CUBA. 



237 



ment, it should be mentioned that the Cuban 

 tariff divides goods as follows : 



I. Spanish products under the Spanish flag. 



II. Spanish products under foreign flag. 

 IK. Foreign products under the Spanish 



flag. 



IV. Foreign products under foreign flag. 



But this arrangement provided that Ameri- 

 can products, whether imported in Spanish or 

 American vessels, should pay the duty stipu- 

 lated under Class III, while other foreign 

 goods under non American flags became liable 

 to the rates under Class IV, and would only 

 be admitted at the rates of Class III if im- 

 ported under the Spanish flag. 



In order to show the difference, we shall 

 give the rates of duty of a few articles of mer- 

 chandise : 



An extra 25 per cent, being added, this ren- 

 ders the duties under Class IV still more 

 onerous. 



Commercial Crisis. Early in March it was re- 

 ported from Havana that the savings-bank had 

 suspended payment, and that Sefior Joaquin 

 Limendoux, its president, had committed suicide. 

 The commercial situation was becoming very 

 critical. The low price of sugar, the tightness 

 of the money market, and the general distrust 

 accelerated a crisis threatening to involve all 

 branches of business. At Sagua, Kodriguez 

 & Co. failed, with liabilities exceeding $2,000,- 

 000. At Cardenas, Miyares & Co. suspended ; 

 and McKellar, Luling & Co. were announced to 

 be in difficulties. Captain-General Castillo at 

 this juncture declined permission for a general 

 planters' and merchants' meeting proposed to 

 be held for the purpose of urging reforms of 

 a radical nature, but permitted each Board of 

 Trade to submit separately to him suggestions 

 to that effect. Meanwhile it was proposed to 

 convert the suspended savings-bank into a 

 mortgage - bank similar to those existing in 

 Madrid and Paris. The Bank of St. Catalina 

 was obliged to suspend, and the Banco Indus- 

 trial was barely able to hold its ground. The 

 root of the evil was the long-continued and 

 exhaustive taxation, and the barefaced exploi- 

 tation of the industry and productiveness of the 

 island to the profit of the Spanish officials. 



A New Loan. Early in April news reached 

 Havana that the Minister of the Colonies had 

 made a new loan of $3,000,000 with the His- 

 pano-Colonial Bank of Barcelona, for the ac- 

 count of the Cuban Treasury, pledging in re- 



turn a daily payment of $15,000 from the in- 

 come of the Cuban custom-houses. 



ignero's Landing. Simultaneously the land- 

 ing of a small band of Cuban revolutionaries 

 of eighteen men, headed by Aguero, was an- 

 nounced from the vicinity of Cardenas, causing; 

 a feverish state of excitement. 



Elections. The elections for members of the 

 Spanish Cortes came off in April, and there was 

 some complaint that the result by no means 

 represented the opinion of the country. As the 

 best proof of this, it was mentioned that the au- 

 tonomists were triumphant at the election of 

 provincial deputies in the province of Havana, 

 the most important of the whole island, in 

 which elections are subject to laws much more 

 equitable than those for election to the Cortes. 

 The triumph of the Liberal Conservatives, there- 

 fore, greatly exasperated the Cubans. 



Explosion. On April 29 the powder-maga- 

 zines of San Jose, opposite Havana, exploded. 

 All the gas-holders of theHavanaGaslight Com- 

 pany, and all but one of those of the old gas 

 company, were broken. The prominent build- 

 ings damaged were: The Captain - General's 

 palace, the Spanish Bank, the Caja de Ahorros, 

 the cathedral, the Convent of San Felipe, the 

 churches of St. Angel, Santo Cristo and Jesus 

 del Monte, the custom-house, the New Varie- 

 ties Theatre, the jail, San Lazaro Hospital, the 

 Orphan Asylum, the Western Railroad depot, 

 the Regla Santa Catalina, the Aguirre and San 

 Jos6 warehouses, the Cabanas and Carbajal, 

 Julian Alvarez and Bances cigar - factories. 

 Many lives were lost. 



The Flonr Duty. In May, accounts from Spain 

 received at Havana were to the effect that the 

 dealers in flour were not satisfied with the com- 

 mercial arrangement between Spain and the 

 United States, as far as it affects that article in 

 the trade between Cuba and the United States. 

 A committee of flour-merchants waited upon 

 the King to ask his action in their favor on ac- 

 count of the treaty. Conservative papers in 

 Havana made no secret of it, that the home 

 Government intended to reduce the duty on 

 flour imported from Spain in proportion to the 

 reduction that the duties on flour from the 

 United States should experience. 



Spanish Abolitionists. On May 24 the Span- 

 ish Abolition Society presented a memorial to 

 the Government, calling attention to the fact 

 that out of 40,000 negroes under Spanish do- 

 minion, who ought to have been freed from the 

 modified form of slavery known as " patron- 

 age," only 1,500 had hitherto been released. 



Newspapers suspended. On June 11 the tribu- 

 nal at Havana sentenced the newspaper "El 

 Triunfo " to twenty days' suspension for copy- 

 ing from the New York " World " a passage 

 saying that Spain was trying to sell Cuba. The 

 paper "El Diario de Matanzas" was subjected 

 to the same punishment for copying the same 

 article from "El Triunfo." It was ordered 

 that each of the papers should pay half the 

 costs of the prosecution. 



