History of Cuba; or, Notes of a Traveller in the Tropics Part 10

Lands, $94,396,300 Plants, including timber, 276,774,367 Buildings, engines and utensils, 54,603,850 Slaves, 41,694,600 Animals, 39,617,885 ----------- 507,087,002 ----------- Representative value of capital invested, 317,264,832

VALUE OF AGRICULTURAL PRODUCTS.

Sugar, $8,132,609 Mola.s.ses, 262,932 Coffee, 4,325,292 Cocoa, 74,890 ---------- Carried forward, 12,795,723

Brought forward, $12,795,723 Cotton, 125,000 Leaf tobacco, 687,240 Rice, 454,230 Beans, peas, onions, etc., 257,260 Indian corn, 4,853,418 Vegetables and fruits, 11,475,712 Grapes, 5,586,616 Casada, 146,144 Charcoal, 2,107,300 Woods or the products of woods, 1,741,195 ---------- Total value of vegetable productions, 40,229,838 Total value of animal productions, 9,023,116 ---------- 49,252,954

Total _net_ product of agricultural and rural industry 22,808,622 Capital invested, $338,917,705, produces, 48,839,928

COMMERCE AND COMMERCIAL REGULATIONS.

_Import duties._--The rate of duty charged on the importation of foreign produce and manufactures in foreign bottoms is 24-1/2 and 30-1/4 on the tariff valuation of each article, while the same articles in Spanish bottoms, from a foreign port, pay 17-1/2 and 21-1/4 per cent.

_Export duties._--Foreign flag for any port, 6-1/4 per cent. on tariff valuation.

Spanish flag for a foreign port, 4-1/2 per cent. on tariff valuation.

Spanish flag for Spanish port, 2-1/4 per cent. on tariff valuation; except leaf tobacco, which pays 12-1/2, 6-1/4 and 2-1/4 per cent., according to the flag and destination.

An additional per centage, under various pretexts, is also levied on the total amount of all duties.

Foreign flour is subject to a duty that is nearly prohibitory.

Gold and silver are free of import duty, but pay, the former 1-1/4 and the latter 2-1/4 per cent., export.

Every master of a vessel, on entering port, is obliged to present two manifests of his cargo and stores,--one to the boarding officers, and the other at the time of making entry and taking both the oaths, twenty-four hours after his arrival, with permission of making any necessary corrections within the twelve working hours; and every consignee is required to deliver a detailed invoice of each cargo to his, her or their consignment, within forty-eight hours after the vessel has entered port, and heavy penalties are incurred from mere omission or inaccuracy.

The tonnage duty on foreign vessels is 12 rials, or $1.50, per register ton.

On vessels arriving and departing in ballast or putting in in distress no duty is levied.

Besides the tonnage duty, every foreign square-rigged vessel entering and loading incurs about $85 expenses, besides $5.50 for each day occupied in discharging. Foreign fore-and-aft vessels pay about $15 less port charges.

The tonnage duties and port charges are very high. Foreign vessels pay $8.50 per ton. In the port of Havana an additional duty of 21-7/8 cents per ton is levied on all vessels for the support of the dredging machine.

The wharf charges on foreign vessels are $1.50 for each 100 tons register.

The light-house duties, officers' fees, etc., vary at the different ports of the island, but are exorbitantly high in all. At Baracoa, for instance, the following is the tariff of exactions:

Tonnage duty, per ton, $1.50 Anchorage, 12.00 Free pa.s.s at the fort, 3.00 Health officer, 8.00 Interpreter, 5.00 Inspector's fee for sealing hatchway, 5.00 Inspecting vessel's register, 8.00 Clearance, 8.00

The actual expenses of discharging a foreign vessel of 160-4/95 tons, which remained a fortnight in the port of Havana, amounted to $900.

IMPORTS AND EXPORTS OF CUBA FOR A SERIES OF SIXTEEN YEARS.

Years. Imports. Exports.

