Personal Narrative Of Travels To The Equinoctial Regions Of America During The Years 1799-1804 - Volume 3 - By Alexander Von Humboldt And Aime Bonpland.
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At The Havannah, As In Every Place Where Commerce And The Wealth It
Produces Increase Rapidly, Complaints Are Heard Of The Prejudicial
Influence Exercised By Them On Ancient Manners.
We cannot here stop to
compare the first state of the island of Cuba, when covered with
pasturage, before
The taking of the capital by the English, and its
present condition, since it has become the metropolis of the West
Indies; nor to throw into the balance the candour and simplicity of
manners of an infant society, against the manners that belong to the
development of an advanced civilization. The spirit of commerce,
leading to the love of wealth, no doubt brings nations to depreciate
what money cannot obtain. But the state of human things is happily
such that what is most desirable, most noble, most free in man, is
owing only to the inspirations of the soul, to the extent and
amelioration of its intellectual faculties. Were the thirst of riches
to take absolute possession of every class of society, it would
infallibly produce the evil complained of by those who see with regret
what they call the preponderance of the industrious system; but the
increase of commerce, by multiplying the connections between nations,
by opening an immense sphere to the activity of the mind, by pouring
capital into agriculture, and creating new wants by the refinement of
luxury, furnishes a remedy against the supposed dangers.
FINANCE.
The increase of the agricultural prosperity of the island of Cuba and
the influence of the accumulation of wealth on the value of
importations, have raised the public revenue in these latter years to
four millions and a half, perhaps five millions of piastres.
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