The Golden Leaf

Charlotte Cosner

Description

Through the rise and fall of empires, ideologies, and economies, tobacco grown on the tiny island of Cuba has remained an enduring symbol of pleasure and extravagance. Cultivated as one of the first reliable commodities for those inhabitants who remained after conquistadors moved on in search of a mythical wellspring of gold, tobacco quickly became crucial to the support of the swelling Spanish Empire in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Eventually, however, tobacco became one of the final stabilizing forces in the empire, and it ultimately proved more resilient than the best laid plans of kings and queens. Tobacco, and those whose livelihoods depended on it, shrugged off the Empire's collapse and pressed on into the twentieth century as an economic force any state or political power must reckon with.

Cosner explores the history of this golden leaf through the personal narratives of farmers, bureaucrats, and laborers, all struggling to build an independent and lucrative economic engine. Through conquest, rebellion, colonial and imperial schemes, and the eventual Communist revolution, Cuban tobacco and cigars became a luxury item that commanded loyalty that defied mere borders or embargoes. Ultimately, The Golden Leaf is a story of two carefully cultivated products: Cuban tobacco, and its lofty reputation.

Sujets

• Latin American Studies
• West Indies
• Histoire
• Economics
• Caribbean
• History

Informations

• Publié par: Vanderbilt University Press
• Date de parution: 10 février 2015
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9780826520340
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

