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 Chapter 3 Sugarcane Planters Patterns of Production specialization in sugar quickly replaced Tucumán’s diversified productive structure, although it did not provoke profound modifications in Tucumán’s land tenure patterns. Changes in methods of sugar manufacturing appeared in conjunction with a division between the industrial and agricultural stages of production. Rather than opting for vertical integration, ingenios took advantage of preexisting patterns of landownership and relied on large, medium, and small growers for a large share of their raw material. Small and medium farmers, who had previously produced only for selfconsumption and the local market, adapted successfully to the requirements of the nascent industry and remained an essential component in the development of the sugar economy. The incorporation of thousands of farmers into the sugar economy changed Tucumán’s rural society. As French geographer Pierre Denis observed in the late 1910s, “The most original feature of the organization of the sugar industry at Tucumán is the maintenance of a class of independent cultivators, the cañeros, side by side with the large enterprises. This survival of small and medium properties is a fact to which we find no parallel in the other sugar districts of tropical America.”1 The Organization of Production During the last decades of the nineteenth century, the sugar industry consolidatedits role in the provincial economy.The adoption of modern technology  chapter 3 increased ingenios’processing capacity and hence their demands for raw materials . Unlike Jujuy’s ingenios, which were vertically integrated, Tucumán’s ingenios met higher sugarcane demands through different strategies that combined self-supply with purchases from outside growers, thus enabling them to guarantee an adequate and stable provision of raw materials.2 Sections of ingenios’ lands were placed under direct production of salaried personnel hired by the mill or were allocated to sugarcane planters, known as colonos, who agreed to cultivate those holdings and sell the cane to the ingenio. Besides obtaining raw materials from their own lands, ingenios also purchased sugarcane from outside growers,or cañeros,independent planters with plots of varying sizes, either owned or rented, located near the mills. According to Antonio Correa’s 1897 report,cañeros produced 38 percent of the sugarcane processed in the province, while the colonos produced 36 percent.3 Since colonial times, there were many independent planters in Tucumán devoted to the cultivation of cereals and other crops both for self-subsistence and to be traded in local and domestic markets.The existence of a large pool of independent planters in the province facilitated ingenio owners’ decision to resort to outside suppliers, but other reasons also accounted for their not choosing vertical integration. Contemporary observers noted that ingenios lacked the capital needed to embark on sugarcane agriculture, as the incorporation of modern technology had required large investments that depleted their already limited resources.4 There is no doubt that limited access to capital must have prevented some ingenios to engage in direct sugarcane production, in particular those that did not own large tracts of land, such as Ingenio Santa Lucía or Ingenio Caspinchango.5 However, these factors failed to explain Ingenio Concepción’s or Ingenio Santa Ana’s decision to resort to outside suppliers,as both companies owned large tracts of land and had the financial resources to invest in plantations. Rather than being unable to place all their lands into production, most ingenios chose not to do so, for a number of reasons. Outside growers gave them the possibility to disperse production risks and therefore concentrate moreresourcesonthemodernizationofthemill.Additionally,outsidesuppliers released ingenios from the costs of organizing and monitoring field labor duringharvesttime ,afactorthatacquiresmoresignificanceinTucumán,a province that experienced significant problems in order to guarantee the stability of its workforce. However, extreme dependence on one source of supply could have increased ingenios’ vulnerability. Therefore, instead of resorting to a  sugarcane planters: patterns of production single supplier, ingenios combined self-production and contractual arrangements with a diverse pool of outside growers that included both cañeros and colonos. Most important, ingenios maintained a high degree of control over production through the establishment of individual agreements with planters that stipulated,among other considerations,quality and specific delivery conditions within a strict timeline.6 Ingenios’ needs coincided with those of planters, which explains the group’s enthusiastic participation in the sugar business. The increasing demand that followed technological innovation offered potentially high and rapid returns on the investment. According to Paul Groussac, in 1882 the cost of planting one hectare...

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