PUERTO RICO TOBACCO MADE CUBA FAMOUS
NOW AVAILABLE IN LIMITED EDITION CEDAR BOXES
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| PUERTO RICO TOBACCO CORPORATION |
by Don Collins
HISTORY OF PUERTO RICO TOBACCO CORPORATION (PRTC)
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| Puerto Rican Tobacco Farmers (1900) |
Porto Rico Leaf Company was organized and chartered by Spain around 1506, this became Porto Rico Tabaco Company and later Porto Rico American Tobacco Corporation, in 1898 which in turn became Puerto Rico Tobacco Coropration in the 1920's and has operated until today. PRTC started making Don Collins Cigars in 1991.
In the year 1899 and thereafter, either the American or Continental Companies, for cash or stock, at an aggregate cost of fifty millions of dollars ($50,000,000), bought and closed up some thirty competing corporations and partnerships theretofore engaged in interstate and foreign commerce as manufacturers, sellers, and distributers of tobacco and related commodities, the interested parties covenanting not to engage in the business. Likewise the two corporations acquired for cash, by issuing stock, **642 and otherwise, control of many competing corporations, now going concerns, with plants in various states, Cuba and Porto Rico, which manufactured, bought, sold, and distributed tobacco products or related articles throughout the United States and foreign countries, and took from the parties in interest covenants not to engage in the tobacco business. (above PRTC about 1901 - these are the farmers that supplied Cuba with crops after the Spanish burned Cuban Tobacco to the ground 1898-99)
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| Tobacco Fields and Barns Cayey & Aibonito PR (1890) |
The most reputed tobacco growing district of Cuba, Vuelta Abajo, became the major theater of operations during the 1897 and 1898 campaigns of the second war for Cuban independence (1895-1898). The conflict dislocated production and the relocation policies of the Spanish regime severely constrained the time that growers and work hands could dedicate to the plantations.
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Tobacco Fields Comerio Puerto Rico (1890)
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By 1888 the men and women from the highlands had gained considerable experience with different varieties and growing and harvesting methods that their agricultural practices were clearly distinct from the traditional ones.
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| PRTC Stock Certificate 1916 |
Again, Puerto Rican leaf exports present a steep rise during the second Cuban war for independence (1895-1898). In 1896, the Spanish authorities established that tobacco production in western Cuba was destined to supply the Spanish monopoly and colonial manufacture. However, as war continued to ravage the tobacco growing areas, Cuban merchants and manufacturers increased their dependency on Puerto Rican leaf to the extent that Cuba became the leading market for Puerto Rican leaf exports. The Puerto Rico Tobacco Corporation, maker of Don Collins Cigars has been the leader, without question, in the production of the best quality leaves then and now.
In summary, domestic growers expanded and transformed tobacco agriculture along three dimensions by the end of the century. First, highland planters shifted to a leaf that fitted the model of the Havana cigar. Second, such leaf began to substitute imports from Cuba and Virginia to the extent that domestic production supplied local demand. Lastly, domestic leaf exports increased across the board but, significantly, Cuba itself became a major recipient of wrapper and filler for Havana cigars.
1. González Fernández (1996), pp. 310-312. 2. Lestina (1940), p. 45-46. 3. González del Valle (1929), pp. 61-62.
4. Ceballos (1899). 5. Abad (1888), p. 318; Kimm (1964), p. ix. 6. Sonesson (2000), pp. 172-173, 209-210 7.. Aguayo (1876), p. 58. Van Leenhoff (1905), p. 12.
The twentieth century witnessed, still, a third harvesting technique called deshojado or primed where the leaves were picked one by one as they matured individually.
8. Abad (1888), p. 353. 9. Infiesta (1895), p. 214. Atienza Sirvent (1890), p. 11. Atienza Sirvent, an authority on tobacco, was less generous. He placed Vuelta Abajo, naturally, first followed by the Philippines on nearly an equal footing. On a second tier came the Canary Islands and Puerto Rico, in this order, which competed favorably with Cuban leaf planted in Partido.
