Financial and Social Structures

The southern Cordilleran economy was partly commercialized well before the American era. In the 1700s, traders usually carried scales

"with which they measured out gold dust like cash" (Scott 1974: 181), and by the late 1800s, while other subjugated Cordilleran areas still paid in kind, most Benguet villages yielded their tribute in coin (Scott 1974:285). Copper-working villages even minted their own copper coins modeled on Spanish currency. Indeed, the American government considered it necessary to purchase and remove these coins before issuing its own coinage.^[3]

If cash-based economies were unevenly distributed even in the southern mountains, Buguias traders turned this differentiation to their own advantage. Virtually all villagers desired cash, but few could obtain it locally. Yet Buguias merchants could acquire an abundance of coin through their foothold in the far periphery of a global economic network.

As Suyoc suffered the chronically inflated prices typical of goldmining camps, a good profit could always be made by buying low in the interior and selling high in Suyoc. Buguias elders remember well the price gaps they exploited in the prewar period. In the 1930s, one could often purchase a sizable hog in Kabayan for 25 pesos and sell it the same day in Suyoc for 35. A chicken bought in Tinoc could fetch twice as much money in Buguias, and even more in Suyoc.

A successful trader needed a good economic understanding and a facility with numbers, unaided (in the early period) by formal mathematics. One Spanish observer noted in 1877 that the mountain people "are familiar with coins, recognizing and evaluating them exactly . . . [and] they count with precision from one to the hundreds of thousands" (quoted in Scott 1974:239). The Buguias traders also recognized the utility of keeping their cash circulating. Residents of certain other Benguet villages guarded their money more warily; many of the Ibaloi elite buried substantial hoards under their dwellings (Scheerer 1932 [1975]: 199). But Buguias traders even found ways to profit from this: when the value of old coinage suddenly jumped in the early postwar years, several returned to their old Ibaloi trading partners to repurchase coins they had previously spent.

Buguias merchants customarily traveled in groups of four to eight, seeking companionship and mutual protection. Most men began trading as teenagers, usually working under a wealthy sponsor for cash wages (in the 1930s, often one peso per day, respectable pay at the time). When the party reached its destination, the

senior members would seek lodging with relatives, business partners, or local leaders. The actual transactions, however, usually required canvassing, as each trader had to seek individuals willing to sell (or buy) and ready to settle at a good price. In a few regions, however, exchange sometimes took place at customary sites, such as Abatan ("meeting place") between Lo-o and Suyoc.

To prosper, traders had to know how to handle animals as well as to make deals. Simply staying upright on the slippery cloud-forest trails during the rainy season was arduous for the uninitiated; leading recalcitrant hogs and water buffalo along these trails was an enormously exacting job. The young merchant had to master the art of man-dodo , or "hog-following." In this technique, ropes were affixed to a hog's hind feet; by expertly alternating jerks on each rope, the trader could urge the animal in the desired direction. The most skillful men could manage as many as four hogs and two water buffalo at a time, but two hogs was the usual quota.

Successful merchants also had to cultivate friendships with their trading partners. Many did so through gift giving. In the Ibaloi village of Nagey, one Buguias trader is still fondly recalled for his presents of delectable dried locust. Kinship also softened commercial relations, just as it partially molded trade patterns; many traders worked primarily in areas where they could be aided by relatives.

A young trader needed an apprenticeship, but after acquiring a small store of capital and the necessary skills and connections, he faced no barriers to independence. Although many did manage their own ventures, few developed large businesses. To do so required fortitude, skill, luck, and continued patronage, for as one began to accumulate, one's social obligations increased apace. Redistributive rituals were never-ending, and even secular feasts burdened the rising merchant. A profitable trip had to be commemorated; a trader who had earned 10 pesos selling a Kabayan hog in Suyoc, for example, was expected to devote at least half to feasting his neighbors.

Several traders prospered by reaching into new territories. The Buguias trade network ramified so intricately that no individual could master its entire extent, leading ambitious men to explore unknown districts in search of inexpensive swine. Others sought out new commercial niches. The second wealthiest person in prewar Buguias, Paran, initiated his career by purchasing coffee in

Tinoc and reselling it in Naguilian. In doing so he contravened the wishes of his father, who had advised a traditional business entree in the animal trade. Paran was disinherited for his disrespect, but he prospered nevertheless.

The supreme traders, who functioned equally as financiers, comprised the elite class of prewar Buguias. These men conducted most of their deals through intermediaries, usually sons, sons-inlaw, and nephews. Their business partners also traveled to Buguias to work out new agreements and to renegotiate old ones. The varied enterprises of the master traders also demanded specialized labor. Information had to move rapidly, and the swiftest runners found periodic employment as messengers. Immigrants often served as couriers to, and mediators with, their natal villages. Business accounts—complex ledgers of debts and credits (in cash and animals)—also required unerring attention. Although arrangements of knots in loincloth threads registered appointments, such mnemonic devices were not used to record finances. Rather, memory alone sufficed until literacy became widespread later in the American period. But the wealthiest merchant in the early twentieth century, Danggol, could rely on a famed "verbal mathematician," Palbusa, to keep track of his many accounts.