THE WATER-FRONT, HABANA.
conditions obtained until 1778, when Habana was opened to free trade. The decree authorized traffic between several ports of Cuba. Others were included in this privilege, from time to time, until, in 1803, practically all the ports of the Island enjoyed it.
For two hundred years or more, such action upon the part of the sovereign government was looked upon by all nations as good policy. In 1714 Spain and the Dutch Confederation effected a convention by the terms of which each party was bound to refrain from every form of trade with the American possessions of the other. A similar agreement was reached between England and Spain about fifty years later. Towards the close of the eighteenth century, however, these treaties were abrogated and a royal cedula set forth that no foreign ship should be allowed to enter a Cuban port under any conditions.
The peninsular war reduced the trade of Cuba to such an extent that the Ayuntamiento and the Consulado of Habana seriously debated the expediency of throwing the port entirely open and admitting foreign goods on a parity with those of the home country. In consideration of the emergency the restraints on trade were substantially released during the first decade of the nineteenth century. Shortly afterwards, the Government sought to reëstablish them, but was induced to refrain by the protestations of Captain-General Marques de Someruelos, who made a forcible representation of the economic necessities of the colony and the impossibility of their being met under the restricting policy.
The least concession was wrung from the Council of the Indies with the utmost difficulty. They remained convinced that the limitations of the commerce of the colonies to the mother country was the best course for the latter, at least, and secured a virtual resumption of the condition by indirect means. By excessive duties, discriminating tariffs, and the heavy port dues, foreign trade was placed at such a great disadvantage that the Cubans, although ostensibly free in the matter, found themselves again restricted for the most part to commerce with Spain.
The first tariff of Cuba, enforced in 1818, imposed a duty of forty-three per cent. ad valorem on all foreign merchandise, except agricultural implements and machinery, which were taxed twenty-six and one-half per cent. These rates were somewhat reduced a few years later. Similar importations from Spain were granted a preferential reduction of one-third from these rates. But, as Spain produced a very small proportion of the articles that comprised Cuba’s imports, her merchants secured them from various foreign sources, and, of course, the consumers were compelled to pay higher prices than if they had been allowed to deal directly with the producers under an impartial system of duties.
In 1828 an export tariff was imposed on sugar and coffee, which, by this time, had become important products. Four-fifths of a cent per pound was levied on the former, and two-fifths on the latter. A form of shipping bounty added to the weight of these exactions. In case the exports were carried in foreign bottoms the duty on sugar was doubled and that on coffee increased to one cent a pound.