Proceedings of the first Independence congress : held in the city of Manila, Philippine islands, February 22-26, 1930 / Published under the direction of Dean maximo M. Kalaw, executive secretary, University of the Philippines.

52 INDEPENDENCE CONGRESS PROCEEDINGS

Government would solve its financial problems in a satisfactory
manner without neglecting its bonded indebtedness.
Before concluding, permit me to submit to your distinguished
consideration a few very significant facts. Studying the effects
in the past of economic changes as far-reaching and important
as may be those produced by the granting of independence to
the Philippines, we have to do instances that may guide us in
estimating and calculating the possible effects of the expected
crisis.
The most recent instance was the enormous and almost unforeseen fall in the prices of all our exports in 1921. The
value of the hemp exported fell from P71,000,000 to P25,000,000; that of coconut oil exports, from P46,000,000 to
P32,000,000; that of sugar, from P99,000,000 toP51,000,000;
that of tobacco, from P40,000,000 to P16,000,000. Notwithstanding these radical reductions in the value of our most important products, which is greater than 50 per cent as regards
some of them, the decrease in our revenues amounted to only
1512 per cent as compared with the revenues of the year 1920,
they being even slightly higher than the revenues of 1918 and
1919. In 1922, the revenues were 1012 per cent less than
in 1921, because in that year, the effects of the crisis of 1921
were felt with greater intensity, but in 1923, the revenues increased again, and since then they have continued increasing.
The second instance that we can cite is that of the economic
depression of 1898 caused by the uprising of 1896 and 1897
against the Spanish Government. We have no exact data of
the total collections corresponding to that period, but we have
figures reflecting imports and exports, which enable us to form
an idea of the extent to which that political movement, perhaps the most far-reaching in its effects on our history, affected
our national economy. In 1895, our imports amounted to
P13,000,000 and our exports to P18,000,000. In 1898, each
went down to P5,000,000, but the next year, in 1899, the
imports went up to P19,000,000 and the exports to very nearly
P15,00,000; trebling thereby, in one year's time, the index to
our production and consumption of wealth, though there were