SrOAE OE SLATE COLOTsIeS. 
263 
that the importations of the Thole island (lawful and 
eontrahand), estimated at the real price of the articles, the 
merchandize and the slaves, amount at present to 15,000,000 
or 16,000,000 piastres,of which scarcely 3,000,000 or 4,000,000 
are re-exported. The Havannali purchases from abroad far 
heyond its own wants, and exchanges its colonial articles for 
the productions of the manufactures of Europe, to sell a part 
of them at Vera Cruz, Truxillo, Griiayra, and Cartliagena. 
On comparing, in the commercial tables of the llavannah, 
the great value of merchandise imported, with the little 
value of merchandise re-exported, one is surprised at the 
vast internal consumption of a country containing only 
325,000 whites and 130,000 free men of colour. W e find, 
in estimating the dift'erent articles, according to the real 
current prices : in cotton and linen (bretafias, platillas, 
lienzos y hilo), two and a lialf to three millions of inastres; 
in tissues of cotton (zarazas musulinas), one million of 
piastres; in silk (rasos y goneros de seda), 400,000 piastres; 
and in linen and woollen tissues, 220,000 piastres. The 
wants of the island, iu European tissues, registered as 
exported to the port of the Havannali only, consequently 
exceeded, in tliese latter years, from four millions to four 
and a half millions of piastres. To these importations of 
the Havannah we must add : hardware and furniture, more 
than half a million of piastres ; iron and steel, 380,000 
piastres ; planks and great timber, 400,000 piastres ; Castile 
soap, 300,000 piastres. With respect to the importation of 
provisions and drinks to the Havannah, it appears to me to 
he well worthy the attention of those who would know the 
Veal state of those societies wliich are called sugar or slave 
colonies. Such is the composition of those societies esta- 
blished on the most fruitful soil which nature can furnish 
for the nourishment of man, such the direction of agricul- 
tural labours and industry in the West Indies, that, in the 
best climate of the equinoctial region, the population would 
want subsistence but for the freedom and activity of ex- 
ternal commerce. I do not speak of the ijitroduction of 
wines at the port of the Havannah, which atnounted 
(according to the registers of the custom-house), in 1803, 
to 40,000 barrels; in 1823, to 15,000 pipas and 17,000 
barrels, to the value of 1,200,000 piastres ; nor of the intro- 
