In the three years ending 1841, the exports of the whole island were 2,227,624 boxes; in the three years ending 1844, 2,716,319 boxes; in the three years ending with 1847, 2,805,530 boxes.

Between 1839 and 1847, the exports had risen from 500,000 to 1,000,000 boxes.  The following table exhibits the quantity shipped from the leading port of Havana, to different countries:—­

Countries.      Sugar boxes of about 400 lbs. each.
1850.         1851. 
Spain                  81,267       101,762
United States         146,672       199,204
England                25,697        46,615
Cowes and a market    221,385       270,010
The Baltic             45,085        81,866
Hamburgh and Bremen    29,271        33,165
Holland                23,242        26,828
Belgium                62,849        29,814
France                 44,947        46,517
Trieste and Venice     38,627        14,832
Italy                   2,856         5,243
Other places           13,888        16,601
-------       -------
Boxes    743,249       872,457

Our West India possessions have, owing to the want of a good supply of labor and available capital to introduce various scientific improvements, somewhat retrograded in the production of sugar; which, from the low price ruling the past year or two, has not been found a remunerative staple.

The two large islands of Jamaica and Cuba, may be fairly compared as to their production of sugar.  From 1804 to 1808, Jamaica exported, on the average, annually 135,331 hhds., and from 1844 to 1848, it had decreased to 41,872 hhds.  The exports from the single port of Havana, which in the first named period were 165,690 boxes, rose during the latter period to 635,185 boxes; so that the shipments of sugar from Jamaica, which were in 1804 to 1808 double those of Havana—­in the period from 1844 to 1848, were five times less!

Cuba will be able to withstand the crisis of the low price of sugars, better than the emancipated British Colonies, for the following reasons:—­

1.  It will find, in its present prosperity, a power of resistance that no longer exists in the British sugar-growing colonies.

2.  Because it enjoys in the Spanish markets a protection for at least 16,955 tons of its sugar, or about eight-tenths of its total exportation.

3.  Because it has secured a very strong position in the markets of the United States; and both from its proximity to, and its commercial relations with that country, as also from the better quality of its sugar, will command the sale of at least 33,500 tons, or about 16 per cent. of its total production.

4.  Because in 1854, after the duties shall have been equalized, it will be enabled to undersell the British article in its own market.

5.  Because, not being an exclusively sugar-growing colony, as are almost all British West India Islands, it may suffer from the present depressed condition of the sugar market, but cannot be entirely ruined, owing to its having commanding resources, and many other valuable staples,—­coffee, copper, cotton, &c.