{"id":87,"date":"2012-07-30T14:03:15","date_gmt":"2012-07-30T19:03:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/library.brown.edu\/modernlatinamerica\/?page_id=87"},"modified":"2012-07-30T14:03:15","modified_gmt":"2012-07-30T19:03:15","slug":"from-haciendas-to-the-peal-of-the-antilles","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/chapters\/chapter-4-cuba\/moments-in-cuban-history\/from-haciendas-to-the-peal-of-the-antilles\/","title":{"rendered":"From Haciendas to the Peal of the Antilles"},"content":{"rendered":"

Cuba’s Colonial Rise to Economic Prosperity
\n<\/strong>by Ben Vila<\/p>\n

Cuba\u2019s rise as an economic power during the Colonial Era was by no means instantaneous or expected. During its first two hundred years as a colony, its value to Spain lay primarily in its strategic location in the Caribbean, a spot where ships carrying merchants, soldiers, or explorers could stop and rest and restock supplies on their way to other colonies in Latin America. Most of the agricultural activity occurred on modestly sized farms and estates called haciendas<\/em> that were designed to be self-sufficient and could sell a limited number of cash crops for profit. Towards the end of the eighteenth century, however, the expanding Creole land-owning elite started growing restless, believing that continental policies back in Spain were preventing the island from reaching its full economic potential. The Bourbon reforms under Charles III (1759-1788) streamlined the administration of Cuba\u2019s export economy, resulting in moderate economic growth. However, much remained unfinished in the minds of the Creoles, particularly restrictions on the slave trade, policies regarding the distribution of land, and the question of trade with other countries. The opening of the slave trade in 1789, combined with a series of interconnected events taking place in Haiti, Jamaica, Argentina, England, France, and Spain around the same time, created a geopolitical context for Cuba to emerge as the dominant sugar exporting Latin American colony during the nineteenth century. By 1860\u00a0Cuba was producing over a third of the world\u2019s sugar supply.<\/p>\n

Land and Labor in Colonial Cuba<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

One of the chief advantages that Cuba had over other sugar producing colonies was the fundamental nature of its land. In the words of historian Hubert Aimes, the island\u2019s soil is \u201cmarvelously fertile,\u201d more so than its main competitors, Jamaica and Santo Domingo (Aimes 56). Cuba is also by far the largest island in the Caribbean. Much of the land before the nineteenth century remained undeveloped or owned in usufruct by the crown. The diversity of its topography became a strategic advantage as well. The island had areas of low-lying flat lands, an interior mountainous region, and huge expanses of hard wood forests. Specific regions of the island could specialize according to which crops grew best in various locations\u2014coffee in the mountains, tobacco on the coast and the far West and East of the island, and sugar in the central regions of the island.<\/p>\n

Without an indigenous population to exploit, the Cuban land-owning elite had to look elsewhere for a labor source. Bartolome de Las Casas, a sixteenth century Dominican friar, famously campaigned to replace the soon to be vanished native labor force with African slaves. Until the end of the eighteenth century, slaves were imported from neighboring colonies controlled by England, the Netherlands, France, and Denmark, as well as other Spanish colonies, but only in carefully regulated numbers. In was not until 1792 that the first ship arrived directly from African shores. In 1789 the Spanish government issued a royal credula<\/em> that virtually opened the free trade of slaves by both Spanish and foreign traders. The Spanish government was hesitant to allow the unregulated sale of slaves because they feared rebellion or revolt, but the measure was so popular and beneficial to the economy that the temporary regulations were extended to last until 1798 instead of until 1792. From 1789 to 1799, roughly 41,500 slaves were imported to Cuba. The period between 1800 and 1860 would see the importation of over 600,000 more African slaves. The Argentinean cattle ranching industry was also growing at this time. A new packaging process allowed massive amounts of Argentinean beef to be salted and exported to other colonies, becoming the staple food item for Cuba\u2019s growing slave population working on the sugar plantations.<\/p>\n

Haitian Revolution and Cuba\u2019s Economy<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

Events in the colony of Santo Domingo at this time began to greatly influence the sugar industry in Cuba. In 1791, a slave rebellion erupted on Santo Domingo, killing thousands of white plantation owners and causing thousands of others to flee the island. For the next twelve years, the island was embroiled in a fierce war against the French that killed 50 percent of the island\u2019s population and devastated the land. In 1803, the Republic of Haiti declared itself an independent and autonomous black nation. Until 1789, Santo Domingo had the most sophisticated sugar industry in the Caribbean but the fierce guerrilla warfare completely destroyed its economic potential and thus created an opening for other sugar-producing islands to take the lead. Cuba gladly took advantage of this enormous opportunity.<\/p>\n

Many of the white sugar plantation owners who managed to flee Haiti ended up emigrating to Cuba, bringing with them their industriousness and their sophisticated planting techniques. The turmoil of the Haitian Revolution also increased the price of sugar since the global supply dropped tremendously. The influx of French sugar planters, the already expanding slave trade, and the worldwide rise in the price of sugar created an economic climate highly conducive to the growth of the Cuban sugar industry.<\/p>\n

