PBODTJCE OF TOBACCO. 
259 
have not been attended by the improvement which waa 
expected in that branch of industry. The cultivators want 
capital, the farms have become extremely dear, and the pre- 
dilection for the cultivation of coffee is prejudicial to that of 
tobacco. 
The oldest information we possess respecting the quantity 
of tobacco which the island of Cuba has thrown into the 
niagazines of the mother country, go back to 1748. Ac- 
cording to the Abbe Eaytial, a much more exact writer than 
is generally believed, that quantity, from 1748 to 1753 
(average year) was 75,000 arrobas. Trom 1789 to 1794, 
the produce of the island amounted uimually to 250,000 
arrobas ; but from that period to 1803, the increased price 
of laud, the attention given exclusively to the coffee planta- 
tions, and the sugar factories, little vexations in the exercise 
of the royal monopoly (estanco), and inipedimonts in the 
way of export trade, have progressively diminished the pro- 
duce by more than one-half. The total produce of tobacco 
in the island, is, however, believed to have been, from 1822 
to 1825, again from 300,000 to 400,000 arrobas. 
In good years, when tlie harvest rose to 350,000 arrobas 
of leaves, 128,000 arrobas were prejiared for the Peninsula, 
80,000 for the Havannah, 9200 foi' Peru, GOOO for Panama, 
3000 for Buenos Ayres, 2240 tor Mexico, and 1000 for 
Caracas and Campeachy. To complete the sum of 316,000,000 
(for the harv'est loses 10 per cent, of its weight in merma y 
aherias, during the preparation and the transport), we must 
suppose that 80,000 arrobas were consumed in the interior 
of the island (on los campos), whither the monopoly and 
the taxes did not extend. The maintenance of 120 slaves 
and the expense of the manufacture amounted only to 12,000 
piastres annually ; the per.sons employed in the factoria cost 
54,100 piastres. The value of 128,000 arrobas, which in 
good years was sent to Spain, either in cigars or in snuff 
(raniay polvos), often exceeded 6,000,000 piastres, according 
to the common price of Spain. It seems surprising to see 
that the statements of exportation from the Havannak 
(documents published by the Coiisulado) mark the exporta- 
tions for 1810, at only 3400 arrobas; for 1823, only 13,900 
arrobas of tahaco en rmia, and 71,000 pounds of tabaco 
torcida, estimated together, at the custom-house, at 281,000 
8 2 
