ECONOMIC INSTITUTIONS

MANIFESTATIONS OF FEUDALISM

Encomiendas: Royal and Private

• Encomiendas from the word “enconmendar” meaning “to entrust” was another revenue-getting Hispanic institution to the Philippines via Mexico

• A grant from the Spanish crown to a commendable Spaniard to exercise control over a specific place including its inhabitants, not a land grant as most earlier scholars believed

• When first implemented in the Visayas, Legaspi authorized the encomendero to collect tribute of eight reales yearly in cash or in kind from all 19 – 6o year old Filipino males of private encomiendas.

• At least 1/4th of the total collection went to the encomendero, another portion to the priest and the remaining to the government

• However, some of the encomenderos violated regulation by raising the rate of tribute paid in money or in kind by the Filipinos

• Encomenderos increased the value and appraisal of products at different periods

• Tremendous gains from temporarily hoarding staple items like rice and clothing materials and selling them at higher prices later resulting to Filipinos who could not afford either the monetary or species payment and to avoid penalties and corporal inflictions fled to the hills. Thos who escaped from the taxation were regardes as “lawless” remontados or tulisanes (bandits) by the Spaniards

• Lack of systematic tribute collection. Each encomendero collected according to his personal whim. (When gold was abundant and money was scarce, the demanded cash or reales, when the reales were plentiful and there was scarcity for gold, they asked for gold)

• During bumper harvests, they demanded products like rice, tobacco, or even all of the Filipino

• Sometimes, the Filipinos bought back the same items (rice, especially during the lean harvest) at overpriced prices that they originally sold at a lower price

• Many Filipinos died of starvation, especially during famines and drought due to encomenderos seizing the entire quantity of the filipinos’ rice without leaving a grain for them to eat

• If the Filipinos resisted, they were publicly beaten, tortured or jailed. The unjust collection of tributes was one of the causes of uprisings in the Philippines.

An Encomendero

• duty-bound to defend his encomienda from external incursions

• to keep peace and order• to assist the missionaries in teaching the

Christian beliefs to the inhabitants within his sphere of influence

• in return, he is granted the right of imposing tribute according to the kind set by higher authorities

TWO KINDS OF ENCOMIENDAS

Royal / Crown (realenga or encomienda de la real corona)

• lands reserved for the crown and the principal towns and ports

• Bagumbayan (Luneta), Lagyo (approx. the site of the present Plaza military between Malate and Ermita), Santa Ana de Sapa, Tondo, Navotas and Malabon in Manila; and Lubao and Batia in Pampanga

Private (encomienda de particulares)

• Granted to the individuals who were either the King’s protégés or the men who served with merit during the conquest and the pacification campaigns.

• Sampaloc and Macabebe, privately owned by Pedro de Chavez

• Bataan by Juan Esguerra• Batangas by Francisco Rodriguez• Francisco Liwag w/ 55 tributes - Filipino• Juan de Macapagal w/ 300 tributes – Filipino

TAXATION

• Income–generating mechanism introduced by Spanish colonial government in the Philippines consisting of direct and indirect taxes and monopolies (rentas estancadas).

•  Direct Taxes: Personal tribute and Income taxes

•  Indirect Taxes: Customs duties and the Bandala

•  Monopolies of special crops and items as spirituous liquors (1712-1882), betel nut (1764), tobacco (1782-1882), explosives (1805-1864), and opium (1847).

Buwis (Tribute)

• may be paid in cash or in kind or both. • 1570’s: The tribute was fixed to eight reales (1 real=

12.1/2 centavos) in cash, gold, blankets, cotton, rice, bells in kind. It was then raised up to fifteen reales till    the end of the Spanish period

• The Filipinos were required to pay to the following taxes and impositions: tribute of ten reales, diezmos prediales (tithes) of one real; town community chest, one real; and sanctorum tax for church support, three reales, totaling fifteen reales

• Donativo de Zamboanga (samboangan) - A special tax of ½ real or rice for the Moro raids (collected since 1635 until the mid-19th century)

• Vinta – A special tax for coastal areas of Bulacan and Pampanga. The vintas are used to equip on shields. Falua is vinta’s counterpart, collected in Camarines Sur, Cebu, Misamis and other littoral provinces.

Tax Exemptions

• Special privileges were granted to the descendants of the Filipino chiefly class who served in the pacification campaigns conducted by the conquistadores, laborers of the arsenal and artillery yard of Cavite, the mediquillos, vaccinators and college and university students of Santo Tomas, San Jose, San Juan de Letran and San Carlos

Bandala

• From the tagalong word mandala (a round stack of rice stalks to be threshed), bandala means the annual enforced sale or requisitioning of goods.

