United States Bureau of Statistics, the imports of
this country from Cuba for the five years ending
June 30, 1895, amounted to $346,902,092, and the
exports thereto to $87,269,138, while the specie
shipments to the island during the same period were
$87,544,830 in gold and $298,256 in silver. Apart
from sugar and other products of the cane, and to bacco,
there is little manufacturing done in Cuba,
and much of its provisions, especially meat and
flour, are imported. On account of discriminating
duties, the imports of manufactures came chiefly from
Spain. Spanish exports to Cuba for the year ending
June 30, 1894, amounted to $23,4x2,576, while
the imports from the island were only $7,528,622.
T h e total annual exports from Cuba just before the
revolt of 1895 were about $90,000,000 in value, and
the imports $60,000,000. Of the total foreign trade,
about three fourths was with the United States.
Apart from the political disturbances of recent years,
the sugar interest has suffered from a serious decline
in prices and from the competition of the beet-sugar
product of Europe stimulated by subsidies and protective
duties.
There are several lines of steamers connecting
Havana and other Cuban ports with New York,
some of them making calls at other islands and at
intermediate ports on the Atlantic coast. A Spanish
line runs between Havana and Cadiz, touching
at Santander and Corunna, a French line between
Havana and St. Nazaire, and a German line between
Havana and Hamburg, while an English line from
Southampton to Vera Cruz, Mexico, stops at Havana
and St. Thomas on its way. There are also
regular lines connecting Havana with Vera Cruz
and Sisal; with Colon, stopping at Nuevitas and
Gibara; and with San Juan de Puerto Rico, stopping
at the ports on the northern coast of Cuba.
Coastwise steamers ply from port to port all around
the island. T h e principal towns are connected by
telegraph, which has been established by the government,
largely for its own civil and military service,
and kept under its control. There is a submarine
cable connecting Havana with K e y West and the
Florida coast, one running around from Havana to
Cienfuegos and Santiago de Cuba, another starting
at Havana which reaches Panama by way of Santiago,
Jamaica, Puerto Rico, and the Lesser Antilles,
and finally one from Havana to Venezuela and
Brazil by way of Santiago, Haiti, and Santo D o mingo.
T h e bone and sinew and to a large extent the
brains and character of the population of Cuba for
two generations have been in the native creoles,
though the Spaniards have continued to dominate
politically and even socially, especially in the great
city of Havana, which contains a full sixth of all the
people of the island. These I ‘ Cubans, ’jj as they are
proud to call themselves, include a considerable element
of highly intelligent and cultivated people,
many of them being educated abroad. A small number
have attained distinction in science and literature,
but the general level of education is not high.
T he university at Havana and the colleges there
and at Puerto Principe and Santiago, as well as most