Government Monopoly was in force in Luzon Island only. The tobacco districts of that island were Cagayán Valley (which comprises La Isabela), La Union, El Abra, Ilocos Sur y Norte and Nueva Ecija. In no other part of Luzon was tobacco-planting allowed, except for a short period on the Caraballo range, inhabited by undomesticated mountain tribes, upon whom prohibition would have been difficult to enforce. In 1842 the Igorrotes were allowed to plant, and, in the year 1853, the Government collection from this source amounted to 25,000 bales of excellent quality. The total population of these districts was, in 1882 (the last year of Monopoly), about 785,000.
The Visayas Islands were never under the Monopoly system. The natives there were free to raise tobacco or other crops on their land. It was not until 1840 that tobacco-planting attracted general attention in Visayas. Government factories or collecting-centres were established there for classifying and storing such tobacco as the Visayos cared to bring in for sale to the State, but they were at liberty to sell their produce privately or in the public markets. They also disposed of large quantities by contraband to the Luzon Island Provinces.[5]
Antique Province never yielded more tobacco than could be consumed locally. In 1841 the Antique tobacco crop was valued at ₱80,000. But, in the hope of obtaining higher prices, the enthusiastic Provincial Governor, Manuel Iturriaga, encouraged the growers, in 1843, to send a trial parcel to the Government collectors; it was, however, unclassed and rejected.
Mindoro, Lucban, and Marinduque Islands produced tobacco about sixty years ago, and in 1846 the Government established a collecting-centre in Mindoro; but the abuses and cruelty of the officials towards the natives, to force them to bring in their crops, almost extinguished this class of husbandry.
During the period of Monopoly in the Luzon districts, the production was very carefully regulated by the Home Government, by enactments revised from time to time, called “General Instructions for the Direction, Administration and Control of the Government Monopolies.”[6] Compulsory labour was authorized, and those natives in the northern provinces of Luzon Island who wished to till the land (the property of the State)—for title-deeds were almost unknown and never applied for by the natives—were compelled to give preference to tobacco. In fact, no other crops were allowed to be raised. Moreover, they were not permitted peacefully to indulge their indolent nature—to scrape up the earth and plant when and where they liked for a mere subsistence. Each family was coerced into contracting with the Government to raise 4,000 plants per annum, subject to a fine in the event of failure. The planter had to deliver into the State stores all the tobacco of his crop—not a single leaf could he reserve for his private consumption.
Lands left uncultivated could be appropriated by the Government, who put their own nominees to work them, and he who had come to consider himself owner, by mere undisturbed possession, lost the usufruct and all other rights for three years. His right to the land, in fact, was not freehold, but tenure by villein socage.
Emigrants were sent north from the west coast Provinces of North and South Ilocos. The first time I went up to Cagayán about 200 emigrant families were taken on board our vessel at North Ilocos, en route for the tobacco districts, and appeared to be as happy as other natives in general. They were well supplied with food and clothing, and comfortably lodged on their arrival at the Port of Aparri.
In the Government Regulations referred to, the old law of Charles III., which enacted that a native could not be responsible at law for a debt exceeding ₱5, was revived, and those emigrants who had debts were only required to liquidate them out of their earnings in the tobacco district up to that legal maximum value.
As soon as the native growers were settled on their lands their condition was by no means an enviable one. A Nueva Ecija landowner and tobacco-grower, in a letter to El Liberal (Madrid) in 1880, depicts the situation in the following terms:—The planter, he says, was only allowed to smoke tobacco of his own crop inside the aërating-sheds which were usually erected on the fields under tilth. If he happened to be caught by a carabineer only a few steps outside the shed with a cigar in his mouth he was fined 2 pesos—if a cigarette, 50 cents—and adding to these sums the costs of the conviction, a cigar of his own crop came to cost him ₱7.37½, and a cigarette ₱1.87½. The fines in Nueva Ecija amounted to an annual average of ₱7,000 on a population of 170,000. From sunrise to sunset the native grower was subject to domiciliary search for concealed tobacco—his trunks, furniture, and every nook and corner of his dwelling were ransacked. He and all his family—wife and daughters—were personally examined: and often an irate husband, father, or brother, goaded to indignation by the indecent humiliation of his kinswoman, would lay hands on his bowie-knife and bring matters to a bloody crisis with his wanton persecutors... The leaves were carefully selected, and only such as came under classification were paid for. The rejected bundles were not returned to the grower, but burnt—a despairing sacrifice to the toiler! The Cabezas de Barangay (vide p. [223]) had, under penalty of arrest and hard labour, to see that the families fulfilled their onerous contract. Corporal punishment, imprisonment, and amercement resulted; of frequent occurrence were those fearful scenes which culminated in riots such as those of Ilocos in 1807 and 1814, when many Spaniards fell victims to the nativesʼ resentment of their oppression.
Palpable injustice, too, was imposed by the Government with respect to the payments. The Treasury paid loyally for many years, but as generation succeeded generation, and the native growersʼ families came to feel themselves attached to the soil they cultivated, the Treasury, reposing on the security of this constancy, no longer kept to the compact. The officials failed to pay with punctuality to the growers the contracted value of the deliveries to the State stores. They required exactitude from the native—the Government set the example of remissness. The consequence was appalling. Instead of money Treasury notes were given them, and speculators of the lowest type used to scour the tobacco-growing districts to buy up this paper at an enormous discount. The misery of the natives was so distressing, the distrust of the Government so radicate, and the want of means of existence so urgent, that they were wont to yield their claims for an insignificant relative specie value. The speculators held the bonds for realization some day; the total amount due by the Government at one time exceeded ₱1,500,000. Once the Treasury was so hard-pressed for funds that the tobacco ready in Manila for shipment to Spain had to be sold on the spot and the 90,000 quintals could not be sent—hence purchases of Philippine tobacco had to be made by tender in London for the Spanish Government cigar factories.