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Description of  The Sugar King of California: The Life of Claus Spreckels

1496235118 epub Claus Spreckels (18281908) emigrated from his homeland of Germany to the United States with only seventy-five cents in his pocket, built a sugar empire, and became one of the richest Americans in history alongside John D. Rockefeller, Warren Buffett, and Bill Gates. Migrating to San Francisco after the gold rush, Spreckels built the largest sugar beet factory of its kind in the United States. His sugar beet production in the Salinas Valley changed the focus of valley agriculture from dry to irrigated crops, resulting in the vast modern agricultural-industrial economy in todays Salad Bowl of the World. When Spreckels gave America its first sugar cube, he became the Sugar King. The indomitable Spreckels was a colorful and complicated character on both sides of the Pacific. A kingpin in the development of the Hawaii-California sugarcane industry, he wielded a clenched fist over Hawaiis economy for nearly two decades after occupying a position of unrivaled power and political influence with the Hawaiian monarchy, while also advancing major technology developments on the islands. The Sugar Kings legacy continued as the Spreckels family developed large portions of California, building and breaking monopolies in agriculture, shipping, railroading, finance, real estate, horse breeding, utilities, streetcars, and water infrastructure, and building entire towns and cities from infrastructure to superstructure. In Read more