In place of the hugely exploitative and repressive agricultural labor relations that emerged from the large latifundio estates of neighboring countries, Costa Rica developed a two-tier system of small-holder, landowning growers and wealthy, aristocratic, capitalist processor/exporters, able to finance milling and shipping. These elite cafetaleros grew some coffee themselves but bought most of their product directly from numerous small, family-run farms. Hence, rather than developing a huge rural proletariat of impoverished, ‘alienated’ wage-laborers, Costa Rican producers were invested in their product, felt themselves to be independent, valued, contributing members of society and, most importantly, were included in the new buoyant economy.
The significance of the coffee industry in Costa Rica lay not only in the wealth it brought, but also in the re-distributive properties of that wealth, which returned a profit even on a small share of the product. The coffee elite of Costa Rica saw more economic gain in collaboration and cooperation with producers than in exploitation, nurturing a relationship of interdependence and symbiosis in which both parties recognized their dependence on the other to generate profit. This system arose from the tradition of land-distribution and individual subsistence-farming throughout the Colonial Period and from those measures taken by Fernández and Carrillo to promote coffee cultivation, offering land and grants to growers.
While 19th Century Costa Rica was certainly no classless, agrarian idyll, its early poverty, liberalist tradition and the organization of coffee production all contributed to make it a more equitable, less acutely polarized and less exploitative society than those surrounding it. This was an important factor in the future development of democracy and the avoidance of major civil conflict.
The largely collaborative small-holder producer vs. capitalist processor relationship was regarded as the backbone of Costa Rican culture, vital to the maintenance of rural society and fundamental in allowing peace, harmony and tranquility to reign, to the extent that some even claimed coffee to be the ‘essential force’ that ‘underlies our political and social stability’. 9
However, despite these seemingly equitable relations, coffee and power have always been closely linked and Costa Rica was no exception in this. The cafetalero elite, comprised of wealthy, aristocratic families, mostly of pure Spanish descent, and newer European immigrants, amassed a fortune through the booming industry, gaining huge political and economic power and influence.
They maintained this dominant position until the mid-20th Century after which social and economic reforms brought about their decline. However, the most prominent families continue to have influence even today, in fact President Oscar Arias is grandson of Julio Sánchez Lépiz, one of Costa Rica’s most prominent coffee producers and can trace his heritage back to the original conquistador, Juan Vasquez de Coronado. 10
While 19th Century Costa Rica was certainly no classless, agrarian idyll, its early poverty, liberalist tradition and the organization of coffee production all contributed to make it a more equitable, less acutely polarized and less exploitative society than those surrounding it. This was an important factor in the future development of democracy and the avoidance of major civil conflict.
The largely collaborative small-holder producer vs. capitalist processor relationship was regarded as the backbone of Costa Rican culture, vital to the maintenance of rural society and fundamental in allowing peace, harmony and tranquility to reign, to the extent that some even claimed coffee to be the ‘essential force’ that ‘underlies our political and social stability’. 9
However, despite these seemingly equitable relations, coffee and power have always been closely linked and Costa Rica was no exception in this. The cafetalero elite, comprised of wealthy, aristocratic families, mostly of pure Spanish descent, and newer European immigrants, amassed a fortune through the booming industry, gaining huge political and economic power and influence.
They maintained this dominant position until the mid-20th Century after which social and economic reforms brought about their decline. However, the most prominent families continue to have influence even today, in fact President Oscar Arias is grandson of Julio Sánchez Lépiz, one of Costa Rica’s most prominent coffee producers and can trace his heritage back to the original conquistador, Juan Vasquez de Coronado. 10
