Vexatious Duties on Foreign Imports.
But while foreign merchants were thus forcing their way into the Philippines, they had to contend against the peculiar Spanish ideas of commercial enterprise. The customs duties—at that time seven per cent. on goods in Spanish ships—were double that in foreign vessels. And the most vexatious regulations prevailed. Thus there was a system of levying tonnage-dues on foreign vessels in addition to duties, a cargo-ship being charged double the dues of one in ballast. If a ship in ballast should land the smallest parcel, it was at once charged the higher rate. And it is said that the officials sometimes bribed a sailor to carry a small bundle on shore, to give them a pretext to make the higher charge. The story is told, that, one shipmaster, who had brought a cargo of cobble-stones to Manila, was severely fined because his cargo proved to be one stone short of the number on his manifest.
The Escolta: Looking Toward Santa Cruz.
In 1896 the collector of customs at Manila made $82,000 in this way, all of which went into his private purse. By exactions like these the Spanish officials managed to make their positions profitable, but they drove away trade, foreign shippers avoiding Manila.