THE GOLDEN LEAF
The Golden Leaf
How Tobacco Shaped Cuba and the Atlantic World
CHARLOTTE A. COSNER
VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY PRESS
Nashville
© 2015 by Vanderbilt University Press
Nashville, Tennessee 37235
All rights reserved
First printing 2014
This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Text design and composition by Tseng Information Systems, Inc.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data on file
LC control number 2014013076
LC classification HD9144.C92C67 2014
Dewey class number 338.4'76797097291—dc23
ISBN 978-0-8265-2032-6 (hardcover)
ISBN 978-0-8265-2034-0 (ebook)
In memory of Raymond L. Cosner and Lester V. Cosner, the two men who taught me about tobacco.
Contents
Acknowledgments
Introduction
1. “The consumption . . . is excessive”
2. “Learnt by observation and experience”
3. “One of the good growers”
4. “A matter of chief importance”
5. “Apply all of your attention to the laws”
6. “I work with all my might to eradicate the evil”
7. “Shipments of Havana tobacco not arriving due to the present war”
Epilogue
Glossary
Notes
Bibliography
Index
Acknowledgments
OVER THE COURSE OF THIS PROJECT, I have amassed a list of people who have aided me in innumerable ways, and there are many more I have not mentioned by name here.
Funding from various sources made research trips to distant archives and conferences possible. I gratefully acknowledge the financial support for this project from the following institutions: the Program for Cultural Cooperation between Spain’s Ministry of Culture and US Universities, the Lydia Cabrera Award for Cuban Historical Studies from the Conference on Latin American History, the Ford Foundation Grant for Student Travel from the Cuban Research Institute at Florida International University, the Escuela de Estudios HispanoAmericanos, the Jay I. Kislak Foundation, Florida International University’s Department of History, and the Chancellor’s Office and the History Department at Western Carolina University.
Staff and directors at the Archivo General de Indias and the Centro de Estudios HispanoAmericanos in Seville, Spain, the Archivo Nacional de Cuba, the Archivo Historico Provincial de Pinar del Río, the Special Collections Department at the Steven and Dorothea Green Library at Florida International University, the Special Collections Department at the Otto G. Richter Library at the University of Miami, and the Interlibrary Loan staff at Western Carolina University all provided a wonderful atmosphere for research, granted access to the materials needed to bring this work to completion, and were ever patient with my many requests.
My infinite gratitude and thanks go to my dissertation advisor and mentor, Sherry Johnson at Florida International University. Sherry helped me with this topic long before I officially became her student, and continued to do so even after I had stopped. Along the way, she taught me to be a more efficient and dedicated scholar and a cleaner writer, and she became a lifelong friend. I’m lucky to have Sherry in my corner and hope that this long-overdue work can serve as partial compensation for all that she has done on my behalf over the years.
At archives and conferences, I have discussed various aspects of this topic with numerous people, all of whom have given me great insights and asked probing questions. I cannot name them all, but am very grateful for their time and feedback. I owe a debt to the anonymous readers who made invaluable suggestions and comments. The editorial board and staff of Vanderbilt University Press have shepherded me through the publication process with such kindness, patience, and helpfulness and have made every step an absolute joy. Eli Bortz, in particular, expressed a very early interest in this work, and showed the patience of Job as I produced this final version.
Friends and family tolerated my increasing absences, both physically and mentally, as I plodded away at the book, writing and rewriting it more times than I can count. They encouraged me, silently at times, and more vocally toward the end of the project when I needed it most. In Cullowhee, I’m proud to call a group of pretty amazing people my friends. They have made the task of focusing on my job of “Working Mom” that much easier. During the summer of 2012, in particular, Nora Leal, Guillermo Cardona, Matilde “Mati” Castellanos, and Viviana Alferez provided me with the luxury of living as a full-time writer, which meant I was able to advance this work in ways that would otherwise have been impossible. My children have grown up with this project. Patrick, Virginia, and Adam have never known a time, it seems, when Mommy wasn’t working on her book. Maybe when they are finally able to hold it in their hands the idea will become real, and they will overlook the many times when I went to the office and stayed long past their bedtimes. I am so grateful for their patience with me and their understanding, as well as that of my husband, Rick Cardona, who has remained my rock through thick and thin.
Introduction
CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS MADE CLEAR and careful observations of the local geography, its inhabitants, and their customs during his 1492 voyage to the New World. In early November, Columbus sent two men, Rodrigo de Jerez and Luis de Torres, to explore the interior of an island. The crewmembers returned within a week, bringing tales of a weed twisted and smoked by the Native Americans. Europeans had seen this dried substance earlier, during encounters with the area’s indigenous populations. Although Columbus and his crew were uncertain of the plant’s name, these descriptions provide the first known European reference to tobacco. The significance of Europe’s introduction to this important commodity is clear today, but at the time, Columbus and his men were unimpressed by this new discovery. 1
Gold, in contrast, was of great interest. Columbus’s journal noted the items traded by the indigenous people, such as “parrots and cotton thread in balls and javelins and many other things,” but what the sailor hoped to find was gold. The Spanish sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabel had granted the Genoese sailor many rights and privileges under the “Capitulations of Santa Fé.” These included the ranks of admiral, viceroy, and governor-general, along with 10 percent profit on all goods obtained by trade. Columbus therefore was under a tremendous amount of both personal and external pressure to succeed in his overseas mission. Columbus’s own log detailed this struggle. Columbus anchored on 15 October off the coast of an island he named Santa María de la Concepción, and searched for gold. Finding little of value, he headed to another island “where all these men that I am bringing from San Salvador make signs that there is very much gold and that they wear rings of it on their arms and on their legs and in their ears and on their noses and on their chests.” Columbus was particularly hopeful that gold would be found because the Native Americans’ attire indicated that the metal was available and, most likely, nearby. Day after day, his journal entries note his continued pursuit of the precious metal. Although he and his men searched diligently, they failed to find the gold source they were expecting, despite consistent Native American reports that there was gold on their own island or not far away. Columbus’s focus remained singular, and he admitted that “there may be many things that I do not know about because I do not want to stop, so I can investigate and go to many islands in order to find gold.” It became clear to the Europeans by 2 January 1493, that they would find no substantial sources of the desirable metal on this trip. Columbus refused to give up. He left thirty-nine men on the island of Hispaniola, hoping that they would find the elusive source of the little gold observed during the voyage. 2
Neither Cuba nor the other Caribbean islands possessed the quantities of gold that European conquistadors hoped to discover. Still, the quest for gold persisted among New World sixteenth-century explorers and adventurers as Spain continued to search for the precious metal on subsequent expeditions to the Mesoamerican and South American mainland. Some were successful, like Hernán Cortés and Francisco Pizarro in Mexico and Peru, respectively. Others—such as Hernando de Soto and Francisco Vázquez de Coronado, at opposite ends of what is now the southern part of the United States—were not. In the wake of the discovery of the Aztec and Inca civilizations’ vast treasure, the Spaniards’ drive was understandable. Initially, Europeans paid little attention to other economic activities, overlooking other possibilities that could have proven more lucrative, Georg Friederici argues. The search for and obtaining of mineral resources became a standard part of Iberian conquest and colonization. Gold and other precious minerals obtained through Native American labor were a seemingly endless resource and provided Spain with riches. Unfortunately for Spain, however, the cost of empire was great, and expenses frequently outpaced the New World’s income, causing Spain’s Felipe II (reigned 1556–1598) to declare bankruptcy no less than four times within a span of less than fifty years. 3
Columbus may have returned home without the glittering treasure he had hoped to find, yet his first voyage was far from unproductive. Exploration led to expanded European empires, and over time, tobacco became an important New World cash crop. From a botanical perspective, however, tobacco seems rather inauspicious. The plant is a member of the large Solanaceæ fam