Volume 52 — APPENDIX: AGRICULTURE IN FILIPINAS

A decree by Basco in 1784

Don Joseph Basco y Vargas, Balderrama y Rivera, knight of the Order of Santiago, commander of a division in the royal navy, governor and captain-general of these Filipinas Islands and president of their royal Audiencia and Chancilleria, commander-in-chief of the troops of his Majesty in these dominions, general superintendent of the royal treasury, and of the royal revenue from tobacco, and delegate superintendent of that from the mail service, etc.

[The author begins by showing the importance, necessity, and advantage of agriculture to both the state and the individual, with illustrations drawn from history and observation in various countries of the world, and continues:]

Since agriculture is so necessary for the subsistence of mankind, and the maintenance of kingdoms, it is not wonderful that it should be so cared for by the wise and by kings, and that the lawmakers of nations should have ennobled this pursuit with special privileges. Especially have been distinguished in this direction the Spanish monarchs, who, besides other privileges granted in favor of the farmers, have thought it well to decree that neither the implements for their labors, nor their lands, should be taken from them for any civil debt; and also they granted to these laborers the privilege that they could not be imprisoned for any civil debt in the season for their harvesting and field labors, authorizing the superior judges to grant them delay in such cases. But besides these so useful and valuable benefits the natives of Filipinas enjoy still others more extraordinary. For their security, besides having ordained that their goods shall not be seized for costs in lawsuits, nor shall they be punished with pecuniary fines, conferring upon them other favors of the same kind, it has been likewise commanded that no one may lend money to them above the sum of five pesos, under the penalty of losing what is lent them beyond that. In all these things the monarchs have sought to release the farmers from many oppressions and injuries, and to prevent the losses and deficits which otherwise, for most of the vassals, are caused by caring for the interests and profits of a few individuals. But it occasions the greatest sorrow that in Filipinas, contrary to the pious and Christian intention of our kings—and especially that of the wise monarch, who is now prosperously governing us, our lord Don Carlos III (whom may God preserve)—Spaniards should have acted, in regard to these exemptions, without any heed or consideration for the injuries which have resulted here to the Indians and their agriculture, and with notable loss of the wealth which the fertility and valuable products of this country promise.

And since this chief executive, actuated by what he himself has observed in this province of Pampanga, in that of Bulacan, and in those of Tondo and Laguna de Bay (which he has visited personally), cannot any longer permit such extortions and injuries as are caused, among all classes of persons, to the farmers and poor Indians in the said provinces, and in the other districts to which this decree will also be made to extend: I command that in future the implements of labor—such as carabaos, plows, hemp-combs, and other field utensils belonging to the Indians, mestizos, creoles, Spaniards, or any other class of persons—shall not be seized for a civil debt, any more than their lands, since most of them have no ownership in these. Moreover, they shall not be arrested at the times when they must work in the fields, such as plowing, and gathering their harvests: and, at the times when they can be arrested, authority shall be given to the alcaldes-mayor so that they can grant them a respite of six months, without loading them with fees or other exactions.

And, as the backward state of agriculture in Filipinas proceeds also from the fact that, notwithstanding there are many industrious, laborious and charitable persons in the villages, there are also many others in whom sloth and idleness reign—for instance, many chiefs and their sons, and the heads of barangay; and generally these who have exercised the office of magistrate (who, on account of having served in these employments, afterward refuse through a sort of vanity and pride to go back to field work), all these caring only to subjugate the common people by compelling them to work without pay in their fields, and trying to exempt themselves from the common labor, and from the other burdens to which those who pay tribute are subject—likewise this chief executive has resolved to declare that such exemptions ought not to be understood for the classes of persons who are mentioned above, unless they possess at least eight cabalitas of their own land cultivated and worked by their servants or day-laborers, expressly forbidding that they rent these lands to others—always provided that they are not prevented by age or infirmities from carrying on their farm-work in person, since in this case they are allowed to rent them.

