ps 202: an economic history of the philippines

P S 2 0 2 1 S T S E M S Y 2 0 1 1 - 2 0 1 2 . S A L V A D O R , R A I S A N E I T H 1

ONOFRE D. CORPUZ

• A writer born in Camiling, Tarlac.

• He became the Secretary of Education from

1968-1971 and 1979-1983.

• He was the 13th UP President from 1975-

1979.

Source:

http://bayangmatangkilik.multiply.com/journal/item/82/ONOFRE_D._CORPUZ


http://bayangmatangkilik.multiply.com/journal/item/82/ONOFRE_D._CORPUZ

Some of his publications include:

1. The Roots of the Filipino Nation

2. National Glories: The Events of 1872 (editor)

3. Historia de Uno de los Iniciadores de la Revolucion Filipina (english translator)

4. Keeping the Spirit of 1896 alive

5. Saga and triumph: The Filipino Revolution against Spain

6. An Economic History of the Philipines


OUTLINE:

• 1565: Pre-colonial Native Society

• 1570+300: Spanish Colonization

• 1896-1903: War Economy

• 1900-1940: The American Enterprise


1565: PRE-COLONIAL NATIVE SOCIETY

A little bit over half a million population (J.F. del Pan,

Revista de Filipinas) – number is questionable

because:

1. It’s hard to count in an archipelago

2. These are just the “tribute-paying” natives (tributary

population)

3. Parish or pueblo population by the friars which warns

omissions


• Southeast Asia was penetrated by China, India, and Arabia by trade and small percentage of migrations. In all of it, religion went hand in hand with trade and politics.

• Islam went upwards, towards the outskirts of Visayas, Palawan, Batangas up until Tondo-Manila.

• No native writings, thus no native accounts of economy or politics. Even the Tarsila of the Sultante of Sulu or Maguindanao.


BARANGAY

• Native Indigenous settlement

• According to Juan de Plasencia, the name was derived from the vessel that carried founding group in the island.

• Barangay culture was the form of indigenous governance.

• Small because the organizing principle was kinship.

• Existence of particularism as illustrated by the hundred of languages spoken even up to the modern times.


• Economy of the barangay was closely linked to water.

• Technology: Boat-making, pottery, ornament –making,

spinning and weaving, fish corral, fowl, swine, goat-

raising, fermentation, rice culture.

• Governance by the datu

• No record of inter-barangay trade.

• No coinage, just barter.

• The archipelago was not a regular participant in the

Southeast Asian trade, and did not supply high-value

exotics, except for Jolo which supplied pearls and

slaves.


1570+300: SPANISH COLONIZATION

• The small barangays easily fell to the Spanish

conquistadors.

• Radical transformation of the pre-conquest

barangay society, ie. Native barangay

population had declined.


RECOPILACION DE LEYES DE LOS REYNOS DE

LAS INDIAS

- laws on Spanish possession. It declared that

because of the cost of voyage and discovery,

and all the expenses and support of the

regime and church establishment in the

Indias, the tributes formerly given to the datus

are now to be given to the king. In addition,

the conquistadors who supported the king are

rewarded through the tribute system.


• Unsatisfactory awardees – awards were given

to the conquistadors in Maguindanao and

Jolo, but the districts were still unconquered.


PUEBLO SYSTEM

• communities of the natives organized by the

Spaniards, much larger than the old barangay.

• Has 500 families

• Has squarish plaza at the center with the church,

convent, town hall and the houses

• The idea is to keep the natives in and they must have

adequate food and in addition, they are made to

produce surpluses for their colonizers.


• Pueblo lands, a new land system where each

family has a house and strip of fields around

their residential area.

• Full-employment for the natives in agriculture,

and they were required to utilize their lands by

raising livestock.


PUEBLO LAND TECHNOLOGY

• The carabao was broken in and taught to pull the plow and the harrow

• The plow was of Fukienese design

• Plowmaking was made a monopoly

• Friars desiminated the new technology by bringing trained farmers and their families with them when they transferred to other parishes.


…PUEBLO LAND TECHNOLOGY

Thus, the pueblo system and pueblo agriculture

combined to produce a profound socio-

economic transformation: Pueblo families

were all reduced to one occupational class.


HACIENDAS

• Haciendas of today (or at least for some)

came from the huge land grants awarded by

the king to the Church friar order, lay persons,

conquistadors and the people who were good

to the king.

