Manuel Rionda worked at the firm J. M. Ceballos and Co. from approximately 1886 to 1896. During that time, he established a sound reputation among Wall Street's sugar brokers and important links with Cuba's sugar producers. In 1896, he left Ceballos and became a commission agent in Czarnikow, MacDougall and Company (est. 1891). Czarnikow, MacDougall was the North American branch of the eminent London trading house C. Czarnikow, Ltd., one of the world's largest sugar traders.

While Manuel's star rose in New York business circles, his brothers continued to expand and modernize the family's sugar properties in Sancti Spiritus. Manuel's employer, Juan Ceballos, was encouraged to invest in the venture and the Central Tuinucu Sugar Cane Manufacturing Company was incorporated in New Jersey in 1891. (The company's name was shortened to the Tuinucú Sugar Company in 1903.) Tragically, though, Joaquín had died in a drowning accident while fording the Rio Tuinicú on April 7,1889. Francisco Rionda managed the cane fields and factory, and cane was ground at the new mill for the first time in 1895. No sooner had Tuinucu's new mill begun operations, but civil war in 1895 plunged Cuba into economic chaos. Cuba's sugar industry was devastated, and the Central Tuinucu was one of many plantations whose cane fields were put to the torch by Cuban insurgents. Francisco's letters to Manuel in Series 1 chronicle the turmoil of that period. Fearing execution by the insurgents, Francisco and other family members left Cuba in 1898. Before leaving, though, Francisco acquired a significant tract of land around the Bahía de Guayabal in Camagüey province.

Francisco died in New York City in November, 1898, leaving Manuel as the head of the family's properties and businesses. By this time, the United States' victory over Spain in the Spanish-American War had initiated a period of peace in Cuba under U.S. military occupation. Despite initial reluctance to continue in Cuba after 1898, Rionda decided to reinvest in the Cuban sugar industry. First, he was able to secure funds to revive Tuinucu. Then he organized a new company, the Francisco Sugar Company, to exploit the Camagüey land holdings acquired by his brother. Lacking capital of his own to build a sugar mill, Rionda sought out investors. The principal investors in the Francisco Sugar Company were the owners of the W. J. McCahan Sugar Refinery in Philadelphia. The McCahan group managed the company until 1909 when it relinquished ownership and control to the Riondas.

Cuba's war for independence also interrupted Rionda's work in Czarnikow, MacDougall and forced the firm to seek alternative sources of sugar. With the end of fighting in Cuba, however, Rionda plunged into the work he had been hired to do. Ironically, the war had removed or hurt many of his competitors. With the capital resources of C. Czarnikow behind him, Rionda financed old clients and aggressively sought new ones. By 1903, Czarnikow, MacDougall was the dominant company in the Cuban sugar trade. When the company's senior partner, Caesar Czarnikow, died in 1909, a new company was organized. The Czarnikow-Rionda Company was incorporated September 1, 1909, with Manuel Rionda as its president. The new firm was a private company and management of the company was vested in the common stock owned coequally by five individuals. Four of the common stockholders were the remaining partners in C. Czarnikow, Ltd.; the fifth was Rionda. Consequently, control of the company remained in London.

Rionda's relations with the other stockholders were never satisfactory. Rionda believed the Europeans were too conservative to effectively compete for the Cuban sugar market. The London stockholders, for their part, were wary of Cuba's political instability. Incidents such as the Guerrito de Agosto, which resulted in a second U.S. occupation of Cuba in 1906, and a racial conflict in 1912 further soured business interest in the island. In 1915, Rionda announced his intention to retire from Czarnikow-Rionda. His aim was to create his own brokerage house with his nephews, Manuel Enrique Rionda and Bernardo Braga Rionda, as his seconds and successors. Negotiations between the New York and London offices led, instead, to a new five year agreement that reduced British participation in Czarnikow-Rionda. Rionda continued to serve as the company's chief executive and chairman of the board.

Between 1902 and 1922, the Riondas expanded their operations and holdings in Cuba. When several mills passed into the hands of Czarnikow, MacDougall after their owners failed to meet debt obligations, the Riondas stepped in to acquire and manage the properties. In this manner, the Riondas acquired the Central San Vicente in 1907. Another foreclosed mill, the Central San José, was reorganized as the Washington Sugar Company in 1911. Other acquisitions included the Central Elia, a sugar mill adjacent to the Francisco Sugar Company, and the Central Céspedes near La Florida in Camagüey.

