The History of Cuba Volume III Part 1

The History of Cuba.

vol. 3.

by Willis Fletcher Johnson.

CHAPTER I

The revolutionary era in Cuban history had its rise amid circ.u.mstances of both political and commercial dissatisfaction and protest, and it is by no means impossible nor even improbable that the latter form of discontent was the more potent of the two. The commercial and industrial development of the island, despite its almost incredibly opulent resources, had been very slow, because handicapped by selfish and sordid misgovernment. The typical att.i.tude of the Peninsular government and its agents in Cuba had been to use and to exploit the island for the sole benefit of Spain, and not to permit other nations to enter in compet.i.tion. Other countries, in fact, so great was the secrecy maintained with regard to Cuba, knew but little of the vast wealth contained in this small s.p.a.ce of land. Consequently the island was developed in accordance with the wishes, needs, and potentialities of Spain and with one other point of view. Cuba was never exploited by Spain for all its worth, and indeed there seems to be doubt as to whether Spain ever grasped in full the future possibilities of the island. Certain it is that she never actually realized them. And the loss was in consequence as great to Spain as it was to Cuba. For had Spain allowed herself to lose sight of the richness of present extortions and aided Cuba to develop her resources for the future, the whole story would have been far different. But the people of the United States were beginning to recognize Cuba's possibilities. American merchants began to flock thither. American money and American resourcefulness opened new doors for Cuba's rich products. American trade and enterprise contributed a great deal which made for Cuban expansion and industrial development. In proof of this there is the fact that the island towns on the north side, which is nearest the United States, increased both in population and commercially, in striking contrast to the slow growth of the towns on the south side of the island. In 1850 these latter towns, with Santiago de Cuba as the chief city, did not maintain more than twenty-five per cent. of the trade of the island.

In further proof of America's hand in the development of Cuba, we may cite the following tables, in every one of which it is easy to see that Cuba's trade was largely with the United States. Taking the records of Cuban trade in 1828 as typical of the commerce of the early part of the century, we get the following contrasts with the figures of the years immediately preceding 1850:

Cuban imports in 1828, $19,534,922; exports, $13,414,362; revenue, $9,086,406.

Cuban imports in 1847, $32,389,117; exports, $27,998,770; revenues, $12,808,713.

Cuban imports in 1848, $20,346,516; exports, $20,461,934; revenue, $11,635,052.

These statistics of the imports and exports of Cuba are divided according to the chief countries concerned:

1847 Imports Exports

United States $10,892,335 $8,880,040 Spain 7,088,750 6,780,058 England 6,389,936 7,240,880 France 1,349,683 1,940,535

1848

United States $6,933,538 $8,285,928 Spain 7,088,750 3,927,007 England 4,974,545 1,184,201

Entries and clearings of vessels from Cuba were as follows:

1847 1848

Entries Clearances Entries Clearances

United States 2,012 1722 1733 1611 Spain 819 751 875 747 England 563 489 670 348 France 99 81 85 63

Copper was at this time greatly exported from Cuba. Since its discovery in 1530 comparatively little had been done until three centuries later.

In 1830 an English company commenced operating the copper mines and from that time to 1870 had extracted this ore to the value of $50,000,000.

Sugar had long been the greatest source of Cuban wealth. It was always the sugar planter who had social as well as financial prestige on the island. Up to the middle of the nineteenth century even the poorest and smallest of sugar plantations had yielded a profit of $100,000 a year while the larger and more prosperous ones had cleared even as high as $200,000 annually. And all this had been accomplished with a minimum of effort. Vast areas of Cuba at this period were given over to these plantations. Some estates devoted themselves exclusively to raising the cane, while others ran mills which ground the cane and prepared the product for sale as sugar. Particularly with the soil as it was then, unravished by revolution, with its original fertility unimpaired, it was rarely necessary to replant the sugar cane. The old sprouts came up year after year, yielding at least two crops a year without any necessity for disturbing or enriching the soil. In 1800 Cuba exported 41,000 tons of sugar; and in 1850 no less than 223,000 tons.

