Part 14 (2/2)
[14] On the whole, agriculture was not the chief aim of Spanish colonization. ”How little attention, on the whole, the conquistadores directed to agricultural colonies, considering their various services in the transplantation of domestic animals, cereals, and vegetables from the Old to the New World, is very clearly shown by Peter Martyr, who condemns the expedition to Florida with the words: ”For what purpose do we need such products as are identical with those of southern Europe?” It is true that Columbus's second voyage of discovery had a settlement in view, and for that reason was provided with domestic animals, seeds, etc. It was a failure, however, owing to the mutinous spirit of the Spaniards. The regions which were best adapted to agricultural colonies, as, for example, Caracas, Guiana, Buenos Ayres, were neglected by the Spaniards for centuries. (”The Spanish Colonial Policy,” Wilhelm Roscher (1904), pp. 2-3.)
”It is a strange thing that the Spaniards who go to those regions (The Philippines) honestly to make a small fortune do not engage more in agriculture, in a country where there is so much virgin land and of such great fertility, where labor is extremely cheap, and the crop easily and profitably sold.” (La Libertad de Comercio en Filipinas, Manuel Azcarraga y Palmero, p. 27.)
” * * * the Spaniards cared but little for the cultivation of the lands.” (The Ecclesiastical System in the Philippines, Manuel Buzeta, O. S. A., and Felipe Bravo, O. S. A., Madrid, 1850. From their Diccionario de las Islas Filipinas. In Bl. and Rb., Vol. 28, p. 285.
[15] Montero y Vidal, ”Historia General de Filipinas,” Vol. I, p. 67.
[16] ”Beef is eaten, cattle being raised abundantly in stockfarms in many different parts of the islands. The cattle are bred from those of China and Nueva Espana. The Chinese cattle are small, and excellent breeders. Their horns are very small and twisted, and some cattle can move them. They have a large hump upon the shoulders, and are very manageable beasts. * * * There is abundance of flesh of wild game, such as venison, and wild boars, and in some parts porcupines. There are many buffaloes, which are called carabaos, which are raised in the fields and are spirited; others are brought tame from China; these are very numerous, and very handsome. These last are used only for milking, and their milk is thicker and more palatable than that of cows. Goats and kids are raised, although their flesh is not savory, because of the humidity of the country. These animals sicken and die for that reason, and because they eat certain poisonous herbs. Ewes and rams, although often brought from Nueva Espana, never multiply. Consequently there are none of these animals, for the climate and pasturage has not as yet seemed suitable for them. There were no horses, mares, or a.s.ses, in the islands, until the Spaniards had them brought from China and brought them from Nueva Espana. a.s.ses and mules are very rare, but there are many horses and mares. Some farms are being stocked with them, and those born (mixed breeds for the most part) turn out well, and have good colors, are good tempered and willing to work, and are of medium size. Those brought from China are small, very strong, good goers, treacherous, quarrelsome, and bad-tempered. Some horses of good colors are brought from j.a.pan. They have well-shaped bodies, thick hair, large fetlocks, large legs and front hoofs, which make them look like draft-horses. Their heads are rather large, and their mouths rather hard. They run but slowly, but walk well, and are spirited and of much mettle. The daily feed of the horses consists throughout the year of green provender, besides rice in the husk, which keeps them very fat.” (Morga's Sucesos, 1609, Bl. and Rb. Vol. 16, pp. 89-91.)
[17] ”The islands, as I am told, need stallions, mares and cows, and other domestic animals. In order that they may be bred there in numbers, I am writing to the viceroy of Nueva Espana, to send to the said islands twelve mares, two stallions, twenty cows, and two bulls. You shall ask him for these as you pa.s.s there, and shall take them with you in your vessels as you go upon your voyage; and whatever you think needful for the animals can be brought from China and j.a.pan. You shall order those farmers who are about to go to the said islands, and the chiefs, to tame and breed buffaloes, so that with all these animals there may be sufficiency to carry on the farming, and for other needful services.” (Instruction to Dasmarinas of Felipe II, Aug. 9, 1589;--Bl. and Rb. Vol. 7, p. 156.).
