Aguilar, Filomero Sagar Capitalicw> Colonial Sugar Production in the Spanish Philippines: Calamba and Negros Compared” Fllomeno V. Aguiar. This poper presents two modes of export-oriented sugar hhacienda production in the late-ninetenth-cenewry Spanish Philippines. The Hacienda de Calamba epitomized large-scale estate under a religious corporation; it was an enclave economy reliant on local capital and technology. In contrast, Negros showcased a range of haciendas of varying sizes ina frontier setting involving different ethnicdes and supported by eapltal ‘and technology mediated directly by foreign merchant houses Both locations generated resistance onthe part of sugar planters, ‘hut whereas tt was intenanelty political in Calamba, where Riza’ faraly were leaseholders resstace ia Neprs wai not so much poltical as a persistent and calibrated evasion of the ‘colonial sate Inhis essay, ‘Sobre la indolencia de los filipino’ which was seraized jn La Solidaridad in 1880, José Real bewailed the fact that working “Forthcoming i fournl of Souths sun Sades This sa evised weston of paper presented atthe conlereneCocnstenciaeinteracin ene {Comunidades en tas ipnas del Siglo sito ge Histor Consejo Superior de tvesigectonesHistirias (SIC), Madr 4-6 November 2015 Many thanis to Las Eze and Xavier Hest de emptor the neon to ptt inthis conference. Many thanks Lela Cauda Cael a, ike Pant, the CSIC contrence parepantsparalarty Wills Clarence Sith Mike Catinane and Al Mea. for stimulating coment, questions ad upgetons thathave vastly improved this paper: asa hone refecefor he alable Feedback oan eae version This thee of ay papers that hd he distin rveg having Ben Anderson reas despite healing helt he gave me pint comments and preclou ine. The easing ener are my sole Fesponsy. hard in the Spanish Philippines made no sense because the rich person was exposed to all kinds of vexations ‘el rico en la terra se ‘expone «todos las vefacones a todas fas moesties" Spanish colonial authorities could easly harass the rch man, appoint him head ofthe ‘barangay and in that position coerce him to make donations that Aepleted his wealth, and even deport him should an uprising occur. With all these disincentives, he asked—without distinguishing between landholder and peasant labourer, or any ather clase postion for that matter—who would bother to work, engage in economic pursuits, and accumulate wealth? ‘To emphasize the debilitating effects of Spanish colonia rule that fostered and magnified indalence, Riza recalled times past when natives were discouraged from pursuing agriculture, but he also zeroed in onthe latenineteenth century: El estar las mejorashaciondas los mejores terrenos de algunas provincas, aquellos que por sus fells medios de ‘omunicacin son mas ventajosos que ots, en manos de las ‘cotporaciones religisas eiyo desideratum es la ignoranca y lun estado de semi miseria del indio, para continuar ‘gobernindolo y hacerse necesaria a su desgraciada existenci, ‘8 una de las causas del por que muchos pueblos no progresan a pesar dels esuer7os de sus habitantes?™ ‘The fact that the best estates, the hest tracts of land in some provinces, those that from their easy means of ‘ommunteation are more profitable than others, are in the hands ofthe religous corporations whose desideratum isthe ignorance and a condition of semi-destitution of the native so that they may continue to govern him and make themselves "the rion cath is enposed toll ins of trouble tal kinds of molestation. ood Ra Sobre a indofenca de spins / On the indlene ate Flips a Sotdaried ol 2190, twas. Guadalupe ores-Ganzon esi ly Fundacin Santiago 1996) p.392, "hid, pp 398, 396necessary to his wretched existence, is one of the reasons why ‘many towns do not progress in spite of the efforts of the Imbabltants. Rizal went on to say thatthe flrs! argument—that Wf these estates ‘were prospering, it was because they were under their care"—was deceptive and it maligned the native a5 indolent? As evidence that, agriculture could prosper even without friar