Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1900-03-08
BUSINESS IN CUBA
Difficult to Get Away From the Old
Methods.
FIRMS DESCEND FROM FATHER TO SON
Americans Who Have Gone There
Not Uniformly Successful.
CONCESSION COMPLAINTS
Copyright, 1900. by J. D. Whelpley)
,ecial Correspondence Of The Evening Star.

Copyright, 1900, by J. D. whelpley)
Special Correspondence Of The Evening Star.
HAVANA, Cuba. March 5, 1900
Americans who have come to Cuba within
the past year looking for opportunities in
business have by no means been uniformly
successful; in fact, it may be said that a
majority have either returned without
starting in business, confident that condi-
| tons were not and perhaps never would be
right from their point of view, or else they
have started only to give it up shortly,
thoroughly discouraged. A few have Sc
cured a foothold and are doing fairly well.
Those who came here a year ago or
little less, and are still in business, will
probably pull through. OF those who have
stayed and who are doing moderately well,
nearly all are young, enterprising men, who
were willing to adapt themselves to the
country and the ways of its people and who
spoke the Spanish language with sufficient
| fuency not to need an interpreter in their
dealings with customers and employees. The
most successful are those who have lived in
Mexico or some other Spanish-American
country and who are well acquainted with
the ways of the people of Cuba, which are
nearly the same as in the other countries
mentioned. One of these young men, in
| speaking of what his experience in Havana
/ had taught him during the past year, re-
| Gently said:
| Business Training From Spain.
"Cuba like Mexico, got most of its bust
| ness training from Spain. The flag of con-
quest not only carried the religion and Ian.
guage with It, but also the customs of the
/ Spanish people, and the latter will be al
! most as hard to change as the former. In
| Mexico are found the small corner grocer
les, Bodegas, the same they are in Cuba,
and most of them owned by Spaniards of
| small means, who buy goods by the dozen
rather than by the case, especially If the
article is new to them. The cafes hotels,
theaters, dry goods stores, and most of
the trades and professions are controlled
and practiced by Spaniards. In fact, Cuba
and Mexico are the same from a business
standpoint and what is said of the meth
DDS of the one may be equally well fitted
to the other.
Most of the houses in the island keep
their funds in their own safes and have
nothing or little to do with banks. The
larger houses run banking departments
In great many instances, which add to
the resources of the firms. Thus these
larger firms, or merchants, become both
banker and friend of their customers hav-
ing the custody of their money and supply
ing their every want from veritable depart
ment stores, in which are carried in stock
almost everything from -four to French
preserves, or from pin to plantation ma
chinery.
Wealth in the Soil,
The wealth of Cuba Is in its soil The
plantations, in times of peace, employ hun
dreds of men in the fields and mills. and
on private lines of railroads. Plantations
have their own stores. and these estab-
lishments are supplied by the firms above
described, who also store and sell the
sugar and tobacco of the planters These
large firms are in every province of Cuba
and control a large part of the trade of
their section, and have SO controlled it for
n11 mt in,
reason of loans past services rendered
so you will see what it means to compete
with the old and firmly established houses
of Cuba
The Spanish merchant has clerks from
his own country, often from his own town.
They i've in the store and board there
also, and all sit around large table with
the owner at the head, like big family
This furnishing of board and lodgings
makes salaries small and profits larger
1t also enables close figuring, and to
degree that Is almost prohibitory to Amer
leans. Many Spanish emgrants come to
Cuba and work in Spanish houses for their
board until they can find a position but
while this is not rule or lasting con-
dltlon 1t may to a small extent lower
prices in close figuring.
THE Spanish methods of conducting
business are totally different from the
American style. the credits being much
longer and the banking system that is
regular banks. not used nearly so much
After January l. 1898. when an American
it d
often be turned over and over and as
infinitely examined if it had been
greenback.
The Spanish houses. in fact, all old and
well established houses, are strong and
they hold a record for fewer failures in
Cuba in given number of years than al
most any other country in the world, and
that. too, when the island was passing
through war that would have taxed the
richest country, size considered, to the ut
most. Business re 'ations seem pleasant
between American houses and the native
or Spanish ones, but the rivalry is intense
and the newcomers will be crowded out
if such a thing is possible.
A Mixed Currency.
There is mixed currency in Cuba con-
sistns of French gold, Spanish and Ameri-
can gold and silver and copper, and United
States paper. This causes great confusion
and often loss in exchange in converting
prices of goods into one the other This
loss is also increased by the fact that the
rate Of exchange allowed by the govern
ment is less on Spanish silver which is
the most generally used money in the
island, than that given in the banking of
mercantile business: This mixture of
moneys causes considerable Inconvenience
in fixing prices. 1t is the custom to pay
for goods in Spanish gold, and it is also
the custom to take the small fraction over
the even pieces of gold money in silver, at
the same valuation, though it is really
worth less. This necessarily results in a !
loss to the merchant and makes it difficult
to quote prices closely.
Il think that the Spaniards and the Gu
bans will control business here almost en-
tirely until the American trusts can Sc
cure a foothold and drive them out of |
business by lower prices and better goods |
ihiS is shown by the fact that big Ameri- |
can manufacturing firms have not at
tempted to open houses here themselves |
but they have been compelled to give the |
agencies for their goods with exclusive
rights to big Spanish houses. 1 do not |
look for any great American predomnance
III cuban commerce unless the people |
change very materially from what they |
now"
do you think there is spirit favorable |
to the Americans among the native bust |
MI Il