Table Of Content© Copyright 2013
Allan E. Lumba
Monetary Authorities:
Market Knowledge and Imperial Government in the Colonial Philippines,
1892 – 1942
Allan E. Lumba
A dissertation
submitted in partial fulfillment of the
requirements for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy
University of Washington
2013
Reading Committee
Vicente L. Rafael, Chair
Laurie J. Sears
Moon-Ho Jung
Program Authorized to Offer Degree:
History
UMI Number: 3588775
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Abstract
Monetary Authorities: Market Knowledge and Imperial Government
in the Colonial Philippines, 1892 – 1942
By Allan E. Lumba
Chair of the Supervisory Committee:
Professor Vicente L. Rafael
Department of History
This dissertation argues that, from the twilight of the Spanish colonial era through the
entire official American colonial insular period, the history of authority over money in the
colonial Philippines reveals the emerging dominance of an authority based on knowledge of the
market rather than an authority grounded strictly in sovereign power. The dominance of
knowledge-based authority, especially through the first half of the twentieth century, was
brought about by two specific historical changes: the positioning of the modern state as steward
of the development of social life through capital and the increased intervention of the economic
expert. Through close readings of multilingual archives relating to monetary, banking, and
financial policies, my dissertation tracks how the legitimacy of imperial government became
heavily dependent upon the colonial state’s capacity to manage and stabilize the monetary and
financial system for the economic and social benefit of its subjects. Thus, despite the United
States’ growing global economic hegemony, the American colonial state in the Philippines
increasingly found itself beholden to the authority of the economic expert, an authority based on
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its access to the seemingly natural laws of the market that both the state and the common public
found illegible.
Moreover, the authority of experts and their comprehension of the natural laws of the
market were inextricably bound to conceptions of naturalized racial orders and hierarchies.
Experts, specifically, were constantly attempting to domesticate and stabilize, through policies
and institutions, antagonistic conditions of disorder and resistance expressed by the racialized
living labor of colonial subjects. Consequently, racial capacities to manage money informed the
supposedly universal criteria through which American colonial officials measured the potential
of Filipino political authority and self-government. This universal criteria, however, was
eventually appropriated by Philippine economic experts in order to challenge the utility of
imperial administration and augment demands for both an autonomous monetary system and a
politically independent Philippine nation-state.
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For Boy and Ester
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Acknowledgments
Throughout my writing I received an excess of unanticipated gifts, without which, this
dissertation would be unrecognizable. Although I know it will be completely unjust and
inadequate, I will nevertheless attempt to name and thank those that have grounded, shaped, and
enabled this dissertation. First, I would like to thank the Department of History and the Graduate
School at the University of Washington-Seattle for taking a chance (repeatedly through
numerous years of funding) on a doctoral student from a modest background and even more
modest test scores. Thank you to the Southeast Asia Center for the numerous research, language,
and travel support; but especially for providing a welcoming home on campus. I really do not
know how I would have navigated half of my life at UW if it were not for Sara Van Fleet and the
rest of the SEAC staff.
None of my archival work in the Philippines would have been possible if it were not for
the material support of the Fulbright Hays Dissertation Grant. I thank Helene Obradovich in the
UW Fulbright office for making sure that all the paperwork went smoothly. I am additionally
indebted to the University of Michigan’s Bentley Library and the Newberry Library in Chicago,
whose research fellowships not only supported a bulk of my U.S. archival work, but also
changed my dissertation in significant ways. I am grateful to all the numerous library staff across
the Philippines and the United States for kindly answering my queries and pulling up one last
box or folder before closing. Just know that someone out there recognizes the hard work and
vigilance necessary in ensuring that these archives remain alive for future generations. I also
want to give a special thanks to the Third World Studies Center, who provided with me with
support beyond mere affiliation during my research in Quezon City.
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While in the Philippines I was able to make so many new friends outside of academia that
it allowed me to feel welcome in a place that was never quite my home. Despite my genealogy,
being raised and identifying as Filipino American always placed me just on the margins of both
the United States and the Philippines. John, Shireen, Kathy, Selena, Mike, Mick, Shinji, Francis,
Fabian, Vinny, and Erwin: you were all lifelines on numerous occasions, inspiring me to always
create and to keep my ears and eyes open to the unlimited possibilities of the Philippines. While
in the Philippines I also met some amazing young academics and fellow travelers. I give a
special thanks to Leloy Claudio and Bobby Benedicto for the liveliest and animated of
intellectual conversations concerning the Philippines and beyond. I’m sure there will be plenty
more to come.
In the realm of academia I have incurred innumerable debts. I would like to thank Dawn
Mabalon, Trevor Getz, and Chris Chekuri at San Francisco State University, for preparing me for
the rigors of grad school. I especially thank Rebecca Hodges and Ari Cushner, my dear friends
who drank the “kool-aid” with me and embarked on this PhD journey at the same time. I have
also received plenty of intellectual guidance from those at UW and in other places, whether they
were aware of it or not. I would like to thank: Celia Lowe, Ann Anagnost, Katharyne Mitchell,
Christine DiStefano, Christoph Giebel, Ray Jonas, Michael Cullinane, Daniel Doeppers, Ruth
Mabanglo, Teresita Ramos, Sheila Zamar, and Yoshiko Nagano. Special thanks goes to Yoshiko,
for sharing drafts of her forthcoming book with a grad student. I also want to thank my Seattle
graduate student circle, especially Micaela Campbell, Cheryll Alipio, Will Arighi, McKaye
Caruthers, Evi Sutrisno, Julie Myers, and Mike Viola. Your advice and suggestions, at various
times, have affected me greatly.
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I owe an immense debt of gratitude to the following people. “Kuya” Jed Domigpe, thank
you for your poise in teaching a “heritage” student to speak, write, listen, and read in Tagalog.
Thank you to Kiko Benitez, your delight in scholarship was always, and continues to be,
infectious. To my dissertation committee I share my warmest of appreciations. Thank you to
Rick Bonus, for always taking time out of his busy schedule to give me sage advice in navigating
the doctoral process. Thank you to Moon-Ho Jung for shaping the ways I consider race and labor
and its possible politics. Thank you to Laurie Sears for always pushing me to be a better writer
and for encouraging me to journey into ethical concerns. Thank you to Vince Rafael, for
corralling my unwieldy theories over the last seven years. Oftentimes our conversations went
over my head, but something would always haunt me long afterward and make perfect sense
later on at the most unexpected moments. Moreover, our discussions always seemed to unlock
ideas always already in my research that had not yet announced itself. I thank you most of all for
your patience in encouraging me to think.
Words cannot express how much Joe Guanlao, Carmel Laurino, Roger Habon, Amalia
Aquino, and Meg Viera have meant to me during my time in Seattle. I am extremely lucky to
have come across such generous friends, despite being such a frumpy academic hermit. None of
who I am as a scholar of history would have been possible if not for the countless hours spent in
graduate seminars, happy hours, birthday and dinner parties, and coffee shops, with some of the
closest friends I’ve ever had. I am lucky to have crossed paths with Jon Olivera, Joe Bernardo,
Marites Mendoza, Matthew Nicdao, and Chris Grorud. The voyage toward a doctorate has been
turbulent and stormy, but I am glad to have gone through it collectively with you all.
Incalculable gratitude belongs to all my friends and relatives past and pending. Yet I must
thank my “nuclear” family, especially my siblings and siblings-in-law, Ariel, Anais, Amado Jr.,
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