adverse wmd often too strong to be encountered. The extensive introduction of
f e w - can obviate this difficulty. Another obstacle to the internal
trade is the piracy of the southern tribes which has harassed the Archipelago from
ir the present day. But there is yet one more obstacle to it, the crea-
European misrule. The petty governors of provinces and districts, have the
KIT. ^ i ca” 'yltl8 on trade to eke out their incompetent salaries, and of course use
tneir whole authority to monopolise the commerce of their respective jurisdictions.
notwithstanding those many impediments, the internal trade is more considerable
than might be looked for. A weekly fair or market is held in every province or
district, and considerable traffic results from the exchange of the peculiar products
at the different provinces, the staple articles in which are rice, salt, oil, cattle, ierk-
heel, stock-fish, indigo, and sugar. In the coasting-trade, there are employed about
w40 vessels from 40 tons burthen and upwards, and above 300 of smaller size, exclusive
of the craft that navigates the lakes and rivers, which are very numerous.
lh e whole foreign trade of the Philippines is by law confined to the single port of
Manilla, an impolitic arrangement, since, in many cases, it subjects both exports and
imports to the cost of a double transport. The port is free to all friendly nations,
the duties being double under foreign flags. The countries with which the external
tiade is carred on are Spam, Great Britain, France, the Hanse Towns, the United
States of America, China, Java, Singapore, and Australia. For a commercial inter-
couise with Chma, it is easy to see that, in so far as the navigation is concerned, the
Philippines possess an obvious advantage over every other Asiatic country, the course
being not with or against the monsoons, but across them, so that instead of one
voyage, several can be performed within the year. The following are the staple
“ J-“ l sugar, coffee, cotton, abaca hemp, tobacco, indigo, hides, sapan-wood,
ebony, tortoise-shell, tripang, abaca-cloth, hats, and gold-dust. The imports consist
“I China, the wines of Spam, and the cottons, woollens, iron, and copper
of Great Britain. In 1841 the latest year for which I have seen any account, the
value of the exports was about 762,7501, and the imports 400,757t, the difference
being made up by bills of exchange drawn on Europe, and chiefly on England.
lh e weights and measures of the Philippine islanders, and even their money, seem
to have been chiefly derived from the Malays, and some of them are still in use.
Ihus we have the gantang or gallon, the chupak or quart, the pikul or load, the dapa
or latnom, the jankal or span, and the pichis or farthing; respectively corrupted,
ganta, chupa, pico, dipa, dangkal, and pitis. Without superseding these, the Spaniards
have introduced their own weights, measures, and monies. The current weights are
18 2Jper l e n t lleavier than the English ; the arroba, of 25 Spanish
P?"nds.' % V m (Pikul) of 54 arrobas, or 1374 Spanish pounds,
English pounds, instead of bemg as with us 1334 pounds. To these is
added a seeming native dry measure for corn, called the caban, which the Spaniards
have defined to be equal to 3'47 cubic Castilian feet, and which in weight is about
105 Pounds ofric e m the husk. This name, which appears to be native, may how-
the Malay word kawan, signifying company or assemblage, in reference
possibly to this measure bemg, as it is, the complement or union of the lower Malay
measures, the guantang and the chupak. The measures of length, besides the fathom
and span, are tlm Spanish vara or yard of 33-38 English inches. The superficial
measure is the quinon, which is equal to 1000 square fathoms, each fathom of three
Castilian varas or yards. The Malay kodi, the Hindu kori, and the English corge,
that is, the score, is m use, and written by the Spaniards of Manilla, coria. The
current money is the peso-duro or Spanish dollar, which ought to contain grains 370-9
of fine silver, worth 51*79 pence. This is divided into 8 reals, and the real into 12
granos, represented by copper tokens.
