Tourism helped ease Cuba's economic woes, but by no means did it solve them all. In 1993 Castro reluctantly allowed Cubans to open their own small businesses. Shops and street vendors, peddling a wide range of goods and services at free-market prices, began catering to Cubans. The government profited from this entrepreneurial activity via licenses and income taxes, the first imposed on Cubans since 1959.

In 1993 the granjas, or state-run farms, were replaced with Basic Units of Cooperative Production (UBPCs), in essence worker-managed cooperative farms. UBPCs were given greater control over their enterprise, including the right to produce what they wished and to own what they produced. Although worker satisfaction seems to have increased as workers gain greater control over their own workplace, the overall productivity of the UBPCs did not increase much due to shortages of fuel, fertilizer, and pesticides...