4 COLONIAL PRODUCTION: Cacao in Colonial Times: Production in the Americas
In colonial times, cacao beans were found to be a profitable but labor intensive cash crop that only grew within twenty degrees of each side of the equator, and only grew under certain conditions, such as under shade trees. This posed many difficulties with production, and the many ways found to process cacao were not always ethical.
After the Spanish colonized Mesoamerica and Central America and eventually realized the kinds of crops that they could make a profit on, they needed labor to process and grow the cacao because it was so specific in its growth requirements.
The Portugues provided imported negro slaves purchased from Africa to the Spanish, along with the indigenous Mexica, provided their labor force for hundreds of years.
The Spanish established Haciendas on large land grants from Spain, and had grants of labor and tribute. Large estates were called latifundio. The indigenous people worked for the Spanish on encomiendas, or small ranches and farms, after formerly being enslaved when the conquistadors took over in place of the elite indigenous societies.
“Soon after the conquest the Spaniards established new economic and labor arrangements. Europeans took advantage of the tribute and labor systems developed by the indigenous peoples and simply put themselves in the place of the native rulers.Initially, natives were enslaved. They became the property of conquistadores. This form of direct slavery lasted only a few years and after much debate the crown decided that natives were vassals of the king and therefore they could not be enslaved.” (Lecture 4)
The entire system of what the Spanish did was unfair to the indigenous people who had extensive systems in place for their civilizations, and the Spanish destroyed it all.
The Spanish strictly controlled the trade of the cultivated products such as cacao, and were constantly sending ships back to Spain loaded with their products such as cacao and gold. (Many ships sank on the way back to Spain, leading to deep interest in recovering these shipwreck’s treasures today.) The ships were only allowed to go through certain ports controlled by the Crown in both countries.
“The Spanish crown depended on the Americas for its prosperity. The economy of Latin America was not structured to benefit the colonies but the metropolis… Colonial trade was strictly regulated through Spain's Atlantic port of Seville and a series of licensed ports in the Americas. Commerce was controlled by the Casa de ContraTacion and was restricted until the 18th century to the wealthier merchants of Seville and Cadiz, who were organized in a guild.” (Lecture 4)
The different colonizers controlled production of cacao in different areas of South America, Mesoamerica, and Central Mexico. They also used a mix of indigenous labor and enslaved Africans to meet the production demands of the popular cacao production. The Spanish controlled areas such as Soconsusco, Guatemala, and Tabasco, Ecuador, and Venezuela, and cultivated the Criollo cacao. They used indigenous labor in Soconusco and Tabasco. The Portuguese controlled production of cacao areas such as Brazil, and also Jesuits had farms and owned African slaves. They also cultivated the wild cacao called Forastero. The Portuguese labor force was enslaved Africans. (Lecture 4)
The Caribbean Islands were also settled and occupied by various countries and used enslaved labor to produce cacao. Different countries focused on different varieties of Cacao The British occupied Jamaica, and grew Trinitario. The French owned Martinique and grew the cacao variety criollo. Trinidad grew the cultivar Trinitario. (Lecture 4)
It is important to note that eventually some South American countries began to seek independence politically from their occupying countries. Spain and other countries began to move production to other land holdings along the equator to keep access to one of the best cash crops - cacao. “When Brazilian independence loomed, Portuguese authorities became not only the first to transplant not only the cacao plant to their West African colonies. but also an entire plantation system for cacao production based on forced labor that endures to the present day.” (Walker 543)
Then in colonial times, as now, cacao beans were found to be a profitable but labor intensive cash crop that primarily has always used forced labor of various populations or another such as indigenous population or enslaved Africans, or as now a system that hires Africans but treats them as slave labor and who often die. This is the legacy that the commodity of cacao production has left in place in many countries. The labor involved posed many difficulties with production, and the many ways found to process cacao were not always ethical.The countries involved have long histories to do with colonization and enslavement that has left its active and residual effects to present day.
Bibliography
Ferry, Robert J. “Encomienda, African Slavery, and Agriculture in Seventeenth-Century Caracas.” The Hispanic American Historical Review, vol. 61, no. 4, 1981, pp. 609–35, https://doi.org/10.1215/00182168-61.4.609.
Juarez-Dappe, Patricia. “History of Chocolate Class 429, Lecture 3.” California State University Northridge. Fall 2023. csun.edu.
Piñero, Eugenio. “465The Cacao Economy of the Eighteenth-Century Province of Caracas and the Spanish Cacao Market.” The Atlantic Slave Trade, 1st ed., vol. 3, Routledge, 2006, pp. 465–90, https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003362494-20.
Walker, Timothy. “Establishing Cacao Plantation Culture in the Atlantic World: Portuguese Cacao Production in Brazil and West Africa Circa 1580 - 1912..” Class PDF online. (Chapter 40 from Grivetti, Louis., and Howard-Yana. Shapiro. Chocolate : History, Culture, and Heritage. Wiley, 2009).
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