, mace, gold and other things; and they made us
understand by gestures that such articles were to be found in the
islands to which we were going."
Further on he speaks of the vessels and utensils of solid gold that he
found in Butuan, where the people worked mines. He describes the silk
dresses, the daggers with long gold hilts and scabbards of carved wood,
the gold sets of teeth, etc. Among cereals and fruits he mentions rice,
millet, oranges, lemons, panicum, etc.
That the islands maintained relations with neighboring countries and
even with distant ones is proven by the ships from Siam, laden with
gold and slaves, that Magellan found in Cebu. These ships paid certain
duties to the King of the island. In the same year, 1521, the survivors
of Magellan's expedition met the son of the Rajah of Luzon, who,
as captain-general of the Sultan of Borneo and admiral of his fleet,
had conquered for him the great city of Lave (Sarawak?). Might this
captain, who was greatly feared by all his foes, have been the Rajah
Matanda whom the Spaniards afterwards encountered in Tondo in 1570?
In 1539 the warriors of Luzon took part in the formidable contests
of Sumatra, and under the orders of Angi Siry Timor, Rajah of Batta,
conquered and overthrew the terrible Alzadin, Sultan of Atchin,
renowned in the historical annals of the Far East. (Marsden, Hist. of
Sumatra, Chap. XX.)
At that time, that sea where float the islands like a set of emeralds
on a paten of bright glass, that sea was everywhere traversed by junks,
paraus, barangays, vintas, vessels swift as shuttles, so large that
they could maintain a hundred rowers on a side (Morga); that sea bore
everywhere commerce, industry, agriculture, by the force of the oars
moved to the sound of warlike songs of the genealogies and achievements
of the Philippine divinities. (Colin, Labor Evangelica, Chap. XV.)
Legaspi's expedition met in Butuan various traders of Luzon with
their boats laden with iron, wax cloths, porcelain, etc. (Gaspar de
San Agustin), plenty of provisions, activity, trade, movement in all
the southern islands.
They arrived at the Island of Cebu, "abounding in provisions, with
mines and washings of gold, and peopled with natives," as Morga says;
"very populous, and at a port frequented by many ships that came
from the islands and kingdoms near India," as Colin says; and even
though they were peacefully received discord soon arose. The city was
taken by force and burned. The fire destroyed the food supplies and
naturally famine broke out in that town of a hundred thousand people,
as the historians say, and among the members of the expedition,
but the neighboring islands quickly relieved the need, thanks to the
abundance they enjoyed. (La Indolencia, Rizal.)
Dr. J. A. Robertson in a note to the English translation of this
work says:
"There is no doubt of the frequency of interisland trade among the
peoples of the Philippines at an early period. Trade was stimulated
by the very fact that the Malay peoples, except those who have been
driven into the mountainous interiors, are by their very nature a
seafaring people. The fact of an interisland traffic is indicative
of a culture above that possessed by a people in the barbarian stage
of culture. Of course, there was considerable Chinese trade as well
throughout the islands."
[79] "Their customary method of trading was by bartering one thing for
another, such as food, cloth, cattle, fowls, lands, houses, fields,
slaves, fishing-grounds, and palm-trees (both nipa and wild). Sometimes
a price intervened, which was paid in gold, as agreed upon, or in metal
bells brought from China. These bells they regard as precious jewels;
they resemble large pans and are very sonorous. They play upon these
at their feasts, and carry them to the war in their boats instead
of drums and other instruments. There are often delays and terms for
certain payments, and bondsmen who intervene and bind themselves, but
always with usurious and excessive profits and interests." (Antonio
de Morga, Sucesos; Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 128.)
[80] "The natives are free to move from one island to another, and from
one province to another, and pay their tribute for that year in which
they move and change their residence in the place to which they move;
and to move from a Christian village that has instruction to another
village possessing it. But on the other hand, they may not move from
a place having instruction to one without it, nor in the same village
from one barangay to another, nor from one faction to another. In
this respect, the necessary precautions are made by the government,
and the necessary provisions by the Audiencia, so that this system
may be kept, and so that all annoyances resulting from this moving
of the settled natives of one place to another may be avoided.
"Neither are the natives allowed to go out of their villages for trade,
except by permission of the governor, or of his alcaldes-mayores
and justices, or even of the religious, who most often have been
embarrassed by this, because of the instruction. This is done so that
the natives may not wander about aimlessly when there is no need of it,
away from their homes and settlements." (Morga's Sucesos.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 16, pp. 162-163.)
