[Bernaldez declares that the works of naval construction, etc., for the
government can be accomplished for half the cost by means of private
contracts awarded to the lowest bidder, which is proved by the history
of all the enterprises which have been undertaken by the government
in those islands, whether in agriculture, mining, or metal-working;
"for, however great the disinterestedness and economy which can
be ascribed to the officials who conduct the enterprise, in this
direction nothing can take the place of the contractor's activity and
vigilance." In the cutting and gathering of timber there is abundant
cheating and graft, as that work is directed by Indian overseers,
or by mestizos and Chinese; the latter have abandoned the system of
day wages ("which the natural slothfulness of the Indian renders
very costly"), and instead pay the natives so much for a certain
amount of work (which they call paqueao). "In this way the Indians,
who always are cheated in these calculations, have to redouble their
efforts to gain the amount bargained for, thus allowing to the mestizo
the benefit of at least one-third of the usual daily wages." After
the timber is cut, its transportation, storage, and seasoning cost
more when done by the government than by the mestizo contractor, and
occasion much loss and damage. Ships of war could be built at Manila
to great advantage, so far as the abundance and cheapness and location
of the timber is concerned; but the lack of iron and copper there is
a serious hindrance to such plans. There are mines of both metals in
the islands, but they are not worked for lack of enterprising persons
and suitable machinery. Bernaldez recommends: That the crown offer
large rewards for the successful operation of the iron and copper
mines in the islands, the supply therefrom of metal sufficient for the
construction of ships and cannon, and the introduction of machinery
for mining and iron-working. That arrangements be made for building
war-ships each year, by contracts for the supply of timber and the
manual labor. That competent engineers and constructors be sent from
España, at good salaries; that necessary supplies and materials be
secured by contracts, bid for in public; and that funds from the royal
exchequer be set aside for this purpose to the amount of one hundred
thousand to one hundred and fifty thousand pesos annually. That all the
construction and repairing of war-ships for Filipinas be done through
contracts, at public bidding; and that the arsenal of Cavite be reduced
to a simple depository for the articles required for arming the ships,
with such officials as may be necessary for the custody of these.]
Of the agriculture of the Filipinas Islands, in general, and of their
principal productions
The Filipinas Islands, on account of the fertility of their land,
their abundant rains, and the great number of animals for labor,
constitute an agricultural colony; and to the readiness with which the
country supplies the principal articles for human support has been
due the rapid increase of its population. And although the Indians,
as a general thing, only devote themselves to the cultivation of
what they actually need for subsistence, the annual production so
far exceeds the necessities of the people that very seldom has the
failure or scarcity of provisions been experienced. The abundance of
its arable lands and the excellence of its products have also rendered
this colony capable of a considerable commerce with the other nations,
at a much greater advantage over the other colonies, inasmuch as
the land is tilled by free labor, which costs only the value of its
food and clothing; and not by slaves, who, besides those expenses,
occasion that of the premium or interest on the money invested in
their purchase, which causes a difference of at least a third more
in the cost of the manual labor employed in agriculture.
