CHAPTER XIII THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE COLONIES WHEN the peace of Utrecht was signed, most of the British colonies in America and the West Indies had passed beyond the stage of infancy. Some, indeed, like Georgia and several of the West Indian Islands, were not yet in existence; others, like Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, were still in the cradle. But for the greater part they had reached the era of manhood. From primitive and struggling settlements they had developed out of different beginnings and by different means into prosperous and virile communities. The British West Indies now included the Bahama Islands; Jamaica; the administrative unit of the "Leeward Charibee Islands", embracing Antigua, Nevis, St Kitts, Montserrat, Barbuda, Anguilla, and the Virgin Islands; and lastly Barbados: in addition were disputed claims to St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada and Tobago. Since the resumption of the early charters, Bermuda, Jamaica, Barbados, and the Leeward Islands had enjoyed representative institutions. A governor appointed by the Crown, whose powers were defined and whose policy was directed by his Royal Commission and Instructions, and a council also appointed by the Crown, largely on the governor's recommendation, formed the executive. The Legislature consisted of the governor and council forming an Upper House, and an Assembly of varying numbers, elected by and from freeholders. But there persisted the tradition of constitutional opposition to the Crown, inherited from the early English colonists.1 Battles were now to be fought in the General Assemblies over the same questions of financial control and privilege as had been waged by Parliament in the seventeenth century. The issue was often obscured by the character of a governor, or by the heat of local factions, stimulated by that immoderate use of Madeira wine or rum punch which was characteristic of the period. But the struggle was essentially similar to that which we shall see in progress on the continent. Elective assemblies opposed imperial executives. They claimed the right to adjourn themselves and fix their own sessions and to appoint officers and fix their salaries. They endeavoured to obtain greater control over expenditure. Arrogating to themselves all the powers of the House of Commons, they denied the right of the councils to 1 Cf. Penson, L. M., Colonial Agents of the British West Indies, p. 4; Osgood, H. L., American Colonies in the Seventeenth Century, 1, 91. 2 Leslie, Charles, A New and Exact Account of Jamaica, p. 32 etc. amend money bills. Each of these points involved an infringement of the prerogative of the Crown, easily interpreted as disloyalty. Disloyalty was repudiated. But opposition to royal governors and to councils who derived their privileges from the Crown persisted. Pressure was put upon governors by refusing to vote them salaries or a revenue for the support of the government and the defence of the islands. Governors who came out with the hope of repairing a broken fortune or finding some reward for military services in return for their labours and the risks of sea and climate, often found themselves obliged to finance the government or maintain the king's troops out of their own pockets. For the colonists felt the exaggerated distrust of standing armies common to Englishmen of the period, even though their own safety depended on them. Colonel Parke of the Leeward Islands, Lord Archibald Hamilton in Jamaica, and a dozen others shared in these respects the experiences of governors of New York and Massachusetts. One would yield to the temptation to recoup himself by exacting excessive fees or embarking in the illegal trade it was his duty to prevent. Another would strike a bargain with the Assembly and return home a nabob. For a tactful governor often succeeded in getting his way by assigning to malcontent members some of the many offices at his disposal, or by assenting to bills on which the Assembly had set their hearts, in return for acts which he himself desired or considered necessary for the security or well-being of the colony. To prevent the abuse of presents, by which Assemblies had been wont to influence them, governors were now assigned fixed salaries from the Crown, with permission to invite the first Assemblies after their arrival to supplement them by additional grants during residence. Governor Worsley of Barbados obtained a grant of £6000 a year in addition to £2000 from the Crown, and £2000 in fees and perquisites (1722).1 The opening years of this period witnessed a tense struggle between the Assembly of Jamaica and the British Government. The fight for complete legislative power through the governor, council and Assembly, which had been in progress ever since 1678, culminated in the refusal of the Assembly to grant a fixed and permanent revenue for the support of the civil government and the maintenance of the king's troops. Conciliatory methods were tried without effect. Then pressure was brought to bear by withholding the royal assent from all new acts and from the renewal of those which were about to expire. There was a period of grave crisis during which the island was actually left lawless. At length the Assembly yielded and settled a permanent revenue of £8000 in return for the confirmation of the whole body of island laws (1729).2 If the issue of the political struggle in the West Indies was very different from that in America, it was probably due to a divergence 1 C.O. 28, 39, f. 59. 