The carrying-trade in sailing craft between the Islands was chiefly in the hands of natives and half-castes. There were also a few Spanish sailing-ship owners, and in the Port of Yloilo a few schooners (called lorchas), loading from 40 to 100 tons of sugar, were the property of foreigners, under the nominal ownership of Spanish subjects, for the reasons mentioned in the preceding page.
The principal exporters employ middlemen for the collecting of produce, and usually require their guarantee for sales at credit to the provincial purchasers of imports. These middlemen are always persons of means, born in the Colony, and, understanding both the intricacies of the native character and the European mode of transacting business, they serve as very useful—almost indispensable—intermediaries.
It was only when the crisis in the Sugar trade affected the whole world, and began to be felt in the Philippines in 1884, that the majority of the natives engaged in that industry slowly began to understand that the current price of produce fluctuated according to supply and demand. Before transactions were so thoroughly in the hands of middlemen, small producers used to take their samples to the purchasers, “to see how much they cared to pay” as they expressed it—the term “market price” seldom being used or understood in the provinces, because of the belief that prices rose or fell according to the caprice or generosity of the foreign buyer. Accustomed to deal, during the first centuries of the Spanish occupation, with the Chinese, the natives, even among themselves, rarely have fixed prices in retail dealings, and nearly every quotation in small traffic is taken only as a fancy price, subject to considerable rebate before closing. The Chinese understand the native pretty well; they study his likings, and they so fix their prices that an enormous reduction can be made for his satisfaction. He goes away quite contented, whilst the Chinaman chuckles over having got the best of the bargain. Even the import houses, when they advertise their goods for sale, seldom state the prices; it seems as if all regarded the question of price as a shifty one.
The system of giving credit in the retail trade of Manila, and a few provincial towns, was the ruin of many shopkeepers. There were few retailers who had fixed prices; most of them fluctuated according to the race, or nationality, of the intending customer. The Chinese dealer made no secret about his price being merely nominal. If on the first offer the hesitating purchaser were about to move away, he would call after him and politely invite him to haggle over the bargain.[17]
The only real basis of wealth in the Colony is the raw material obtained by Agriculture, and Forest produce. Nothing was done by the conquerors to foster the Industrial Arts, and the Manufacturing Trades were of insignificant importance. Cigars were the only manufactured export staple, whilst perfumes, a little cordage, and occasionally a parcel of straw or finely-split bamboo hats were shipped.
In the Provinces of Bulacan and Pampanga, split-cane and Nito (lygodium) hats, straw mats, and cigar-cases are made. Some of the finest worked cigar-cases require so much time for making that they cost up to ₱20 each. Hats can only be obtained in quantities by shippers through native middlemen.
In Yloilo Province a rough cloth called Sinamay is woven[18] from selected hemp fibre. Also in this province and that of Antique (Panay Is.), Piña muslin of pure pine-leaf fibre and Husi of mixed pine-leaf and hemp filament are made. Ilocos Province has a reputation in these Islands for its woollen and dyed cotton fabrics. Taal (Batangas) also produces a special make of cotton stuffs. Pasig, on the river of that name, and Sulípan (Pampanga), are locally known for their rough pottery, and Cápiz and Romblon for their sugar-bags.
Paete, at the extreme east of the Laguna de Bay, is the centre for white-wood furniture and wood-carving. In Mariquina, near Manila, wooden clogs and native leather shoes are made. Santa Cruz (Manila) is the gold and silver-workersʼ quarter. The native women in nearly all the civilized provinces produce some very handsome specimens of embroidery on European patterns. Mats to sleep upon (petates) straw bags (bayones), baskets (tampipes), alcohol, bamboo furniture, buffalo-hide leather, wax candles, soap, etc., have their centres of manufacture on a small scale. The first Philippine brewery was opened October 4, 1890, in San Miguel (Manila) by Don Enrique Barretto, to whom was granted a monopoly by the Spanish Government for twenty years. It is now chiefly owned by a Philippine half-caste, Don Pedro P. Rojas (resident in Paris), who formed it into a company which has become a very flourishing concern. Philippine capital alone supports these manufactures. The traffic and consumption being entirely local, the consequent increase of wealth to the Colony is the economized difference between them and imported articles. These industries bring no fresh capital to the Colony, by way of profits, but they contribute to check its egress by the returns of agriculture changing hands to the local manufacturer instead of to the foreign merchant.
Want of cheap means of land-transport has, so far, been the chief drawback to Philippine manufactures, which are of small importance in the total trade of the Colony.