Note 12 — XXIV

Abacá production and prospects.At this period the prospects of the abacá cultivation seemed very promising; and since the close of the American war, which had the effect of causing a considerable fall in the value of this article in America, the prices have been steadily increasing. It is stated (on authority) that, in 1840, 136,034 piculs of abacá, to the value of $397,995 were exported, the value per picul being reckoned at about $2.09. The rate gradually rose and stood between four and five dollars—and, during the civil war, reached the enormous sum of nine dollars per picul—the export of Russian hemp preventing, however, a further rise. This state of affairs occasioned the laying out of many new plantations, the produce of which, when it came on the market, after three years, was valued at $3.50 per picul, in consequence of the prices having returned to their normal condition; and even then it paid to take up an existing plantation, but not to lay out a new one. This rate continued until 1860, since which time it has gradually risen (only during the American civil war was there any stoppage), and it now stands once more as high as during the civil war; and there is no apparent prospect of a fall so long as the Philippines have no competitors in the trade. In 1865 the picul in Manila never cost less than $7 which two years previously was the maximum value; and it rose gradually, until $9.50 was asked for ordinary qualities. The production in many provinces had reached the extreme limit; and a further increase, in the former at least, is impossible, as the work of cultivation occupies the whole of the male population—an evidence surely that a suitable recompense will overcome any natural laziness of the natives.12