[81] "17. (Commerce is to be free to all Indians of whatever
jurisdiction they be, throughout the Philippines; and no license is
required, nor can any fee be charged. This will ensure a good supply
of provisions and other necessities, and promote the cultivation of
the land. Good treatment must be shown to them, and their passage
from one place to another facilitated, under penalty of a fine of 100
pesos, and a charge in the residencia of the one who transcends this
order.)" (Ordinances of Good Government by Corcuera, 1642, and Cruzat
y Gongora, 1696.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 50, p. 203).
[82] "70. (Interprovincial trade of the various products shall not be
prohibited, as such prohibition is in violation of law vii, título
xviii, book iv and law xxv, título i, book vi, in accordance with
which laws trade is to be encouraged. The Indians may cut timber in
accordance with law xiv, título xvii, book iv. The desire to gain,
however, shall not be allowed to cause the Indians to send out of
any province the products necessary for its conservation. This may
be prohibited with the consent of the father minister, from whom the
alcalde-mayor shall ask a certification for his own protection. Without
the certification, he shall not make such prohibition, under penalty
of the penalties of the preceding ordinance. The natives shall pay
no fees for the privilege of interprovincial trade; and, if any
alcalde-mayor violates this, he shall incur a fine of 100 pesos,
besides the responsibility of making good all the loss occasioned
by his action. This shall be a charge in the residencia.) (Raon's
Ordinance, February 26, 1768.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 50, pp. 250-251.)
This is one of the reasons adduced by Rizal to explain the decay of
agriculture in this country:
"Of no little importance were the hindrances and obstacles that from
the beginning were thrown in the farmers's way by the rulers, who were
influenced by childish fear and saw everywhere signs of conspiracies
and uprisings. The natives were not allowed to go to their labors,
that is, their farms, without permission of the governor, or of his
agents and officers and even of the priests as Morga says. Those who
know the administrative slackness and confusion in a country where
the officials work scarcely two hours a day; those who know the
cost of going to and returning from the capital to obtain a permit;
those who are aware of the petty retaliations of the little tyrants
will well understand how with this crude arrangement it is possible
to have the most absurd agriculture. True it is that for some time
this absurdity, which would be ludicrous had it not been so serious,
has disappeared; but even if the words have gone out of use other
facts and other provisions have replaced them. The Moro pirate has
disappeared but there remains the outlaw who infests the fields and
waylays the farmer to hold him for ransom. Now then, the government,
which has a constant fear of the people, denies to the farmers even
the use of a shotgun, or if it does allow it does so very grudgingly
and withdraws it at pleasure; whence it results with the laborer,
who, thanks to his means of defense, plants his crops and invests
his meager fortune in the furrows that he has so laboriously opened,
that when his crop matures, it occurs to the government, which is
impotent to suppress brigandage, to deprive him of his weapon;
and then, without defense and without security he is reduced to
inaction and abandons his field, his work, and takes to gambling as
the best means of securing a livelihood. The green cloth is under
the protection of the government, it is safer! A mournful counselor
is fear, for it not only causes weakness but also in casting aside
the weapons strengthens the very persecutor!"--(La Indolencia.)
[83] There were other earlier decrees to the same effect as the
following:
"6. (Alcaldes-mayor and corregidors are not to accept any presents,
even of food, during the term of their office, as their hands
will be bound thereby. They must pay a just price for what they
purchase. During the term of their office they are not to purchase a
ranch or any lands in the territory of their jurisdiction; neither are
their secretaries or alguacils-mayor to buy them: for many evils follow
therefrom. They are to build no sailing craft under any consideration,
'under penalty of loss thereof and two hundred pesos, applied half to
fines for the treasury and fortifications, because of the great harm
caused to the natives by such constructions. For when you need any
vessel, you can charter one.' Likewise they are forbidden to engage
in any trade with the natives and citizens of their jurisdiction,
either directly or through agents.") (Ordinances of Good Government,
by Corcuera, 1642.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 50, p. 195.)
[84] "106. The chief aim of the alcaldes-mayor, corregidors, and
assistants, is trade. They buy up by wholesale the products of the
land, especially rice and other food supplies, exactly as is said above
concerning the religious of certain curacies, and their interpreters
and helpers.
"111. It is not advantageous for these alcaldes-mayor and corregidors,
or their assistants or friends, to receive the royal collections,
for they perpetrate the numberless frauds and cheats, both against
the royal treasury and against the Indians; and there is no remedy for
this, as they themselves administer justice. They hold the collections
in their possession for a long time, trading with them, and the royal
treasury is the loser." (Report of Conditions in the Philippines,
by Antonio de Morga; Bl. and Rb., Vol. 10, pp. 94-95.)
Referring to the religious men, Morga says in the same report:
"2. They trade and make a profit in their districts, from rice, wax,
wine, gold, boats, fowls, cloth, and deerskins, to the great detriment
of the Indians, as well as that of the entire country.
