COMMERCE
Speaking in round numbers, the commerce of Cuba during the last normal
year aggregated about $100,000,000 of exports and a trifle over
$60,000,000 of imports. From these figures it would seem that the
balance of trade is about $40,000,000 in favour of Cuba. But this is
more apparent than real. In one way and another Spain has annually
turned away from the Island $40,000,000, which, had it been expended in
Cuba every year, would have added immeasurably to the prosperity of the
country. This money went to Spain in a variety of ways. Ten and a half
millions of it were used in payment of a debt which did not justly
belong to Cuba, and with which the people of the Island had been
arbitrarily burdened without their consent. Large sums also went to
Spain through the constantly changing Spanish civil and military
officials, who regarded Cuba as their legitimate field for plunder.
It has been estimated elsewhere in this volume that the total commerce
of Cuba, had the affairs of the Island been honestly and economically
administered, would have reached from $200,000,000 to $250,000,000, so
prolific is the country, and so valuable in the world's markets are its
two staple productions, sugar and tobacco.
To indicate more definitely the extent of Cuban commerce, the reports
for 1893, which was a good year, are given below, presenting, among the
principal exports from Cuba to the United States, the following:
Fruits and nuts $2,347,800
Molasses 1,081,034
Sugar 60,637,631
Wood, unmanufactured 1,071,123
Tobacco, manufactured 2,727,030
Tobacco, not manufactured 8,940,058
Iron ore 641,943
------------
Total $77,446,619
In the same year the principal exports from the United States to Cuba,
aggregating $15,448,981, were distributed as follows:
Wheat flour $2,821,557
Corn 582,050
Carriages and street cars 316,045
Freight and passenger cars (steam railroad) 271,571
Coal 931,371
Builders' hardware 395,964
Railroad rails 326,654
Saws and tools 243,544
Locomotives 418,776
Stationary engines 130,652
Boilers and engine parts 322,284
Wire 321,120
Manufactures of leather 191,394
Mineral oil 514,808
Hog products 5,401,022
Beans and peas 392,962
Potatoes 554,153
Planks, joists, etc. 1,095,928
Household furniture 217,126
------------
Total $15,448,981
These tables show the extent of Cuban commerce with but one country, the
United States; and though, naturally and logically, that is the country
with which Cuba must always do the vast bulk of her business, the other
countries of the world have not been shut out; the average annual amount
of exports from the Island to foreign countries other than the United
States fell between $13,000,000 and $15,000,000, and the imports were
upward of $40,000,000, the most of which, of course, was compulsory
commerce with Spain.
A casual inspection of the above table of imports to Cuba, covering only
a portion of the articles taken from us by the Cubans, shows at once
what the demands of the Island are for even the simplest necessities
beyond bare existence. The million and a half people of the Island want
our flour, our lard and pork, our oil, our barbed wire--our soldiers
found samples of it strung around San Juan hill,--our manufactures of
leather, our household furniture of all kinds, our locomotives and cars
and steel rails, our saws and mechanics' tools, our stationary engines
and boilers, our lumber in its various shapes for framing and building,
our locks and hinges and nails, our corn and beans and potatoes; our
coal, our street cars and carriages, and any and every kind of the
manifold things we produce in this country for the comfort and
convenience and economy of mankind. In part exchange for these things,
we get from Cuba sugar and tobacco, and control the markets of the world
in these products; mahogany and all manner of beautiful hard woods;
bananas and cocoanuts and fruits, pleasing to the palate and wholesome
to the health; honey from the flowers; glycerine, no less sweet, from
the fats of cattle; manganese and molasses; cigars and coffee; beeswax
and birds, and the vast fields of tropical wealth and luxuries for the
millions of our colder clime scarcely yet touched.
The golden dream of Columbus and his followers, when they beheld for the
first time the purple peaks of the strange land rising out of the sea
before them, are as poverty and nightmare in comparison with what is
actual and real, for the more material age of the twentieth century.
The greatest obstacle in the way of Cuban commerce, and the peculiar
disadvantage under which the Island laboured was in a large measure
attributable to the fact that Spain compelled Cuba to purchase
merchandise in Spain which could have been bought in other markets at
prices far below the figures which Cuba was forced by these
discriminating duties to pay to Spanish merchants and manufacturers.
The most glaring illustration of this may be seen by reference to the
following table of Spanish imports into Cuba in 1896, which the author
has prepared from the report of the Bureau of Statistics in relation to
Spanish trade with Cuba and the West Indies:
ARTICLES. VALUE.
