

PRODUCE OP TOBACCO. 259 



have not been attended by the improvement which was 

 expected in that branch of industry. The cultivators want 

 capital, the farms have become extremely dear, and the pre- 

 dilection for the cultivation of coffee is prejudicial to that of 

 tobacco. 



The oldest information we possess respecting the quantity 

 of tobacco which the island of Cuba has thrown into the 

 magazines of the mother country, go back to 1748. Ac- 

 cording to the Abbe E-aynal, a much more exact writer than 

 is generally believed, that quantity, from 1748 to 1753 

 (average year) was 75,000 arrobas. Prom 1789 to 1794, 

 the produce of the island amounted annually to 250,000 

 arrobas ; but from that period to 1803, the increased price 

 of land, the attention given exclusively to the coftee planta- 

 tions, and the sugar factories, little vexations in the exercise 

 of the royal monopoly (estanco), and impediments in the 

 way of export trade, have progressively diminished the pro- 

 duce by more than one-half. The total produce of tobacco 

 in the island, is, however, believed to have been, from 1822 

 to 1825, again from 300,000 to 400,000 arrobas. 



In .good years, when the harvest rose to 350,000 arrobaa 

 of leaves, 128,000 arrobas were prepared for the Peninsula, 

 80,000 for the Havannah, 9200 for Peru, 6000 for Panama, 

 3000 for Buenos Ayres, 2240 for Mexico, and 1000 for 

 Caracas and Campeachy. To complete the sum of 315,000,000 

 (for the harvest loses 10 per cent, of its weight in merma y 

 aberias, during the preparation and the transport), we must 

 suppose that 80,000 arrobas were consumed in the interior 

 of the island (en los campos), whither the monopoly and 

 the taxes did not extend. The maintenance of 120 slaves 

 and the expense of the manufacture amounted only to 12,000 

 j)i;istres annually; the persons employed in the factoria cost 

 f>1.100 piastres. The value of 128,000 arrobas, which in 

 good years was sent to Spain, either in cigars or in snuft* 

 (ramay polvos), often exceeded 5,000,000 piastres, according 

 to the common price of Spain. It seems surprising to see 

 that the statements of exportation from the HavannuK 

 (documents published by the Conaulado) mark the exporta- 

 tions for 1810, at only 3400 arrobas ; for 1823, only 13,900 

 arrobas of tabaco en rama, and 71,000 pounds of tabaco 

 , estimated together, at the custom-house, at 281,000 



B 2 



