Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
sions thanks largely to the political maneuverings of Manuel Bonilla and
Samuel Zemurray.
4
The railroad concessions provided the legal means by which the U.S.
fruit companies established control over vast quantities of resources. Al-
though not identical, most of the concessions granted byearly-twentieth-
century Honduran governments followed a similar formula: in return for
constructing and operating piers, railroads, and telegraph lines, the con-
cessionaires received rights to soil, timber, water, and mineral resources
in addition to tax and duty exemptions.
5
For example, the Tela Railroad
Company received 6,000 hectares of national lands (including timber
rights)forevery12kilometersofrailroadcompleted.
6
Inwhatwouldprove
to be a futile effort to prevent the company from monopolizing lands, the
concession stipulated that land grants be made in alternating lots along
therailwaysuchthatthenationalgovernmentretainedownershipofevery
otherlot.TheconcessionalsograntedtheTelaRailroadCompanyregional
transportation monopolies by prohibiting the construction of compet-
ing lines. In addition to generous tax and duty exemptions on imported
building materials and equipment, the company enjoyed the right to hire
foreign laborers. In return, the concession obligated the company to build
and operate a railroad from the port of Tela to El Progreso, Yoro. Gov-
ernment employees and mail were allowed free passage on railways. The
length of the contract was indefinite, but the government reserved the
right to purchase the infrastructure after sixty years.
7
If it is true that Bonilla's approval of the 1912 concessions represented
a payback to Zemurray and his friends, it also reflected a long-standing
practiceof Hondurangovernmentsrootedinlate-nineteenth-centurylib-
eral economic policies that created the framework for luring international
investors with generous concessions. For many Honduran elites, railroads
were the ties that would bind the nation-state both by linking the North
Coast to the highlands and by generating revenue forother state-building
projects.TheVaccaro Brothers and Company's 1910 concession stipulated
that a railroad line be constructed from La Ceiba to the city of Yoro;
the 1912 concession acquired by the Truxillo Railroad Company (United
Fruit's second major Honduran subsidiary) stipulated that the company
build and operate a railway from the port of Trujillo to Juticalpa, Olan-
cho. From there, the government hoped to extend the line toTegucigalpa.
Explainingitssupportforanamendmenttothe1912concession,theHon-
duran National Congress declared that ''the more railroads that exist, the
morewewill cultivate and export, giving rise to healthycompetition . . .''
8
Noteveryonewasthrilledwiththerailroadconcessions;conflictsover
