to prices for this article in consequence of the civil war in the United States, led to increased cultivation, and the exportation was in

After the close of the American civil war, however, prices went down, and the production of cotton again fell off. it lately have been in—

1890.. 1891.....

1892....

The exports of

Of the woods other than logwood regularly exported, there are mahogany, lignum-vitæ, bois juane, and bayarondes, though they seem not always to appear in the list during the past few years.

The most important of these is mahogany, which is said to be of excellent quality. In 1845, just after the secession of San Domingo, 7,904,283 feet of it were exported, and then for several years, covering the Presidency of General Geffrard up to 1867, the average yearly exportation was about 2,200,000 feet. Since then, there has been a marked falling off, which is due partly to the difficulty of transporting that which is still to be found to convenient places for shipment, and a growing tendency to make use of it in the country. The shipments of it recently have been for

1890.. 1891.

1892.

Feet.

33, 948

34, 932

9, 397

A complete list of the exports of all products during the fiscal

years 1890, 1891, and 1892, as it appears in official documents, is as follows:

It can safely be affirmed that if copper, and possibly hides and skins, be excepted, there is not an article in the foregoing list whose exportation could not with comparative ease and facility be very materially increased-nay, in most instances, doubled. It should not be forgotten that there are, besides, quite a number of industries and easy possibilities, some of them long neglected, others never yet tried, which await only continued peace in the country, intelligent enterprise, and capital for development.

Chapter IX.

POSSIBILITIES FOR NEGLECTED AND UNDEVELOPED INDUS

TRIES.

Reference has been made in a preceding chapter to the high degree of prosperity reached by the Spaniards in Santo Domingo during the earliest decades of their occupation there, and to the statements of authorities to the effect that the annual exportations consisting in part of sugar, coffee, cotton, tobacco, indigo, etc., created a trade that made the colony the emporium of the New World. All this paled, however, before the subsequent prosperity of the French colonists in Haiti. They pushed forward the development of the natural resources to such a point that immediately preceding the Revolution of 1789, the annual value of their imports ran up to 193 millions of livres tournois and that of their annual exports to 200 millions of livres tournois. The livre tournois, which was superseded by the franc in 1795, but in which the official money returns were made up as late as that date, may, for convenient calculation in round numbers, be set down at 20 cents American money. (Its more exact value was 19% cents). The annual value of the foreign commerce of Haiti at that period was somewhat more than $78,000,000. It kept in constant service 1,400 vessels, about only half of them being under the French flag, and more than 11,000 seamen were employed in the trade between Haiti and Europe alone.

The value of personal property in the colony was returned at 1,487,840,000 livres tournois, which was equal to about

$297,568,000. This return, however, included a valuation of 455,000 slaves at $500 per capita. The value of real estate was set down at a round thousand millions of livres tournois or $200,000,000. ("Les propriétés foncières pouvaient être évalueés. à un milliard de livres tournois."-M. Robin.)*

The exports consisted (for the year 1791) of—

Woods (mahogany, logwood, and lignum-vitæ)............do....

I, 500

It is to be remembered that this was wholly confined to the French colony now known as Haiti, and that about 30 per cent must be added to these figures to bring them up to those of the exports of 1787-1789, because the insurrection in August, 1791, caused a falling off for that year.

Of course, the high state of material prosperity was reached under the enforced labor of slaves, but it shows something of the natural capabilities and marvelous productiveness of the soil. Is there any essential reason why the same remarkable degree of prosperity can not under free institutions be reached and maintained, if not even surpassed there, if only the internal peace and domestic tranquillity be assured and wise economical conditions open to all alike be established and kept in vigor? Probably, some such end will be sooner or later attained, because the general interests of all concerned and the increase of population will demand it. There are already evidences of a trend in that direction.

*See Bryan Edwards's History of the West Indies, Vol. IV, pp. 200 et seq. See also the Abrégé de l'Ile d'Haïti par M. E. Robin, Vol. II, pp. 68 and 69.

It would require a wide range of knowledge to affirm with confidence that the soil of Haiti is unsurpassed in its possibilities of production. It is quite safe, however, to assert that its capacity in that respect has been proved to be prodigious. There is no article of commerce produced in the tropics that is not found or could not be produced in Haiti. It seems, besides, as if almost anything that will grow elsewhere can be grown in either the uplands or the lowlands of that beautiful country. Apples, peaches, strawberries, blackberries, and other temperate-zone growths are to be found in the uplands, though of course not as yet in any great abundance.*

In the colonial times, the most important article of export was sugar, of which 176,476,557 English pounds were exported in the single year of 1791. Its value as given in the returns for that year was 117,612,348 livres tournois or about $23,522,469. For the same year, the export of indigo, which amounted to 1,004,417 English pounds, was valued at 10,875,120 livres tournois or about $2,175,024. Since the independence, production of these two articles has been almost wholly neglected, only comparatively small quantities of sugar in the crude form having been shipped abroad during the past few years.

It

The soil seems especially adapted to the cultivation of the sugar cane. grows there with remarkable rapidity and to astonishing proportions, sometimes attaining a height of more than 20 feet and a diameter at the base of more than 4 inches. Once planted, it requires very little, if any, further care, except to be cut down when it reaches maturity. As soon as it is cut, the root begins to sprout again, and thus for years no replanting is at all necessary. It is said that on the average, one carreau, which is equivalent to about three and one-fifth acres of land, devoted to the

"In richness and variety of vegetable products, Haiti is not excelled by any other country in the world. All tropical plants and trees grow there in perfection, and nearly all vegetables and fruits of temperate climates may be successfully cultivated in its highlands." See Encyclopædia Britannica, Art. Haiti.