involvement, Rizal argued thatthe fir haclendas of Bauan and Lian were inferior to Taal Balayan, and Lips all in Batangas province, because the later were ‘cultivated entirely by the natives without monkish Interference swhatsoever"* In writing about the disincentives to wealth creation, Rial was obviously thing about the Hacienda de Calamba in Laguna province and the troubles that his family—among the largest leaseholders of| Sugar lands-n-Calama—started to experience in-the- 1880s. The- ‘roubles would culminate in the banishment of Ris family from the Dominican hacienda in 1491, ‘But in stressing the disincentives to economic enterprise and bemoaning friar control ofthe best haciendas, Rizal was silent about agricultural production in other parts ofthe country. Since the 1810s Ships that called in at the port of Manila bought sugar, the principal export commodity that beginning in the early 120s the earliest merchant houses shipped to overseas markets By 1845 sugar was ‘Being produced in nine provinces, foremost of which wore Pampanga, Cebu, and Bulacan’ By midcentury Robert MacMicking highlighted the 3 thd, pp. 396,397 Tei pp. 396, 39, * Bei paar After the goon: ari ae economic exchange ad ‘nczsproneirship inte intontcontury Pipes (Quezoe Cy Ateneo de ania University Press 1999} pp. 286-43, 200. Data for 1845 showed tal sat progetin athe Spanish Plppnes at 268,04 plone (one lon averaging 120 pounds). dstbutedas flows: Farnpanga (94587 poses: 35,7 percent) Cah (6.582 plone: 20 per cent Bulsean (51,930 plone: 19.6 percent}; al (15,310 planes 58 per cet sugar from Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cebu, and Laguna (known for Taal Sugar), but sugar from lloilo was ‘sometimes, though rarely, distinguished asa separate quality’? Inthe late 1850s Negros, whose ‘sugar was exported via the port of Holl, joined this cub of major sugar producers ‘Was Rizal unaware ofthe considerable wealth that was being generated from sugar production on Negros Island, which by the 1860s Spanish colonia officials had dubbed the Emporium of Wealth in the Visayas? Even more intriguing was the fact that in his essay on fndolence Rizal nowhere mentioned the prosperity of sugarcane rowers in Pampanga, just north of Calamba. In Europe he befriended Some youths from that province, particularly the monied José ‘Alejandrino whom he persuaded to leave Madrid to study engineering In Ghent, where the two fiends shared a rented room and where Rial ‘wrote and published E1ilbuserismo in 189%. Ifnot for pure poems, was Rizal-unwilling-to write about something he. had not seen personally, given the fact that, despite his wide International travels, {nthe Phillpines he did not go beyond the Tagalog region, except ‘when he was deported to Dapltan in Zamboanga? How did he come to Satan (11571 plone: 5: per ent) Pangasinan (10011 planes 4 percent Lagoa (7.29 pliones 26 percent; Tondo (19 planes 23 percent) ond ‘Gate (2206 plone, 03 pe et) Pilppie sugar production remains {eng by leternainal stndar and cea palod comparison to Che; {this state ota prompted Madd to mate a fla lnuty Flameno ‘Aeulrr aoh of pits: The hor af power and suger planter gem o & Usyon ian (Honolls Univer of Hawn Pres Quezon lye Anca de Mal rivers Press, 1998), pp. 82-96 90-92. Robert Maeiietng Rocalecton of Merl 4049,and 1850 (London: chard Bentley, 1851), pp. 284,285 ‘one tlandrine, The pice of fedan: Epiodr ond anecdote of or crags {for freed teas jose M. lene (Mae The author, 1949}, pp 1-1 ohn {cin The Panypangens Clo oc i Pape province (Berke ‘Univers of Caltoria Press 1972), p. 94-95; on Schuhe, The ‘Propane Movement 1600-1095 The creators of pin conconnes che ‘moter the realon enon: Menco de Mana Univers Press, 197), 236.272, 2portray the character of Capitan Tlago in Noli me tangere 3s not only ‘one of the most affluent property owners in Binondo but also a5 ‘owning large haciendas in Pampanga and Laguna? When it came to his fssay on indolence, to counter the argument that frars were indispensable to economic advancement, Rizal