"3. They deal openly in merchandise of the above-mentioned articles,
as well as in those of China, in the trade with Nueva España."
"Before the governor Don Gonzalo Ronquillo came, there were not more
than three or four alcaldes-mayor in all these islands; but now there
are sixteen and most of them are men who came with him. As they came
poor, and as the salaries are small, they have taken the Indians--as
all affirm, and it is common talk--at the time for harvesting rice;
and they buy up all other provisions, and many profit by selling them
again. In this way everything has become dear, because, as they have
forbidden the Indians to trade and traffic, they sell at whatever
price they wish. Formerly the Indians brought their products to the
gates, and sold it at very low prices; for they are satisfied with
very little gain, which is not true of the Spaniards." (Affairs in the
Philippine Islands, Fray Domingo de Salazar. (Manila, 1593).--Bl. and
Rb., Vol. 5, p. 217.)
[85] Rizal, La Indolencia.--"We will not cite our own experiences,
for aside from the fact that we do not know which to select, critical
persons may reproach us with partiality; neither will we cite those
of other Filipinos who write in the newspapers; but we shall confine
ourselves to translating the words of a modern French traveler who
was in the Philippines for a long time:
"'The good curate,' he says with reference to the rosy picture a
friar had given him of the Philippines, 'had not told me about the
governor, the foremost official of the district, who was too much
taken up with the ideal of getting rich to have time to tyrannize over
his docile subjects; the governor, charged with ruling the country
and collecting the various taxes in the government's name, devoted
himself almost wholly to trade; in his hands the high and noble
functions he performs are nothing more than instruments of gain. He
monopolizes all the business and instead of developing on his part
the love of work, instead of stimulating the too natural indolence
of the natives, he with abuse of his powers thinks only of destroying
all competition that may trouble him or attempt to participate in his
profits. It matters little to him that the country is impoverished,
without cultivation, without commerce, without industry, just so the
governor is quickly enriched!"
[86] Resultados del Desarrollo Económico de Filipinas; in "Revista
Económica," November, 1912:
"In imposing a tax payable in articles of food or dress, the
foundations of the Philippine industry were unwittingly laid. It is
natural for a person manufacturing a piece of cloth for the purpose
of paying tribute with it to have an interest in making another like
piece to sell or to exchange for some other needed object. At the same
time, as the encomendero and alcaldes mayores engaged in trade sold
the articles received as tribute, a market for industrial products
was in this wise created which provoked a demand for such merchandise."
[87] Azcarraga, La Libertad de Comercio de Filipinas, p. 40.
"To this abundance and fertility was added the proximity of China,
India, Japan, Malacca, and Maluco. From China they not only began to
ship their riches in silks and glazed earthenware, as soon as they
learned of our wealth of four and eight real pieces: * * *." (Relación
de las Islas Filipinas, Pedro Chirino, S. J.; Roma, 1604.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 12, p. 191.)
[88] Morga's Sucesos.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 176.
[89] "These vessels come laden with merchandise, and bring wealthy
merchants who own ships, and servants and factors of other merchants
who remain in China. They leave China with the permission and leave of
the Chinese viceroys and mandarins. The merchandise that they generally
bring and sell to the Spaniards consists of raw silk in bundles, of
the fineness of two strands ("dos cabezas"), and other silk of poorer
quality; fine untwisted silk, white and of all colors, wound in small
skeins; quantities of velvets, some plain, and some embroidered in
all sorts of figures, colors, and fashions--others with body of gold,
and embroidered with gold; woven stuffs and brocades, of gold and
silver upon silk of various colors and patterns; quantities of gold
and silver thread in skeins over thread and silk--but the glitter
of all the gold and silver is false, and only on paper; damasks,
satins, taffetans, gorvaranes, picotes (coarse stuff made of goat's
hair, or a glossy silk stuff; probably the latter is intended in
the text. Gorvaran or gorgoran is a sort of silk grogram), and other
cloths of all colors, some finer and better than others; a quantity
of linen made from grass, called 'lencensuelo' (handkerchief). (This
fabric is now called Piña); and white cotton cloth of different kinds
and qualities, for all uses. They also bring musk, benzoin, and ivory;
many bed ornaments, hangings, coverlets, and tapestries of embroidered
velvet; damask and gorvaran of different shades; tablecloths, cushions,
and carpets; horse-trappings of the same stuff, and embroidered with
glass beads and seed-pearls; also some pearls and rubies, sapphires
and crystal-stones; metal basins, copper kettles, and other copper and
cast-iron pots; quantities of all sorts of nails, sheet-iron, tin and
lead; saltpetre and gunpowder. They supply the Spaniards with wheat
flour; preserves made of orange, peach, 'scorzonera,' pear, nutmeg,
and ginger, and other fruits of China; salt pork and other salt meats;
live fowls of good breed, and very fine capons; quantities of green
fruit, oranges of all kinds; excellent chestnuts, walnuts, pears, and
'chicueyes' (both green and dried, a delicious fruit); quantities of
fine thread of all kinds, needles, and knick-knacks; little boxes and
writing-cases; beds, tables, chairs, and gilded benches, painted in
many figures and patterns. They bring domestic buffaloes; geese that
resemble swans; horses, some mules and asses; even caged birds, some
of which talk, while others sing, and they make them play innumerable
tricks. The Chinese furnish numberless other gewgaws and ornaments
of little value and worth, which are esteemed among the Spaniards;
besides a quantity of fine crockery of all kinds; canganes, (this
must be the cloth and not the porcelain of Kaga, which even today
is so highly esteemed.--Rizal), sines, and black and blue robes;
'tacley,' which are beads of all kinds; strings of cornelians, and
other beads and precious stones of all colors; pepper and other spices;
and rarities--which, did I refer to them all, I would never finish,
nor have sufficient paper for it." (Ibid., pp. 178-180.)
