New Orleans: Gateway to the Americas
Augardiente de caña, 1770 |
In 1770, Governor Alexander O'Reilly decreed a tax on rum imported into the Louisiana colony. Most of the "aguardiente de caña" came from Cuba into the port of New Orleans. This document records fees paid on rum shipments received from Cuba and Martinique during the spring of 1803. According to Jack D. L. Holmes in his 1970s study of Spanish regulation of the liquor trade, the authorities realized more than $16,000 in revenue from the rum duty.[City Treasurer. Accounts of Juan de Castanedo, 1794-1803]