POMAR RELATED DOCUMENTS - HISTORY
[Note: It was through work with Tabacalera that Juan
Domingo Pomar y Gonzalez and hisnephew Casimiro Pomar y Perez de la Riva came to
Negros and to Isabela respectively.]
TABACALERA
Tabacalera
Tabacalera
was the popular name of CompañÃa General de Tabacos de Filipinas S.A. -
CompañÃa de Filipinas - which was founded in November 26, 1881 by a
Spaniard from Santander, Antonio López López, the first Marqués of
Comillas. He was a financial genius who parlayed his work adventures in
Cuba and Latin America into a steamship companies and trading
businesses. He was the most influential Spanish businessman of his
generation and counted the Prime Minister and the King as his personal
friends. Tabacalera was a private enterprise he founded with the sole
intention of taking over the Philipine Tobacco Monopoly
from the Spanish colonial government. Its incorporators were the
Sociedad General de Crédito Inmobiliario Español, Banque de Paris and
Bank of the Netherlands. It was founded to take over the tobacco
factories that the Spanish government possessed in the islands, as well
as to develop agriculture, trade, and industry.
Early History
Tabacalera
was one of the oldest leaf tobacco dealers in the world and the first
Spanish trading company to be quoted on the stock exchange of both
Madrid and Barcelona. Tabacalera dedicated itself to exporting tobacco
from the Philippines to the Spanish Tobacco Monopoly. During its heyday,
Tabacalera exercised almost a monopolistic control on the whole
Philippine tobacco leaf industry. It took over 5 tobacco plants from the
colonial government but soon opened a state of the art factory in 1895
called La Flor de la Isabela.
It opened a distribution and logistics operations to sort, trade and
prepreare tobacco and acquired properties in San Antonio, Santa Isabel
and San Luis in Cagayán Valley. It also established a shipping company Compañia Transatlántica and Tabacalera Insurance Co..
It
expanded into many non-tobacco activities and grew rapidly until the
Philippine Revolution of 1898. With the American colonial government as a
new master in the Philippines, Tabacalera losts its special status in
the island and had to adjust to the competitive pressures of the world
market.
Interwar Boom
Nevertheless it expanded into abacca, copra, sugar, inter-island shipping and liquor. It established Hacienda Luisita and fouunded La Flor de la Isabela,
one of the biggest cigar factories in the world. After World War I, it
ploughed its investments into sugar milling and rice trading. It enjoyed
a boom in revenues and profits even as its tobacco exports declined
which its sugar and copra businesses more than made up for. It became
the Philippines' biggest sugar and coconut exporter. At its peak it
became the biggest Philippine employer. Hacienda Luisita alone employed
more than 6000 Filipino and 200 Spanish nationals.
From
1900 to 1940 Tabacalera's fortunes went boom and bust with the
Philippine economy and was subjected to the many sugar quotas imposed by
the US Congress. At the end of World War II the company's installation
were destroyed, but slowly the businesses were rebuilt. From the 1950s
to the 1970s Tabacalera experimented with expanding into other
international regions such as Latin America, France and Indonesia.
Its
main lines of businesses were export of tobacco to Algeria, Belgium,
Morocco, Switzerland, Germany and Spain, the cultivation of sugar cane
(centered in San Carlos, Negros and the Central Azucarera in Basi,
Negros, import-export between southeast Asia and Europe, and the
representation of European products in the Philippines, such as Renault,
General Eléctrica Española,, and Sociedad Española de Construcción
Naval, among others.
Unlike
other American trading companies Tabacalera specialized in dealing with
dark air-cured tobacco, an increasingly difficult product to market in
the competition of light Virginia leaf offered by American companies.
Its near monopoly position in the Philippines and its hegemony over the
economy (at one time Tabacalera duties supplied more than 30% of
Philippine government revenues) deteriorated rapidly past the 1970s.
Tabacalera's
operations in Barcelona were eventually bought out by Altadis and the
Spanish company ceased operations as an independent company.
Tabacalera's operations in the Philippines are much reduced and are
headquartered in Romualdez Street, Manila.
Cultural Activities
Being
the leading Philippine company of its day, Tabacalera sponsored many
cultural activities. It established many schools for its workers. It
collected ethnological items for the famous 1887 Exposición General de
las Islas Filipinas in Madrid, Spain. In 1883 it created the most
magnificent Filipiniana library in its headquarters in Ramblas Barcelona, with no other than the leading bibliographer of the day Wenceslao E. Retana. In 1904 it acquired the catalog of the number one Spanish bookseller Pedro Vindel.
To document the fabulous collection, Tabacalera published the landmark
5-volume Aparato Bibliográfico de la Historia General de Filipina.
In 1912 upon the advice of Wenceslao E. Retana it sold its collection to the director of the Philippine National Library, James Alexander Robertson
and became the nucleus of its Filipiniana section. The purchase was
approved by law on 3 February 1913 and were sent on 1 July to Manila.
Parts of the collection survived the conflagration that attended the
liberation of Manila in 1945.