[90] "They also bring some fine woven silk goods of mixed colors;
beautiful and finely-decorated screens done in oil and gilt; all kinds
of cutlery; many suits of armor, spears, catans, and other weapons,
all finely wrought; writing cases, boxes and small cases of wood,
japanned and curiously marked; other pretty gewgaws; excellent fresh
pears; barrels and casks of good salt tunny; cages of sweet-voiced
larks, called "fimbaros;" and other trifles." (Ibid., p. 183.)
[91] "* * * They take merchandise consisting of spices--cloves,
cinnamon, and pepper; slaves, both black and Cafres; cotton cloth
of all sorts, fine muslins (caniquies), linens, gauzes, rambuties,
and other delicate and precious cloths; amber, and ivory; cloths edged
with pita, for use as bed covers; hangings, and rich counterpanes from
Vengala (Bengal), Cochin, and other countries; many gilt articles
and curiosities; jewels of diamonds, rubies, sapphires, topazes,
balas-rubies, and other precious stones, both set and loose; many
trinkets and ornaments from India; wine, raisins, and almonds;
delicious preserves, and other fruits brought from Portugal and
prepared in Goa; carpets and tapestries from Persia and Turquia, made
of fine silks and wools; beds, writing-cases, parlor-chairs, and other
finely-guilded furniture, made in Macao; needle-work in colors and
in white, of chain-lace and royal point lace, and other fancy-work
of great beauty and perfection. Purchases of all the above are made
in Manila, and paid in reals and gold. The vessels return in January
with the brisas, which is their favorite monsoon. They carry to Maluco
provisions of rice and wine, crockery-ware, and other wares needed
there; while to Malacca they take only the gold or money, besides a
few special trinkets and curiosities from España, and emeralds. The
royal duties are not collected from these vessels." (Morga's Sucesos,
1609.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, pp. 184-185.)
[92] Ibid., pp. 185-186.
[93] Ibid., p. 186.
[94] "All of these things (referring to the trade of the Philippines)
make life in that region pleasant and an object of desire to men; and
indeed it seems a copy of that Tyre so extolled by Ezequiel." (Relación
de las Islas Filipinas, Pedro Chirino.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 13, p. 192.)
"The capital of our colony was, therefore, a few years after the
conquest, an emporium of wealth which, by its commercial activity,
gained in those seas the title of Pearl of the Orient." (La Libertad
de Comercio, Azcarraga, p. 41.)
"The commerce of these islands began with their second discovery and
the first settlement, which was in the year 1565. However, it was at
the first scanty and of little weight, until during the government
of Guido de Labazarris, in the year 1576, the trade of China was
introduced, and with it considerable profits, which extended it freely
to Nueva España, Guatimala, Tierrafirme, and Perú, by a royal decree
of April 14, 1579." (Informatory Memorial addressed to the king, Juan
Grau y Monfalcon; Madrid, 1637.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 27, pp. 157-158.)
[95] "For thirty years after the conquest the commerce of the
islands was unrestricted and their prosperity advanced with great
rapidity." (Historical Introduction, E. G. Bourne.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 1, p. 61.)
"As for the second point, the amount of the commerce, this was formerly
without any limitation; and during the time (which was short) while
that condition lasted the islands acquired what strength and wealth
and grandeur they now possess." (Juan Grau y Monfalcón in Extracto
Historial by Antonio Alvarez de Abreu; Madrid, 1736.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 30, p. 50.)
This is the point of view taken by Azcarraga in his La Libertad de
Comercio en Filipinas.
