AGRICULTURE . 



281 



misfortunes caused by play, luxury, and other evils, 

 place tlie landed proprietors in a state of absolute 

 dependence upon the merchants. The most frequent 

 loans are those made to the planters, upon condition 

 of repayment from his crop of sugar, or coffee, at 

 prices two rials per arrobe of the first, and two dol- 

 lars per quintal of the last, less than the current 

 rates in market. Thus a crop of one thousand boxes 

 of sugar is sold in anticipation, at a loss of $4,000. 

 The demand for money for business transactions, and 

 the scarcity of coin, is so great that the govern men t 

 at times is forced to borrow at ten per cent., and 

 individuals at even twelve and sixteen per cent, 

 interest. The great profits made in the African 

 slave-trade, sometimes amounting on a single voy- 

 age in Cuba to 100 or 125 per cent., have contri- 

 buted to increase the rate of interest; for many 

 parties hire money at 18 or 20 per cent., for the 

 purpose of following this infamous trade. 'The 

 traffic is not only barbarous in itself, but it is also 

 unreasonable, as it does not attain the object it pro- 

 poses; for like a stream of water brought from a 

 long distance, more than one-half of it, even in the 

 colonies themselves, is turned aside from the cultiva- 

 tion of the lands for which it was destined. 



Coffee. — The cultivation of coffee, like the 

 improvements in sugar making, dates from the 



