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It is important to note both the Jones Act and taxes imposed on the colonists during the Boston Tea Party share a major similarity. The latter can be found in the fact that a stronger nation taxed the weaker one, heavily undermining the economic wellbeing of a colony or territory. The Jones Act “has restricted water transportation of cargo between U.S. ports to ships that are U.S.-owned, U.S.-crewed, U.S.-registered, and U.S.-built” (Cornell Law School, 2022, para. 1). In the case of leadership, the US government sees its territories as the British government saw its colonies, which strongly implies a sense of imperialism as well as imperialistic practices. As a result, the Act imposed “significant costs on the U.S. economy while providing few of the promised benefits” (Grabow et al., 2018, para. 1). In other words, security reasons were used to justify the restricted use of marine transportation and merchants.
The impact of the Jones Act on Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and other US territories was highly destructive and damaging. It is stated that “basic shipments of goods from the island to the US mainland, and vice versa, must be conducted via expensive protected ships rather than exposing them to global competition” (Yglesias, 2017, para. 5). Thus, the already economically troubled and disadvantaged territories of the United States were heavily burdened by higher costs of goods due to expensive transportation. Limiting the pool of ships available to only US-built and US-owned ones makes the marine cargo sector essentially a monopoly (Tuleja, 2022). Considering the fact that US merchant vessels only carry 2% of the global cargo, it becomes evident that US’s territories were put at a significant economic disadvantage (Yglesias, 2017). In other words, US ships neither need to be competitive nor cheap to ensure that they can be in demand.
As a territory, the impact of only trading through the USA is substantial due to the limited market competition, which affects the prices of goods in these regions. In addition, there is a cultural implication to the Jones Act because, for example, it recognized Puerto Ricans as statutory US citizens (Library of Congress, 2022). It was a positive element for the cultural assimilation of the Puerto Ricans instead of being isolated from the rest of the nation. However, the Jones Act did not completely resolve the economic challenges of the territory because 44% of Puerto Ricans living on the island live in poverty (Data USA, 2019). In other words, the economic implications of the Act heavily outweigh the minor cultural benefits.
It should be noted that Puerto Rico was historically a Spanish colony, which is why its culture, educational system, and leadership use the Spanish language primarily. Considering the vast multicultural diversity of the United States and the lack of an official national language, Puerto Ricans should not be forced to do commerce in English. However, they should continue to have the English language in the educational process in order to equip the students with the necessary skills and knowledge. Puerto Ricans must be able to decide the language they want to use for themselves. Texans or Californians are not forced to adhere to a specific language, and thus, Puerto Ricans should not be as well. The territory’s culture is embedded in its Spanish roots, and its leaders are Spanish-speaking, which is why both the culture and leadership will make it impossible to fully transition towards an English-speaking nation.
It is vital to understand that the Jones Act and other imperial practices toward Puerto Rica, such as language imposition, reveal that its culture is being trivialized. Puerto Ricans on the island cannot vote for POTUS and have no representation in Congress (Reichard, 2021). The main reason is the lack of full integration into the US as a state, and culture is tightly connected to politics and history.
References
Data USA. (2019). Puerto Rico. Web.
Grabow, C., Manak, I., & Ikenson, D. J. (2018). The Jones Act: A burden America can no longer bear.CATO Institute. Web.
Library of Congress. (2022). A Latinx Resource Guide: Civil Rights Cases and Events in the United States. Web.
Reichard, R. (2021). Why isn’t Puerto Rico a state?History. Web.
Tuleja, E. A. (2022). Intercultural communication for global business: How leaders communicate for success (2nd ed.). Routledge.
Yglesias, M. (2017). The Jones Act, the obscure 1920 shipping regulation strangling Puerto Rico, explained.Vox. Web.
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