The Cuban landowning and merchant elite attempted to solidify their power and influence in 1793 with the formation of the Sociedad Econ\u00f3mica de los Amigos del Pa\u00eds<\/em>, also called the Economic Society of Havana, which is still in existence to this day. La Sociedad<\/em> sent representatives to other countries and colonies to report back on their economic activity. In 1795, Francisco Arango y Perre\u00f1o was sent by the Society to England, Portugal, Jamaica, and Barbados. Arango made detailed observations of new mill technologies that used mule and water power as opposed to oxen and new kinds of machinery that greatly increased the efficiency of the sugar refining process. His most valuable observation, however, was that Jamaica and Barbados only exported muscovado<\/em>, unrefined brown sugar, and that the refining process took place in industrialized England. He believed that, if Cuba industrialized and refined their sugar on the island themselves, and therefore cut out the middleman, they would stand to gain a competitive advantage over the other sugar-producing islands in the Caribbean. This turned out to be fabulously true. With the development of ingenios<\/em>, sugar plantations with refining factories on the premises, as well the expanding slave trade, the rise in price of sugar, and the elimination of Santo Domingo as a competitor, Cuba was able to surpass its British West Indian neighbors in sugar production by 1828.<\/p>\n

The remaining crucial factor that contributed to the rise of Cuba\u2019s economic productivity in the nineteenth century was land reform. At the turn of the nineteenth century, all land in Cuba was officially owned by the Spanish crown and haciendas<\/em> with ill-defined borders dotted the countryside. Designated areas had to produce certain crops and the land could not be altered without the direct consent of the crown. With rapid economic changes going on in Cuba, this policy became too constraining. Representatives from the Economic Society of Havana were sent to Madrid to negotiate a land reform agreement. A royal credula<\/em> in 1800 allowed the breaking up of hereditary hacienda<\/em> estates and legalized the outright ownership of land. However, various restrictions still constrained the real estate market. Further negotiation with representatives from the Economic Society of Havana led to decrees in 1815 and 1816 that gave Cuban landowners the right to \u201cparcel, sell, sublet, and use their land without legal intervention,” thereby leading to the sale of more royal lands, some of which were sold to immigrants for a profit (Knight 17). But the most dramatic change in policy occurred when \u201croyal approval was finally given for the destruction of the hardwood forests in the interest of agricultural expansion\u201d (Knight 17). With massive stretches of land opened up for development and the relinquishment of constraints on the real estate market, Cuba was finally in a position to solidify the transition to a large-scale plantation export-oriented economy.<\/p>\n

The transition from small-scale, self-sufficient farming to a large-scale industrialized agricultural economy was not simple, but extremely complicated and muddled, a process that involved multiple countries, an increase in the slave trade, the growth of an international capitalist marketplace, back and forth negotiations between Creole elites and continental administrators, and seemingly random historical forces all taking place within a short span of time. By the second half of the nineteenth century, Cuba emerged as an economic powerhouse and the leading supplier of sugar to the world. The population was radically altered in the span of a few decades with the massive influx of African slaves, French refugees of the Haitian Revolution, and later on, imported Chinese labor. The Economic Society of Havana was able to organize and send representatives to negotiate with Spain to formulate policies that would be mutually beneficial for the crown and the Creole merchant and landowning elite. Cuba wisely learned from its neighbors\u2019 mistakes and made sound, centralized decisions on the structure of its economy, especially the decision to refine sugar on the island, a move that catapulted them into out-competing almost every other sugar colony. Cuba\u2019s rise to prosperity is unique in Latin American history and happened largely in response to broader geopolitical forces taking effect at the turn of the nineteenth century.<\/p>\n

****<\/p>\n

Bibliography:<\/span><\/p>\n

Aimes, Hubert H.S.. \u201cA History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511 to 1868\u201d. Print. 1967 (original publication is 1907). New York. Octagon Books Inc.<\/p>\n

Bergad, Laird W.;\u00a0Fe Iglesias Garcia; Maria del Carmen Barcia. \u201cThe Cuban Slave Market, 1790-1880\u201d. 1995. New York. Cambridge University Press.<\/p>\n

Humboldt, Alexander. \u201cThe Island of Cuba\u201d. Translated by J.S. Thrasher. Print. 1856. New York. Derby & Jackson.<\/p>\n

Knight, Franklin W. \u201cSlave Society in Cuba during the nineteenth century\u201d. Print. 1970. Madison. The University of Wisconsin Press.<\/p>\n

Rodriguez, Gloria Garcia. \u201cVoices of the Enslaved in nineteenth century Cuba: a documentary history\u201d. Translated by Nancy L. Westrate. Print. 2011. University of North Carolina Press.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Cuba’s Colonial Rise to Economic Prosperity by Ben Vila Cuba\u2019s rise as an economic power during the Colonial Era was by no means instantaneous or expected. During its first two hundred years as a colony, its value to Spain lay … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"parent":85,"menu_order":1,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"sidebar-page.php","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-87","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=87"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/87\/revisions"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/85"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.brown.edu\/create\/modernlatinamerica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=87"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}