Formerly | South Porto Rico Sugar Company (1900–1959) |
---|---|
Company type | Public |
Industry | Agriculture |
Founded | November 15, 1900 |
Defunct | 1967 |
Fate | Acquired by Gulf and Western Industries |
Successor | Gulf and Western Americas Corporation |
Headquarters | Jersey City, New Jersey, United States |
Subsidiaries | Central Romana By-Products Central Romana Corporation Guánica Agricultural Service Company Magdalena Development Corporation Okeelanta Sugar |
The South Puerto Rico Sugar Company (SPRSCO) was a multinational corporation based in New York. Founded in 1900, it operated in Puerto Rico from 1901 and in the Dominican Republic from 1910. [1]
The company was incorporated on November 15, 1900, as the South Porto Rico Sugar Company by German-American businessmen. [2]
In 1901, construction of the Central Guánica sugar mill began.[ citation needed ]
In 1908, South Porto Rico Sugar acquired Central Fortuna from the Compagnie des Sucreries de Porto Rico for $1,750,000. It was the biggest sugar estate transaction in Puerto Rico at the time.
In 1912, it established the Central Romana Corporation as a subsidiary. [3]
In 1959, South Porto Rico Sugar Company changed its name to South Puerto Rico Sugar Company. [4]
In 1964, South Puerto Rico Sugar Company acquired Okeelanta Sugar Refinery, Inc. [5]
In 1967, South Puerto Rico Sugar Company was acquired by Gulf and Western Industries, becoming part of its Gulf and Western Americas Corporation division. [6]
Transport in the Dominican Republic utilizes a system of roads, airports, ports, harbours, and an urban railway.
Gulf and Western Industries, Inc. was an American conglomerate. The company originally focused on manufacturing and resource extraction, but it began purchasing a number of entertainment companies beginning in 1966 and continuing through the 1970s. Most notable among the acquisitions were film studio Paramount Pictures in 1966, television studio Desilu Productions in 1967, arcade and later videogame manufacturer Sega in 1969, book publisher Simon & Schuster in 1975, and a number of music labels including Dot Records. Some of these properties were reorganized under the Paramount brand, with Dot Records becoming the nucleus of Paramount Records and Desilu being renamed Paramount Television.
Las Américas International Airport is an international airport located in Punta Caucedo, near Santo Domingo and Boca Chica in the Dominican Republic. The airport is run by Aeropuertos Dominicanos Siglo XXI (AERODOM), a private corporation based in the Dominican Republic, under a 25-year concession to build, operate, and transfer (BOT) six of the country's airports. Las Américas usually receives a wide variety of long-, mid-, and short-haul aircraft. Santo Domingo's other airport, La Isabela, is much smaller and used by smaller aircraft only.
Guánica is a town and municipality in southern Puerto Rico, bordering the Caribbean Sea, south of Sabana Grande, east of Lajas, and west of Yauco. It is part of the Yauco metropolitan statistical area.
Charles George Bluhdorn was an Austrian-born American industrialist. He built his fortune in auto parts and commodities such as zinc, and following a 1966 acquisition became CEO, chairman and president of the Hollywood movie studio Paramount Pictures. Paramount was a former subsidiary of Gulf and Western Industries, which Bluhdorn purchased in 1956 when it was called the Michigan Plating and Stamping Company.
Corsican immigration to Puerto Rico resulted in the 19th century from widespread economic and political changes in Europe that made life difficult for the peasant and agricultural classes in Corsica and other territories. The Second Industrial Revolution drew more people into urban areas for work, widespread crop failure resulted from long periods of drought, and crop diseases, and political discontent rose. In the early nineteenth century, Spain lost most of its possessions in the so-called "New World" as its colonies won independence. It feared rebellion in its last two Caribbean colonies: Puerto Rico and Cuba. The Spanish Crown had issued the Royal Decree of Graces of 1815 which fostered and encouraged the immigration of European Catholics, even if not of Spanish origin, to its Caribbean colonies.
La Romana is a municipality and capital of the southeastern province of La Romana, opposite Catalina Island. It is one of the 10 largest cities in the Dominican Republic with a population estimated in 2022 at 153,241 within the city limits, of whom 149,840 are urban and 3,401 are rural. The name Romana comes from the word "Bomana", a name given by Indians to what is known today as Romana River.