1826 $14,925,754 $13,809,838 1827 17,352,854 14,286,192 1828 19,534,922 13,114,362 1829 18,695,856 13,952,405 1830 16,171,562 15,870,968 1831 15,548,791 12,918,711 1832 15,198,465 13,595,017 1834 18,511,132 13,996,100 1835 18,563,300 14,487,955 1836 20,722,072 14,059,246 1837 22,551,969 15,398,245 1838 22,940,357 20,346,407 1839 24,729,878 20,471,102 1840 25,217,796 21,481,848 1841 24,700,189 25,941,783 1842 24,637,527 26,684,701

During the last year (1842), the imports from the United States were,

In Spanish vessels, $474,262 In Foreign do., $5,725,959

Exports to the United States for the same year,

In Spanish vessels, $243,683 In Foreign do., $5,038,891

Total imports from the United States, $6,200,219 " exports to do., $5,282,574

Total number of arrivals in Spanish ports (1842), 2657 " clearances from do., 2727

The following table exhibits the exports from the princ.i.p.al towns in 1848:

_North Side of the Island._

Havana. Matanzas. Cardenas. Sagua la Grande.

Sugar (boxes) 671,440 318,931 13,900 34,628 Coffee (arrobas, 25lbs. each) 93,797 61,251 1,094 Mola.s.ses (hhds.) 25,886 61,793 60,508 8,327 Rum (pipes) 10,479 1 Cigars (thousands) 136,980 62

Mariel. Gibaro. Remedios. Neuvitas. Baracoa.

Sugar (boxes) 1,648 5,595 4,293 Coffee (arrobas) 16,241 114 Mola.s.ses (hhds.) 8,336 16,201 1,880 5,030 Rum (pipes) 223 Cigars (boxes, 1000 each) 588 88 2,061 247 Tobacco (lbs.) 1,867,736 2,267 102,168

_South Side._

Manzanilla. Trinidad. St. Jago Cienfuegos. Santa de Cuba. Cruz.

Sugar (boxes) 115 69,656 31,298 59,215 198 Coffee (arrobas) 3,609 548,432 128 Mola.s.ses (hhds.) 1,475 26,175 857 14,160 997 Rum (pipes) 60 554 379 181 Tobacco (lbs.) 315,570 1,208,536 5,000 2,669 Cigars (thousands) 542 399 4,575 41 155 Copper ore (lbs.) 571,826

_Universities, Schools, etc._--Besides the Royal University at Havana, there are several other learned inst.i.tutes, such as the Royal Seminary of San Carlos y San Ambrosio, founded in 1773; a seminary for girls, founded in 1691; a free school for sculpture and painting, which dates from 1818; a free mercantile school, and some private seminaries, to which we have before referred. The Royal Economical Society of Havana, formerly called the Patriotic Society, was established in 1793, and is divided into three princ.i.p.al sections, on education, agriculture, commerce and popular industry; a department of history has been added.

Several eminent and talented men have given eclat to this inst.i.tution.

The Medical School was organized in 1842.

The means of general education are very narrow and inadequate. No report on the state of education in the island has been published since 1836.

At that time, there were two hundred and ten schools for white, and thirty-one for colored children. In 1842, the public funds for educational purposes were reduced from thirty-two thousand to eight thousand dollars. Nueva Filipina, in a rich tobacco-growing district, with a population of thirty thousand souls, had but one school for forty pupils, a few years since.

_Charitable Inst.i.tutions, Hospitals, etc._--There are several charitable inst.i.tutions in Havana, with ample funds and well managed. Such are the Casa Real de Beneficencia, the Hospital of San Lazaro and the Foundling Hospital,--Casa Real de Maternidad. In other parts of the island, there are eighteen hospitals, located in its chief towns.

_Railroads._--The first railroad built in Cuba was that from Havana to Guines, forty-five miles in length, completed and opened in 1839. In 1848, there were two hundred and eighty-five miles of railroads on the island, and the capital invested in them has been computed at between five and six millions of dollars.

_Climate._--The diversity of surface gives rise to considerable variation in temperature. On the highest mountain ridges, at four thousand feet above the level of the sea, ice is sometimes formed in mid winter, but snow is unknown.

The mean temperature of the hottest months (July and August) is about 83 Fahrenheit. The coldest months are January and December.