Also, Instructions to Tello, 1596, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 9, p. 236.
[18] ”There are plenty of fowls like those of Castilla, and others very large, which are bred from fowls brought from China. They are very palatable, and make fine capons. Some of these fowls are black in feather, skin, flesh, and bones, and are pleasant to the taste. Many geese are raised, as well as swans, ducks, and tame pigeons brought from China.”
(Antonio de Morga, Sucesos de las Islas Filipinos, Chap. 8.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 90.)
[19] ”The material surroundings of the Filipino before the arrival of the Spaniards were in nearly every way quite as they are today. The ”center of population” of each town today, with its great church, tribunal, stores and houses of stone and wood, is certainly in marked contrast; but the appearance of a barrio of little distance from the center is today probably much as it was then. Then, as now, the bulk of the people lived in humble houses of bamboo and nipa raised on piles above the dampness of the soil; then, as now, the food was largely rice and the excellent fish which abound in river and sea. There were on the water the same familiar bancas and fish corrals, and on land the rice fields and coconut groves. The Filipinos had then most of the present domesticated animals,--dogs, cats, goats, chickens, and pigs,--and perhaps in Luzon the domesticated buffalo, although this animal was widely introduced into the Philippines from China after the Spanish conquest. Horses followed the Spaniards and their numbers were increased by the bringing in of Chinese mares, whose importation is frequently mentioned.
”The Spaniards introduced also the cultivation of tobacco, coffee, and cacao, and perhaps also the native corn of America, the maize, although Pigafetta says they found it already growing in the Bisayas.
”The Filipino has been affected by these centuries of Spanish sovereignty far less on his material side than he has on his spiritual, and it is mainly in the deepening and elevating of his emotional and mental life and not in the bettering of his material condition that advance has been made.” (Dr. D. P. Barrows, A History of the Philippines, pp. 106-107).
[20] ”The planters keep working the soil almost as they used to do three centuries ago.” Memoria sobre los Montes de Filipinas, Sebastian Vidal y Soler; Madrid, 1874, p. 74.)
[21] Antonio de Morga, ”Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas,”
chap. 8. Rival's note to this says: This work, although not laborious, is generally performed now by the men, while the women do only the actual cleaning of the rice. (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 16, p. 79).
[22] ”The lands which they inhabited were divided among the whole barangay, especially the irrigated portion, and thus each one knew his own.” Customs of the Tagalogs, Juan de Plasencia, O. S. F.; Manila, October 21, 1589. Blair and Robertson, Vol. 7, p. 174.
[23] See Chapter II, as to evidences of prosperity of the Filipinos at the time of the coming of the Spaniards.
Caingin system described: ”They reported that the country was so fertile that when natives desired to plant their rice they only burn a part of the mountain and, without any further plowing or digging, they make holes with a stick in the soil, and drop some grains of rice in them. This was their manner of sowing; and, after covering the rice with the same earth, they obtained very heavy crops.” (Historia de la Provincia del Santo Rosario de la Orden de Predicadores, Diego Aduarte, O. P., Manila, 1640.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 32, p. 199.)
[24] ”Customs of the Tagalogs,” Juan de Plasencia: ”* * * * The lands on the 'tingues' or mountain-ridges, are not divided, but owned in common by the barangay. Consequently, at the time of the rice harvest, any individual of any particular barangay, although he may come from some other village, if he commences to clear any land may sow it, and no one can compel him to abandon it. There are some villages (as, for example, Pila de la Laguna) in which these n.o.bles, or maharlicas, paid annually to the dato a hundred gantas of rice. The reason of this was that, at the time of their settlement there, another chief occupied the lands, which the new chief upon his arrival, bought with his own gold; and therefore the members of his barangay paid him for the arable land, and he divided it, among those whom he saw fit to reward. But now, since the advent of the Spaniards, it is not so divided. * * *
”The chiefs in some villages had also fisheries, with established limits, and sections of the rivers for markets. At these no one could fish, or trade in the markets, without paying for the privilege, unless he belonged to the chief's barangay or village.” (Bl. and Rb., Vol. 7, pp. 174-175.)
