Cuba

Beginning about 1580, the port of Havana was a major center of the Spanish tobacco trade. Tobacco arrived into Havana from its outskirts and shipments also came from Jamaica, Nicaragua, the Yucatán, and elsewhere by sea. Within a short time, Cuban tobacco distinguished itself above all others and became the island's major export. Thus the early years of the colony saw the rise of an elite group of growers and merchants whose power was founded, to a large extent, on their participation in the tobacco industry. Until the end of the seventeenth century, this elite had few restrictions in its conduct of trade. The growers, who raised tobacco on small farms, depended on the merchants for the exportation of their harvests, and on the large landowners or the church for land to rent.

In the seventeenth century Cuban tobacco had already gained worldwide renown, based on its reputation for high quality and exquisite taste. As a consequence, it commanded international market prices two or three times greater than those of its competitors. The combined incentives of high prices, growing European demand, and a consolidated structure of production on the island made the metropolis determined to take advantage of this promising trade for its own commercial and legal benefit. From then on, at least until the early nineteenth century, the Spanish Crown's attempts at control left a marked imprint on the history of tobacco in Cuba.

Spanish Policies Toward Cuban Production

By the end of the seventeenth century, tobacco production within Cuba had spread significantly. The main market was Spain. The preferred method of consumption in Europe at this time was "polvo" (powder) or snuff, and its manufacture was the most important activity of the Tobacco Factory of Seville, a public enterprise owned by the monarchy. The factory's products required a large supply of tobacco leaves, especially the Cuban ones most favored by consumers. In 1698, to guarantee that the supply serving the Seville factory did not falter, direct royal tobacco purchases in Cuba began. From the beginning, silver from New Spain (Mexico) financed these purchases.

In 1717, royal regulations were strengthened to make the treasury the sole buyer of Cuban production. In other words, a buyer's monopoly was formed. In contrast to the liberties tobacco planters had enjoyed up until then, from this moment on they could sell their product only to the king, at prices fixed by the government. Even more affected, however, were the local merchants, who found themselves excluded from this profitable trade. Protests were not long in coming. The farmers staged an uprising, destroying and burning their own crops. The richest citizens of Havana, with capital in the tobacco business, instigated these revolts. Church officials, as beneficiaries of tithes and other taxes on land dedicated to tobacco, also agitated against the monopoly, even in their sermons.

Still, the royal representatives managed to buy some quantities of tobacco and send them to Spain. For several years, tobacco growing was caught between the competing interests of the Crown and local groups, and the island witnessed three rebellions against the monopoly. After the last of these, in 1723, the king abolished the monopoly, although he did not end the tobacco purchases made by the royal treasury (which had not, in any case, provoked opposition).

Nonetheless, the Spanish government continued to worry about supplies for the factory in Seville, as well as to fear the harm contraband trade could do to the official commerce. For the next several decades, various alternatives were developed to satisfy royal interests in this field, but none offered the expected results.

The Tobacco Monopoly

The definitive solution came in 1760 with the establishment of a new monopoly and of the Real Factoría de Tabacos (Royal Tobacco Agency) of Havana. The fundamental objective of the monopoly was still to supply raw material to the royal factory in Seville. The Factoría in Havana had the responsibility of guaranteeing this supply by controlling and regulating the products of Cuban planters.

The earlier experience had shown that if the growers were not satisfied, there could ensue uprisings that would obstruct the efficient establishment of the monopoly. For this reason, royal instructions were careful to send the message that the new regulations' goal was to aid planters and stimulate production. The officials in charge of the Factoría were urged to be prudent and gentle with the population and especially with the growers. In the event of conflicts, they were to attempt persuasion, so that the islanders would be convinced that this institution was to their benefit.

The growers were instructed to hold regional meetings to determine the best method of planting and caring for tobacco, and to agree on the price they hoped to receive. These meetings discussed everything relevant to the reciprocal interests and obligations of the royal treasury and planters surrounding the purchase of tobacco. The instructions did not skimp on details about how production should be managed: They specified the time and manner in which the seedbeds should be prepared; the method of transplanting the seedlings; directions for the harvest and curing of the leaves, and their preparation into sheaves or bundles, and even procedures for the tobacco's delivery to the royal warehouse. To avoid the discontent of the farmers, the treasury offered prices higher than those paid by private merchants. It was also thought that Factoría's stringent demands as to methods of planting, care, and delivery of the tobacco justified a higher price as well.

On the other hand, the regulations establishing the Factoría also included mechanisms of supervision and legal control related to all aspects of the monopoly. Though cultivation of the plants and harvesting and drying of the leaves were in the hands of the growers, the Factoría bought the entire crop, of which it sent a part directly to Seville in leaf, and milled the other part on the island, which was later shipped as partially processed snuff. The latter required investments in technology and slaves. Though most of the ground tobacco was sent to the factory in Seville for still further refinement, small portions were also sold to other colonies within the Spanish Empire.

In Cuba, cultivation of a tobacco plant began with the preparation of a seedbed in uncut forest land. When the germinated seeds reached a length of one-quarter vara (about 20 centimeters) they were transplanted to tobacco fields near rivers, preferably subject to flooding. The growers were instructed to then care for the plants until they had matured, at which point they should carry out the harvest leaf by leaf, selecting those that were useful and of good quality. The harvested leaves were to be hung two by two from stout poles, tying them by their heads with the veins toward the top, with one finger's worth of space between every two leaves, and not more than 150 hung from any one pole, so that the tobacco should not be crushed and lose its quality. The poles, known as cuges, were to be mounted within barns (estancias), protected from both sun and air. After forty days, the time it would take the leaves to dry, they were to be wrapped in hides, pressed, and delivered to the Factoría.

