American Sugar Kingdom

To date, the literature on colonial plantation economies in general, and those of the Spanish Caribbean in particular, has emphasized continuity in economic organization that persisted through changes in colonial powers. The central claim of César Ayala's book is that, contrary to this prior emphasis, changes in colonial powers brought with them profound changes in the economic organization of some colonial plantation economies. Hence the end result, namely economic underdevelopment, should be understood not as the consequence of persistence of any form of economic organization, but as the consequence of these changes. Focusing on the sugar plantation economies of Cuba, the Dominican Republic, and Puerto Rico, Ayala makes a convincing argument. His book provides a significant and valuable reinterpretation of underdevelopment in the Spanish Caribbean in particular and, perhaps, more generally in colonial plantation economies. To use the author's own words, this is "new rum in new barrels" (p. 3). It might be added that, in the fashion of a good Caribbean rum, it also pleases the palate

Argument (complex analysis) · Colonialism · Development economics · Economic growth · Economic history · Economics · Economy · Political economy · Political science · Reinterpretation · Underdevelopment · Cuban History and Society · Law