Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 15.djvu/811

PHILIPPINE ISLANDS. they are open to foreign trade. In addition to these porti there are a large number of local ports whose business is confined to the coastwise trade. Many of them are connected directly by small steam and sailing vessels with the ports engaged in the foreign trade. As the islands lack railroads and have very few roads of any description, they are dependent upon this large coasting trade for the distribution of their domestic commerce or for the dispatch to or receipt from foreign countries of articles in the foreign trade. Thus the leading ports are the forwarding and distributing points for the entire over-sea commerce. There are, for example, about thirty local ports at which the Manila hemp crop is collected for shipment to Manila, Iloilo, and Cebú, where it is transferred to vessels in the foreign trade. The freight rates on these coasting lines are high.

All the ports are reached from the interior by small rivers, or by bad cart roads or footpaths. These paths and trails extend from the ports in all directions, but are very inadequate, and commerce is hampered by the poor inland communications. The only railroad extends from Manila north to Dagupan, on Lingayen Bay, 120 miles. It is estimated that the islands require .at least 1000 miles of railroad as a factor in their development.

The islands are fairly well supplied, through the three leading ports, with transportation to foreign lands. They have direct steam communications with all the leading ports of South Asia, Australia, San Francisco, and Barcelona, Spain. A large amount of the freight, however, is transhipped at Hong Kong and other Asian points, where it meets the steamships of the regular lines in the European and American trade. In 1901, 789 British, German, Chinese, and other foreign vessels entered the ports of Manila, Iloilo, and Cebú. Very little of the trade even with the United States is carried in vessels flying the American flag. In 1902 about 94 per cent. of American sales to the Philippines and 99 per cent. of American purchases wore carried in foreign bottoms. Since August, 1898, the Signal Corps of the United States Army has laid 1327 miles of cables between the islands and 5000 miles of permanent telegraph lines, so that most parts of the archipelago have now the means of rapid communication with one another. In 1903 direct electrical communication with the United States was opened by means of a Pacific cable between the east coast of Luzon and San Francisco by way of Guam, Midway Island, and Honolulu. Manila is also connected by cable with Hong Kong and the European system.

There are three general banking corporations in the islands. The Banco Español-Filipino, at Manila, with a branch at Iloilo, monopolizes the bank-note circulation of the Philippines, amounting to 2,407,560 pesos (a peso = 50 cents). Its capital is 1,500,000 pesos. The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corporation has branches at Manila and Iloilo, and the Chartered Bank of India, Australia, and China at Manila and Cebú. The aggregate liabilities of all these establishments on December 31, 1901, was 53,415,809 pesos, including deposits of 35,012,127 pesos. The Savings Bank and Pawn Shop of Manila, capitalized at 221,460 pesos, had in January, 1902, deposits amounting to 755,829 pesos and total resources of 1,096,597 pesos.

The central government is supported chiefly by import and export duties. The provincial and municipal governments derive their support from internal taxes. The revenues and expenditures in the archipelago from the date of the American occupation, August 20, 1898, to the end of the fiscal year, June 30, 1901, were as follows:

One-half of the internal revenue receipts in each province is turned over to the provincial treasury, and the remaining one-half to the municipalities of the province. A poll tax of $1 Mexican is levied upon each male person between eighteen and fifty-five years of age, one-half being paid into the treasury of the town where he lives and the remainder into the provincial treasury. The municipal council may license saloons and other business requiring police supervision. An ad valorem land tax is collected for the benefit of the provincial and municipal governments, the provincial board levying one-eighth of 1 per cent. on the assessable land for roads and bridges, and may levy two-eighths more for general purposes. The municipal council is required to levy one-fourth of 1 per cent. for schools, and may levy one-fourth per cent. more for general purposes.

The coinage in use comprises the Mexican silver dollar, and silver peso and fractional currency coined at the Manila mint, which was established in 1902. A large amount of pesos coined at the Philadelphia mint are sent to the Philippines in 1903. The Philippines silver coins are legal tender to the amount of $10. Two pesos are exchanged for $1 of United States money, and a ratio of 2 to 1 is maintained between Mexican dollars and United States gold. The metrical system of weights and measures is officially in use, but the Spanish denominations are also employed.

A census of the Philippines was