Tobago’s 20th-century economic challenges

Dr Rita Pemberton

Despite the economic doldrums in which Tobago was immersed during the latter part of the 19th century, the dawn of the 20th century brought a wave of optimism among several groups whose members hoped better days were coming.

The 1884 crash of Gillespie and Company, the last creditor to Tobago estates, signalled the death of the island’s sugar industry. The company’s demise removed the sole source of credit for the supply of essential items from Britain on which the sugar business depended.

This development brought despair to Tobago’s planters, who, since 1838, had sought to defy the odds and persevered with sugar production, despite the very glaring signals that the days of profitable sugar plantation enterprise were over.

The resulting social and economic turmoil stimulated a bid by members of the old plantocracy to sell their estates. However, investors in Britain who found more prospects for remunerative business in Guyana and Trinidad showed no interest.

With no other workable option in sight, a significant number of estates, which were mainly heavily indebted, were abandoned. These estates, which reverted to the crown, were subdivided into five-acre lots and sold to the very eager land-deprived members of the African community at £5 per acre, with arrangements for payment on easy terms.

The outcome was an increase in the number of small landowners, who formed a landed peasantry. The planting community was in a conundrum, as they saw their labour force converted to landowners, which had serious implications for their supply of labour and their social position.

However, this new class of peasant landowners was optimistic in the expectation that as property owners, its members would be eligible for the franchise and able to contribute to determining matters pertaining to Tobago’s development. This was not to be: the remnants of the plantocracy were determined to hold on to their traditional social and political privileges as well as maintain a cheap labour force.

The peasant class supported and expanded itself through diversified agriculture. Peasants cultivated cocoa, coconuts, cotton, limes and sugar and reared animals such as cows and goats, which were traded in Trinidad.

For them, the development of Tobago rested on its communication with the outside world to facilitate the existing, limited trade contacts.

There was a well-established trade between Tobago and Barbados, through which Tobago supplied firewood, building materials and some food to Barbados. This trade was handled mainly by the seafaring community on the northern side of the island. It was believed that with better facilities it could be expanded to increase trade with Barbados and include trade with other Caribbean territories. Trade with Trinidad also needed regularisation to maximise returns to the peasant farmers.

There was also another new class of landowners. These were individuals who came from Trinidad, Grenada and other islands and took advantage of low land prices. They sought to create a flourishing plantation operation cultivating coconuts, cocoa, and limes. In order to succeed, they envisaged a regular supply of cheap labour, which they expected to be provided by the African population. Their motivation was self-interest.

Both the new planter and peasant populations suffered from inflation after World War I and the crash of the cocoa industry in 1921-1922. It was clear that the interests of the new groups clashed, although both were intended to be of overall benefit to the island.

The British Government, which was not prepared to provide any form of financial support to the colonies, was convinced that peasant agriculture should be supported. To this end the Imperial Department of Agriculture was established in Barbados to guide and promote peasant agriculture in the colonies. This department recommended a botanic station in Tobago to assist peasant farmers in cultivation, crop diseases and the practice of scientific agriculture; provide seedlings for farmers; test new cultivars to establish possibilities for their success; and provide training for farmers through extension officers who would promote cocoa cultivation. For the British government, the development of Tobago depended on peasant cultivation and scientific agriculture, but it offered no plan for overall development.

Meanwhile the planters formed the Planters Association in 1905 to protect their interests and advocate for policy support for activities which would be beneficial to its members. In response to the challenges of the 1930s, the planters and merchants formed the Planters and Merchants Chamber of Commerce, while the imperial government, in its bid to stave off further protests in the region during the recession of the 1920s and 1930s, established the Colonial Development and Welfare Department to offer advice to the colonies and provide assistance in areas which it determined were priorities for a particular colony, with no reference to the needs and views of the population.

Tobago and Trinidad were unified in 1889, but the union was not approved by the Legislative Council, which became the Legislative Council of Trinidad and Tobago. The powerful planters and merchants of the larger island whose representatives were members of the council showed no interest in Tobago’s development.

Where Tobago was concerned, communication with Trinidad and with the outside world was critical to inputs for development. Despite the pleas of Tobago representatives, particularly James Biggart and later APT James, the issues remained unaddressed for decades. The island remained haunted by poor sea communications, and undeveloped. Tobago was considered unimportant until after 1938, especially with the Grow More Food Campaign during World War II.

As well as its representative in the Legislative Council, the views of the people of Tobago were heard through several organisations: district agricultural societies, workers’ and peasants’ organisations, juvenile farm clubs and peasant farmers’ associations. These all supported the view that development hinged on agriculture and communication, and workers should be offered better terms.

The large planters saw tourism as a development avenue, identified in the APT James memorandum presented to the Colonial Office in 1948 with the first comprehensive development plan for Tobago – on which no action was taken and no plan formulated by the authorities.

By the 1970s, the patience of the people of Tobago with its underdevelopment had worn thin. The continuation of the problems which beset the island across the 20th century pointed to the need for improvement in infrastructure: access roads, water supply; drainage; education and training for the population; employment opportunities; health, and social services.

These deficits provided the basis for strong popular support for the autonomy drive led by the island’s representatives ANR Robinson, Dr Winston Murray and Pamela Nicholson, who saw this as the way to the formulation of an organised development programme for Tobago.