Soil and climate are also favorable to the production of valuable tobacco. The area in which the characteristic Cuban leaf can be grown is, however, much more restricted. The systematic cultivation of tobacco was not begun in Cuba until 1580, though the indigenous plant had been grown by the natives before the first voyage of Columbus in 1492. Early in the last century the leaf grown in the Vuelta Abajo district (an area of about 90 miles in length by 10 in width, situated in the province of Pinar del Rio) won recognition the world over on account of ,its excellence; and as the profits of this industry, wherever it could be carried on advantageously, were much greater than those of sugar-making, no effort was spared to extend the area of production into other parts of the island. At least 10,000 tobacco plantations were in operation before the year 1880, but all experiments demonstrated the inferiority of the soil for this use outside of the Vuelta Abajo. Before the revolution of 1895, the production of leaf-tobacco in the island was about 560,000 bales (averaging 50 kilos each) in a year. Of this amount about 260,000 bales were harvested in Pinar del Rio province, about 70,000 bales in the province of Havana, 130,000 bales in the province of Santa Clara and 100,000 bales in the province of Santiago (Oriente). Only the 260,000 bales from Vuelta Abajo were of the, finest quality, the other components of the annual crop being known as the Partido leaf, the Remedios leaf and the Gibara or Mayan — in the main coarser and cheaper grades. The amount of soil avail able for the production of first-class tobacco being thus limited, the conditions under which it had to be grown were also not at all favor able to either great or cheap production before the year 1903. First-class tobacco lands of the Vuelta Abajo were held at an exceedingly high price, and large rentals were demanded. Irri gation and constant care in most sections were absolutely necessary; efficient labor was scarce, and untrained laborers were not employed lest their blundering should ruin the product of the best fields. The average cost of production per caballeria (33.17 acres) painstaking investiga tion showed to be in that part of the island between $8,000 and $9,000; and the conclusion is that the production of tobacco in Cuba before 1903 was much more expensive than ' in any other part of the world. For this reason, and in view of the failure to secure good results out. side of a few small districts, it appeared that the tobacco industry was destined, as com pared with the cultivation of sugar, to play a secondary role, though still an important one, in the commercial development of Cuba. During seasons of moderate prosperity it fur nished employment for about 80,000 persons. The value of its product exported to the United States annually, before the insurgents laid waste the Vuelta Abajo and Partido disc tricts, was between $9,000,000 and $13,000,000. The transfer in 1902-03 of large interests to American capitalists led to the introduction of modern labor-saving devices and economical methods. Formerly growers made the mistake of collecting seeds from inferior third-growth plants, and the result was seen in .a gradual degeneration of the plants and diminution of their leaves. To check this degeneration, strong fertilizers had occasionally been used in such large quantities that the leaves, while regaining their lost size, lost much of their fine quality. This was done even after it became a matter of common that the crops could be improved by scientific selection of seeds. For work in the fields, antiquated wooden plows were still used in 1902; and the tobacco land was cultivated in small farms, an arrangement that seemed necessary to those who employed only the primitive methods of destroying in sects and ignored the spraying machine. So long as the old methods prevailed, a native family could not take care of more than a small field; moreover, the labor of the entire family was required, for work went on day and night. Every leaf had to be examined fre quently and kept free from tobacco caterpillars. The wife and children aided the adult male laborer, taking turns throughout the 24 hours. In such details as these, improvemaits were made by the new management, not without opposition-. The early attempts to introduce reforms in the established methods 'of handling the leaf in the manufactories was one cause of the strike of operatives and the riots in Havana (November 1902). Leaf tobacco to the value of $15,237731 was exported from Cuba in the fiscal year 1914-15; and to the value of $16,156,004 during the following year. Of this latter $12,536,808 worth went to the United States, which, in 1915, took 63.26 and in 1916 63.55 per cent of Cuban tobacco exported. Leaf tobacco valued at $15,661,332 and cigars and cigarettes at $3,618,868 went from Cuba to the United States in 1916. Of this the greater part was shipped from Havana, which exported leaf tobacco to the United States valued at $15,627,894, and agars and cigarettes at the total output of $3,618,868.