chose to hold up non= friar haciendas n other parts of Batangas his sights seemingly unable toestend beyond his corner of the Tagalog reglon, "This paper, however, is not so much an explication of the agrarian unrest in Clamnba or even of Rizal's argumentin his essay on Indolence as is an attempt to stan in the gap in that essay. It seeks to shed light on agricultural activities that thrived outside of the fiar estates, Begining with Calamba, the paper explores the spatial variation inthe conditions of agriculture through a portrayal of two ‘modes of hacienda production iavalving the same produoe—sugar— in the late-nineteenth-century Spanish Philippines. The diferent localities? of sugar production ean be-pleced-in continuum, with (Calamba and Negros servingas polar opposites" ‘The oa or uns ofaalate de nothave toe formal anstraive unis. ‘Acorog to Michel allan foal the thr, 15 Nov. 2015) se parts ‘cebu island resmbled Calms white other parts resonated with Negro, Hwyever, to dts no systematic analyst of sur production ia Cebu has ben ‘wnten although may ares of tis hstary are covered i Bruce Penne, abu Under the Spans lag, 1521-1896: dn ecoromi soctl tary (Cab Cy Sah hl Puiestons, 1985), That the province of Bulacan was an mportnt star froducer inthe midle ofthe neteenth centr isharly mentioned eres in [el stories nos as, ug proton iat prevnce ha been ast ‘petty overshadediy Negre sugar eve a the ober thorough ‘Rady lio chy by Aled seen, A queen ies soy: The se and dino of Talo Cyn hilpinesacl ctr? abl ad and lclrnsfaretions ed ‘ed Woy sh de Jone (Quer Cie Atenee de Mana Univer Press 198) pp. 297-388. "inthis eonmaum Pampanga cane placed somewhere between Calamb and Negros ors comporza fhe tw jr Suet-producing provinces of Pampangs snd Negro, seh Lark, Suprand te oii of mdern Pte sce (Berate:Usverst a alors Pres, 195) nh pape ‘elven the comparative ame af alambs and Negro. Im par becase Calan, {isough highly spect for nana toriopraphy, he seldom been een _ ‘The Hacienda de Calamba epitomized under a single corporate (religions) entity, which was essential ‘enclave economy; in contrast, Negros showcased a range of haciendas ‘of varying sizes in a frontier sting where diferent actors and parcels of land cultivated by sharecroppers. However, the Dominican bets of Calantba relied ona sector of wealthy leaseholders (known ‘as inquilines, generally local Chinese mestizos." who mobilized a Stratum of subtenants on sherecropping arrangements, In Negros the Sugar planters (known aS hacenderos) comprised a multiethnic {migrant class of landowners most of whom diredy red their own ile-ethersemp Sociologically Negros evolved a distinctive plural soeety, quite unlike the conve loa social formation i Clara. ‘With sugar fon Fe bom ‘vere linked with global capitalism, but thelr arculation differed in Senificant ways i Calamba Chinese mestizo lessees relied on thelr ‘wn capital orn Chinese moneylenders and middlemen who brought the goods to foreign merchants in Manila. in contrast, the sugar Inacendas in Negros relied on loans and capital advances that were in couporative prspecte and beease, for practical rearons adequate Information exits fo oth clan and Negros tenable the comparative “nats pursued bre nat hee ited information on any aspects of ‘Nese practon in Parpongn daring th erode Lr he Fompongos, pp 63-102 Latin, Sugar. 62-99}:but pertinent information, wheneves Pratbl s brought ns te dzcsson. ‘Winths paper the tex Chioese mest prea the Mstorans In ia’ ‘ay is gradsthr ha taken advantage of scome tat aliawed te fly's ‘tial tansfrir he bute sf Chinese estan to that oe notre Inthe eal 180th clonal goveraments shi amoder ation em formal abolished the ute etagore tht ha stngulsea the chine= Inesiz ron he naturale, although nage roan aoas the son {rvernance mechs of having separate gremis or corporate coun for ‘rte and Chinese mest espacial for cl snd ceremonial aa as sotimmedatly dseanvedsourced directly from foreign merchant houses based In Holo on the nearby island of Panay. ‘The direct engagement