• Payment was only in promissory notes. The Spaniards’ debt to the Kapampangans reached P70, 000 between 1610 and 1616, spiraling up to 200,000 in 1660. This caused a revolt in 1660-61. The bandala was abolished in the provinces of Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Laguna, Batangas, Tayabas, and Cavite in November 1782

Cedula

• By 1884, the tribute was replaced by the cedula personal or personal identity paper, equivalent to the present residence tax

• Everyone, Filipinos or other nationalities, over eighteen years of age was required to pay the cedula personal

Polo y Servicios (Forced Labor)

• Polo is a corruption of the Tagalog word pulong which originally means “meeting of persons and things” or “community labor”

• Drafted laborers (polistas) were either Filipino or Chinese male mestizos ranging from 16 to 60 years old who were obliged to give personal service to community projects for 40 days until 1884 (it was later reduced to 15 days)

• One could be exempted by paying the falla which the polista paid daily at 1 ½ real during the 40-day period he was expected to work

• The polo system was patterned after the Mexican repartimiento or selection for forced labor

Negative effects of polo:

• Upsetting of the village economy

• Forced separation from the family

• Relocation to different places

• The decomation of the male population as they escaped to the mountains instead of working in the labor pool

Manila Acapulco Trade (1565-1815)

• Main source of income for the colony during its early years

• Running the only regular fleet service in the huge stretch of the Pacific Ocean for the two hundred fifty years.

• Known as the Galleon de Manila or Nao de China w/ two vessels making the journey yearly- one outgoing and one incoming

• Through the Manila Galleons, the Amerasians worlds were linked by untold luxuries and wealth

• Galleon trade benefited only a very small coterie of privileged Spaniards tempted by the lucrative trade Chinese immigrants

Damaging Effects

• Neglect of native extractive industries like agriculture

• Arrest of population growth of the Manila-Acapulco trade for outbalanced the advantages

• The only active Filipino involvement is on construction of galleons.

Toponyms in Mindoro remind us of the travails of Filipino forced labor:

• Naujan-where the naos (galleons) were built

• Calapan- where the overburdened Filipino carpenters cut the huge and heavy logs into prepared wooden planks.

• Puerto Galera- where the completed galleons were safely moved.

• Filipinos were forcibly ordered by the alcaldes mayores to plant coconuts and abaca under the guise of “support of the Indians”. Failure to comply with the needed supplies of coconut oil and the abaca fibers were heavily fines.

• Coconuts furnished the oil, wine and coir for rigging and caulking for the galleons and other sea

• vessels.• Abaca transformed into rigging materials in

Cavite• Ropes were also made from sugar (kaong) and

sago (cabo negro) palm fibers and iron-headed ship pikes from hardwoods.

• Sails were fashioned out of the Iloko-woven cotton blankets exacted as tribute payment

In theory:

• Galleon construction was not meant to conflict with the planting and harvesting schedules.

• Thus, the growth of Philippine agriculture was further retarded.

the positive results of the galleon trade were the

intercultural exchanges between the

Philippines and the Americans,

• Mexican-made Virgin of Antipolo, chosen as the patroness of the sailors.

• Mango de Manila• Tamarind and rice• Carabao (known by 1737 in Mexico)• Cockfighting• Chinese Tea and textiles• Use of nipa palm raincoats• Fireworks display• Chinaware• Tuba-making

the return voyage brought innumerable and valuable flora and

fauna into the Philippines:

• Avocado

• Guava

• Papaya

• Pineapple

• Horses

• Cattle

From Mexicans origins:

• Moro-moro

• Moriones

• Image of the Black Nazarene

Infrastructures

• During the 19th century Spain invested heavily in education and infrastructure. A great deal of infrastructure projects were undertaken during the 19th century that put the Philippine economy and standard of living ahead of most of its Asian neighbors and even many European countries at that time.

Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan

• extended 120 miles long up to Dagupan (Pangasinan)

• was one of the most innovative infrastructures in the Philippines in the 1900s

• it was the only railway line in the Archipelago• constructed using mainly Filipino labor and operated

regularly four (4) years before the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896

• Considerable damages afflicted the ferrocarril during World War II, and the United States Army, which then had temporary control over the Manila Railway Company, was able to restore 40% of the railway's original condition by 1945. By virtue of Republic Act No. 4156 passed on 20 June 1946, the company was renamed to what is known today as the Philippine National Railway.

Compañia de los Tranvias de Filipinas

• established in Manila in 1885 by Jacobo Zobel de Zangroniz and Adolfo Bayo

• was converted to a steam-operated street railway system in 1887 and served the commuting public starting 1888

Puente Colgante • now Quezon Bridge• built to avoid traffic jams in Arroceros and

Quiapo• This bridge famed the Philippines as the “Paris

of the Orient.”• named after the Spanish word colgar meaning

“to suspend,” was the first suspension bridge not only in the Philippines but in the entire Southeast Asian region.

