Synthesize what you have learned about the formation of the haciendas during the

Spanish colonization in the Philippines.

The Hacienda de Calamba was originally owned by Spaniards. The land was

handed down to the Spanish conquistadors is in form of haciendas. The hacienderos

failed to develop their lands. One reason is they left home to their country, Spain. The

livestock market in in that time was still small.

Hacienda is easily defined as an estate, mostly seen in the colonies of the

Spanish Empire. Many of Haciendas used mines, factories, or plantations. Haciendas

were small business enterprises that were built for solely for profit.

Hacienda system is developed out of “Encomienda System.” Workers on

Haciendas, mainly natives, can keep portion of what they produced, but they are left

with nothing. Encomienda System is a system where the natives were to work for and

give tribute to the Spaniards in exchange for protection and education. A grant of land

was given to individual settlers from Spain and they were responsible for all the natives

on the land.

In all Dominican hacienda documents, it appeared that the owners employed two

accounting methods. On the official registries, the tenants were listed and the lands they

held described in terms of quiñones (5.76 hectares per quiñon) and balitas (one-tenth of

a quiñon). The lands in Hacienda de Calamba were customarily classified into into

three: Tierras Palayeras, Tierras Cañadulzales and Tierras Catijanes for purposes of

determining the rents. Tierras Palayeras, lands suited for rice farming, were further
classified into regadio and secano. Based on the productivity of the lands, the regadio

and secano lands were classified as either first class, second class and third-class

lands. The third class being considered the least productive type.

One of the haciendas acquired by the Dominicans in 1833 was the Calamba

Nueva in Laguna which was subsequently included Calamba Vieja in 1883. The two

Haciendas were collectively called as the Hacienda de Calamba. The territorial extent

on it’s time of acquisition was 16,424 hectares.

Before 1759, the Hacienda de Calamba was said to be one of the villages of

Tabuco, now Cabuyao, Laguna. Don Manuel Jauregui owned the haciendas of

Calamba and Nagtajan which he entrusted to the Society of Jesus (S.J.) on 29 January

1759. 8 years on 27 February 1767, King Charles III issued a decree expelling the

Jesuits from the Spanish Empire including in the Philippines. After the mentioned event,

the real inventories were reported. The land was not properly cultivated, a portion about

less than 2000 hectares were cultivated.

Rizal Family became one of the principals inquilinos of the hacienda. The family

they raised was one basked in education and enlightenment. One of its members was

the Philippine national hero, Jose Rizal, whose attacks on religious fanaticism gained

for him the ire of the friars. Coming from families of Biñan town mayors and

businessmen, it cannot be gainsaid that the Jose Rizal’s parents of either side were

“poor folk on the brink of destitution. Eventually, the Rizal family became prosperous

inquilinos because of skill, thrift and hardwork. Other tenants also made fortune in the

hacienda.
 The Hacienda de Calamba was administered by a Dominican lay brother

administrator appointed by the Provincial Superior of the Dominican Order in the

Philippines.