Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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WAX.
This Is Not The Produce Of Native Bees (The Melipones Of Latreille),
But Of Bees Brought From Europe By Way Of Florida.
The trade in wax
has only become important since 1772.
The exportation of the whole
island, which from 1774 to 1779 was only 2700 arrobas (average year),
was estimated in 1803, including contraband, at 42,700 arrobas, of
which 25,000 were destined for Vera Cruz. In the churches of Mexico
there is a great consumption of Cuban wax. The price varies from
sixteen to twenty piastres the arroba.
Trinidad and the small port of Baracoa also carry on a considerable
trade in wax, furnished by the almost uncultivated regions on the east
of the island. In the proximity of the sugar-factories many bees
perish of inebriety from the molasses, of which they are extremely
fond. In general the production of wax diminishes in proportion as the
cultivation of the land augments. The exportation of wax, according to
the present price, amounts to about 500,000 of piastres.
COMMERCE.
It has already been observed that the importance of the commerce of
the island of Cuba depends not solely on the riches of its
productions, the wants of the population in the articles and
merchandize of Europe, but also in great part on the favourable
position of the port of the Havannah. This port is situated at the
entrance of the Gulf of Mexico, where the high roads of the commercial
nations of the old and the new worlds cross each other. It was
remarked by the Abbe Raynal, at a period when agriculture and industry
were in their infancy, and scarcely threw into commerce the value of
2,000,000 piastres in sugar and tobacco, that the island of Cuba alone
might be worth a kingdom to Spain. There seems to have been something
prophetic in those memorable words; and since the parent state has
lost Mexico, Peru and so many other colonies declared independent,
they demand the serious consideration of statesmen who are called upon
to discuss the political interests of the Peninsula.
The island of Cuba, to which for a long time the court of Madrid
wisely granted great freedom of trade, exports, lawfully and by
contraband, of its own native productions, in sugar, coffee, tobacco,
wax and skins, to the value of more than 14,000,000 piastres; which is
about one-third less than the value of the precious metals furnished
by Mexico at the period of the greatest prosperity of its mines.* (*
In 1805 gold and silver specie was struck at Mexico to the value of
27,165,888 piastres; but, taking an average of ten years of political
tranquillity, we find from 1800 to 1810 scarcely 24 1/2 million of
piastres.) It may be said that the Havannah and Vera Cruz are to the
rest of America what New York is to the United States. The tonnage of
1000 to 1200 merchant ships which annually enter the port of the
Havannah, amounts (excluding the small coasting-vessels), to 150,000
or 170,000 tons.* (* In 1816 the tonnage of the commerce of New York
was 299,617 tons; that of Boston, 143,420 tons. The amount of tonnage
is not always an exact measure of the wealth of commerce. The
countries which export rice, flour, hewn wood and cotton require more
capaciousness than the tropical regions of which the productions
(cochineal, indigo, sugar and coffee) are of little bulk, although of
considerable value.) In time of peace from 120 to 150 ships of war are
frequently seen at anchor at the Havannah. From 1815 to 1819 the
productions registered at the custom-house of that port only (sugar,
rum, molasses, coffee, wax and butter) amounted, on the average, to
the value of 11,245,000 piastres per annum. In 1823 the exportation
registered two-thirds less than their actual price, amounted
(deducting 1,179,000 piastres in specie) to more than 12,500,000
piastres. It is probable that the importations of the whole island
(lawful and contraband), estimated at the real price of the articles,
the merchandize and the slaves, amount at present to 15,000,000 or
16,000,000 piastres, of which scarcely 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 are
re-exported. The Havannah purchases from abroad far beyond its own
wants, and exchanges its colonial articles for the productions of the
manufactures of Europe, to sell a part of them at Vera Cruz, Truxillo,
Guayra, and Carthagena.
On comparing, in the commercial tables of the Havannah, the great
value of merchandise imported, with the little value of merchandise
re-exported, one is surprised at the vast internal consumption of a
country containing only 325,000 whites and 130,000 free men of colour.
We find, in estimating the different articles, according to the real
current prices: in cotton and linen (bretanas, platillas, lienzos y
hilo), two and a half to three millions of piastres; in tissues of
cotton (zarazas musulinas), one million of piastres; in silk (rasos y
generos de seda), 400,000 piastres; and in linen and woollen tissues,
220,000 piastres. The wants of the island, in European tissues,
registered as exported to the port of the Havannah only, consequently
exceeded, in these latter years, from four millions to four and a half
millions of piastres. To these importations of the Havannah we must
add: hardware and furniture, more than half a million of piastres;
iron and steel, 380,000 piastres; planks and great timber, 400,000
piastres; Castile soap, 300,000 piastres. With respect to the
importation of provisions and drinks to the Havannah, it appears to me
to be well worthy the attention of those who would know the real state
of those societies which are called sugar or slave colonies. Such is
the composition of those societies established on the most fruitful
soil which nature can furnish for the nourishment of man, such the
direction of agricultural labours and industry in the West Indies,
that, in the best climate of the equinoctial region, the population
would want subsistence but for the freedom and activity of external
commerce.
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