THE CUBA REVIEW 



17 



COMMERCIAL MATTERS. 



Credit Accommodations — President Gomez on Commercial Union, Etc. 



Credit Accommodations. 



In an article in the American Exporter 

 on granting credit to foreign customers, 

 the writer gives the following advice re- 

 garding the business men of Cuba: 



"The principal Cuban houses are noted 

 for their integrity. A country dependent 

 on crops (tobacco and sugar) of course 

 requires credit favors from foreign manu- 

 facturers. These may be safely granted 

 to good houses. Cuba merchants are 

 generally disposed to give confidential 

 advice regarding the financial conditions 

 of their fellow merchants. Credit accom- 

 modations in out-of-the-way towns in 

 Cuba should be restricted to old-estab- 

 lished good houses. Europeans grant a 

 credit of six months to their Cuban cus- 

 tomers." 



Cuba's purchases in 1908 show a reduc- 

 tion of $10,000,000. Cuban purchases of 

 structural steel increased from $422,000 

 to $682,000. 



President Gomez and Commercial Union. 



Where the new Cuban Government 

 stands on the question of closer com- 

 mercial relations with the United States, 

 so eloquently advocated by the Cuban 

 Minister, Senor Ganzales de Quesada at 

 a banquet of the National Board of Trade 

 at Washington, recently, is emphatically 

 stated in the following dispatch from 

 President Gomez, and which was read 

 at the banquet: 



"I earnestly beg you to declare in my name 

 that the future Government of Cuba will devote 

 all its attention to the development of the most 

 cordial relations with the great and generous Ameri- 

 can people. You will tell them that special con- 

 sideration will be given by me and my Government 

 to the commercial relations between both countries, 

 which should be as close as if they were those 

 existing between one and the same people. In 

 order to obtain this result Cuba is ready to make 

 all efforts and is disposed to all sacritices in the 

 confidence that the American chambers of com- 

 merce will use their prestige and influence so that 

 their aims shall be reciprocal." 



What is this, says the New York Sun, 

 if not an official declaration in favor of 

 commercial union? 



Perspectiva de la y\udiencia de Matanzas, Departamento de Obras Publicas, Construcciones 



Civiles, 1908. 



Perspective of the Coiiit House of Matanzas, Department of Public Works, Civil Buildings, 1908. 



In the calendar years 1906, 1907, 1908, The exports of cotton goods to Cuba 



the United States exported locomotives in 1907 and 1908 from the United States 



to Cuba as follows: compare as follows: 



1906. 1907. 1908. Sq. Yds. 



Value $647,498 $716,666 $198,916 1907 17,851,224 



Number 69 76 26 1908 14,501,039 



