296 



HUMBOLDT'S CUBA. 



Havana, amounts (exclusive of the smaller craft 

 engaged in the coasting trade) to 150,000 or 170,000 

 tons. We also see, even in a time of peace, from 

 120 to 150 vessels of war touching annually at that 

 port. 



From 1815 to 1819 the value of the products 

 registered at the custom-house of Havana alone 

 (sugar, rum, molasses, coffee, wax, and hides), 

 amounted to $11,245,000, one year with another. 

 In 1823, the value of her exports, returned at less 

 than two-thirds of their actual prices (and exclusive 

 of $1,179,000 in coin), has exceeded the sum of 

 $12,500,000. It is more than probable that the 

 imports of the whole island, licit and contraband, 

 estimated at the actual value of the goods and the 

 slaves, amount, at the present time, to fifteen or six- 

 teen millions of dollars, of which barely three or 

 four millions are re-exported. 1 Havana purchases 



1 The official returns of the value of exports and imports in Cuba, 

 in 1851 and 1852, are as follows : 



Imports. Exports. Exports in Bond. 



1851 $34,042,749 $33,054,888 $1,713,035 



1852 30,828,711 28,602,912 1,148,975 



In these returns the rates of valuation for exports are, for sugar 

 3J cents per pound ; molasses $6£ a hhd, (about 5 cents a gallon) ; 

 rum 16 cents a gallon ; coffee 4 cents a pound ; segars $4 a thou- 

 sand ; leaf tobacco 6 and 12| cents a pound ; copper ore $2 50 per 

 quintal. 



