Manuel Rionda y Polledo (1854-1943) was born to a family of six sisters; Maria (married Alfonso Fanjul Fernandez), Isidora (married Alberto Noriega), Gregoria (married Nicasio Fernandez), Ramona (married Pedro Alonso y Bobes), Maria de la Concepción and Bibiana (married Jose de la Braga y Diaz) and three brothers; Francisco (1844-1898), Joaquín (1848-1889) and Manuel (1854-1943) all born in Oviedo, Asturias, Spain. Francisco was the first sibling to emigrate to Cuba to work for his uncle Joaquín Polledo Alvarez at his sugar mill called Central China and by the early 1870s both became partners in Polledo, Rionda & Co., a sugar exporting business in Matanzas.  Joaquín followed and then Manuel joined them for a brief period in 1870 before leaving to go to school in Farmington, Maine.  

By 1873 Joaquín had moved to Manhattan and associated with Lewis Benjamin ( -1876) in a commodity trading firm primarily importing sugar from Cuba and exporting lard, grain and other provisions to Cuba under the name Benjamin, Rionda & Co.  Joaquin married Lewis’ daughter Sophie (1857-1877), who died giving birth to their only son Manuel Enrique Rionda Benjamin (1877-1950).  After Lewis and Sophie’s death, Joaquín became the sole partner and reorganized the company as Rionda, Benjamin & Co.  In 1874 after finishing school in Maine, Manuel joined his brother Joaquín in NY.  

By 1877 Rionda, Benjamin & Co. in NY as agent of Polledo, Rionda & Co. had contracted with Farrel Foundry in Ansonia, CT for new machinery to substantially upgrade Joaquin Polledo’s Central China.  On December 1878, due to the sharp decline in sugar prices because to the increased production of beet sugar in Europe, Joaquin Polledo was unable to pay more than $400,000 owed to Polledo, Rionda & Co. which collapsed forcing Rionda, Benjamin & Co. into insolvency.  In an 1880 court ordered settlement, Rionda, Benjamin & Co. acquired all the shares of Central China owned by Joaquín Polledo.  However, mounting losses at Central China due to continued low sugar prices and the abolition of slavery in Cuba on November 5, 1879 forced Rionda, Benjamin & Co. also into insolvency in 1883. Joaquín then moved to Cuba to try to save Central China.

In 1875 Francisco Rionda married Elena de la Torriente Hernandez and had six sons; Francisco Rionda de la Torriente (1876– ), Jose Bernardo Rionda de la Torriente (1878–1962), Leandro Rionda de la Torriente (1881–1953), Elena Felicia Rionda de la Torriente (1882–1944), Salvador Rionda de la Torriente (1888–1961) and Esperanza Rionda de la Torriente (1890–1960).  Elena was the daughter of Cosme Damian de la Torriente (1809-1870), a Spaniard from Santander who had been established in Cuba since the 1820s.  Cosme and two of his brothers benefited from the slave trade and by 1875 owned seven sugar mills: Central Amistad, Central Carlota, Central Maria, Central Isabel, Central Progreso, Central San Pablo and Central Elena which management was entrusted to Francisco.

Francisco Rionda continued at Central Elena estate until de la Torriente lost it for debt.  During that time the de la Torriente's also lost the Central Soledad to E. F. Atkins & Co. also for debt.  Francisco then joined Joaquín at Central China and Manuel moved to Cuba and assumed control of the Matanzas warehouses for a brief period.  While all three of the brothers were in Cuba, the New York business was left in the hands of a young twenty two years old employee named Hugh Kelly. Franklin Farrel eventually took over Central China  for debts owed him forming the New York Sugar Manufacturing Co. with partners Lewis Cooke and Hugh Kelly who became manager of the new venture.  In 1886, together with Kelly and with capital primarily contributed by Farrel, they erected Central Teresa near Manzanillo.

In 1886 Manuel returned to New York City to work for the sugar brokerage business J. M. Ceballos & Co. and in 1889 married Irish immigrant Harriet Clarke ( -1922).  A couple of years earlier in 1884, his sister Bibiana died in their hometown in Spain leaving son Bernardo Braga Rionda (1875- ) motherless.  After his mother's death, Bernardo would come to New York to live with Manuel who took care and raised him as his own.  In 1889 Joaquin drowned while crossing the Tiunucú River on horseback, orphaned thirteen year old Manuel Rionda Benjamin was then, like his cousin Bernardo, put in Manuel's charge.