Among the financial backers of the Washington Sugar Company was Walter E. Ogilvie, a North American businessman and a major stockholder in the United Railways of the Havana and Regla Warehouses. Rionda and Ogilvie would collaborate on other business ventures. Together, they organized the Regla Coal Company in 1911 and broke the Berwind White Coal Company's monopoly on coal distribution in Cuba. For a brief period in the early 1920s, Ogilvie served as Czarnikow-Rionda's president and attempted a reorganization of the company's operations. When the reorganization failed to bring the desired results, Rionda returned to his position as president.

In 1907, Rionda began a long and beneficial relationship with the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell. Several partners of the firm invested in the Stewart Sugar Company that operated a large sugar factory in Camagüey province. Rionda served as president during the construction of the mill and the company's initial harvest. His success prompted further business collaboration with Sullivan and Cromwell, and Sullivan and Cromwell

Sullivan and Cromwell also invested in the largest sugar mill constructed by the Riondas. In 1911, Rionda brought together a group of investors that also included Claus Spreckels, Edmund Converse, Regino Truffin, and the financial house of J. and W. Seligman to exploit extensive land holdings around the Bahia de Manatí. The Manati Sugar Company was an immense undertaking and presaged Rionda's most ambitious business venture, the creation of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation in 1915. Backed by the financial resources of the Morgan trust, Cuba Cane was able to acquire the properties of seventeen mills that controlled over sixteen percent of Cuba's annual sugar production. Rionda served as president of Cuba Cane from 1915 to 1920.

The organization of the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation in 1915 was encouraged by the rise in sugar prices brought on by the war in Europe. The entry of the United States in that conflict, however, produced demands at home and abroad for market controls. To achieve price stability and insure supplies of sugar at the same time, various national and international regulatory bodies were created. In recognition of Czarnikow-Rionda's influence in the sugar industry, Rionda was appointed by Cuban President Mario G. Menocal to the Cuban Commission. The Commission, which included Carlos Manuel de Céspedes and Robert B. Hawley, represented Cuba in international negotiations on sugar prices and allocations. Members of Czarnikow-Rionda also served on the Cuban Adjustment Committee, the Cuban Allotment Committee, and the Committee on Compensation to United States Brokers. Market prices for Cuban sugar were tightly regulated during the war, and Rionda played a prominent role in determining the price of Cuban raw sugar.

Despite protests from Rionda and others in the sugar trade, the United States lifted price restrictions on raw sugar in 1919. The result was a frenzy of market speculation known as the "Dance of the Millions." In the space of a few months, the price of raw sugar rose and fell dramatically ruining hundreds of planters and merchants in the process. In response to the market collapse, President Menocal named Rionda and several other sugar merchants to the Sugar Finance Committee. The Committee's task was to assist in financing and marketing the unsold portion of the 1920 Cuban harvest.

The committee's efforts were largely unsuccessful, and Rionda's presence on the committee led to complaints of favoritism and charges of illegal business practices. Other attempts to control the marketing of Cuban sugar followed. In 1929, the Compañía Exportadora Nacional del Azucar, or Vendedor Unico as it was often called, was organized as a single cooperative agency for the sale of Cuban sugars. Rionda exerted influence in Vendedor Unico and its successor, the Cooperative Export Agency.

Efforts to regulate sugar production and marketing on a world-wide scale were also made and Czarnikow-Rionda participated in all of the early international marketing agreements. The company's representative at many of the sugar conferences was Aurelio Portuondo, a Cuban lawyer and a vice-president in the Cuban Trading Company. Portuondo later represented the Cuban government in tariff negotiations with the United States in 1933 and was the company's principal liaison to the Cuban government for many years. In addition to Portuondo, Manuel Rionda corresponded with Thomas Chadbourne, the architect of the 1929 Chadbourne Plan. Rionda also carried on a lengthy correspondence with Viriato Gutierrez and José Miguel Tarafa. Both were prominent Cuban businessmen and important figures in international negotiations.

