The historiography emphasizes the importance of the fiscal policy and regional differences as causes of Hispano-American independences. The Consolidación de los Vales Reales (1804-1809), an endorsement of the debt contracted to its colonies by Spain in order to finance its constant wars, caused the collapse of the Mexican Treasury and was a key factor in its independence. This article demonstrates that in Cuba, the Consolidation had a different effect. Thanks to its different institutionalization and fiscal praxis, it was used to alleviate the deficit of situados, with which the Mexican Treasury financed the Cuban, and it may help to understand the reasons for non-independence. However, to prove this requires reconstructing the accounts of the Cuban Consolidation, which also demonstrates that the data used up until now were erroneous.

In spite of the limitations of the data, the estimation of a Cuban price index for 1872–1897 offers an acceptable result, is an important contribution to its economic history and offers some replies for the controversial issue of its independence. These prices suffered a deflation process similar to the other countries and which took place much at the same time as in the US (economy to which the island was already very linked to). However, after the 1883 crisis, prices started to decrease at a much lower rate than those of sugar, causing economic losses that, given the importante of this product, can be a good approach to what indicators such as the income rate —there are not income estimations— could show. Opposite to other studies, our research has got a complementary character. It points out die necessity of enlarging the spectre of analysis of issues such as the tariff policy or the protection of Cuban market for Spanish goods, since evidence proves that the international economic system development in the 1880's and 1890's was the main economic reason for die Island's independence.

El estudio del crecimiento económico argentino ha despertado siempre el interés de la investigación. Sin embargo, carecía de una perspectiva de historia cuantitativa comparada que permitiese conocer su magnitud relativa. Con ese objetivo se celebró en la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid entre los días 26 y 27 de mayo de 1994 el seminario «El crecimiento económico argentino en perspectiva histórica», organizado por Leandro Prados de la Escosura y Carlos Newland, de aquella primera universidad, y por Roberto Cortés Conde, de la Universidad de San Andrés de la provincia de Buenos Aires.

This article considers the importance of sugar in the Cuban economy in the first twelve years after the Revolution. Two major emphases in policy can be identified. From 1959 the revolutionary leaders attempted to diversify away from sugar, but with only limited success. By 1970 the failure of this policy was evident and a second approach, which placed sugar in the forefront of economy policy, was introduced.