Marble, and manufactures of $ ......
Mineral waters 29,031
Glass bottles, etc. 66,889
Bricks, tilings, mosaics, etc. 28,371
Earthenware 77,853
Lime and cement 5,036
Silverware and jewelry 6,800
Iron bars, etc. 176,719
Fire-arms 1,872,240
Copper, and manufactures of 15,772
Lead, manufactured 15,344
Zinc 6,373
Other metals 52,654
Oils and paints. 117,542
Salt 51,030
Chemicals, medicines, etc. 35,365
Soap 635,369
Wax and stearin 419,124
Perfumery, etc. 12,722
Cotton thread 67,451
Other manufactures 3,676,807
Flax, hemp, etc., and manufactures of 740,017
Woollen blankets 219,971
Other woollen manufactures 73,007
Silk goods 74,206
Paper in rolls 82,457
Writing paper 88,219
Smoking paper 377,046
Packing paper 284,047
Books, music, etc. 39,655
Other paper 107,917
Wood, manufactures of 451,568
Leather 110,955
Shoes of leather 3,449,952
Saddlery 102,122
Machinery and musical instruments .....
Hams and meats, salted, etc. 75,679
Butter 171,918
Rice 298,970
Corn 286,563
Wheat flour 4,065,376
Beans 375,604
Other dried vegetables 128,254
Onions, garlic, and potatoes 241,023
Almonds 80,298
Olives 121,765
Raisins 44,982
Saffron 234,252
Pepper, ground and unground 61,582
Oil, common 663,244
Wine, common 1,469,409
" other 18,752
Preserved food 948,472
Pressed meat 316,314
Soup pastes (vermicelli, etc.) 287,200
Sandals 2,686,702
Playing cards 34,345
Felt hats 28,079
Cartridges 69,719
All other articles 614,196
------------
Total $ 26,892,329
------------
Gold .....
Silver $ 24,288,640
The most casual observer and the person of the most superficial
knowledge in trade matters must be well aware that Spain is by no means
as good a market in which to purchase such commodities as are noted
above as is the United States, or as is any other country, for that
matter; yet Cuba, by reason of iniquitous discriminating duties, was
forced to buy these commodities of the mother country, and to pay a
higher price for them than that at which they could have been bought
elsewhere. And not only was the price exorbitant, but the articles were
of inferior quality, and, especially in the line of all machinery and
the appliances of modern industrial progress, the types were primitive
and the models were as old and ineffective as the workmanship and
material were poor. To any Government seeking the best interests of the
governed, these discrepancies would have suggested themselves; and in
the logic of location and the invincible combination of first-class
goods, low prices, cheap freights, and quick delivery, the trade of Cuba
would have been turned to the United States. The Spanish Government
would have been the gainer by the greatly increased prosperity,
progress, and wealth of her Island dependency. But Spain pursued a
different policy, and by the overwhelming force of natural laws,
regulating the relation of the governing to the governed, she has lost
not only the trade of Cuba, but also the Island itself, and by trade
laws not less immutable than those of civil government, the compulsory
commerce she exacted from Cuba goes freely, naturally, and logically, to
the United States. It is scarcely necessary to say what the Great
Republic will do in the premises. The youngest of nations, it stands
to-day to the fore with the oldest and the greatest of the powers of the
earth in every field of human intelligence, industry, and endeavour, and
it will scarcely leave the great work it has undertaken in Cuba to
others for that final accomplishment which it is best qualified to carry
to perfect completion. Cuba looks to the United States for
encouragement, for strength, for education, for development, for
business--for union, shall we say?--and, as her nearest neighbour, the
United States will pledge itself that the Queen of the Antilles shall
not look in vain.
[Illustration: A SUGAR-CANE TRAIN.]
In strong and hopeful contrast with this compulsory commerce is the
amended American tariff of Cuba, which makes no discrimination whatever
against the Cuban purchaser; and now and hereafter, so long as the
United States Government controls the affairs of Cuba, the Cuban
producer may sell his sugar, tobacco, fruit, iron ore, hard woods, and
all that he produces to whomsoever he will; and he may buy what he wants
from whomsoever he thinks sells cheapest and best. He is in no way
bound to the United States and its markets, but is perfectly free to buy
his goods in England, or France, or Germany, or Kamschatka, or even in
Spain herself, if he can there find the best return for his money. We of
the United States shall not so much as expect that the Cuban may, from a
sense of gratitude to us for services we have rendered, give his trade
to us; but we shall teach him, by the invincible example of the very
best goods at the very lowest prices, that the markets of the United
States present to the buyer attractions possessed by no other markets of
the world, and he will learn early that having been his benefactor in
war, we are not less so in peace; and as we have made him free, we have
no fear that he will use that freedom to his own disadvantage.
