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AbstractThe 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.

The article presents a comparative analysis of the Cuban and Puerto Rican sugar trade during the 18th and 19th centuries. It explains that the salve-based sugar trade developed later in Cuba and Puerto Rico than on other Caribbean islands for different reasons, noting that Cuba was initially relatively sparsely populated while Puerto Rico served primarily as a Spanish military base. The article mentions that the demand for sugar from both islands increased rapidly when the United States stopped importing sugar from British-controlled Caribbean islands as a result of the American Revolutionary War, when Haitian sugar exports dropped as a result of the Haitian Revolution of 1791, and when the slave trade was abolished in 1808.