The 1920s and 1930s marked a slow and steady decline in the Rionda business fortunes. The sugar industry had barely recovered from the effects of the 1920 collapse when the Great Depression brought new economic difficulties and crippling tariff protection. The Francisco, Cespedes, and Manati sugar companies were forced into receivership and reorganized. Cuba Cane, in which the Riondas invested heavily, was a serious drain on the family's resources and was dissolved in 1938. By the mid-1930s, Czarnikow-Rionda's market dominance had been supplanted by its major competitor, Galban, Lobo and Company. Although it continued to play a significant role in Cuba's economic life, Czarnikow-Rionda never regained the influence it enjoyed during the first three decades of the twentieth century.

In his last years, Rionda was preoccupied with keeping his various businesses afloat. Despite losses in its market share, Czarnikow-Rionda escaped dissolution and Francisco, Manati, and Cespedes passed through receivership still under the control of the Riondas. San Vicente and Washington, however, were sold. As the years progressed Rionda's participation in industry affairs waned, but he was active until his death, at 89, on September 2, 1943. Rionda was succeeded as president of Czarnikow-Rionda by his nephew, Bernardo Braga Rionda.

Manuel Rionda's papers include more than 150 letterbooks and over seventy-five Linear feet. of subject files from his Wall Street office as well as documents kept at Rio Vista, his New Jersey estate on the palisades of the Hudson River. Manuel Rionda was the epitome of the hands-on industrial manager and demanded of his subalterns, many of whom were nephews and in-laws, detailed and regular reports. The magnitude and detail of his papers is, in turn, matched by a richness of opinions and convictions. He required prompt and detailed correspondence from each mill manager and company president. Rionda also responded personally to the entreaties of his colonos, the cane farmers who supplied cane for the sugar mills. Also included in this record group are Rionda's financial papers including records related to the execution of this estate. Of special note is Series 11 containing the correspondence of Aurelio Portuondo while he served as a negotiator for Cuba in the talks leading up to the Reciprocity Treaty of 1934.

Record Group 2 is divided into fourteen series.

Much of Record Group 2 is available on microfilm in Latin American History and Culture, Series 7 and 8: Cuba and the American Sugar Trade: The Braga Brothers Collection. Thomson Gale, 2006.

The material in this series was gathered from several disorganized files. They have been rearranged into a single alphabetical file. Arrangement is by the personal or corporate names of the correspondents. Series 1 consists of letters written to Manuel Rionda during the years 1896-1917 and complements the letterbooks found in Series 2. In the mid-1910s, Rionda began to keep a subject file containing both outgoing and incoming correspondence (See Series 10.) Rionda also kept separate files for Czarnikow-Rionda's internal memoranda and his correspondence with his nephews, Manuel Enrique Rionda and Bernardo Braga Rionda. (See Series 5 and Series 12.)

The earliest correspondence, dating from 1896, is mainly from family members in Spain and Cuba. Manuel's brother, Francisco, managed the Central Tuinucu, the family's estate in Sancti Spíritus, Cuba. Francisco wrote many letters describing the effects of the Cuban war for independence from Spain. Francisco's correspondence and that of Manuel's sisters and nieces, recount the activities of guerrillas camping nearby, the arrival of General Weyler and his attempts to defeat the rebels, and the damage done to the sugar industry and Cuba. The family filed a successful damage claim to the government of the United States for which there is documentation. After Francisco's death in 1898, Manuel Rionda's brother-in-law, Pedro Alonso, took over the management of Tuinucu, and later Manuel E. Rionda, José B. Rionda, and D. A. Walsh assumed that position. Each of these men wrote extensively to Manuel Rionda, who wanted daily reports about all his holdings. There is also extensive correspondence from long-time business associates of Manuel Rionda, including Louis Placé, Ramon Pelayo, Tiburcio and Pedro Bea, Juan Ceballos, and Julio Rabel. Manuel Rionda followed their careers as they dissolved companies and formed new ones or took on colonos. He also took a personal interest in their families and educated several of their sons at academies in Maine and New York and found positions for them in his companies.

