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Prologue Of History

Prologue of History

Until statehood, Hawaii was ruled economically by a consortium of corporations
known as the "Big Five": C. Brewer and Co., sugar, ranching, and chemicals,
founded in 1826; Theo. H. Davies & Co., sugar, investments, insurance, and
transportation, founded in 1845; Amfac Inc. (originally H. Hackfield Inc.-a
German firm that changed its name and ownership during the anti-German sentiment
of WW I to American Factors), sugar, insurance, and land development, founded in
1849; Castle and Cooke Inc., (Dole) pineapple, food packing, and land
development, founded 1851; and Alexander and Baldwin Inc., shipping, sugar, and
pineapple, founded in 1895. This economic oligarchy ruled Hawaii with a velvet
glove and a steel grip. With members on all important corporate boards, they
controlled all major commerce, including banking, shipping, insurance, hotel
development, agriculture, utilities, and wholesale and retail merchandising.
Anyone trying to buck the system was ground to dust, finding it suddenly
impossible to do business in the islands. The Big Five were made up of the
islands' oldest and most well-established haole families; all included
bloodlines from Hawaii's own nobility and ali'i. They looked among themselves
for suitable husbands and wives, so breaking in from the outside even through
marriage was hardly possible. The only time they were successfully challenged
prior to statehood was when Sears, Roebuck and Co. opened a store on Oahu.
Closing ranks, the Big Five decreed that their steamships would not carry
Sears's freight. When Sears threatened to buy its own steamship line, the Big
Five relented. In the end, statehood, and more to the point, tourism, broke
their oligarchy. After 1960 too much money was at stake for Mainland-based
corporations to ignore. Eventually the grip of the Big Five was loosened, but
they are still enormously powerful and richer than ever, though these days they
don't control everything. Now their power is land. With only...