This tariff was maintained without material change until a reciprocal commercial agreement was effected by the United States and Spain in 1891. For the first time in its history, Cuba found itself in a position to trade on favorable terms with its nearest and best market. As a result the trade of the Island was soon transferred, almost in its entirety, to the United States, and its people enjoyed a term of prosperity transcending anything in their former experience. The change was, however, short lived. In 1894 the termination of the agreement and the reëstablishment of the old regulations forced compulsory traffic with Spain upon the Cubans. But the burdens entailed upon the people by trade restrictions were by no means all that they were called on to bear. A system of heavy and vexatious taxation prevailed during the entire period of Spain’s dominance over the Island. Taxes were levied on all kinds of property and on every form of industry. Every profession and occupation was taxed. Legal papers, petitions and business documents were required to be stamped. There was a “consumption tax” on the killing of cattle which, of course, increased the price of meat to the consumer. There was an impost of twenty ducats, called the _derecho de averia_, collected upon every person who arrived on the Island. This was established in the earliest years of the colony and maintained until near the close of the eighteenth century. During the last hundred years of its enforcement, the amount was increased from sixteen dollars to twenty-two dollars. It is needless to say that this tax seriously impeded immigration of the peasant class most needed by the country. There was a lottery tax, and a “_cedula_,” or head tax. The latter proved very burdensome to the poorest of the people who, when in arrears of it, were debarred from the exercise of most rights and privileges involving civil and ecclesiastical authorization. Thus, they could not make contracts, enter into marriages, or secure baptism for their children until the overdue tax had been paid.