[Bad roads raise freights.] Many similar instances may be brought
forward. In 1861 the English vice-consul reported that in Iloilo a
picul of sugar had risen more than 2 r. in price (as much as the cost
of freight from Iloilo to Manila), in consequence of the bad state
of the road between the two places, which are only one league asunder.

[Social and political reasons for bad roads.] If, without reference to
transport by sea, the islands were not favored in so extraordinary a
manner by innumerable rivers with navigable mouths, a still greater
proportion of their produce would not have been convertible into
money. The people, as well as the local authorities, have no desire
for roads, which they themselves construct by forced labor, and,
when completed, must maintain by the same method; for, when no roads
are made, the laborers are so much more easily employed in private
operations. Even the parish priests, generally, are as little favorable
to the planning of commercial intercourse, by means of which trade,
prosperity, and enlightenment would be introduced into the country,
and their authority undermined. Indeed the Government itself, up
to within a short time since, favored such a state of affairs; for
bad roads belong to the essence of the old Spanish colonial policy,
which was always directed to effect the isolation of the separate
provinces of their great transmarine possessions, and to prevent the
growth of a sense of national interest, in order to facilitate their
government by the distant mother country.

[Spanish economic backwardness.] Besides, in Spain itself matters
are no better. The means of communication there are so very deficient
that, as an instance, merchandise is sent from Santander to Barcelona,
round the whole Iberian peninsula, in preference to the direct route,
which is partly accomplished by railway. [140] In Estremadura the hogs