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The
discovery of gold in Puerto Rico had once placed the island at an economic
advantage. She had an abundance of wealth unmatched by any of the colonies in
the Caribbean.However, Puerto Rico’s prosperity was short lived. Once the
mines and rivers were striped of their precious ore, many of the inhabitants
including the miners and soldiers left the island. Many settlers also left. The
remainder found that special consideration from the crown was slowly fading.
By the early seventeenth century, Puerto Rico’s diminished economy was
considerable. Growing towns like San Juan, San Germàn, and Arecibo were not
enough to handle Spain’s economic demands. Puerto Rico was expected now
to consume a portion of the Empires goods. This would help make up for the gold
Puerto Rico could no longer export. This also was a way to limit the
Island’s ability to trade outside the Spanish realm. The trade
restrictions became the major complaint of the Puerto Rican, who resorted to
smuggling produce and slaves to survive.
In the middle of the century coffee bushes were brought to the island, and
gradually, a coffee industry emerged in place of smuggling. Puerto Rican
coffee soon became known as the best in the world. Very little land and laborers
were needed to farm coffee, so slavery had only a minor role in the growth of
agriculture. In general, slavery never became an acceptable practice in
the culture or economy of the island, and in later years slavery was abolished
entirely. As a result the island became a magnet for free Negroes and slaves
seeking freedom. By the end of the 17th century, the growing Negro population
began to make its mark on the physical characteristics of the Puerto Rican.
While five out of every ten Puerto Ricans were of Spanish descent, three were a
mixture of Spanish, Indian and Negro; one was a free Negro, and one a Negro
slave. The lack of a slave population also spared Puerto Rico from the racial
tensions that plagued other Caribbean islands. Instead, the people of Puerto
Rico embraced a sense of kinship and respect for all races of man, a belief that
was unsurpassed by any regions in the Americas of the time. In the late
Eighteenth century, the restriction on trade was gradually lifted, and Puerto
Rico was permitted to trade with neutral nations. Among them was the newly
independent United States who was also eager for developing its own sources of
trade.
At the close of the French Revolution, Napoleon Bonaparte forced King
Ferdinand of Spain into exile. This prompted the Spaniards to set up a
provisional government in Càdiz, Spain. The colonists of Puerto Rico remained
loyal to the King throughout, and in September of 1810, Ramón Power, the first
deputy from the Island, took part in the Cortes, the provisional Spanish
legislature. He succeeded at winning the vice-presidency, the highest post a
Puerto Rican would ever hold in the Spanish government. By 1812 the Cortes
passed the first Spanish Constitution, which proclaimed Puerto Rico, and the
other colonies a province of Spain. For the time being the colonists of Puerto
Rico were considered Spanish citizens so long as they remained represented by
the Cortes. Most important to the colonists, local affairs were to be controlled
by a local legislature.
Unfortunately for Puerto Rico, Napoleon was defeated two years later, and by
1814, King Ferdinand returned to Spain and regained his throne. One of his first
decrees was to abolish the newly formed Constitution and reclassify the new
Spanish provinces in the Americas as colonies. This act sparked revolution, and
fighting quickly broke out throughout Latin America. Colonists began a
campaign to oust Spain and its influence from the Western Hemisphere. In the
end, of all the Spanish possessions in the New World, only Puerto Rico and Cuba
remained colonies of the Crown.
In Puerto Rico, for one reason or another, the people’s sentiments were in
accord with Spain’s policies, a stark contrast to the anarchy that spun
countless revolutions upon governments after governments that succeeded from the
Empire. The Puerto Rican governors worked hard to suppress any actions that
might spark movement toward independence. They rivaled the idea of independence
by taking a real interest in the island’s problems. They improved schools,
built hospitals and roads, and supported economic growth in many ways.For the
time being these needed concessions lulled Puerto Ricans into submission.
But the Puerto Ricans still had some unresolved issues. There was an
immediate concern over the degree of autonomy some governors had over the
Islanders’ daily lives. Some officials wheeled the Crown’s sword with
absolute authority. Changes in the official policies of the government of Puerto
Rico were slow in coming mainly because of the great distance between the Island
and Spain.
The widening social gap between the rich and poor was also contributing to
the mounting tension Puerto Ricans were feeling. Until then, Puerto Ricans from
every stratum endured the plight for survival together. A need for labor in
newly sprouted sugar plantations now threatened to divide Puerto Ricans into
classes. Since it was difficult for many jibaros to survive on their small
patches of land, they hired themselves out to the large plantations. Although
slavery was forbidden on the island, the fact that slavery existed among the
neighboring islands kept the price of the working force down. Eventually, a
growing number of jibaros chose not to work for such unfair wages, and many fell
into idleness.
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