Cuban Cane Sugar 



with intercourse again established, 

 Cuba's sugar began to expand at 

 even more than its former rapid rate. 



Although the production thus in- 

 creased, the methods of cultivation 

 and manufacture remained crude and 

 primitive. During this period no 

 reliable statistics were recorded, but 

 it is known that in 1870 the yearly 

 output ran to 725,000 tons which 

 represented the product of no fewer 

 than 1,000 small factories. This 

 period of prosperity was brought to 

 an end by the abolition of slavery 

 and by the "Ten Years' War" with 

 Spain. This war, one of great bitter- 

 ness on both sides, not only paralyzed 

 commerce but led to the devastation 

 of much sugar property. 



It was during this period, too, 

 that the competition with beetroot 

 sugar first became noticeably threat- 

 ening. After the war was over, 

 however, in 1878, the annual output 

 [60] 