Also, T. H. Pardo de Tavera, Census of the Philippines, 1903, Vol. I, p. 325.
[25] Expedition of Ruy Lopez de Villalobos. (Resume of Contemporaneous Doc.u.ments, Talavera, July 6, 1541.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 2, p. 54.)
[26] The origin of the encomienda ”was in the REPARTIMIENTO, which at first (1497) meant a grant of lands in a conquered country; it was soon extended to include the natives dwelling thereon, who were compelled to till the land for the conqueror's benefit. In 1503 ENCOMIENDAS were granted, composed of a certain number of natives, who were compelled to work. The word ENCOMIENDA is a term belonging to the military orders (from the ranks of which came many officials appointed for the colonies) and corresponds to our word commandery. It is defined by Helps (practically using the same language of Solorzano, the eminent Spanish jurist), as a right conceded by royal bounty, to well-deserving persons in the Indies, to receive and enjoy for themselves the tributes of the natives who should be a.s.signed to them, with a charge of providing for the good of those natives in spiritual and temporal matters, and of inhabiting and defending the provinces where these ENCOMIENDAS should be granted to them.” (Note, Bl. and Rb., Vol. 2, p. 54.)
[27] ”According to the const.i.tutional law of the Indies the land and the soil in all colonies were the domain of the king; therefore the encomiendas, which were granted only to discoverers and other men of conspicuous merit, were to be considered not so much as landed estates as public offices. (Compare ”Recopilacion,”
'IV 8, 9, 11.) The encomendero was appointed and sworn (law of 1532) for the express purpose of giving his natives military protection (law of 1552) and of promoting politically and religiously their conversion to civilization (laws of 1509, 1554, 1580). Whoever neglected to do this lost his encomienda (laws of 1536, 1551). It is characteristic that the Spaniards so readily combined the functions of discoverers, pacificators, and founders of settlements; as a matter of fact most of the Indian races were led to civil life, in our sense of the word, by them. In order to prevent extortion no encomendero could own a house in his village or stay there more than one night (law of 1609, 1618). Not even his nearest relatives or his slaves could enter the encomienda (law of 1574, 1550, and often). He was forbidden to maintain any industrial establishment in the encomienda (law of 1621), or to take into his house any of the inhabitants (law of 1528). That the natives were free men, that they could not be sold by an encomendero, was recognized in many laws. (”Recopilacion,” VI, 2, I, II). After the legislation of 1542 some of the natives were the immediate subjects of the king, and the rest dependents attached to the encomiendas. The former paid three-fourths of their taxes to the treasury, and the latter the same proportion to their landlords. The right of holding an encomienda was granted, regularly for two generations, except in New Spain, where, on account of the very unusual services rendered by the conquerors, it was granted for three and even four generations. (Ibid. VI, 11, 14.) During the 18th century many of the families of the landlords died out and their possessions were not again granted. The authorities always interested themselves in the cause of the natives, until at length Charles III abolished the encomiendas.” (W. Roscher (1904) ”The Spanish Colonial System,” pp. 4-5.)
[28] ”Let such allotments be made without prejudice to the natives, retaining for them their arable lands, gardens, and pastures, so that all shall be cared for.” (Foundation of the Audiencia of Manila, Felipe II; Aranjuez, May 5, 1583.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 5, p. 292.)
”I was pet.i.tioned on behalf of the said islands, to order that encomiendas be granted with the condition and obligation upon the encomenderos that some patch of ground should be cultivated, and that the farmers and natives should be aided so that they also may till and cultivate. I charged Gomez Perez strictly in his instructions with this, and now I charge you too. You shall grant lands and homesteads, cattle and horses for breeding and farming, both to the natives, and to the settlers and farmers. Inasmuch as the execution of this is important, you shall advise me of the conditions of former days and what ordinances you shall enact, so that what is advisable may be done during your term.” (Instructions to Tello, Felipe II, Toledo, May 25, 1596.--Bl. and Rb., Vol. 9, p. 237.)
(To the same effect, Instructions to Dasmarinas, Felipe II, San Lorenzo, August 9, 1589. Ibid., Vol. 7, p. 157).
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