Philippine Social History: Global Trade and Local Transformations

The authors reveal considerable archive information that has

been referenced to but mostly ignored by earlier study as they
trace the histories of the archipelago's major ethnolinguistic
regions. The authors also highlight contemporary, generally
Anglo-American attempts to challenge nationalist and
functionalist paradigms that have dominated much of Philippine
academics since World War II.
This book's objectives and substance are precisely described
on its title. It focuses on the connections between Pahang's
people and their surroundings and one another, notably in the
area of commerce. The setting is established in the first two
chapters, which also address the location and boundaries of power
in the hamlet and provide a brief history of the region as seen
in documents, via the memories of the locals, and through their
eyes. Adat vs Islamic law and ethics is the topic of Chapter 3,
while Chapter 4 examines the village economy, including its
poverty, lack of employment options, and lack of support for the
underprivileged of other ethnic groups. The first section of the
book, which is devoted to the setting in Chapter 5, deals with
kinship.
Colonialism created intricate class distinctions among
native communities by methodically focusing on and elevating an
elite group. Spanish and later American colonial policies upheld
the dominance of indigenous and subsequently Chinese mestizo
elites over the rest of the public from Central Luzon to
Kabikolan, Western and Central Visayas to Bukidnon and
Maguindanao. However, colonial control also significantly changed
the parameters of elite power. These studies effectively show the
crucial connections between foreign money and a principalia class
that colonial administration began to support around the 1760s.
Together, these factors significantly influenced the development
of commercial agriculture as well as the changes in land
ownership and management practices across the archipelago.
Similar to colonialism, capitalism initially strengthened the
structure of elite authority during an earlier period when there
was an abundance of both land and labor but in later periods, as
a consequence of growing population pressures and the expanding
scarcity of land, the drive for capital accumulation ultimately
destroyed the elites' traditional power structures and foundation
of legitimacy.  Traditional patron-client relationships were
solidified by the commodification of labor; traditional concepts
of mutual debt, honor, and shame were transformed into registered
financial currency.
The book demonstrates how rent capitalists, whether local or
foreign, methodically linked the economies of Central Luzon to
the global markets while depriving indigenous farmers of their
land. In a similar spirit, McCoy reconstructs how the "proto-
industrial" textile trade in Iloilo enabled the local elites to
quickly capitalize on global sugar demand and transition to a
very lucrative plantation system on the neighboring island of
Negros by 1850. The sugar industry's earnings entailed the
blatant exploitation of stevedores and plantation laborers, whose
poverty was unmatched in the nation, even while it provided the
hacienderos with astonishing returns demonstrating how a
landowning principalia used its financial influence to firmly
establish itself in local and, eventually, national politics at
the expense of the landless, influencing the development of the
abaca industry in Kabikolan, which was entirely dependent on
changes in Western markets. Conflicts within and between classes
as well as among different ethnic groups inevitably resulted from
the types of economic and social revolutions that colonialism and
capitalism sparked. This demonstrates how the upland peoples of
the Cordillera persistently made the decision to reject the
barbarous assaults of a colonial Christian order determined to
civilize every citizen of the nation. In the end, the unconverted
and not subjugated peoples of the Cordillera were reduced to the
status of "backward savages," whose ferocious, independent nature
was perceived by their lowland counterparts who did submit to
colonial control as an indication of their obstinate paganism.
Within the colonized regions, the rise of class struggles
was no less complicated. According McCoy, the persistence of
precapitalist patronage practices and "millenarianist" notions of
power in locales like Central Luzon and Western Visayas
alternately supported and deflected the rise of a politicized
class consciousness expressed in contemporary institutions like
labor unions and electoral politics. 
Elites in both Luzon and the Visayas appeared to have
repeatedly put their class interests above those of the
developing Philippine country, despite being aware of the
necessity of foreign markets to the maintenance of their economic
and social dominance. Because of this, just like all other
administrations that have attempted to rule the nation, the
Malolos Republic was unable to exercise a centralized authority
over the diverse regions. This is not surprising, given the
political ambivalence of the Congress and cabinet members, as
well as the regional elites who were among the first to formally
welcome the United States but many of whom could never entirely
split with Spain.
One often overlooked issue in social history is gender. The
position and function of women are briefly discussed by McCoy.
However, none of them conducts a thorough inquiry of the
problematic position of women in the areas they study. Given that
marriage and the family, two of the most private aspects of
native life, are left out of these writings as social history,
the near absence of women is a striking oversight. Women's roles
as spouses and mothers had a significant role in the inculcation
of ideas that have direct implications for reciprocity and debt
practices, as well as the acceptance or rejection of authority.
The importance of native women in the emergence of a Chinese
mestizo population should be noted in this context. One is
interested in learning more about the sexual politics that
underlie such political and social transformation.