February 6, 1960, The Soviet Union agrees to buy five million tons of sugar over five years. They also agree to support Cuba with oil, grain, and credit.
"The sugar industry-always a parasitical growth-has never been able to pay its expenses with its own resources in normal times. It depended on slavery for its prosperity in former times and now the masked slavery of the West Indian laborers is unable to save it. Some sort of economic euthanasia is needed for industries which have developed into monstrosities as is the case with Cuba's sugar industry."
- Herminio Portell Vilá, Hispanic American Historical Review, 1932
Sugar was Cuba's primary source of control because they had such a large quantity of it. The funny thing is, is the fact that Castro so promptly made this promise to the Soviets; he knew everyone else in Cuba would be cultivating for them, not him. This picture is not of the Post-Revolutionary time in Cuba, but even further back to the African slave trade, which lasted over three centuries (Sierra).
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