The neglected condition in which agriculture is in Filipinas,
considered under this last aspect, and the backwardness in knowledge of
the manipulations required in the preparation of its raw products for
their consumption in trade, proceed from the following causes: (1) The
lack of a stable and regular system of commerce which can assure to the
inhabitants of the islands the annual exportation of the produce of an
extensive agriculture. The foreign vessels resort to the ports there,
some years in excessive number and others very infrequently; and this
irregularity always produces an effect opposed to the interests of the
colony. The extraordinary rise in prices--which during the last three
years has reached a value double that from which the ability to sell at
all times would enable the colony to gain a profit--and the consequent
lack of commodities for supplying all the vessels, prevent them from
returning in the following years; while the decline of prices below
what is fair, caused by the non-arrival of ships, discourages large
production in agriculture. The Indians are absolutely without capital
and storehouses which would enable them to hold back their produce for
another market. They are induced to cultivate the soil solely by their
present advantage; they always sell, but they suffer from the stern
law of trade which, although it flatters them in years of scarcity,
equally tyrannizes over them in years of abundance--for they are
always deceived regarding the actual prices of the general market,
of which they are ignorant; and one year only of unsuccessful sales,
whether from lack of foreign ships, or through the loss of their crops,
will be a warning to them for a long time. In short, the agriculture of
Filipinas at this time depends on the irregular and transient stimulus
which is furnished to it by the peripatetic capital of the mestizo,
who buys only in the years when he calculates that he must in view of
the condition of the crops and the market, make a profit; while the
Indian farmer always sows his seed heedless of results, and without
the guidance of that elementary principle in affairs of commerce that
the estimate of what he acquires ought to be based on a calculation of
the market for it. For the corrective of this evil, and assuming that,
for reasons that are rightful and conformable to sound policy (as I
have set forth), the residence of foreigners in the islands ought not
to be permitted, I find no other means than this, that the government
encourage, by judicious measures, the direct and unlimited commerce of
España with that colony--of which I shall speak in another chapter,
[presenting] the rough sketch of a plan which ought to produce the
following effects: (a) The definite and reliable annual exportation
from those islands, not only of the great quantity of sugar, indigo,
coffee, and other native products which are needed in the ordinary
consumption of España, but of that which Spanish commerce can dispose
of in the other nations and free ports of Europa. (b) The establishment
of Spanish trading posts [factorias] in the interior of the provinces
of Filipinas, which the Spanish mercantile interests will carry on
for the sake of acquiring the agricultural produce at first hand,
freeing the Indians from the oppressive rule of the mestizo trader,
and forming contracts with them, at prices agreed upon, for a certain
number of years.
[The backward condition of agriculture proceeds] (2) from the lack
of great agricultural establishments. One of the causes for this is
the fact that the capital of the islands, which ought to be employed
for that object, has been diverted by the commerce of India, China,
and Nueva España, which offers greater and quicker profits. The
religious orders administer their estates as in mortmain, or by
ecclesiastical rules. The Indians cultivate, not from inclination
but through necessity, the little plots of ground on which they have
fixed their abodes. They lack the buildings and appliances necessary
for the preparation of the little sugar and indigo that they collect;
and from that results the wretched and unreliable quality of those
articles which so discredits them in the trade. They lack also the
capital to incur the expenses of a regular plantation, and these
enterprises require costly outlays at the start. But this cause of
backwardness would be remedied by the impulse which would be given to
commerce by the exportation of native products, which would attract
to agriculture the capital which it has hitherto lacked, and by the
special protection which the government can grant to large capitalists
who may devote themselves to agriculture.
(3) From the ignorance of the Indians, not only of the various methods
of making plantations, but of the means of preparing the raw materials
for their employment in the trade--a cause which is so universal
and so mischievous that the agricultural products of Filipinas,
which ought to be, on account of their excellent character and the
extent of territory of the islands, commodities which should supply
all the markets of Europe and hold the first rank in quality, are
the most scarce in general commerce, and moreover lowest in price,
as I am going to prove by some instances. The sugar of Filipinas
is today the most important commodity for exportation which the
commerce there includes. The cultivation of the sugar-cane cannot
be improved; but the manufacture of the sugar is so defective that,
in spite of the superior quality of the cane, the sugar which is
produced from it is inferior to that which is called terciado [i.e.,
brown] at Habana. Although in the market of Cadiz the white sugar from
Habana is worth thirty-two to twenty-five silver reals, and the brown
sugar twenty-six to twenty-eight, the white sugar of Manila is worth
twenty-four to twenty-five [152]--that is, nine silver reals less
than the former, and two or three reals less than the latter on each
arroba. Consequently, the temporary privilege granted by his Majesty
in exempting the products of Filipinas from duties is the only support
of the expeditions which have come [thence] to the Peninsula; and it
