Cuba, Old and New | Page 8

former, in 1792, or two hundred and eighty years after its
occupation, is officially credited with a population of 272,300. Of these,
153,559 were white and 118,741 were colored. Several forces came
into operation at this time, and population increased rapidly, to 572,363
in 1817, and to 704,465 in 1827. In 1841, it was a little more than a
million. But the increase in colored population, by the importation of
African slaves, outstripped the increase by the whites. In 1841, the
population was divided into 418,291 whites and 589,333 colored. The
importation of slaves having declined, the year 1861 shows a white
preponderance, since continued and substantially increased. Among the
forces contributing to Cuba's rapid growth during this period were a
somewhat greater freedom of trade; the revolution in the neighboring
island of Haiti and Santo Domingo, that had its beginning in 1791 and
culminated, some ten years later, in the rule of Toussaint L'Ouverture;
and an increased demand for sugar. One result of the Haitian disorder
was the arrival, in eastern Cuba, of a large number of exiles and
emigrants who established extensive coffee plantations. During the first
hundred and fifty years of Cuba's history, the principal industry of the
island was cattle raising, aside from the domestic industry of food

supply. The proprietors lived, usually, in the cities and maintained their
vast estates in the neighborhood. To this, later on, were added the
production of honey and wax and the cultivation of tobacco. With the
period now under consideration, there came the expansion of the coffee
and sugar industries. The older activities do not appear to have been
appreciably lessened; the others were added on.
Europe and the Western Hemisphere were at that time in a state of
general upheaval and rearrangement. Following the American
Revolution, there came the French Revolution; the Napoleonic Wars;
the war of 1812 between the United States and England; and the
general revolt of the Spanish colonies. The world was learning new
lessons, adopting new policies, in which the Spanish colonial system
was a blunder the folly of which Spain did not even then fully realize.
Yet from it all, by one means and another, Cuba benefited. Spain was
fortunate in its selection of Governors-General sent out at this time.
Luis de Las Casas, who arrived in 1790, is credited with much useful
work. He improved roads and built bridges; established schools and the
Casa de Beneficencia, still among the leading institutions in Havana;
paved the streets of Havana; improved as far as he could the
commercial conditions; and established the Sociedad Patriotica,
sometimes called the Sociedad Economica, an organization that has
since contributed immeasurably to Cuba's welfare and progress. He was
followed by others whose rule was creditable. But the principal evils,
restricted commerce and burdensome taxation, were not removed,
although world conditions practically compelled some modification of
the commercial regulations. In 1801 the ports of the island were thrown
open to the trade of friendly and neutral nations. Eight years later,
foreign commerce was again prohibited. In 1818, a new system was
established, that of a tariff so highly favorable to merchandise from
Spain that it was by no means unusual for goods to be shipped to that
country, even from the United States, and from there reshipped to Cuba.
Changes in the rates were made from time to time, but the system of
heavy discrimination in favor of Spanish goods in Spanish ships
continued until the equalization of conditions under the order of the
Government of Intervention, in 1899.

In his book published in 1840, Mr. Turnbull states that "the mercantile
interests of the island have been greatly promoted by the relaxation of
those restrictive regulations which under the old peninsular system
bound down all foreign commerce with the colonies of Spain, and laid
it prostrate at the feet of the mother-country. It cannot be said that the
sound principles of free trade, in any large or extended sense of the
term, have been recognized or acted upon even at the single port of
Havana. The discriminating duties imposed by the supreme
government of Madrid on the natural productions, manufactures, and
shipping of foreign countries, in contradistinction to those of Spain, are
so stringent and so onerous as altogether to exclude the idea of
anything approaching to commercial freedom. There is no longer, it is
true, any absolute prohibition, but in many cases the distinguishing
duties are so heavy as to defeat their own object, and, in place of
promoting the interests of the mother-country, have had little other
effect than the establishment of an extensive and ruinous contraband."
Under such conditions as those existing in Cuba, from its beginning
practically until the establishment of its political independence,
industrial development and commercial expansion are more than
difficult.
One of the natural results