Commerce.— The value of Cuban foreign commerce in 1914 was $296,555,000, and in 1915 $409,739,996; one explanation of these large figures being that the area of the land devoted to sugar crops was so increased that the crop grown in 1914 and available for exportation amounted to 2,500,000 tons. The chief products exported by Cuba are sugar and its products (73.4 per 'cent of total ut 1914) ; tobacco — leaf and manufactures (15.3 per cent of total) fruits, coffee, cocoa, etc. (2 per cent) ; minerals
(1.9 per cent) ; other articles (7.4 per cent), The principal articles imported by Cuba are foodstuffs (39.3 per cent of the total in 1914) ; textiles, etc. (13.5 per cent of total) ; instru ments, machinery, etc. (9.9 per cent).; .drug chemicals, perfumes, etc. (6.6 per cent). all other articles (30.7 per cent). The island ex. ports practically all it produces and imports nearly everything it consumes. Conditions are not favorable to manufacturing, and excepting cigars, but little is done. There is one, small sugar refinery, the product of which is sold in the home 'market, but the rest of the product is exported raw. Cuba's imports from the United States in 1915 were valued •at $104,723,1 108; from the 'other American 022,586; from Germany, $799,903; from Spain, $10,807,435; from France, $5,197,110; from Great Britain, $15,287,998; from other European countries, $6,203,081; from all other countries, $4,397,012. In the same year Cuba exported to the United States goods valued at $206,164,41.4; to the :.other American countries, $3,356,875; Spain, $8,021,230; France, $1,135,404; Great Britain, $33,033,016; other European countries; $1,864,769; to all other countries, $716,048. The value of Cuba's imports was $155,448,233, and of her exports, $254,291,763; snaking the total for foreign commerce, as above stated, $409, 739,996. Cuba's trade with the United States alone had expanded from $66,000,000 in the closing year of the last century to $310,887,522 in 1915, under exceptional conditions, created by the European War, which also affect bank ing relations.
Cuba's total foreign trade for the period of June 1915 to July 1916 amounted to $537, 825,000. Exports aggregated $336,801,000 and imports $201,024,000, the balance of trade in Cuba's favor being $135,777,000.. In 1916 Cuba imported gold, silver and platinum to the value of $13,036,638; chemical products,$8,248,171; textiles, $28,612,074 (cotton and cotton goods, •$9,242,562) ; paper and paper goods, $3,870, 470; wood and wood products, $6,431,060; animals and animal products, $10,150,580; ma chinery and instruments, $37,574,493; foodstuffs, $64,540,000; metals of all kinds, $14,244,395; stone, earth and ceramics, $7,902,711; miscel laneous, $10,815,286. Goods to the value of $10,815,286 were admitted free of duty. Cuban currency imports were $14,563,631 in 1915, and in the following year $32,316,594. In 1916 the value of imports from the United States was $185,337,194 out of a total of $248,278,279; and of exports $250,090,418•out of a• total of $356, 571,350. In the same year the principal exports were valued as follows: Animals and animal products, $3,364,738; sugar and sugar products, $271,081,983; fruits, grains and vegetables, $3, 164,828; mineral products, $11,398,979; tobacco products, 125,8137,513; miscellaneous products, $4,631,447; currency, $34,781,640. Total corn merce, $605,068,234.
Banking and Irmance.— Some of the prin cipal banks of Havana are Banco de Cuba, Banco Nacional de Cuba, Bank of Nova Scotia, Fidelity and Deposit Company of Maryland, La Nacional, The Royal Bank of Canada, The Trust Company of Cuba, and the Banco de la Habana with which The National City Bank of New York had made certain arrange ments. Cuba has adopted a system of coin age founded on a parity with the American gold dollar, and the new monetary law de clares money of the United States to be legal tender in Cuba. As a matter of fact, currency of the United States has long been employed in commerce as a supplement to the gold money of •Spain and France. The new unit created in 1915 is the gold peso, worth exactly one dollar (gold of the United States), and the law provides for pieces of $20, $10, $5, $4, $2 and $1, together with silver pieces of one peso, two-fifths, one-fifth and tenths (10 centavos), and also subsidiary coins down to one centavo or one cent. Cuba las no paper money. The law establishing the new currency provides that only coins of the Republic of Cuba and the national currency of the United States shall be legal tender in future; but this, of course, does not affect the validity of out standing contracts. As intimated above, the American-Cuban trade, which had increased somewhat less than threefold (or to $182,000, WO) before the European War, made its fur ther advance in 1915 under exceptional condi tions. These are explained as follows: In the past a large part of the island's banking busi ness was carried on through Cuban banks with London, Paris and Hamburg, from which blank erediti were obtained and used in Cuba for the movement of crops and advances made to planters. But the European War changed this state of affairs, and Cuba applied to American banks for the credits that Europe could no longer grant. The banks of the United States facilitated the granting of those credits to Cuba by means of loans secured by warehouse deposits of sugar, the price of which had ad vanced in comparison with prices of the two previous years, or by shipments of that product to the United States. The budget of 1914-15 was, by executive decree, continued in force for 1915-16 and for 1916-17. It showed esti mated receipts $41,1320,580 and expenses $40, 262,905. The principal items of this estimated income were customs revenue, $29,100,000; consular fees, $670,000, distributed as follows for expenditure: Home Affairs, $11,044,249; Finance, $2,861,018; Instruction, $6,196,420 ; Pub lic Works, $5,101,665. The exterior debt at the commencement of 1915 was given as $57,420,000, the interior debt being $10,408,000.