{"value"=>"<p>Correspondence and business records, 1834-1889. This series relates chiefly to trade in the West Indies (principally Cuba) in staple products, such as sugar and its popular derivatives, rum and molasses, and cotton, tobacco, spices, iron, railroad equipment and supplies, and other manufactured commodities. Included in the records are mercantile reports, shipping accounts, labor accounts, ships' manifestoes and log books, vessel and cargo insurance books, cargo books. The correspondence, about half of it in Spanish and French, is with commercial envoys and agents, planters, factors, bankers, shipbuilders, shipping agents, ship's captains, and others involved in the complex trading network. This series also contains material that relates to the activities of Taylor, his partners, and associates, field agents superintendents, engineers, and others, primarily in the railroad, iron ore, coal, and gas industries. Connected to the sugar trade, but arranged separately, is material relating to the Cuban Independence Movement (See Series V) of 1868-1878 led by landowners and bankers.</p>"}