NEWS FROM THE INQUIRE CAPITALISM TEAM
Summer 2021 was a very productive semester for the Inquire Capitalism Team. Our database of corporate archives continues to grow. There are more than 700 curated entries on the catalog that continues to expand the field’s diversity of entries. For example, we’ve added new entries for coffee companies and ice cream companies in the United States. In addition, we have worked in adding selected bibliography to each of the entries and we have updated the controlled vocabulary document that helps users find the archives they need.
The Inquire Capitalism database is open for contributions. Send us your contribution through our website or by email to inquirecapitalism@history.clas.ufl.edu. For more information contact Professor Sean Adams, director of the Inquire Capitalism Program at the University of Florida (spadams@ufl.edu).
Coffeemaking: a brief history and some remarks about coffee company archives; by Chandler L’hommedieu (University of Florida)
an IC database highlight from the program’s interns
Coffee is one of the most consumed beverages in the U.S. and globally.1 For some, the drink is an important part of their national and cultural identity, for others a hobby, for a few their livelihood and for many, it wakes them up in the morning and gets them out the door. Regardless of what coffee means to you and whether you like it or not, it is undeniable the impact that this drink has had on our society. In coffee houses, revolutionaries and intellectuals plotted the storming of the Bastille and dreamt up new systems of government. Coffee has a rich history, and fortunately, much of that history is now documented and cataloged in the Inquire Capitalism Database.
Coffee can trace its origins to Ethiopia. The legend goes that a goat herder named Kaldi was the first to discover coffee when he noticed that when his goats ate what we now know as a coffee fruit they became energized. Regardless of the veracity of the Kaldi legend, most agree that coffee did originate in Ethiopia before moving to Yemen by the 15th century. It is also important to note how important the coffee that grew in Yemen at that time was. The species that the people of Yemen got from Ethiopia and began to cultivate is now known as Arabica. Despite there being over a hundred different species of coffee in the world, the Arabica variety is the most consumed, best tasting and most important. Over the next few centuries, coffee production and consumption would continue to grow with new devices created to brew the beverage like the Cezve in Turkey and the Biggins Pot in Europe.
The turn of the 20th century brought with it exciting new changes and developments to the world of coffee. At this time, we saw the creation of the world’s true espresso machine and its predecessor, the moka pot, which was developed by the Italian manufacturer Bialetti in 1919. The device is a stovetop brewer and uses steam trapped in the bottom chamber to push water through the grounds above. The moka port creates espresso-style coffee but not true espresso because the device cannot achieve the necessary 8 to 9 bars of pressure. The first true espresso machine was developed by Achilla Gaggia, who used a system he called Lampo that forced hot water through the coffee instead of steam like most other machines at the time. Gaggia’s machine was also the first to create Crema.
The middle to the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st brought more changes. Big coffee manufacturers such as Folgers and Cafe Bustello grew in the mid-twentieth century. Also new brewing devices such as the drip machine and the percolator were introduced in the market. The end of the 20th century was also the beginning of Starbucks, the cafe chain that would forever alter the global coffee industry and currently controls almost 40% of the market.2 The 21st century kicked off what is known as the third wave of coffee defined by fair trade practices, climate consciousness, and an emphasis on lighter roasts. It was at this time that we see the re-emergence of Stenophyla, a coffee variety that originated in Sierra Leona in the 18th century and that reportedly tasted much like Arabica. This species would fall out of fashion in favor of Arabica and Robusta due to its comparably lower yields. However, this species is coming back due to climate change. Arabica coffee needs to be grown in cooler climates but as global temperatures rise the future of the species is in question. Stenophyla in contrast can be grown in warmer, more tropical environments. Today a research team led by Dr. Aaron Davis is currently doing work to try and recultivate the species in Sierra Leone to try and secure the future of coffee.3 The Inquire Capitalism Database has secured the history of some of the most important companies in the development of coffee.
[1] See International Coffee Organization. World coffee consumption, 2021. [2] Geereddy, Nithin. Strategic Analysis Of Starbucks Corporation. Massachusetts: Harvard, 2013. [3] Davis, Aaron P., Roberta Gargiulo, Michael F. Fay, Daniel Sarmu, and Jeremy Haggar. “Lost and Found: Coffea Stenophylla and C. Affinis, the Forgotten Coffee Crop Species of West Africa.” Frontiers in Plant Science 0 (2020).
