Hawaiian Sugar - The Big Five

King Kamehameha the third brought Western style changes to Hawaii's government Transitioning from an absolute monarchy to a constitutional one with a bill of rights and judiciary. The king also enacted Western style land reforms which allowed foreigners to buy or lease property for the first time. Sugar growers in the 1850s discovered that the Hawaiian Islands climate soil and water were ideal for cultivating sugar cane. By the mid 1860s more than 30 Hawaiian plantations were exporting 18 million pounds of refined sugar every year But market turbulence and consolidation compressed the sugar industry into just a handful of companies Which became known as the big five over the course of the 1870s these five companies Expanded into every corner of Hawaiis economy from