Also
upon the suggestion of Retana, Tabacalera embarked on a project in 1894
to transcribe unpublished documents in the Archivo General de Indias of
Seville. This monumental project was eventually taken over by the
long-time Archive Director Pedro Torres Lanzas. To commemorate the 400th
anniversary of Magellan's landing the 10-volume work Colección General
de Documentos existentes en el Archivo General de Indias was published
in 1919 with Father Pablo Pastells S.J. as one of its editor. The ten volumes consists of annotations of 20 892 documents spanning the period from 1493 to 1662.
References
Nuchera, Patricio Hidalgo. Historical Sources on the Philippines. Madrid: Fundación Mapfre Tavera, 2001
External Links
Florentino Rodao's scholarly paper on Spanish businesses in Philippines [[1]] Biography of Antonio López López, Marqués de Comillas, founder of Tabacalera [[2]]
http://hemeroteca.lavanguardia.es/preview/1987/08/11/pagina-17/33155309/pdf.html?
search=Juan Pomar, "Filipinas"
Oct. 9, 1934
Vida de Sociedad
Los señores de Correa celebran en Comillas sus «bodas de diamante». Pocos matrimonios tienen la suerte de llegar a celebrar el 60.° aniversario de su casamiento, . vulgarmente llamado «Bodas de diamante »; esta suerte la han tenido los respetables consortes octogenirios, tan queridos de la sociedad barcelonesa, don Antonio Correa Pomar y doña Amanda Pérez y Gutiérrez-Otero que las celebraron anteayer, domingo, en su casa de Comillas.
Don Antonio Correa, que Ãué gerente de la Tabacalera de Filipinas, tuvo, como a tal, su residencia oficial en Barcelona. Al dejar el cargo siguió viviendo en nuestra ciudad con su familia, gozando uno y otra de mucho aprecio y consideración.
Del matrimonio de los señores de Correa nacieron seis hijos, de los que, por desgracia, hay tres fallecidos. El mayor fue don Federico, de quién es viuda doña Josefina Veglisón. segundo es don Antonio-Victoriano, que está casado con doña Beatriz de la Torre de Trasfierra. Venia después, la finada doña Amalia, de quien es viudo don Tomás Rivera Atienza. Dona Amanda, que stá casada con don Pedro Horrado Aragón y residen habitual-mente en Madrid. Don Lorenzo, casado con doña Paz Ruiz y Pérez de la Riva, venidos de Filipinas el Invierno pasado. Y doña Consuelo, ya finada, cuyo viudo es don Gonzalo de la Torre de-Trasfierra.
Llegan los señores de Correa a sus «bodas de diamante» con veintidós nietos (once de cada sexo) y con cuatro biznietos. Y es de esperar que el número de estos últimos podrán verlo aumentado, pues a su respetable edad gozan ambos consortesde inestimable salud. Actualmente se encuentran los señores de Correa en su finca de Comillas (Santander), en donde han pasado el verano, y con ellos han ido a reunirse todos sus hijos, nietos y biznietos.
Repasando el cronista su archivo de notas ha dado con una correspondiente a las «bodas de oro», "de dichos señores, que las celebraron, por consiguiente, el 7 de octubre de 1924. En ello se decÃa lo que sigue, que creemos interesante transcribir:
“Con motivo de las bodas de oro de doña Amanda Pérez de Correa y don Antonio Correa y Pomar, que ya anunciamos, se celebró fiesta en su casa de Comillas, asistiendo numerosas familias, qúó testimoniaron su afecto y amistad a dichos señores. Estos regalaron a sus hijas magnÃficos imperdibles con perlas y brillantes, y a sus hijos, estuches completos de escritorio con objetos de oro; a sus once nietas, valiosas pulseras de oro, y á sus once nietos, sortijas de oro o medallas con sus cadenas, llevando todos los objetos las fechas del casamiento y cincuentenario.
El señor Correa regaló a su señora un magnÃfico medallón de esmalte. Dichos señores recibieron asimismo importantes regalos de todos sus hijos y nietos, y ofrecieron gran cantidad de donativosa los pobres de Comillas y Ruiloba.
En aquel dÃa se recibió la noticia de haber sido agraciado don Antonio Correa con la gran cruz del Mérito AgrÃcola, con atención a sus desvelos por el mejoramiento de la ganaderÃa montañesa». (En efecto, tiene una inmensa hacienda ganadera, llamada «Haces», en el término de Ruiloba, donde se crÃan y mejoran importantes jotes de ganado vacuno, Ãmproba labor en cito y a dirección es acertadamente secundado Senor Correa por su hijo don Antonio).”
¿Esta vez, por las graves circunstancias que atravesamos, no ha llegado a nuestro conocimiento detalle alguno de la celebración del acontecimiento familiar de los señores de Correa pudiendo, sin embargo, ofrecer a nuestros lectores, la nota genealógica que antecede y la noticia de que al cumplirse sesenta años del casamiento de dichos señores, lo han celebrado con perfecta salud y rodeados de sus descendientes.
