The Big Five ( haw, Nā Hui Nui Elima) was the name given to a group of what started as
sugarcane
Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of (often hybrid) tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with ...
processing
corporations
A corporation is an organization—usually a group of people or a company—authorized by the state to act as a single entity (a legal entity recognized by private and public law "born out of statute"; a legal person in legal context) and r ...
that wielded considerable political power in the
Territory of Hawaii
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory ( Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from April 30, 1900, until August 21, 1959, when most of its territory, excluding ...
during the early 20th century and leaned heavily towards the
Hawaii Republican Party
The Hawaii Republican Party ( haw, ʻAoʻao Lepupalika o Hawaiʻi) is the affiliate of the Republican Party (GOP) in Hawaii, headquartered in Honolulu. The party was initially strong during Hawaii's territorial days, but following statehood the ...
. The Big Five were
Castle & Cooke
Castle & Cooke, Inc., is a Los Angeles-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company at one time did most of its business in agriculture, including becoming, through mergers with the modern Dole F ...
,
Alexander & Baldwin
Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. is an American company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company currently operates businesses in real estate, land operations, and materials and construction. It was also the last ...
,
C. Brewer & Co., American Factors (now
Amfac), and
Theo H. Davies & Co. The extent of the power that the Big Five had was considered by some as equivalent to an
oligarchy
Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, r ...
.
Attorney General of Hawaii
The Attorney General of Hawaii ( haw, Loio Kuhina) is the chief legal officer and chief law enforcement officer of Hawaii. In present-day statehood within the United States, the Attorney General is appointed by the elected governor with the approv ...
Edmund Pearson Dole
Edmund Pearson Dole (February 28, 1850 – December 31, 1928) was a lawyer from New England who served as the first Attorney General of the Territory of Hawaii, and argued a case up to the U.S. Supreme Court. He also wrote several novels.
Life ...
, referring to the Big Five, said in 1903, "There is a government in this Territory which is centralized to an extent unknown in the United States, and probably almost as centralized as it was in France under
Louis XIV
, house = Bourbon
, father = Louis XIII
, mother = Anne of Austria
, birth_date =
, birth_place = Château de Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Saint-Germain-en-Laye, France
, death_date =
, death_place = Palace of Vers ...
."
History
Though commercial sugar production began in the first years of the 1800s, the industry remained relatively minor until the
Reciprocity Treaty of 1875
The Treaty of reciprocity between the United States of America and the Hawaiian Kingdom ( Hawaiian: ''Kuʻikahi Pānaʻi Like'') was a free trade agreement signed and ratified in 1875 that is generally known as the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875.
T ...
. This treaty provided duty-free trade of sugar between the Kingdom of Hawaii and the United States, and it generated massive disruptions in the sugar industry. Plantation growth and consolidation soon followed, with the number of plantations falling from 79 in 1875 to just 20 in 1883.
Prior to this disruption, the agencies played a much more limited role in Hawaiian industry. They served primarily to add liquidity to an agricultural industry with long growing periods (18-24 months) by both providing credit against future sales and providing transportation to foreign markets and equipment procurement. With the growth pressure imposed by the Reciprocity Treaty, however, plantations required capital infusions in order to expand their cultivation into more marginal lands, leading to increased reliance on the agencies for credit.
With Hawaii's
annexation by the United States, this change was locked in as sugarcane
plantation
A plantation is an agricultural estate, generally centered on a plantation house, meant for farming that specializes in cash crops, usually mainly planted with a single crop, with perhaps ancillary areas for vegetables for eating and so on. The ...
s gained a new infusion of investment. By eliminating tariffs imposed on sugarcane producers by the United States, planters had more money to spend on equipment, land and labor. Increased capital resulted in increased production. Five kingdom-era corporations benefited from annexation, becoming multimillion-dollar conglomerations that controlled 90% of the sugar business.
The companies colluded to keep the prices on their goods and services high. Their profits skyrocketed even more. Soon, the executives of the Big Five sat on each other's boards of directors. With economic power came political power, and the families usually favored the
Republican Party of Hawaii
The Hawaii Republican Party ( haw, ʻAoʻao Lepupalika o Hawaiʻi) is the affiliate of the Republican Party (GOP) in Hawaii, headquartered in Honolulu. The party was initially strong during Hawaii's territorial days, but following statehood the ...
.
During the
Democratic Revolution of 1954, the
unions inflicted a decisive blow against the giants and the
sugar industry
The sugar industry subsumes the production, processing and marketing of sugars (mostly sucrose and fructose). Globally, most sugar is extracted from sugar cane (~80% predominantly in the tropics) and sugar beet (~ 20%, mostly in temperate cli ...
declined after
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
became a state in 1959; so did each of the Big Five companies. The greatest post-statehood challenge came as the
U.S. Department of Justice
The United States Department of Justice (DOJ), also known as the Justice Department, is a federal executive department of the United States government tasked with the enforcement of federal law and administration of justice in the United State ...
challenged the ownership of
Matson Navigation Company Matson may refer to:
* Matson (surname)
*Matson, Gloucester, England, a suburb of Gloucester
*Matson, Missouri, an unincorporated community
* 2586 Matson, an asteroid
* Matson, Inc., a shipping company, formerly Matson Navigation Company
* Matson F ...
by four of the five companies (all except Theo H. Davies). The lawsuit was settled when the four companies agreed not to share officers, executives, and directors. Alexander and Baldwin eventually bought out the other three stakes in Matson in 1964.
In the 1970s, as sugar plantations closed, many of the Big Five companies themselves were bought out. Where the companies are now:
*
Theo H. Davies & Co. was bought in 1973 by Scottish-controlled Hong Kong firm
Jardine Matheson
Jardine Matheson Holdings Limited (also known as Jardines) is a Hong Kong-based Bermuda-domiciled British multinational conglomerate. It has a primary listing on the London Stock Exchange and secondary listings on the Singapore Exchange and ...
