Note 3 — Trade and Agriculture Since the American Advent

As already stated, the American occupation brought about a rapid rise in the price of everything, not of necessity or in obedience to the law of supply and demand, but because it was the pleasure of the Americans voluntarily to enhance established values. To the surprise of the Filipinos, the new-comers preferred to pay wages at hitherto unheard-of rates, whilst the soldiers lavishly paid in gold for silver-peso value (say, at least, double), of their own volition—an innovation in which the obliging native complacently acquiesced, until it dawned upon him that he might demand anything he chose. The soldiers so frequently threw away copper coin given them in change as valueless, that many natives discontinued to offer it. It followed that everybody was reluctantly compelled to pay the higher price which the American spontaneously elected to give. Labour, food, house-rent, and all the necessaries of life rose enormously.3 The Colony soon became converted from a cheap into an expensive place of residence. Living there to-day costs at least three times what it did in Spanish times. Urban property and lands were assessed at values far beyond those at which the owners truly estimated them. Up to 1904 it was not at all uncommon to find the rent of a house raised to five times that of 1898. Retailers had to raise their prices; trading-firms were obliged to increase their clerksʼ emoluments, and in every direction revenue and expenditure thenceforth ranged on an enhanced scale. It is remarkable that, whilst pains were taken by the new-comers to force up prices, many of them were simultaneously complaining of expensive living! Governor W. H. Taft, with an annual emolument of $20,000 gold, declared before the United States Senate that the Gov.-Generalʼs palace at Malacañan was too expensive a place for him to reside in. The lighting of the establishment cost him $125 gold a month, and his servantsʼ wages amounted to $250 monthly. He added that he would rather pay his own rent than meet the expenses of the Malacañan residence.4