• Friars built manor houses built on the estate.

• They brought natives and their families and

Chinese meztisos as workers.


HACIENDAS

• These haciendas later on became pueblos.

• The farmers were called inquilinos or renters.


TRIBUTE

• Basic contribution

• Rate was 8 reales (12.5 per real)

• Exempted: gobernadorcillo, cabezas, soldiers, sick

and the cripples, those whose crops failed during the

year, 60 years old and over.

• Commodities that went into the tribute were generally

food and provisions: rice or palay, salt, chicken, eggs,

meat, swine, liquor.


POLO Y SERVICIOS

• This system designated the natives or qoutas

of men to do compulsory labor services.

• Usually domestic services in the house of

encomendero.

• Men are ordered to be of service as bearers or

rowers or fighting men and get a daily rice

ration in exchange for their services.


DOMESTIC TRADE

1. Legal – Chinese and the lay Spanish

encomenderos

2. Prohibited by law – comprised of the trading

of the friars and provincial alcaldes


GALLEON TRADE

• Trade of Chinese and Spanish through Manila

as a funnel.

• 2 galleons were allowed to sail from Manila

each year with a cargo not exceeding 250,00

pesos each

• 1813 the Galleon Trade officially ended


FOREIGN TRADE

There is no produce in foreign trade. So the

economy was shaped by:

1. The archaic institution of the king’s estate

2. The conditions of land tenure and pueblo

agriculture

3. The serious decline in the work force through

a protracted loss in the tributary population


1835 – Manila opened to trade of all nations without

restrictions.

1844 – The rich natives and the mestizos took over the

lead role in domestic trade

- Trade were limited to agricultural produce

1863 – annual 40 days of polo was decrease to 24.

- Foreigners were allowed to reside and engage in any

occupation

1884 – tribute was replaced by fees paid for identity –

cedula


DUAL ECONOMY

• because of the absence of strong

manufacturing and industry sector, agriculture

and land divided the society and economy into

poverty sector and rich class.


1896-1903: WAR ECONOMY

Four wars broke:

1. Christian Filipino revolution against Spain

2. Spanish-American war

3. US began the hostilities in the Christian Filipino-

American War on 1899

4. US against the Muslim Filipinos in Mindanao from

1899-1912


“The fighting men were overwhelmingly rural

workers, small farmers, hacienda tenants ”

“The delivery of provincial produce and the

businesses servicing the export and import

trade ground to a halt and the ports were

closed”

“Fighting in the provinces disrupted local

economies”


“In scores of provinces the cedula and other

taxes could not be collected”

“The friar haciendas were taken over and thus

disposed landless families, the kasama and

the tulisan”


ECONOMIC DISLOCATION!

• Severest dislocations were in pueblo

agriculture.

• The carabao, disappeared and was reported

to have been slaughtered for food.

• Rice output became only 25% of the pre-war

output


POLITICAL ECONOMY

“no formal national and provincial

administrative experience during the

Spanish era”


KATIPUNAN

• Secret society by the Filipinos

• Evolved as a grouping of pueblo chapters loosely

united at the provincial level.

• The organizing factor was the common goal which is

independence.


MAJOR <MAJOR> MOVE!

1. The autonomy and authority of the people to manage

their own affairs and resources

2. Taxation of domestic trade was adopted a rational

fiscal and economic policy

3. A modern cadastral system with titling and registration

was designated and a land reform policy adopted


• A new approach in land was historically

necessary and inevitable since the fighting

men were just disposed from their holdings

by the friar haciendas.

• The 1899 Consti settled the issue on friar

hacienda that “all the lands, buildings and

other properties in possession of religious

corporations in these islands will be deemed

to the Filipino”


INSULAR GOVERNMENT

• The US’ occupation government in Manila.

• The main item on its agenda is the expansion of

American trade in the Philippines by making the Phil a

market for US exports and a source of cheap raw

materials for its industry

• The growth of foreign trade from P63 779 640 in

1985 to P515 995 136 in 1940 wade the country

subject to sharp economic changes


• Filipino participation in the government as

political leaders

• A modern civil service was established.

<yaaay! >


REVENUE SYSTEM

• The obligatory contribution from the Spanish friars

were abolished.

• The absolute autonomy of provincial and municipal

governments in fiscal administration was given.

1. Land tax

2. Customs revenues

3. Local government revenues


ps 202: an economic history of the philippines

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