For questions or comments please email.
History.- Sugar cane, originating in Asia, was brought to southern Spain by the Arabs, hence it passed to the Canary Islands, of Cape Verde and Madeira, where it was being cultivated at the time of the conquest of America. In his second voyage to the Antilles, Christopher Columbus took it to La Hispaniola (Santo Domingo) where it was first planted in 1493. The first sugar factory or mill was established in that island in 1516.
In Cuba, sugar cane was introduced during the rule of its first Governor, Diego Velazquez (1511-1524). From that time on, it was cultivated in the island, but no sugar mill was established until the last lustrum of the XVI century. At that time the Cuban sugar industry was based on the granting of certain privileges1 monetary aid from the Crown, and the authorization to import slaves.
During the XVII century and the greater part of the XVIII the industry developed very slowly, so much so that in 1760 it was employing the same number of slaves as a century and a half before in 1595. The capture of Havana by the English (1762) gave some impetus to the sugar industry through the introduction of thousands of slaves at less cost than until then and the cheapening of the utensils and materials used in the mills due to free importation thereof. Later, the opening of Spanish ports to foreign sugars stimulated the development of the sugar industry from 1783. Sugar production grew without interruption up to 1779, and Cuba supplied Spain with practically all the sugar necessary for the latter's consumption, some 125,000 quintals or hundredweights per year (50,000 bags of 250 lb.).
Towards the close of the XVIII century, a series of historical events gave Cuban sugar a strong push. Chief among them was the revolution and independence of Haiti in 1804. The ruin of the sugar industry of that country, at the time the. world's greatest producer, opened a new era for Cuba's sugar industry. Beginning in 1818, when Spain decreed freedom for foreign trade, Cuba took its place as the world's greatest sugar producer.
During the XIX century Cuba's sugar industry developed intensely, based on the introduction of the steam engine, whose use became general in the third decade of the century; on the building of railways starting in 1837; on the advances in the manufacture of sugar and the cultivation of sugar cane; on the free importation of slaves, first in 1799; and on the substitution of slave labor for paid labor (1880-1885); on the competition of beet sugar; and on the transformation of the mills into "centrals", with ample supply of capital, abundant applications of technical know-how, and the division between industrial and agricultural labor, with the establishment of the "Colono" or cane grower.
During that century, in spite of the Ten Years War of Independence, sugar production grew notably in Cuba, increasing almost five-fold from 1850 (223,145 Spanish long tons) up to 1894 (1.054,214 tons). The Second War of Independence (1895-1898) saw a great recession in sugar production which in 1897 was a mere 212,051 tons, less than that during the middle of the century.
Independence facilitated the reorganization of the sugar industry on more advantageous bases than those of the XIX century. The doors of the United States market were opened; materials used by the industry were cheaper; communications, both by rail and road, were greatly increased; yellow fever was eliminated thanks to the great discovery of Cuban scientist, Dr. Carlos J. Finlay; access was given to strong current of European immigration; and the investment of foreign capital in the sugar industry, particularly U.S. capital, was huge; so much so that from an estimated 50 million dollars in 1895 they increased to 700 million dollars in 1929. All these favorable factors brought about a rapid development of the Cuban sugar industry during the first quarter of the century. In 1913 production for the first time passed the figure of 2 million Spanish long tons; in 1910 it passed 3 million tons; in 1919 that of 4 million tons, and in 1925 it soared to 5 millions tons, thus quintuplicating in five lustrums the maximum production obtained during the previous century.
Beginning in 1926, sugar entered into a crisis of over-production in the whole world and Cuba started restricting its sugar crops. The crisis, and the high tariff of two cents per pound for sugar in the United States (1930) brought about a vertical decline in the island's sugar production. In 1933 production reached only 1,994,238 Spanish long tons. Cuba did not produce a 5 million ton crop until 1947, and in 1952 a production of 7,011,637 tons was recorded.
Characteristics.- 1.-During the XX century the Cuban sugar industry extraordinarily increased its efficiency. From an average production per crop of 6,013 tons of sugar per mill in 1904, it passed to an average of 20,895 tons in 1920; 29,751 tons in 1930; 33,507 tons in 1950, and an all-time high of 43,551 tons per mill in the record crop of 1952. This greater production was achieved by a combination of factors, such as better cane varieties with higher sucrose content and greater sucrose extraction in the mills and the use of more modern equipment and processes. Sucrose extraction increased an average of from 10.01% in 1904 to 11.32% in 1920, to 12.21% in 1930 and to 12.65% in 1958, that is to say, an increase of more than 25% in a little less than half a century. The technical effectiveness of the industry was reflected in greater productivity. In 1925 Cuba made a crop of 5.189,347 Spanish long tons in 122.7 days of effective grinding as an average of the entire industry. In 1958 it made a crop of 5,813,332 tons in only 83.4 days of effective grinding. Production per day rose from 42,293 tons in 1925 to 67,306 tons in 1958, an increase of 59.1% in the global production of the industry. The increase in productivity per active mill was greater due to the reduction in the number of mills (183 in the 1925 and 160 in the 1958 crop), reaching 82.3% between the two years under consideration.
2.-The Cuban sugar industry was regulated in so far as respects its production, export and the distribution of its earnings among the three fundamental factors: mills, cane growers and laborers. Cuba was a member of the International Sugar Agreement, and formed a part of the quota system of the United States of America. Hence, its production possibilities each year were determined by the export quota to the world free market, the export quota to the United States, and its own local consumption, plus fluctuations in stocks or carryovers.
The sugar mills received the value of the raw sugar produced in terms of a "price f.a.s." in Cuban ports and after deducting from this price the tax of 27 cents per 325 lb. bag (although the weight of the bags had been reduced to 250 lb.), the costs of placing the sugar f.a.s. and the expenses incurred at each port of shipment, the official price at warehouse in ports was obtained for each Spanish pound of raw sugar. This price was used to calculate the payment of sugar cane to growers, to determine the wages and salaries of agricultural workers in the cultivation, cutting, loading and hauling of sugar cane, the freights by rail of sugar, the rent of sugar lands, etc. Colonos, or cane growers, received a payment for every 100 "arrobas" (2,500 Spanish lb.) of sugar cane delivered to the mill equivalent to 50% of the sugar extracted from such cane. The pounds of sugar, so determined, were multiplied by the average price at warehouse of the pound of raw sugar and that determined the payment of sugar cane to Colonos or growers, by the mills.
The Colonos, in turn, had to pay the value of 50.5, 51, 52 or 52.5 pounds of sugar, according to the yields at each mill, to the workers for the labor of cutting, stowing and delivery of 100 "arrobas" (2,500 lb.) of sugar cane. This payment increased 10% since 1944. The work of cultivating the cane was paid at the rate of 50lb. of sugar for each eight hours of labor, increased 10%, and with an additional compensation for paid rest in the proportion of one day for each 11 days of work. These items determined an actual salary from $2.88 to $3.15 for these labors.
The workers of the industrial sector, who worked in the mills, had their salaries determined by law or by contracts with the mill owners, and they fluctuated according to the price of sugar.
Cuba Sugar Year Book
For questions or comments please email.