of the foreign ‘merchants in lloilo ae financiers of Nogeos's sugar economy spalied 2 ‘major difference, especialy in terms ofa higher level of sugar milling technology compared with what prevaled in Calamba, ‘Rizal's essay on indolence hinted at discontent in Calamba. tn fact both locations generated resistance and defiance on the part of sugar planters, bit their actions were embedded in divergent colonial sate dynamics, Intentionally politeal, those In Calaimba targeted a Feligious order that Spanish authorities ultimately propped up in defence ofthe colonial state. Those in Negras had no fiar order for an Antagonist and no political agenda; they engaged the colonial state whenever fe was to their advantage, but simultaneously and rather systematically undermined a state that, despite attempts at Contralization, was welghed down ty many contradictions Givon-the archipelagle- character of-Las-Isls-Flipinay-the ‘mountain Fedoubis provided an escape from the colonial state, but so did sparsely populated islands. Negros was such an island prior tothe veritable invasion that occurred afer the late 1850s with the rise of the sugar economy. In the frontier setting of Nogros, the sugar hacienda and thee mix of owners, overseers, and farm hands arose in response to the market. Deploying capital brokered by foreign Inerchant houses, these haciendas managed to pu the stat at arms Tength, made all the more adventuresome by the Recollect friars who wore partners of sugar planters in keeping the state at bay. St apart from Calamba, which like other monastic estates epitomized the state, ° ha bom catomary to deere the spas cola state as weak an Llso ‘previously (Agua lsh ofsprit) However hs desertion ack, ‘msg wefan ist explain he oer of Spanish rule over te ‘Sand hat asted oer tre cetures which nest se Ts ‘eceripton last explain comple events a he ata lnceenth oncry fic asthe cerporstion the onetime mare per, the Sul sana, {nto Spanishcnanal serait. Howeve, th clon state was ied with otras 2 sued nti paper nd ae sown lsh fpr, the sugar economy of Negros thrived inthe late ninetoonth century in the shadow of the central stato Hacienda de Calamb: Unlike the sugar haciendas of Negros most of which trace thele beginnings t the second half ofthe nineteenth century, the Haclenda de Calamba had a longer and alder history. Located 3 lelometres south of Manila, Calamba's fertile lands extended westward from the shore of Laguna de Bay and had housed several early Spanish estate, ‘As Dennis Roth has shown, the Hacends de Calamba passed ‘ownership from one lay Spaniard to another until in 1759 its destitute owner turned over the hacienda to the Jesuits in exchange for the right to room and board in their monastary forthe rest of his. life. When the Jesuits were expelled fom the Philipines in 1768, the government confiscated the property. An inventory indicated the bullcof the estate had remained uncultivated. OF the hacenda's total. tea of close to 15,000 hectares les than 300 hectares (or 2 per cant) ha been planted with rice or sugarcane The government succeeded in selling the estate to a lay Spaniard in 1803; when the heavily indebted owner died in 183, the Dominicans fnally aequred the hacienda, n 2843 an Englishman, with the backing of the governor- general, offered to buy the estate, but the Dominicans relected the oe: Under these circumstances, the Hacienda de Calamia had been bypassed by the commercial revolution that, in tandem with population growth, had led to the dramatic need for cultivable land on the friar ectates and its peripheries; by the same token, Calamba was lunaffacted by the 1745 Tagalog revolts that these transformations in commerce and demography had precipitated. By the end of the ° Dennis Mth, he ir eats ofthe Pips (Abuquerge: Ulery of ew bene Press, 1977) 9.16 Mid td .t82 10 Roh he iar estates, Fernando Pale The Tagalog reels 01745 scoring Spaneh prin) sources" Palppie ls, $8, 1-2 (2010) 45-77, 4cightconth century the estate had remained largely uncultivated es ‘ot lear