THE SUGAR INDUSTRY OF THE 

 PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. 



HISTORIC SKETCH OF THE SUGAR INDUSTRY 

 IN THE PHILIPPINES. 



By Haeold M. Pitt, 

 Chairman, Publicity Goniniittee, Manila Merchants' Association. 



The history of the sugar industry in the Philippines is slightly ob- 

 scure but is known to date back more than a century. Its earliest 

 development was probably in the Province of Pampanga, which still 

 ranks second among the sugar-producing provinces. The extensive use 

 there of the two-roller stone type of mills imported from China, and 

 a system of packing the sugar exclusively in earthenware jars (pilones), 

 until very recently, tends to show that the Chinese have played an im- 

 portant part in its development. 



The first authentic record available to the writer relating to Phil- 

 ippine sugar is from the list of imports into the United States for the 

 year 1795 in which year 134,645 kilos of sugar were credited to these 

 Islands. For the succeeding ten years the importations were not im- 

 portant except that they showed the existence of the industry here. 

 Sailing vessels visiting the Orient during that period often completed 

 their cargos with sugar from Manila and tea from Canton before start- 

 ing on their return voyages. In those days the supply of sugar came 

 largely from Pampanga Province as the industry in Negros was in its 

 infancy half a century later. An interesting note on the methods em- 

 ployed during the early history of the industry in these Islands has come 

 to light in the record of an ordinance enacted in Pampanga in 1818 

 prohibiting adulteration, which from this would seem to have l)een 

 practiced to some extent by sugar growers nearly a century ago. 



The most important advance in the sugar industry of the Islands ap- 

 pears to have been coincident with the Crimean war, and was probably 

 due to an increased consumption of sugar throughout the civilized world, 

 which greatly enhanced the price and made the industry very profit- 

 able. This condition proved alluring to capital and the increased in- 



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