Under the reciprocity of the McKinley Tariff law, Cuba and the United
States were brought more closely together in commercial union than ever
before in their history. No more competent testimony on this point can
be adduced than the following extract from the report for 1892 of the
British Consul-General at Havana:
"It will be seen from the above article" [on the lack of reliable
statistics] "that the difficulty--especially to a new-comer--of
forming anything like a clear and accurate view of the commercial
movement of the district is next door to impossible. But,
unfortunately, there is one feature of a very unsatisfactory nature
which stands out prominently and did not take long to discover,
namely, that British trade with Cuba has almost become a thing of
the past; and under the recent reciprocity treaty the United States
of America practically supplies all the wants of the Island and
receives all its produce....
"Machinery, which formerly was largely supplied by England,
Germany, France, and Belgium, now nearly all comes from the United
States; and the machinery required for the vast amount of sugar
manufactured in Cuba is immense and of great value....
"The reciprocity treaty between Spain and the United States would
appear to be mainly beneficial to the latter nation. Articles such
as machinery, iron, steel, coal, etc., which formerly came
principally from Europe and continue to pay duty when imported from
those countries, are admitted free of duty when coming from
America, so that the former trade is fast disappearing, although
some articles of English manufacture and of superior quality are
still able to compete, notwithstanding the duty. The free admission
of flour makes bread cheaper, but this is the only article which
seems reduced in price. The free admission of Cuban sugar into the
large markets of the United States is, of course, the great
inducement for Spain to enter into an arrangement by which she
sacrificed a considerable portion of her customs revenue....
"The effect of the recent reciprocity treaty between the United
States and Spain in regard to her West Indian colonies has been to
throw nearly the entire Cuban trade into the hands of the United
States traders, with whom importers of goods from less favoured
nations cannot compete, having to pay, by the terms of such a
treaty, higher import duties."
As a further indication of the benefit of reciprocity between Cuba and
the United States, and as a working suggestion of the commercial
possibilities presented to the business interests of this country, the
following extract from an article on the "Commercial Relations between
Cuba and the United States," by Mr. E. Sherman Gould, in the
_Engineering Magazine_ for July, 1894, is given:
"The value of the sugar exported to the United States has no doubt
frequently reached, if not surpassed, the sum of $60,000,000 in a
single year. At any rate, it will surely be safe to estimate the
total yearly value of all exports from Cuba to this country at that
figure. This large sum must be paid back to Cuba either in money or
in exchange of commodities. In regard to this alternative we must
recall the fact that Cuba has no manufactures of any account except
cigars; that all the implements and machinery used in sugar-making
and all the textile fabrics used for clothing, and even many
articles of food, such as breadstuffs, butter, salt meats, and
'canned goods' must come from abroad. That is to say, $60,000,000
worth of exports are sent by a country without manufactures to the
greatest manufacturing country in the world, and one in which the
danger of 'over-production' is supposed to be a standing menace.
Under these circumstances the mere statement of the question, 'How
should these imports be paid for?' carries its answer with it.
"In this connection the following table, compiled from the records
of the United States Treasury at Washington, and showing the total
value of exports from the United States to Cuba for two different
years will be of great interest, especially as it gives an idea of
the varied character of American products which already find a
market in the latter country.
"This table shows that the balance of trade is largely against us,
assuming our imports from Cuba to reach $60,000,000. There is
evidently room in the Island for at least thirty millions more of
American goods. The table shows also that about one-half of the
value of our exports in 1893 consisted of breadstuffs, provisions,
etc., while wood and woodwork amounted to about one-eighth, and
coal, iron, hardware, and machinery entered the list for about a
quarter of the total amount.
VALUE OF EXPORTS FROM THE UNITED STATES TO CUBA
IN 1889 AND 1893
DESCRIPTION. IN 1889. IN 1893.
