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

An examination of the evolution of land tenure and social structure in various economic zones of Puerto Rico during the early twentieth century. Archival data show that the integration of Puerto Rico into the US economy led to overwhelmingly diverse outcomes in different socioeconomic regions of the island.

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.