English: Identifier: philippineisland00lalauoft

Title: The Philippine Islands Year: 1899 (1890s) Authors: Lala, Ramon Reyes Subjects: Philippines -- Description and travel Publisher: New York : Continental Pub. Co. Contributing Library: Robarts - University of Toronto Digitizing Sponsor: MSN

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Text Appearing Before Image: ged in this occupa-tion at Manila, but, otherwise, manufacture is almost at a stand-still. A little cordage is made ; some straw or split-bamboo hatsare fashioned and shipped; in some provinces split-cane andNeto hats and straw mats are made. Iloilo yields a roughcloth,—sinamay, made from selected hemp tibre. Piila muslin,made of pure pine-leaf fibre, and husi, of mixed pine-leaf andhemp, are fabricated. Those, with a few other articles, make upthe native manufactured products. They do not occupy theattention of the people, the greater part of the population gettingtheir livelihood from the fields. Plantation life is the industrial unit of the islands. The soilis divided up into plantations, large and small, according to thecapital and enterprise of the planter. As a rule, the planters areof the Malay race, and the work of the fields is done by otherMalays, as many as five or six hundred being employed on large plantations. The laborers live in little bamboo houses, the planters 199

Text Appearing After Image: Agriculture ; The Sugar and Rice Crops. 2or furnishing them both food and clothing. The food consistsof rice and .fish,—very cheap provender in the Phihppines,—andthe clothing is of a primitive character, that costs little. Yet,at the end of the season, the laborer has usually exhausted hiswages and may be in debt to the planter. On the other hand, though the planter holds the land, he isgenerally obliged to borrow the capital to work it. This he ob-tains from a middleman, who stands between him and the greatmerchants, the exporters of the island-produce. The middle-men are generally mestizos. They contract for the crop in advance,on behalf of the rich exporters, from whom they obtain the moneylent to the planters. This capital is lent at an interest-rate of fromten to twelve per cent. Tliey, in turn, lend it to the planters ata considerable advance,—say, twenty to thirty, and often as muchas fifty, per cent. I have heard of even one hundred per cent, beingdemanded. Thus the pla

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