Editing History of Cuba (section)

===Economic changes===
Before the United States officially took over the government, it had already begun cutting tariffs on American goods entering Cuba, without granting the same rights to Cuban goods going to the United States.<ref name="Cantón Navarro p. 75">Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba''. p. 75</ref> Government payments had to be made in U.S. dollars.<ref name="Cantón Navarro p. 77"/> The Foraker Amendment prohibited the U.S. occupation government from granting privileges and concessions to American investors, to appease [[Anti-imperialism|anti-imperialists]] during the occupational period. Despite this, the [[Economy of Cuba|Cuban economy]] was soon dominated by American capital.<ref name="Cantón Navarro p. 75"/> By 1905 nearly 10% of Cuba's land area belonged to Americans. By 1902, American companies controlled 80% of Cuba's ore exports and owned most of the sugar and cigarette factories.<ref>Cantón Navarro, José. ''History of Cuba''. p. 76</ref>

Immediately after the war, there were several serious barriers for foreign businesses attempting to operate in Cuba. The Joint Resolution of 1898, the Teller Amendment, and the Foraker Amendment threatened foreign investment. Eventually, [[William Cornelius Van Horne|Cornelius Van Horne]] of the Cuba Company, an early railroad company in Cuba, found a loophole in "revocable permits" justified by preexisting Spanish legislation that effectively allowed railroads to be built in Cuba. General [[Leonard Wood]], the governor of Cuba and a noted annexationist, used this loophole to grant hundreds of franchises, permits, and other concessions to American businesses.<ref>Juan C. Santamarina. "The Cuba Company and the Expansion of American Business in Cuba, 1898–1915". ''Business History Review'' 74.01 (Spring 2000): 41–83. pp. 52–53.</ref>

Once the legal barriers were overcome, American investments transformed the Cuban economy. Within two years of entering Cuba, the Cuba Company built a 350-mile railroad connecting the eastern port of Santiago to the existing railways in central Cuba. The company was the largest single foreign investment in Cuba for the first two decades of the twentieth century. By the 1910s it was the largest company in the country.<ref>Santamarina 2000, p. 42.</ref> The improved infrastructure allowed the sugar cane industry to spread to the previously underdeveloped eastern part of the country. As many small Cuban sugar cane producers were crippled with debt and damages from the war, American companies were able to quickly and cheaply take over the industry. At the same time, new productive units called centrales could grind up to 2,000 tons of cane a day making large-scale operations most profitable.<ref>Smith 1995, p. 33.</ref> The large fixed cost of these centrales made them almost exclusively accessible to American companies with large capital stocks. Furthermore, the centrales required a large, steady flow of cane to remain profitable, which led to further consolidation. Cuban cane farmers who had formerly been landowners became tenants on company land. By 1902, 40% of the country's sugar production was controlled by Americans.<ref>Smith 1995, p. 34.</ref>

With American corporate interests firmly rooted in Cuba, the U.S. tariff system was adjusted accordingly to strengthen trade between the nations. The Reciprocity Treaty of 1903 lowered the U.S. tariff on Cuban sugar by 20%. This gave Cuban sugar a competitive edge in the American marketplace. At the same time, it granted equal or greater concessions on most items imported from the United States. Cuban imports of American goods went from $17 million in the five years before the war, to $38 million in 1905, and eventually to over $200 million in 1918. Likewise, Cuban exports to the United States reached $86 million in 1905 and rose to nearly $300 million in 1918.<ref>Smith 1995, p. 35.</ref>