This tariff was maintained without material change until a reciprocal commercial agreement was effected by the United States and Spain in 1891. For the first time in its history, Cuba found itself in a position to trade on favorable terms with its nearest and best market. As a result the trade of the Island was soon transferred, almost in its entirety, to the United States, and its people enjoyed a term of prosperity transcending anything in their former experience. The change was, however, short lived. In 1894 the termination of the agreement and the reëstablishment of the old regulations forced compulsory traffic with Spain upon the Cubans.
But the burdens entailed upon the people by trade restrictions were by no means all that they were called on to bear. A system of heavy and vexatious taxation prevailed during the entire period of Spain’s dominance over the Island. Taxes were levied on all kinds of property and on every form of industry. Every profession and occupation was taxed. Legal papers, petitions and business documents were required to be stamped.
There was a “consumption tax” on the killing of cattle which, of course, increased the price of meat to the consumer. There was an impost of twenty ducats, called the derecho de averia, collected upon every person who arrived on the Island. This was established in the earliest years of the colony and maintained until near the close of the eighteenth century. During the last hundred years of its enforcement, the amount was increased from sixteen dollars to twenty-two dollars. It is needless to say that this tax seriously impeded immigration of the peasant class most needed by the country.
There was a lottery tax, and a “cedula,” or head tax. The latter proved very burdensome to the poorest of the people who, when in arrears of it, were debarred from the exercise of most rights and privileges involving civil and ecclesiastical authorization. Thus, they could not make contracts, enter into marriages, or secure baptism for their children until the overdue tax had been paid.
Obviously such a system of taxation worked the utmost discouragement to the acquisition of property and the pursuit of industries. Had the design of the Peninsular Government been to ruin the Island and to suppress all development, no more effective measures for the purpose could have been devised. None but a country superlatively rich in natural resources could have carried such a burden. Like the other American colonies of Spain, Cuba received contributions, or situados, from Mexico. During the forty years following 1766, these amounted to 108,150,504 pesos fuertes. The worst of it was that the large revenue derived from these heavy impositions upon the people and the trade of Cuba was either absorbed in the excessive cost of administering the Island, or diverted to the royal treasury. Comparatively little of it was spent on local public improvements, unless we should include works of a military nature. Aside from the calzada, or military highway, road-making was neglected. Harbors lacked improvements and cities were deficient in water supply, sewers and paving. In the country districts, public buildings and schoolhouses were far short of the necessities of the population. Even in late years the annual appropriation for educational purposes was no more than two hundred and fifty thousand dollars.
Aside from the riots resulting from the enforcement of the tobacco monopoly, during the term of Captain-General Roja, there was no active opposition to the Government previous to 1823. In that year an abortive insurrection followed the attempt to abrogate the liberal constitution of 1812, and reëstablish the old-time absolutism. Political agitation and revolutionary outbreaks continued from that time, stimulated by the secret societies, whose
MOUNTAIN ROAD IN THE PROVINCE OF ORIENTE.