Note 54 — THE PHILIPPINES, 1860–1898—SOME COMMENT AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTES

Dr. Schurman drew from Spanish official publications the budget of 1894–95 for his exposition of the former Philippine government (Report of Philippine Commission, 1900, i, pp. 79–81), and this has been considerably quoted, with the assumption that it represented the full cost of government, in recent comparisons with the American régime. Sawyer (in an appendix) gives the budget of 1896–97, with just a note showing that charges for collection and for local government made the actual collections for the poll-tax considerably larger than the insular budget showed. Foreman, in his 1899 and 1906 editions, only reproduces from his first edition a fragmentary statement of the 1888 budget, without showing that this was only partial and without developing the later changes and increases in taxes. Retana, in the Estadismo, apéndice H, under Rentas é impuestos del Estado, gives the general totals of the budgets of 1890 and 1893–94 (likewise net totals for the central government alone). See Sancianco y Goson for proposed budget for 1881–82. The insular budget was published annually at Madrid under the title Presupuestos generales de gastos é ingresos de las islas Filipinas. The budget was made up at Madrid for each fiscal year, and put into effect by a royal decree (after its receipt in Manila, some few months after the beginning of the fiscal year which it was to govern). Some changes or additions were allowed to be made by the governor-general in imperative circumstances; otherwise the effort was to regulate Philippine finances just the same as if the islands were a province of the centralized government of the Peninsula itself. The folio volume of Presupuestos published at Madrid, running to several hundred pages, are valuable for giving in minute detail the expected items of expenditures, down to the last petty employee on salary; but they can give, of course, only the estimate of the revenue expected under each item, and actual collections sometimes varied considerably from these figures. Above all, these Presupuestos bear out the general remark that the Spanish budget as published tends to conceal rather than to reveal the actual burden resting on the people. They are not budgets for the insular government alone, hence the budgets for the city of Manila and for the local governments (provinces and towns), published separately in some years at Manila, must be consulted to get total net collections for all branches of government. In addition, one must dig out for himself from the laws governing taxation, etc., and from the archives the data regarding fees for collection, notarial, legal and other fees accruing to private pockets, surcharges for special purposes, etc. ↑