[96] "In 1603, that is, when our colony had only thirty-two years
of existence, there were already in the capital 25,000 Chinese,
and the number of Japanese must have been also quite considerable,
since they formed a colony which occupied the barrios of San Anton
and San Miguel, at present inhabited by natives and a great portion
of the white population." (Azcarraga, La Libertad de Comercio, p. 44.)
[97] "37. Accordingly the commerce of this city is extensive, rich,
and unusually profitable; for it is carried on by all these Chinese
and their ships, with those of all the islands above mentioned and
of Tonquin, Cochinchina, Camboja, and Siam--four separate kingdoms,
which lie opposite these islands on the continent of Great China--and
of the gulfs and the numberless kingdoms of Eastern India, Persia,
Bengala, and Ceilan, when there are no wars; and of the empire and
kingdom of Xapon. The diversity of the peoples, therefore, who are
seen in Manila and its environs is the greatest in the world; for
these include men from all kingdoms and nations--España, Francia,
Inglaterra, Italia, Flandes, Alemania, Dinamarca, Suecia, Polonia,
Moscobia; people from all the Indias, both eastern and western; and
Turks, Greeks, Moros, Persians, Tartars, Chinese, Japanese, Africans,
and Asiatics. And hardly is there in the four quarters of the world
a kingdom, province, or nation which has not representatives here, on
account of the voyages that are made hither from all directions--east,
west, north, and south." Description of Filipinas Islands, Bartholomé
de Letona, O. S. F.; La Puebla, Mexico, 1662.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 36,
p. 205.)
[98] "Number 96. Distinctions in products from the islands, and their
qualities with respect to those of España.
"All these products that are trafficked from the islands are
divided into six (sic) classes. The first is of silk, in skeins,
thread, and trama. The second, the silk textiles. The third, the
cotton textiles. The fourth, the products of the islands. The fifth,
other small wares and articles that are brought. Of these, the last
class amounts to but little, and is not harmful to the commerce
of España, as it is composed of rarities and foreign products. The
fourth class, namely, that of the products of the islands, by that
very fact ought to be exported--a claim that is founded on justice;
since it is not usual to prohibit to any province its own trade, and
the exportation of its products wherever they may have a sale, even
though foreign commerce be denied to it. Besides, this sort has the
characteristic of the third, namely, that these wares are so cheap
that their like cannot be supplied from España, as has been said,
on account of the great difference of their prices. (In the margin:
"In number 95.") Hence, the wares of these kingdoms would not be
used any more, even did those of the islands fail; nor less, even if
there were an over-supply. For the Indians and negroes care only for
the linens of China and Filipinas, and, if they do not have them,
they get along without them; for they have no wealth to give eight
reals for what costs them one and one-half reals. One thousand bales
of linen which is shipped from Sevilla in each trading fleet always
finds a sale, and no more can be carried (to Nueva España)--because
that would create a lack in España, and it would, moreover, be too
advantageous to the foreigners, to whom almost all this commodity
belongs. Two thousand bales of cotton textiles exported from Manila
are also consumed (there); and the fact that there is less or more does
not cause any considerable loss in the linen made from flax and hemp,
nor does it involve much money; for the two thousand bales of cotton
are worth one hundred and fifty thousand pesos, while one thousand of
fine linen are worth more than one million." (Informatory Memorial
addressed to the King, Juan Grau y Monfalcon, Procurator General;
Madrid, 1637.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 27, pp. 200-201.)
[99] Ibid., pp. 98-104.
[100] Ibid., pp. 115-116.
[101] Ibid., pp. 120.
[102] Ibid., pp. 186-197.
[103] Ibid., p. 158.
[104] Ibid.
[105] Recopilación de Leyes, Lib. IX, Tit. XXXV, Ley VI. In Bl. and
Rb., Vol. 17, pp. 30-31. Jan. 11, 1593.
[106] Ibid., Ley XV.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 17, pp. 31-32. Jan. 11, 1593.
[107] Ibid., Ley XXXIV.--Bl.and Rb., Vol. 17, p. 32. Jan. 11, 1593.
[108] Ibid., Ley LXVIII.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 17, p. 33. Jan. 11, 1593.
[109] La Libertad de Comercio, p. 49.
[110] Recopilación, Lib IX, Tit. XXXV, Leyes LXXIV, LXXV, and
LXXVI.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 17, pp. 42-44.
[111] Pedro Quiroga.
[112] Recopilación, ibid., Ley LXXVIII.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 17,
pp. 44-45.
[113] As to the effect of these restrictions Azcarraga says: "* * *
thus, at the end of that century, there was nothing but poverty and
discontent in the city; the white population had hardly increased;
commerce, confined within the narrow sphere of periodic voyages
to Acapulco, was languishing, without attempting to engage in any
other kind of traffic; and poverty was reflected even in the very
troops stationed in the city, who did duty unshod and without uniform
(camisa), frequently committing robberies at the Chinese stores. * * *"
(La Libertad, p. 54.)
