Three crops— tobacco, abaca, and sugar—dominate Philippine…

Three crops— tobacco, abaca, and sugar—dominate Philippine exports by the late nineteenth century.

The government monopoly on tobacco had been abolished in 1880, but Philippine cigars maintain their high reputation, popular throughout Victorian parlors in Britain, the European continent, and North America.

Because of the growth of worldwide shipping, Philippine abaca, which is considered the best material for ropes and cordage, grows in importance and after 1850 has alternated with sugar as the islands' most important export.

Americans dominate the abaca trade; raw material is made into rope, first at plants in New England and then in the Philippines.

Principal regions for the growing of abaca are the Bicol areas of southeastern Luzon and the eastern portions of the Visayan Islands.