Its early history. Its State galleons. 243 The _Consulado_ merchants. The Mexican subsidy. 244 In the days of the Mexican galleons. The _Obras Pias_. 245 Losses of the treasure-laden galleons. Trade difficulties. 246 The period of restrictions on trade. Prohibitory decrees. 248 The Manila merchants alarmed; appeal to the King. 249 Penalties on free-traders. Trading friars. The budget for 1757. 250 Decline of trade. Spanish trading-company failures. 252 The _Real Compania de Filipinas_; its privileges and failure. 253 The dawn of free trade. Foreign traders admitted. 254 Manila port, unrestrictedly open to foreigners (1834), becomes known to the world. 256 Pioneers of foreign trade. Foreign and Philippine banks. 257 The Spanish-Philippine currency. Mexican-dollar smuggling. 259 Ports of Zamboanga, Yloilo, Cebu, and Sual opened to foreign trade. 261 Mail service. Carrying-trade. Middlemen. Native industries. 263 The first Philippine Railway. Telegraph service. Seclusion of the Colony. 265 _Chapter_ XVI _Agriculture_ Interest on loans to farmers. Land values and tenure in Luzon Island. 269 Sugar-cane lands and cultivation. Land-measures. 271 Process of sugar-extraction. Labour conditions on sugar-estates. 273 Sugar statistics. World's production of cane and beet sugar. 275 Rice. Rice-measure. Rice machinery; husking; pearling; statistics. 276 Macan and Paga rice. Rice planting and trading. 278 _Chapter_ XVII _Manila Hemp--Coffee--Tobacco_ _Musa textilis_. Extraction and uses of the fibre. Machinery. 281 Hemp experiments in British India. Cultivation. Qualities. 283 Labour difficulties. Statistics. Albay province (local) land-measure. 286 Coffee. Coffee dealing and cultivation. 289 Tobacco. The Government Tobacco Monopoly. 292 Tobacco-growing by compulsory labour. Condition of the growers. 294 Tobacco Monopoly abolished. Free trade in tobacco. 296 Tobacco-trading risks; qualities; districts. Cigar values. 299 _Chapter_ XVIII _Sundry Forest and Farm Produce_