In 1550 a monetary crisis occurred in Havana, owing to the failure of the governor, Dr. Gonzalo Perez de Angulo, to enforce the provision of the Spanish law, that the silver Real should be estimated at 34 maravedis, instead of 40 to 44, the commercial rate prevailing at Vera Cruz, Santo Domingo, Cartagena de las Indias and other points near the silver mines. The governor, actuated by private interests, claimed that conditions in Cuba justified the same rate as in these places, and that the legal rate of 34 to 1, if applied, would drain the country of its silver stock. These views were also expressed by travellers going from Mexico to Spain, who were obliged to make a long stoppage in Havana, where their money was exchanged, insisting that they should receive the larger or commercial rate for their silver as in other places. Not disposed to change his attitude in the matter, the Spanish King issued a royal circular reasserting the legal rate of 34 to 1 for Cuba, under a penalty of 100,000 maravedis, instead of 10,000 as fixed in his former order, for each violation. The sovereign mandate was complied with, as peace and policy required, but this demand for a higher valuation of money in Cuba than in the mother country is taken as the origin of the premium afterwards placed on Spanish coin, with which the people of later times are familiar. When in the year 1779 the Spanish gold onza was coined, its par value was estimated at 16 pesos in Spain. But in Cuba it was shortly afterwards taken to represent 17 pesos, or a premium of about 6%, which it continued to hold until the repatriation of Spanish money a few years ago. This premium was expected to keep gold in the country, at an excess valuation, along with the annual output of $800,000 in silver coming from Mexico, sugar and tobacco being exported from Cuba to North America and Europe as an offset thereto. [Illustration: LEOPOLDO CANCIO Born at Sancti Spiritus on May 30. 1851, Leopoldo Cancio y Luna rose to eminence as a jurist, economist and financier; and for many years has filled the chair of Economics and Finance in the University of Havana. As one of the founders of the Autonomist party he became a Deputy in the Spanish Cortes after the Ten Years’ War. Under the Governorship of General Brooke he was Assistant Secretary and under General Leonard Wood he was Secretary of Finance, an office which he now fills in the Cabinet of President Menocal. He was the author of the great monetary reforms of 1914.] When the modern Spanish centen or alfonsino, and the French Louis or 20 franc gold piece, came into vogue, they were also admitted to Cuba at the same ratio as the onza, namely a 6% premium or 17 to 18 approximately, to the detriment of Cuban industry and commerce, throughout the course of the nineteenth century.