Compelled to import: Cuban consumption at the dawn of the nineteenth century

Abstract

One of the sources that allow us to analyse certain consumption patterns are trade balances. These documents are especially relevant in the case of island colonies, such as Cuba, that depended on the outside world for many kinds of supplies, not just the basic ones. Despite their limitations, data on imported goods from Havana's balance of trade at the dawn of the nineteenth century allow us to examine the consumer goods that were most in demand in Cuba at that time. This essay uses that information to emphasise the relationship between colony and metropole in terms of material culture, with a particular focus on the core items of food, clothing and household goods. Overall, patterns of consumption reflect patterns of production and imports.