"This innovative ethnography takes a new approach to the study of Philippine sugar. Michael Billig examines sugar's decline within both the dynamic context of contemporary Philippine society and the global context of the international sugar market.

His multi-sited ethnographic analysis focuses mainly on conflicts among the various elite sectors (planters, millers, traders, commercial buyers, politicians) and concludes that the most salient political, economic, and cultural trend in the Philippines today is the decline of rural, agrarian elite power and the rise of urban industrial, commercial, and financial power.

His reflections on his relationships with informants in the midst of the politically charged atmosphere that surrounds the sugar industry provide a candid look at the role of the observer who, try as he might to remain impartial, finds himself swept into the vortex of policy debates and power plays." "Barons, Brokers, and Buyers will be of great interest to scholars and students of political economy and economic anthropology and to anyone interested in contemporary Philippine society."--BOOK JACKET.