Thus is explained why it is that the opening of the Philippines to the outside world caused great social changes.
[1] Azcarraga, pp. 117–118.
[2] See Bl. and Rb., Vol. 52, pp. 307–322. Also Vidal, Historia General de Filipinas, Vol. 2, pp. 285–297; Mas, Informe Sobre el Estado de las Islas Filipinas en 1842, part II, pp. 28–31; and the Boletin de la Sociedad Económica for the different years.
[3] Jagor, Travels in the Philippines, chapter 25.
Memoria Sobre el Desestanco del Tabaco en las Islas Filipinas, José Jimeno Agius, Manila, 1871.
[4] ”* * * at the time of Basco there were in Camarines four and a half million mulberry trees, and this was one of the results of the industrious administration of that famous governor, and of the first patriotic attempts of the Economic Society, so ably aided by the alcalde mayor, Don Martin Ballesteros, who later became factor of the Company in said province. At the request of the Society the first seeds were sent to Manila in 1780 by an Augustinian by the name of Fray Pedro Galiano; the director of the Company decided at all cost to stimulate this production, by advancing big sums * * (and) thought of introducing Chinese laborers for this purpose, and even proposed to bring over families from Granada, Valencia, and Murcia, well acquainted with this kind of industry; and, according to report of those agents, the first crops gave good results because of the continuous sprouting of the leaves, possibly the harvesting of even nine crops in each year. They were assured too, that according to Chinese experts, the silk of the country was inferior to that of Nanking, but very much superior to that of Canton.” (Azcarraga, p. 133.)
[5] “The cultivation of the indigo had already been encouraged and improved by another Augustinian, Fray Matias Octavo, with the generous aid of a worthy merchant of Manila, Don Diego Garcia Herreros, applying the method then used at Guatemala; (thus) it was possible in 1784 to make a shipment, by the warship Asuncion, which found a good market in Cadiz. With these antecedents, the Company did not have to do much to exploit this product, and limited itself to making advances to the farmers for the purchase of implements needed * * *, and buying everything that was offered for sale; thus in 1786 it was able to export one hundred and forty quintals of this valuable article, and double that in 1788.” (Ibid., pp. 133–134).
[6] “With the same eagerness the Company devoted itself to promote the cultivation of the sugar cane, and very soon began to reap the harvest of its well-calculated attempts, and shipped for the Peninsula in 1786 eight hundred and sixty arrobas, and in 1788, nine thousand six hundred and sixty three arrobas for the same place, and for China and India; and thus this article continued to progress, always heading the list of exports from the country, since in a memorial or report sent to the king in 1790 by Governor Don Felix Berenguer de Marquina, it is stated that the amount of sugar exported the year before was between forty and fifty thousand piculs.” (Ibid., pp. 134–135.)
[7] Azcarraga says that upon cotton, which—at different times, especially during the revolutionary war in the United States—had been recommended to the chiefs of the provinces as an article to whose cultivation they should especially devote themselves, the company placed a great deal of hope, because of its good quality; it could compete with what the English exported from the coasts of Malabar, and thus, by promoting its cultivation in great scale, at the same time that the projected textile factories of the country would be supplied with raw materials, it would supply the constant demand of China; these expectations were confirmed by the good sale which the first shipment of one hundred and fifty sacks to China had, and thus the directors adopted this article as the chief commodity for its trade. (Ibid.)