ECONOMIC POLICIES UNDER THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT

"Spanish Colonial Economic Policies"
When the Spaniards heade the Philippines they created lots of laws &policies. The policies helps the Philippines to improve our economics .This economic policy became the reasons for the isolation of the Philppines from world trade.
This policies includes the galleon trade, royal subsidy, tribute obras pias ,bandala system & polo y servicio. This policies improve our country a lot. First the galleon trade is a trade relations with other countries. The galleon trade is also known as Manila –Acapulco Trade. The elite people only can benefit this trade ,but the people need to buy boleta. The boleta is the ticket that worth P 250.00 ,this can be used in galleon trade. The Filipinos that cannot afford this amount cannot be included in galleon trade. The esteverodores are the porters in the port.
This galleon trade helps a lot to the Filipinos during this time because we learn how to trade with other countries. And it improves the colonyal the Philippines.
The next economic policies is the royal subsidy. The subsidy means discount. The subsidy is the expenses of the government was given by the King of Spain .This subsidy helps the governor official to be rich. The governor general will ask some money to the King of Spain, & they will going to use alibi that the Philippines have a short of fund. So the King of Spain will sent money through the Mexican Viceroy. This money was called real situado. It worth P250,00.And then the governor general will receive the money & will do agin the same process.
This royal subsidy teach the new politicians how to corrupt money.
The next economic policies is the obras pias the money but they need money to people but they need to have collateral. The collateral is the thing that is used to exchange in the bank. It is valuable thing of person that has a worth of the money that the owner loans. The obras pias has an interest.They rise their interests to 20% -50%.During the Spanish time they created lots of banks. The oldest bank in the Philippines is (BPI)Bank of the Philippine Island. It’s original name is the Banco – Espanyol - Filipino. The first foreign bank established in is the HSBC or the Hongkong Shanghai Banking Corporation. The first Filipino bank was headed by Francisco Rodriguez. This bank was named as “ Rodriguez Bank”.
The obras pias helps the new generations to save money if needed. They are keeping our money and if we need it, they bring it back to us.
The fourth economic policy was the tribute. The tribute was now called as taxes. During the Spanish time the Filipino are required to pay tributes. The money that they collected from tributes are used in building , constructing streets and the programs. If they cannot afford the amount of tributes they are allowed to give them rice , vegetables and tobacco . Each family required to pay 8 reales and in one person 1 ½ reales. The cedula is also known as poll tax. The Filipino have age 18 above requires to have a cedula.
The tributes improve our country because if the Philippines have short of fund we can use the money in tributes.
The other economic policy is the bandala system. The bandala system is the system were the Filipinos are forced to sell the agricultural products. The farmers will give their products to the government and the government will give them a promissory note. The promissory note is a note contains a promise to pay. Then the government will not pay for a long time. Then if the farmers need there agricultural products the government will sell it to them in a higher price than the price that the farmer to sell to them.
Until now , the Philippines have it’s own policy. It is not good for the farmers because they are already poor and they don’t have enough money to buy foods, then they’re agricultural products were stolen by the government.
The last policy is the polo y servicio. It is the forced labor . It is required for male Filipinos and Chinese with age of 16 -60 years old. The one who do polo is the polistas. The elite people are exempted to do polo because they are paying falla. The falla is equivalent to 1 ½ reales , it is equivalent to one labor .
The polo is till present this time . Like muro –ami , beggar and the cindicate. They don’t want to do that particular job but they were forced to do that.
Each economic policies are very important till now. However it has bad effects This policies are very useful to us but we need to use this wisely.