In regard to the repartimientos of people for the royal works, which are constructed in the provinces near Manila, as also in regard to the domestic servants [tanores], and other people who are assigned for work on the churches, government buildings, and jails, and guards [bantayes], etc., various regulations have been made; but, knowing that these are not sufficient to uproot so many wrongs, injuries and oppressions as the Indians suffer from the magistrates of their villages, and from the heads of barangay—making the villages contribute a greater number of people than is needed and required, and exempting from their turn of service those who should render it (both of these proceedings serving to defraud the poor, who, in order not to leave their grain fields, yield whatever the magistrates and chiefs ask from them, according to their caprice and the extent of their greed)—it is ordained and commanded that both these repartimientos be carried out with the knowledge and consent of the parish curas. To each individual cura must be sent a statement of the number of people necessary, and of the quota from each village; and the headmen shall be under strict obligation to obtain certificates from the said father curas that they have carried out the repartimiento in conformity with the decrees. It must be understood that these repartimientos cannot be made in conscience, and without contravention of the law, among the farmers and artisans who are occupied in their tasks, so long as there are wandering and idle people, since these last are the ones assigned by the law for these necessities. As little are the sons of the chief exempt, or the heads of barangay who have no occupation, or those who have held an official position, if, relying on this sort of privilege, they do not return to their former occupation or duties in the field.

Finally, it is ordained and commanded to all the governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor, and other magistrates throughout the island, that they most punctually observe and fulfil whatever is here decreed, in order thus to render greater service to God, and to the king—who has entrusted to the carefulness, conscience and vigilance of this supreme government the welfare of these islands and of all their inhabitants; also their social condition, just government, promotion, and reputation. And the said governors, corregidors, alcaldes-mayor and other magistrates here mentioned are warned to fulfil whatever is here decreed, under a penalty of five hundred pesos fine; and on the alcaldes of the natives, the mestizos, and others of their class a fine of twenty pesos is imposed, both fines to be applied in the usual manner. These fines shall be exacted from them whenever any application shall be presented that is founded upon any transgression of this decree, or when its infraction shall be proved in any manner. And as it is necessary that the parish priests shall aid, on their side, and shall be zealous for its fulfilment, the reverend and illustrious archbishops and bishops and the devout provincials of the islands shall be urgently requested to incite and oblige their parish priests to the observance of these wholesome regulations and ordinances, charging upon their consciences that if they know of any failure to observe the decree, they shall communicate it to the supreme government. The said reverend prelates shall also be notified that this supreme government expects—from their well-known zeal and love for their flocks, and because they have resigned all else for the greater service of God and of the king—that they will coöperate by their utterances and with their effective persuasions in fulfilling by all means the desires and intentions of the governor, who considers himself under the strictest obligation to issue this ordinance, and to command that it be carried out until his Majesty shall be pleased to confirm it. Before his royal throne will be presented the merit and activity of each one of those who excel in solicitude for its observance, a full account of which will be given to his Majesty in our next despatches. And, in order that this decree may be known in all the villages and in all the districts of the island, and published with all possible fulness and clearness, it shall be translated into all the dialects; and as many copies as shall be necessary shall be printed, in two columns, the first in Castilian, and the second in the respective idiom of the province to which it shall be sent. Copies of these shall be posted everywhere in the magistrates’ offices of the villages, and printed copies shall be supplied to all the courts of the capital, in order that they may observe and fulfil the decree, so far as it belongs to them.

At the village of Arayat, on the twentieth day of the month of March, 1784,

Don Joseph Basco y Vargas

By command of his Lordship:

Agricultural conditions in 1866

[The following article is taken from Jagor’s Reisen, pp. 303–306.]

Excepting some large estates acquired in earlier times through donation, landed property originated mainly through the right of occupation by the possessor and his rendering the land productive which even now is a common right recognized in the laws of the Indias in favor of the indigenous inhabitants. In the exercise of this right, the native takes possession of such unused land as is necessary for his house and tilled fields, and loses it only when it remains uncultivated for two years. Setting aside these native (and likewise very poor) landed proprietors, landed property is legally acquired in the following manner: through purchase from the state of a certain area of unimproved crown lands [Spanish, realengas]; through actual purchase from the natives who possess property; through contracts (called pactos de retro) concluded with the natives; and through the pledging or hypothecation of bonds, which even these natives are accustomed to agree to, especially in commercial dealings.

The first of these means ought to be a source of wealth; but it is not, for various reasons. At present very few persons are familiar with the legislation regarding the unused crown land, which consists of numberless single decrees forming a casuistical, disconnected, complicated, and confused mass …. By a royal order of 1857, the first offer for untilled crown lands was fixed at fifty dollars a quiñon; and the concession could not be secured without a previous public auction. From that time private persons held aloof from such demands; to the former evils are added the high price, and the danger of being outbidden in the auction, and thus of losing one’s trouble and expense for the examination of the lands. In 1859 the decree was modified, and the former price of four reals a quiñon as first offer was established; but this decree is not yet published.

