in 1920-1921, the market value of this investment shrunk largely. For example, at the end of August, 1921, the several issues of securities of the Cuba Cane Sugar Co. were quoted at prices indicating a value of only $25,437,500 for its whole business. On that basis the entire American investment in the Cuban sugar industry would be represented by about $63,500,000.
It is not improbable that a good deal more than $75,000,000 of American capital was actually put into Cuban sugar industry between 1916 and 1920. During the period of high prices for sugar the idea prevailed that anything connected with sugar production could result in nothing but profit, so that the prices of sugar properties, whether cane farms or mills, soared to the skies. Ten, twelve and even fifteen thousand dollars were paid per caballeria (about 3314 acres) for merely planted cane, the land not being included in the transaction; and equivalently high prices were paid for mills. Quoting from an article by H. O. Neville in The Cuba Review of March, 1921, “The significance of this will be recognized when it is known that the cost of preparing, planting, and cultivation to harvest a caballeria of cane in 1914 in the eastern provinces of Cuba was estimated to be about $1,200, and that even with the tremendously increased costs of all operations connected with cane planting and cultivation during 1919, a conservative estimate of the expense involved was not more than $5,500 per caballeria.”
The principal railways of Cuba are owned by the Cuba Railroad Co., the securities of which are held mainly in the United States. On June 30, 1921, the property investment of this company stood at $57,439,753, compared with $43,516,453 on June 30, 1916.
