In the period before the Pacific War, two processes affected the development of Filipino-Spanish links: the dramatic

diminishing of the speculative capital benefits, due to the failure in gold mining investments(2), and the massive denationalisation of the elite, which had kept Spanish citizenship until then(3). Consequently, the proportion of Philippine foreign trade under Spanish management fell from around two thirds in the 1920s to a minimum percentage in the period just after the Pacific War. This change was mainly because Spanish managers and businessmen had changed nationality not due to decreasing fortunes, which were maintained and increased regardless of which passport they held.