p is got rid of. Then the berries are dried and pounded in a mortar
to separate the inner membrane and pellicle; these are winnowed from
the clean bean, which constitutes the coffee of commerce and is sent
in bags to Manila for sale.

The Philippine plantations give only one crop yearly, whilst in the
West Indies beans of unequal ripeness are to be found during eight
months of the twelve, and in Brazil there are three annual gatherings.

The seed of the _Tobacco-plant_ (_Nicotiana tabacum_) was among the
many novelties introduced into the Philippines from Mexico by Spanish
missionaries, soon after the possession of the Colony by the Spaniards
was an accomplished fact. From this Colony it is said to have been
taken in the 16th or 17th century into the south of China, where
its use was so much abused that the sale of this so-called noxious
article was, for a long time, prohibited under penalty of death.

During the first two centuries of Spanish dominion but little direct
attention was paid to the tobacco question by the Government, who only
nominally held, but did not assert, the exclusive right of traffic in
this article. At length, in the year 1781, during the Gov.-Generalship
of Jose Basco y Vargas (a naval officer), the cultivation and sale
of tobacco was formally decreed a State monopoly, which lasted up
to the end of the year 1882. In the meantime, it became an important
item of public revenue. In 1882 the profits of the Tobacco Monopoly
amounted to half the Colony's Budget expenditure.

A few years before that date a foreign company offered to guarantee the
Budget (then about P15,000,000), in exchange for the Tobacco Monopoly,
but the proposal was not entertained, although in the same year the
Treasury deficit amounted to P2,000,000.

By Royal Decree of July 1, 1844, a contract was entered into with
the firm of O'Shea & Co., renting to them the Monopoly, but it was
suddenly rescinded. The annual profits from tobacco to the Government
at that date were about P2,500,000.

GOVERNMENT PROFIT

1840 P2,123,505
1845 2,570,679
1850 3,036,611
1855 3,721,168
1859 4,932,463
1860 over 5,000,000
1869 5,230,581

A bale of tobacco contains 4,000 leaves in 40 bundles (_manos_),
of 100 leaves each.

Th