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 onerous as
altogether to exclude the idea of anything approaching to commercial
freedom. There is no longer, it is true, any absolute prohibition, but in
many cases the distinguishing duties are so heavy as to defeat their own
object, and, in place of promoting the interests of the mother-country,
have had little other effect than the establishment of an extensive and
ruinous contraband." Under such conditions as those existing in Cuba,
from its beginning practically until the establishment of its political
independence, industrial development and commercial expansion are more than
difficult.

One of the natural results of such a system appeared in the activities of
smugglers. The extent to which that industry was carried on cannot, of
course, be even guessed. Some have estimated that the merchandise imported
in violation of the laws equalled in value the merchandise entered at
the custom houses. An official publication (American) states that "from
smuggling on a large scale and privateering to buccaneering and piracy is
not a long step, and under the name of privateers French, Dutch, English,
and American smugglers and buccaneers swarmed the Caribbean Sea and the
Gulf of Mexico for more than two centuries, plundering Spanish _flotas_
and attacking colonial settlements. Among the latter, Cuba was the chief
sufferer." Had Cuba's coasts been made to order for the purpose, they could