Recollections of Manilla and the Philippines Part 13

The quant.i.ty of hemp s.h.i.+pped during the years 1848 and 1849, was greater than the quant.i.ty indicated in either of these tables, but as the increased export was princ.i.p.ally caused by speculation in the United States, the average annual export may probably not be greater than the amount set down in the table of 1850, although, in the previous year, about 30,000 peculs more were s.h.i.+pped.

Of the exports to the continent of Europe only a small proportion goes to Spain, probably not exceeding a third part of the quant.i.ties set down in the table for the continent.

Bremen, Hamburg, and Antwerp, are the three towns in the north with which most business is done, and Bordeaux and Havre de Grace, are nearly the only places to which the other exports are s.h.i.+pped for Europe, exclusive of the ports of Cadiz, Malaga, and Bilboa, in the Peninsula.

Having furnished the preceding tables of the amount of the exports from the only outlet for foreign trade with the islands, excepting in rice to China, as before mentioned, the reader may be able to form some opinion of their veracity and value. And as it may be of some service, I shall give a short sketch of each of the most important of the articles there set down, premising it with a memorandum of the weights and measures now in use through the islands. The pecul is equal to 140 lbs. English, or 137 1/2 lbs. Spanish; the Spanish lb. being two per cent. heavier than the standard British lb. The quintal is 102 lbs. English, and the arroba 25 1/2 lbs. English. The cavan is a measure of the capacity of 5,998 cubic inches, and is subdivided into 25 quintas. The Spanish yard, or vara, is eight per cent. shorter than the British yard, by which latter all the cotton and other manufactures are sold by the merchants importing them, although the shopkeepers who purchase them retail everything by the Spanish yard.

CHAPTER x.x.xIII.

It is not my intention, even were it in my power, which it is not, to attempt an exact and complete description of all the productions of the group of islands composing the Philippines, to which nature has with no n.i.g.g.ardly hand dispensed great territorial and maritime wealth. And as the limits of this work prevent much expansion, I will confine the following observations to an outline of the princ.i.p.al articles produced in the country, beginning the catalogue with the most important of them all, namely, rice.

The cultivation of paddy, or rice, here, as all over Asia, exercises by far the greatest amount of agricultural labour, being their most extensive article of cultivation, as it forms the usual food of the people, and is, as the Spaniards truly call it, _El pau de los Indios_; a good or bad crop of it, influencing them just as much as potatoes do the Irish, or as the wheat crops do in bread-consuming countries.

In September and October, when, in consequence of the heavy previous rains since the beginning of the wet season, the parched land is so buried as generally about that time to present the appearance of one vast marsh, it is ploughed lightly, after which the husbandman transplants the grain from the nurseries in which he had previously deposited it, in order to undergo there the first stages of vegetation.

In December, or in January, the grain is ready for the sickle, and in general repays his cares and labour by the most abundant harvest. There is no culture more easy and simple; nor any which gives such positive good results in less time, as only four months pa.s.s between the times of sowing and reaping the rice crop.

In some places the mode of reaping differs from the customs of others. At some places they merely cut the ears from off the stalks, which are allowed to remain on the fields to decay, and fertilize the soil as a manure; and in other provinces the straw is all reaped, and bound in the same way as wheat is at home, being then piled up in ricks and stacks to dry in the sun, after which the grain is separated by the treading of ponies, the horses of the country, upon it, or by other means, when the grain is again cleared of another outer husk, by being thrown into a mortar, generally formed out of the trunk of some large tree, where the men, women, and children of the farm are occupied in pounding it with a heavy wooden pestle, which removes the husk, but leaves the grain still covered by a delicate skin. When in this state it is known as pinagua; but after that is taken off, the rice is clean.

For blowing away the chaff from the grain, they employ an implement worked by a handle and a wheel in a box, which is very similar to the old-fas.h.i.+oned fanners used in Scotland by the smaller farmers for the same purpose.

In the neighbourhood of Manilla, there is a steam-mill for the purpose of cleaning rice; and there are several machines worked by horse-power throughout the country. But although there are many facilities for the employment of water-power for the same purpose, I am not acquainted with any mill moved on that principle.

The qualities of rice produced in the different provinces, varies a good deal in quality. That of Ylocos is the heaviest, a cavan of it weighing about 140 lbs. English, while Camarines rice weighs only about 132 lbs., and some of the other provinces not over 126 lbs. per cavan.

Although in all the provinces rice is grown to a considerable extent, yet those which produce it best, and in greatest abundance, and form what may be called granaries for the others, which are not so suitable for that cultivation, may be considered to be Ylocos, Pangasinan, Bulacan, Capiz, Camarines, and Antique.

