Isabela History Part II: Rise of the Cagayan Alcadia and Encomienda

For the systematic administration under the laws of the Indies, the “Pacified” territories are divided into political subdivisions; the Alcadia being the highest.
The Luzon Alcadia is comprised of four wealthy provinces namely: Manila, Camarines, Ilocos and Cagayan Valley where the Rio Grande (now Cagayan river) - the longest in the country; traverse the territory longitudinally.
These Alcadias are administered by the Alcadia Mayores.
Upon the arrival of the new Governor General Gonzalo Ronquillo Penalosa in 1580, an Ordinance was enacted instituting the resettlement of villages in the Alcadias into units of compact communities called “Pueblos” patterned after European towns in that era. In these communities where they concentrate the church, the market and the public plaza.
The community is held so close together within the hearing distance to the church bell required to every pueblos. Other than church functions, the bell is used for other purposes such as alarm during emergencies and call for public assembly.
The pueblos are headed by the Gobernardorcillo who designates the Cabeza de barangays (modern day barangay chairmen) to assist them in tax collection and perform administrative functions in the locality.
The zoning conducted during that time was strongly opposed by most natives specially those who have to live in far distance from their farm lands. Those who fought the Spaniards were arrested and tortured while those loyal were given trusteeships to vast track of lands by the Spanish government giving rise to the “encomiendas”in 1595.
With the economy in the archipelago dependent mainly to the Galleon trade, the Spanish government formulated the encomienda system to exploit the vast rich soils and other natural wealth of the island.
Ecomenderos are alloted the stewardship- not ownership, of vast tracks of lands to exploit under name of the Spanish Monarch.
These encomenderos assisted the civil government hasten its administration and tax collection in their respective territories.
The setting allows the Spanish rule to dictate which crops to plant and other economic activities to perform in specific areas. The marketing of the Indios' production is likewise controlled by the Spanish monopoly to inhibit the participation of other foreign players in the economy to include the Chinese, Dutch and the British investors.
The situation give fuel to pocket revolts in Pangasinan, Ilocos and the rest of the islands in the 16th and 17th centuries.
The Philippines was never profitable as a colony during the period. Spain's war against the Dutch together with the intermittent conflict with the Muslims in the South nearly bankrupted the colonial treasury.The Royal Fiscal of Manila even wrote a letter to King Charles III of Spain in which he advises to abandon the colony.

The Tobacco monopoly was established in Cagayan Valley in 1785 were the industry flourished as the main commerce in the territory. Although the revenues from the industry dropped in 1788 due to rampant smuggling of Tobacco leaves by Igorot natives from the neighboring Cordillera, Spanish authorities did not took the problem serious.
The social unrest beleaguering neighboring Alcadias were not as atrocious in Cagayan Valley except for the natives' initial resistance to religious conversion.