when culation expanded in earnest, Dut Roth states hat by the mide ofthe nineteenth century "he sae of Calamba's economy had grown far beyond its former resuited lilt, Hundreds of hectares of land tad been cleared and many new faies had imgrated to thehacionda from neighbouring towns. Among them were theancestors of fos Rizal” “To be precise, It was Rats father, Franlso Mereado, who ‘moved to Calamba from Bian, where Ria's paternal grandfather had thrice been gaberadario or town mayor'®The mave to Clana imust have transpired not earlier than the late 1830s, when Francisco ‘was of age and the estate was already inthe hands of Dominicans om ‘whom the Ral fay leased lan UC Calamba's expansion of cultivated area and increase in population occurred jst before or around the mide ofthe century, {hon it would-have preceded the rise of sugar haiendas ox Negros Island by one or two decades Iethen would ot be very far advanced compared with Hegos, which was Icsted onthe western potion of the Visayan group a islands, ts capital Bacolod about 650 llometres south of Mari Calamba by the 1850s was aeady 4 theving economy, with much of its dynamism brought by migrants, at Cat time Negros war ail largely a backwater, with a very sparse population of about 100.000—a figure chat would ise fur and hall times by the endo the entry. in 1848 the Recollects acquired Negros fom the secur elegy andthe island became theie mission Fld Although they possessed estates elsewhere such as the Hatlends de Imus in Cavite, the Recollects didnot acquire any monastic estate in Negros, probably conditioned by the Island's underpoplated state when they frst arrived there, However, many Recollet priests engaged in “levelopmés’ work, bullding base infastrutures such a oa ad "Roth he lar stots, p16 "on Ma Guerrero, Theft Plipin, nw (anil: Guerrero Publishing, 2010) p20, "Aut clash oy spits 127 potable water factities®* One particular priest, Fernando Cuenca, parish priest of Minuluan (known as Talisay today), Inter became heavily involved in stimulating and supporting the cultivation of sugarcane, Including on hls own private properties {Land and Sugar in Negros and Calamba By the 1950s Negros had only four major, mostly Immigrant, sugar acenderos the creole Agustin Montilla in Bago and the Basque Eusebio Ruz de Luzuraga in Bacolod; the Frenchman ives Leopold de Germain Gaston in Silay {who inthe late 1830s had supervised the planting of sugarcane and the construction ofa steam-powered rll in the estate ofthe creole Domingo Roxas in Calatagan, Batanges)? and someone called Tia Sipa in Minuluan.* n the early 1850s these four sugar planters produced no more than 3,000 pilones of sugar (compared to total Philippine gar production of 265,045 pitones). ‘Ata time of rising world sugar prices inthe wake ofthe Crimean Wa the presence of Nicholas Loney as British vice-consul in Holla a year alter the colonial government opened up its provincial port to world trade in 1055 would serve as the greatest stimulus eo sugar "tod, pp158-59.C Angel Martine Cuesta, History of Negros trans Aono Fels ean Sr Carts Seva (an Historia Caneeston Sao, 1980). Agua, lsh ofp 189 "= Rabusiano Edn Apa del lade Negras (Mania Chae y Cl, 3898), pp.22-23. Carls Guino, The sory of he Phlipn saga industry (Mani: Kalan ees 1974), pp 19-20- The terms Ceo a ‘pals sap odin thi paper are largely reputational. census data presented ater ths paper, the ter are ensus categories and therefore dependent onthe dentin allowed hy he ‘numerator Nik ooguln args for he lured distinction betwee eae and Spanish mestizos ‘Upto acund midway ofthe 19th centry the Paipine (eck nd wa such scraps sboutlond purty and were ddngashe a ‘lass apart as lpinosrotso much by he amount of Spanish blood eee ‘eine ae by thelr ctr, pion and wealth Mk oon, A quetion aes [Msndatayong Gy: Ani 2005) 9.72 For conparatve data senateProduction In the regina story that has been retold a number of| ‘umes. Sugar production on Negros Island would begin to rise from the late 1850s al through the 1860s, until