Interview with Luis Conejo Barboza (Universidad de Costa Rica)
talking about her experience researching the United Fruit Company in Central America.
The Inquire Capitalism podcast is a new show where we interview scholars and archivists about their experiences working with business records.
[What follows is a translation from the edited transcript in Spanish of Episode 3 of the IC podcast show. Listen to the interview [in Spanish] in the link at the end of the interview, on our podcast site, on Spotify, or Stitcher]
Paula de la Cruz-Fernández (PCF): […] On this episode, I met with Luis Antonio Conejo Barboza to talk about the archives of the United Fruit Company in Costa Rica. Conejo became “interested in the United Fruit Company in 2009 when, because of his job [he went] to work in Golfito [Costa Rica], which is where there had formerly been a banana division of United, here in Costa Rica, after the 1930s. In this period, I [Conejo] was starting my master’s degree and so I was interested in studying about United, but I did so from the perspective of environmental history because I was really struck by some images that appeared on certain media created by the United Fruit Company, specifically in the Unifruitco magazine, where there was this huge dichotomy between untamed nature and the civilization brought by United. [By the time] I finished my master’s thesis I had really dug into some of United’s company sources, and that’s why I decided to work a little for the doctorate from the lens of business history and the United Fruit Company, no longer just in Costa Rica, but from a transnational perspective in Central American countries where [the company] was located, specifically in Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica, and Panama.”
What was your first experience with the United archives? And if you could tell us a little about where those archives are located.
Luis Conejo Barboza (LCB): For Costa Rica, the first contact I had with United sources was at the Carlos Monge Alfaro Library where there are archives of partner reports. They have 1900 to 1947. Then at the Library of the Central America History Research Center, CIHAC, which is a research center that is a part of the Department of History at the University of Costa Rica, there is the partner report from 1948 and some volumes of the Unifruitco magazine which originally had been donated to the Carlos Monge Alfaro Library. But later it was transferred to the CIHAC Library, which is more specialized in historical matters. These were, so to speak, the first primary sources that I had access to on United. Then, at the National Archive of Costa Rica, I found some maps of the banana divisions, of the farms, the houses, for example, the Northern store, which was the subsidiary of United here, which managed the railroads. Along with that, I got involved in searching at different universities, mostly in the United States. Luckily, the Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections at the University of Kansas sent us some documents they had and Purdue University did the same. This university has a very large and very complete collection of the Unifruitco magazine. Harvard University, there is the photographic archive and also copies of Unifruitco.
PCF: Tell us about one of those letters, one that stood out to you.
LCB: Right now, I’m starting one that is called Patron of Bananas. It was addressed to an audience in Boston, in the United States. It was written in 1942, I think. But what’s interesting is that they talked a lot about the importance and benefit that United was having in Central America and on the list, so to speak, of positive contributions that United was making in Central America was the destruction of the rainforest—persecuting nature as something that generated backwardness.
And also, later it talked about the topic of work which went along with a really interesting concept which is seen a lot in United’s sources which is the idea of useful knowledge, right? Scientific agriculture, as they define it. They really back the creation of the Zamorano school, which was an institution for young Central Americans to learn innovative agricultural techniques for the time.
Some useful knowledge was that the people of the United States knew where the different banana divisions were [and] knew what it was that was going on, but that they felt proud to belong to a company that was giving so many good things to Central America. And this is interesting because if you connect this letter with, for example, the Unifruitco magazine or the partner reports after the Guatemalan coup of the late 1940s, one will notice that this idea that the company has of convincing the stockholders and the workers in general . . .that … well, despite the existence of a communist threat, the company is going to do everything it can to maintain peace.
About the sources, later on, here the Department of Public Relations developed for Spanish-speaking countries [something] called “Golfito, a Story of the Conquest of the Jungle.” I think this document stood out a lot to me. It is located at the Library of the Central America History Research Center. It’s an extremely small document and the idea of the document, which was published in the 1950s, was that it was to be distributed in Costa Rican schools [and] that children were to write an essay about this document. And the winner would win a trip to the Golfito division. And the idea of this document came from the Department of Public Relations which said, “We have to convince not only generations of adults, but also succeeding generations.” Let’s say in this specific case of Costa Rica, but it was a strategy used in other Central American countries.
PCF: These magazines appeared in the 1920s and publish photographs, information about different branches where the subsidiaries are. They create these publications that are really useful for knowing about workplace relations as well as this idea of the company’s social responsibility. It shows us that the company’s impact goes beyond economic change.
