Bajo la lupa del fisco

Abstract

This article examines the role played by the Spanish colonial tax administration in the selection of local Philippine elites during the second half of the 19th century. It analyses the economic and moral requirements for candidates seeking to run the principalías and collect the indigenous tax. It further assesses the influence of the levying of the tax in the struggles for municipal control, and also the extent to which the corruption and rigidity of the tax system influenced the means of coopting junior local cadres.

Keywords

• colonialism
• corruption
• elites
• Philippines
• tax administration
• taxes