• measures 110 neters long and seven meters wide

• designed by Gustave Eiffel of the famous tower in Paris

• two-laned for carriages, with raised middle portion reserved for foot-travellers

• was considered as the first tollway in the country since both pedestrians and vehicles passing through this bridge were charged a toll fee.

• Pedestrians were charged a toll fee each of one kusing (un cuarto or ½ centavo)

• each horse cost three cuartos (about 2 centavos)

• tolls for carriages depended on the number of wheels ; the more wheels

• the higher the rates

Cable linking

• In 1897, the first interisland submarine cable linking Manila to Iloilo,

• Bacolod and Cebu, was laid by the Eastern Extension Australia and China Telegraph Company

Public lighting system (using coconut oil)

• public lighting system in Manila and suburbs using coconut oil was considered by the ayuntamiento was early as 1814

• the streets of Santa Cruz, Binondo, Quiapo, San Miguel and Sampaloc, where the more opulent Europeans and Filipinos concentrated, were illumined by oil by the mid-nineteenth century

• gradually changing to the use of kerosene in the 1880's• Until the turn of nineteenth century, the streets of

Intramuros and the suburbs were still lighted by gas and at times by coconut oil

La Electricista de Manila

• La Electricista was the first electric company that provides electricity to Manila during the late Spanish era

• By 1893, the walled city and suburbs were already powered by electricity, with the founding of La Electricista de Manila

• On January 17, 1895, its streetlights were turned on for the first time

• It had built a central power plant on Calle San Sebastian (now R. Hidalgo)

Royal Economic Society if Friends of the Country

Its objective or its role in the Philippines during the Spanish rule • Jose de Basco y Vargas – formally

organized, in 1780, the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais composed of leading men in business, industry an professions, whom he himself prodded to exploit the island’s natural bounties

Activities which helped generate income and its effects on Filipinos

• Plan General Economico - included the income-generating monopolies of tobacco, areca nut, spirituous liquors and explosives, which, unfortunately, brought untold hardships on the Filipinos.

- this “enlightened despot” gave incentives by awarding cash prizes and medals of recognition for excellence in farming indigo, spices, cotton, cultivating mulberry for silk production, bee-keeping, mining, inventions, the arts and sciences.

What it has done to the society

• It offered local and foreign scholarships and training grants and an endowment fund for a professional chair in agriculture, and established an academy of design.

• It was equally responsible for introducing and acclimatizing the mynah birds from China to fight against migratory locust infestation in the Philippines.

• introducing the carabao ban in 1782 (to conserve this draft animal), the formation of silversmiths and gold beaters’ guild in 1783, and the construction of the first papermill in the Philippines in 1825.

How it came to an end

• It died temporarily in 1787, was revived in 1819, and was suspended briefly in 1820 due to the Asiatic cholera epidemic. It resumed its activities in 1822, gradually faded out in 1875, revived again in 1882, until it ceased to exist by the middle of the 1890s.

Royal Philippine Company

What was its purpose

• On March 10, 1785, Charles III created the Royal Philippine Company with a 25-year charter for the main purpose of uniting American and Asian commerce.

• It was granted exclusive monopoly of bringing to Manila, not only Philippine but also Chinese and Indian goods, and shipping them directly to Spain via the Cape of Good Hope.

The conflicts it has resulted

• It was vehemently opposed by Dutch and English interests who saw it as a direct attack on their trade in Asian goods.

• It also met stiff opposition from the Spanish-Manila traders of the Consulado y Comercio de Manila who saw it as a strong competitor of the Manila-Acapulco trade.

• A royal decree assigning 3,000 shares of stocks (out of 32,000) for the Manila merchants and religious corporations partially mollified the galleon traders even as some refused the subscription.

How it affected the Filipinos

• This keen rivalry resulted in political unrest in the Philippines and tremendous losses suffered by the Manila board of merchants, in addition to losses suffered from disastrous shipwrecks and piracy.

• The Manila-Acapulco trade deteriorated as the Royal Philippine Company reaped profits.

• Forty percent of its net profits were set aside for research, technical assistance, and community development in the Philippines.

• For the Spaniards, the Company helped the early growth of agriculture, especially of Philippine-grown products like indigo, sugar, coffee, spices, dye-wood and textiles.

• To the Filipinos, the effect was more untold misery, as they were forced to plant much-prized cash exports crops from which they did not have any direct benefit at all.

Kinds of produce preferred

• The Royal Philippine Company devoted exclusive preference to cotton production and weaving, cultivation of black pepper, besides the propagation of silk, indigo ad sugar.