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The Cuban Sugar Planters (1790-1820) “The Most Solid and Brilliant Bourgeois Class in All of Latin America”1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2015

Antón L. Allahar*
Affiliation:
University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada

Extract

One of the dominant themes stressed in the literature on development and underdevelopment in Latin America, is that the landowners in this region have historically played a negative role. They are portrayed as having been politically reactionary, economically passive, lacking in entrepreneurial drive, and generally unconcerned with promoting the development of the productive forces in their respective countries. Further, their attitudes have been branded as “traditional,” and the policies which they pursued are seen to have been “defective.” As a consequence, the general economic underdevelopment of the area has to be understood as a product of this class' inaction and its “conscious willingness” to be subordinated to foreign capital.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Academy of American Franciscan History 1984

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Footnotes

1

This appreciation of the Cuban sugar planters is offered by FraginalsManuel Moreno in “The Cuban Sugar Planters (1790-1820) “The Most Solid and Brilliant Bourgeois Class in All of Latin America”1,” Casa de las Américas50 (1968): 36.

References

2 Frank, André Gunder, Lumpenbourgeoisie; Lumpendevelopment: Dependence, Class and Politics in Latin America (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1972), p. 3.Google Scholar

3 For a detailed and comprehensive treatment of the period see Lambert, Jacques, Latin America: Social Structures and Political Institutions (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1967), especially pp. 5964.Google Scholar

4 Suchlicki, Jaime, Cuba: From Columbus to Castro (New York: Charles Scribners and Sons, 1974), p. 67.Google Scholar

5 Romeo, Carlos, “Revolutionary Practice and Theory in Latin America,” in Latin American Radicalism, ed. Horowitz, Irving Louis et al., (New York, Vintage Books, 1969), pp. 595606.Google Scholar

6 Frank, Gunder, Lumpenbourgeoisie, p. 5 and passim.Google Scholar

7 de Armas, Ramón, “La Evolución de la Burguesía Latinoamericana,” in Feudalismo, Capitalismo y Subdesarrollo, ed., Vitale, Luis (Madrid, 1977), pp. 123138.Google Scholar

8 Chilcote, Ronald and Edelstein, Joel, Latin America: The Struggle with Dependency and Beyond. (New York: John Wiley and Sons, 1974), pp. 3234.Google Scholar

9 Frank, Gunder, Lumpenbourgeoisie, pp. 48.Google Scholar

10 Ibid., p. 5.

11 Ibid., p. 13.

12 Ibid., p. 14.

13 McClelland, David G., “The Achievement Motive in Economic Growth,” in Development and Society: The Dynamics of Economic Change, ed. Novack, David and Lekachman, Robert (New York: St. Martins Press, 1964).Google Scholar See also McClelland, DavidMotivational Patterns in Southeast Asia with Special Reference to the Chinese Case,” in Journal of Social Issues, Vol. 29 (1963).Google Scholar

14 McClelland, , “The Achievement Motive,” p. 183.Google Scholar

15 Ibid., p. 182.

16 Ibid., p. 183.

17 Ibid., p. 188.

18 Ibid., pp. 185–186.

19 It is interesting to note that the conclusions of both these authors are stated in the form of tautologies. For McClelland, development is impossible without entrepreneurs; thus, where there is no development, this is due to the lack or absence of entrepreneurial skill. And Gunder Frank, on the other hand, after investigating the concrete limitations to developmental strategies faced by the landowners, concludes that underdeveloped results in those situations where development fails to take place:

underdevelopment is the result of exploitation of the colonial and class structure based on ultraexploitation: development was achieved where the structure of underdevelopment was not established because it was impossible to establish, (p. 19)

20 Baran, Paul, The Political Economy of Growth (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1957).Google Scholar

21 Vera Anstey quoted in ibid., p. 144.

22 Ibid., pp. 144–145.

23 Ibid., p. 145.

24 Ibid.

25 Ibid., p. 235.

26 Knight, Franklin W., Slave Society in Cuba during the I9th Century (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1970), p. 28.Google Scholar

27 Merivale, Herman, Lectures on Colonisation and Colonies, 2 vols. (London: Longman, Orme, Green, Brown and Longman, 1841);Google Scholar see especially chaps. 9, 10, 11, 20.

