the United States, owing to the want of protection on the raw material, thereby causing a considerable decrease in the production of the Island, and increasing in the same proportion that of the United States, in which country the manufacture has reached the enormous sum of 5,000,000,000 cigars per annum. EXPORTATION OF TOBACCO TO THE UNITED STATES "Mode of protection. To protect and promote the prosperity of this industry it is necessary: Ist. To maintain the suppression of export duty on cigars ordered by the local Government of this Island on the 31st of last December, both on cigars and cigarettes and packages of cut tobacco, as well as on tobacco in fibre or powdered, which are considered as industrial products thereof. "2nd. To maintain to its full extent the export duty on leaf tobacco, ordered at the same time, of $12 per 100 kilos for that grown in the provinces of the west and centre of the Island (Vuelta Abajo, Partido, and Remedios). The following data will prove the justice of this step: to manufacture in the United States 1000 cigars weighing 12 pounds, sold in Havana, unstemmed, 25 pounds of filler, and 5 pounds of wrapper, we should arrive at the following results: For export duty on the leaf in Cuba, 30 lbs. of leaf at $12.00 per 100 kilos...... Import duty in the United States on 25 lbs. of filler at 35 cents each.. 5 lbs. wrapper @ $2 each.... 44 44 64 Total. $3.60 8.70 10.05 $22.35 The same 1000 cigars imported from Cuba, weighing 12 lbs., at $4.50 per lb...... $54.00 Export duty 25 per cent. ad valorem, valued @ $60 per thousand...... 15.00 Total.,..... making a difference of $46.65 against our tobacco. 64 $69.00 3rd. It is also indispensable that the prohibition of importing and reimporting all tobacco, whether prepared or in leaf, be maintained, and 46 4th. If, as is to be hoped, the commercial relations between this Island and the North American Republic continue in perfect harmony and well directed, we may soon. expect to have complete reciprocity and free exchange of trade." In this connection it will be interesting to note the relative importance of the tobacco-producing countries of the world. The following table is the latest and most reliable obtainable: Thus the primary cost of the world's tobacco ranges from $200,000,000 to $225,000,000 per annum. It is not in quantity but in quality that Cuba leads the world. THE CHAPTER XXII MINES AND MINING HE first questions asked the natives of Cuba by Columbus and his company concerned gold and silver, and they heard many tales of the riches of the unknown interior, but all their searching produced nothing of value, nor have the succeeding centuries added greatly to what was first discovered. Some little gold and silver was found, but it amounted to really nothing, and the mineral riches of the Island remained hidden until 1524, when copper was discovered near Santiago de Cuba; and here grew up the little mining town of Cobre (copper). Since that date deposits of asphaltum, iron, manganese, and salt have been found and have been worked, but not as they would have been in a well governed and progressive country. The mining districts of Cuba are confined almost exclusively to the mountainous or eastern end of the Island, and so far the province of Santiago is the chief producer. Its leading product is iron ore, mined principally by American companies with American corporations. The first real ironmining in Cuba began about 1884, when 21,798 tons were shipped to the United States. This was the first Cuban iron ore received in this country, and was about one-twentythird of the total iron ore importation. In 1897 we received 397,173 tons of Cuban ore, which was three-fourths of the ore imported. During the years 1884-1897 we received 3,401,077 tons of Cuban ore. The ore is a brown hematite, in large quantities, easy to work, of excellent quality, about sixty-two per cent. iron, ̈ ̈ |