Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies

Dominican Republic and Haiti: Country Studies
about 6 percent in 1990, GDP rose on average by 4.25 percent a
year in the period 1991-95, led by strong growth in the free
trade zone manufacturing, construction, and tourism sectors.
The unemployment rate declined from approximately 20 percent
in 1991-93 to about 16 percent in 1995. Nevertheless,
whereas the Dominican Republic had made great strides since
the dictatorial rule of Rafael Leonidas Trujillo Molina (1930-
61), the nation's political economy continued to be strongly
influenced by patronage, graft, and a lingering lack of political
will to confront the traditional institutions that continued to
restrain economic performance.
A Developing Economy
Originally inhabited by Taino Indians, the island was settled
by a Spanish expedition led by Christopher Columbus in 1492.
Spanish mercantilists largely abandoned the island by the
1520s in favor of the gold and silver fortunes of Mexico and
Peru. The remaining Spanish settlers briefly established an
economic structure of Indian labor tied to land under the systems
of repartimiento (grants of land and Indian labor) and
encomienda (grants of Indian labor in return for tribute to the
crown) . The rapid decline of the Indian population ended the
encomienda system by the mid-1 500s, when the Taino Indians
were nearing extinction and were being replaced by imported
African slaves.
As economic activity became more sluggish in Eastern Hispaniola
(the approximate site of the present-day Dominican
Republic) ,
Spanish control weakened and French buccaneers
increasingly played a role not only in Western Hispaniola but
also in the eastern part of the island. The French assumed control
of the western third of the island in 1697 under the Treaty
of Ryswick, establishing Saint-Domingue (modern-day Haiti)
(see French Colony of Saint-Domingue, 1697-1803, ch. 1).
Whereas Haiti developed into a productive agricultural center
on the basis of black slave labor, in the eastern part of the
island, cattle ranching was common. Farming, however, was
limited to comparatively small crops of sugar, coffee, and
cocoa.
The Spanish side of Hispaniola slowly developed a plantation
economy during the nineteenth century, much later than
the rest of the West Indies. For much of the century, political
unrest disrupted normal economic activity and hindered development.
Corrupt and inefficient government, by occupying
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