Ferndn-Téllez
La Vanguardia
Oct. 9, 1934
SOCIETY LIFE
The spouses Correa celebrate their “Diamond Wedding” in Comillas. Few marriages are lucky to reach the 60th
anniversary of their wedding day celebrated and commonly known as the
“Diamond Wedding”; having this luck, are the respected octogenarian
consorts, so endeared of Barcelonese society, Don Antonio Correa Pomar and Dona Amanda Perez y Gutierrez-Otero who celebrated it the day before yesterday, Sunday, in their house in Comillas.
Don
Antonio Correa, who was General Manager of the Tabacalera de Filipinas,
had as such, his official residence in Barcelona. Upon leaving the
position, he continued living in our city with his family, enjoying one
and another with much appreciation and consideration.
Six
children were born of the Correa marriage, of whom, unfortunately,
three have died. The eldest was Don Federico whose widow is Dona
Josefina Veglison. Second, is Don Antonio-Victoriano, who is married to
Dona Beatriz de la Torre de Trasfierra. Following is the deceased Dona
Amalia whose widower is Don Tomas Rivera Atienza. Dona Amanda, who is
married with Don Pedro Horrado Aragon and reside habitually in Madrid.
Don Lorenzo, married to Dona Paz Ruiz y Perez de la Riva, who came from
the Philippines in the past winter. And Dona Consuelo, who has passed
away, whose widower is Don Gonzalo de la Torre de Trasfierra.
The
spouses Correa arrived at their “diamond wedding” with twenty-two
grandchildren (11 for each gender) and with four great-grandchildren. It
is to be expected that the number of these great-grandchildren could be
seen to increase, inasmuch as at their respectable ages both consorts
are enjoying inestimable health. Actually, the Correas are in their
property in Comillas (Santander) where they spent the past summer and
all their sons and daughters, grandkids and great-grandkids have all
come to join them.
Reviewing his file notes, the chronicler found a correspondence on the “golden wedding” of the said spouses who celebrated the same on October 7, 1924. In this, the following was stated, which we believe is worth transcribing:
“On
the occasion of the golden wedding vows of Dona Amanda Perez de Correa
and Don Antonio Correa y Pomar, which we have announced, a fiesta was
celebrated in their house in Comillas, with numerous family members
attending who all attested to their affection and friendship to said
spouses. The spouses gifted their daughters with magnificent pins having
pearls and diamonds, and their sons with desktop kits complete with
objects of gold; to their eleven female grandchildren, valuable gold
bracelets, and to their eleven male grandchildren, golden rings or
medallions with their chains, taking all the objects on the dates of the
wedding and golden jubilee.
Mr.
Correa presented his wife with a magnificent enamel medallion. The said
spouses also received for themselves important gifts from all their
children and grandchildren, and offered a huge amount of donations for
the poor of Comillas and Ruiloba.
On
that day, they received notice that Don Antonio Correa had been awarded
the Grand Cross of Agricultural Merit, with attention to his efforts
for the improvement of mountain cattle. (Indeed, he has a huge cattle
ranch, named “Haces”, at the end of Ruiloba, where they breed and
improve important dairy cattle pedigrees, improve labor on site, and in
its management Mr. Correa is ably assisted by his son, Don Antonio.)”
This
time, in view of serious circumstances that we face, no detail of the
family event celebration of the Correas has come to our knowledge, being
able, however, to offer to our readers, the antecedent genealogic notes
and the news that upon their completion of sixty years of married life,
the said couple celebrated it in perfect health surrounded by their
descendants.
Ferndn-Tellez
Translated to English by Edwin D. Bael
22 / THE MOUNTAIN DAILY / TUESDAY, JULY 24, 2007
Region of Cantabria
RUILOBA
Local history, through its monuments
Inigo Aguilar edits a book with unedited data on the town
E. MUNARRIZ SANTANDER
Leon
Battista Alberti, one of the best theorists of the Renaissance, said:
“The relevance of a picture is not measured by its size, but by what its
history counts”. That is the theme or slogan that writer Inigo Aguilar Sanchez
has applied to get with patience and rigorous documentation an
exhaustive description of the hermitages, places, rights,
responsibilities and perks that form part of everyday life in each
place, and with the persons and personages, try to reflect how it was
created, maintained, disappeared and influenced some hermitages in the
history of the Cantabrian locality of Ruiloba.
Aguilar Sanchez
changes the pictures (perspectives) with original documents and
religious edifices in his work “Anotations on the History of Ruiloba”
where, with the collaboration of the group “Friends of the History of
Ruiloba” and the photographs of Jorge Poo, he makes a selection of the
most influential personages of the town.
The
volume, published with the special support of the municipal government,
gathers exclusive documents and biographies of personages related to
the hermitages, if not directly, who were born, lived or are related to
Ruiloba and have taken their names and their accomplishments through the
length and breadth of Hispanic and global geography.
Throughout
his pages, the author makes a long recount of the life of Ruiloba from
the IXth century wherein appeared the first notes or annotations
concerning Rigu de Loba – the town’s latin denomination – based on all
the documentation of the hermitages, intending to provide a “point of
reference” to continue investigating and offering new information in a
manner that profiles more clearly “an entire way of life”.
Translation to English by Edwin D Bael.
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