From 1836 Cuba had no representation in the Cortes. Although Spain had promised Cuba "special laws," these were not enacted, and such laws as were put on the books were inimical to Cuban interests. Without representation, Cubans were also denied free speech. To speak one's mind against Spain meant to be thrown into a dungeon. If two or more persons signed a pet.i.tion to secure some slight betterment in conditions, it was termed treason, and they were promptly apprehended. Business was under control of the Captain-General. It had to pay him large sums to be allowed to live, and it was compelled to conduct its affairs in accordance with his ideas. The "Junta de Fomento" established by Arango was no longer a factor in the improvement of Cuban affairs, but was packed with creatures of the Captain-General, with favorites of the court, and was used as a means of obtaining information and extorting money from Cubans who were suspected of disloyalty to Spain. The public offices were used to support additional taxation, and to strengthen the despotic rule of the Captain-General.

Under the decree of 1825 the Captains-General had taken unto themselves the most autocratic power. Creoles were not allowed to serve in the army, or in the treasury, customs or judicial departments. From these last three they were excluded because such positions were lucrative, and were desired by court favorites. The Captains-General financed and fostered all kinds of nefarious schemes for extracting wealth from the Cubans to pour it into their own pockets. The poor people were obliged to police the rural districts, and to give up their own occupations to work on the roads making repairs. The control of education in Cuba was given--it hardly seems credible--into the hands of the military functionaries to administer. The Spanish military authorities had a well-organized system of blackmailing well to do citizens by threatening to denounce them for sedition unless they paid hush money, which was put at as large a sum as possible. Of course it did not matter whether the victim was guilty or innocent. If the latter he would have no opportunity of clearing himself. The only thing which the robbers took into consideration was how much he could pay. Money was the open sesame for prison doors, and the barrier which prevented their closing on the unfortunate Cuban.

Yet one would think he would have little left for bribery when he had paid his taxes, for the subject of taxation was after all the most grievous one, and was a direct cause of the various filibustering expeditions which attempted to gain freedom for Cuba, and finally led to the war of independence.

The revenues from all sources, including export and import duties, license fees, and the government lottery, for the year 1851 were $12,248,712.06, which amounted to a tax of $20 for each free citizen.

The excess duties had a very deleterious effect on the commerce of Cuba.

The duty on goods s.h.i.+pped direct from Spain to Cuba was so much less than the duty on goods s.h.i.+pped from other countries that it became the custom to s.h.i.+p materials from the United States to Spain and from Spain back to Cuba, since this cost less than a direct s.h.i.+pment. The direct s.h.i.+pments of flour from the United States to Cuba decreased from 113,245 barrels in 1826 to 100 barrels in 1852, while the imports of flour from Spain, who could hardly produce enough for her own needs, increased from 31,749 barrels to 257,451 barrels in the same time. Of course, this was the golden opportunity for the smuggler, who could slip across from Florida and run his boat into one of the hundreds of little coves with which the coast of Cuba is lined.

Cubans might have more cheerfully rendered their tribute in taxes, but unfortunately the huge sums were not expended for the good of their country. An extravagant government had to be supported. In 1850 the cost of maintaining the army and all expenses in connection with it were over $5,000,000 and the navy cost more than $2,000,000, while the Spanish legation in the United States was maintained from Cuban coffers. Writing of such a state of affairs, Jose Antonio Saco said in 1835:

"Enormous is the load of taxation which weighs upon us--perhaps there is no people in the world which in proportion to its resources and population pays as much as the island of Cuba, nor a country, perhaps, where less care is taken to use on its own soil some part of its great sacrifices."

In 1851 the duty on sugar was raised from 50 cents a box to 87-1/2 cents. Flour and hogs were more heavily taxed than any other imports.

Hogs carried a duty of six dollars each, while the tax on flour was so enormous as to prevent its use by any but the very wealthiest inhabitants. Foreign flour was discriminated against in favor of Spanish flour; on the former the duty was $10 a barrel while on the latter it was increased from $2.50 to $6 a barrel. The records show there importations of flour to Cuba:

1847 1848

From Spain 175,870 bbls. 212,944 bbls.

