Cuba and Tobacco in the Spanish Empire in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Laura Náter 

Due to its international prestige, Cuban tobacco was the Spanish Crown's option to compete in the European market. The strategy concentrated in two axes: 1) Seville, as elaboration, distribution and exportation center; and 2) Cuba, as the main raw material supplier for Seville's factory. Since the 1680s, different measures were experimented in reiterated attempts of achieve the way to implement the strategy. This achievement was finally obtained in 1760 with the Havana Factoría. But the success of the Factoría in fulfilling its objectives lasted less than two decades. Its extreme dependence upon Mexican silver provoked its early decline and eventual collapse.

[WP # 99021]