It is best to s.h.i.+p rice in dry weather; and should it be destined for Europe, or any other distant market, it should leave by the fair monsoon, in order that the voyage may be as short as possible, to ensure which, all orders for rice purchases for the European markets should reach Manilla in December or January, as the new crop just begins to arrive about the end of that month. It takes about a month to clean a cargo at the steam-mill, and after March, the fair monsoon for homeward-bound s.h.i.+ps cannot much be depended upon; and were the vessel to make a long pa.s.sage, the cargo would probably be excessively damaged by weevils, by which it is very frequently attacked. Ylocos rice is considered to be the best for a long voyage, as it keeps better than that grown in other provinces.

The price of white rice is rarely below two dollars per pecul, or above two and a half dollars per pecul, bagged and ready for s.h.i.+pment.

A hundred cavans of ordinary province rice will usually produce 85 per cent. of clean white, and about 10 per cent. of broken rice, which can be sold at about half the price of the ordinary quality: the remaining 5 per cent. is wasted in cleaning.

Rice exported by a Spanish s.h.i.+p, goes free; but if exported by any foreign s.h.i.+p, even when it is sent to a Spanish colony, it pays 3 1/2 per cent. export duty, and when sent to a foreign country by a foreign s.h.i.+p, it pays an export duty of 4 1/2 per cent. In order to be more explicit, it may be well to give a _pro forma_ invoice of rice.

5,000 peculs of white rice, bought ready for s.h.i.+pment at the mill, at $2-1/4 per pecul $11,250 00

Charges :--

Export duty on valuation, which can generally be managed to be got at a good deal under the market price; say at $1-1/2 per pecul, at 4-1/2 per cent. $337 50 Boat and coolie hire, s.h.i.+pping 200 00 ------ 537 50 ---------- $11,787 50

Commission for purchasing and s.h.i.+pping, &c., at 5 per cent. 589 37 ---------- $12,376 87

This is about equal to its price if purchased and cleaned in another manner; for instance:--

1,000 cavans province rice, costing, say, 10-1/2 rials per cavan, = $1,312 50

will generally produce 85 per cent. clean white rice, fit for s.h.i.+pping, and 10 per cent. broken rice, which can be sold at about 5-1/4 rials per cavan, = 65 62

thus 150 cavans (equal to about 820 peculs) will --------- cost $1,246 88

Add the expenses of receiving on board the native boats, measuring there, landing, re=measuring, cleaning, bags and bagging, averaging from about 70 to 80 cents. per pecul of cleaned rice, say at 75 cents, = 615 00 --------- $1,861 88

or equal to $2-27/100 per pecul for clean white rice, ready for s.h.i.+pment.

_Sugar._--Although the cane is cultivated to a greater or less extent throughout all the islands, there are four descriptions of sugar well known in commerce, grown in the Philippines, and these come respectively from the districts of Pampanga, Pangasinan, Cebu, and Saal, after which districts they are named; and the growth of other places producing similar sugars to any of these descriptions, usually pa.s.ses under one of these names in the market, although Yloylo is sometimes, though rarely, distinguished as a separate quality. The mills employed for expressing the juice from the cane are nearly all of stone; and firewood is usually employed to boil the sugar; for although they have for some years introduced the plan of employing the refuse of the cane for that purpose, it is not yet very general.

A large quant.i.ty of the Muscovado sugar made in the country, resembling the descriptions produced in the provinces of Pampanga and Pangasinan, is brought to Manilla for sale, in large conical earthern jars, called _pilones_, each of which weighs a pecul. The Chinese or Mestizos who are engaged in the purifying of sugar are the purchasers of these lots, and most of them are in the habit of sending an agent through the country, with orders to buy up as much of such sugar as they require to keep their establishments at work. They are in the habit of paying these travellers a rial, which at Manilla is the eighth part of a dollar, for every pilone he purchases on their account at the limits they give him. When enough has been collected in one neighbourhood to load a casco or other province boat, it is despatched to their camarine at Manilla, where after being taken from the original pilone, if it has come from Pampanga, it is mixed up together, and placed in another one, with an opening at the conical part, which is placed over a jar into which the mola.s.ses distilling from it gradually drop, when the colour of the sugar from being brown becomes of a greyish tinge.

At the top of the pilone, so placed with the cone turned down, a layer of clay is spread over the sugar, as it has the property of attracting all the impurities to itself; so that the parts of the sugar in the pilone next to the clay are certain to be of the whitest and best colour, whilst the sugar at the bottom, or next the opening of the cone, is the darkest and most valueless, until it has had its turn of the clay; for when the Chinamen perceive that the top part of the sugar in the pilone or earthen jar has attained a certain degree of whiteness, they separate the white from the darker coloured, and the greyish tinged sugar from the dark brown coloured portion at the foot of the jar; and after exposing the white and greyish coloured to the sun, they are packed up, while the dark brown portion, after being mixed with that of a similar colour, is again consigned to the pilone to be clayed.