28 “Prologue to the Cuban Revolution,” in New Left Review 21 (1963): 54.

29 Ibid.

30 See the authoritative study done by Aimes, Hubert H.S., The History of Slavery in Cuba, 1511–1868 (New York: Octagon Books, 1967).Google Scholar Aimes shows that in the two hundred and fifty years from 1512–1762, a total of roughly 60,000 slaves were imported into the island, thus averaging about 240 slaves per year. This was the period of relatively slow overall economic growth, during which time the sugar sector showed very little expansionary tendencies. In the thirty-year period beginning with the British occupation of 1762, however, 50,435 slaves, an average of over 1600 per year, were introduced and came to represent that all-important work force which was so sorely lacking, and which was a vital requirement for the flourishing of the sugar industry.

31 Williams, Eric, Capitalism and Slavery, (New York: G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1966), pp. 149153.Google Scholar

32 Fraginals, Manuel Moreno, El Ingenio: Complejo Económico-Social Cubano del Azúcar (La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1978) 1:43.Google Scholar

33 Ibid.

34 Guerra, Ramiro y Sánchez, , Sugar and Society in the Caribbean (London: Yale University Press, 1964), p. 56.Google Scholar

35 Franginals, Manuel Moreno, The Sugarmill: The Socioeconomic Complex of Cuban Sugar— 1760 to 1860 (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1976), p. 133.Google Scholar

36 Knight, , Slave Society, p. 19.Google Scholar

37 Historia de Cuba, Aspectos Fundamentales (La Habana: Editorial Nacional de Cuba, 1964),p. 161.

38 Thomas, Hugh, Cuba, or the Pursuit of Freedom (London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1971), p. 143.Google Scholar

39 See, for example, LeRiverend’s, Julio Economic History of Cuba (La Habana: Book Institute, 1967), pp. 162163 Google Scholar; and Hoernel’s, Robert B.Sugar and Social Change in Oriente, Cuba: 1898–1946,” in Journal of Latin American Studies, 8 (1976): 217219.Google Scholar

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41 “Azúcar, Esclavos,” p. 37.

42 Pichardo, Hortensia, Documentos para la historia de Cuba (La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1971) 1: 158.Google Scholar

43 Cuba, or the Pursuit, p. 143.

44 “Colonialismo,” in Cuadernos de Historia Habanera 23 (1943): 24–25.

45 A History of Cuba, 1:54.

46 El Ingenio, 1: 35.

47 Foner, , A History of Cuba, 1: 70.Google Scholar

48 Humboldt, Alexander Von, Ensayo político sobre la isla de Cuba (La Habana: Cultural S.A., 1930), p. 187.Google Scholar

49 Jenks, Leland Hamilton, Our Cuban Colony: A Study in Sugar (New York: Vanguard Press, 1928), p. 25.Google Scholar

50 LeRiverend, Julio, Historia Económica de Cuba (La Habana: Instituto Cubano del Libro, 1974), pp. 195196.Google Scholar

51 A History of Cuba, 1: 70.

52 Guerra, y Sánchez, , Sugar and Society, p. 52.Google Scholar

53 Quoted in Rauch, Basil, American Interest in Cuba, 1848–1855 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1948), p. 59.Google Scholar

54 Contained in Pichardo’s, Documentos para la historia, 1: 217252.Google Scholar

55 Ibid., p. 217.

56 Ibid., p. 225.

57 Ibid., p. 229.

58 Ibid., pp. 236–237.

59 A brief outline of the movements which came to the fore during this period is given by del Prado, Fernando Portuondo, Historia de Cuba (La Habana: Editorial Nacional de Cuba, 1965) 1: 266268.Google Scholar

60 Historia de Cuba, pp. 128; 176.

6l This speech is reported in Franco’s, José Luciano Antonio Maceo: Apuntes para una historia de su vida (La Habana: Editorial de Ciencias Sociales, 1975) 1: 32.Google Scholar

62 Historia de Cuba, p. 176.

63 Ibid., p. 171.

64 “Azúcar, Esclavos,” p. 37.