war of 1812 between the
United States and England; and the general revolt of the Spanish colonies.
The world was learning new lessons, adopting new policies, in which the
Spanish colonial system was a blunder the folly of which Spain did not
even then fully realize. Yet from it all, by one means and another, Cuba
benefited. Spain was fortunate in its selection of Governors-General sent
out at this time. Luis de Las Casas, who arrived in 1790, is credited with
much useful work. He improved roads and built bridges; established schools
and the _Casa de Beneficencia_, still among the leading institutions in
Havana; paved the streets of Havana; improved as far as he could the
commercial conditions; and established the _Sociedad Patriotica_, sometimes
called the _Sociedad Economica_, an organization that has since contributed
immeasurably to Cuba's welfare and progress. He was followed by others
whose rule was creditable. But the principal evils, restricted commerce
and burdensome taxation, were not removed, although world conditions
practically compelled some modification of the commercial regulations. In
1801 the ports of the island were thrown open to the trade of friendly and
neutral nations. Eight years later, foreign commerce was again prohibited.
In 1818, a new system was established, that of a tariff so highly favorable
to merchandise from Spain that it was by no means unusual for goods to
be shipped to that country, even from the United States, and from there
reshipped to Cuba. Changes in the rates were made from time to time, but
the system of heavy discrimination in favor of Spanish goods in Spanish
ships continued until the equalization of conditions under the order of the
Government of Intervention, in 1899.

In his book published in 1840, Mr. Turnbull states that "the mercantile
interests of the island have been greatly promoted by the relaxation of
those restrictive regulations which under the old peninsular system bound
down all foreign commerce with the colonies of Spain, and laid it prostrate
at the feet of the mother-country. It cannot be said that the sound
principles of free trade, in any large or extended sense of the term,
have been recognized or acted upon even at the single port of Havana. The
discriminating duties imposed by the supreme government of Madrid on the
natural productions, manufactures, and shipping of foreign countries, in
contradistinction to those of Spain, are so stringent and so onerou