[9] Inflexibility is peculiar to all fibers of the Monocotyledons, because they consist of coarsely rounded cells. On the other hand, the true bast fibers—the Dicotyledons (flax, for instance)—are the reverse.
[10] Through the agricultural system, also, the mestizos and natives secure the work of their countrymen by making these advances, and renewing them before the old ones are paid off. These thoughtless people consequently fall deeper and deeper into debt, and become virtually the peons of their creditors, it being impossible for them to escape in any way from their position. The “part-share contract” is much the same in its operative effects, the landlord having to supply the farmer with agricultural implements and draught-cattle, and often in addition supplying the whole family with clothing and provisions; and, on division of the earnings, the farmer is unable to cover his debt. It is true the Filipinos are responsible legally to the extent of five dollars only, a special enactment prohibiting these usurious bargains. As a matter of fact, however, they are generally practised.
[11] This feeling of jealousy had very nearly the effect of closing the new harbors immediately after they were opened.
[12] Rapport Consulaire Belge, XIV., 68.
[13] In the Agricultural Report of 1869, p. 232, another fiber was highly mentioned, belonging to a plant very closely related to sisal (Bromelia Sylvestris), perhaps even a variety of the same. The Mexican name, jxtle, is possibly derived from the fact of their curiously flattened, spike-edged leaves, resembling the dentated knives formed from volcanic stone (obsidian) possessed by the Aztecs and termed by them iztli.
[14] The banana trees are well known to be among the most valuable of plants to mankind. In their unripe state they afford starch-flour; and when mature, they supply an agreeable and nutritious fruit, which, although partaken of freely, will produce neither unpleasantness nor any injurious after-effects. One of the best of the edible species bears fruit as early as five or six months after being planted, suckers in the meantime constantly sprouting from the roots, so that continual fruit-bearing is going on, the labor of the growers merely being confined to the occasional cutting down of the old plants and to gathering in the fruit. The broad leaves afford to other young plants the shade which is so requisite in tropical countries, and are employed in many useful ways about the house. Many a hut, too, has to thank the banana trees surrounding it from the conflagration, which, generally speaking, lays the village in ashes. I should here like to make an observation upon a mistake which has spread rather widely. In Bishop Pallegoix’s excellent work, Description du Royaume Thai ou Siam, I*. 144, he says: “L’arbre a vernis qui est une espece de bananier, et que les Siamois appellent ‘rak,’ fournit ce beau vernis qu’on admire dans les petits meubles qu’on apporte de Chine.” When I was in Bangkok, I called the attention of the amiable white-haired, and at that time nearly nonogenarian, bishop to this curious statement. Shaking his head, he said he could not have written it. I showed him the very passage. “Ma foi, j’ai dit une betise; j’en ai dit bien d’autres,” whispered he in my ear, holding up his hand as if afraid somebody might overhear him.
[15] In 1862, English took from Spain 156 tons; 1863, 18,074 tons; 1866, 66,913 tons; 1868, 95,000 tons; and the import of rags fell from 24,000 tons in 1866 to 17,000 tons in 1668. In Algiers a large quantity of sparto (Alfa) grows but the cost of transport is too expensive to admit of sending it to France.
XXV
Tobacco revenue.Of all the productions of the country tobacco is the most important, so far (at least) as concerns the Government, which have the cultivation of this plant, its manipulation, and sale, the subjects of an extensive and strictly guarded monopoly, and derives a very considerable portion of the public revenue therefrom.[1] As to the objections raised against this revenue on the score of its being opposed to justice and morality, many other sources of revenue in the colonial budget might be condemned (such as the poll-tax, gaming and opium licenses, the brandy trade, and the sale of indulgences); yet none is so invidious and pernicious as the tobacco monopoly.