262 POET OF THE HAVAKKAH. 



Gulf of Mexico, where the high roads of the commercial 

 nations of the old and the new worlds cross each other. It 

 was remarked by the Abbe Raynal, at a period when agri- 

 culture and industry were in their infancy, and scarcely 

 tli re w into commerce the value of 2,000,000 piastres in 

 Kiigar and tobacco, " that the island of Cuba alone might 

 be worth a kingdom to Spain." There seems to have been 

 something prophetic in those memorable words; and since 

 the. parent state has lost Mexico, Peru, and so many other 

 colonies declared independent, they demand, the serious 

 consideration ot statesmen who are called upon to discuss 

 the political interests of the Peninsula. 



The island of Cuba, to which for a long time the court of 

 Madrid wisely granted great freedom of trade, exports, law- 

 fully and by contraband, of its own native productions, in 

 sugar, coffee, tobacco, wax, and skins, to the value of more 

 than 14,000,000 piastres ; which is about one-third less than 

 the value of the precious metals furnished by Mexico at the 

 period of the greatest prosperity of its mines.* It may be 

 said that the Savannah and Yera Cruz are to the rest of 

 America what New York is to the United States. The 

 tonnage of 1000 to 1200 merchant ships which annually 

 enter the port of the Havannah, amounts (excluding the 

 small coasting- vessels), to 150,000 or 170,000 tons.f In time 

 of peace, from 120 to 150 ships of war are frequently seen at 

 anchor at the Havannah. From 1815 to 1819, the produc- 

 tions registered at the custom-house of that port only (sugar, 

 rum, molasses, coffee, wax, and butter) amounted, on the 

 average, to the value of 11,245,000 piastres per annum. In 

 1823, the exportation registered two-thirds less than their 

 actual price, amounted (deducting 1,179,000 piastres in 

 specie) to more than 12,500,000 piastres. It is probable 



* In 1805, gold and silver specie was struck at Mexico, to the value of 

 27,165,888 piastres ; but, taking an average of ten years of political 

 tranquillity, we find from 1800 to 1810, scarcely 24^ million of pias- 

 tres. 



t In 1816, the tonnage of the commerce of New York was 299.617 

 tons; that of Boston, 143,420 tons. The amount of tonnage is not 

 always an exact measure of the wealth of commerce. The countries which 

 export rice, flour, hewn wood, and cotton, require more capaciousnesi 

 than the tropical regions, of which the productions (cochineal, indigo, 

 sugar and coffee) are of little bulk, although of considerable value. 