In 1891 Manuel joined with Juan Manuel Ceballos and Juan M. Clarke, the Havana representative of Krajewski-Pesant Co., to organize Central Tiunucú Sugar Cane Manufacturing Co.  Francisco Rionda settled in Tiunucú after the family failure in the 1880s, and having lost the Central Elena which he managed for his father-in-law.  Tiunucú was inland in Sancti Spiritus too far east where no railroad had reached yet.  Nonetheless, Francisco settled there with his wife, three children and his nephew Manuel Rionda Benjamin.  During his early years the family would receive three more children; Elena in 1882, Salvador in 1888 and Esperanza in 1890.   However, with the outbreak of the Cuban War for Independence in 1895, all plans to develop the sugar mill were abandoned and Francisco and all his family had to flee to the US where they were received by Manuel and Harriet.

In 1897 Manuel joined Czarnikow, MacDougal & Co., the newly established New York office of C. Czarnikow Ltd. established in 1861 in London which at the time was the world’s pre-eminent sugar broker.  Czarnikow McDougal & Co. was established in 1891 by Polish-Jewish immigrant Julius Ceasar Czarnikow and Scottish George McDougal as the North American branch of C. Czarnikow, Ltd.  After Manuel started at Czarnikow, McDougal & Co., he recruited Francisco to be the company's representative in Cuba.  Francisco, then returned with his family to Cuba to tend to his new responsibilities.  In May 1898, Francisco acquired fifty thousand acres of wilderness from Salvador Cisneros Betancourt on the south coast near Guayabal approximately two hundred miles east of Central Tiunucú.  When Francisco died on November 18, 1898, an offer for a 25% share of the land made to Czarnikow, McDougal & Co. was under consideration but had not been accepted.

After the Cuban War of Independence ended and the 1899 grinding season got underway, Manuel visited Cuba to find out if Central Tiunucú had survived the war.  He found out that although the manor house and the manufacturing structures were still standing, they were overgrown with weeds but could be rescued.  The plan was for Francisco's widow Elena and their children to move to the house and Manuel's brother-in-law Pedro Alonso to be in charge of reconstruction.  A big event that proved rebuilding  the ingenio into the Tiunucú Sugar Mill a great decision was the construction in 1900 of Sir William Van Horne's Cuba Company central railroad from Santa Clara through the center of the island to the easternmost Oriente Province.  Tiunucú was one of the first sugar mills, if not the first, to haul sugar over the Cuba Railroad Company's railroad.  That immediately resulted in a 50% increase in value for Central Tiunucú.  By the next grinding season in the spring of 1900, Tiunucú would produce some 3,400 bags of sugar for sale.

While Tiunucú was being rebuilt, Manuel visited the wilderness his brother had acquired shortly before his death and decided to build a sugar mill there.  This was a very ambitious project which required substantial capital to lure enough supply of workers, build railroad lines from the fields to the factory and build all the required infrastructure from docks to telephone lines to living quarters.  The project was aided by Henry O. Havemeyer's unrelated $800,000 investment to acquire Central Lugareño and his subsequent acquisition Central San Martin which opened the eyes and interest of other US sugar refiners.  The Francisco Sugar Co. was incorporated in New Jersey on March 1, 1899 but it was not until June 1900 that Manuel finally succeeded in selling a majority block of shares to the McCahan Sugar Refinery that the project took off the ground with Irishman William J. McCahan as president.  To develop the colono system that had so well worked in western Cuba, then twenty-two year old Higinio Fanjul Rionda was put in charge of building and managing a colonia system and run the company store.

