Sugar and Modernity. The technological experimentation of the Havana oligarchy: 1700-1820
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.3989/revindias.2012.24Keywords:
Sugar, sugar-producing technology, economy, engineers, Havana oligarchy, technological modernization, Eighteenth Nineteenth CenturiesAbstract
The article discusses the mentality of modernization and technological experimentation which accompanied the enlightened elite of the Cuban sugar-producing oligarchy in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries. Data and documents show this powerful Havana group’s noted interest in increasing the production of the sweet produce, what drove them to engage with English factories to produce modern-designed milis and construction materials that made them more durable and powerful. We’ll show the diligence and persistence of the sugar-producing elite to achieve its economic and political goals and how through their spokesman Francisco de Arango y Parreño they demanded the King’s permission for a technologicalindustrial espionage trip through Europe and the Caribbean that helped them to introduce new machines and modern technology. The investment capital accumulated by some members of the elite and the negotiations of the management of the Royal Trading Company of Havana in Cádiz, Bristol and London were fundamental to this process.
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