2 C.O. 137, 10 seqq., and 138, 14 seqq. THE WEST INDIES 379 of economic and social development. During the first half of the eighteenth century the tide of prosperity in the West Indies rose rapidly to the flood. In wealth, as in strategic importance, they surpassed the colonies on the mainland. But by the close of the century the ebb was so pronounced that the planters were in sore financial difficulties.1 Between 1736 and 1784, for example, the exports of rum and sugar from Barbados fell 50 per cent. The question inevitably arises, why did West Indian prosperity reach and pass its zenith whilst the continental colonies continued to wax steadily in wealth and strength? Probably the most important factors, in addition to those already considered, were the limited area of land in the islands and impoverishment of the soil by heavy cropping; over-concentration on sugar production, involving large estates and the increase of black labour at the expense of the white population; foreign competition and fluctuations of prices in the sugar trade;3 and the devastation wrought by hurricanes, droughts, and earthquakes. The American colonies enjoyed natural conditions not widely different from those of Europe. They had limitless areas of undeveloped lands. They were therefore increasingly able to attract white immigrants suited to a temperate climate, who developed into a distinct and vigorous stock. But the climate of the West Indies is tropical. It was eminently suited to negroes, and when the supply of black labour became plentiful, it inevitably ousted white. The process had been delayed at the beginning by the scarcity of slaves, and the efforts which were made to secure white immigrant labour. Rewards were paid to masters of vessels for each newcomer landed. Indentured labour was supplemented by transported convicts and political prisoners, notably after the 'Fifteen and the 'Forty-five.a Indians, too, made captive on the continent, were sometimes sold as slaves by American governments.5 But neither their labour nor prison labour proved satisfactory. Jamaica and the Leeward Islands had quickly followed the example of Barbados in turning from the cultivation of tobacco and indigo to that of sugar as the staple crop. Abounding prosperity was their reward, but it was not an unmixed blessing. The evil of latifundia was introduced and brought in its train the evils of absenteeism and a decreasing white population. The early settlers and their timeexpired servants had received small grants of land and formed a sturdy yeoman class, increasing the white population and providing a valuable militia and a variety of crops and provisions." But sugar 1 Davy, John, West Indies before and after Emancipation, pp. 6-8; Penson, pp. 174, 175; Parl. Pap. 1807 (65), III, 1. Edwards, Bryan, Hist. of the West Indies, 1, 347; C.O. 28, 17 and 24; Pitman, F. W., The Development of the British West Indies, 1700-63, p. 92. 3 Harlow, V. T., Barbados, 1625–85, p. 56. Hist. MSS Comm., Stuart Papers, II, 453, III, 304. • Pitman, p. 56. Cal. St. Pap. Col. 1716, no. 118; Groans of the Plantations, 1689; Harl. Misc. п, 356, etc. plantations demanded large estates, large capital for the purchase and upkeep of sugar mills and slaves, and a large and cheap supply of manual labour. Unable to provide the necessary capital, the small planters sold their holdings to richer men and emigrated to the mainland. The large estate holders rapidly made fortunes and retired to England, leaving their plantations to be managed by factors and worked by negroes.1 Whilst the white population was thus depleted, the supply of white labour began to fail, partly because profitable land had ceased to be available for indentured servants when they had completed their term of service. Vain endeavours were then made to encourage the importation of white servants. The "Deficiency" laws of Jamaica and similar acts in the Leeward Islands provided, under penalty of a fine, that each planter must keep white servants in fixed proportion to his negroes or acreage. But planters preferred to pay the fine, for negro labour for sugar planting was both cheaper and more efficient. Three negroes could be kept for the cost of one white labourer. The result of these several causes was that after about 