Encumbered Cuba: Capital Markets and Revolt, 1878-1895

"A significant contribution to our understanding of the complex process of the Cuban struggle towards reforming and severing ties with Spain, this book disentangles the formerly unexplored financial and monetary factors at the center of Spain's interests and in so doing makes an original addition to the economic history of the ties between Cuba, Spain, and the United States." -Alfonso W. Quiroz, City University of New York "Fernandez has thoroughly researched the records of the two main institutions that made up the core of Spanish banking policy in late colonial Cuba. Her findings are quite remarkable, told in a nrrative that fascinates the reader and stimulates ideas for further research." -Alan Dye, Barnard College/Columbia University Fernandez shows how, in the competition for capital, Spain lost Cuba before a shot was even fired in the 1895 war for independence. She argues that economic forces after the Ten Years' War both ensured American intervention and reduced Cuban opposition to the U.S. political direction of the Cuban economy. No comparable study, in either English or Spanish, addresses the financial links among these three countries and the developmental implications of those relations for Cuba in its late-colonial economic and financial history. Fernandez shows that the unsupportive fiscal and monetary policies of Spain limited diversification, industrialization, and food security while deepening Cuban-U.S. ties. Drawing upon extensive primary research on merchant capital and on Cuban banks, particularly the Banco Español de la Isla de Cuba and the Banco Hispano-Colonial, Fernandez argues that cuba's rejection of colonial rule in 1895 was primarily a revolt against Spanish economic direction that cut across classes.