usual agricultural vehicle is a car without wheels, drawn by a single buffalo, and
capable of carrying about 200 pounds weight. Occasionally, however, a cart with
wheels is employed drawn by a pair of buffalos, and this will carry 1200 pounds, or
little more than one half what a single English horse will draw on a good road.
1 he staple product of Philippine agriculture is, of course, rice. Next to it may
be ranked maiz, of which two crops are yearly produced, the variety usually in
cultivation coming to maturity in nine weeks. Then follow pulses, the abaca
banana, cotton, the sesame, sugar-cane, coffee and cacoa, with the coco,areca, andgomuti
Pa~^s> an.^ aJl G16 fruits of the Malay Archipelago, the mangostin and durian excepted.
1 he soil of the Philippine Islands is exempt from all public and municipal imposts,
a great advantage, which is owing to the existence of the poll-tax which takes the
place of all other direct taxes. In the rude and under-peopled condition of these
islands when they were conquered, unlike Java, Hindustan, China, and other populous
countries of Atia, no proper rent existed, and consequently no source of a land-
tax. The only means of raising a revenue was the rude one of a capitation tax, and the
bpanish government imposed it much after the same fashion that the proprietor of
a Russian or Polish estate imposes it upon his serfs. Over a land tax, it has undoubtedly
the advantage of being fixed, invariable, and in this particular instance, of being really
moderate in amount, and even economical and easy in collection. This tax affects
only the native inhabitants and some of the mixed races descended from them.
European proprietors and religious and charitable corporations pay the state a tithe
of the pi oduce of their estates, but this amounts to little more than a nominal quit-
rent, for it is the same now as when the estates were first granted centuries
ago. The theory in respect to such real property held by the natives is, that the
sovereign is the proprietor, and that the occupant has only the usufruct of the soil,
so long as he continues to till it. In practice, however, the actual possessor is the
real owner ; and land of whatever description is a heritable and vendible property
like moveables. The effect of this, and of the increase of population is, that in many
parts of the country, land bears a high price. Thus in the province of Pangasinan, a
quinon of land, which is a measure of 1000 square fathoms, each of three varas or
Castilian yards (33-38 inches) sells at from 220 to 250 hard dollars; in the province
of Laguna or that of the great lake, at from 250 to 300, and in the district of Pasig
near the city of Manilla and in the province of Bulacan, sometimes as high as 1000
dollars. The places thus named are all in very fertile and populous districts, and the
lands referred to, cleared and enclosed. The most valuable lands are those subject to
periodical immersion, or in other words those fit for the growth of the great staple, rice.
; ‘y uplands fit for the growth of sugar-cane, cotton, coffee and the abaca, are of
inferior value as are all such lands in other tropical countries. The chief value of land
in a country in which it is still abundant, is derived from the labour bestowed in
clearing and bringing it into a state fit for cultivation. The amount of this is large,
when a country, as is usually the case in an unpeopled one, is covered with, a heavy
forest. Hence, in the few cases in which it is not so, even fertile wild lands conveniently
situated begin, with the progress of population, to fetch a considerable price.
The land in the Philippines, when not tilled by the proprietor, is everywhere
cultivated on the métairie system, that is, half the produce going to the owner and
half to the cultivator. The latter furnishes the plough, the buffalo, and his own
labour, and the proprietor shares equally with him in the expense of sowing, reaping,
and thrashing, in so far as concerns rice the main crop, for in the case of the less
costly cultures of maiz, sesame, and pulses, the cultivator incurs the whole expense
of labour, the proprietor still receiving half the crop. I t is generally considered
that in practice the actual shares of the two parties, are three-fifths for the tenant and
two-fifths for the proprietor. The- tenements or holdings, are all small, usually, the
amount that a métayer and his family are able to cultivate, which is considered to be
one quinon. The métairie system is considered, and I think justly, as the best
suited to the state of society in the Philippines. The wages of labour, for an Ariat.l,»
country, are very high : in Manilla and its neighbourhood, for example, they are
about a quarter of a dollar or thirteen pence a day, which is at least three times thé
day wages of an ordinary labourer in Calcutta or Bombay, and probably twice as much
as in Java. Notwithstanding these high rates, and the large share of the crop received
by the métayers, they are, with few exceptions, indolent, and needy,—frequently
m mi ancl.^? ^anc^s money lenders,—in short, cheerful and contented sluggards.
