Francisco Xavier Salgado, Civil Servant and Pioneer Industrialist in Eighteenth Century Philippines

Abstract

Proud as Spain was for having extended her hegemony to the Philippines, attempts were made to abandon that distant outpost of the empire. The island colony in Asia was a constant drain to the royal treasury and, consequently, Mexico had to supplement the revenue deficit with an annual subsidy (situado) for over two hundred years. A breakthrough in the Philippine economic development occurred in the late eighteenth century. The Bourbon reforms implemented many innovative measures that finally made the government self-sufficient. Concurrent and interrelated with these government-initiated activities was the glimmering of entrepreneurship, the emergence of a few Spaniards interested in developing the resources of the land. Brought up in a society that looked down on industrial and commercial activities as "ungentlemanly, " Francisco Xavier Salgado was a rare breed who dabbled in manufacturing, mining and agricultural ventures. He displayed practically all the qualities deemed necessary to achieve success in a business enterprise : an adventurous spirit willing to take a risk, an eagerness to learn a new trade and the patience to stick with it in times of adversity, a thorough knowledge of the inner workings of the government acquired through many years as a civil servant, and a sizeable fortune to finance his projects. Living in an autocratic system of government, Salgado is a classic example of the daunting hardships an entrepreneur had to overcome in the pursuit of his economic goal-the bureaucratic maze of regulations that stifled individual initiatives, the jealousy and pettiness among his peers, and the bitter partisanship and retribution of higher public officials. This article recounts and analyzes the saga of Salgado, the pioneer industrialist in eighteenth century Philippines.