[The future sugar market.] As I have already mentioned, California, Japan, China, and Australia appear designed by nature to be the principal consumers of the products of the Philippine Islands.  Certainly at present England is the best customer; but nearly half the account is for sugar, in consequence of their own custom duties.  Sometimes it happens that not more than one-fourth of the sugar crop is sufficiently refined to compete in the Australian and Californian markets with the sorts from Bengal, Java, and the Mauritius; the remaining three-fourths, if particularly white, must perforce undertake the long voyage to England, despite the high freight and certain loss on the voyage of from ten to twelve per cent. through the leakage of the molasses.  The inferior quality of the Philippine sugar is at once perceived by the English refiners, and is only taxed at 8s. per cwt., while purer sorts pay 10s. to 12s. [216]

[A valuable by-product.] In this manner the English customs favor the inferior qualities of manufactured sugar.  The colonial Government did not allow those engaged in the manufacture of sugar to distil rum from the molasses until the year 1862.  They had, therefore, little inducement to extract, at a certain expense, a substance the value on which they were not permitted to realize; but under ordinary circumstances the distillation of the rum not only covered the cost of refining, but gave, in addition, a fair margin of profit.

CHAPTER XXIV

[Manila hemp.] One of the most interesting productions of the island is Manila hemp.  The French, who, however, hardly use it, call it “Silk-Plant,” because of its silky appearance.

The natives call the fiber bandala, and in commerce (generally speaking) abaca, just as the plant from which it is obtained.

[Abaca.] The latter is a wild species of banana growing in the Philippine Islands, known also as Arbol de Canamo (hemp-tree), Musa textilis, Lin.  It does not differ in appearance to any great extent from the edible banana (Musa paradisiaca), one of the most important plants of the torrid zone, and familiar to us as being one of our most beautiful hot-house favorites.

[Undetermined plant relations.] Whether this and the “musae” (M. troglodytarum, M. sylvestris, and others), frequently known, too, as M. textilis, are of the same species, has not yet been determined.  The species Musaceae are herbaceous plants only.  The outer stem consists of crescent-shaped petioles crossing one another alternately, and encircling the thin main stem.  These petioles contain a quantity of bast fiber, which is used as string, but otherwise is of no commercial value.  The serviceable hemp fiber has, up to the present time, been exclusively obtained from the southern portion of the Philippines.