24 THE CUBA REVIEW 



Facts in General Concerning Sugar in Cuba 



In this article the intention is to deal with facts concerning the sugar cane industry 

 of Cuba from a historical or developmental or general standpoint. Some of the facts 

 are perhaps of interest to some individuals while other points will be of certain interest 

 to others of the sugar world. A detailed study of the sugar industry insofar as each 

 sugar estate will not be included, since such a procedure would occupy the space of a 

 large-sized volume. It is intended simply to give in as short a space as possible a, 

 general survey of the sugar industry as the writer has sized it up through a study of 

 the past before his advent to Cuba and during his recent sojourn in actual contact 

 with later developments. 



According to the best references, the plant known as sugar cane, Saccharum 

 officinal, is not a native of the West Indies, and, therefore, not of Cuba, but was 

 introduced into the latter island shortly after the year 1506, during which year it was 

 first introduced into the West Indies, the island of Santo Domingo, by a Spaniard 

 named Pedro de Estaban, who brought it from the Canary Islands, to which place 

 it has been reported as having been transported from India. However, certain quite 

 competent authorities claim that it was indigenous to both of the American continents, 

 among these being Thomas, who wrote during the 16th century. In the 18th century 

 the Catholic priest, Labat, in his work published in 1742, as well as the famous 

 navigator. Captain Cook, maintained that cane grew during that period in Brazil and 

 along the Mississippi valley. Other evidence indicates that sugar cane is native to the 

 Americas, but the prepondering evidence is to the effect that cane was introduced and 

 cultivated in Santo Domingo and in Cuba first between the years 1506 and 1533. Spain, 

 according to Edward Brice, possessed in the two islands during the year 1535 a total 

 of 30 small sugar mills, most of which were probably driven by animal power. About 

 a century later the French produced sugar in Guadeloupe Island, while a Jew named 

 Bengiman Dacosta started the industry in Martinique. 



Notwithstanding the fact that a Spaniard named Gonzales De Velesa, according 

 to Deltiel, is accredited with the suggestion of the first method of extracting the juice 

 from the cane on a rather crudely commercial scale in the Antilles, in about the 17th 

 century, the sugar industry in Cuba lagged far back of other portions of the West 

 Indies, and not until the 18th century did Cuba begin to awaken to its possibilities. 

 Cuba, it is true, between the 17th and 18th centuries had a recorded population of 

 only 20,000 to 50,000 inhabitants, about 100 times less than there are to-day. The 

 backwardness of Cuba in developing her possibilities along sugar lines was due chiefly 

 to the fact that Spain, of which the former was one of her possessions, had made a 

 division of Cuba's land among the Indians, and was encouraging the raising of cattle 

 for the homeland. It was the lack of labour to a certain extent, however, that delayed 

 the sugar industry in Cuba, and along about 1713 England made an agreement with 

 Spain to allow the immigration of about 150,000 negro slaves to be used as labourers. 

 It was about this perioci, or perhaps a short while later, that the sugar industry in 

 Cuba began to take on a real importance. 



Santo Domingo in the year 1738, a French colony at that time, is reported to have 

 produced as much as 71,750 tons of sugar, but it was not until 80 years later that 

 Cuba reached a production of even 70,000 tons. At that time the island of Santo 

 Domingo not only outstripj>ed Cuba in the sugar industry, but in practically all other 

 agricultural lines. Since that period, however, Cuba has gradually stepped forward 

 along various phases of agricultural development. Although in the year 1745 both of 

 the American continents produced only 150,000 tons, according to P. Boulin, Cuba 

 in the following years gradually increased her sugar production from: — 

 200,000 tons in 1840 1.054,000 tons in 1894 



322,000 tons in 1853 212,051 tons in 1897 



507,000 tons in 1863 1.427,673 tons in 1907 



775,000 tons in 1873 4,104,205 tons in 1919 



460,000 tons in 1883 3,600.000 tons in 1923 (estimated). 



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