Description
Tucumán’s sugar industry catered exclusively to the needs of the expanding national market and was once financed mostly by domestic capital. The expansion of sugar production didn’t produce massive land dispossession as sugar mills relied on outdoor growers for the supply of a big share of the sugarcane. The arrival of thousands of workers from neighboring provinces transformed rural society profoundly. As probably the most dynamic sector in Tucumán’s economy, revenues from sugar enabled the provincial government to take part within the modernizing movement that was once sweeping turn-of-the-century Argentina.
When Sugar Ruled uncovers the unique features that characterized sugar production in Tucumán in addition to the changes experienced by the province’s economy and society between 1876 and 1916, the period of most dramatic sugar expansion.