CUBA. GUANTANAMO. Statement showing the value of declared exports from the consular agency at Guantanamo to the United States during the four quarters of the year ending September 30, 1877. Statement showing the value of declared exports from the consular district of Santiago de Cuba to the United States during the four quarters of the year ending September 30, 1877. MANILA, October 31, 1877. (Received December 15.) Report upon the commerce, navigation, agriculture, and population of the Philippine Islands. I have the honor to transmit the annexed statements bearing upon the commerce of this consular district. The tables of imports and exports are taken from the custom-house report and are made up to the 31st of December, 1876. This information, being furnished only annually, was received at the end of August. The return of navigation, being obtainable from other sources, has been made up to the 30th of September of the present year. IMPORTS. It will be seen that the most of the imports are received by Spanish vessels and to a great extent from the neighboring colonies, where they are transshipped to Spanish flag. This is caused by the differential duty on merchandise imported in Spanish bottoms. The import trade direct from the United States is extremely small, and the consumption of American products is principally confined to flour, petroleum, lamps, and a few minor articles. An attempt, however, is being made to introduce cotton goods, but that branch of trade is principally in the hands of English houses, whose interest must be with British fabrics, and who assert, with some reason, that the Philippine natives are accustomed to cheap goods, having little care as to quality. EXPORTS. The United States are among the largest consumers of Philippine produce, the principal items being sugar and hemp. Of the coffee exported in 1876, the declared value of which was $1,113,169, only $39,785 worth found its market in American ports. Tobacco and cigars are government monopolies, and are sold at public auction for export only, it being a condition in the sale of the former that it shall not be for consumption this side of the Cape of Good Hope, as this might decrease the demand for government-made cigars. The total declared value of these articles exported in 1876 was over $2,000,000. NAVIGATION. The amount of British sailing-tonnage entered and cleared for the year ending 30th of June last was 81,360; of American 80,496; while the Spanish sailing-vessels engaged in foreign trade amounted to only 16,954, but the Spanish steam-tonnage amounted to 64,315 tons, which is composed principally of a line of large steamers between this and Liverpool, via the Suez Canal, and touching in Spain, sustained by government contracts; another semi-monthly line between this and Singapore, carrying the mails under contract, and numerous other smaller vessels, mostly engaged in the coasting trade, which are often diverted to Singapore and Hong-Kong. By these steamers the most of the dutiable imports heretofore referred to are received. The capital invested in these steamers is said to be in great part foreign, although the vessels are nominally owned by Spanish subjects. The differential duty in favor of importing by Spanish vessels was formerly 25 per cent. off, to be extinguished by gradual reduction; it is now 10 per cent. The question of replacing it is however being agitated, and has many partisans both here and in Spain. TOBACCO. The quantity of this product grown in these islands is stated as averag ing 308,000 quintals, costing the government (it being a monopoly) $11.25 per quintal placed at the open ports. The net profit to the gov ernment is published at $3,500,000 per annum, including the profit on the manufacture of cigars. The local consumption of manufactured tobacco is $4,500,000, while the average export of cigars and cheroots is $1,000,000, and that of tobacco leaf is $1,162,500, besides the yearly quantity sent to Spain, which, at average cost, would amount to $912,330. This latter item is considered as part of the cost, and added to published net profit would make it $4,412,320. This is admitted to be a poor result, but the expenses are very heavy, and the system works injuriously to the agricultural and commercial interests of the colony. AGRICULTURE AND POPULATION. = Not one-tenth of the arable land of these islands is cultivated; the estimated extent still untilled being 24,000,000 of hectares, after deducting for rivers, lakes, sterile lands, and the soil already under cultivation, say 1,800,000 hectares (1 hectare 2.4736 acres). Attempts heretofore to obtain a proper census of the Philippines have proved abortive; it has been variously estimated from 5,000,000 to 9,000,000; a new count is now about to be made, but as large parts of the islands are comparatively without any controlling authorities, and also because of the natural suspicion of and dislike to the tribute and other taxes payable by all natives between eighteen and sixty years of age, it is very doubtful whether any reliable figures will be arrived at. There appears no doubt that the population is largely increasing. F. GRISWOLD HERON. |