[16] Manila to Yap, 1,160 miles. Yap to Ponapé, 1,270 miles. Ponapé to Apra, 880 miles.
[17] “Vd cuidado de regatear,” was the invitation to haggle.
[18] Weaving was taught to the natives by a Spanish priest about the year 1595.
[19] The extra delay was quite a year, and the cause having become common talk among the natives in the neighbourhood, many of them suggested that an evil spirit prevented the foundations of the bridge being built. They proposed to propitiate him by throwing live children into the river; consequently many mothers migrated with their infants until they heard that the difficulty was overcome.
Agriculture
In years gone by, before so many colonies were opened up all over the world, the few who, in the Philippines, had the courage to face the obstacles to agriculture in a primitive country made fairly large fortunes in the main staple products—sugar and hemp. Prices were then treble what they have since been, labour was cheaper, because the needs of the labouring-class were fewer, and, owing to the limited demand and the rarity of epidemic cattle-disease, buffaloes for tilling were worth one-eighth of what they cost at the present day. Although the amount of trade was vastly less, those natives engaged in it were in sounder positions than the same class generally is now.
Within the last few years there are hundreds who have embarked in agricultural enterprises with only one-tenth of the capital necessary to make them successful. A man would start planting with only a few hundred pesos and a tract of cleared land, without title-deeds, and consequently of no negotiable value. In the first year he inevitably fell into the hands of money-lenders, who reasonably stipulated for a very high rate of interest in view of the absence of guarantees. The rates of interest on loans under such circumstances varied as a rule from 12 to 24 per cent. I know a Visayo native who, by way of interest, commission, and charges, demanded as much as 30 per cent. I need not refer to the isolated cases which have come to my knowledge of over 100 per cent. being charged. As at the present day agriculture in the Philippines does not yield 30 per cent. nett profit, it naturally follows that the money-lender at this rate has to attach the estate upon which he has made loans, and finally becomes owner of it. In the meantime, the tiller who has directed the labour of converting a tract of land into a plantation, simply gets a living out of it. Some few were able to disencumber their property by paying, year by year, not only the whole of the nett returns from the plantation, but also the profits on small traffic in which they may have speculated. It seldom happened, however, that the native planter was sufficiently loyal to his financial supporter to do this: on the contrary, although he might owe thousands of pesos, he would spend money in feasts, and undertake fresh obligations of a most worthless nature. He would buy on credit, to be paid for after the next crop, a quantity of paltry jewellery from the first hawker who passed his way, or let the cash slip out of his hands at the cock-pit or the gambling-table.
Even the most provident seemed to make no reserve for a bad year, and the consequence was that in 1887 I think I may safely assert that if all the Philippine planters had had to liquidate within twelve months, certainly 50 per cent. of them would have been insolvent. One of the most hazardous businesses in the Colony is that of advancing to the native planters, unless it be done with the express intention of eventually becoming owner of an estate, which is really often the case.
The conditions of land-tenure in Luzon Island under Spanish rule stood briefly thus:—The owners either held the lands by virtue of undisturbed possession or by transferable State grant. The tenants—the actual tillers—were one degree advanced beyond the state of slave cultivators, inasmuch as they could accumulate property and were free to transfer their services. They corresponded to that class of farmers known in France as métayers and amongst the Romans of old as Coloni Partiarii, with no right in the land, but entitled to one-half of its produce. Like the ancients, they had to perform a number of services to the proprietor which were not specified in writing, but enforced by usage. Tenants of this kind recently subsisted—and perhaps still do—in Scotland (vide “Wealth of Nations,” by Adam Smith, edition of 1886, p. 160). Leases for long periods were exceptional, and I never heard of compensation being granted for improvements of Philippine estates. The conditions in Visayas are explained on p. [274].
The value of land suitable for Sugar-cane growing varies considerably, being dependent on proximity to a port, or sugar-market, and on quality, facilities for drainage, transport, site, boundaries, etc.