In order that capital may flow into agriculture—without which that industry cannot possibly be developed to the production of grain and colonial products for exportation—it is absolutely necessary to overcome all obstacles which discourage men of wealth. Among these hindrances stands in the first rank the local administration, in regard to the granting of untilled crown lands; in the second, the obstructions which are placed in the way of both [Spanish] natives and foreigners who wish to acquire rights of settlement and citizenship in the community. Besides the difficulty of acquiring large possessions, still others exist. The planter can easily find laborers, to whom he must make considerable advances in food, cattle, and money; but the Indians pay little attention to fulfilling their contracts, and the legal means at the command of the planter for compelling them to fulfill their past engagements are as burdensome and ruinous as even the abandonment of his rights. Unless the alcalde is active and shows good-will, the planters usually prefer not to press their claims; they endure the loss, and many are thus induced to abandon their enterprises. This cancer on agriculture will disappear as soon as every Indian possesses a certificate of citizenship [Bürgerbrief; Spanish, cédula de vecindad]. If one weathers the first year, storms, locusts, and business crises are to be expected later, all of which depress the price of his product. In such cases it is for the planter the greatest evil that no credit exists. There are no mortgages, at least there is no compulsory registration of mortgages; accordingly, no one dares to lend his money on such estates, or he does it only at crushing rates of usurious interest. An improvement in this respect is urgently demanded by the agricultural interests, both great and small, by the mercantile class, and by large and small estates; it would place a limit to the pacto de retro, as well as to the usurious contracts which are called in Luzon tacalanan, in Bisaya alili—the furnishing of loans on the proceeds of the next harvest—to which must be ascribed the misery and the backward conditions that prevail in many places ….

The pacto de retro is one of the most usual modes in which landed property passes from the possession of the natives to others. A considerable part of Pampanga, Bataan, Manila, Laguna, Batangas, and other provinces has, within a few years, changed owners in this way. Thus also do the inexpressibly cunning and thrifty mestizos usually acquire their landed possessions, the cultivation of which they then improve; but that does not prevent this custom from being detrimental to the public welfare. The native who possesses a piece of land through placing it under cultivation and actually occupying it, but almost never (or very seldom) by purchase from another owner, when he finds himself in pressing need of money offers his land as a pledge for the desired loan from a capitalist; but where he has no document to establish and prove his just claim, no foundation exists for a loan on mortgage under moderate conditions, since the applicant is free from all burdens and obligations. The capitalist therefore looks for his own security in immediate possession. The hypotheca is converted into an antichresis security (prenda pretoria), and as it is with great difficulty (or at least it very seldom occurs), that the Indian who receives the money consents to pay it back at the appointed time, and it is not to the lender’s interest to force him to pay it, the result is, that for a sum corresponding to the secured loan—that is, for a half or a third of the value of the security—the piece of land finally changes proprietors. Not seldom it happens that the former proprietor remains on the land as a farmer (that is, as a laborer, in reality as a slave to his debts). Often the Indian is seduced into contracts of this sort by his passion for cockfighting and gambling.

The laws of the country require the Indians to live in villages, uniting their farms into hamlets, so that they can be watched over and their tributes collected. In ordinary circumstances, the Indian builds for himself a hut in his field, where he lives while he is working his land, and goes on Saturday evenings to the village in order to hear mass on Sunday. His field has no great value for him, since he can always put another piece of land into cultivation, so great is the surplus of land in all the villages remote from the capital. The facility with which he can abandon one tract to take possession of another is very detrimental to the development of agriculture. A small landed proprietor, who has planted a bit of waste land with rice or potatoes without asking any one’s permission, raises an outcry if his garden is entered by a cow or a horse that grazed there years ago; and, since the law stands in his favor, he is allowed to receive from the owner of the cattle payment for often imaginary damages, while the loss from such causes should be borne by him who cultivates a field without enclosing it.

This same small proprietor avails himself for his own benefit, of all the privileges and rights of an entire village of Indians, if a wealthy man desires to lay out a plantation in his neighborhood. The capitalist who has decided on such a plan often finds that on land which was before entirely unfilled and waste, when he has after long difficulties acquired control of his property, and has reckoned a certain amount [of expense], some Indians have planted a grain field; and through testimonies covered with signatures, which are presented in the court, they assert that they inherited these very lands from their fathers, and have never ceased to work them.

Economic Society of Friends of the Country

[The following account of this association and the more notable of its achievements is obtained from Fernandez and Moreno’s Manual del viajero en Filipinas (Manila, 1875), pp. 173–178. This subject is presented here as being so largely connected with the progress of agriculture in Filipinas.]

