--- title: "What Are the Big 5 in Hawaii? The Surprising Truth" canonical: "https://hawaiitravelbureau.com/what-are-the-big-5-in-hawaii/" author: "Evan Miles" published: "2026-10-07T06:41:39+00:00" modified: "2026-10-17T06:15:36+00:00" language: "en-US" site: "Hawaii Travel Bureau" description: "If you're asking what are the big 5 in Hawaii?, you're probably not looking for lions and leopards. In Hawaii, the Big Five were five corporations that…" categories: "Hawaii Activities" attribution: "Hawaii Travel Bureau (https://hawaiitravelbureau.com/)" --- # What Are the Big 5 in Hawaii? The Surprising Truth If you're asking what are the big 5 in Hawaii?, you're probably not looking for lions and leopards. In Hawaii, the Big Five were five corporations that controlled sugar, shipping, land, and politics for most of the 20th century. They weren't a wildlife list or a TV show. They were an oligopoly. The five were Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke, C. Brewer & Company, Amfac, and Theo H. Davies & Co. Together, historians estimate they controlled roughly 90% of Hawaii's economy by the 1930s. Four of the five traced their roots to the sugar factor system that took shape in the 1800s. Their story explains a lot about land, housing, and power in the islands today. ## Quick Answer ### 🌺 Local Island Guide Quick Answer The Big Five in Hawaii were five interlocking corporations. They were Alexander & Baldwin, Castle & Cooke, C. Brewer, Amfac, and Theo H. Davies. All five grew out of the sugar and shipping trade. They dominated Hawaii's economy and politics for decades. Their power faded after statehood in 1959. ## What People Mean When They Ask "What Are the Big 5 in Hawaii?" ### Why the term gets confused with animals, personalities, and TV Hawaii's Big Five has nothing to do with wildlife. Africa's Big Five are the lion, leopard, elephant, rhinoceros, and Cape buffalo. The Big Five personality test measures openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. Then there's Hawaii Five-0, the police drama. None of those are what historians mean. In Hawaii, Big Five is shorthand for corporate power. ### The short answer: a five-company oligopoly The Big Five were five companies that ran Hawaii's economy like a closed club. An oligopoly is a market controlled by a handful of sellers, and that's exactly what this was. They owned the sugar mills, the shipping lines, the banks, and much of the land. Their boards shared directors, so rivals rarely competed in the open. Theo H. Davies interests sat alongside Castle & Cooke positions. Alexander & Baldwin's reach stretched into Matson and the Bishop Estate. This wasn't a hidden cabal. It was open, documented, and widely reported at the time. ## The Five Corporations Behind Hawaii's Big Five Oligopoly The list itself is stable. The details are where people slip up. Here are the canonical five. | Company | Founded | Core business | | --- | --- | --- | | Alexander & Baldwin | 1870 | Sugar, shipping, later real estate | | Castle & Cooke | 1851 | Sugar, pineapple, shipping | | C. Brewer & Company | 1826 | Sugar, molasses, diversified holdings | | Amfac (American Factors) | 1849 | Sugar factors, retail, hotels | | Theo H. Davies & Co. | 1845 | Sugar factors, shipping, insurance | ### Alexander & Baldwin Founded in 1870 by Samuel Alexander and Henry Baldwin, both sons of missionaries. It became one of Hawaii's largest landowners and still exists as a real estate investment trust. If you've seen the name on a shopping center or a warehouse, that's the same company. ### Castle & Cooke Founded in 1851 and one of the longest-running names in the islands. It acquired the Hawaiian Pineapple Company in 1932, which is why people link it to Dole. It later shifted hard into real estate and stepped back from agriculture. ### C. Brewer & Company The oldest of the five, dating to 1826. It grew into a major sugar factor and later spread into macadamia nuts, fertilizer, and insurance. It was eventually broken apart and sold off in pieces. ### Amfac / American Factors Originally Hackfeld & Co., founded in 1849. It became American Factors, then Amfac. It ran department stores, hotels, and sugar operations before a mainland takeover in the 1980s. That takeover is often cited as the moment the old structure cracked. ### Theo H. Davies & Co. Founded in 1845 by a British merchant. It handled sugar factors, shipping, and insurance, and it's the company people forget most often. If your list of five is missing Davies, it's wrong. ## How Sugar, Shipping, and Interlocking Boards Gave Them Power ### The sugar factor system A sugar factor was the middleman that financed, processed, and sold a plantation's crop. In return, the factor took a cut and often controlled the plantation's books. The same five firms ran most of those factors. ### Land, water rights, and labor Control of land and water mattered more than control of sugar. The Great Mahele of 1848 turned communal land into private property. Sugar companies bought or leased huge tracts after that. They also built irrigation ditches and reservoirs, which gave them leverage over smaller farmers. Labor came from China, Japan, Portugal, Puerto Rico, Korea, and the Philippines under contract terms. ### Matson, pineapple, banking, and politics From there, the Big Five spread into shipping, banking, insurance, utilities, and retail. Castle & Cooke controlled Matson Navigation for a stretch. Amfac ran Liberty House. The five also funded lobbying efforts in Washington. The [Library of Congress](https://www.loc.gov) holds petitions, diplomatic records, and business papers from the 1893 overthrow period. If you've ever wondered why land ownership in Hawaii stays concentrated, this is where the story starts. ## Timeline: From Plantation Boom to the End of the Big Five Era ### Kingdom years and the 1893 overthrow Sugar boomed after the Reciprocity Treaty of 1875 opened free trade with the United States. In 1893, a Committee of Safety backed by American businessmen and U.S. Marines overthrew Queen Liliuokalani. The Big Five were deeply involved in that push. ### Territorial power and the 1954 Democratic Revolution Under the Organic Act of 1900, Hawaii became a U.S. territory. The Republican Party, aligned with the Big Five, dominated politics for decades. Plantation workers