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    Roots of Dependency (Chapter 6 - 10)

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    15 views21 pages

    Roots of Dependency (Chapter 6 - 10)

    Uploaded by

    Sam
    Roots of Dependency (Chapter 6 - 10)

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF or read online from Scribd
    Flag for inappropriate content
    of 21
    B Sugar Turns Sour z Fay Duna the lttor half of the nineteenth century, leeding sugar province in the Philippines, flowed Dy i grew to be urea ‘surrounded the the two major areas of production, ‘and Serrerat different patterns of production emerped. In Liston, a shere tenancy Feiner aveloPed, the landowner usually contrfbuting the lend, seed, milling {acts and @ cash advance, the tenant contributing his labor. The conditions, of pertnership varied of course, according to local custom, and a numbee of at i uf | i part‘time sborer (during the growing season) end part-time ‘Season. The lsborer, paid by the day and " of five-month hervest season, migrated fo the K 44 Roots of Deperidency to the employment of hired day laborers. It wes held thet wage labor would al- {ow for greater flexibility and increased profits as wage laborers, unlike tenents, would not have to be supported during “slack.time” when there were few tasks 16 be performed. Accordingly, some planters tried to breek out of the tenancy system sltogether and base all their operations on the sessonel employment of wage workers. The mejor problem confronting the planters wes the Inability to secure their labor requirements on such a piecemeal besie, ond even bonus wages during harvest time were insufficient to dttract surplus labor {rom the neighboring Islands." This led owners of some of the larger plante- tions in both Luzon and in Negros to lobby the Spenish authérites for the right {0 import laborers from China, but fora variety of reasons this proved to be un successful* Given the limitations on the Philippine sugar industry as a whole, produc- atively more modem lines than it did In 19 produced i off. The sugar loaves, 20 called, were then cut into pieces, dried on grass mate {and re-bagged for overseas shipment. Negros sugar was-not produced in the seme archaic manner. The mills there produced loose suger cyrstale for direct ‘overseas shipment, thus obvieting the need for fardleres. European suger dealers argued against the ferdiere system on account ofits obvious inefficien, les, but geogrephic considerations weighed against the Luzon plariters until the construction of the Manila Ralirosd.’ The naturel fertility of the soll In Negros and favorable meteorological conditions both fevored suger produc. tion, consequently per hectare yield rates as well as total production were con. siderably greater than on Luzon, ‘The steady growth of sugar production was encoureged throughout the 1870's and early 1880's by continued high prices. Most tropical agricultural Droducts entering world markets in the latter helf of the nineteenth century ‘were subject to long-term decline in prices, but suger did not shere in this ex. Perience until 1884, in spite of dramatic increases in world production. The average prics of raw suger per cw. in the London market declined but slightly between 1850 and 1880."By 1880 the Philippines was producing over 200,000 tons of suger for the first time, making It the third renking cane pro- ‘ducing country in the world, after Cuba (530,000 tons) and Java (300,000 tons)? ‘Suger prices held quite well in both London afd Manila until 1884 when In Germany and in France @ bounty system wes introduced, having the effect of subsidizing beet sugar production there. The bounty system spurred produc tion ‘of beet sugar in Europe and prices on the London market were driven, sharply down, from an average of nineteen shillings per cw. in 1883 to just ver thirtesnshilings the following year.° New York ard Manila pes fell or- fespendingly and Philippine. sugar was quickly cut out of the U.K. markt" Prior to the introduction of the bounty, more than half of total Philippine sugar ‘exports ware destined for Britain, but after 1884 Britain took only fifteen per Roots of Dependency os Cent of the colony's sugar exports, a rattern which held for the rest of the cen- tury. “As the slump was not merely due to merket fluctuations but rather to fundemental changes in the structure of the world suger economy. the ‘Prospects of an early retum to pre-1884 prices were poor to sey the least. The 1884 price dectine, seen in historical perspective, wes not skmply a temporary depression but a permanent re-adjustment to the market structure resulting from the advent of beet suger as a commercial rival to cane. Philippine suger ‘export earings fell ff by neerly a third in the years following the slump, but Production figures did not appreciably dectine."" wore re-directed after ‘the loss of the U.K. market and some of the slack was taken up by incressed sales to the U.S. But higher transportation costs made It dificult for the Phillp- pines to compete with booming Hawaiian production, which also hed the ad- vantage of coming under U.S. tariff protection. By 1887 the Menile price reached a record low of 1.7 cents per Ib." In apte ofthe downward price adjustment in sugar the commodity con- shund Wb he ang pot