Professional Documents
Culture Documents
MANIFESTATIONS OF FEUDALISM
When first implemented in the Visayas, Legaspi authorized the encomendero to collect tribute of eight reales yearly in cash or in kind from all 19 6o year old Filipino males of private encomiendas. At least 1/4th of the total collection went to the encomendero, another portion to the priest and the remaining to the government
However, some of the encomenderos violated regulation by raising the rate of tribute paid in money or in kind by the Filipinos Encomenderos increased the value and appraisal of products at different periods Tremendous gains from temporarily hoarding staple items like rice and clothing materials and selling them at higher prices later resulting to Filipinos who could not afford either the monetary or species payment and to avoid penalties and corporal inflictions fled to the hills. Thos who escaped from the taxation were regardes as lawless remontados or tulisanes (bandits) by the Spaniards
Lack of systematic tribute collection. Each encomendero collected according to his personal whim. (When gold was abundant and money was scarce, the demanded cash or reales, when the reales were plentiful and there was scarcity for gold, they asked for gold)
During bumper harvests, they demanded products like rice, tobacco, or even all of the Filipino Sometimes, the Filipinos bought back the same items (rice, especially during the lean harvest) at overpriced prices that they originally sold at a lower price Many Filipinos died of starvation, especially during famines and drought due to encomenderos seizing the entire quantity of the filipinos rice without leaving a grain for them to eat
If the Filipinos resisted, they were publicly beaten, tortured or jailed. The unjust collection of tributes was one of the causes of uprisings in the Philippines.
An Encomendero
duty-bound to defend his encomienda from external incursions to keep peace and order to assist the missionaries in teaching the Christian beliefs to the inhabitants within his sphere of influence in return, he is granted the right of imposing tribute according to the kind set by higher authorities
TAXATION
Incomegenerating mechanism introduced by Spanish colonial government in the Philippines consisting of direct and indirect taxes and monopolies (rentas estancadas). Direct Taxes: Personal tribute and Income taxes Indirect Taxes: Customs duties and the Bandala Monopolies of special crops and items as spirituous liquors (1712-1882), betel nut (1764), tobacco (1782-1882), explosives (1805-1864), and opium (1847).
Buwis (Tribute)
may be paid in cash or in kind or both. 1570s: The tribute was fixed to eight reales (1 real= 12.1/2 centavos) in cash, gold, blankets, cotton, rice, bells in kind. It was then raised up to fifteen reales till the end of the Spanish period The Filipinos were required to pay to the following taxes and impositions: tribute of ten reales, diezmos prediales (tithes) of one real; town community chest, one real; and sanctorum tax for church support, three reales, totaling fifteen reales
Donativo de Zamboanga (samboangan) A special tax of real or rice for the Moro raids (collected since 1635 until the mid19th century) Vinta A special tax for coastal areas of Bulacan and Pampanga. The vintas are used to equip on shields. Falua is vintas counterpart, collected in Camarines Sur, Cebu, Misamis and other littoral provinces.
Tax Exemptions
Special privileges were granted to the descendants of the Filipino chiefly class who served in the pacification campaigns conducted by the conquistadores, laborers of the arsenal and artillery yard of Cavite, the mediquillos, vaccinators and college and university students of Santo Tomas, San Jose, San Juan de Letran and San Carlos
Bandala
From the tagalong word mandala (a round stack of rice stalks to be threshed), bandala means the annual enforced sale or requisitioning of goods.
Payment was only in promissory notes. The Spaniards debt to the Kapampangans reached P70, 000 between 1610 and 1616, spiraling up to 200,000 in 1660. This caused a revolt in 1660-61. The bandala was abolished in the provinces of Tondo, Bulacan, Pampanga, Laguna, Batangas, Tayabas, and Cavite in November 1782
Cedula
By 1884, the tribute was replaced by the cedula personal or personal identity paper, equivalent to the present residence tax Everyone, Filipinos or other nationalities, over eighteen years of age was required to pay the cedula personal
One could be exempted by paying the falla which the polista paid daily at 1 real during the 40-day period he was expected to work The polo system was patterned after the Mexican repartimiento or selection for forced labor
Main source of income for the colony during its early years Running the only regular fleet service in the huge stretch of the Pacific Ocean for the two hundred fifty years.
