PRELIMINARY ESSAY. 47 



mechanic arts in her ports. During many years her 

 trade with this country exceeded that with all other 

 nations. 



There are, probably, no two separate countries 

 whose industrial relations are so completely recipro- 

 cal, as those of Cuba and the United States. Pro- 

 ducing staples that enter into constant general use in 

 this country, the natural wants of her people afford 

 a market for the products of every section of the 

 Union. The forests, fisheries, manufactures, and 

 shipping of 'New England ; the farmers, dairymen, 

 miners, and handworkers of the middle States ; the 

 lumber-men, naval stores, and rice-growers of the 

 South ; and the meats and grains of the West, all 

 find an appropriate exchange in the markets of Cuba. 

 An adverse fiscal system, aided by our own unwise 

 retaliatory acts of 1832-3, have changed the course 

 of a large portion of this trade, and retarded its gen- 

 eral increase. 



The cotton and linen manufactures of Europe are 

 consumed in Cuba to the value of fi ve millions of 

 dollars annually, a large portion of which might be 

 supplied by the better and cheaper products of 

 American looms. In the same manner we find that 

 unequal fiscal impositions change the natural current 

 of other branches of trade, and that flour, instead of 

 being purchased in the cheapest mart in the world, 



