Conrado O. Benitez

“ Of course, in Spain and the Spanish countries long-standing habit makes it the tendency to look to government for everything, and to think of all amelioration of evils and all incitements to progress as coming from above; while social and economic conditions in the Philippines are such as to emphasize this tendency, the aristocracy of wealth and education standing apart from the masses and being, to the latter, identified in the main with the government, with the “powers above.” ”

“ 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. ”

“ It is one of the many grand problems, based on the retributive laws of Nature, which confront the enquirer into that great and wonderful mystery—the development of the human race. Well it is for him who can learn from the savage Aieta, or the semi-civilized Tagalog, a lesson in the evolution of the human intellect; but, unfortunately, so many who have golden opportunities of studying the intellect and works of uncultured man are careless of those matters, and look with contempt upon the noblest of studies. They cannot interest themselves in the struggling intellect of primitive man ”

“ The “center of population” of each town today, with its great church, tribunal, stores and houses of stone and wood, is certainly in marked contrast; but the appearance of a barrio of little distance from the center is today probably much as it was then. Then, as now, the bulk of the people lived in humble houses of bamboo and nipa raised on piles above the dampness of the soil; then, as now, the food was largely rice and the excellent fish which abound in river and sea. There were on the water the same familiar bancas and fish corrals, and on land the rice fields and coconut groves. ”

“ Three centuries have passed since the blood of Legaspi and of Sikatuna mingled in a cup of which both partook in token of eternal friendship, thus ratifying their oaths to fuse thenceforward into a single ideal the aspiration of Spain and the Philippines. But the passage of time, instead of making firmer this fusion, has only strengthened the predominance of the religious orders who have turned the islands into a colony exploited by friars.
No one is ignorant of the rebellion of the friars against the highest political and religious authorities of the archipelago ”

“ With India and the Malay Archipelago on the west and south, the islands of the fertile Pacific and the rising empires of the new world on the east, the vast market of China at their doors, their insular position and numerous rivers affording a facility of communication and defence to every part of them, an active and industrious population, climates of almost all varieties, a soil so fertile in vegetable and mineral productions as almost to exceed credibility ”

“ Any attempt to trace Philippine economic development in the past three centuries must necessarily start, not so much with a detailed account of how the industries developed as with an exposition of how they were not developed. On the other hand, the remarkable social progress of the last half of the nineteenth century, following the opening of the markets of the world to Philippine products, is an encouraging indication of probable social advance yet to be attained. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In many ways the next decade of the history of the Philippines may resemble the splendid development of the neighboring country of Japan. Both countries have in past times been isolated more or less from the life and thought of the modern world. Both are now open to the full current of human affairs. Both countries promise to play an important part in the politics and commerce of the Far East. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the event of a free man marrying a slave woman, and their having only one son, that child would be half free and half enslaved—that is, he would work one month for his owner and the next for himself. If they had more than one child, the first born would follow the condition of the father, the second of the mother, and so on. If there were uneven numbers, the last born was half free and half bond. Slaves were bought, sold, and exchanged like ordinary merchandise. In their social manners these people were very courteous, more especially the Luzon tribes. ”

“ 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 ”

“ Hardly had wealth been created by the commerce of the first years after the conquest, when the policy of restriction found its strong supporters in the merchants of Cadiz and Seville, who, accustomed to monopolize the trade with America, looked with jealous eyes upon the rapidly growing prosperity of Manila, the new center of trade. The cotton and silk cloths from China were underselling in Mexico those coming from Spain and Peru, and a good deal of the silver was going, not to Spain, but to the East ”

“ Women held high position, for with their husband so much away not only the household but all the family affairs were under their control, a condition still notable. Thus the home influence in which the children grew up was not that of the Orient, a shut-in Zenana with, for the child’s first model, a mother who had been a slave and now as mistress was a tyrant, but the youth of the Philippines earlier saw the real world and had training from mothers who knew its ways. ”

