In the vicinity of the Hacienda, there were many small and medium farms, dedicated to coffee and sugar cane plantations, whose crops were sold to the Great Hacienda for its industrial processing.
The 1930’s were hard times, because of the Great Depression and its repercussions were felt throughout the world.
Those most affected were the owners of small and medium farms that were caught in the international market. It became urgent to look for alternatives in order to survive and grow.
One of the options was for the farmers to form a cooperative and raise up their own sugar mill, but times were very hard and the farmers specially were not ready to take such a big step.
During the course of events resulting from the Second World War, the Costa Rican government began confiscating the goods and properties of people of Italian, German and even Spanish descent.
Since the Hacienda belonged to German emigrants, the land and was confiscated.
This event made the farmers’ situation worse, and produced uncertainty in the farmers who brought their crops to the Hacienda.
The war that the world was living and it’s repercussions in Costa Rica had driven groups of intellectuals to form a study group to analyze the socio-economic situation that the Costa Rican people were experiencing. This is how the "Center for the Study of National Problems" was born, and whose members were ambushed in the new social and economic doctrines.
The Center recommended a new system called Cooperativism, whose results in other countries had been favorable, to resolve the problematic socio-economic situation that was being experienced in Grecia.
An enterprise of this magnitude was impossible bring about without an official approval, so the pioneers of this project went to the Presidency of the Republic, asking for support and necessary legislation, so that Hacienda Victoria, expropriated in Grecia, would be put under the control of the National Bank of Costa Rica.
And so, the Executive Branch, was able to have the Congress promulgate the law N. 49, in July 1943, which facilitated the State to sell to the National Bank, the Victoria Hacienda and it’s facilities, authorizing also the mentioned Bank to organize the Cooperative of Agriculture and Industrial production, having control and administration until the Cooperative would pay 75% of its total value.
Continues.
General Assembli Celebrated in San
Isidro Hacienda 1945.
In this stage of the process of Hacienda Victoria becoming a cooperative, the pioneers deserve to be mentioned: José Manuel Peralta Quesada, José Joaquín Mora Mora, Alcides Barquero Ruiz, Ricardo Solís Ballestero, residents of Grecia, and also Gerardo Murillo Rodríguez. Juan Carlos Chaves Gómez, Luis Rodríguez Salas y Manuel Viquez Rojas of Poas county, who gave their best to achieve this goal.
Too, the young people of the Center for the Study of National Problems, who with their enthusiasm, knowledge and vision, were able to lead the farmers in finding a solution to their problems in a time of uncertainty.
The President of the Republic, Dr. Rafael Angel Calderón Guardia, who at all times supported the project, and the outstanding Julio Peña, who from the management of the National Bank, not only supported financially the process, but with enthusiasm collaborated for things to flow easily.
Victoria Agricultural and Industrial Cooperative was legally constituted on October 12th, 1943, with 20 associates, and an initial capital of 10, 000 colones, divided in 100 bonds of 100 colones each (81 for the bank and 19 for the rest of the associates).
On July 31, 1956, the National Bank formally handed the Cooperative to the General Assembly, since it had covered the 75% of the debt that the law N. 49 had stipulated.
From that time, the company has continued growing and expanding, not only geographically but also in diversity
Now, fifty years after these happenings, we can see the goals and benefits that the democratic economy was able to bring about in society.