The Zevallos brothers, Rafael and Victor, figure prominently in this series. Victor Zevallos became the president of the Cuban Trading Company, which negotiated Czarnikow-Rionda's business and legal transactions in Cuba. Victor Zevallos and Higinio Fanjul, another nephew of Rionda, were known affectionately as the "Havana boys." Manuel E. Rionda and Bernardo Braga Rionda were called the "New York boys." Legal counsel for the Cuban Trading Company during this period was Manuel Rafael Angulo. There is extensive correspondence with John F. Craig and William J. Craig of the W. J. McCahan Sugar Refining Company of Philadelphia, principal backers for the Francisco Sugar Company. There are also detailed reports from some of the Francisco managers, Gabriel Menocal, Francisco Coma, Pedro Alonso, John Durham, Leandro Rionda, and Gerard Smith. They discuss daily management of problems, including acts of sabotage, deliberate fires, attempts by the workers to unionize and the response by managers, and the roles of the Cuban and United States governments in maintaining order on the island.

The Stewart Sugar Company, located in Camagüey, was another major venture that involved Rionda. Subscribers included C. Czarnikow Ltd., D. Stewart and Company of Glasgow, and the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell. There are files for each of these, as well as William Nelson Cromwell, Alfred Jaretski, and Francis Pollak, all of Sullivan and Cromwell. (See also Series 7.) Sullivan and Cromwell was also influential in the formation of the Manati Sugar Company in 1912. Eduardo Ulzurrun became the administrator of the Central Manati and filed detailed reports on the operations of the estate. His files include lists of colonos, petitions by the colonos and administration responses, his requests for United States forces to protect the property during rebellions, and even such details as menus for the workers. In addition to Tuinucu, Francisco, Stewart, and Manati, the series also contains smaller files on the following Cuban sugar factories: the Central Jobo and Central Julio (See files of Pedro Laborde), the Central Perservancia, and the Rosario Sugar Company. There are also files on Puerto Rican sugar companies including the Plazuela Sugar Company (see Eduardo Giorgetti) and the Loiza Sugar Company (see William S. Marr).

There are a wide variety of other correspondents--individual and corporate--represented in this series. These include heads of railroad companies and steamship lines, such as the Cuba Railroad Company and the Munson Steamship Line, American sugar refineries, machinery companies (see especially Honolulu Iron Works Company and the Krajewski-Pesant Corporation), banking interests such as J. and W. Seligman and Company (see files of Albert and Frederick Strauss), and several import-export agents. Another prominent business associate of Manuel Rionda was Walter E. Ogilvie. There are also files on the British stockholders in Czarnikow-Rionda. These include Charles Lagemann, Jules Ganzoni, Theodore Westrick, and George MacDougall.

Series 2 is the major letterbook series in Record Group 2 and contains copies of Manuel Rionda's outgoing correspondence written from his New York office. Each volume has a name index with the page number of each entry. Confidential letters written by Rionda were kept in separate books (Series 4), as were letters written during his trips to Cuba during the sugar harvest (Series 3).

Correspondence is in both Spanish and English and is mostly typewritten. Of the original ninety-five volumes three are missing--volumes 1, 2, and 86.

Contains copies of letters written by Manuel Rionda y Polledo while he was away from his Wall Street office. Most of the correspondence was written in Cuba where he spent the winter months supervising the sugar harvest. The letters were recorded in several formats. Letters written between 1910 and 1926 were copied in rice-paper letterbooks. Scrapbooks with pasted letters cover the harvests of 1909 and 1910. (Additional scrapbooks were not retained as they duplicated letters in the rice-paper letterbooks.) A carbon copybook with letters for the harvest of 1907 was found and added to the series in 1994. Finally, there is a rice-paper letterbook which spans the years 1905-1913. This letterbook contains letters written during trips, but also includes letters written from his residence in Alpine, New Jersey and receipts for traveling expenses. With the exception of the carbon copybook, each volume includes a name index with the page number of each letter. A volume containing copies of cables, received and sent, for the winter of 1925-1926 is also included in this series.

This series complements Series 5 and Series 12, which also cover the harvest months. Originals or typescripts of copies found in this series may be found there as well.

Series 4 consists of copies of selected outgoing correspondence and internal memoranda from Manuel Rionda. Most of the letters are marked CONFIDENTIAL and concern business matters primarily. A numerical code is used in many of the letters for the names of people and businesses and for important business data. Unfortunately, the code sheet is rarely included with the letter.

The letters here are not repeated in other letterbook series. Volumes 1-3 have name indexes; volume 4 does not.