“ 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 ”

“ When the brokers there have got all the money out of their bags for ornaments for their persons, they go home, where their countrymen show them great honor at which even fathers and old men may not grumble, for it is a custom to show honor to those who come from China. The people boil seawater to make salt, and ferment sugar-cane juice to make liquor. They have a ruler (or chief) . The natural products are beeswax, cotton, and cotton stuffs. In trading with them use is made of copper beads, blue and white porcelain cups, small figured chintzes, pieces of iron and the like. ”

“ The Filipinos, like the inhabitants of the Marianas, who are no less skilful and dexterous in navigation, far from progressing, have retrograded; since, although boats are now built in the islands, we might assert that they are all after European models. The boats that held one hundred rowers to a side and thirty soldiers have disappeared. The country that once, with primitive methods, built ships of about 2,000 toneladas, today (1890) has to go to foreign ports, as Hongkong, to give the gold wrenched from the poor, in exchange for unserviceable cruisers. ”

“ The immunity of those implicated and the predominance of the rebellious elements compel the unhappy belief that Spain has already abdicated the sovereignty in favor of Philippine friarism.
So it is worth while to dissipate this erroneous impression. Sad is it to think that the planning of Charles V and Philip II, the efforts of Magellan and Elcano, the sufferings of Villalobos, the prudence and the valor of Legaspi, the sacrifices of Salcedo, Lavezares, Goiti, and the others, only served as a stepping-stone for enthroning the friar orders. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 ”

“ There are also many gold mines and placers in the other islands, especially among the Pintados, on the Botuan River in Mindanao, and in Sebu, where a mine of good gold is worked, called Taribon. If the industry and efforts of the Spaniards were to be converted into the working of the gold, as much would be obtained from any one of these islands as from those provinces which produce the most in the world. But since they attend to other means of gain rather than to this, they do not pay the proper attention to this matter. ”

“ Pickering, in his “Races of Man,” states that the Tagalog is still the chief language of Luzon, being in general use in all the interior towns.
In respect to religion, the more advanced of the tribes appeared to have arrived at the stage of intellectual progress when Nature worship begins to give place to a dim idea of a Supreme Being, a Maker of all things. This protecting genius, to whom they offered sacrifices, was called Bathalang Meicapal. These people had a vague conception of a future state in which the good were rewarded and the wicked punished. ”

“ I do not hesitate to assert that if the Anglo-Americans or the English were to possess themselves of the Philippine Archipelago they surely would show the natives more consideration than they are receiving at the hands of the Spaniard. And so, Your Royal Highness, to escape an imaginary risk there is being created a real and true danger. ”

“ For since the natives of Nueva España are a race inclined to drink and intoxication, and the wine made by the Filipinos is distilled and as strong as brandy, they crave it rather than the wine from España. Consequently it will happen that the trading fleets (from Spain) will bring less wine every year, and what is brought will be more valuable every year. So great is the traffic in this (palm wine) at present on the coast of Navidad, among the Apusabalcos, and throughout Colima, that they lead beasts of burden with this wine in the same way as in España. ”

“ When Legaspi’s grandson, Juan de Salcedo, made his memorable marches through northern Luzon, bringing vast acres under the dominion of Spain with a mere handful of soldiers, he found the modern Bigan a settlement of several thousand people; his successors in the conquest of the Upper Kagayan Valley, one of the most backward portions of the archipelago to-day, reported a population of forty thousand in the region lying around the modern Tuguegarao, and so it was quite commonly everywhere on the seacoasts and on the largest rivers. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Basco’s idea was to make the Philippines economically self-sufficing, and not dependent on Mexico. For this reason, he encouraged the development of agriculture by offering prizes to those who would excel in the cultivation of cotton, spices, sugar and silk; those who would open up the various kinds of mines; those who invented useful things, and those who excelled in the arts and sciences. ”

“ 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. ”