From America 59,373 bbls. 18,175 bbls.

------- ------- Total 235,243 bbls. 231,119 bbls.

Spain was favored in other ways in these taxes. Spanish vessels were taxed only one-seventh of one per cent. on imports, while foreign vessels were taxed 1.1 per cent, on the same goods. Nor were these taxes the only ones which the people had to undergo. One of the most pernicious of all taxes was the 1/10 of all farm produce which was given to the church. The result of this tax was indirectly bad as well as unjust, for it fostered a kind of priest in Cuba who could do little for the moral and spiritual welfare of the people.

The following table shows the revenue of the island in 1849-51:

Import Export Other Duties Duties Revenues Total 1849 $5,844,783 $ 584,477 $4,782,226 $11,211,526 1850 5,639,225 757,071 3,655,149 10,051,443 1851 6,364,825 1,793,992 4,821,195 12,180,012

The currency of Cuba was gold and silver; and in 1842 she had a total amount in her treasury of $12,000,000 in coin.

An official statement compiled in 1844 lists a few of the taxes, and gives some interesting figures as to the amounts collected. The Cubans were taxed six per cent. of the selling price, on all sales of real estate, or slaves, and on sales at auction and in shop. They were also taxed on Papal Bulls, and there were brokers' taxes, cattle taxes, shopkeepers' taxes, tax on mortgages, tax on donations, tax on c.o.c.kfighting, taxes on grants of crosses, insignia or use of uniforms; taxes on promissory notes or bills of exchange, taxes on munic.i.p.al taxes, taxes on the death of all non-insolvent persons, taxes on investments in favor of the clergy; the church did not escape, for there were taxes on the property of the Jesuits. There were also taxes on sales of public lands, taxes on the establishments of auctioneers, and taxes on everything sold, water ca.n.a.l taxes, and customhouse duties on imports and exports and the tonnage of vessels. Cubans were not only taxed on the sale of lands, but of course on the land itself, and there were state and munic.i.p.al taxes, and they were taxed on their cattle and all animals whether they kept them or sold them. Pa.s.sports were taxed, and as Cuba had a large transient population this tax brought in a goodly sum. Public offices were privately sold to the highest bidder.

There were taxes on the sale of archives to notaries for the recording of deeds. Small fines were being constantly imposed by grafting officials, and the Captain-General's tribunal exacted a special fee, which brought in large sums. Fees were demanded for marriages, both by the church and the state. There was an inheritance tax; there were tolls imposed on bridges; and large amounts were extorted for the nomination to office of captains of districts, city ward commissaries, and watchmen; gambling was licensed; and there were the taxes on sugar, on pastures, on coffee and tobacco, and on minerals exported. The tax on all crops, except sugar, when gathered was ten per cent. There was a tax of $1.25 on every hundred weight of salt. Government doc.u.ments were required to be written on special paper, furnished by the government at a high price.

Worse than all this were the restrictions placed on personal liberty. No private individual of a hospitable nature was allowed to give an entertainment to his friends, even a small evening gathering, without obtaining a license, for which he paid. If he neglected to do this he was fined, and sometimes the license was declared invalid on some pretext and he was fined anyway.

No Cuban could move from place to place, or go on even a short journey, without obtaining a license. If a man wanted to make an evening call on a friend, he could not do so unless he carried a lantern, and obtained from each watchman whom he pa.s.sed permission to proceed. If he failed to comply, he was arrested and fined $8. He could not entertain a guest in his house over night, not even a neighbor, without informing the authorities, under penalty of a heavy fine. The household goods of a Cuban could not be moved from one house to another in the same town without the consent of the authorities, and the penalty for failure in this case was a fine.

The cost of a pa.s.sport, which was necessary before a foreigner could enter any port in Cuba, and the proceeds of which went into the treasury, was $2. The traveller was also obliged to give security for good conduct, and his baggage was thoroughly searched. Particular care was taken to see that he did not have any incendiary literature, and if he had a Bible, which must have been considered a dangerous book, and which, at any rate, came under the ban of both the church and the government, it was promptly separated from his other effects and seized.