is unquestionable that when that privilege ceases that commerce will
likewise come to a complete stop. For if from the twenty-four silver
reals, the highest price at which an arroba of the Manila sugar
can be sold, be deducted for duties eight reals and twenty-seven
maravedís, the trader will receive a price of only nineteen silver
reals, five cuartos; subtracting from this the fourteen and one-half
reals of the prime cost at Manila (according to the latest information
received), and the only profit left to him would be four reals, three
maravedís--with which it is absolutely impossible for him to pay either
the heavy freight charges on that commodity, or the interest on money
and the insurance premiums, on a voyage three times as long as that
from Habana. The low price [of sugar] in the market has no other cause
than the lack of skill at Manila for manufacturing the sugar; this art
is there found entirely in its infancy, and without any other method
than that which, since very ancient times, the Chinese have taught
them. [The sugar-makers have not proper machinery or appliances,
or the knowledge, for any of the stages of the process; and their
product is inferior, when it might be as good as that of Habana--or
even better, if the same skill and care were used in making it as are
used there. The above profit of nine reals on the arroba, if equally
divided among the grower, the manufacturer, and the government (for
duties which in that case should be imposed on the sugar), would
yield each of them $300,000 annually, on the estimated production
of 1,000,000 arrobas which would be practicable for Filipinas--to
say nothing of the increased benefits to the laboring class--with
improved methods of manufacture. To secure this, the government must
be energetic in promoting large establishments there, and introducing
machinery and skilled laborers. "The funds in the communal treasury
of the Indians, which at the present time must reach about $300,000,
and whose object is the benefit of those same Indians," might aid
the government in meeting the expenses of such measures; the skilled
artisans could instruct the Indian farmers in the new improved methods,
and the industry would be almost perfected in two years' time, at very
little expense. Bernaldez describes in similar manner the deficiencies,
possibilities, and needs of the indigo, coffee, and cacao industries,
and urges the government to extend like care to these; what has been
done thus far by the colonial government has been quite ineffective,
because it has been in the form of proclamations and enactments which
merely required small plantations to be made by all the inhabitants,
but these failed because they disregarded the principles of political
economy and made no provision for the individual interest of the
cultivator.] There are, then, two means which ought to be adopted
for the promotion of large plantations in Filipinas, incentive
and instruction; and for this it is necessary to grant pecuniary
rewards to the agriculturists, and furnish them with teachers from
the near-by islands of Java or even Bourbon, where not only coffee
but cacao is cultivated.
(4) And, finally, the cause which likewise exerts a powerful influence
in [causing] the neglected and backward condition of agriculture is
the slothfulness of the Indians and their absolute indifference to
acquiring and keeping property. [This sloth is caused by the climate,
the abundant supply of the necessities of life with little labor,
and the hospitality which prevails among the natives;] and if it
were not that in the capital and its adjacent provinces there has
now been introduced a certain degree of decency and [even] luxury in
some families of that class, it would be difficult to find any one to
render service or to practice the useful arts that are necessary in
villages. [With a people like this, it would be hazardous to attempt
to compel them to work; but "even if they are naturally slothful,
they have their likes and dislikes; and a wise government ought to
avail itself of these two powerful resources to urge them to work." The
Indians dislike to pay direct taxes, and hate the collector of these;
also they are passionately fond of cockfighting and spectacles of
all sorts, and of office-holding; and if these characteristics are
considered in the policy of the government much can be done to make
them industrious. Bernaldez recommends: That a system of direct,
unlimited, and regular commerce be established between España and
Filipinas, for the purpose of maintaining a reliable and definite
annual exportation of the latter's products. That agricultural
establishments be protected by the government, being allowed
(although at their own expense) the assistance of a band of irregular
soldiers. That machines, tools, and other aids to agricultural
production be admitted free of duties. That skilled workmen be taken
to the islands as instructors in the manufacture of sugar and indigo,
and cultivators of coffee, etc., with their machinery and tools;
their salaries for three years and their transportation to Manila
being paid from the communal funds of the Indians. That large rewards
be paid to the farmers who shall make large plantations of coffee and
other useful trees or establish the silk industry. That the owners of
these large plantations shall be allowed to keep on their lands each
a cockpit for his laborers, free of expense. That groups of Indians,
Chinese, and mestizos, limited to twenty families each, who shall
maintain an indigo or sugar plantation of a certain extent in good
condition, shall be relieved from paying the tribute so long as the
plantation is kept up. That every Indian who works for wages during
five consecutive years, to the satisfaction of his employer, shall be
perpetually exempted from tribute, the employer paying the laborer's
tax for twenty years. That the Indians and mestizos who cultivate
large plantations on their own account shall have the preference
for the offices in their respective villages. That the government
of Filipinas take measures to avoid frauds in connection with these
proposed changes.]