This essay demonstrates how Rizal’s annotations of Morga’s Sucesos de las Islas Filipinas can be used even today to derive insights useful for investigating pre-Hispanic economic and political institutions. This is done through a close reading of three broad topics treated by Rizal: first,...

We survey economic conditions just before and during the lifetime of Jose Rizal, roughly leading to the second half of the 19th century, on three levels: that of the world, of the Spanish Empire, and of the Philippines. We show how in this period, coinciding with the first era of globalization,...