. Until December 2004 it owned the
Pizza Hut
Pizza Hut is an American multinational restaurant chain and international franchise founded in 1958 in Wichita, Kansas by Dan and Frank Carney. They serve their signature pan pizza and other dishes including pasta, breadsticks and dessert at d ...
and
Taco Bell
Taco Bell is an American-based chain of fast food restaurants founded in 1962 by Glen Bell (1923–2010) in Downey, California. Taco Bell is a subsidiary of Yum! Brands, Inc. The restaurants serve a variety of Mexican-inspired foods, includi ...
franchises in Hawaii. The sole remaining unit is its travel agency which was spun off and sold to management.
*
C. Brewer was bought in 1978 by Philadelphia-based
IU International
IU may refer to:
Businesses and organisations
Sport
*Islamabad United, a cricket team franchise in Pakistan Super League
Universities
*Indiana University, a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States
*Islamic ...
, and was later bought out by its management in 1986. In 2001, the company's shareholders voted to liquidate the company over several years.
*
Castle & Cooke
Castle & Cooke, Inc., is a Los Angeles-based company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company at one time did most of its business in agriculture, including becoming, through mergers with the modern Dole F ...
merged with
Flexi-Van Corporation, owned by
David H. Murdock
David Howard Murdock (born April 11, 1923) is an American billionaire businessman, plant-based diet advocate and philanthropist.
Early career
Murdock was born on April 11, 1923, in Kansas City, Missouri. His father was a traveling salesman; his ...
, in 1985. Murdock became its chairman after the merger, then took full control in 2000. It still owns large portions of Central
Oahu
Oahu () (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Oʻahu'' ()), also known as "The Gathering place#Island of Oʻahu as The Gathering Place, Gathering Place", is the third-largest of the Hawaiian Islands. It is home to roughly one million people—over t ...
and the Iwilei area of
Honolulu
Honolulu (; ) is the capital and largest city of the U.S. state of Hawaii, which is in the Pacific Ocean. It is an unincorporated county seat of the consolidated City and County of Honolulu, situated along the southeast coast of the island ...
around the former
Dole Food Company
Dole plc (previously named Dole Food Company, Standard Fruit Company) is an Irish agricultural multinational corporation headquartered in Dublin, Ireland. The company is among the world's largest producers of fruit and vegetables, operating wit ...
pineapple cannery. Until recently, Castle & Cooke owned nearly all of the island of
Lānai; in June 2012, Oracle CEO
Larry Ellison
Lawrence Joseph Ellison (born August 17, 1944) is an American business magnate and investor who is the co-founder, executive chairman, chief technology officer (CTO) and former chief executive officer (CEO) of the American computer technology ...
bought their share for approximately 500 million dollars.
*
Amfac was bought out in 1988 by Chicago-based
JMB Realty
JMB Realty was a real estate investment company based in Chicago
(''City in a Garden''); I Will
, image_map =
, map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago
, coordinates =
, coordinates_footnotes ...
. In 2002, Amfac declared
Chapter 11 bankruptcy
Chapter 11 of the United States Bankruptcy Code (Title 11 of the United States Code) permits reorganization under the bankruptcy laws of the United States. Such reorganization, known as Chapter 11 bankruptcy, is available to every business, whe ...
and emerged as Kaanapali Land, LLC. It owns 5,000 acres (20 km²) in West Maui. Its department store,
Liberty House, was sold to
Federated Department Stores
Macy's, Inc. (originally Federated Department Stores, Inc.) is an American conglomerate holding company. Upon its establishment, Federated held ownership of the regional department store chains Abraham & Straus, Lazarus, Filene's, and Shillito ...
and is now part of the
Macy's
Macy's (originally R. H. Macy & Co.) is an American chain of high-end department stores founded in 1858 by Rowland Hussey Macy. It became a division of the Cincinnati-based Federated Department Stores in 1994, through which it is affiliated wi ...
chain.
*
Alexander & Baldwin
Alexander & Baldwin, Inc. is an American company that was once part of the Big Five companies in territorial Hawaii. The company currently operates businesses in real estate, land operations, and materials and construction. It was also the last ...
diversified and remains in business. Today it owns about 91,000 acres (370 km²) of land and is the fifth-largest landowner in the state.
In fiction
James Michener's fictionalized account of Hawaiian history, ''
Hawaii
Hawaii ( ; haw, Hawaii or ) is a state in the Western United States, located in the Pacific Ocean about from the U.S. mainland. It is the only U.S. state outside North America, the only state that is an archipelago, and the only stat ...
'' included references to the Big Five, which he called "the Fort".
The Big Five are mentioned briefly in
Harry Turtledove
Harry Norman Turtledove (born June 14, 1949) is an American author who is best known for his work in the genres of alternate history, historical fiction, fantasy, science fiction, and mystery fiction. He is a student of history and completed ...
's
''Days of Infamy'' series, an
alternate history
Alternate history (also alternative history, althist, AH) is a genre of speculative fiction of stories in which one or more historical events occur and are resolved differently than in real life. As conjecture based upon historical fact, altern ...
where
Japanese
Japanese may refer to:
* Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia
* Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan
* Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or culture
** Japanese diaspor ...
forces completely occupy Hawaii during World War II.
The Big Five are mentioned in Kaye Starbird's ''The Lion In The Lei Shop''.
Reference
{{reflist
American sugar industry
Companies based in Hawaii
Territory of Hawaii
Business in Hawaii
Former monopolies
Politics of Hawaii
Sugar companies of the United States
Sugar plantations in Hawaii
Dole plc
20th century in Hawaii