Besides clay, some portions of the stem of the plantain-tree are said to have the power of extracting the impurities from sugar, and in some districts are said to be preferred to clay for that purpose, being chopped up in small pieces, and spread over it.

The unclayed descriptions of sugar are generally procurable at Manilla by the end of February, when the new crop commences to come in; and clayed, or the new crop, is seldom ready for delivery before the middle of March.

The entire crop is all ready for export by the end of April, although the market is seldom cleared of it till the January of the ensuing year, when the sugar clayers being anxious to close their accounts of the past crop, and wind up all that remains in their camarines, in order to be ready for the new season's operations, are sometimes willing to make a reduction in the nominal price of the day, in order to effect that purpose. But as the grain of sugar does not improve by keeping, especially when it has to stand the moistness of the atmosphere during the preceding wet season, such sugar, if bought at that time, is seldom equal in grain to the produce of the new crop, although its colour may be preferable.

Pangasinan sugar is of a beautiful white colour, but with a very inferior grain: it loses much in the sun-dryings, and is generally, I believe, mixed with the clayed Pampanga sugar, to give the latter a colour, although all the dealers deny doing it themselves, but are ready enough to believe, if told that their neighbours are in the habit of mixing both Cebu and it, in their pilones,--the first for the sake of cheapness, and the other for a colour. Pampanga sugar is of a brownish tinge, and when of good quality, of a strong grain. It possesses a very much greater quant.i.ty of saccharine matter than any other description of sugar I am acquainted with, and is consequently a favourite of the refiners at home and in Sweden. Taal and Cebu descriptions are never clayed separately, although, as before mentioned, the latter, on account of its cheapness, is occasionally mixed with Pampanga for claying.

They are princ.i.p.ally in demand for the Australian colonies, where Taal is generally preferred to Cebu (or Zebu), from its possessing more saccharine matter than the latter. Taal is generally so moist that it always loses considerably in weight, sometimes to the extent of about 10 per cent., and even more;--it is a strong sweet sugar. Cebu seldom loses so much as Taal, generally not more than 3 per cent. on a voyage of about two months' duration.

All sugar is sold to the export merchants by the pecul of 140 lbs. English, and it is either paid for at the time of its delivery, or if a contract is made for a large quant.i.ty with a clayer, or other dealer, it is often necessary to advance a portion of the price to enable him to execute the order, and the merchants often do this long before a pecul of sugar is received from him, or any security given in return. This system prevails not only in sugar, but in all other articles of the agricultural produce of the islands, in the sale of which no credit is given to the purchaser.

Sugar pays an export duty of 3 per cent. It should never be weighed except upon a hot dry day, as if there is the least moisture in the air it absorbs it, and adds considerably to its weight.

In connection with sugar, it may be stated, that some very good rum is made at Manilla, although very little is exported. It is a monopoly of the Government, who farm it out to one of the sugar clayers at Manilla. Mola.s.ses are never s.h.i.+pped, but are used in Manilla for mixing with the water given to the horses to drink, most of them refusing to taste it unless so sweetened.

Hemp is produced from the bark of a species of the plantain-tree, forests of which are found growing wild in some provinces of the Philippines. The operation of making it is simple enough, the most important of the process apparently being the separation of the fibres from each other by an iron instrument, resembling a comb for the hair. After drying in the sun, and undergoing several other processes, with the minutiae of which I am unacquainted, it is made up into bales, weighing 280 lbs. each, and in that state is s.h.i.+pped for Manilla, where, after being picked more or less white, which is dependent entirely upon the purposes it is intended to serve, and the markets it has to be sent to, it is again pressed into bales of the same weight as before, although of much less bulk, and is exported, the greater quant.i.ty of it going to the United States of America, as the export tables will show.

The best hemp is of a long and fine white fibre, very well dried, and of a silky gloss. The dark coloured is not so well liked, and if too bad for exportation, is generally made up into ropes for the colonial s.h.i.+pping, or sent down to Singapore for trans.h.i.+pment to Calcutta, where it is employed for the same purpose.

The best hemp comes from Sorsogon and Leyte, and some of the Cebu is also very good. Albay, Camarines, Samar, Bisayas, and some other districts, are those from which it princ.i.p.ally comes.

The freight on hemp s.h.i.+pped by American vessels to the United States, is reckoned at the rate of 40 cubic feet, or four bales of 10 feet each, to the ton; but when s.h.i.+pped to Great Britain, the freight is generally calculated at the ton of 20 cwt., or 2,240 lbs. avoirdupois.

Annexed is a table of calculations of what it will cost if put on board a s.h.i.+p in Manilla Bay, including all charges, and 5 per cent. paid to an agent there for purchasing it, &c.