by vue unl TEHT= A paca ste hemp prices were being subjected to strong upward pressure and hemp briety ‘placed suger as the leading Pilipine export by vale, athough there was no significant chenge in the quantity produced of either commodity. For the mestizo suger producers, the 1884 shimp ended & thiny-yeer boom petiod and Introduced them to the heraher reales of world market ‘forces. For.the planters as 2 whole the period was traumatic. For some ofthe less sophisticated among them the slump wes a cruel awakening tothe forces ‘of the market: Writing in 1890 a British merchant In the Philippines reported: I wan onty when the crisis in the suger trade affected the whole srr end bogn ob ftin the Plppinesn 1854 tht he mer Jory of the natives engaged in that Industry low yielded to the conviction thet quotations depended upon circumstances quite beyond the: control of foreign buyers and exporters. Until thet Period, the idea obtained smongst the small planter, that the cur- rent price of produce fluctuated according to the caprice of the foreign buyer insted of supply and demand ~ hence many have Jost money by perversely retusing to take advantage of market ‘ise. Before transactions were 90 thoroughly In the hends of mid lomen, small producers used to take thelr samples to the purchasers “to wee how much they were dlaposed to pay.” as they ‘expressed It ~ the term “market price” seldom being used or un- derstood In the provinces."" ‘Thethree_ecades of boomsuger prices dating from the Crimeen Wer had generated a wealthy planter class which was becoming eccustomed t0 ex- ‘wavagent living. Fine haciends were built on suger plantations, and imported fumitue, pianos and carriages became commonplace. Halen opers companies Visited annually after the opening of Suez and the chikiren of planters began to “ obtain European education as 2 matter of course."* Prior to 1884 the price of ‘8uger, the foundation of hacendero fortunes, had never suffered serious fluc- a 48, Roots of Dependency ‘Roots of Dependency system of levy which again Sener cecline iithin memory or experonce, but events of thet and suo- 294 a rw American ta reverted fo ferent rete of ew which stn Years suddenly brought home to the planters the true vil of ‘or ‘concessions for ‘wer trenaferred Taiwan 1% Frarigrtntion fn thelr tenuous poston on the farther nd of tre menta eo ‘Tha settlement of the Sinovepenese ‘modity merket to which they-were inextricably ‘committed. Thera were three features of the tilippine pl first was the for the disastrous fall in price, these conditions hed nothing to do with In, ction wes driven home In an unmistakable fashion, and the awareness thet digenous forces of produc sce, most Important lesson forthe planters inthe post-1884 period wee aca recon between market conditions in the world suger economy £ne Political factors of one kind or another. Poltically motivated consice ation, such ‘as tariffs, trade agreements.and the ike, features of all bosie wore er capita consumption Of suger in the West in the latter ineteenth century, ‘and by @ number of major technological ining processes. The mid-1880's marked the Paginning of the carve-up ofthe world sugar market, «fact driven home to we ‘Filipinos by the lose of a number of markets due to serreute British market was lost because of a poltcel declelon by the Pench ino the Uay BovorDments to begin subsidizing beet auger production, Entry {nto the U.S. market was limited by the political decision of tre 0 lawailan producers beginning in 1876. In 1890 the Jed to allow ‘ail suger to be Imported from whatever 188 enjoyed 8 few years of booming production. But in half of the ni breakthroughs in miling and refs ‘newly evolved situation which Impres- lanters and which served as an object lee Feallzation thet the Phillppines was in- duty permitted Tahwarvese sugar to enter the Jepenese merket on 8: De Bring ie ren Sa wate» eas Oo et, drying up the tiny suger Te lemon of the pow 1884 paod fo: Piplne proces land wee ee ee nse so'0s Sot wearin und Gareoaon ced purely economic face 80 atermined mors by plc allancee and epheres of tfunce than by the econornca ot production. Low prices end uncertain markt en, Frpo poder form rotof fw camnay be 9 Fpno soe the in any cape, lack of Investment capital end fon with ta ftw plata ‘at thie period precluded central development. | producing ‘doubly handicapped. though various meee natin cricet esters re ee ee ee eas modernize absence of major capital Investment all but precluded the ton of Pippin tings nmodueson of eather ting status divisions besed on weelth, ie privileged beneficiaries, the #- a war ‘aware That thelr schooling affirmed the clelm of the vie economic elite to the leadership of indigenous society. The “clese iustrade,”” fone wrote in 1890, “grows steadily, is in constant communication with the Other Islands, and if It Is today no more than the brains of the nation, it will In a few years become its whole nervous system,” Aé the came to express their dissatisfaction with the character of colonial rule, they automa tically equeted their own interests with those of all Filipinos. Inevitably, the merging rudiments of a national ideology reflected the aspirations of the fortunate minority. justrado eepirations found their fullest and most coherent expression in Pipe 12208 snd early 1880's, in