Sugar plantations in Hawaii
[1] Sugar quickly turned into a big business and generated rapid population growth in the islands with 337,000 people immigrating over the span of a century.
[5] In 1850, when California attained statehood, profits declined and the number of plantations decreased to five due to the import tariff that was instituted.
[7] Market demand increased even further during the onset of the American Civil War which prevented Southern sugar from being shipped northward.
[5] The Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 allowed Hawaiʻi to sell sugar to the United States without paying duties or taxes, greatly increasing plantation profits.
[9] This treaty also guaranteed that all of the resources including land, water, human labor power, capital, and technology would be thrown behind sugarcane cultivation.
[6][10] The 1890 McKinley Tariff Act, an effort by the United States government to decrease the competitive pricing of Hawaiian sugar, paid 2 cents per pound to mainland producers.
[6] These businessmen had perfected the double-edged sword of capitalism – a wage-earning labor force dependent upon plantation goods and services.
[12] Later the sons and grandsons of the early missionaries played central roles in the overthrow of the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi in 1893, creating a short-lived republic.
[9] Although help was needed to work the fields, new problems, like feeding, housing and caring for new employees, were created for many of the planters since the Chinese immigrants did not live off the land like Native Hawaiians, who required little support.
[9] Plantation owners worked hard to maintain a hierarchical caste system that prevented worker organization, and divided the camps based on ethnic identity.
A unique operation was the Kohala Sugar Company, known as "The Missionary Plantation" since it was founded by Reverend Elias Bond in 1862 to support his church and schools.
Plantations were strategically located throughout the Hawaiian Islands for reasons including: fertile soil area, level topography, sufficient water for irrigation, and a mild climate with little annual variation.
Sugar processing places significant demands on resources including irrigation, coal, iron, wood, steam, and railroads for transportation.
[6] The Big Five slowed the production of sugar as cheaper labor was found in India, South America and the Caribbean and concentrated their efforts on the imposition of a tourism-based society.
[6] Former plantation land was used by the conglomerates to build hotels and develop this tourist-based economy which has dominated the past 50 years of Hawaiian economics[citation needed].