the end ofthe century In Holo on Panay Island there were some small sugar hhacendas by the early 185057" is noteworthy that the expansive areas that were already devoted to rice cultivation in lilo were not ‘converted to sugar This fact suggested that landowners who might have preferred a nonfood crop like sugareane could not brush aside the peasantry’s need for subsistence and that sizeable gains were already being obtained from the sale of surplus rice to parts of the Spanish Philippines that had concentrated on hemp and coconut Rather than in lleilo, new sugar haciendas were founded on Negros Island located across the Guimaras Strait the distance between lol. City and Bacoled City being 43.78 kilometres. In this sense, what transpired in the Visayas differed from the model that atone point Madrid considered: the Cultivation System introduced by the Dutch in Java, where native eltes, who had been fully incorporated into the lonial state apparatus, mobilized a forced labour system and utilized ‘communally held land as the state directed "In Negros as well as in lamba the push to produce sugar did not come from the state but fom the market. However Pampanga, here sugar production started earller than in Calamba and Negros, posed an instructive contrast. ‘omen Agu jr Beyond inevtabity: The opening of Pippine ‘ronal ports n 1855: jure! of Southeast can Sues 252 (1994: 70-80. E Qairna The hist ofthe Phlipin igor 9 92 "The wie alluvial a Plan has en on ofthe reipeag's store araares (Beta, queen dis slowly, pp. 298,300). Today las nown as {he Wes bow of the Western Visayas Rice rare analy in ttl fat 132000 hectares only 42 pr cent of which igatedDesplethe raed "satre of growing rc on most fama Te rade aoe Supls tat shipped Negros Oideatal Ce, Leyte Samar and some pars of Mindansa (eneo Olivares, ln Why dese Piippines port ris? Mecha the halenges of trad Iherlzaton ed David Be Pedal Moy an Cheryl Bcavan (Los Bato: Intermatinal ice Research 2 CE Leganés ter he galas, p. 169-70, agua, lch of pap, Whereas it used to be a prime exporter of rice, Pampanga cease to be so by 189, after peasants shifted their crop from riee to sugarcane beginning in the 3820s, with Pampanga people subsequently opening ‘up new and tothe north ofthe Rio Grande to grow more sugarcane" "Negros continued to produce food craps, particulary in afew small tows on the southern portion ofthe island where peasants almost exclusively grew ether rice or carn. On the west coast of the Island eight municipalities became virtually monocrop economies, Droducing an annual total of $49,500 piculs of sugar in the 1880s, ‘opresenting 63 percent ofthe island's aggregate sugar production of 965,100 piculs3 The largest sugar producers were Minulan, Saravia, and Silay. However, there were fifteen towns that grow a combination of sugar totaling 324,000 piculs or 37 per cent ofthe Jsland’s total sugar production) and rice (288,500 cavans or 95 per cont ofthe island's aggregate rice production). In these towns, the smallest farms were devoted to ree, while the biggest farms planted sugarcane ‘There were various schemes for acqulring land in Negros— "anging rom outright purchase to leasing, land grabbing (usurpactén), acquiring foreclosed property (embargado),and opening up new land, Sizes of sugar haciendas in Negres varied widely throughout the ate nineteenth century. In 1861 recorded land transactions ranged {rom about 2 hectares to at most 60 hectares, with the average land sale ‘Involving approximately 16 hectares. A process of and enlargement and expansion occurred such that by 1875 the largest hacienda that was sold measured 200 hectares, the mean size being 35 hectares, By 1090 the average area of land that exchanged ownership measured 10015 hectares3# The mean area of land sold rase by 110.8 per cent {rom 1864 to 1875 and by 187-1 percent from 1875 to 1990, Some hacenderos employed various means to acquire ‘enormous tracts of land, as In the case of Teodoro Henedicto who La, The Pampangans 6-67 Seager, lsh feet. 108-8 ibd, 103. ei