LCB: We need to review the work of John Soluri and also, here in Costa Rica, Ronny Viales has touched on the topic. This idea of corporate well-being gains momentum at the United Fruit Company after 1925 when they realize, and that’s why they put it in the partner reports, that they are having certain problems with the populations of the host countries. And so, they were already located in the Caribbean and Jamaica, in Cuba, in Central America, and part of South America and they are looking for a business strategy that will let them get closer to the public of those countries. Professor Marcelo Bucheli has talked about what was known as vertical integration and the professional relationships within this vertical integration. And companies also look to strengthen their advertising departments, first of all to sell more products but also they begin to worry about this idea of the departments of public relations.
After the 1940s, in the specific case of United, we see an interesting turn because now this magazine is going to be bilingual. It’s clear that there is a more profound interest because its corporate message was understood and read by people from the countries where the banana subdivisions were located. In addition to making houses for the employees and giving them grocery stores, recreational spaces, etc.
Entrevista con Luis Conejo Baboza (Universidad de Costa Rica)
sobre su investigación sobre United Fruit Company en Centroamérica.
El podcast Inquire Capitalism entrevista a especialistas y académicos sobre su experiencia investigando y utilizando archivos de empresas.
[A continuación está disponible la transcripción de la entrevista en español con Luis Conejo. Puede escucharla completa en la página de nuestro podcast, Spotify, o Stitcher]
Paula de la Cruz-Fernández (PCF): En este episodio me reuní con Luis Antonio Conejo Barboza para hablar sobre los archivos de la United Fruit Company en Costa Rica. Conejo se empezó “a interesar con la United Fruit Company cuando en el 2009 por cuestiones laborales [fue] a trabajar a Golfito [Costa Rica], que es donde antiguamente se había ubicado una división bananera de la United, aquí en Costa Rica, a partir de finales de los años treinta. En ese período yo [Conejo] estaba iniciando mi maestría y entonces me interesé por realizar los estudios acerca de la United, pero lo hice desde el punto de vista de la historia ambiental porque me llamaba poderosamente la atención algunas imágenes que aparecían en ciertos medios de comunicación de la United Fruit Company, específicamente en la revista Unifruitco, en donde se hacía mucho esta dicotomía entre la naturaleza salvaje y la civilización que traía la United. Cuando terminé la tesis de maestría ya me había adentrado bastante en lo que eran algunas de las fuentes empresariales de la United, y por eso decidí, para el doctorado, trabajar un poco desde el enfoque de la historia empresarial y la United Fruit Company, ya no sólo en Costa Rica, sino desde una perspectiva transnacional en los países centroamericanos en donde [la compañía] estuvo, concretamente en Guatemala, Honduras, Costa Rica y Panamá.”
¿Cuál fue tu primera experiencia con archivos de la United? Y si nos puedes contar un poco dónde están esos archivos.
Luis Conejo Barboza (LCB): Para el caso de Costa Rica, el primer contacto que yo tuve con fuentes de la United fue en la Biblioteca Carlos Monge Alfaro, en donde se encuentran archivos de reporte para socios. Está de 1900 a 1947. Después en la Biblioteca del Centro Investigaciones Históricas de América Central, CIHAC, que es un centro de investigación que está adscrito a la escuela de Historia de la Universidad de Costa Rica, se encuentra el reporte para socios de 1948 y hay algunos volúmenes de la revista Unifruitco que originalmente habían sido donados a la Biblioteca Carlos Monge Alfaro. Pero, después, ésta los trasladó a la Biblioteca del CIHAC que es más especializada en cuestiones históricas. Esas fueron, digamos, las primeras fuentes primarias en las que yo tuve acceso acerca de la United. Posteriormente, en el Archivo Nacional de Costa Rica me encontré con algunos planos de las divisiones bananeras, de las fincas, de las casas, por decir, el depósito de la Northern, que fue la subsidiaria de la United aquí, que era la que manejaba los ferrocarriles. Paralelamente a eso me lié a la tarea de buscar en diferentes universidades, principalmente de Estados Unidos. Dichosamente, la biblioteca Kenneth Spencer Research Library Archival Collections de la Universidad de Kansas nos pasó algunos de los documentos que ellos tenían y la Universidad de Purdue también. Esta universidad tiene una colección muy grande de lo que es la revista Unifruitco y muy completa. La Universidad de Harvard, ahí está el archivo fotográfico y números de Unifruitco.