Unless he desired to remain in the seaport where he entered, he was required to pay twenty-five cents more for a pa.s.sport permitting him to visit the interior. It seems to have been difficult enough to get into Cuba, but like the proverbial church fair, it was even more expensive to get out, for the privilege cost $7.50.

Some authorities estimate that the taxes of Cuba averaged in 1850 $38 a head, while in the United States, a republic and the nearest neighbor, they amounted to only about $2. But then the people of the United States were free, and were not paying tribute for the privilege of being governed by royalty. The greater part of these taxes were exacted from the Creoles, for the Spaniards made up only about 35,000 of the population and there were estimated to be 520,000 Creoles at this period.

A large number of families came to Cuba from the Spanish colonies of South America and Mexico, which had gained their independence from Spain, and from Florida and Louisiana when they came into the possession of the United States. These families were, of course, all intensely loyal to Spain, and of the arrogant disposition which naturally prevailed among men of such tendencies as led them to prefer the autocracy of Spain to American democracy. In spite of this increase in their number, the native white or Creole population of Cuba outnumbered the Spanish by more than 10 to 1.

In 1850 among the Cubans themselves there were 50 marquises and 30 counts. These men were in the main wealthy planters who had bought their t.i.tles from Spain for sums varying between twenty and fifty thousand dollars. The fundamental reason for this expenditure on their part was not wholly for social prestige but rather to enjoy the greater personal freedom accorded to n.o.bles. These latter could never be tried by ordinary courts but only by tribunals, and they could not be arrested for debt.

Those Cubans who were hoping for better days for Cuba were eager that their children should have opportunities not accorded them. They desired to send them to the United States for education, in the hope perhaps that they might imbibe some of the principles of liberty. But this did not find favor with the Spanish authorities, and it was only by swearing that the children were ill, that the climate did not agree with them, and that they were being sent away for their health, that pa.s.sports could be obtained to get them out of the country.

Many Cubans were persecuted by officials, high and low, falsely accused, condemned without a hearing; shut up in fortresses without adequate food, without the ordinary comforts of life, in solitary confinement, often in dungeons; and frequently their own people were denied knowledge of their whereabouts. They simply dropped out of sight and were gone. No man knew when he opened his eyes in the morning whether that day might be his last as a free human being--free so far as he might be with the thousand and one restrictions imposed upon him. He was not sure that some enemy, unwittingly made, might not inform upon him for some imaginary action of disloyalty, or that he might not be falsely denounced by hired spies. It was then no wonder that those who loved their country, who had self-respect and affection for their families, longed for freedom from Spain, and lived in the hope of emanc.i.p.ation from what was virtual slavery.

Under the Spanish rule the chief officer of government in Cuba was the Captain-General, who after the promulgation of the decree of May 25, 1825, had absolute authority. Even prior to that time, because of the long distance between Cuba and the mother country, the time consumed for information and instructions to travel back and forth, and the fact that Spain was more or less concerned with her own none too quiet domestic affairs, the Captain-General was very powerful.

There was another office under the crown which was much sought after, that of Intendant. He controlled the financial affairs of the island, and received his orders not from the Captain-General but direct from the crown. In his own realm his power was equal to that of the Captain-General, but he had no authority outside his own particular domain. The t.i.tle of Intendant was changed to Superintendent, in 1812, at which time the financial business of Cuba had become so important that it was impossible for it to be handled from one place, and subordinate officers were placed in command at Santiago and Puerto Principe, subject of course to the direction of the Superintendent.

It is needless to say that the arrogant Spanish Captains-General did not relish having anyone on the island who equalled them in rank, and after much controversy at home and abroad the Captain-General in 1844 was declared to be the superior officer, and later on, in 1853, the two offices were united, under the t.i.tle of Captain-General. The Superintendent was head or chief of a "Tribunal de Cuentas" which had judicial control over the treasury and its officers, was auditor in chief of all accounts, and voted on all expenditures. Its rulings were reviewed only by the Minister of Finance in Madrid, to whose direction it was subject.