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.