Note 8 — I. Agriculture and Landholding at the Time of the Discovery and Conquest

On the whole, agriculture was not the chief aim of Spanish colonization. “How little attention, on the whole, the conquistadores directed to agricultural colonies, considering their various services in the transplantation of domestic animals, cereals, and vegetables from the Old to the New World, is very clearly shown by Peter Martyr, who condemns the expedition to Florida with the words: “For what purpose do we need such products as are identical with those of southern Europe?” It is true that Columbus’s second voyage of discovery had a settlement in view, and for that reason was provided with domestic animals, seeds, etc. It was a failure, however, owing to the mutinous spirit of the Spaniards. The regions which were best adapted to agricultural colonies, as, for example, Caracas, Guiana, Buenos Ayres, were neglected by the Spaniards for centuries. (“The Spanish Colonial Policy,” Wilhelm Roscher (1904), pp. 2–3.)

“It is a strange thing that the Spaniards who go to those regions (The Philippines) honestly to make a small fortune do not engage more in agriculture, in a country where there is so much virgin land and of such great fertility, where labor is extremely cheap, and the crop easily and profitably sold.” (La Libertad de Comercio en Filipinas, Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero, p. 27.)

“ * * * the Spaniards cared but little for the cultivation of the lands.” (The Ecclesiastical System in the Philippines, Manuel Buzeta, O. S. A., and Felipe Bravo, O. S. A., Madrid, 1850. From their Diccionario de las Islas Filipinas. In Bl. and Rb., Vol. 28, p. 285.