258 
PKICE8 or SUGAK AITD COPFEE. 
TOe exportation of 1814 was GOi millions of kilogrammes, 
which we inay suppose was at that period nearly the con- 
Biimption of the whole of Europe. Great Britain (taking 
that denomination in its true sense, as denoting only 
England and Scotland), now' consumes nearly two-thirds 
' Jeas coiiee, and three times more sugar tlian Prance 
The price_ of sugar at the Havannah is always by the 
^ arroba of 2o Spanish pounds (or 11'49 kilograimnes), and 
■ Tit (or ^^ 97 kilogrammes). 
The latter has been known to vary from 4 to 30 piastres; 
l^olow 24 reals. The price of 1815 
and 1819 was between 13 and 17 piastres the quintal; 
coffee 13 now at 12 piastres. It is probable that the ciil- 
Evation of coffee scarcely employs in the whole island of 
unt noA produce,. on the yearly average. 
305.000 Spanish quintals (14 millions of kilogrammes) or, 
present value, 3,6G0,000 piastres; while 
66.000 negroes produce 410,000 cases (81 millions of kilo- 
grammes) of sugar, which, at the price of 21 niastres is 
worth 10,500,000 pia.stres. It resets from ^ 7^^- 
tion, that a skve now produces the value of 130 piastres of 
coffee, and 160 piastres of sugar. It is almost useless to 
observe, that these relations vary with the price of the 
two articles, of winch the variations are often opposite, and 
that, in calculations wdiicli may throw some light on agri- 
culture in the tropical region, I comprehend in the same 
contraband''*'’ consumption, exportation lawful and 
1 Tobacco.— T he tobacco of the island of Cuba is cele- 
brated throughout Europe. The custom of smolfing, bor- 
rowed from the natives of Ilayti, was introduced into 
Europe about the end of the sixteenth and heginnino- of tlie 
seventeenth century. It was generally hoped that tlie 
cultivation of tobacco, freed from an oppressive monopolv', 
would be to tho Havannah a very profitable object of com- 
merce. The good intentions displayed by the government 
111 aboLshmg, within six years, tlie Factoria do tahacos, 
kilogrammes); in 1809, it rose to 4.5,071 cwt.; in 1810 to 49 117 
cwt. , m 1823, to 71,000 cwt. ; in 1824, to OG.oio owt. (or 809 
kilogram r/.t!S.) ' • 