Agricultural implements $74,135 $130,341
Animals 14,264 39,401
Books 46,617 39,075
Brass manufactures 32,420 44,150
Breadstuffs 1,336,147 3,511,617
Bricks 4,922 95,489
Builders' hardware 80,285 395,464
Carriages 67,282 316,045
Car-wheels 1,908 18,073
Chemicals 223,784 386,562
Clocks and watches 17,399 26,551
Coal 581,094 931,571
Copper manufactures 13,692 48,656
Cotton manufactures 126,180 148,178
Cutlery 10,347 21,094
Fire-arms 3,030 3,055
Flax, hemp, and jute 301,290 86,478
Fruit 30,971 126,954
Glass 55,178 117,870
India-rubber goods 27,804 42,879
Iron manufactures, not
otherwise specified 241,122 1,343,551
Lamp goods 28,326 51,389
Leather manufactures 166,334 181,476
Lime and cement 16,500 71,570
Machinery 965,242 2,792,050
Marble and stone 14,243 77,003
Nails and spikes 58,112 127,583
Oils 430,203 548,092
Paper 198,461 159,895
Provisions 3,267,883 5,611,076
Railway bars 20,240 327,411
Railway cars 127,533 271,571
Saws and tools 115,232 243,544
Scales and balances 35,406 62,561
Sewing-machines 42,571 95,630
Steam-engines 10,493 130,652
Sugar and candy 19,941 35,911
Tobacco, manufactured 59,658 61,494
Vegetables 380,802 978,261
Wire 118,214 321,120
Wood, and manufactures of 1,110,946 2,881,095
All other 820,987 701,656
----------- -----------
Total $11,297,198 $23,604,094
[Illustration: SUGAR-CANE SCALES.]
"The Western Railway of Havana, now in English hands, and recently
extended from Havana to Pinar del Rio, in the heart of the finest
tobacco region of the Island, has called largely upon the United
States for its new work. Many hundred feet of iron bridging were
furnished and erected by the Union Bridge Company of New York, the
railway company being satisfied with the price, and their engineer,
as well as the government inspectors, satisfied with the work. The
cement used was also wholly or largely American, the American being
adopted rather than the English, somewhat reluctantly, by their
engineer, on account of the greatly reduced cost. The stone used
for bridge-seats was American granite, and highly praised to me by
the engineer, who, being a Scotchman, was naturally a good judge of
the material. The fact merits attention, in estimating the value of
the Cuban market, that the people are heavy buyers. There is very
little saving practised. I do not think there is a single savings
bank on the Island.... As a rule, all the money received is freely
spent, particularly by the poorer and middle classes, who, of
course, form the bulk of the population. Probably the pernicious
system of government lotteries has something to do with the absence
of saving, as the practice of purchasing tickets is as widespread
among the poor as it is destructive and demoralising. Probably,
too, the character of the climate and the consequent ease of living
prevent people from devoting much forethought to a future that they
do not dread, for there is really very little of that pinching want
ever felt in Cuba which recent hard times have brought to notice in
our own country. Be the cause what it may, the fact remains that
all the Cubans are prodigal in their expenditures, which goes far
to account for the immense quantities of goods consumed and paid
for by a comparatively small population.
"Enough has been said, I think, to show that Cuba offers a most
inviting field for American enterprise. Her prosperity and even her
very existence may be said to depend upon her commercial relations
with the United States; the two are bound together by the strong
ties of mutual interest, and everything points to the fact that,
commercially, Cuba should be ours....
"I believe that if the trade, not only of Cuba, but also of the
South American countries, were first poured into the United States
as a receiving reservoir, it would be naturally distributed,
directly or indirectly, over the world to better advantage than if
distant and various nations were carrying on desultory and
independent business relations with them. The purchasing power that
would be gathered into and concentrated in the United States by
such trade would be largely expended in procuring those
requirements of an ever-advancing refinement and civilisation which
Europe can, at present at least, furnish better than we can
ourselves. We appreciate and want these things--none more so--and
the wealth which a practical monopoly of the South American trade
would give us would make us Europe's best customer for those things
of which she is the best producer. But this is a digression.
"The Cuban market, like all others, is governed largely by fashion.
