[8] Text of decree is given in Montero y Vidal, Historia, Vol. 2, pp. 302–303.
[9] Estadismo, Vol. 1, p. 273.
[10] Azcarraga, Chapters 9, 10, and 11; Mas, Part II, pp. 31–35; Vidal, Historia, Vol. II, pp. 297–307.
[11] In this way a new element was introduced which was essential for economic development: capital. Up to that time money had been scarce and it was all derived from local sources: owing to the conditions to which we have heretofore referred our community was obliged to furnish its own capital. It was necessarily small, first, on account of the slight productive forces, second, because of the easy destruction of acquired property, which was dissipated in fires and storms principally. In those first days of our history, the preservation and transmission from one generation to another of created and inherited wealth was, as it is even now, a problem almost impossible of solution. The general construction of houses, manufactured from such weak and transient elements as cane and nipa, does not leave us in a condition to conserve: it leaves us rather in a condition of easy destruction, as may be readily understood. So it is, that we get the benefit of only a small part of the property acquired by the generations that have gone before us. Where will you find even the trace of so many millions of cane and nipa houses which have absorbed the money earned by past generations? Destroyed by fire and storms. In their destruction was also involved all the industrial production, all the labor converted into capital represented by furniture, books, manuscripts, cloths, jewelry, coins, articles, of practical utility, religious, artistic and every sort of objects which ran the same precarious risk and had the same ephemeral existence as our flimsy cane and nipa houses.”—Results of the Economic Development of the Philippines.
[12] “The taking of Manila in 1762 by the English had subsequently great influence on our future. They, during the occupation of Manila, had an opportunity to know the natural resources of this country, the condition of abandonment and neglect of agriculture and commerce, and the contempt that was felt for them, and realize the possibilities that existed for material development as understood by the British. As a result of such contact with the Filipinos English commerce was able to understand the conditions of our archipelago until then entirely unknown, owing to the conditions of their tutelar sequestration, and, on their part, the authorities and prominent persons of Manila had occasion to observe, during the short period of the occupation of Manila, what the English were who had been reputed as the enemies par excellence of the Roman Catholic Apostolic religion. It is said that they appropriated to themselves the money that they found in the treasury, which, on the other hand, we must assume, was found empty, both because Anda y Salazar took with him what he could find there to organize the war, and because private persons concealed their treasure. From whatever source it may have come, either brought by them as was really the case, or taken from the Filipinos, the fact was, that in order to maintain themselves, they spent a great deal of money and placed in movement the dormant activity of all whom they found within their reach.” (Ibid.)
[13] Azcarraga, pp. 151–152; also Mas, under Comercio Exterior, p. 2.
[14] “The first result was the collision of the new arrivals with the exploiters of the old order, whose peaceful possession of a livelihood which suited them—because nobody questioned it or disturbed it—was suddenly threatened by the competition of more active, more industrious, better prepared and richer individuals, supported by firms located in the most important centers of the commercial world. In the same manner as, by arrival of the Spaniards, the old Filipino caciques were subjected to the Spanish officials, now the caciques who dominated during the period of tutelar sequestration found themselves immediately supplanted and converted into something lower than the new caciques of the economic order. They (the former) understood that such supremacy would give them (the latter) supremacy in everything. To defend their position they had recourse to the anti-foreign sentiments of the entire community; foreigners had always been regarded as the enemies of Spain and God; they must be the enemies of the Filipinos, too. The crusade was not new; it had been used before with excellent results at the time of the English domination. This campaign was hardly started when the cholera for the first time made its appearance in Manila. Taking advantage of that event, which was also called providential, the rumor was started that the foreigners had poisoned the waters of the Pasig, with the results that in 1820 the people of Manila exterminated the foreigners who were then residing at the capital.” (Tavera, Ibid.)
[15] Le Roy, The Americans in the Philippines, Vol. 1, p. 33, Diccionario Geográfico-Estadistíco-Historico de las Islas Filipinas, Manuel Buzeta and Felipe Bravo, (Madrid, 1850–1851).
[16] Bowring, A Visit to the Philippines (London, 1859), p. 301.
[17] Mas, under Comercio Exterior, pp. 28–29; also Azcarraga, Chapter 13.