As part of its “Beyond Tobacco” exhibit, the Ayala Museum recently hosted a talk on the Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas, the leading tobacco company in the Philippines, from its inception in the 1880’s to the American Period.
Titled “The Transnational Dimension of the Tabacalera,” the lecture discussed the company’s multinational link starting with its Spanish and French investors as well as the successes during the American occupation, despite it being a Spanish company.
Speakers were Maria Luisa Camagay of the University of the Philippines and José Maria Arcadio Mabarosa of the De la Salle University. Historian Benito Legarda Jr. moderated.
When the Spanish government abolished the tobacco monopoly on January 1, 1883, “the Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas assumed the ambitious role of cultivation, purchaser, seller and distributor of Philippine tobacco,” said Camagay.
Camagay added that the creation of the Tabacalera in 1881 transferred the Spanish government operations of the industry to private hands with the purpose of continuing its operations of cigar manufacturing in Manila.
According to Legarda, the Compañia General de Tabacos de Filipinas succeeded the tobacco monopoly which established the fiscal independence of the Philippines from Mexico and existed for 100 years. He added that the Tabacalera took over most of the monopoly’s operations.
Transnational
Meanwhile, Malbarosa explained the transnational dimension of the company which, according to him, was “Spain’s colonial [economic] reassertion of the Philippines.”
“Transnational is fundamentally trans-imperial because we are talking about the period of empire building which lasted up to the 20th century, even beyond World War II,” he said.
“As far as Tabacalera is concerned, we could not refer to its transnational institutional context without accepting the fact it is primordially trans-imperial,” he added.
Malbarosa explained that it is in the context of empire building that the Tabacalera was created.
The company flourished during the Spanish Period. It ventured into other businesses up to the American Period such as shipping, alcoholic beverages, sugar, abaca and copra—thus playing a significant role in the economic history of the Philippines and in Philippine-Spanish relations.
Filipiniana
Starting in 1883, with the initiatives of its vice president Clemente Miralles de Imperial, the company started to buy all kinds of Filipiniana publications, including the collection of bibliophile W. E. Retana numbering around 2,700—mostly about the Philippines.
Retana then began working with the company, and a detailed catalogue, “Aparato Bibliografico de la Historia General de Filipinas,” was made in 1906.
Tabacalera’s collection then was touted as the best library in the world about the Philippines. At the beginning of the 20th century, the collection was moved from Barcelona to Manila. It was then acquired by James A. Robertson and became the foundation of the country’s National Library.
Malbarosa said the collection was sold to the Philippine government because the company was suffering from liquidity problem.
Tabacalera’s grip on the tobacco market began to slip during the American period.
It marked its 130th anniversary in 2011.