BETENUE 01 CUBA. 269 



of Columbia, and it exceeds the revenue of all the custom- 

 houses of the United States * before the year 1795, when 

 that confederation had 4,500,000 inhabitants, while the 

 island of Cuba contained only 715,000. The principal source 

 of the public revenue of this fine colony is the custom- 

 house, which alone produces above three-fifths, and amply 

 suffices for all the wants of the internal administration and 

 military defence. If in these latter years, the expense oi 

 the general treasury of the Havannah amounted to more 

 than four millions of piastres, this increase of expense is 

 solely owing to the obstinate struggle maintained between 

 the mother country and her freed colonies. Two millions of 

 piastres were employed to pay the land and sea forces, which 

 poured back from the American continent, by the Havannah, 

 on their way to the Peninsula. As long as Spain, unmindful 

 of her real interests, refuses to recognize the independence 

 of the New Republics, the island of Cuba, menaced by Co- 

 lumbia and the Mexican Confederation, must support a mili- 

 tary force for its external defence, which ruins the colonial 

 finances. The Spanish naval force stationed in the port of 

 the Havannah, generally costs above 650.000 piastres. The 

 land forces require nearly one million and a half of piastres. 

 Such a state of things cannot last indefinitely, if the Pe- 

 ninsula do not relieve the burden that presses upon the 

 colony. 



From 1789 to 1797, the produce of the custom-house at 

 the Havannah, never rose to more than 700,000 piastres. 

 In 1814 it was 1,855,117. From 1815 to 1819, the 

 royal taxes, in the port of the Havannah, amounted to 

 11,575,460 piastres ; total 18,284,807 piastres ; or, average 

 year, 3,657,000 piastres, of which the municipal taxes 

 formed '36. 



The public revenue of the Administration general d* 

 lu'/ifas ot the jurisdiction of the Havannah, amounted in, 



1820 to .... 3,631. 273 piastres. 



1821 ...... 3,277,639 



1822 3,378,228 



* The custom-houses of the United States, which yielded in 1801 to 

 1808. sixteen millions of dollars, produced in 1815 but 7,282,000. 



