Note 7 — III. Trade and Commerce at the Time of Discovery and Conquest

“70. (Interprovincial trade of the various products shall not be prohibited, as such prohibition is in violation of law vii, título xviii, book iv and law xxv, título i, book vi, in accordance with which laws trade is to be encouraged. The Indians may cut timber in accordance with law xiv, título xvii, book iv. The desire to gain, however, shall not be allowed to cause the Indians to send out of any province the products necessary for its conservation. This may be prohibited with the consent of the father minister, from whom the alcalde-mayor shall ask a certification for his own protection. Without the certification, he shall not make such prohibition, under penalty of the penalties of the preceding ordinance. The natives shall pay no fees for the privilege of interprovincial trade; and, if any alcalde-mayor violates this, he shall incur a fine of 100 pesos, besides the responsibility of making good all the loss occasioned by his action. This shall be a charge in the residencia.) (Raon’s Ordinance, February 26, 1768.—Bl. and Rb., Vol. 50, pp. 250–251.)

This is one of the reasons adduced by Rizal to explain the decay of agriculture in this country:

“Of no little importance were the hindrances and obstacles that from the beginning were thrown in the farmers’s way by the rulers, who were influenced by childish fear and saw everywhere signs of conspiracies and uprisings. The natives were not allowed to go to their labors, that is, their farms, without permission of the governor, or of his agents and officers and even of the priests as Morga says. Those who know the administrative slackness and confusion in a country where the officials work scarcely two hours a day; those who know the cost of going to and returning from the capital to obtain a permit; those who are aware of the petty retaliations of the little tyrants will well understand how with this crude arrangement it is possible to have the most absurd agriculture. True it is that for some time this absurdity, which would be ludicrous had it not been so serious, has disappeared; but even if the words have gone out of use other facts and other provisions have replaced them. The Moro pirate has disappeared but there remains the outlaw who infests the fields and waylays the farmer to hold him for ransom. 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; and then, without defense and without security he is reduced to inaction and abandons his field, his work, and takes to gambling as the best means of securing a livelihood. The green cloth is under the protection of the government, it is safer! A mournful counselor is fear, for it not only causes weakness but also in casting aside the weapons strengthens the very persecutor!”—(La Indolencia.)