As one of the world’s first truly global corporations, United Fruit—its entire product line grown overseas, most of its market domestic—was uniquely vulnerable. In 1930 and 1931, the company diminished in ways that would have stunned Preston and Keith. Collapse of demand, labor unrest, deflation—there was serious trouble. In 1928, U.F. had made $45 million in profit. In 1932, it made just $6 million, an 85 percent decline.
