396 The Philippine Journal of Science 1915 



The importance of salt production as a Philippine industry, 

 where its rank, with reference to a number of items, is given, 

 is well shown in Table VII.^^ 



Table VII. — Comparative table of industries. 

 [Numbers indicate rank in comparison with all other Philippine industries.] 



Salt. 



Black- 

 smithincr. 



Number of establishment 



Capital invested 



Number of employees 



Average monthly wages 



Cost of materials purchased 

 Value of product 



«11 

 <=15 

 dlO 

 9 

 52 

 = 30 



bl3 

 33 

 25 

 22 

 29 



'26 



' Forty-nine establishments distributed as follows : Cavite, 14 ; Cebu, 5 ; Iloilo, 4 ; Rizal, 16 ; 

 Zamboanga, 6 ; Batangas, 1 ; Bohol, 1 ; Nueva Vizcaya, 1 ; Sorsogon, 1. 

 ■> Forty-three establishments in 7 pro\'inces. 

 = Capital, 245,952 pesos. 



* Total number of wage earners, 841. 



• Value, 91,284 pesos. 

 ' Value, 119,470 pesos. 



The various elements which make up the cost of an article of 

 commerce are found exemplified in the simplest and clearest 

 manner in the salt industry of the Philippines. The raw ma- 

 terial, sea water, has no value other than that given it for the 

 most part by unskilled labor expended in reducing it to salt and 

 the cost of the tideland involved. In the comparative table of 

 industries taken from the Census of the Philippine Islands, above 

 referred to,^^ the cost of materials purchased is less than that for 

 any other industry. The introduction of the use of reservoirs 

 for evaporating the sea water is in the nature of a labor-saving 

 machine, and here we have to consider the interest on the invest- 

 ment as part of the cost. 



In the Philippines no effort is made to derive profit from the 

 by-products. In certain localities in the United States the entire 

 profit of the salt industry has been from by-products. In fact, 

 in some plants the salt alone is made at a financial loss, but the 

 bromide and calcium chloride have yielded sufficient returns to 

 keep the furnaces active. 



During the period from December 1, 1910, to May 31, 1911, 

 more than half of the water evaporated from the ponds was re- 

 turned to them by rain, so that operations on the salt farms were 

 much interfered with and at times suspended. Out of the season 



"Census of the Philippine Islands (1903), 4, 476-7, 486, 496, and 524. 

 " Loc. cit. 