[114] Extracto Historial, Antonio Alvarez de Abreu.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 44, p. 231.
[115] Ibid., p. 236.
[116] Ibid., p. 232.
[117] Ibid., pp. 256-258.
Also Azcarraga, La Libertad, pp. 58-59.
[118] Royal decree of October 27, 1720, enforcing that of 1718,
provides further that: "The values of the lading which the said ships
are to carry from the Philippines to the port of Acapulco may be up
to the amount of 300,000 pesos, which must come invested strictly
and solely in the following kinds of merchandise: gold, cinnamon,
elephants, wax, porcelain, cloves, pepper, cambayas, and linens
woven with colors (lienzos pintados), chitas, chintzes, gauzes,
lampotes, Hilocos blankets, silk floss and raw silk spun, cordage,
and other commodities which are not silks." These ships are prohibited
from carrying silken fabrics, "satins, pitiflores, velvets, damasks,
Pekin silks (Pequines), sayasayas, brocades, plain satins, grograms,
taffetas; silver and gold brocades; embroidered pieces of silk stuff
for (covers of) beds, the (hangings for) drawing-rooms (estrados),
and women's petticoats; silken gauzes flowered with gold and silver;
pattern pieces for petticoats, figured or embroidered; dressing-gowns,
chimones, or made-up garments; hose, ribbons, or handkerchiefs;
or any fabric which contains silk." (Commerce in the Philippines
with Nueva España, 1640-1736, by Antonio Alvarez de Abreu; Madrid,
1736. (From Extracto Historial.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 44, pp. 266-268.)
[119] Ibid., p. 306.
[120] Extracto Historial, Antonio Alvarez de Abreu.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 45, pp. 57-59.
[121] For a detailed list of the goods sent to Mexico, and as to what
was done with them there, see Informatory Memorial addressed to the
King, Juan Grau y Monfalcon, 1637.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 27, pp. 198-200.
"Number 95. Trade of the islands necessary in Nueva España, because
of their goods.
"In regard to the first part, which pertain to the merchandise,
the trade of the Filipinas is so necessary today in Nueva España,
that the latter country finds it as difficult as do the islands to
get along without that trade; and its lack cannot be supplied with
merchandise from these kingdoms. The wares taken to Acapulco are
plain and figured velvets, satins, and damasks; grograms, taffetas,
and picotes; headdresses and stockings; silk, loose and twisted, in
skeins, that reeled on spindles, and woven; thread; tramas, plushes,
and other silk stuffs and textiles. Of cotton, there are sinavafas,
fine glazed buckrams (bocacies), glazed linen (olandilla), fine
muslins (canequies), and semianas; and of cotton and silk, beds,
curtains, coverlets, quilts, and other pieces. (They also carry)
civet, musk, and amber; gold and pearls; crockery-ware, cabinets,
and articles made of wood and other things; and the products of the
islands themselves, of which mention has been made (in the margin:
"In number 15"). But the bulk of the commerce is reduced to the silk
and cotton textiles; for there is but little else that is rare or
elegant, or that has much export. From the skeined silk, and the silk
thread, and trama are manufactured in Nueva España velvets, veils,
headdresses, passementeries, and many taffetas, which were taken to
Perú when there were ships that went to Callao, and to other parts
of the Indias--where the black, brown, and silver-colored goods that
are sent from Sevilla do not arrive in good shape, because the sea
rots them. It is known that the skein silk of China is more even and
elegant for delicate and smooth fabrics than is the Misteca which is
produced in that kingdom; besides that, there is less of the latter
kind than is necessary in the country. By this trade and manufacture,
more than fourteen thousand persons support themselves in Mexico, La
Puebla, and Antequera, by their looms, the whole thing being approved
by royal decrees. Of the cotton textiles, linens (lienzos) are used
in Nueva España more than any other stuff, as they are so cheap that
they sell for one and one-half or two reals per vara. Therefore, they
are desired by the Indians and negroes; and when these are lacking,
even though there should be an over-supply of the linens of Europa,
they do not want them or use them, as those are dear and not so much
used by them; and they get along with their own cloths from Campeche
or La Guasteca, and others that they weave."