The government of the thirty-four provinces of the Philippines, including the
W t h imT B1tered ky a governor and captain-general, in whom is vested
with little check, the whole civil, military, and naval administration. To carry on
frnrn h i r s t s r t p i i a®.®lste!i b> tbre,e secretaries-general. There lies an appeal
Real Audieneia, or exchequer, but it is rendered in a great degree
! r prerogative which he possesses, of carrying his orders at once into
and^ol WHon if reference .to th° cr0T™. on ^ of urgency. The assessment
fntend^ft nf+b r revenue is under the direction of an officer called the super-
iK & r p i ^ ? Hacienda, who, m extraordinary cases, refers for advice to a
rff ffn fw Pf e^ ° n M pnncipal fiscal functionaries. This officer is directly
H h0me-g0Ver?“ en*7 “ d next to the governor-general and arch
bishop, is the first person m rank m the Philippines. In case of the death or absence
of the governor-general, it is not he, however, but the commander of the forces that
succeeds to the temporary government. _
The Philippines are divided into provinces of very various sizes. The local administration
of the larger of these is confided to officers named gobernador, and the
smaller to functionaries called Alcalde mayor. Each province is divided into pueblos
or townships, which are administered by chiefs called gobernador-chillos, or petty
governors. The township itself is subdivided into barangays, each of which is composed
of from 45 to 60 families, or rather, tribute-pay ers, with a headman known by the
native name of manguindó, or the Malay one of dato, which last signifies an “ elder.”
This is an original native institution, and bears no inconsiderable resemblance to our
Anglo-Saxon tithings and hundreds. The datos, or elders, appear to be hereditary,
but it is remarkable in the institution of the townships and their subdivisions, that
the petty governors are elective periodically, and that the electors are the elders,
restricted however to the twelve seniors among them.
The revenue of the Philippines í b derived from the following sources,—a capitation
tax, corvées, a tobacco monopoly, an excise on palm-wine, licenses for cock-fighting,
and custom duties. The capitation tax is of three kinds,—that paid by the natives,
that paid by the Chinese mestizos, and that paid by the Chinese of the full blood.
The native impost comes under three heads,—the contribution to the state which
amounts to five reals of plate, that for municipal purposes which is one real, and that
to the church which is three reals, making the entire poll-tax nine reals; or at sixpence
to the real, four shillings and sixpence. The capitation of the mestizo Chinese
is double that of the natives, or nine shillings. Both are paid by all males above
twenty years of age, and by all females on marriage, or after the age of twenty-five.
The Chinese of the full blood are divided into three classes according to their condition
in life, and their lowest tax is twelve hard dollars, but the average is above
seventeen, so that the assessment on the Chinese is about seventeen fold that on the
natives. The parties exempt from the tribute or capitation-tax, are Spaniards and
their mestizo descendants, all foreigners except the Chinese, all natives above the age
of sixty, a few native families hereditarily on account of services rendered to the
Spaniards by ancestors, and the gobernador-chillos or petty governors with their
families while in office. The natives paying the poll-tax are reckoned at about
700,000. The tax was first imposed by the conqueror, Legaspé, and is of the same
nature with that imposed by the Mahommedan conquerors on those who refused to
accept their religion, with this difference that the Mahommedans imposed it on the
infidels, and the Spaniards on the believers. I t is not unlikely, indeed, that the
Spaniards took the hint of the impost from the practice of the Arabian conquerors
in Spain itself. i . .
There is another kind of poll-tax, the amount of which cannot be stated m figures;
this consists of corvées or forced labour, in making and maintaining roads, bridges,
and ferries, in conveying the mail, and transporting the baggage of the military and
of travellers, all which falls on the native inhabitants. The tobacco monopoly, which
furnishes the largest branch of the Philippine revenue, is of the same nature. This
is but a comparatively recent impost, for it was first established with much difficulty
by the governor-general, José Basco, who administered affairs from the year 1778 to
1787. The monopoly extends only to the island of Luzon, and the production of
tobacco is confined to a few of its most fertile districts. The whole crop is carried
to Manilla and its neighbourhood, where it is stored for exportation, or made
into cigars, in manufactories where from 3000 to 4000 persons, chiefly women, are
An excise on palm-wine at one time yielded a considerable revenue, but from the
year 1836, owing to the increased consumption of foreign wines and spirits, it has
been constantly falling off. A tax on cock-fighting is another source of the Philippine
revenue. A cock-pit, or rather stage, exists in every pueblo or township, licensed by
the government. Stamp and customs duties, neither of them very productive, form
the other branches of the revenue, the total amount of which, in 1841, was 3,480,000
Spanish dollars, or 754,0001. This is supposed to be at the rate of a dollar, or near
4s. id. a-head, for the population subject to Spanish rule, a lower rate of taxation than
that of any portion of our own Indian dominions.
The supreme administration of justice in the Philippines is vested in a high court,
the Real Audiencia, composed of a regent or president, with puisne judges administering
the law of Spain. This is a court of primary jurisdiction for Manilla and its
neighbourhood, and an appellate one for the provinces. The country judges are
the Alcalde mayor or governors of provinces, and the native heads of townships called