PCF: Cuéntanos sobre una de esas cartas, una que te haya llamado la atención.
LCB: Ahorita estoy empezando una que se llama Patron of Bananas. Estaba dirigida a un público en Boston, en Estados Unidos. Fue realizada en 1942 -me parece- aproximadamente. Pero lo interesante es que ellos hablaban mucho de la importancia y el beneficio que estaba haciendo la United en Centroamérica y en la lista, digamos, de aportes positivos que estaba haciendo la United en Centroamérica estaba eliminar la agreste selva — persiguiendo a la naturaleza como algo que generaba atraso.
Y posteriormente también hablaba acerca de la cuestión laboral, que lo unían mucho con un concepto muy interesante y que se ve mucho en las fuentes de la United, que es esta idea del conocimiento útil -¿verdad? la agricultura científica, como ellos la definen. Respaldan mucho en la creación de la escuela Zamorano, que era una institución para que jóvenes centroamericanos aprendieran técnicas agrícolas innovadoras en la época.
También el conocimiento útil era que el pueblo estadounidense conociera dónde es que estaban las diferentes divisiones bananeras, conocieran qué es lo que se estaba haciendo, pero que se sintieran orgullosos de pertenecer a una empresa que le estaba dando tantas cosas buenas a América Central. Y esto es interesante porque si usted liga esta carta con, por ejemplo, las revistas de Unifruitco o los reportes para socios después del golpe de estado de Guatemala a finales de los cincuenta, uno se va a dar cuenta de que esta idea que tiene la empresa de convencer mucho a los accionistas y a los trabajadores en general … de que … bueno, a pesar de que existe una amenaza comunista, la empresa va a hacer todos sus esfuerzos posibles para mantener la paz.
También sobre fuentes, posteriormente aquí, se desarrolló el Departamento de Relaciones Públicas para los países hispanohablantes que se llama “Golfito, una historia de la conquista de la selva.” Ese documento me llamó mucho la atención. Este se ubica en la Biblioteca del Centro de Investigaciones Históricas de América Central. Es un documento sumamente pequeñito y la idea que tuvo este documento, que se publica en los cincuenta, era que fuera distribuido en las escuelas de Costa Rica, que los niños hicieran un ensayo acerca de este documento. Y el ensayo ganador se iba a ganar un viaje a la división Golfito. Y la idea de este documento se inspiró en el Departamento de Relaciones Públicas que decía: “nosotros tenemos que convencer, no solamente a las generaciones de adultos, sino también a las generaciones venideras.” Digamos en este caso concreto de Costa Rica, pero fue una estrategia que utilizaron en otros países centroamericanos.
PCF: Estas revistas aparecen en los años veinte y publican fotografías, información de las distintas sedes donde tienen las subsidiarias, o donde la empresa opera, y crean estas publicaciones que son muy útiles para conocer las relaciones laborales, también esta idea de responsabilidad social de la empresa. Nos hace ver que el impacto de la empresa va mucho más allá del cambio económico.
LCB: Hay que revisar los trabajos de John Soluri y también aquí, en Costa Rica, Ronny Viales Hurtado ha tocado acerca del tema. Esto de la idea del bienestar corporativo empieza muy fuerte en la United Fruit Company a partir de 1925, cuando ellos se dan cuenta, y eso es porque lo ponen en los reportes para socios, de que están teniendo ciertos problemas con las poblaciones de los países huéspedes. Y bueno, ya estaban posicionados en el Caribe y Jamaica, en Cuba, en Centroamérica y parte de Sudamérica y buscan una estrategia empresarial que les permita estar más cerca del público de estos países. Ya el profesor Marcelo Bucheli ha hablado acerca de lo que era la integración vertical y las relaciones laborales dentro esta integración vertical. Y las empresas también buscan potenciar sus departamentos de publicidad, primeramente para vender mejor sus productos pero también se empiezan a preocupar por esta idea de los departamentos de relaciones públicas.
A partir de los cuarenta, en el caso concreto de la United, nosotros vamos a ver un giro bastante interesante porque ya esta revista va a ser bilingüe. Es evidente que existe un interés más profundo porque su mensaje corporativo fuera entendido y leído por las personas de los países donde se encontraban sus subdivisiones bananeras. Además de crear las casas para los empleados y darles sus supermercados, sus espacios de recreación, etc.
[Fin de la entrevista]
Interviewed recorded, edited, and broadcasted by Dr. Paula de la Cruz-Fernández.