Cuban growers had previously been accustomed to transporting tobacco during the night for protection from the sun. Under the administration of the Factoría, however, they were required to do so by day. In case for some reason this could not be done, the tobacco would not be accepted until 10:00 a.m. These restrictions were owing to the fact that the nighttime dew dampened the loads being transported, increasing their weight and therefore their price.

The Factoría de Tabacos de La Habana formally opened on 1 March 1761. A little more than a year later—in August 1762—its operation was interrupted by the English invasion. When Spain recovered the colony, the Factoría resumed its duties and continued to function until 1817. Between 1766 and 1773, the Cuban tobacco monopoly experienced its best years, a period of growth and consolidation, as evidenced by the high volumes of leaves received at the Factoría and sent to Spain.

Land Conflicts

As might be expected, however, not all was harmonious. In general terms, the agrarian structure of the island from the sixteenth century on was characterized on by the creation of large cattle ranches on the one hand and small agricultural plots on the other. With the intensification of the tobacco business in the seventeenth century, the practice of making room for small agricultural units within the cattle haciendas became preponderant. The ideal sites traditionally devoted to tobacco growing were the vegas, small riverside parcels of land. As tobacco production grew, the vegas became population centers, acquiring great demographic importance. The basic geographical element of natural vegas determined that their spread would follow the routes of the rivers. But because they were almost always located within large haciendas, these centers confronted obstacles that limited their growth.

As long as the tobacco vegas did not constitute the basis of a growing export trade, the hacienda owners permitted them. But in the mid-seventeenth century, the surge in tobacco exports made the vegas an expansive force that threatened the interests of the ranchers. This led to a plethora of disputes between hacienda owners and tobacco planters that lasted into the nineteenth century.

The conflict between these two groups also affected the woodlands within the jurisdiction of the haciendas. These woodlands, it will be recalled, were the sites of the seedbeds for the tobacco later transplanted to the vegas. The representatives of the tobacco growers argued that the use of woodlands for this purpose lasted no more than seven months, and that a given parcel was not used again for fifteen or twenty years, the recommended fallow period. Thus, they considered the hacienda owners' intransigence unjustified. But the latter persisted in prohibiting access to the woodlands. With the creation of the Factoría, royal officials tried to guarantee the growers' access to both vegas and woodlands, sometime through stringent legislation.

Tobacco Finance

From the time Spain's royal treasury first began buying tobacco in Cuba, such payments were financed with silver from New Spain. The establishment of the Factoría, through which the state bought the entire Cuban harvest, reaffirmed this practice. The purchases were paid for with fixed contributions sent from New Spain, called situados de tabaco, which totaled 400,000 pesos annually until 1767 and 500,000 thereafter.

For the Seville factory to be well supplied with raw material, the purchases in Cuba had to be assured. For this in turn to be accomplished, silver from New Spain was key. Thus, the whole mechanism depended to a great degree on the situados. Yet that revenue source was the greatest weakness of the monopoly because it meant the monopoly relied almost exclusively on the situados without being able to count on any other mechanisms of revenue or capitalization.

When war broke out, which was frequently in the last third of the eighteenth century, the shipments were interrupted. They were also interrupted whenever New Spain faced any financial problems. Thus, from 1779 on, the situados began to fail more and more often, so that the structure of the Factoría began to collapse. When Mexico launched its war of independence, the situados disappeared forever. The Factoría likewise ceased to function, and it was officially abolished in 1817.

By then, the sugar industry had already replaced tobacco as Cuba's principal economic activity. Tobacco production went through some crisis years in which its yield was insignificant. In the 1840s, however, it once again became apparent that Cuban tobacco had maintained its incomparable international prestige, which it still enjoys in the twenty-first century.

See Also British Empire; Caribbean; Dutch Empire; French Empire; Spanish Empire.

? LAURA NÁTER

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Guerra y Sánchez, Ramiro. Manual de Historia de Cuba (económica, social y política). Havana: Cultural, 1938.

Le Riverend, Julio. Historia económica de Cuba. Havana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1985.

Náter, Laura. Integración imperial: El sistema de monopolios de tabaco en el Imperio español. Cuba y América en el siglo XVIII. Ph.D. diss., El Colegio de México, 2000.

Ortiz, Fernando. Contrapunteo cubano del tabaco y el azúcar. Caracas: Biblioteca Ayacucho, 1987.

Rivero Muñiz, José. Las tres sediciones de los vegueros en el siglo XVIII. Havana: Academia de la Historia de Cuba, 1951.

——. Tabaco, su historia en Cuba. Havana: Instituto de Historia, 1964.

snuff a form of powdered tobacco, usually flavored, either sniffed into the nose or "dipped," packed between cheek and gum. Snuff was popular in the eighteenth century but had faded to obscurity by the twentieth century.

tithe a one-tenth portion of produce or income given to the church. Historically, tithes were sometimes levied without the consent of the population.

contraband trade traffic in a banned or outlawed commodity. Smuggling.

consolidation combining smaller units into a larger one. In agriculture, consolidating small farms into one large farm usually makes operations more efficient and profitable.