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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The Oldest Information We Possess Respecting The Quantity Of Tobacco
Which The Island Of Cuba Has Thrown Into The Magazines Of The Mother
Country Go Back To 1748.
According to the Abbe Raynal, a much more
exact writer than is generally believed, that quantity, from 1748 to
1753 (average year) was 75,000 arrobas.
From 1789 to 1794 the produce
of the island amounted annually to 250,000 arrobas; but from that
period to 1803 the increased price of land, the attention given
exclusively to the coffee plantations and the sugar factories, little
vexations in the exercise of the royal monopoly (estanco), and
impediments in the way of export trade, have progressively diminished
the produce by more than one-half. The total produce of tobacco in the
island is, however, believed to have been, from 1822 to 1825, again
from 300,000 to 400,000 arrobas.
In good years, when the harvest rose to 350,000 arrobas of leaves,
128,000 arrobas were prepared for the Peninsula, 80,000 for the
Havannah, 9200 for Peru, 6000 for Panama, 3000 for Buenos Ayres, 2240
for Mexico, and 1000 for Caracas and Campeachy. To complete the sum of
315,000,000 (for the harvest loses 10 per cent of its weight in merma
y aberias, during the preparation and the transport) we must suppose
that 80,000 arrobas were consumed in the interior of the island (en
los campos), whither the monopoly and the taxes did not extend. The
maintenance of 120 slaves and the expense of the manufacture amounted
only to 12,000 piastres annually; the persons employed in the factoria
cost 54,100 piastres. The value of 128,000 arrobas, which in good
years was sent to Spain, either in cigars or in snuff (rama y polvos),
often exceeded 5,000,000 piastres, according to the common price of
Spain. It seems surprising to see that the statements of exportation
from the Havannah (documents published by the Consulado) mark the
exportations for 1816, at only 3400 arrobas; for 1823, only 13,900
arrobas of tabaco en rama, and 71,000 pounds of tabaco torcida,
estimated together, at the custom-house, at 281,000 piastres; for
1825, only 70,302 pounds of cigars, and 167,100 pounds of tobacco in
leaves; but it must be remembered that no branch of contraband is more
active than that of cigars. Although the tobacco of the Vuelta de
abaxo is the most famous, a considerable exportation takes place in
the eastern part of the island. I rather doubt the total exportation
of 200,000 boxes of cigars (value 2,000,000 piastres) as stated by
several travellers during latter years. If the harvests were thus
abundant, why should the island of Cuba receive tobacco from the
United States for the consumption of the lower class of people?
I shall say nothing of the cotton, the indigo, or the wheat of the
island of Cuba. These branches of colonial industry are of
comparatively little importance; and the proximity of the United
States and Guatimala renders competition almost impossible.
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