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 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.
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