1824. March 9—Offering of prizes for the best pieces of cloth woven in Filipinas in imitation of those from China, and for the most successful experiments in dyes for cambayas; the prizes were awarded on September 22 of the same year. September 22—It is agreed to pay the cost of instructing eight Indians in the art of dyeing, in order to extend this knowledge through the country; on October 6, 1825, the first dyers from the society’s school are examined and approved.

1826. February—Orders are given to reprint a manual presented by Don José Montoya on the cultivation and preparation of indigo.

1827. April 24—Printing of a memoir on the cultivation of coffee. October 30—The society votes the sum of eight hundred pesos for aid of the hospital for the poor in this capital.

1828. November 26—The society orders the printing of a manual of the elements of drawing.

1829. November 8—Machines for hulling rice are received, sent by the Economic Society of Cádiz. December 13—The society supports the government’s project for establishing a bank in this capital.

1833. August 13—The society discusses and reports on the project of cultivating the poppy and making opium in Filipinas.

1836. June 30—Voluntary donation of five hundred pesos in behalf of the necessities of the State, on account of the war in España.

1838. December 10—Another prize, of five hundred pesos, bestowed on Don Vicente del Pino for a second coffee plantation of sixty thousand trees.

1840. March 21—The sum of five hundred pesos awarded to Father Blanco for the costs of printing and publishing the Flora filipina, which bears his name.

1843. September 14—A prize is offered for the invention of a machine for combing abacá [fiber].

1844. March 14—A memoir by the society on the cultivation of sugar cane.

1845. August 22—An informatory report on the increase of population and the necessity for protection to agriculture.

1846. September 22—Prizes of one thousand and 500 pesos to Don Iñigo Gonzales Araola for two plantations of coffee, in accordance with the conditions of the royal decree of April 6, 1838. The society resolves to send young men from Filipinas to study mechanics in foreign countries.

1847. February 3—A fifth prize, of five hundred pesos, to Don Antonio Ortega for the cultivation of coffee. The society allots five hundred pesos to the support of the university; and five hundred pesos for the erection of nipa houses to aid the unfortunate [rendered homeless] in the burning of the village of Santa Cruz. November 25—A proposal for improving the construction of buildings in this capital; and decision that the society build a house and afterward raffle it.

1849. October 10—The society votes one thousand pesos for a second attempt to acclimate in these islands the martin, a bird which destroys the locusts. On February 27, 1850, was added another allotment of five hundred pesos; and on November 16, 1852, another of one thousand three hundred eleven pesos, with the same end in view.

1852. November 16—Systematic report on the opening of more ports to the external commerce of Filipinas; on June 15, 1855, the society congratulates the government on the establishment of the ports of Iloilo, Sual, and Zamboanga.

1853. April 12—Prize of two thousand pesos and honor of a medal awarded to Don Cándido Lopez Diaz for the invention of a machine for cleaning the abacá. November 15—The sum of one hundred pesos is voted to the subscription for the necessities of Galicia.

1854. March 17—Contribution of five hundred pesos for aiding the necessities of the village of Tondo, in consequence of the fire which occurred there some time before that date.

1855. January 9—The society offers the government twenty per cent of its capital, without interest, for the improvement of the construction of public buildings; on July 23, 1857, money is paid out for public works. May 18—Gives information on the importance to the country of the government being favorable to the free exportation of rice. August 26—Project for instituting a school for small children. October 3—Distribution of elementary books provided by the society, treating of the cultivation of coffee, the preparation of indigo, and the principles of drawing.

1856. March 4—Report in regard to sending young men to Europe, in order that they may devote themselves to mechanical studies.

1858. September 6—Scheme for rendering uniform the weights and measures of Filipinas. November 15—Consideration of two crops of rice in Filipinas, and report favorable thereto by Señor Govantes (a member), who furnished information on the mode of improving and making dikes without any cost or difficulty.

1822. November 25—Woolen cloth [paño] woven, the first in Filipinas, by one of its members, Don Santiago Herreros.

1824. September 2—The first permanent dyes for cotton and nipis. October 19—Wool, silk, and shellac [goma laca] are produced in Cebú.

1825. April 2—First report of the society on the establishment of a paper-mill; the second report on the same subject was issued on March 14, 1835.

1826. February 11—Spinning machinery is ordered from the United States. June 13—The first of the goods called “Coast” cambayas and kerchiefs, [but] of inferior quality, are woven and dyed, through the influence of the corporation. December 9—The cochineal insect is brought into these islands.

