22 



THE CUBA REVIEW 



COMMERCIAL MATTERS 



AMERICAN MANUFACTURERS' 

 OPPORTUNITY 



A recent letter to the Electrical World of 

 New York touches upon conditions connected 

 with the sale of American electrical devices 

 in Cuba. The writer says: 



"This island republic, with its 180, or 

 more, sugar mills (all large users of electrical 

 supplies), should he a good customer of .Am- 

 erican manufacturers. And in addition there 

 is the very rapidly developing field of the 

 small central stations being installed almost 

 monthly — one might say — throughout Cuba. 

 Of the electrical suppUes consmned in CXiba, 

 however, a great number, especially incan- 

 descent and arc lamps, lamp cord, wire, 

 etc., are made in Germany. Oil engines are 

 also going in, but these are usually German, 

 Swiss or Swedish. 



I do not pretend to analyze the question. 

 But let us take an example. The German 

 and American manufacturers were, I beheve, 

 developing the nitrogen-filled lamp about 

 the same time. But here in Cuba, German 

 nitrogen-filled lamps with ratings all the 

 way from 300 watts to 2,000 watts in all 

 the standard voltages were on the retail 

 market and were being snapped up by pro- 

 gressive engineers as early as last December. 

 The agents in Cuba had trouble in filhng 

 all their orders, yet at this time American 

 manufacturers were not yet selling these 

 lamps. Only a few sizes had been developed, 

 and lives of 400 or 500 burning hours were 

 all that the makers could then promise. 

 Meanwhile the German lamps were being 

 guaranteed for 800 hours. I used some of 

 the German lamps more than 1,000 hours 

 with no burn-outs and no appreciable dim- 

 ming. My point, therefore, is that these 

 German nitrogen-fiUed lamps are now fanly 

 well known in Cuba and it is going to be 

 hard indeed to replace them with American 

 lamps. 



The same thing happened with the flame 

 arc lamps when those illuminants were first 

 developed. Thousands of dollars' worth of 

 German flame arc lamps were sold and are 

 still used. 



I know that we Americans pride ourselves 

 on being hustlers, but in some of the items 

 that do not run into big figures in single 

 units we overlook the large field for renewals, 

 and as a result other countries are getting 

 the business which should rightly go to 

 America." — Frank H. Jones, Tuinucu, Cuba. 



grades, and largely because of news received 

 in the New Orleans market that Great 

 Britain, from whom Cuba formerly bought 

 most of her supply, has definitely cancelled 

 all her orders for the coming season, says the 

 New Orleans States. The upshot of this is 

 that Cuba will have to look exclusively to the 

 United States for her supply of rice, and her 

 consumption of the cereal amounts to several 

 million sacks annually. 



This, added to the demands of the warring 

 nations of Europe that are in need of food- 

 stuffs and a home consumption that can ab- 

 sorb the entire crop, is expected to bring un- 

 precedentedly high prices to enrich the Louis- 

 iana rice planters. 



CHANCE FOR AMERICAN MATCHES 



The European war will have one direct 

 result affecting every person on the Island, in 

 the increased cost of matches. The universal 

 match in Cuba, is the wax vesta, of which 

 Cuban manufacturers supply but a portion 

 of the demand. Since the beginning of hos- 

 tihties the wholesale price of this commodity 

 has raised $1 per gross, and in one grade which 

 formerly sold for two for five cents, the price 

 has now gone up to three for ten cents, other 

 grades have risen in proportion. The ulti- 

 mate result of this increase in the price of the 

 Cuban manufactured article will be the larger 

 importation of the wooden match of the 

 United States. 



Cuba's imports of matches by the gross- 

 compare as follows: 



1911-12 1912-13. 



United States 224 217 



Germany 133 450' 



Belgium 18,660 44,688- 



France 9,258 5,350 



Italy 5,477 4,545. 



United Kingdom 10 



LOUISIANA RICE IN DEMAND 



The Cuban demand for Louisiana rice is 

 expected to be greatly increased on account 

 of the war in Europe, especially for the lower 



CUSTOMS DECREASE $238,917.14 



The Em-opean war is affecting Cuba's cus- 

 toms receipts very materially. 



In August the collections of Havana aggre- 

 gated .Sl,381,702, a decrease of nearly .|239,- 

 000, under the collections of the previous 

 month, July, which were $1,620,620; as com- 

 pared with August, 1913, the receipts show 

 even a greater decrease. The figures for the 

 last seven years follow: 



1914 .11,381,702 



1913 1,866,322 



1912 1,628,150 



1911 1,597,533 



1910 1,414,351 



1909 1,516,254 



1908 1,292,894 