• i j useful arts are certainly in a more advanced state among the Philippine
islanders than among any of the Malayan nations, and this is, without question, the
effect of Spanish rule ; for before the conquest, they were in this respect, very far
below them. The highest degree of skill « displayed m^the manufacture of textile
fabrics, the raw materials being cotton, the fibres of the abaca banana and of the pineapple
leaf, all of them domestic products, with silk imported from China. The manufacturers
axe women, and as in all other Asiatic countries, the manufactures e nW y
domestic. They extend all over the islands, but are more espec^ly detemuned
towards the provinces of which the raw materials are the staple products. Thus, in
Ilocos which is remarkable for the growth and export of cotton, there are supposed
to be no fewer than twenty thousand looms. Camannes and Albay in Luzon and
Iloilo in Panay, are the chief provinces for the production of the abaca, and. here,
also are the principal manufacturers of it. Manufactures of cotton and. abaca, as
also’ of the piîia or fibre of the leaf of the pine-apple, are carried on in the metropolitan
province of Tondo. The finest cloths are made of the pina, and from
it are produced fabrics which are as great curiosities as the muslins of Dacca,
or the shawls of Cashmere. A single dress of pina richly embroidered, has sometimes
been sold for the enormous sum of 3251. The art of dyeing is but very imperfectly
understood. The materials are native vegetable products such as the sibucao or
sapan-wood, and the colours produced are neither bright nor permanent The
art of calico-printing is unknown, as it is indeed to all Asiatics except the Hindus.
The art of manufacturing cotton and abaca fabrics was certainly known to the Philippine
islanders for many ages, and seems not to have been derived either from Malays
or Europeans. This is sufficiently proved by the names of the cotton and abaca
plants and of all the terms connected with the art of weaving which are, in every
case, native and not foreign words. The pina manufacture as its name imp ties, was
evidently introduced since the Spanish conquest. The extent to which textile manufactures
is carried may be judged by the fact, that with but a small exception for
foreign fabrics, some five millions of people are clothed with them, and that there is
even some considerable exportation. .
The art of mat-making is carried to much perfection by the Philippine islanders,
the raw material being palm-leaf and the ratan. In the shape of hats, cigar-cases,
and the like, there is even a considerable exportation, besides a large domestic consumption
of articles of this description. The highest degree of mechanical skill is
probably exhibited in the manufacture of gold trinkets, consisting of works in filagree
and necklaces. Some of the last under the name of bejuguillos are even highly
appreciated in foreign countries. The goldsmiths, equally with the weavers, are
women. The art of manufacturing a coarse unglazed domestic pottery has been
immemorially practised, but all the earthenware of any value is brought from
China. The manufacture of glass is altogether unknown. Salt is made both by
solar evaporation and by boiling, and most probably in a climate so damp not
economically, or it would as in other parts of the world, have been seized
upon by the state as an instrument of taxation. The manufacture of malleable
iron is very imperfectly understood, and the iron of inferior quality, and hence,
the chief consumption is furnished from Europe. The building of boats and
small coasting craft is carried on in several of the provinces, but more especially m
Pangasman.^nai the Philippines is carried on both by land and water. This
is exempt from the nuisance of transit duties, but subject to many impediments,
natural and factitious. One great obstacle, is the absence of good roads in a country
immersed in water for several months of the year. Even for some time after the
waters have abated, they leave such a deposit of mud on the highways, that it is
impossible to travel over them with horses, and the buffalo is the only available
conveyance. The roads are besides intersected by innumerable rivers and brooks, for
the most part without bridges, or with wooden ones of which the materials must be
removed in the rainy season lest they be carried away by the floods. In the absence
of bridges, goods and passengers have to be ferried over on bamboo rafts, furnished
by the corvée labour of the neighbourhoods. In passing from either end of Luzon
to the capital, it is said that not fewer than a hundred of these rude ferries have to
be crossed. In the few places in which good causeways exist, they require to be
raised five feet above the level of the plains which during the inundation have the
appearance of a sea or lake. Some of the periodical lakes must be crossed in boats,
and that of Mongabol between Pangasinan and Pampanga, has at the height of the
rains, a depth of 30 feet, so that the navigation is impeded by the tops of the trees.
The coasting trade is attended by hardly fewer difficulties. It has to encounter
the storms and hurricanes of the equinoxes, and when the monsoons themselves set
in, they cause either the outward or homeward voyage to be carried on with an