Confronting the Crisis of the Slave-Based Plantation System in Puerto Rico

Bureaucratic Proposals for Agricultural Modernisation, Diversification and Free Labour, c. 1846-1852

Bibliographic Data

ID3308925
AuthorsJorge L Chinea (0000-0002-6656-8710, Wayne State University, corresponding author)
Year2010
Volume42
Issue1
Pages121-154
Publication date2010-02-01
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Latin American Studies (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-216X • E-ISSN: 1469-767X
PublisherCambridge University Press (CUP) (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.1017/s0022216x10000076
OpenAlexW2132062149
LanguageEN
Citations received2
References cited9

By the late 1820s, Puerto Rico and Cuba had become Spain's only remaining colonies in the Americas and its major source of colonial returns. A decade later, however, the slave-based plantation system in Puerto Rico was beginning to show signs of stagnation due to the convergence of a number of domestic and international forces. In the late 1840s the Iberian colonial bureaucracy initiated a series of proposals to stimulate Puerto Rico's transformation into an agriculturally modern, diversified, free-labour economy. This initiative failed due to an adverse economic environment, administrative confusion and rivalries, and the failure of officials on the island to enlist the support either of local planters or those at the lower levels of society. This paper explores the reasons for this failure in detail

Agriculture · Backwardness · Bureaucracy · Business · Colonialism · Confusion · Convergence (economics) · Development economics · Diversification (marketing strategy) · Economic growth · Economics · Economy · Geography · Modernization theory · Political science · Caribbean history, culture, and politics · Colonialism, slavery, and trade · Cuban History and Society

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