The American Sugar Refining Company (ASR) was the most significant American business unit in the sugar refining industry in the early 1900s. It had interests in Puerto Rico and other Caribbean locations and operated one of the world's largest sugar refineries, the Domino Sugar Refinery in Brooklyn, New York.
Cocolo is a term used in the Hispanic Caribbean to refer to Afro-Caribbean migrant descendants. The term originated in the Dominican Republic and is historically used to refer to the Anglophone Caribbean immigrants and their descendants and more rarely, towards those from the Francophone Caribbean. It is mainly used to refer to the migrants in San Pedro de Macorís, Puerto Plata, the Samaná Peninsula, and other Afro-descendants who arrived in the Atlantic coastal areas of the country in the late 1800s and early 1900s. At the time these migrants were culturally distinct from the lighter Dominicans who primarily lived in the northern interior of the country and had a higher degree of colonial European ancestry.
Carlos Morales Troncoso was Vice President of the Dominican Republic from 1986 to 1994 and its foreign minister from 2004 to 2014.
The Fanjul family —Cuban born brothers Alfonso "Alfy" Fanjul Jr., José "Pepe" Fanjul, Alexander Fanjul, and Andres Fanjul—are owners of Fanjul Corp., a vast sugar and real estate conglomerate. It comprises the subsidiaries Domino Sugar, Florida Crystals, C&H Sugar, Redpath Sugar, former Tate & Lyle sugar companies, and American Sugar Refining. Fanjul Corp. also owns a 35% stake in Central Romana Corporation of La Romana, Dominican Republic.
Casa de Campo is a Ponderosa-style tropical seaside residential community in La Romana on the southeast coast of the Dominican Republic. It was developed in the 1970s by Gulf and Western Industries on 7,000 acres (28 km2) of its Central Romana sugar mill's land.
Central Romana Port is located in Romana River, La Romana, Dominican Republic, and belongs to Central Romana Corporation, which also owns the largest sugar mill in the country.
Hacienda Mercedita was a 300-acre (120 ha) sugarcane plantation in Ponce, Puerto Rico, founded in 1861, by Juan Serrallés Colón. Today Hacienda Mercedita no longer grows sugarcane and its lands are instead used for growing mangoes, grasses, landscape plants and palms, coconut palms, bananas, and seeds.
Central Guánica was a sugar mill located in Ensenada Barrio in the municipality of Guánica, Puerto Rico. It was one of the largest sugar mills in the Caribbean, and until World War I, it was one of the largest mills in the world. It ceased operations in 1982.
Hurricane Edith brought flooding and wind damage to portions of the Greater and Lesser Antilles. The sixth tropical storm and fifth hurricane of the 1963 season, Edith developed east of the Windward Islands on September 23 from an Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) disturbance. Initially a tropical depression, it strengthened into Tropical Storm Edith the next day. Shortly thereafter, Edith reached hurricane status. Edith fluctuated between Category 1 and 2 status as it moved west-northwest. Upon reaching Category 2 intensity on September 25, the storm peaked with winds of 100 mph (155 km/h). After striking Saint Lucia on September 25, the storm traversed the eastern Caribbean Sea. Curving north-northwest on September 26, Edith made landfall near La Romana, Dominican Republic, early on the following day as a minimal hurricane. Interaction with land and an upper-level trough caused Edith to weaken to a tropical storm on September 28 and to a tropical depression by the next day. The storm dissipated just east of the Bahamas on September 29.
Central Coloso, also known as Coloso Sugar Cane Refinery, was a long-running sugarcane refinery in Aguada, Puerto Rico. The refinery was established in late 19th century becoming one of the biggest sugar emporiums in the island. It remained operational until 2003, becoming the last sugarcane refinery to cease operations on the island.
Ensenada Barrio is a barrio in the municipality of Guánica, Puerto Rico. Its population in 2010 was 1,705.
Agwilines Inc was a passenger and cargo shipping company of New York City. Agwilines is short for Atlantic, Gulf & West Indies Steamship Inc. AGWI Lines group operated four main lines in the 1910s, 1920s and 1930s:
Central Romana Corporation, Ltd. is an agro-industrial and tourism company based in the Dominican Republic.