1880–1881 Matanzas, Cuba – Bureaucracy and Empire: Four-Page Colonial Fiscal Manuscript Detailing Tribute Payments and Havana Merchant Accounts

On offer is a four-page 19th-century Cuban colonial manuscript written in Matanzas in 1880, documenting fiscal receipts and tribute acknowledgments on official Spanish stamped paper issued for “Oficio Año 1881.”

This finely preserved document captures the bureaucratic pulse of Cuba at a turning point post–Ten Years’ War (1868–1878), and on the eve of full emancipation (1886). The manuscript is written on papel sellado bearing the seated allegorical figure of Justicia and the printed legend “OFICIO AÑO 1881 – 5 Centavos de Peso” with serial number 200.709. It records a series of attestations by Matanzas officials and merchants concerning monthly tributes (“tributos mensuales”) and mercantile accounts (“cartas mercantes”).

At its center is Doña María García de Cobarrubias, a Havana resident on Calle de los Zapatos, whose payments are certified as duly satisfied: “ha satisfecho el tributo mensual.” Her appearance as a named taxpayer offers insight into the economic agency of women in the colonial bureaucracy, a detail that enhances the social-historical context of the manuscript.

Surrounding her case are attestations and receipts signed by Manuel Rodríguez Arencibia, Luis Pérez, Patricio Amador, and others. These are clerks and intermediaries of the Matanzas Secretaría de Hacienda, all revalidating accounts and renewals across multiple months (October, November, December, and January).

This document emerges precisely at the time of the Patronato Law of 1880, which nominally abolished slavery in Cuba while replacing it with a system of “apprenticeship” that bound freed people to their former masters. The Matanzas fiscal bureaucracy, one of the island’s most active, oversaw this transition by intensifying its record-keeping of all taxes, contracts, and dues. The language and cadence of this manuscript—formal, repetitive, and confirmatory—embody the colonial state’s effort to maintain financial and social control during one of the most turbulent reorganizations of its history.

A compelling bureaucratic relic from a defining moment in Cuba’s colonial and economic history—linking the fiscal rhythms of Matanzas to Havana’s mercantile life at the threshold between enslavement, patronage, and modern taxation.

The manuscript consists of four densely written pages in brown ink, highly legible, on both sides of two folio leaves (each approx. 8½ × 12½ in.). Toning, folds and small tears consistent with the age of the document are present. A few words are partially obscured by a small tear but this does not impact the legibility of the document as a whole.  It is otherwise good and it is complete. Spanish Language. Overall Good.

Translations for this listing are completed by online translation software.