1740 the white population actually declined in Barbados and the Leeward Islands.4 În Barbados the whites numbered 12,528 in 1712, 18,419 in 1762, and 16,187 in 1786. Negro slaves in the same period increased from 41,970 to 70,000, and then decreased. In Jamaica, between 1673 and 1764, the numbers of whites rose from about 8500 to 26,000. But in the same period, the black population increased from 9500 to 140,000 or more. The profits of the sugar industry enabled many landowners to escape from a trying climate and to follow what a governor of Jamaica described as "the usual inclination of the inhabitants, sooner or later to go home".5 Absenteeism was naturally resented in the islands. In Jamaica and the Leeward Islands non-resident owners of plantations were called upon to pay heavier taxes. Not only were their estates often extravagantly managed and their negroes brutally treated by their overseers, but the owners drew large sums from the islands. Pitt, in 1789, estimated the annual amount at £4,000,000." This steady drain of money accentuated one of the many difficulties which hampered trade, the want of a plentiful and stable medium of exchange. Lack of currency in the Leeward Islands caused all business to be done in terms of produce. In Barbados, after issues of paper currency, not properly secured, had temporarily ruined credit and raised prices, payments were generally made in sugar. Jamaica for a time drew ample bullion from her trade with Spanish America, 1 Brit. Mus., Sloane MSS, 3662, f. 59 a; Thomason Tracts, 669 (11), (115); Harlow, p. 43; C.O. 28, 21, Y. 10, etc. C.O. 1, 37, no. 48. Cal. St. Pap. Col. 1714-15, no. 588. Acts of Jamaica; C.O. 137, 10-23; 152, 12-15. Edwards, 1, 347; C.O. 152, 14-28, and 28, 27-32. • Pitman, p. 38. 7 Rose, J. H., William Pitt and the Great War, p. 370. 8 Cal. St. Pap. Col. 1716, no. 120. • Ibid. 1706-8, no. 1176. ABSENTEE LANDLORDS 381 but interruptions of that trade, especially after 1737, caused money to be so scarce that goods could only be paid for by goods.1 On the other hand, the absentee landlords were able to exert considerable influence on British politics, and by their wealth and power to procure legislation favourable to the West Indies, even though it were contrary to the interests of the other colonies. Together with the merchants who traded with the islands, they formed a "West India interest", discussed politics and business with their fellows at the Jamaica Coffee House, and bought rotten boroughs at the elections.2 The outstanding achievements of this West India interest were the passing of the Molasses Act in 1733, in spite of the protests of the "Bread Colonies", and its extension in 1764; the granting of direct trade to Europe in 1739; and the defeat of the proposal to raise the tax on imported sugar in 1744. The Molasses Act was intended to secure to the British West Indies the monopoly of the supply of sugar both to the American colonies and Great Britain. The same eagerness to secure a monopoly of the sugar market had long been a source of jealousy between the islands themselves. They always scented danger in the development of a rival island. The 4 per cent. duty on exports from Barbados and the Leeward Islands, besides being a grievance because it was not applied to the defence of those islands and was a handicap in competing with foreign sugar, was also a cause of jealousy, since it was not paid by Jamaica. Perhaps the most deplorable effect of absenteeism was that it deprived the islands of men of the most cultivated and responsible type. This was doubly disastrous in a community based on slave labour. Progress in political and social life was accordingly not commensurate with the wealth produced. Barbados could boast of only four small towns, the houses of which were mean, and the punch houses and taverns sordid. Resident planters lived, indeed, in considerable luxury in large country houses, surrounded by leafy avenues. But gambling, drunkenness and feasting were the leading features of their social life.4 The colonisation of the West Indies had no basis in a religious movement like the exodus to New England. Anglicanism prevailed, but Anglican ministers paid little attention to their duties. There were few Quakers or Dissenters. Codrington College, in Barbados, founded by the will of Governor Christopher Codrington and begun in 1716, was the most notable school in the West Indies. Yet at its most flourishing period (c. 1750) less than fifty scholars attended it. There were, of course, some elementary schools in the islands. But 1 C.O. 137, 17; 391, 44; Brit. Mus., Add. MSS, 19049; Long, E., Jamaica, 1, 530; Pitman, p. 146. Short Account of the Interest and Conduct of the Jamaica Planters, 1754; and Penson, pp. 1763 C.O. 5, 1093, f. 178. 4 Schomburgk, Sir R., Hist. of Barbados, p. 111. C.O. 28, 50; Cal. St. Pap. Col. 1707, etc.; Leslie, C., Account of Jamaica, pp. 30, 46. 182. |