In 1869 a Royal decree was passed, making all decrees uniform, abolishing export duties, and doing away with the obnoxious port-charges. Since then foreign trade has been less hampered by Spanish privilege.
To-day subsidized Spanish steamers have most of the import trade, though the export trade is done mainly by foreign vessels. These carry cargoes to Asiatic ports, discharge them, and proceed in ballast to the islands. No foreigner is permitted to own a vessel trading between Spain and any of her colonies, or between one colony and another, or doing a coast-trade from island to island. But this law is readily evaded, by foreigners giving to Spaniards the nominal ownership of their vessels. In this way a large part of the internal trade of the Philippines has fallen into foreign hands.
Spanish Opposition to Foreign Trade.
A Milkman on His Rounds.
Despite the fact that foreign trade has forced its way into the Philippines, every step has been gained against Spanish distrust and opposition. Spain is not a mercantile nation, and its commercial ideas are centuries behind the age. Only constant pressure forced the Philippine authorities into more liberal measures, yet the island-trade remained deplorably fettered, as compared with general commerce. Proposed reforms, demands to introduce modern improvements, were alike unwelcome, the Church especially resisting innovation. Useless and obstructive formalities stood in the way of trade; vexatious delays were made; and the development of the colony seems to have been the last thought in the Governor-General’s mind.
By a Royal decree, in 1844, strangers were excluded from the interior of the islands. In 1857 old decrees were used to prevent foreign establishments in the colony. In 1886 foreign trade was declared prejudicial to the “material interests of the country.”