Can you make a report (script) about the: THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF PHILIPPINE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Can you make a report (script) about the:
THE CHANGING LANDSCAPE OF PHILIPPINE ECONOMY AND SOCIETY
Many scholars consider the nineteenth century as an era of profound change in the Philippines. During this period, vast economic, political, social, and cultural currents were felt. Change, however, had its initial ripples in the previous century. By the late eighteenth century, the monarchy in Spain experienced a dynastic shift from the Habsburgs to the Bourbons. Under the new leadership, Spain recalibrated colonial policies that would have an effect on the Philippines. With the goal of invigorating the profitability of the colonies like the Philippines, Bourbon policies and reforms were carried out. The first governor-general to the Philippines under the Bourbon mandate was José de Basco y Vargas who arrived in the Philippines in 1778.
By the time Basco arrived, the Galleon Trade, the main economic institution existing in the Philippines, was already a losing enterprise. As Spain sought ways to salvage the dwindling economy of the empire, the global wave of industrialization became a silver lining. As many imperial powers in Europe and the West were undergoing industrialization, an increased demand for raw materials presented an opportunity to look into the agricultural potential of the Philippines. Thus, it was viewed that the transformation of the economy towards being export- oriented, harnessing the agricultural products that could be yielded from the archipelago, was the way to go.
To better facilitate the envisioned reorientation of the economy, Basco established the Royal Philippine Company in 1785 to finance agricultural projects and manage the new trade being established between the Philippines and Spain (and Europe) as well as other Asian markets. These changes, however, were met with lukewarm reception. Resistance also came from various sectors like the Catholic Church that was not receptive of the labor realignments entailed by the planned reforms, and traders that were still holding on to the Galleon Trade. It also did not help that the Royal Philippine Company was fraught with issues of mismanagement and corruption. As Basco pushed for the reforms, he lifted a ban on Chinese merchants that reinvigorated internal trade; initialized the development of cash crop farms; relaxed certain policies that allowed the gradual opening of Manila to foreign markets; and established the Tobacco Monopoly to maximize the production of this export good.
Global events continued to affect the Philippines at the beginning of the nineteenth century. By 1810, the Mexican War of Independence rattled the Spanish empire, as it would eventually lead to the loss of the precious Latin American colonies. With this came the eventual end of the Galleon Trade which became a concern in the Philippines. As the Philippine economy hung in the balance, policies were recalibrated and with the eventual closing of the Royal Philippine Company, Manila was opened to world trade by 1834. As a result, foreign merchants and traders came and eventually resided in Manila and took over the role of financing and facilitating the burgeoning agricultural cash crop, export-oriented, economy. Some of the major investments came from British and American traders that set up merchant houses in Manila.
The rapid development of the economy began to flow in the Philippines through cash crops. By the first half of the nineteenth century, majority of the exports of the Philippines came from cash crops like tobacco, sugar, cotton, indigo, abaca, and coffee.
The importance of land became more evident as cash crops became the major source of revenue in the colony. As the provinces shifted to cultivating cash crops, land ownership and management began to be a concern. The farmers felt the pressure of the economy while the hacenderos grabbed the opportunity. For example, when a small landowner needed capital and money, he would engage in a pacto de retroventa, an agreement of sale guaranteeing that he could buy the land back at the same price at which it was sold. However, it became difficult to buy back land given the continuously increasing demand of the economy and the renewals of the sale, which further buried the farmers to indebtedness. Eventually, they would forfeit the land and would be forced to become tenant farmers, or kasamá. Aside from this mode, land acquisition also came in the form of land-grabbing. As the growing economy required better management of lands, inquilinos emerged, renting land to sublet it to smaller farmers. These factors would bring change to the social stratification in the countryside that, as the next chapter will show, did not continue without tensions and contestations.
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