Agrarian Puerto Rico
Reconsidering Rural Economy and Society, 1899–1940

Challenges dominant interpretations of colonialism's impact on the economy and social structuring of a US-owned Caribbean colony.

César J. Ayala (Author), Laird W. Bergad (Author)

9781108726375, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 13 November 2025

330 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.53 kg

'this rigorous study throws down the gauntlet for future scholarship.' Jean Stubbs, New West Indian Guide

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.

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.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ], Environmental economics [KCN], History of the Americas [HBJK]