Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
their fruit to points of embarkation along the coast. Roads were poorly
maintained and often impassable during the rainy season. Consequently,
production zones were concentrated near ports, navigable inland water-
ways, and the National Railroad. These early banana zones emerged pri-
marilyon account of the efforts of small- and medium-scale growers with
limited capital resources. In Honduras, the pre-United Fruit Company
eraisoftendepictedasa''goldenage''duringwhichbananeros walked
around with their upturned hats overflowing with money. This perspec-
tive is problematic in part because it is overly teleological and implicitly
contrasts the late nineteenth century to what at the time was an unknown
twentieth-century future. Furthermore, although expanding markets and
competition among shippers in the nineteenth century helped to drive up
prices paid to growers for their bananas, tensions between cultivators and
shippersemergedvirtuallyfromthetrade'sinception.Alongsiderailroads
and docks, fruit buyers and sellers struggled to gain the upper hand in a
trade made risky by the banana's intrinsic perishability. The dynamics of
these ''in-between'' spaces in the commodity chain would play a crucial
role in shaping landscapes and livelihoods in export banana zones.
in-between farm and market
On the night of April 24, 1891, Eugenio Muenier was boarding a ship
bound for New Orleans when, fearing that he was being pursued by as-
sailants, he drew a revolver and fired a shot into the darkness. The bullet
struck and killed a soldier named Juan Escobar. Following the incident,
Muenier, a French citizen who worked as an agent for the La
te Fruit
Company in La Ceiba, fled Honduras before o
cials could apprehend
him. The following August, a group of prominent businessmen, bankers,
and shippers asked Honduran President Luis Bográn to pardon Muenier
so that he could return to work in Honduras. Describing the shooting as
a ''tragic accident,'' the written appeal noted that the La
te Fruit Com-
pany had ''suffered enormous losses'' due to the absence of their agent,
prompting the company to suspend its operations in La Ceiba. Muenier's
defenders were confident that if Bográn issued a pardon, the company
would ''immediately restore'' shipping routes to La Ceiba.
45
Two months
later, President Bográn granted the pardon, citing Muenier's law-abiding
conduct prior to the shooting incident, his solid reputation in La Ceiba,
and the ''important services'' that he had provided for the fruit trade—
services that he would continue to provide in the future.
46
Muenier's par-
don resulted from his social and business ties to an international network
