Of the government expenditure, under the head of Grace and Justice, the clergy receive 488,329·28 dollars, and for pious works 39,801·83; Jesuit missions to Mindanao, 25,000. The cost of the Audiencia is 65,556; of the alcaldes and gobernadores, 53,332 dollars.
In the war department the cost of the staff is 154,148·80 dollars; of the infantry, 857,031·17 dollars; cavalry, 52,901·73 dollars; artillery, 192,408·71 dollars; engineers, 32,173 dollars; rations, 140,644·31 dollars; matériel, 149,727·10 dollars; transport, 112,000 dollars; special services, 216,673·89 dollars. In the finance expenses the sum of 310,615·75 dollars appears as pensions.
The personnel of the marine department is 235,671·82 dollars; cost of building, repairing, &c., 266,813·17 dollars; salaries, &c., are 155,294·98 dollars; rations, 190,740·84 dollars.
The governor-general receives, including the secretariat, 31,056 dollars; expenses, 2,500 dollars. The heaviest charge in the section of civil services is 120,000 dollars for the mail steamers between Hong Kong and Manila, and 35,000 dollars for the service between Spain and Hong Kong. There is an additional charge for the post-office of 6,852 dollars. The only receipt reported on this account is for post-office stamps, 19,490 dollars.
I have made no reference to the minor details of the incomings and outgoings of Philippine finance. The mother country has little cause to complain, receiving as she does a net revenue of about 5s. per head from the Indian population. In fact, about half of the whole amount of direct taxation goes to Spain, independently of what Spanish subjects receive who are employed in the public service. The Philippines happily have no debt, and, considering that the Indian pays nothing for his lands, it cannot be said that he is heavily taxed. But that the revenues are susceptible of immense development—that production, agricultural and manufactured, is in a backward and unsatisfactory state—that trade and shipping might be enormously increased—and that great changes might be most beneficially introduced into many branches of administration, must be obvious to the political economist and the shrewd observer. The best evidence I can give of a grateful remembrance of the kindnesses I received will be the frank expression of opinions friendly to the progress and prosperity of these fertile and improveable regions. Meliorations many and great have already made their way; it suffices to look back upon the state of the Philippines, “cramped, cabined and confined” as they were, and to compare them with their present half-emancipated condition. No doubt Spain has much to learn at home before she can be expected to communicate commercial and political wisdom to her dependencies abroad. But she may be animated by the experience she has had, and at last discover that intercourse with opulent nations tends not to impoverish, but to enrich those who encourage and extend that intercourse.
CHAPTER XXII.
TAXES.
Down to the year 1784 so unproductive were the Philippines to the Spanish revenues, that the treasury deficit was supplied by an annual grant of 250,000 dollars provided by the Mexican government. A capitation tax was irregularly collected from the natives; also a custom-house duty (almojarifango) on the small trade which existed, and an excise (alcabala) on interior sales. Even to the beginning of the present century the Spanish American colonies furnished the funds for the military expenses of Manila. In 1829 the treasury became an independent branch of administration. Increase of tribute-paying population, the tobacco and wine monopoly, permission given to foreigners to establish themselves as merchants in the capital, demand for native and consumption of foreign productions, and a general tendency towards a more liberal policy, brought about their usual beneficial results; and, though slowly moving, the Philippines have entered upon a career of prosperity susceptible of an enormous extension.
The capitation tax, or tribute paid by the natives, is the foundation of the financial system in the Philippines. It is the only direct tax (except for special cases), makes no distinction of persons and property, has the merit of antiquity, and is collected by a machinery provided by the Indians themselves. Originally it was levied in produce, but compounded for by the payment of a dollar (eight reales), raised afterwards to a dollar and a quarter, and finally the friars have managed to add to the amount an additional fifty per cent., of which four-fifths are for church, and one-fifth for commercial purposes.