Central Francisco finally started producing in 1904 when it produced some 69,000 bags of raw sugar and showed a profit of $60,000.  After 1904 its production stalled to a point that prompted Manuel to offer it for sale to James H. Post, the Cuban-American Sugar Co. and others in 1908 with no luck.  On June 1909, John Durham, the McCahan appointed general Manager of Central Francisco, was replaced with twenty nine years-old Leandro Rionda de la Torriente.  Leandro did an excellent job in managing Central Francisco which in 1913 produced 257,140 bags of sugar, the 9th top producer on the island that year. In 1915 The Francisco Sugar Co. paid a stock dividend of 233%, in 1916, 1918 and 1919 it paid 20% cash dividend and in 1920 it paid 30%.  Even in 1917 when the civil unrest due to the results of the 1916 election had threatened its mere existence, a cash dividend of 10% was paid.  In 1916 Central Tiunucú Sugar Cane Manufacturing Co. paid 50% stock dividend on its preferred shares and a 100% stock dividend on its common shares and cash dividends of 10% in 1917 and 1918 and 27.5% in 1919 and 1920.

In 1902 Manuel & Harriet acquired land across Manhattan on the New Jersey palisades where they built a spacious home they called Rio Vista.  Manuel & Harriett would call this home during most of the year except for the dead season when they would spend most of the time in London and for the beginning of the grinding season when they would spend the first three or four months of the year at Tiunucú.

In 1906 Manuel started a very favorable relationship with the law firm Sullivan & Cromwell, the law firm responsible for convincing the State of New Jersey to change its laws to favor corporations and that organized the US Steel Co. for John Pierport Morgan.  This relationship opened Manuel Rionda's access to Wall Street capital when $2.5 million in capital stock was secured to acquire the Stewart Sugar Co.  The Stewart Sugar Co., named after the Glasgow manufacturer who designed and built it with the financial backing of the British investment banking firm Schroders, was a failed venture abandoned in its early stages by Cuban banker Manuel Silveira.  Rionda, together with Sir William Van Horne and J. S. Fiske were the three voting trustees according to the Voting Trust Agreement drawn by Sullivan & Cromwell.  Central Stewart first crop was 1908 and by 1910 it was already producing 215,000 bags of raw sugar sold by Czarnikow, MacDougal & Co. for a commission of 1% of gross proceeds.

Juan M. Clarke, who had been the Havana agent for Czarnikow, MacDougal & Co. export department, died in 1907.  The export department had produced such earnings that Manuel Rionda decided to replace it with a wholly owned subsidiary.  He had his close friend and associate Victor Zeballos y Chiriboga (1873-1949) incorporate the Cuban Trading Co. in Havana on July 20, 1907.  Victor remained at the helm of the Cuban Trading Co. until his retirement in 1922 when he was replaced by Aurelio Portuondo Barceló.  Higinio Fanjúl and his son, Alfonso Fanjúl were later presidents of the Cuban Trading Company.  The Cuban Trading Co. bought sugar, arranged loans to mills and cane farmers, handled insurance claims, resolved local disputes, provided legal and notary services and handled substantial sales of machinery, jute bags, coal, oil and plantation supplies all throughout Cuba.  The Cuban Trading Company also kept the parent company informed of its competitors' activities and played the critical role of liaison to the Cuban government.

After Julius Caesar Czarnikow died in April 7, 1909, Czarnikow-Rionda Co. was incorporated on September 1, 1909 to continue the operations of Czarnikow, McDougal & Co. with Manuel Rionda as its president and chairman having a 20% ownership interest and and his nephew Manuel Rionda Benjamin as Secretary.  It was agreed between the partners that in case of Manuel's death, half of his interest in Czarnikow-Rionda Co. would pass on to Manuel Rionda Benjamin, Bernardo Braga Rionda and Victor & Ralph Zevallos.  Neither the Fanjul nor the de la Torriente nephews were included, leaving Fanjul with the Francisco colonia and the de la Torrientes with their interest in Central Tiunucú, Central Francisco and the inheritance from their mother's participation in her late husband's assets.

