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Rh to the United States alone. After 1868 the mines were again abandoned and flooded, the mining property being ruined during the civil war. Finally, after 1900 they again became prosperous producers. The “Cobre” mine is only the most famous and productive of various copper properties. The copper output has not greatly increased since 1890, and is of slight importance in mineral exports. Iron and manganese have, on the contrary, been greatly developed in the same period. Iron is now the most important mineral product. The iron ores are even more accessible than the famous ones of the Lake Superior region in the United States. No shafts or tunnels are necessary except for exploration; the mining consists entirely in open-cut and terrace work. The cost of exploitation is accordingly slight. Daiquiri, near Santiago, and mines near Nipe, on the north coast, are the chief centres of production. Nearly the entire product goes to the United States. The first exports from the Daiquiri district were made by an American company in 1884; the Nipe (Cagimaya) mines became prominent in promise in 1906. The shipments from Oriente province from 1884 to 1901 aggregated 5,053,847 long tons, almost all going to the United States (which is true of other mineral products also). After 1900 production was greatly increased and by 1906 had come to exceed half a million tons annually. There are small mines in Santa Clara and Camagüey provinces. Manganese is mined mainly near La Maya and El Cristo in Oriente. The traditions as to gold and silver have already been referred to. Evidences of ancient workings remain near Holguin and Gibara, and it is possible that some of these workings are still exploitable. Mining for the precious metals ceased at a very early date, after rich discoveries were made on the continent. Bituminous products, though, as already stated, widely distributed, are not as yet much developed. The most promising deposits and the most important workings are in Matanzas and Santa Clara provinces. Petroleum has been used to some extent both as a fuel and as an illuminant. Small amounts of asphalt have been sent to the United States. Locally, asphalts are used as gas enrichers. Grahamite and glance-pitch are common, and are exported for use in varnish and paint manufactures. The commercial product of stones, brick and cement is of rapidly increasing importance. The foundation of the island is in many places almost pure carbonate of lime, and there are numerous small limekilns. The product is used to bleach sugar, as well as for construction and disinfection purposes. The number of small brick plants is legion, almost all very primitive.

Commerce.—Commerce (resting largely upon specialized agriculture) is vastly more prominent as yet than manufacturing and mining in the island’s economy. The leading articles of export are sugar, tobacco and fruit products; of import, textiles, foodstuffs, lumber and wood products, and machinery. Sugar and tobacco products together represent seven-eighths (in 1904–1907 respectively 60.3 and 27.3%) of the normal annual exports. In the quinquennial period 1890–1894 (immediately preceding the War of Independence) the average yearly commerce of the island in and out was $86,875,663 with the United States; and $28,161,726 with Spain. During the American military occupation of the island in 1899–1902, of the total imports 45.9% were from the United States, 14 from other American countries, 15 from Spain, 14 from the United Kingdom, 6 from France and 4 from Germany; of the exports the corresponding percentages for the same countries were 70.7, 2, 3, 10, 4 and 7. No special favours were enjoyed by the United States in this period, and about the same percentages prevailed in the years following. The total commercial movement of the island in the five calendar years 1902–1906 averaged $177,882,640 (for the five fiscal years 1902–1903 to 1906–1907, $185,987,020) annually, and of this the share of the United States was $108,431,000 yearly, representing 45.8% of all imports and

81.9% of all exports. The proportion of imports taken from the United States is greatest in foodstuffs, metals and metal manufactures, timber and furniture, mineral oils and lard. The trade of the United States with the island was as great in 1900–1907 as with Mexico and all the other West Indies combined; as great as its trade with Spain, Portugal and Italy combined; and almost as great as its trade with China and Japan.

Communications.—Poor means of communication have always been a great handicap to the industries of the island. The first railroad in Cuba (and the first in Spanish lands) was opened from Havana to Güines in 1837. In succeeding years a fairly ample system was built up between the cities of Pinar del Rio and Santa Clara, with a number of short spurs from the chief ports farther eastward into the interior. After the first American occupation a private company built a line from Santa Clara to Santiago, more than half the length of the island, finally connecting its two ends (1902). The policy of the railways was always one rather of extortion than of fairness or of any interest in the development of the country, but better conditions have begun. There was ostensible government regulation of rates after 1877, but the roads were guaranteed outright against any loss of revenue, and in fact practically nothing was ever done in the way of reform in the Spanish period. In 1900 the total length of railways was 2097 m., of which 1226 were of 17 public roads and 871 m. of 107 private roads. In August 1908 the mileage of all railways (including electric) in Cuba was 2329.8 m. The telegraph and telephone systems are owned by the government. Cables connect the island with Florida, Jamaica, Haiti and San Domingo, Porto Rico, the lesser Antilles, Panama, Venezuela and Brazil. Havana, Santiago and Cienfuegos are cable ports. Wagon roads are still of small extent and primitive character save in a very few localities. The peculiar two-wheeled carts of the country, carrying enormous loads of 4 to 6 tons, destroy even the finest road. Similar carts, slightly lighter, used in the cities, quickly destroy any paving but stone block. The only good highways of any considerable length in 1908 were in the two western provinces and in the vicinity of Santiago. During the second American occupation work was begun on a network of good rural highways.

Population.—Various censuses were taken in Cuba beginning in 1774; but the results of those preceding the abolition of slavery, at least, are probably without exception extremely untrustworthy. The census of 1887 showed a population of 1,631,687, that of 1899 a population of 1,572,792 (the decrease of 3.6% is explained by the intervening war); and by the census of 1907 there were 2,048,980 inhabitants, 30.3% more than in 1899. The average of settlement per square mile varied from 169.7 in Havana province to 11.8 in Camagüey, and was 46.4 for all of Cuba; the percentage of urban population (in cities, that is, with more than 1000 inhabitants) in the different provinces varied from 18.2 in Pinar del Rio to 74.7 in Havana, and was 43.9 for the entire island. There were five cities having populations above 25,000—Havana, 297,159; Santiago, 45,470; Matanzas, 36,009; Cienfuegos, 30,100; Puerto Príncipe (or Camagüey), 29,616; and fourteen more above 8000—Cardenas, Manzanillo, Guanabacoa, Santa Clara, Sagua la Grande, Sancti Spiritus, Guantánamo, Trinidad, Pinar del Rio, San Antonio de los Baños, Jovellanos, Marianao, Caibarién and Güines. The proportion of the total population which in 1907 was in cities of 8000 or more was only 30.3%; and the proportion in cities of 25,000 or more was 21.4%. Mainly owing to the large element of transient foreign whites without families (long characteristic of Cuba), males outnumber females—in 1907 as 21 to 19. Native whites, almost everywhere in the majority, constituted 59.8% of all inhabitants; persons of negro and mixed blood, 29.7%; foreign-born whites, 9.9%; Chinese less than 0.6%. Foreigners constituted 25.6% of the population in the city of Havana; only 7% in Pinar del Rio province. Native blood is most predominant in the provinces of Oriente and Pinar del Rio. After the end of the war of 1895–1898 a large immigration from Spain began; the inflow from the United States was very small in comparison. The Republic strongly encourages