The cultivation of sugar cane and the manufacture of sugar, molasses and rum dominated the economy of Trinidad and Tobago between the 1783 Cedula of Population and the rise of oil production in the 1930s. Sugar continued to be a major crop until the 2003 closer of Caroni (1975) Limited.
Sugar in Trinidad and Tobago before 1763
editEstablishment of a plantation economy in Tobago
editThe Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended Tobago's status as a neutral territory and brought it under British control.[1] A plantation economy was quickly established on the island. Under the direction of the Board of Trade,[1] the island was surveyed, divided into 100–500 acres (40–202 ha) plots, and sold to planters.[2]: 125–128 Between 1765 and 1771 over 50,000 acres (20,000 ha) of land were sold by the Crown for over £167,000.[3] Through the efforts of Soame Jenyns, a commissioner of the Board of Trade and Member of Parliament,[4]: 273–274 the upper portions of the Main Ridge were reserved as "Woods for the Protection of the Rains" and remained uncleared and uncultivated.[1]
In 1785, cotton was the dominant crop in Tobago,[5]: 3 but the Haitian Revolution eliminated sugar exports from the former French colony of Saint-Domingue. Planters in Tobago took advantage of this shortfall and greatly increased sugar production. In 1794, 5,300 long tons (5,390 t) of sugar were exported from Tobago, and this rose to a peak of 8,890 long tons (9,030 t) in 1799.[5]: 135
Establishment of a plantation economy in Trinidad
editPost-Emancipation Tobago
editPost-Emancipation Trinidad
editIndentureship
editCrisis in sugar
editThe last quarter of the nineteenth century was a time for crisis for sugar production in the British West Indies.[6]
- Sugar Duties Act 1846
- By 1876, imports of "bounty-fed" European beet sugar entering the British market posed a serious threat to West Indian sugar producers.[6]: 18
- In 1884 Germany doubled bounties, France "greatly" increased exports.[6]: 18
- In the 1890s Germany and France doubled bounties, US imposed "heavy" duties on British West Indian sugar.[6]: 19
- West India Royal Commission of 1897 noted only the best sugar estates could make any profit on sugar, and many estates were producing sugar at a loss.[6]: 19
- In 1898 the US imposed duties equal to the full value of bounties, effectively barring European sugar from the US. In 1900 Canada "offered a general preference" to sugar from the British West Indies. The Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902 eliminated bounties on beet sugar exports.[6]: 19
- Beet sugar crisis: 1884-1897[7]: 325–327
Consolidation
editWhile sugar production continued to play a dominant role in the economy, there was a change in the ownership of the plantations. The French Creole ownership of the major estates declined, while British ownership increased. By 1897 most of the major estates were either in the hands of British corporations English Creoles, or British-born residents of the colony.[6]: 17
The major British corporations included the Colonial Company, Turnbull, Stewart and Company, W. F. Burnley and Company, Tennant and Company. They had access to capital and were able to invest in lowering the cost of sugar production.[6]: 17–18 The Colonial Company, which was established in 1866 by British investors,[8] built the Usine Ste. Madeleine in the early 1870s.[fn 1] The factory was the largest in the British Empire, second only in size to one in Guadeloupe.[6]: 17–18
Independence era
editCaroni (1975) Limited
editClosure of Caroni and the end of an era
editNotes
edit- ^ Brereton says the factory was build in 1872-1873, while Charan says it was built in 1870.
References
edit- ^ a b c Niddrie, D. L. (1966). "Eighteenth-Century Settlement in the British Caribbean". Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (40): 67–80. doi:10.2307/621569. ISSN 0020-2754. JSTOR 621569.
- ^ Boomert, Arie (2016-01-15). The indigenous peoples of Trinidad and Tobago : from the first settlers until today. Leiden. ISBN 9789088903540. OCLC 944910446.
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - ^ Murdoch, D. H. (1984). "Land Policy in the Eighteenth-Century British Empire: The Sale of Crown Lands in the Ceded Islands, 1763–1783". The Historical Journal. 27 (3): 549–574. doi:10.1017/S0018246X00017970. JSTOR 2639269.
- ^ Grove, Richard H. (1995). Green imperialism : colonial expansion, tropical island Edens, and the origins of environmentalism, 1600–1860. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0521565134. OCLC 28548987.
- ^ a b Laurence, K. O. (1995). Tobago in wartime, 1793–1815. Barbados: University of the West Indies Press. ISBN 9766400032. OCLC 32699769.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Brereton, Bridget (1979). Race Relations in Colonial Trinidad 1870-1900. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
- ^ Lobdell, Richard A. (1996). "Patterns of Investment and Sources of Credit in the British West Indian Sugar Industry, 1838-1897". In Beckles, Hilary; Shepherd, Verene (eds.). Caribbean freedom : economy and society from emancipation to the present : a student reader (1st ed.). Princeton: M. Wiener Publishers. pp. 319–329. ISBN 1-55876-128-4. OCLC 34046799.
- ^ Charan, Richard (2018-07-27). "Life on the line". Trinidad and Tobago Express. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ "End of an era". Trinidad and Tobago Guardian. 2003-07-31. Retrieved 2021-02-28.
{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link) - ^ Knight, Franklin W.; Sued Badillo, Jalil; Laurence, K. O.; Ibarra, Jorge; Brereton, Bridget; Higman, B. W.; Unesco (1997). General history of the Caribbean. Internet Archive. UNESCO. ISBN 978-92-3-103832-7.