Between 1909 and 1912 Czarnikow-Rionda Co. assumed management of the former Central San José reorganized as Central Washington and the old and small Central San Vicente, due to unpaid indebtedness.  Management of both fell under Leandro who by 1913 had tripled Washington's production.  Central Washington, never a good performing sugar mill despite the increased production, was sold in 1920 for $2 million.  Subsequently “On June 22, 1922, as ordered by the court of first instance of Sagua la Grande, for the third and last time, the Central Washington, formerly known as San José, will be put up for auction in order to secure the payment of a debt of $250,000…”.[1]

In 1911, Manuel Rionda brought together a group of investors that included, Claus Spreckels, Edmund Converse, Regino Truffin, Joseph R. de Lamar, the law firm Sullivan & Comwell and J. & W. Seligman & Co. to exploit extensive land holdings around the Bahia de Manatí, twice the size of Havana harbor.  The Manatí Sugar Co. was incorporated in New York on April 30, 1912 with a capitalization of $1.5 million to build the very large Central Manatí.  It was an immense undertaking that presaged Rionda's most ambitious business venture, the Cuba Cane Sugar Corporation in 1915.  Its Board of Directors was comprised of Regino Truffin, president; Rionda, Alfred Jaretzki of Sullivan & Cromwell and Frederick Strauss, vice presidents and the Marquis de San Miguel de Aguayo, Eduardo de Uzurrún, General Manager.  Central Manati traditionally paid annual cash dividends of 10% on its common stock.  After Manuel's death in 1943, his nephew Manuel E. Rionda was named president of Manati Sugar Co.

In the summer of 1920 with nearly 70% of Cuban sugar production controlled by American corporations, Rionda saw the future of Czarnikow-Rionda & Co. commission business very dim and the downward trend irreversible.  Although he had previously decided against the idea, after the death of William J. McCahan in 1918, in June 1920 he bought the McCahan Sugar and Molasses Refining Co. in Philadelphia for $5 million with the McCahan family retaining 30% interest.  In 1922, after his separation from the Cuba Cane Sugar Corp., Manuel turned his attention to the family's sugar mills, Francisco, Tiunucú, Manatí and Tacajó which they managed.  

Czarnikow-Rionda continued to operate after Manuel's death in 1943 with his nephew Bernardo Braga Rionda succeeding him as president.  In the post WWII period, the company had increased success until the Cuban Revolution in 1959 soon after which they lost all access to Cuban sugar and their properties on the island that at the time included six sugar mills. Czarnikow-Rionda was second in size only to Galban, Lobo & Co. when Fidel Castro came to power in Cuba.  Galban, Lobo & Co. was unable to survive the Cuban crisis and was dissolved in 1965 when Czarnikow-Rionda acquired its subsidiary, Olavarria & Co., which was selling Puerto Rican refined sugar to retail outlets in the mainland United States.  Czarnikow-Rionda turned to sugar from the Dominican Republic and the Philippines to replace much of the Cuban trade and established a subsidiary in Great Britain, where it competed with its former parent, C. Czarnikow & Co. as a broker in the European beet-sugar market.

In 1961 Czarnikow-Rionda financed 15% of a cooperative venture to establish a mill in southern Florida, which became the nation's largest. Through a new subsidiary, Osceola Farms, Inc., Czarnikow-Rionda also dismantled a Louisiana mill and reassembled it on four thousand acres of farmland newly drained by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers near Canal Point, Florida. The Fanjul Brothers, whose family was for a long time associated with the Riondas took a 20% stake in this enterprise and eventually came to own one hundred sixty thousand acres of cultivated land in the area through Flo-Sun Inc.  The Fanjul Brothers also own Central Romana in the Dominican Republic.

Czarnikow-Rionda had annual revenue of about $40 million when it was sold in December 1969 to C. Brewer & Co., Ltd., a majority-owned subsidiary of International Utilities Corp.  The transaction included eight subsidiaries among which were the London brokerage, a Philippine firm, New York and Panama based shipping companies and Closter Farms, Inc. of Florida, but did not include the molasses operation which continued as Braga Brothers, Inc.  C. Brewer & Co., Ltd. sold the company to Czarnikow-Rionda's employees shortly after 1972. In July 1999, Czarnikow-Rionda was the world's third largest sugar-trading firm when it went under due to unpaid debt of more than $70 million.  At the time it had long term contracts with China and Russia that went south due to sugar prices dropping to 5¢ a pound and sizable credits to sugar mills in Brazil affected by that country's currency crisis.

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[1] The Louisiana Planter and Sugar Manufacturer June 17, 1922