Sugar and Cuban Revolution. International Determinants of New Deal Policy (1930-1934)

The article presents two international events which had a marked effect on the New Deal's sugar policy: the so-called Chadbourne Agreement and the Cuban Revolution of 1933. The Chadbourne Agreement of 1931 introduced international market intervention by setting limits on exports and production in order to stabilize prices on the global sugar market. This transnational agreement had a negative impact on the Cuban sugar industry and aggravated the problems of the island's main industrial sector during the Great Depression. The events induced revolutionary activities during 1933 on Cuba. As a consequence, Roosevelt took account of both the Chadbourne Agreement and the Cuban sugar economy in designing his New Deal policy. The Cuban sugar industry was incorporated into the U.S. sugar program to maintain its important position on the U.S. sugar market. Further, the New Deal sugar program was designed to be compatible with the Chadbourne Agreement and therefore incorporated its interventionist market mechanisms. Thus, against conventional wisdom, the New Deal's sugar policy was shaped by distinctly international events in political as well as economic terms.