«With less competition, big companies commonly underpay
independent farmers for their products, undermining the economic viability of
small,
family - scale farms.»
From
independent small fishermen and
farmers they became wage labourers working for a triumvirate of ruling
families in a succession of new industries - logwood, chicle, coconut - their lives transformed into a grinding monotony, guided only by their employers» need to accumulate more wealth.