1827. April 24—Importation of a horse and two mares of superior blood, presented to the society in order to improve the breed in these islands.

1828. November 26—Information regarding the pine, the torch-wood [tea] of northern Luzon, and of a plant which produces a blue dye like the indigo.

1834. February 24—Reports for the acclimation of tea in Filipinas; the first trial of this cultivation was undertaken on August 14, 1837, and five hundred plants ordered from Batavia. August 8—Abacá is exported for the first time. December 12—Information upon the existence of mineral coal in Cebú, Surigao Angat, and Monte de San Mateo.

1835. March 14—Information collected regarding the silk industry in Caraga, various kinds of fiber for cordage (including one which appears suitable for replacing hemp), a bark suitable for dyeing black, and the discovery of a copper mine in Masbate. September 15—First sowing of abacá in Laguna; on March 19, 1837, the first specimens of the said product are presented.

1836. April 23—Machines for hulling rice by steam power, and on a large scale, introduced by Don Eulogio de Otaduy. Cottonseed sown in Antique, using seed from Pernambuco.

1839. July 12—Caldrons [made] of red copper from the mountains of Pangasinan.

1841. January 29—Propagation here of the cotton from North America known by the name of “[Sea] Island;” and request for seeds is sent to the United States.

1843. March 14—Importation of a steam machine for extracting the fiber of [para acorchar] abacá.

1850. November 4—Introduction of new apparatus and methods proposed by Señor Sagra for the manufacture of sugar. Report on the promotion of abacá culture.

1851. May 5—Memoir on clays in the environs of this capital, and their application in the art of pottery. Wild cha [i.e., tea] found in abundance in the island of Masbate. July 18—Report on the exportation of rice.

1854. August 29—Appointment of a commission to report to the society upon the present state of agriculture in the country, and obstacles which must be removed for its complete development.

1856. March 4—Communications referring to the method of securing the [edible] birds’-nests in Calamianes.

1857. October 1—Presentation of specimens of soaps made in the country.

1858. April 19—Knowledge of a gum called conchú found in Marianas. August 15—Information given by Señor Barbaza, a member, relative to a hundred kinds of rice in Visayas.

1859. May 10—Project regarding agriculture and commerce.

(We have endeavored to make note of the important activities in which the said society has taken the initiative or has shared since 1860, up to the date of the printing of the Manual; and here is the result of our investigations.)

1860. February 11—The society makes a subscription of five thousand pesos to defray, in part, the expenses of the African war.

1861. October 8—The society votes to contribute two thousand pesos from its funds for the expenses of sending articles from Filipinas to the London exposition. Efforts are made to acclimate in Filipinas the cochineal insect.

1863. May 23—A specimen of spirits of turpentine is presented to the society, having a strength of 37° by Cartier’s areometer, obtained from the trees of the country; a prize is granted to the person who prepared it. October 27—The society subscribes five hundred pesos to relieve the necessities of the artisans and laborers who suffered in the earthquake of June 3.

1864. July 8—Full report regarding the rebate of import duties on wheat flour.

1866. December 22—The society votes seven prizes in money for the best exhibitors, in the fair at Batangas: for cows with their calves, for the two finest female carabaos [caraballas] with their calves; for the two finest mares with their colts; to the female weaver who shall present [specimens of] the best ordinary fabrics of cotton or abacá for common use in the garments of the people; for the best fabrics of silk; for rewarding makers of hats or petacas; and for the horse-races.

1867. October 30—The society resolves to spend five hundred pesos in purchasing plows, spades, and other farming implements, to distribute them among the farmers of Ilocos and Abra who may have suffered the greatest losses in consequence of a terrible inundation.

1868. July 11—The society decides to reward, with a gold and a silver medal, the authors of the best two memoirs which shall be presented proposing “the means which the government and the society can employ to secure the development of agriculture in the country.” October 16—Motion for the establishment of a savings bank and public loan office.

1871. December 11—A gold medal is granted to Don Santiago Patero for the memoir presented to the society by that gentleman upon the cultivation of coffee and cacao, besides the printing of five thousand copies of the said treatise in order that it may be brought to the knowledge of the farmers.

1874. Project for an annual fair and exposition at Manila. A study of the mutual use of bills of exchange in Filipinas. Preparation of a memoir on the cultivation and manufacture of sugar; and others on the trade in coffee and cacao, and the abacá industry. Appointment of a commission for studying the project for establishment of an agricultural bank.