[Cabusao and Pasacao harbors.] But the harbor of Cabusao, at the bottom of the Bay of San Miguel, is not accessible during the north-east monsoon, and has this further disadvantage, that the intercourse of the whole of the eastern part of Luzon with Manila can be carried on only by a very circuitous route.  On the south coast, on the other hand, is the harbor of Pasacao, into which a navigable little river, above a mile in width, discharges itself; so that the distance between this river highway and the nearest point of the Bicol River amounts to a little more than a mile.  The road connecting the two seas, laid out by an active alcalde in 1847, and maintained up to 1852, was however, at the date of my inquiry, in so bad a condition that a picul of abaca paid two reals freight for this short distance, in the dry season; and in the wet season it could not be forwarded for double the price. [139]

[Bad roads raise freights.] Many similar instances may be brought forward.  In 1861 the English vice-consul reported that in Iloilo a picul of sugar had risen more than 2 r. in price (as much as the cost of freight from Iloilo to Manila), in consequence of the bad state of the road between the two places, which are only one league asunder.

[Social and political reasons for bad roads.] If, without reference to transport by sea, the islands were not favored in so extraordinary a manner by innumerable rivers with navigable mouths, a still greater proportion of their produce would not have been convertible into money.  The people, as well as the local authorities, have no desire for roads, which they themselves construct by forced labor, and, when completed, must maintain by the same method; for, when no roads are made, the laborers are so much more easily employed in private operations.  Even the parish priests, generally, are as little favorable to the planning of commercial intercourse, by means of which trade, prosperity, and enlightenment would be introduced into the country, and their authority undermined.  Indeed the Government itself, up to within a short time since, favored such a state of affairs; for bad roads belong to the essence of the old Spanish colonial policy, which was always directed to effect the isolation of the separate provinces of their great transmarine possessions, and to prevent the growth of a sense of national interest, in order to facilitate their government by the distant mother country.

[Spanish economic backwardness.] Besides, in Spain itself matters are no better.  The means of communication there are so very deficient that, as an instance, merchandise is sent from Santander to Barcelona, round the whole Iberian peninsula, in preference to the direct route, which is partly accomplished by railway. [140] In Estremadura the hogs were fed with wheat (live animals can be transported without roads), while at the same time the seaports were importing foreign grain. [141] The cause of this condition of affairs in that country is to be sought less in a disordered state of finance, than in the enforcement of the Government maxim which enjoins the isolation of separate provinces.