[122] "The basis of it was, and is, the funds called "Obras Pías"
(Pious Works). These are funds under various denominations, whose
origin was the piety of well-meaning Spaniards, who dying rich have
bequeathed large sums for the purpose of lending to deserving traders
to commerce or continue their career with. The administration of
these is confided to various religious and charitable institutions,
or to civil associations--the trustees forming a board, at which
the sums to be lent, etc., are determined. Their statutes differ
in many unessential points; but their general tenor is the same,
viz., that sums not exceeding two-thirds of the fund shall be lent on
respondentia at certain rates of interest, which are fixed according
to the risk of the voyages; and these, when repaid, shall be added,
principal and interest, to the original fund. The interests are 25 per
cent. to Acapulco, 15 to Bengal, and so in proportion. The total of
the capitals of these establishments (there are 12 or 14 of them),
amounted to about three millions and a half of dollars in 1820,
of which about two millions are due to the funds on various risks,
principally those of New Spain: of this the major part is considered
as lost by those best qualified to judge of the subject.
"The principal employ of these funds has been in the commerce to
Acapulco; and from the facility with which capital was procured,
the excessive gambling spirit which this introduced, as well as the
system of mutual accommodations from the trustees of different funds,
and the utter absence of the wholesome restraint of public examinations
of their accounts, it has resulted that more harm than good has been
done by these establishments. The original intentions are entirely
perverted, a few small sums being lent to young adventurers (when they
have powerful friends), but far the greatest part is employed by the
trustees themselves under the name of a relation or friend." (Remarks
on the Philippine Islands, and their capital Manila, 1819-1822,
by an Englishman.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 51, pp. 148-149.)
[123] Zuñiga, Estadismo de las Islas Filipinas.
Historia General de Filipinas, José Montero y Vidal, Chapter XXVIII.
[124] It is represented that the seamen are allowed to carry each
30 pesos' worth of goods as a private investment, in order to
encourage Spaniards to enter the marine service; but this ought
to be increased to 300 pesos (the allowance made to the men on the
fleets that go to the Indias), for more Spaniards are needed on the
Acapulco trade-route--hardly one-third of the men on the galleon
being of Spanish birth, the rest being Indians--and on the rivera of
Cavite." Extracto Historial, Antonio Alvarez Abreu, 1736.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 44, Pp. 307-308.
[125] Azcarraga, La Libertad, pp. 81-95.
[126] "This trade and commerce is so great and profitable, and
easy to control--for it only lasts three months in the year, from
the time of the arrival of the ships with their merchandise, until
those vessels that go to Nueva España take that merchandise--that
the Spaniards do not apply themselves to, or engage in, any other
industry. Consequently, there is no husbandry or field-labor worthy of
consideration. Neither do the Spaniards work the gold mines or placers,
which are numerous. They do not engage in many other industries that
they could turn to with great profit, if the Chinese trade should fail
them. That trade has been very hurtful and prejudicial in this respect,
as well as for the occupations and farm industries in which the
natives used to engage. Now the latter are abandoning and forgetting
those labors. Besides, there is the great harm and loss resulting
from the immense amount of silver that passes annually by this way
(of the trade), into the possession of infidels, which can never,
by any way, return into the possession of the Spaniards." (Morga's
Sucesos.--Bl. and Rb. Vol. 16, p. 187).
"When, without risking any capital of his own, the merchant might
thus share the enormous profits of this trade, with no more exertion
than signing the invoices and letters (they were written by Indian
clerks), and receiving the treasure on the return of the vessel, it
is not surprising that for nearly two centuries they neglected all
the other commercial advantages which surrounded them, or that such
a commerce produced such merchants; the history of it and of them for
that period may be confined to a few words:--they were agents of the
merchants of Madras and Bengal, receiving and shipping their goods,
and returning their proceeds, while their profits were confined to
a large commission on them." (Remarks on the Philippine Islands and
on their capital Manila, 1819-1822, by an Englishman.--Bl. and Rb.,
Vol. 51, p. 150.)
[127] "... This I say, then, Sire, that it is a most pitiable thing
that there is not a man in all these Philippine Islands--Spaniard, or
of any other nation--saving some religious, who make their principal
aim and intent the conversion of these heathen, or the increase of
the Christian faith; but they are only moved by their own interests
and seek to enrich themselves, and if it happened that the welfare
of the natives was an obstacle to this they would not hesitate,
if they could, to kill them all in exchange for their temporal
profit. And since this is so, what can your Majesty expect will
happen if this continues? From this inordinate greed arises the
violation of your Majesty's decrees and mandates, as everyone is
a merchant and trader--and none more so than the governor, who has
this year brought ruin upon the country. There comes each year from
Nueva España a million in money, contrary to the mandate of your
Majesty, all of which passes on to the heathen of China. From here,
in violation of your Majesty's decrees, cargoes are loaded for the
Peruvians and the merchants of Mexico, without leaving room for those
of this country--especially the poor, who are unable to secure any
interest therein except for a wretched bundle which is allowed them
as a cargo. If I were to go into the multitude of evils which are
connected with this, I should have to proceed ad infinitum." (Letters
from the archbishop of Manila to Felipe II; Ignacio de Santibañez;
Manila, June 24 and 26, (1598);--Bl and Rb. Vol 10, p. 145.)
