Agrarian Puerto Rico

Reconsidering Rural Economy and Society, 1899-1940

AvCésar J. Ayala,Laird W. Bergad

Inbunden, Engelska, 2020

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Häftad

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Beskrivning

Fundamental tenets of colonial historiography are challenged by showing that US capital investment into this colony did not lead to the disappearance of the small farmer. Contrary to well-established narratives, quantitative data show that the increasing integration of rural producers within the US market led to differential outcomes, depending on pre-existing land tenure structures, capital requirements to initiate production, and demographics. These new data suggest that the colonial economy was not polarized into landless Puerto Rican rural workers on one side and corporate US capitalists on the other. The persistence of Puerto Rican small farmers in some regions and the expansion of local property ownership and production disprove this socioeconomic model. Other aspects of extant Puerto Rican historiography are confronted in order to make room for thorough analyses and new conclusions on the economy of colonial Puerto Rico during the early twentieth century.

Produktinformation

Utgivningsdatum:2020-01-30
Mått:158 x 235 x 22 mm
Vikt:580 g
Format:Inbunden
Språk:Engelska
Antal sidor:322
Förlag:Cambridge University Press
ISBN:9781108488464

Utforska kategorier

Amerikas historia inom Historia och arkeologi

Mer om författaren

César J. Ayala is a Professor of Sociology at the University of California, Los Angeles. He is the author of American Sugar Kingdom: The Plantation Economy of the Spanish Caribbean, 1898–1934 (1999) and co-author of Puerto Rico in the American Century: A History Since 1898 (2007). Laird W. Bergad is a Distinguished Professor of Latin American and Caribbean History at Lehman College, City University of New York and the Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He is the author of Slavery and the Demographic and Economic History of Minas Gerais, Brazil, 1720–1888 (1999) and co-author of Hispanics in the United States: A Demographic, Social, and Economic History 1980–2005 (2010).

Recensioner i media

'Ayala and Bergad provide an original reading of twentieth-century Puerto Rican history based on a detailed analysis of extensive local tax and census records to 1940. They show that the US colonial government did not carry out a restructuring of land tenure in favor of US capitalists, which is the traditional argument, but maintained both the pre-conquest landowners and the land and labor system, which existed under Spain. Their reconstruction also provides an excellent social and economic history of the island in this period. This work will have a major impact on interpreting both Puerto Rican history and the evolution of the American empire in the twentieth-century.' Herbert S. Klein, Gouverneur Morris Professor Emeritus of History, Columbia University

Innehållsförteckning

List of figures; List of tables; List of maps; Introduction; 1. The myth of the disappeared legion of proprietors; 2. The coffee economy; 3. The sugar industry; 4. The tobacco industry; 5. Economic transformation and demographic change; 6. Land concentration/fragmentation using land-tax records; 7. Rates of land ownership in rural Puerto Rico; 8. Land tenure patterns using census data; 9. Land use; Conclusion; Bibliography; Index.