Book contents
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- 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 Landownership in Rural Puerto Rico
- 8 Land Tenure Patterns Using Census Data
- 9 Land Use
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
2 - The Coffee Economy
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 January 2020
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Agrarian Puerto Rico
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Figures
- Tables
- 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 Landownership in Rural Puerto Rico
- 8 Land Tenure Patterns Using Census Data
- 9 Land Use
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
When the United States assumed control over Puerto Rico after the military invasion of July 1898, coffee was Puerto Rico’s principal export staple product, having accounted for about 70 percent of Puerto Rico’s export trade in value by the mid-1890s. The peak year in production was 1896, when nearly 59 million pounds were exported worth about $13.4 million. In the same year, sugar exports from the island were valued at about $3.6 million.
Coffee was introduced to the island during the early eighteenth century, probably during the 1720s or 1730s, as part of its spread throughout the Caribbean by the French, who first began cultivating the crop in Martinique.
- Type
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- Information
- Agrarian Puerto RicoReconsidering Rural Economy and Society, 1899–1940, pp. 41 - 60Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2020