page_title: Iloilo City
section_title: Sugar boom era & the late Spanish colonial period (1800s)
hierarchical_section_title: Iloilo City / History / Sugar boom era & the late Spanish colonial period (1800s)
caption_attribution_description: English: Aduana de Iloilo (Iloilo Customs House) - Designed and built in 1900s by the renowned Filipino Architect Juan Marcos Arellano, it is one of the three (heritage) customs houses in the Philippines that exists to this day (after the ones in Manila and Cebu).
context_page_description: Iloilo City, officially the City of Iloilo, is a 1st class highly urbanized city on Panay Island in Western Visayas, Philippines. It is the capital city of the province of Iloilo where it is geographically situated but, in terms of government and administration, it is politically independent. In addition, it is the center of the Iloilo-Guimaras Metropolitan Area, as well as the regional center and primate city of the Western Visayas region. In the 2015 census, Iloilo City had a population of 447,992 inhabitants, with a 1.02% population annual growth rate. For the metropolitan area, the total population is 946,146 inhabitants.
  Iloilo City is a conglomeration of former towns, which are now the geo-political districts consisting of: Villa Arevalo, Iloilo City Proper, Jaro, La Paz, Mandurriao and Molo. The district of Lapuz, a former part of La Paz, was declared a separate district in 2008.
  It was founded in 1566 when the Spaniards established a settlement area between the towns of Oton and the city's present district of La Villa Rica de Arevalo as the second Spanish colonial center after Cebu in the Philippine islands.
context_section_description: Spanish rule government allowed Chinese migrants which worked among the city's industries (the Locsin, Lopez, Jalandoni, Lim and Sy families) and Latinos from across the Pacific (Viceroyalty of New Spain) to man its military fortifications (the Araneta, De Rama and Arroyo families). In the late 18th century, the development of large-scale weaving industry started the movement of Iloilo's surge in trade and economy in the Visayas.
  Sometimes referred to as the "Textile Capital of the Philippines", the products were exported to Manila and other foreign places. Sinamay, piña, and jusi are examples of the products produced by the looms of Iloilo. Because of the rise of the textile industry, there was also a rise of the upper middle class. However, with the introduction of cheap textile from the UK and the emergence of the sugar economy, the industry waned in the mid-19th century.
  The waning textile industry was replaced, however, by the opening of Iloilo's port to the world market in 1855. Because of this, Iloilo's industry and agriculture was put on direct access to foreign markets. But what triggered the economic boom of Iloilo in the 19th century was the development of the sugar industry in Iloilo and its neighboring island of Negros. Sugar during the 19th century was of high demand. Nicholas Loney, the British vice-consul in Iloilo, developed the industry by giving loans, constructing warehouses in the port, and introducing new technologies in sugar farming. The rich families of Iloilo developed large areas of Negros, which were later called haciendas, because of sugar's high demand in the world market. Because of the increase in commercial activity, infrastructures, recreational facilities, educational institutions, banks, foreign consulates, commercial firms and much more sprouted in Iloilo.
  On 5 October 1889, due to the economic development that was happening in Iloilo making it the most important port in the Philippine Islands next to Manila, Iloilo was raised from the status of a town to a city through a Royal Decree, and in 1890, the city government was established. In 1893, the royal Spanish decree was ratified through a 2nd (legal) declaration by the virtue of Bacura/Becerra Law. Iloilo City was the second most important city in the Archipelago at the end of the Spanish Regime.
caption: Aduana de Iloilo (Iloilo Customs House) is the second biggest customs house in the Philippines after the Aduana (Intendencia) de Manila in Intramuros.
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