facture of textile fabrics must be stimulated by the imposition of taxes on all foreign and Spanish fabrics that might be made by provincial industry. Finally, without suggesting other means than those warranted by the economic science of all nations, we might say that the people of the Peninsula ought to stop the use of all tobacco not produced in their provinces across the sea. With the disappearance of the foreign tobacco that 16,000,000 of the people consume, the contraband trade would also disappear, and the Government would be saved the expense of preventing it. Many colonists in Cuba who are worthy and substantial people would then be willing to cultivate a tobacco that would be within reach of every purse. The population of Cuba would then show an increase as striking as that shown by the receipts of the State, when in place of asking 18 reals duty on each pound imported they reduced the tax to 4 reals. Before closing this article it seems fitting to quote in his own words some reflections on the white population of Cuba expressed by His Excellency Don Vicente Vazquez Queipo in his work entitled “A fiscal report on the white population of Cuba,” which was published in Madrid in 1845. "For the prosperity of the rural white population it is absolutely necessary that some change be made in the way the island is cultivated. It may be by promoting valuable products sure of a ready market abroad, such as cotton, indigo, silk, cochineal, and especially tobacco, all of which are fitted for cultivation on a small scale. It may be by modifying the system actually in vogue in the cultivation of the sugar cane and the refining of sugar, or it may be by doing both, which would be perhaps the most advisable. All the products of the country if carefully fostered and developed under the supervision of the authorities may be useful and beneficial to the colonists, especially if the latter could be fittingly instructed by means of agricultural manuals on the subject of their cultivation. One of them certainly deserves particular attention from the Government; that is, tobacco. "The superior and almost unrivaled quality of tobacco produced on the island, the daily increase in its consumption by European nations, the ease with which it is cultivated on a small scale-and, in fact, the necessity of so cultivating it on account of the close and assiduous care it requires-the increasing number of operatives employed in its preparation and manufacture, and, finally, the bountiful returns it makes to cultivators in proportion to the value of the land and the capital employed, all make tobacco a precious plant in the island of Cuba. An intelligent and conscientious white man is much more likely than a strong but clumsy African to give the tobacco plant proper care. That consists for the most part of driving away in the cooler hours the insects that attack the young plants. If protected by the supreme government with absolute freedom from duties, tobacco may to some degree supply the deficit sure to occur soon, owing to the fact that the cultivation of coffee is on the wane and, indeed, almost abandoned." APPENDIX XX. BIBLIOGRAPHY. The following is a list of the books found of especial value in the preparation of the report on the census of the island of Cuba: Title. New Constitution Establishing Self-Government in the Islands of Cuba and Porto Rico. Military Notes on Cuba. Notes About Cuba. Facts About Cuba. American State Papers. Constitution and Government of Cuba. Die Bevölkerung der Erde, Nos. 1,2,6,7,8. (In Spanish Institutions in the Southwest. British State Papers. Reports on Affairs of Cuba, 1898. Cuba and International Relations. Censo de la Población de Espana segun el Recu- Commercial Cuba. Journal of Voyages. Cuadro estadístico de la siempre fiel isla de Cuba, Past and Present. Cuba in War Times. APPENDIX XXI. The United States (Census of Cuba) in account with the insular Treasury of Cuba. All census property in Cuba was purchased through the Supply Division of the War Department. The census property in Cuba on hand at the close of the work, and valued at $3,528.12, was transferred to the insular authorities. |
