260 AUSTEALASIA 



for the cultivation of rice, sweet potatoes, and other alimentary produce. All the 

 plots belong to the cultivators themselves, who sell only the surplus of their crops, 

 and this surplus, bought up by Chinese and other middlemen, constitutes the 

 great bulk of the commodities exported by the Manilla merchants. But the 

 exports are still far less than they might be, for the cultivated lands are estimated 

 at not more than 4,500,000 acres, or scarcely one-fifteenth of the whole area of the 

 archipelago. 



One of the last of the old government monopolies was that of tobacco, which 

 was not abolished till the year 1882. This plant is cultivated chiefly in the 

 northern provinces of Luzon, and especially in the Cagayan basin. Formerly the 

 labourers on the plantations were little better than serfs. Every village was bound 

 to deliver a certain quantity of tobacco at a price far inferior to the real value. 

 The result was that the cultivators, oppressed by official rapacity, found no time to 

 till their rice-fields, and, despite the great fertility of the soil, they were constantly 

 threatened with famine. The monopoly tended also to impair the quality of the 

 leaf, and the Manilla cigars, badly prepared by servile labour, became greatly 

 inferior to those of Havana. At present the Philippines hold the fifth place for 

 the production of tobacco, standing before Cuba and coming next after the United 

 States, Turkey, Brazil, and Indonesia. The plantations suffered much from the 

 ravages of parasites before the introduction of certain insectivorous birds from 

 Cochin-China. 



Sugar, which stands first on the list of exports, goes almost entirely to the 

 United States and Great Britain. The crop is about two-thirds of that of Java, 

 and is now valued at about £2,000,000. Coiïee, much neglected after the Franco- 

 German war, has again acquired some importance ; but cacao and other colonial 

 produce contribute little to the export trade. An extensive local industry has 

 been developed in connection with the Musa abaca, commonly known as "Manilla 

 hemp," from which are woven textile fabrics superior in strength and lightness to 

 those made of the best Eussian hemp. These articles are seldom exported, being 

 almost entirely bought up by the Chinese half-castes for the local consumption. 

 The banana, which yields the fibre for this industry, flourishes best in the Cama- 

 rines peninsula, where as much as thirty cwts. are raised on an acre of ground. 



None of the other native industries have acquired any development, so that 

 most manufactured wares have to be imported from abroad. During the last 

 decade the movement of exchange has increased rapidly, thanks to the abolition 

 of certain monopolies, the reduced customs dues, the free admission of foreign 

 shipping, and the opening of new ports to trade. Regular lines of steam-packets 

 ply now between Manilla and the two great British marts of Singapore and Hong- 

 Kono-, while smaller steamers maintain the communications between the capital 

 and the chief seaports of the archipelago. But the great natural resources of many 

 inland districts still lie dormant, owing to the almost total absence of good roads 

 and of railways, beyond a short line running from Manilla northwards. 



On the other hand, the social position of the people is greatly superior to that 

 of the Javanese and other populations under Dutch administration. Most of the 



