Page:Statesman's Year-Book 1899 American Edition.djvu/283

 CUBA — COMMERCE AND INDUSTRY

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wax, and fruits. The chief imports are rice, jerked beef, and flour. The Spanish official returns state tlie value of the imports from Cuba into Spain for 18'. �6 to be 21,8U8,215 Spanish pesetas (.s4,210,:J55.49), and the exports from Spain to Cuba 134,461,075 pesetas (-$25,951, 00;].27).i In 1807 the imports of the United States from Cuba amounted to $405,326,037, and the exports from the United States to Cuba $100,450,712. A British Foreign Office report from Madrid (Annual Series, No. 1851, 1897) gives the value of the imports of Cuba during the fiscal year ending April, 1890, as 600,100,754, and of the exports as .^94,395,530. The commerce of Spain with Cuba since 1892, the figures up to 1895 being taken from a compilation by the Department of Agriculture, and those for 1890 from a British Foreign Office report (Annual Series, No. 2005, 1898), was:

Description 1892 1893 1894 1895 1896 Imports from Cuba. . Exports to Cuba. . . Dollars 9.570,399 28,046,636 Dollars 5,697,291 24,689,373 Dolla rs 7,265,120 22,592,943 Dollars 7,176,105 26,298,497 Dollars 4,257,360 26,145,81)0

The trade of Mexico with Cuba during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1897, was : Imports from Cuba, $303 ; exports to Cuba, $20,700. The commerce of the island with the principal European countries cannot be given with accuracy, as the various official statistics include Porto Rico in the statements of trade — the figures for Germany comprising other Spanish dependencies as well. The commerce of the United King- dom, France, and Belgium with Cuba and Porto Rico in 1890 was as follows, the figures for the United States and Spain for the same year being repeated for comparative purposes :

Country Imports Exports Country Imports Exports United Kingdom. Belgium .... France Dollars 174,187 208.304 3,3;38,900 Dollars 5,843,892 1,089,239 424.600 United States. Spain .... Dollars 40,017,730 4,257,360 Dollars 7,530.886 26,146,800

The British consul-general at Havana, Mr. Gollan (Foreign Office Annual Series, No. 1880, 1897), gives the following table, showing the chief articles of import into Cuba in 1890 :

Articles From Total Value Articles From Total Value Europe America Europe America Butter cases Cheese do Rice cwt. Beer barrel - Do cases Salt fish drums Flour bags 6,338 1,881 853,5:18 4.629 6,574 5,036 404.019 54 44.358 23,800 2,860 2,044 79,521 100,321 Dollars 319,700 323,673 2,807.481 82,379 43,090 686,0(Mt 4,285,522 Coal tons Potatoes barrels Maize bags Laid cwt. Total . . . 29,050 53.083 180,487 231,774 97.303 194.308 Dollars 2,085,370 996,702 467,049 2.078.811 14,175,777

^ A peseta equals $0,193.