CHAPTER XV.
VEGETABLES.
The money value of the tobacco grown in the Philippines is estimated at from 4,000,000 to 5,000,000 of dollars, say 1,000,000l. sterling. Of this nearly one half is consumed in the islands, one-quarter is exported in the form of cheroots (which is the Oriental word for cigars), and the remainder sent to Spain in leaves and cigars, being estimated as an annual average contribution exceeding 800,000 dollars. The sale of tobacco is a strict government monopoly, but the impossibility of keeping up any efficient machinery for the protection of that monopoly is obvious even to the least observant. The cultivator, who is bound to deliver all his produce to the government, first takes care of himself and his neighbours, and secures the best of his growth for his own benefit. Out of the capital of Manila scarcely anything is smoked but the cigarro ilegitimo; and in the capital you frequently get a hint that “the weed” is not from the estanco real. From functionaries able to obtain the best which the government brings to market, a present is often volunteered, which shows that they avail themselves of something better than that best. And in discussing the matter with the most intelligent of the empleados, they agreed that the emancipation of the producer, the manufacturer and the seller, and the establishment of a simple duty, would be more productive to the revenue than the present vexatious and inefficient system of privilege.
There has been an enormous increase in the revenues from tobacco. They gave nett—
| AnnualAverage. |
| From 1782 to 1785 | | 260,597 dolls. | 86,865 dolls. |
| 1786 to 1800 | (15 years) | 4,950,101 | 330,006 |
| 1801 to 1815 | (15 years) | 7,228,071 | 481,871 |
| 1816 to 1830 | (15 years) | 8,403,368 | 560,225 |
| 1831 to 1835 | (5 years) | 3,707,164 | 741,433 |
| 1836 to 1839 | (4 years) | 4,990,011 | 1,247,503 |
Since when the produce has more than quadrupled in value.
In 1810 the deliveries were 50,000 bales (of two arrobas), of which Gapan furnished 47,000, and Cagayan 2,000. In 1841 Cagayan furnished 170,000 bales; Gapan, 84,000; and New Biscay, 34,000. But the produce is enormously increased; and so large is the native consumption, of which a large proportion pays no duty, that it would not be easy to make even an approximative estimate of the extent and value of the whole tobacco harvest. Where the fiscal authorities are so scattered and so corrupt;—where communications are so imperfect and sometimes wholly interrupted;—where large tracts of territory are in the possession of tribes unsubdued or in a state of imperfect subjection;—where even among the more civilized Indians the rights of property are rudely defined, and civil authority imperfectly maintained;—where smuggling, though it may be attended with some risk, is scarcely deemed by anybody an offence, and the very highest functionaries themselves smoke and offer to their guests contraband cigars, on account of their superior quality,—it may well be supposed that lax laws, lax morals and lax practices, harmonize with each other, and that such a state of things as exists in the Philippines must be the necessary, the inevitable result. It is sufficient to look at the cost of the raw material and the value of the manufactured article to perceive what an enormous margin of profit there exists. A quintal of tobacco will produce—
| Dollars. |
| 14 cases, each containing 1,000cigars, whose value is, at 6½ dolls. per case | 87·50 |
| The quintal of tobacco costs | 5·00 dolls. | |
| Manufacture | 5·25 | |
| 14 cases at 2 rials | 3·50 | |
| | 13·75 |
| Profit | 73·75 |
Cheroots (cigars) are manufactured in two forms,—that of the Havana, the smaller end being twisted to a point,—or cut at both ends, the usual Manila form. They are of sundry qualities, as follows:—Largest size, 125 to a box—1st Regalias, 1st Caballeros and Londres; second size, 250 to a box—2nd Regalias and 1st Cortados, 2nd Caballeros, 1st Havanas (ordinary size, and such as are more commonly used, Nos. 2 and 3 being those in most demand); 500 to a box—Nos. 2, 3, 4, and 5 Havanas, 2 and 3 Cortados. Besides these, enormous quantities of paper cigars (cigarillos) are consumed by the natives. They are sold in packets of twenty-five, at 5 cuartes; thirty, at 5⅓ cuartes; thirty-six, at 5 5⁄7 cuartes.
The estanco prices for these cigars are, per box—