organized anyway. The 1909 and 1920 sugar strikes pushed wages upward. In 1946, sugar workers walked off the job in the largest strike in Hawaii's history. The 1949 dock strike followed. By 1954, Democrats backed by unions had taken control of the territorial legislature. ### Statehood and the end of sugar Statehood arrived in 1959. Corporate takeovers, tourism, and rising land values changed the economics fast. Mainland buyers picked off the five one at a time. Trade names dissolved, merged, or converted into real estate companies. HC&S, the last big sugar plantation, ended operations in 2016. ## The Human Cost and Lasting Legacy in Hawaii ### Contract labor and ethnic hierarchy Plantations sorted workers into ethnic groups, with different jobs and pay for each. Field laborers lived in company housing and often shopped at company stores. Wages were low and discipline was strict. The [National Park Service](https://www.nps.gov) documents plantation-era sites and labor history at several Hawaii locations. ### Land concentration and housing pressure The Big Five and the estates tied to them held enormous acreage. That concentration shaped everything that came after. Leasehold land, long-term trusts, and limited fee-simple ownership still show up in Hawaii's housing market. As of 2026, Hawaii remains one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States. The shortage of buildable land traces back to decisions made in this era. ### What the Big Five got wrong They underestimated organized labor and overestimated their grip on agriculture. They also tied their fortunes to sugar quotas and shipping monopolies. When both shifted, they had nowhere to hide. Diversification saved their balance sheets but not their control of the islands. ## Big Five vs. Africa's Big Five, Big Five Personality Traits, and Hawaii Five-0 The phrase "Big Five" refers to three completely different things, and mixing them up is the most common mistake we see. Here's how they stack up. | Term | Refers to | Field or region | | --- | --- | --- | | Hawaii's Big Five | Five sugar and shipping corporations | Hawaii, roughly 1900s to 1960s | | Africa's Big Five | Lion, leopard, elephant, rhino, Cape buffalo | Safari and wildlife tourism | | Big Five personality traits | Openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism | Psychology research | Hawaii Five-0 is a separate thing again. It's a television crime drama, first aired in 1968 and rebooted in 2010. The title refers to a police task force, not a business elite. ### Why Dole, Matson, and Bishop Estate aren't on the list Dole is the most common wrong answer. The Hawaiian Pineapple Company, later tied to Dole, was acquired by Castle & Cooke in 1932. So Castle & Cooke sits on the list, but Dole itself does not. Matson Navigation was controlled by Castle & Cooke interests for decades. It was a tool of Big Five power, not a member of the club. The Bishop Estate is a land trust, not a corporation, even though its trustees overlapped with Big Five boards. ### How they compare with mainland robber barons and zaibatsu Mainland industrialists like Carnegie, Rockefeller, and Morgan built national monopolies. Hawaii's Big Five built a territorial one. Japan's zaibatsu, such as Mitsui and Mitsubishi, followed a similar family-controlled playbook. What made Hawaii different was scale. These were small firms on small islands, yet they controlled an entire economy. That's why historians treat them as a textbook oligopoly. ## What's Left of the Big Five in Hawaii Today The names haven't vanished, but the cartel has. Here's the current picture as of 2026. - Alexander & Baldwin operates as a real estate investment trust focused on Hawaii commercial property. - Castle & Cooke survives as a private real estate company with land holdings on Oahu and Lanai. - C. Brewer & Company dissolved in 2016 after selling off its remaining operations piece by piece. - Amfac was taken over by JMB Realty in 1988, then broken apart and sold in parts. - Theo H. Davies was acquired by Jardine Matheson in 1973 and later wound down. You'll notice none of them run sugar plantations anymore. HC&S, the last major sugar operation, shut down in 2016. Tourism, real estate, and the military replaced agriculture as Hawaii's economic base. ### Where to trace the history yourself The Hawaii State Archives holds corporate records, land documents, and territorial files. The University of Hawaii at Manoa Center for Oral History has recorded interviews with plantation workers and their families. Bishop Museum and Hawaii Plantation Village on Oahu both preserve physical artifacts from the era. If you have plantation ancestors, those four sources are your best starting points. Start with the archives for documents, then use oral histories for context. ## Frequently Asked Questions ### Were the Big Five a cartel? Not in the legal sense of a formal price-fixing agreement. They were an informal oligopoly that controlled key industries through shared directors and vertical integration. The effect was the same. Competition was limited, prices were managed, and outsiders struggled to break in. ### Are the Big Five still around today? As individual companies, some names survive. Alexander & Baldwin and Castle & Cooke still operate in real estate. But as a unified economic bloc, the Big Five ended decades ago. Statehood, labor unions, and mainland takeovers dismantled the structure between 1954 and 1988. ### Was Dole one of the Big Five? No, Dole was not one of the five. The confusion comes from Castle & Cooke's 1932 acquisition of the Hawaiian Pineapple Company, which became linked to the Dole brand. Castle & Cooke was a Big Five member. Dole was a company it controlled. ### Which island was most affected by the Big Five? Oahu, without question. Honolulu was the corporate headquarters for all five firms. Maui, Kauai, and Hawaii Island had major plantations, but the decision-making happened on Oahu. That's why Honolulu's business district and land ownership patterns still reflect that era. ### Why does the Big Five still matter to Hawaii residents? Land ownership, housing costs, and the concentration of economic power trace back to this period. Hawaii remains one of the most expensive housing markets in the United States. 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