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Circuits of Knowledge: Foreign Technology and Transnational Expertise in Nineteenth-century Cuba

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The Caribbean and the Atlantic World Economy

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series ((CIPCSS))

Abstract

European and American industrial nations and the slave plantations of the Spanish Caribbean were not opposing economic systems during the nineteenth century; rather they were deeply entwined: the ‘sugar industrial revolution’ occurring on Cuban plantations coincided with the industrialisation of the Atlantic World economy.2 During the central decades of the century Cuba experienced a period in which agrarian capitalism expanded, and creole planters managed to transform their small-scale slave plantations into large agro-industrial complexes. Cuba emerged as an advanced agro-industrial region where planters, sugar masters, and prominent businessmen embraced the latest technical innovations and participated in transnational networks of commercial and knowledge exchange. It became the largest sugar producer in the Atlantic World.

The authors gratefully acknowledge financial and institutional support from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (ref. HAR2012-35965 and ref. HAR2013-40760-R), the Max Weber Programme at the European University Institute, the Universidad Autónoma de Madrid, and the Economic History Society.

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Notes

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Authors
  1. David Pretel
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  2. Nadia Fernández-de-Pinedo
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Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Financial History, University of Cambridge, UK

    A. B. Leonard

  2. Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, Spain

    David Pretel

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© 2015 David Pretel and Nadia Fernández-de-Pinedo

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Pretel, D., Fernández-de-Pinedo, N. (2015). Circuits of Knowledge: Foreign Technology and Transnational Expertise in Nineteenth-century Cuba. In: Leonard, A.B., Pretel, D. (eds) The Caribbean and the Atlantic World Economy. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137432728_12

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137432728_12

  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-349-68294-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-137-43272-8

  • eBook Packages: Palgrave History CollectionHistory (R0)

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