Hitherto all supplies, except perhaps locomotives and
steam-boilers, which have for a long time been chiefly furnished by
the United States, have come, for the greater part, from Europe. I
think that both in Spain and in South America, French goods, as
well as French manners and customs have the preference. Just as
there is a certain tendency in the United States to admire and
imitate that which is derived from English sources, so everything
French is apt to 'go' in these countries. It naturally takes time
to overcome such preoccupations, particularly as in many cases they
are well founded. I have taken occasion elsewhere to call attention
to the fact that American houses shipping goods to Cuba put
themselves under quite unnecessary disadvantage by careless
packing. In the case of many fancy articles the mere appearance of
the package goes a great way, and in the case of all goods careless
packing entails great loss from breakage. This loss is a twofold
one for the American dealer. Not only does he have to make good the
damage at his own cost, but he creates a prejudice against his
goods and his ways of doing business. This brings up another
important point. It is a great mistake to suppose that 'anything is
good enough for Cuba.' On the contrary, the people there not only
want the best, but they also know it when they see it, and, once
deceived, they never have any further transactions with the
deceiver. The market is perhaps a capricious one, but it is one
that fully recognises and appreciates fair dealing, and there is no
better or more paying advertisement than to enter it 'on the
square.'
"The market being such as it is, and, moreover, being for many
classes of goods a new one, the agents employed in it should be
carefully selected. Here, again, Americans are at a disadvantage.
Very few of the commercial travellers who are sent out from the
United States speak Spanish, whereas nearly all those representing
foreign concerns do. The Americans are therefore obliged to put
themselves entirely into the hands of agents and interpreters,
which is always an unsatisfactory way of doing business. In view of
the growing relations between the United States and the South
American countries, it would seem as if Spanish should occupy a
preferential place, in our educational institutions, over French or
German. Our business is to invade the Spanish-speaking territories,
whereas we are ourselves invaded by the European nations, and this
fact necessitates a more perfect equipment on the part of our
business agents entering the foreign field.
"As regards the classes of goods most needed in Cuba it would be
impossible and wholly unnecessary to particularise more fully in
this paper. We may broadly say that everything needed in this
country is needed in Cuba, within the limits imposed by the
difference of climate. They want or can be led to want everything
we can furnish that is good and cheap.
"I may perhaps be here permitted another digression. We have heard
a great deal in times past, and more particularly of late, of
'overproduction,' and it is supposed to account for many of our
business troubles. Now overproduction is a strictly relative
condition, and its remedy is either to produce less or to dispose
of more. Political economists tell us that true material progress
lies in commonising the good things of life, so that what to-day
are the luxuries of the rich shall become to-morrow the ordinary
possessions of the middle classes, who will, in their turn,
relegate their previous simple comforts to the poor, thus
establishing an ever-ascending scale of prosperity, and raising, as
it were, the standard of poverty. It is impossible, I think, to
deny the truth of this proposition, which dictates a _levelling
up_, instead of the socialistic plan of _levelling down_. In this
view it is plainly to be seen that we are not, and cannot be, in
any danger from _overproduction_. What we and all the world are
suffering from is _underdistribution_. The remedy, as far as the
United States are concerned, is not to limit production, but rather
to increase it even to its utmost possibilities and then launch out
in quest of new markets. It is this policy which has given England
her vast commercial supremacy in the past. She has never attempted
to restrict the production of her manufactures, but her efforts
have always been to open up new markets, until she has forced her
way to the remotest regions of the earth. It is said that the sun
never sets on the British flag; it certainly never sets on British
manufactures.
"In carrying out such a policy for the United States it is evident
that the Spanish-American countries offer themselves to us as our
natural field for enterprise. As already pointed out, our labours
in this field would be of mutual advantage to them and to us, and
in more ways than one. While receiving from us our labour-saving
machinery and wonderful mechanical appliances of all kinds, they
would also imbibe a portion of the spirit which led to their
invention and use. We, on our part, would not only receive from
them the rich products of their fertile soil, but might also catch,
by contact with men of another race, something of that natural
grace and refinement in which our national character is said to be
deficient."
Referring to the fact that the railways in Cuba under English control
have had their machinery from the United States, the manager of the
English railways in Cuba only so recently as October, 1898, informed the
author that they had not only purchased of the United States in the
past, but that they intended getting all their railway supplies for the
future from the same source. Surely no higher tribute could be paid to
the manufacturers of our country than this from an Englishman, whose
people for hundreds of years have led all competitors in the industrial
manufacturing of the world.
And this is but a step in the giant strides of commercial progress the
United States will make in Cuba, under the encouraging influence of a
reasonable tariff, the abolition of all discrimination, the assurances
of a stable government, and that proximity which makes Cuba one with us
in temper, in trade, and in territory.