Bitter sweet: The Tobago sugar industry, 1763-1834

'Despite the early promises, the period of profitability of the sugar industry was short-lived since continuing conflicts between Britain and France resulted in economic havoc on the island'

DR RITA PEMBERTON

THE BRITISH possession of Tobago in 1763 was heralded by a wave of optimism about the island’s economic prospects, which was fanned by reports of its fertility and the possibilities for bountiful trade.

The British administration quickly divided the island into lots of a maximum of 500 acres which were advertised for sale by public auction on the London market with the intention to create plantations and establish a resident British population as a buffer against any further French attempts on the island.

Because of the growing demand for tropical products, there was no shortage of buyers, the first batch of which came from the land commissioners, the group of surveyors who mapped the island and demarcated the lots. Investors from across the United Kingdom – parliamentarians, government officials, members of the wealthiest families, a significant number of Scotsmen – and plantation owners from Barbados purchased land in Tobago.

As was required by the British government, the land was to be brought into cultivation within a year of purchase and owners were expected to bring in the required labour. After a short period of experimentation with cotton and other crops, sugar cane became the crop of choice.

The decision to develop sugar plantations stimulated four developments which were to have a long-term impact on the island.

Firstly, the trade in captive Africans resulted in Africans forming the numerically dominant element of the island’s population, their numbers totalling 3,090 by 1790.

Secondly, most of the plantation owners were absentees, causing the white population to remain small and male dominated, numbering 239 in 1790, of which 209 were males.

Thirdly, the trade was lucrative to the merchants who provided essential estate supplies and African labourers.

And fourthly, the sugar industry stimulated indebtedness because it required large capital inputs to purchase labour and establish the required factory buildings.

This was provided by financiers on whom the plantation owners became dependent. Indebtedness remained a feature of the Tobago sugar industry from its beginning to its end.

Very early in involvement in commercial sugar production, the island was faced with various challenges which impacted on plantation operations. This new sugar-producing colony faced severe shortages and heavy cost increases, which resulted from continued warfare.

The American War of Independence, which began in 1776, caused shortages of food and essential goods. The trade system of the British possessions was based on the importation of cheap food from the North American colonies to feed the enslaved population.

It was assumed that the returns from the sale of sugar would cover the cost of its production, but they did not. However, the American revolution resulted in dramatic shortages and significant increases in the cost of food, supplies, lumber and insurance and freight rates.

In addition, the attacks on the island by American and French privateers disrupted colonial trade, making it risky, unpredictable and expensive. The food supply to the colonies became so scarce that the period is described as “starving time” when some enslaved in Tobago and other newer colonies died from starvation.

Despite the early promises, the period of profitability of the sugar industry was short-lived since continuing conflicts between Britain and France resulted in economic havoc on the island and French occupation from 1781 to 1793 and twice very early in the 19th century.

The new century presented other obstacles. The termination of the trade in captive Africans in 1808 upset the labour market, causing a dramatic decline in the numbers available for purchase and a sharp rise in the price of labour.

This was a matter that Tobago’s planting community sought to resolve by using the negative financial impact of the British/French conflict and of the French interregnum to make a case for special consideration and exclusion from the ban on trading Africans, without success.

Their situation worsened as the pace of the metropolitan movement for emancipation and the instability of the enslaved population in the region increased and as a result of the negative impact of the Napoleonic wars between 1803 and 1815.

Planters became increasingly indebted, estates changed hands and the outlook for the Tobago sugar industry was very gloomy. Matters were made even worse by the fact that the island faced increased competition from sugar producers in Cuba, Brazil and the East Indies, while there was a fall in the price of sugar on the international market.

While the more fertile Caribbean colonies attracted capital, Tobago failed to do so and, citing the frequency of French attacks on Tobago between 1781 and 1802, merchants were reluctant to give credit to Tobago plantations. Few plantations broke even and mortgagees foreclosed on debtors. This was a bitter pill for the Tobago planting community to swallow but they steadfastly held on to sugar production chasing the elusive dream of profit.

On the other hand, there were changes in the marketing system which favoured merchants. The old merchant community terminated the practice of sending out cargoes and paying themselves with the proceeds of the estate. Instead, the planters sent their produce on consignment to be sold by the merchants on commission, but those merchants also bought plantation supplies and personal items on commission, which provided them with two streams of income.

However, many of the consignees in Britain provided additional services. Many were also ship owners who met the shipping costs and charges such as freight, customs duties, warehouse and insurance rate and other charges, they acted as personal bankers and granted trade credits until the crop was harvested.

Trade credits became the main means of financing the estates on which Tobago planters, with no other option, came to depend. The fact that there was a shortage of coins on the island aggravated matters because planters were left without the means to pay for the essential North American goods. Amid the industry’s decline, merchants savoured the sweetness of sugar.

Several absentee owners left their properties in the hands of attorneys who were provided with a new income stream. In 1807 there were 100 estates, on 42 of which their proprietors lived, but by 1819, 53 of the 81 operating plantations were run by attorneys.

Many attorneys earned handsome incomes from managing several estates which enabled some of them to purchase their own and, in some cases, some of the estates in their care. In addition, these attorneys established jobbing gangs with which they provided labour to estates, including those they managed.

Estate management, which was a profitable and often corrupt business for the practitioners, became an essential service for the operations of the increasing number of estates whose owners were absentees.

For attorneys and estate managers, sugar was sweet but for estate owners the experience was bitter, with the crowning bitterness being the implementation of the law to terminate enslavement in 1834.