Cuba, Old and NewRobinson, Albert G. (Albert Gardner)
History
Cuba, Old and New
Robinson, Albert G. (Albert Gardner)
Cuba
Cane sugar is produced in large or small quantities in some fifty
different countries and islands. In many, the output is only for domestic
consumption, or in quantity too small to warrant inclusion in the list of
sources of commercial supply. Sixteen countries are included in the list of
beet-sugar producers. Of these, all are in Europe with the exception of the
United States and Canada. Only two countries, the United States and
Spain, produce sugar from both beet and cane. British India leads in the
production of cane sugar, with Cuba a close second on the list, and Java
the third. In their total, these three countries supply about two-thirds
of the world's total output of cane sugar. Hawaii and Porto Rico, in that
order, stand next on the list of producers. Under normal conditions,
Germany leads in beet-sugar production, with Russia second, Austria-Hungary
third, France fourth, and the United States fifth, with Belgium, the
Netherlands, Italy, Sweden, and Denmark following. The island of Cuba is
the most important source of commercial cane sugar. Immediately before
the revolution of 1895, its output a little exceeded a million tons. The
derangement caused by that experience covered several years, and it was not
until 1903 that so large a crop was again made. Since that time, the output
has more than doubled. The increase is attributable to the large increase
in demand in the United States, and to the advantage given Cuban sugar in
this market by the reciprocity treaty of 1903. Practically all of Cuba's
export product is in the class commonly known as 96 degree centrifugals,
that is, raw sugar of 96 per cent, or thereabout, of sugar content. Under
normal conditions, nearly all of Cuba's shipments are to the United States.
The sugar industry was introduced in Cuba very soon after the permanent
settlement of the island, by Spaniards, in the early years of the 16th
Century, but it was not until two hundred and fifty years later that
Spain's restrictive and oppressive colonial policy made even its fair
extension possible. In 1760, two and a half centuries after the first
settlement, the sugar exports of the island were a little less than 4,400
tons. In 1790, they were a little more than 14,000 tons. Some relaxation of
the laws regulating production and exportation, made possible an increase
to 41,000 tons in 1802, and further relaxation made possible, in 1850, an
output somewhat unreliably reported as 223,000 tons. It reached 632,000
tons in 1890, and the stimulus of the "free sugar" schedule of the United
States brought it, in the next few years, to more than a million tons.
Production in recent years has averaged about 2,500,000 tons.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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