Why did sugar become the dominant crop in the Caribbean in the late seventeenth century?

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Why did sugar become the dominant  crop in the Caribbean in the late seventeenth century?

In order to ascertain why sugar became the dominant crop in the Caribbean in the late seventeenth century, it will be necessary to consider the situation in the early 1600s. What were the crops which were cultivated by early settlers and why did they make the change? Economic factors must be examined, alongside the effects of conflict and political instability, and the growing conditions on the islands, which would favour some crops over others. The differing requirements of manpower, according to what commodity was produced, would also affect the choice of crop. Many of the things which might grow well in the Caribbean would have a very limited export potential. Whilst much can be gleaned from contemporary records and statements written at the height of the sugar ‘boom’, it should be borne in mind that there was much propaganda involved, and many of the statistics cannot be relied on. To give an example, some traders who were exporting to Britain, described white sugar as muscovado, because the duty on white sugar was so much higher.

Many scholars have held the view that sugar was the crop of choice in the Caribbean, because other products had proved unprofitable. However, as Robert Carlyle Batie shows in his article ‘Why Sugar’ there is evidence that planters had done very well from tobacco in the years preceding the sugar boom. Thousands of Europeans had migrated to the Caribbean islands from the early 1620s. The British and the French had settlements in St. Christopher (1624), Barbados (1627), Nevis (1628), Antigua and Montserrat (1632) and Guadeloupe and Martinique (1635). In 1628, even though the inferior Barbadian tobacco was selling for 9d a pound compared the 36d a pound for Virginian tobacco, twenty Barbadian servants were contracted on a one year lease for £1000. This would indicate an expected return of over £50 per person. Incomes in the Caribbean were four to six times as high as those in England.   Philip Bell, the governor of Bermuda in the late 1620s believed that  a small tropical island  could ‘in short time be made more rich and bountiful either by tobacco or any other commodities than double or treble any man’s estates in all England’. However, although many planters did exceedingly well out of tobacco in the early part of the seventeenth century, the competition from Virginia was always fierce. Barbadian tobacco was not universally appreciated. The founder of Massachusetts, John Winthrop told his son Henry that the tobacco he sent home was ‘verye ill conditioned, fowle, full of stalkes and evil coloured.’ The supply of tobacco from America continued to increase, as more English and French settlers were attracted by the apparently substantial profits which could be made, with the result that prices started to drop, and plummeted from 6d a pound in 1634 to 2.5d per pound in 1635. The bumper Virginian crop in 1639 brought them to an all time low of .75d per pound. It was no longer possible for planters to make their fortune in the Caribbean by growing tobacco.

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Sugar was not the first alternative crop to be tried. When tobacco prices had first fallen in 1630, some growers had turned to cotton. Sir Henry Colt wrote in 1631 ‘now ye trade of cotton fills them all with hope’. However, the markets for cotton were unstable and so many settlers had started to produce it, that it soon became as unprofitable as tobacco. Some colonists began to grow ginger, but the market for this crop was very static and could not support much expansion. Many other products, such as pomegranates, figs and peppers were tried, but few showed a decent ...

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