[128] Azcarraga: La Libertad, p. 68.
[129] "By this system for two centuries the South American market for
manufactures was reserved exclusively for Spain, but the protection did
not prevent Spanish industry from decay and did retard the well-being
and progress of South America. Between Mexico and the Philippines a
limited trade was allowed, the profits of which were the perquisites
of the Spaniards living in the Philippines and contributed to the
religious endowments. But this monopoly was of no permanent advantage
to the Spanish residents. It was too much like stock-jobbing, and
sapped all spirit of industry. Zúñiga says that the commerce made a
few rich in a short time and with little labor, but they were very
few; that there were hardly five Spaniards in Manila worth $100,000,
nor a hundred worth $40,000, the rest either lived on the King's pay
or in poverty. 'Every morning one could see on the streets of Manila,
in greatest poverty and asking alms, the sons of men who had made a
fine show and left much money, which their sons had squandered because
they had not been well trained in youth.' The great possibilities
of Manila as an entrepôt of the Asiatic trade were unrealized; for
although the city enjoyed open trade with the Chinese, Japanese,
and other orientals, it was denied to Europeans and the growth of
that conducted by the Chinese and others was always obstructed by
the lack of return cargoes owing to the limitations placed upon the
trade with America and to the disinclination of the Filipinos to
work to produce more than was enough to insure them a comfortable
living and pay their tributes. That the system was detrimental to the
economic progress of the islands was always obvious and its evils were
repeatedly demonstrated by Spanish officials. Further it was not only
detrimental to the prosperity of the islands but it obstructed the
development of Mexico." (Historical Introduction, by Edward Gaylord
Bourne.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 1, pp. 67-68.)
[130] "Trade between America and the Far East all passed for a time
through the port of Manila. This commerce was greatly desired by the
Spanish colonists of Mexico, Perú, and Chile, but the selfish and
rapacious merchants of Spain so influenced the policy of the mother
country as to throttle this trading and prevent for more than two
hundred years the legitimate development of the islands. From the
early part of the seventeenth century until 1837 the Philippines
were in the grasp of a protective monopoly, which not only prevented
the productive development of the soil, but kept the Filipinos down
to those necessarily restricted numbers which attend a population
that raises nothing in excess of its daily needs. If there is one
thing to be learned from this and every other study of increase of
population in a fertile and tropical country it is that population
increases in exact proportion to the agricultural production and
export." (Dr. D. P. Barrows, in Philippine Census, 1903, Vol. 1,
p. 247.)
[131] "* * * All thrifty activity was regarded as despicable. No
trader had a seat in the Cortes of Aragon. As late as 1781 the
Academy of Madrid was obliged to offer as the subject for a prize
essay the proposition that there was nothing derogatory in the useful
arts. Every tradesman and manufacturer sought only to make enough
money to enable him to live on the interest of it or to establish a
trust fund for his family. If he was successful he either entered a
cloister or went to another province in order to pass for a noble. In
Cervantes we find the maxim: 'Whoever wishes to make his fortune
seeks the church, the sea (i. e., service in America), or the king's
house.' The highest ambition of the nation in its golden age was to
be to Europe just what the nobility, the clergy, and the army were
to single nations. Consequently there was an enormous preponderance
of personal service in the industrial organism, and much of this
was purely for ostentation. Nowhere in the world were there so many
nobles, so many officers, civil and military, so many lawyers and
clerks, priests and monks, so many students and school-boys, with
their servants. But as truly, nowhere in the world were there so
many beggars and vagabonds." (The Spanish Colonial System, by Wilhelm
Roscher, pp. 3-4.)
[132] Azcarraga, pp. 117-118.
[133] See Bl. and Rb., Vol. 52, pp. 307-322. Also Vidal, Historia
General de Filipinas, Vol. 2, pp. 285-297; Mas, Informe Sobre el
Estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842, part II, pp. 28-31; and the
Boletin de la Sociedad Económica for the different years.
[134] Jagor, Travels in the Philippines, chapter 25.
Memoria Sobre el Desestanco del Tabaco en las Islas Filipinas, José
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 assured 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 principally. 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, manuscripts, 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 assume, 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 nobody questioned it or disturbed
it--was suddenly threatened by the competition 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 God; 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 Geográfico-Estadistíco-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 Económica de
Amigos del País (Manila, 1860), containing a list of its achievements,
is to the effect that on August 8, 1834, "abacá" 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
constituting 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 Compañía. 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 Canal 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 emancipate 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 sparse 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 abacá 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 principal 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 entitled
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.