The Philippine Islands, 1493-1803; explorations by early navigators, descriptions of the islands and their peoples, their history and records of the Catholic missions, as related in contemporaneous books and manuscripts, showing the political, economic, commericial and religious conditions of those islands from their earliest relations with European nations to the beginning of the nineteenth century; [Vol. 1, no. 51]

I34

'THE PHILIPPINE ISLANDS

[Vol. 51

sessed of a mill, buffaloes, &c. for the wear of which
no estimate is made.
The I50 pilones of sugar, each weighing about I50
lbs. gross, will produce the refiner who has purchased
them about Ioo piculs of sugar, of which
S. Ds.
80 ist sort, worth 6/4 Dollars... 500 o
20 2d ditto, and Molasses, &c. 34 ~.~ 75 o
575 o
They have cost him about.. 487 4
Refiner's allowance on Ioo Pilones, S. Ds.. 47 8
The profits of the refiner would appear high; and
p. r. gr.
Selling price of a loaf of sugar, averaging those of
the three grades.........2 6 6
Deduct cost of each loaf, at the rate of. 6
Net product, equivalent to go per cent profit.. I 3 2"
Comyn gives similar tables for the production of indigo and
rice, estimating the net profit thereon at 57 and 60 per cent respectively. He adds, on the margin of the sheet: "In favorable
years the profit of the grower is wont to increase in an extraordinary manner. The 4,000 shoots of sugar-cane, for instance,
yield him 3 tareas, or 28 loaves of sugar, in place of the 14 loaves
which were figured in the comparative estimate preceding; the
cavan of seed yields 80 and even oo00 cavans of rice in the hull,
in place of the 35 computed; and he obtains a quintal of indigo
from I5, or even from Io, balsadas, instead of 25 being necessary
for furnishing the said product. And if the grower is fairly wellto-do, so that he can send his produce to the general market, and
sell it to the foreign merchants or ship-captains who come for
these products, he can obtain incomparably more for them than by
delivering them upon the ground to the middlemen. At Manila
I have seen indigo from La Laguna sold at the rate of I30 pesos