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- Title:
- Royal Rice
- Date Created:
- 2021-06-07
- Description:
- Tribute was payable in rice with husk on, called palay. The government rigorously established its measures. The CABAN, meaning storage chest in Tagalog, was an ancient measure that equalled 24 GANTAS. They were re-standardised according to the FANEGA, a Spanish measure of volume. In the colony, 1 caban equaled 1 fanega. But when polished rice, called bigas, was measured as the King’s regular subsidy for the Church and its missions, 1 fanega was defined as 48 gantas of palay that made 20 gantas of polished rice. “The King, in his charity, so as to give us the rice for our maintenance without waste [the husk], established the measure of [bigas] arbitrarily, such that it comes out double,” Fr. Juan de San Antonio, OFM explained. The old Tagalog GATANG or GABINAN was the amount of bigas for a “man’s single meal”. To measure a gatang was called TACAL. The gatang equalled one CHUPA. There were 16 chupas in 1 almud and 4 almuds in a fanega. So there were 64 chupas or gatang or individual rice servings in every fanega. One wonders if 20 gantas of bigas fed 64 servings. The 1 ganta measure of volume has been calculated today as roughly 2.5 kilos in weight of rice. 1 kilo can feed 12 persons. So 1 ganta can feed 30 persons. 20 gantas would have fed approximately 600 persons. While there was dependency on the Crown’s rice contribution, missionaries sought to maximise harvests of rice fields in their parishes sure that food shortages were annual.
- Subjects:
- Filipinos -- Taxation Rice Food portions
- Exhibition:
- J San Antonio
- Source:
- Wooden “gantang” for measuring grain. Some were cubical. Photograph by Ben Laxina. From Household Antiques and Heirloom authored by Felice Prudente Sta. Maria (GCF Books, 1983).
- Type:
- Image;Still Image
- Format:
- image/jpeg
Source
- Preferred Citation:
- "Royal Rice", Philippine Food History, Felice P. Sta. Maria
- Reference Link:
- felicepstamaria.net/items/coll228.html