Series 5 consists of copies and originals of memoranda between the Czarnikow-Rionda Company and C. Czarnikow, Ltd. of London and between the Havana and New York offices of Czarnikow-Rionda. The memoranda were generated during Manuel Rionda's trips to Cuba during the harvest months. As such, the memoranda complement the letters found in Series 3 and Series 12. In general, the correspondence runs from December through March, but sometimes as early as September and as late as July. There are no memoranda for the harvests of 1905-1906 and 1907-1908.

Many of the memos are divided into subject headings, and a continuous correspondence on a particular subject can be traced over a period of time. Part of Series 5 was found in five loose leaf binders, four of which had numbered pages and indexes for each subject heading. Other memoranda were found with materials now in Series 1. (Several memoranda from the 1902-1903 harvest can be found in Series 1 under Czarnikow, MacDougall and Co.)

The correspondence between Rionda and London is often bitter and reflects Rionda's growing dissatisfaction with the British stockholders. The correspondence from Rionda in Cuba is rich in comments, gossip, and opinions on political and economic conditions in the early years of the Cuban Republic. There is also some discussion of the sugar industry in Puerto Rico and elsewhere in the Caribbean. The letters from London often comment on the European beet sugar market and world market conditions.

This series consists of Manuel Rionda's correspondence written during his tenure as president of the Stewart Sugar Company. The Stewart Sugar Company owned and operated the Central Stewart located near the port of Júcaro in the province of Camagüey. Among the principal investors in the company was the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell, C. Czarnikow, Ltd., and D. Stewart and Co. of Glasgow. The Riondas were not stockholders, but were asked by the investors to reorganize the factory's management.

Series 9 consists of a volume entitled "Sales Made By Single Seller". Single Seller, or Vendedor Unico as it was known in Cuba, refers to the Compañia Exportadora Nacional de Azúcar, a cooperative agency established by the Cuban government in 1928 to handle the sales of sugar to foreign markets. The organizers of Vendedor Unico were José Miguel Tarafa and Manuel Rionda y Polledo. Vendedor Unico ended in 1930 and was replaced by the Cooperative Export Agency. It is uncertain whether this series is a record of all Vendedor Unico sales or simply those handled by the Czarnikow-Rionda Company.

Series 10 consists of three, alphabetically arranged, subject files included here as subseries 10a-10c.

Series 10 contains incoming and outgoing correspondence, reports, comparative data on sugar production and sales, published materials, internal memoranda, blueprints, maps, and other records.

Subseries 10a spans the years 1911 through 1920. It documents the creation of the Manati Sugar Company and the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation, Manuel Rionda's involvement in international regulation of sugar supplies during World War I, the collapse of the sugar market in 1920, and Czarnikow-Rionda's participation in the Sugar Finance Committee.

Subseries 10b was found in a transfile marked "files kept by Mrs. Forbes." Subseries 10b consists primarily of carbon copies of outgoing correspondence from 1920 through 1922. A more complete record of Manuel Rionda's letters for this time period can be found in Series 2, Series 3, and Series 4.

The largest part of Series 10 is contained in Subseries 10c. This subject file replaced and unified other filing systems used by Rionda. Consequently, it provides extensive coverage on all of Rionda's diverse concerns. Subseries 10c begins in 1921 and continues until Rionda's death in September, 1943. The time period includes the Great Depression, the Cuban Revolution of 1933, and the first years of World War II. The files on each of the Rionda sugar companies provide detailed information on the operations of the plantations. There is abundant documentation on the political and social forces that affected sugar production and marketing. Folders marked "Sugar Finance Committee, Documents, Lawsuit 1935-1936" were originally part of documentary evidence related to a suit filed by the Cuban government against members of Czarnikow-Rionda who served on the Sugar Finance Committee. Also contained in this subseries are materials created by the public relations firm of Ivy Lee to combat higher sugar tariffs in the 1920s.

Included among the principal correspondents in Series 10 are Walter E. Ogilvie, the law firm of Sullivan and Cromwell (which owned stock in many of the Rionda sugar companies), Albert and Frederick Strauss of J. and W. Seligman, Robert B. Hawley, Jose Miguel Tarafa, Miguel Arango, Laureano Falla Gutierrez, and Thomas L. Chadbourne.

Boxes 146-147 include oversize materials separated from their original files and stored flat.