First of all come roads. England has discovered that good roads are not only an important factor in mountainous countries in keeping order, but also the basis of industrial development and prosperity. In the budget given above the following items must be added together in order to ascertain the amount expended in 1897 for roads:
| Main Roads and Buildings | $ 402,335 |
| Parochial Roads | 227,690 |
| $ 630,025 |
Here may be found a good illustration of England’s policy which is a great contrast to the policy of Spain in Cuba. No money has been spent on the roads of Cuba, all of which are in a deplorable condition. Attention should at once be given to this important question and a liberal sum out of both local and general revenues of the Island set apart for this purpose. The debt of Jamaica is not excessive; it is in the neighbourhood of $10,000,000, with an annual charge of about $400,000. Police and medical charges are about the same, averaging about $300,000 each, or in all $600,000.
In this connection attention is called to the annual expenditure on roads in Jamaica for fourteen years:
| EXPENDITURE FOR MAIN AND PAROCHIAL ROADS IN JAMAICA, FROM 1883-84 TO 1896-97, INCLUSIVE | ||||
| Year. | Appropriated revenue for Parochial Roads. | Expenditure for Main Roads and Buildings. | Total. | |
| Pounds sterling. | Pounds sterling. | Pounds sterling. | Dollars. | |
| 1883-84 | 39,514 | 48,156 | 87,670 | 438,350 |
| 1884-85 | 40,496 | 47,614 | 88,110 | 440,550 |
| 1885-86 | 38,246 | 52,285 | 90,531 | 452,655 |
| 1886-87 | 39,670 | 48,080 | 87,750 | 438,750 |
| 1887-88 | 42,935 | 52,318 | 95,253 | 476,265 |
| 1888-89 | 42,146 | 57,632 | 99,778 | 498,890 |
| 1889-90[6] | 20,740 | 32,210 | 52,950 | 264,750 |
| 1890-91 | 50,317 | 91,659 | 141,976 | 709,880 |
| 1891-92 | 44,845 | 91,659 | 136,504 | 682,520 |
| 1892-93 | 48,520 | 83,718 | 132,238 | 661,190 |
| 1893-94 | 50,169 | 58,460 | 108,629 | 543,145 |
| 1894-95 | 47,111 | 65,647 | 112,758 | 563,790 |
| 1895-96 | 48,398 | 68,654 | 117,052 | 585,260 |
| 1896-97 | 45,538 | 80,467 | 126,005 | 630,025 |
| Total for 14 years | 1,477,204 | 7,386,020 | ||
| Average per year | 527,573 | |||
The necessity of liberal expenditure for maintaining the health of the community is of first importance. A study of this budget may be found a preparation for the subsequent study of the Cuban budget, to which the reader’s attention will be invited presently.
The present Jamaica tariff was evidently framed with the two ideas of revenue for the island and a market for British goods. Food products, for example, such as bacon, beef, beans, bread, butter, cheese, corn, meats, oats, oil, pork, rice, salt, sausages, wheat, sugar, tea, coffee, and many other staple articles are all on the dutiable list, some paying a fairly stiff rate of duty. On the other hand, many articles of merchandise, bricks, bridges, carts and waggons, clocks, diamonds, machinery, locomotives, and a host of other things, which England supplies the island, are all exempted from duty. Under a general ad valorem clause, 12½ per cent. is collected on all articles not enumerated. The enumerated list of the Jamaica tariff is not large, so a large amount of merchandise has been actually imported under this clause. The proposed new tariff, which will probably go into effect next year, takes many articles off the free list and puts them on the dutiable list. It also increases the ad valorem rate to 16-2/3 per cent. This has been found necessary because there has been a deficit in the revenue. The new tariff is expected to yield £400,000, or about $2,000,000, and from internal revenue or excise £150,000, or $750,000, and £250,000, or $1,250,000, from appropriated revenue which will really come from the land and householders. Here it is summarised:
| Revenue from Customs | $ 2,000,000 |
| “ “Excise | 750,000 |
| “ “Appropriated Revenue (land and household taxes, etc.) | 1,250,000 |
| $ 4,000,000 |
If this amount can be secured, the revenue of Jamaica will be a trifle more than expenditure, and the result will be happiness. If not, expenses must be reduced. Some members of the Legislative Council favour this latter plan. The Commission has the whole fiscal question now in hand, and within a short time will probably reach conclusions.
There is much more of interest that might be said about the present economic condition of Jamaica, but the points herein brought out appear to be the only ones that bear especially on the problem continually facing the reader in a volume dealing with the industrial and commercial reconstruction of Cuba. It will also be interesting to compare the British method of colonial administration with the idea set forth in the previous chapter by the Marquis de Apezteguia, whose point of view in such matters is wholly Spanish. That is, the idea of possession is paramount. The Marquis evidently has no faith in the ability of the United States to administer the affairs of Cuba as a trust.