"Philippine Progress Prior to 1898" by Conrado O. Benitez is a history book about the Philippines, its people, and economical development. Some important chapters include The Old Philippines' Industrial Development by Conrado Benitez, Prehistoric civilization in the Philippines by Elsdon Best, Beginnings of Philippine Nationalism, and many more. Excerpt: "At the time of the arrival of the Spaniards, agriculture in the Philippines was in a comparatively prosperous condition.1 The Filipinos cultivated rice, which, as today, formed their chief article of food. They grew also sugar-cane, coconuts, indigo, sweet potatoes, and other tubers, various kinds of bananas, the betel-nut palm, the tamarind, lansone, and several varieties of legumes,2 The hemp plant was likewise grown, and as we shall see later on, was used at the time for making the so-called "sinamay" cloth.3 Cotton was cultivated, and furnished the material for weaving."

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Excerpt from Philippine Progress Prior to 1898 The study of the ecomomic history of a country is important also because economic forces play a great part in the development of any people. Indeed, some claim that all history may be explained in terms of economic motives. This is known as the economic interpretation of history.* Without going into the controversy center ing around this theory, we can readily see that what we know as civilization has a two-fold basis, the physical and the psychical. And it is only after the physical basis is secured, that further psychical advance is possible. Among all species, and in every stage of evolution, the extent of aggregation and its place or pos ition are determined by external physical conditions. Even when men have become united by sympathies and beliefs, the possibility of perpetuating their union is a question of the character and resources of their environ ment. The distribution of food is the dominating fact. Animals and men dwell together where a food supply is found, or may be certainly and easily produced. Other physical circumstances of the environment, however, such as temperature and exposure, surface and altitude, which make life in some places comparatively easy, in others difficult or impossible, exert an in uence not to be overlooked. (franklin Henry Giddings, The Principles of Sociology, p. 82. New York. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works."