Note 11 — INTERNAL POLITICAL CONDITION OF THE PHILIPPINES, 1842

[The difficulty in attracting the whites to an agricultural life lies in the labor question. Mas does not consider advisable the system of the Dutch in Java,11 and prescribed by certain laws of the Indies, of compelling the natives to work in estates at the established wage scale, “as the natives have been accustomed for three centuries to be humored and allowed freely to work or live in idleness according to their fancy.” He proposes that the heavy tribute of the Chinese who cultivate the lands of the Spaniards be reduced to the small amount paid by the Chinese mestizos; also that negritos, Igorots, and captured Moro pirates be made to cultivate the fields for the Spaniards. He also recommends the plan of indenturing the condemned criminals out to the cultivators, as England did with its criminals, who were sent to America in former periods. This system Mas does not consider as unjust or inhumane, but quite the contrary, for the farmers, since their pocket book is touched, will be more considerate than the prison officials. He recommends the awarding of prizes for the cultivation of cacao and coffee; and “finally, the authorization of individual contracts, by means of which Filipinos may bind themselves to work on the estate of a Spaniard for a certain number of years, as is done in the military service, such Spaniards then remaining subject until the termination of the contract. These persons, during said time, shall be exempt from service in the army, and exemption from polos and personal service may even be conceded to some (for instance, to one for each quiñon of land).”]