the speeches. and writings of young Gr2P aariculture who had left the Philippines to complete a further saucetion begun at the colleges and university in Manila. But for severel who hea fice voiced liberal nd reformist sentiments while sil inthe ilend, this edusetionel purpose was combined with that of seeking relief from the sllegetions of sub yersion and consequent persecution that such @ stance inverisbly attracted, ‘The less repressive atmosphere of Europe enabled Filipino reforviats to ox, PreearIn Pubeiz thelr views unmolested and provided them with better op Phitinpine colonial life was an anachronism, representative of e component of ‘Spanish culture under attack in the Peninsula from progressive forces whose seendancy they hed at first anticipated, might bring the Islands new hope, They could compare the economic practice of Spanish colonialism with thet ‘of other European imperial powers and more easily envisage how Spenish ‘eater impetus to, Philippine development. Roots of Dependency CG) ‘Among the most renowned and prolific Filipino propagandists, the two writers who considered the historical and global perspective of thelr country situation in greatest depth were Jose Rizal and Gracieno LopezJeens. in ‘background and experience both were quintessential Mustredos. Rizal, bor in 1861, came from & familly of wealthy cash tenants who grew sugar cane on the large Dominican-owned heciends at Calemba in Laguna, a province where "his peters! end matemal encestors had been prominent for generations. After studying at the Ateneo Municipal and Sento Tomas in Manila, he first travelled ‘to Europe in 1882 and enrolled in medicine, philosophy and letters at the Central University in: Madrid, Later specallzing in be remained abroad, epart from & short vielt home in 1887-88, until 1892.* Lopez Jeene wes bom if 1858 st Jero, close to the rapidly expending port of Holo. p Athough of less prosperous perenta than Rizal-two of his uncles were “among the richest Visayans” — with the ald of his wealthy relatives he, too, had {an extensive education, fiat at a local college and seminary end subsequently ‘88.8 medical epprentice at one of Manila's best known hospitals.'* Returning tO ‘Jaro without eny formal qualification he worked briefly 9s a doctor and private ‘tutor untl a dispute with the locel officialdom obliged him to leave Panay for Negros. Here at Silay. in the island's major suger-growing region, he himself planted cane and was able to gain a personal insight, ex had Riza, into the cr- ‘cumstances that determined the fortunes of export crop producers." In 1880 LopezsJaena deperted for Spain with the Intention of resuming his unfiniahed ‘medical training, but once In the Peningula he soon sbendoned his studles to concentrate on joumaliam, freemesonry and politica. He wes the founding ‘editor of Le Soliderided, » fortnighty review published firs In Barcelona end later, Madrid. From ts appearance in 1889 to its demise in 1895, It served as } the principal organ of the reform movement. _Lenter the the past Spans Input on fin ponport ae ipso of Ge Ree Ne Re sensed by reviewing the colonial record In Its entirety. The pre-conguest In- habitants of the archipelago, he asserted, were far from being the unehited and impoverished savages that religious educators hed subsequently misled _Filpinos to believe. On the contrary, the eccounts of early Spanish chroniclers: had described @ iterate people, wearing fine clothes end living in abundance. ‘Apert from a flourishing cosetwise trade, the Islands enjoyed an ective com ‘merce with China, Jepan and the other lands of Asia, exporting wax. textiles, Peers, spices and gold.” Roots of Dependericy 68 tion of Phiipine foodetuts and manufacture inthe Penineula heel. Riles further charged the cheracter ofthe wrote 1890: ‘markets hd been diecouraged ments for the products of tts colonies, while the English make ompetion of Spanish adminicen herole efforts to subethute Ceylon tea for Chinese, they themselves through Spein’s. inability. to. provie ‘starting the secrifice of the taste and stomach, in Spain with the ties with places such es Borneo, exception of tobecco nothing from the Philippines Is known, rupted through the government's fear that neltherita, sugar, coffee, hemp, fine textiles, nor its llocano {ent and free would provoke unrest. Havi blankets. * ‘thelr former foreign markets the ‘Nor hed Spain compensated for her own deficlencies asa market by skil- shornative outlets, devating thelr ‘commercial diplomacy. falled, for instance, to ‘entrepot trade which enriched only Chir eee : ne wore a ‘negotiate Improved terms of entry for Philippine suger into Its treditionel Euro- een and North Amarican markets, where It wes losing ground to locally- grown best suger end cane from Cuba, the West Indies end Hawail. Spain ould alternstively have reduced the dependence of Filipino producers on Western demend, Loper-Jaene alleged, by concluding commercial treaties ‘with China and Japan, but lacked the foresight and concem to grasp the op- portunity ‘Such criticism of the specifically economic aspects of Spanish rule in fect. formed 2 relatively small part of the overall body of propegandiat writing. But If the Filipinos were under no obligation to owe the mother country a

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