LAND OWNERSHIP
Colonization of islands king of Spain: power over territories King of Spain gave field officers tasks: distribute land among the people
Encomienda: land rewarded by Spanish king à soldiers for their services
Encomenderos: to whom land was given Task of encomenderos:
· Collect taxes from people living in their encomienda
· Responsible for: maintaining the well-being and protection of the citizens
Essence of Encomienda:
· duty for public service
· not for land ownership alone
However, land ownership and taxation were the only tasks that were followed while proper governance was neglected. Caused disputes/feud among the natives, the church, and the encomenderos. Meanwhile, encomenderos abused their power and forced natives to pay tribute (cash or kind) beyond amount required by law
4 Classifications
1. Owned by the Church and related congregations like the Dominicans and Augustinians
- Large tracts of lands
- - Rented to farmers or inquilinos for cultivation
2. Owned by Spaniards in the Phil.
3. Owned by mestizos and rich Indios (principalia)
4. Owned by ordinary Indios
- Small sized
- Inherited from ancestors before Spanish colonization
· Many historians say: contributed to the slow growth in agriculture
· Renting of land- small scale production
· Taxes to encomenderos – heavy burdens on farmer-cultivators
· Lack of initiative to improve production since there are no lands and produce was taxed by landowners
· Land grabbing: hindrance
· Law: - Lands not cultivated can be public and anyone can claim a piece of land by cultivating it
- Once someone started cultivating, another would come to claim the land for diff. reasons (start of land grabbing)
- Ancestor’s view on land ownership is diff. from colonizers’ law on public ownership
- Effect: large potion of resources were never cultivated
SYSTEM OF TAXATION
· An important institution introduced to us by the Spaniards is the formal system of taxation on all things and activities.
· Indirect taxes or rentas estancadas and direct taxes are the two taxes of taxation used during the Spanish time.
Indirect taxes or rentas estancadas
· The most widespread system of taxation during the Spanish period.
· Levied on the manufacture, purchase, or use of products, services, or things.
Direct taxes
· An example is the Tributo
Tax on tobacco
· Contributed a big amount to the government revenues
The Tobacco Monopoly Policy
· Intended to raise the governments’ income to lessen its dependence on the subsidies called situados coming from Mexico.
· The government profited a lot from this system since it was able to control not only the production but also the marketing of tobacco.
Tax on coconut wine
· Considered the second largest source of government revenues.
· In 1712, the government increased the price of the license for making wine as a way of increasing its income. In 1787, it directly controlled the production of wine in the provinces of Luzon to boost its objective of increasing tax revenues.
· The government assigned inventores and inspectors called fieles to check on the level of production and profits of distilleries.
Custom Taxes
- on imported merchandise and exports
Taxes on Vices:
- cockfighting and betel nut chewing
- gov’t collected huge amount of money
TRIBUTO: to show acceptance of becoming a subject of the king of Spain
· Cabeza de barangay- collected kind or cash
· Cabeza de barangay gobernadorcillo provincial gov’t central gov’t
· Hardest to collect bec.
. A lot of people avoided it
. Number of poor and old citizens (reservados) were exempted from paying
· Based on town pop. but often incorrectly reported
· Collection were 1st used by some gobernadorcillo for personal and commercial purposes
Forced Labor: POLO
· Male citizens from 16-60 y.o. were required by the Spanish gov’t to render free services
· 40 days/yr; in 1884 it was decreased to 15 days/yr
· POLISTAS- laborers
o Not paid daily allowances
o Daily: ¼ real and a food ratio
o FALLA- fee paid to be exempted from Polo
Disadvantages/Results
· Made the poor even poorer
· Workers received low wages bec. of monopoly of gov’t on the industries and low prices paid for their produce
· Number of rebellions bec. of the abuses in the taxation and trade monopolies
The Galleon Trade
The Galleon Trade was introduced during the Spanish Colonization. First off, galleon is defines as a ship with 1500 divisions and only those people who have ‘boleta’ can take part in the trade. Boleta can be acquired mostly by rich citizens of those times. However, some of them do not have enough capital to join the trade, and because of that, they just opted to sell their ‘boleta’, even if it was illegal.
On the other hand, trade made high returns, and the Obras Pias also contributed to the continuously increasing mark-up of this trade, since it enabled people to get involve with the trade through lending ‘boletas’. Other roles of the institution, Obras Pias, involved charitable activity. They would solicit funds from the noble or rich people and used a big portion of it to help others and provided funds to those who were interested to join the trade as well.
The Galleon Trade started when Philippines made trade relations with neighboring countries, and Manila became the center of the production of goods or merchandise. Manila exported goods in other countries most specifically Orient and the Americas. Because of this, there was a strong competition and some involved groups, namely Cadiz and Seville had to fight for control over the merchandise and markets in the Spanish colonies. As a result, they had to limit trade relations of the Philippines with the Americas. The Galleon trade use ships to export and import goods and only 2 ships can sail with a maximum weight of 300 tons. This trade continued for years and ended in Manila in 1811.
The Galleon Trade How it began:
· Commercial relations with Latin American countries were established when Spaniards came to the Philippines
· Manila: center of distribution
· Competition between Seville and Cadiz led to limiting of trade relations
Galleon Trade: 1599 by King of Spain ended in 19th cent.
· Only deployed in 1604
· One can only participate only if the person has a BOLETA or ticket
· Obras Pias: organization which solicited funds from the rich for charity; had corruption
Galleon Trade Effects Positive Effects:
· Mexican Silver
· Useful plants and merchandise were brought to the country
· Generated revenue for the government
· Country’s natural resources were not exploited
Negative Effects:
· Agricultural and Industrial sectors were not developed
· Prevented development of Phil. Trade to other Asian countries
· Became more of a gambling activity
· Only few people become rich