Complaints arose, not from the existence of discriminating duties, but from the fact that those duties were too high, and that this prevented the Antilles from securing the markets which they needed for their rich and abundant productions, and from the lack of reciprocity. Thus, as no insurmountable difficulties exist, there is ground for saying that an understanding is more than possible; that it is certain, especially when it is considered that the exports from the peninsula to Cuba consist of about fifty articles of the four hundred that are specified in the tariff, and that of these fifty many, owing to their special character, and owing to the customs and tastes of the Cubans, will never have reason to fear the competition of foreign articles.
The manufacturers and shipowners of the Peninsula have no cause for alarm owing to the establishment of a system of autonomy, which, while it modifies the conditions on which the tariff is based, does not alter the essential bases of the economic relations between Spain and the Antilles. There will doubtless be some difficulties to be harmonized, or it will be necessary to settle the inevitable differences accompanying any change of the mercantile régime; it will be necessary to combine both tariffs in some way; but neither are the interests of Cuba opposed to those of the Peninsula, nor is it to any one's interest to diminish the commercial relations existing between the two countries.
If then the insular government were already established, and if with it it had been possible to agree upon a system of mercantile relations, this question would not have assumed proportions which it does not possess; nor would there be any cause for predicting ruin and disaster; the facts would put suppositions to silence. Notwithstanding this, the Government has thought that in order to quiet alarm, it was proper for it to anticipate events, and that instead of leaving the settlement of the question to the natural working of the new constitution, it was proper to fix without further delay the bases of our future mercantile relations. In doing this and with a view to removing all cause of distrust, it has gone so far as to fix a maximum for the differential duties that are to be obtained by peninsular goods, offering, as was right and just, the same rates to insular productions.
The basis of the understanding having been fixed and determined, the principle of autonomy having been guaranteed, the equality of powers having been established in an unquestionable manner in the procedure that is to be observed, and the spirit which actuates those islanders being known, the negotiation will be easy and its results will be advantageous to both parties.
As to the debt which burdens the Cuban treasury, either directly or owing to the guarantee which it has given to that of the Peninsula, and which the latter bears analogously, the justice of dividing it in an equitable manner when the termination of the war shall render it possible to fix its definitive amount is not to be doubted for a moment.
This debt, let us hope, will not be so enormous as to amount to an insupportable burden upon the energy of the nation, nor is the nation so lacking in resources that it needs to feel alarm at the prospect before it. A country which during the past few months has given such strong evidence of virility and social discipline; a territory like that of Cuba, which, even in the midst of its political convulsions and of war scarcely interrupted for thirty years, has produced so great wealth by cultivating only a small part of its fertile soil, and which has done this by its own strength alone, with few institutions of credit, struggling against sugar on which a bounty is paid, the American market being closed to its manufactured tobacco, and at the same time changing slave labor into free labor, may calmly contemplate the payment of its obligations and inspire its creditors with confidence.
Consequently, in the opinion of the Government, it is important to think from this time forward of the manner in which the debt is to be paid, rather than of its division, applying the economic methods of our day to the great wealth which the soil of Cuba secures to agriculturists and which the bowels of the earth secure to miners, and taking advantage of the extraordinary facilities offered to the commerce of the world by the insular form and the geographical situation of what has rightly been called the "Pearl of the Antilles."
If no legislation can yet be enacted concerning these things, it is proper to bear them in mind very carefully and to pay much attention to them, since it has occurred to others who certainly can not be charged with being visionary or forming illusions—it has occurred to them, I say, to take advantage of this great germ of wealth, not, indeed, for the benefit of Spain or to uphold her sovereignty; when they do this, if would be fooling not to follow their example and not to convert into a redemption of the past and a guaranty of the future what has perhaps been an incentive to war and the origin in a great measure of the evils which we are now so eagerly seeking to remedy.
Basing its action on these considerations, the Government has the honor to submit the inclosed draft of a decree to Your Majesty for approval.
Madam, at Your Majesty's royal feet,
Madrid, November 25, 1897.
