State-business relationship in the tobacco industry from 1883 to 1930 and the persistence of colonialism

• Main Author: Malbarosa, Jose Maria Arcadio C.
• Format: text
• Published: Animo Repository 2024
• Subjects: Tobacco industry > Philippines; Imperialism; Business
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/faculty_research/12199
• Institution: De La Salle University

The Philippine dark tobacco industry co-evolved with an institutional infrastructure that served as an enclave where state and business interacted. A study of the interaction between state and dark tobacco business from 1883 to 1930 through the experience of Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas (CGTF or Tabacalera) reveals the persistence of colonialism. The Spanish liberal state abolished the state tobacco monopoly and sponsored the creation of CGTF with the intention of waging an economic reconquista of the Philippines. The colonial strategy of liberal United States of America in the Philippines included engaging the tobacco industry to legitimize U.S, occupation of the Philippines and gain the necessary economic advantage befitting of an emerging empire. Throughout this period CGTF expanded and maintained its position as a dominant tobacco company. The operation of Southeast Asia's most modern centrifugal sugar mill-the Central Azucarera de Tarlac inside Hacienda Luisita in Tarlac - signaled the company's attainment of scale and scope within this period. As well, dark tobacco remained as one of the country's major exports until the pre-Commonwealth years. This paper examines the institutional environment within which the colonial state and dark tobacco business interacted and makes tentative claims concerning the consequences of this interaction to the evolution of Philippine tobacco industry and to brad-based economic development.