Known as the Galleon de Manila or Nao de China w/ two vessels making the journey yearly- one outgoing and one incoming Through the Manila Galleons, the Amerasians worlds were linked by untold luxuries and wealth Galleon trade benefited only a very small coterie of privileged Spaniards tempted by the lucrative trade Chinese immigrants
Damaging Effects
Neglect of native extractive industries like agriculture Arrest of population growth of the ManilaAcapulco trade for outbalanced the advantages The only active Filipino involvement is on construction of galleons.
Filipinos were forcibly ordered by the alcaldes mayores to plant coconuts and abaca under the guise of support of the Indians. Failure to comply with the needed supplies of coconut oil and the abaca fibers were heavily fines.
Coconuts furnished the oil, wine and coir for rigging and caulking for the galleons and other sea vessels. Abaca transformed into rigging materials in Cavite Ropes were also made from sugar (kaong) and sago (cabo negro) palm fibers and iron-headed ship pikes from hardwoods. Sails were fashioned out of the Iloko-woven cotton blankets exacted as tribute payment
In theory:
Galleon construction was not meant to conflict with the planting and harvesting schedules. Thus, the growth of Philippine agriculture was further retarded.
the positive results of the galleon trade were the intercultural exchanges between the Philippines and the Americans,
Mexican-made Virgin of Antipolo, chosen as the patroness of the sailors. Mango de Manila Tamarind and rice Carabao (known by 1737 in Mexico) Cockfighting Chinese Tea and textiles Use of nipa palm raincoats Fireworks display Chinaware Tuba-making
the return voyage brought innumerable and valuable flora and fauna into the Philippines:
Avocado Guava Papaya Pineapple Horses Cattle
Infrastructures
During the 19th century Spain invested heavily in education and infrastructure. A great deal of infrastructure projects were undertaken during the 19th century that put the Philippine economy and standard of living ahead of most of its Asian neighbors and even many European countries at that time.
Ferrocarril de Manila-Dagupan
extended 120 miles long up to Dagupan (Pangasinan) was one of the most innovative infrastructures in the Philippines in the 1900s it was the only railway line in the Archipelago constructed using mainly Filipino labor and operated regularly four (4) years before the outbreak of the Philippine Revolution in 1896 Considerable damages afflicted the ferrocarril during World War II, and the United States Army, which then had temporary control over the Manila Railway Company, was able to restore 40% of the railway's original condition by 1945. By virtue of Republic Act No. 4156 passed on 20 June 1946, the company was renamed to what is known today as the Philippine National Railway.
Puente Colgante
now Quezon Bridge built to avoid traffic jams in Arroceros and Quiapo This bridge famed the Philippines as the Paris of the Orient. named after the Spanish word colgar meaning to suspend, was the first suspension bridge not only in the Philippines but in the entire Southeast Asian region. measures 110 neters long and seven meters wide designed by Gustave Eiffel of the famous tower in Paris two-laned for carriages, with raised middle portion reserved for foot-travellers
was considered as the first tollway in the country since both pedestrians and vehicles passing through this bridge were charged a toll fee. Pedestrians were charged a toll fee each of one kusing (un cuarto or centavo) each horse cost three cuartos (about 2 centavos) tolls for carriages depended on the number of wheels ; the more wheels the higher the rates
Cable linking
In 1897, the first interisland submarine cable linking Manila to Iloilo, Bacolod and Cebu, was laid by the Eastern Extension Australia and China Telegraph Company
La Electricista de Manila
La Electricista was the first electric company that provides electricity to Manila during the late Spanish era By 1893, the walled city and suburbs were already powered by electricity, with the founding of La Electricista de Manila On January 17, 1895, its streetlights were turned on for the first time It had built a central power plant on Calle San Sebastian (now R. Hidalgo)
Its objective or its role in the Philippines during the Spanish rule
Jose de Basco y Vargas formally organized, in 1780, the Real Sociedad Economica de Amigos del Pais composed of leading men in business, industry an professions, whom he himself prodded to exploit the islands natural bounties
introducing the carabao ban in 1782 (to conserve this draft animal), the formation of silversmiths and gold beaters guild in 1783, and the construction of the first papermill in the Philippines in 1825.
A royal decree assigning 3,000 shares of stocks (out of 32,000) for the Manila merchants and religious corporations partially mollified the galleon traders even as some refused the subscription.
Forty percent of its net profits were set aside for research, technical assistance, and community development in the Philippines. For the Spaniards, the Company helped the early growth of agriculture, especially of Philippine-grown products like indigo, sugar, coffee, spices, dye-wood and textiles. To the Filipinos, the effect was more untold misery, as they were forced to plant much-prized cash exports crops from which they did not have any direct benefit at all.