Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2022. xiv, 215 pp. US$26.00, paper; US$26.00, ebook. ISBN 9781478018186.
Money is ubiquitous in our daily lives. Its significance, captured in the adage “money makes the world go round,” emphasizes its personal, moral, and economic value to society. Ironically, aside from knowing it as a medium of economic exchange, only a few are familiar with its historical evolution and power to control societies and their narratives. Glyn Davies writes, “To analyse the significance of money, it must be broadly studied in the context of a particular society concerned” (A History of Money, University of Wales Press, 2002, 3). But when we look at most of the studies on the topic, they are mainly focused on the global and the West, leaving narratives from many historical locations like the Philippines by the wayside. Utilizing Neferti Tadiar’s assertion that the Philippines can be considered an important location to see the global picture, Alan Lumba’s book Monetary Authorities provides an engaging account of the evolution of the Philippine monetary system under the auspices of the Americans.
In this book, Alan Lumba uses the lens of decolonization and counter-decolonization to explore how money and the authority over it operated as a terrain of struggle between the American colonizer and the colonized Native Filipinos from the late nineteenth century to the 1930s. Drawing from sovereign power and market knowledge, American monetary authority aimed to securitize territory and populations. The author charts the struggle over monetary control in the Philippine colony and how market knowledge naturalized the laws of capitalism and intervened in social and political realms in the name of these naturalized laws. The author also examines how monetary authority operated through the logic of racial hierarchies and justified colonial policies by categorizing populations based on their racial capacities.
Backed with extensive and exhaustive research, Lumba examines the role of monetary authorities in five chapters, plus an introduction and a conclusion. Lumba’s introduction lays out the objectives, chapter summaries, and definitions utilized throughout the book. The first chapter begins by examining how money was used to challenge and uphold Spanish colonial sovereignty in the Philippines and how these dynamics would inform the economic strategies of the Malolos Republic and subsequent Filipino strategies for conditional decolonization. Chapter 2 examines the motivations and consequences of America’s imperial expansion into the Philippines, focusing on establishing a colonial monetary system intended to secure occupation and ward off decolonization. It also looks at how economic experts sought to demonstrate the racial capacity of white Americans to be a leading capitalist imperial force and to use market knowledge to “racially uplift” Filipino natives. Chapter 3 continues with the formation of American monetary authority and looks at how colonial economic structures and policies were shaped by American anxieties about unconditional decolonization. It talks about the concern over the speed and spread of new colonial currency, the continued presence of older currencies, the shaping of the economic habit of racialized subjects, and the creation of infrastructure outside urban centres of business. The threat of unconditional decolonization illuminates the obsession of authorities like Edwin Kemmerer to connect the Native’s racial incapacity to save money to their incapacity to govern the country without the help of the Americans. This would be emphasized in chapter 4 as the author focuses on the Philippine National Bank’s (PNB) spectacular rise and fall. The colonial regime used the failure of the PNB to symbolize the general failure of Filipinization and decolonization in the mid-1920s to mid-1930s. Lumba then segues to the Great Depression’s impact on the Philippine colony in chapter 5. The capitalist crisis brought about new support for conditional decolonization, which would be realized as the Philippines transitioned from a US colony to a US Commonwealth in 1935. During this period, peasant and worker organizations would collectively demand unconditional decolonization. The book then concludes with a reflection on the legacies of colonial monetary authority.
Utilizing the study of the capitalist market between the United States and its colony, Lumba does a masterful job of providing a fresh and nuanced approach to Philippine historical events that are often told and written by centering on the political machinations of both the Americans and the Filipinos to seize and control power. With skillful and incisive writing, Lumba is able to guide the reader through the twists and turns of the transitions and evolution of the monetary policies and banking systems instigated by the United States to its Philippine colony. International and national economic histories collide to provide a deeper narrative of American colonial authority and its Philippine colony’s fight for independence. On a personal note, it would be intriguing if the author could expound upon his ideas concerning unconditional decolonization a bit more. What does this liberatory movement look like and how can one truly reach this state? Is the idea of unconditional decolonization that Lumba refers to possible, given the realities of that time?
Given the significance of the topic, Lumba’s book is an important contribution to the scholarly work on Philippine history, economic and business history, and the history of foreign capital and currencies. It gives us a deeper understanding of the economic underpinnings of various Philippine historical epochs and makes us reflect on the lasting impacts of the US colonial project that continues to haunt Philippine society today.
Katherine G. Lacson
Ateneo de Manila University, Quezon City