Those sanguine friends of the West Indies who think that the abolition of the beet bounties necessarily means the industrial salvation of Jamaica, forget that the beet bounties did not destroy West Indian sugar industry, but only accentuated and accelerated a decay which had already commenced long before their institution. Even before a beneficent home Government allowed those European countries concerned in the cultivation of the beet to create bounties which have helped to send the British West Indies staggering to ignominious bankruptcy, the dry rot had already attacked West Indian sugar.

At the time of Jamaica’s prosperity, foreign sugars were admitted into English markets only on payment of a duty of something like £60 per ton; even the produce of other British sugar colonies was taxed to enrich the West Indian planter. The Jamaican planters felt aggrieved when, in 1836, the East and West Indian sugar duties were assimilated; but when England imported foreign sugar on the same terms as that produced in British colonies the planters were filled with despair. On top of this grievance came the decree of emancipation, and the total disorganisation of the West Indian labour market.

For centuries Jamaica had waxed rich. In addition to a magnificent soil, the planters had enjoyed “free” labour, ready markets, protection, and high prices. Within a period of twenty or thirty years, with one exception, all these advantages were swept away. The wonderful qualities of the soil alone remained to encourage the despondent planter to work on in hope of better times. From being the “protected” he became the outcast; in place of being the absolute master of his workmen, he found himself entangled in endless labour disputes; and his markets, once so wonderfully capacious, dwindled almost to vanishing point.

Previous to the year 1836, the period of the beginning of the “equalisation” of the sugar duties, the industrial condition of the island was excellent, and the Jamaican planter was apparently entirely prosperous. I say “apparently” purposely, for if we examine Gardner’s History of Jamaica, published in 1873, we find that the actual position of the proprietors of many of the Jamaican sugar estates in the latter part of the eighteenth century was less satisfactory than one would have supposed. In the year 1791 there were 769 sugar plantations in the island; of these, “457 were in the hands of the men, or their descendants, who possessed them in 1772. Since that date 177 have been sold in payment of debts, 22 remain in the hands

of the mortgagees or receivers, and 55 have been abandoned, though 47 have been newly established during the same period. The returns of the Provost-Marshal from 1772 to 1791 showed great pecuniary embarrassment among vast numbers in the colony. Astounding as it may appear, 80,021 judgments, amounting to £22,563,786, had, during that period, been lodged at his office....” So much for the condition of the planters during the period of Jamaica’s greatest prosperity.

The reason for the gradual decay of Jamaica may be read between the lines of this report. In spite of prolific soil and wide markets, in spite of inexpensive labour and the inflated prices obtained for his produce, the Jamaican planter was constantly in difficulties—I had almost written because of these things, and it will easily be seen that the very things which made the country rich helped to impoverish the character of the man. Life was too easy for the planter; he encountered few difficulties; his business conducted itself. If a crop happened to be poor, prices were increased to make up the difference, and the planter did not suffer. His plantation produced sugar which was sold at a fabulous figure; his slaves did the work his overseers ordered them to do; for the rest, he was the most generous, the most hospitable, and the most indolent of mortals. This was the type of man called upon to face a situation of extraordinary difficulty. No wonder he allowed himself and his country to slip down to despair and desolation.

Since the beginning of its distress, Jamaica has lost between 500 and 600 of its sugar plantations. The industry, once so rich and prosperous, has become crippled and starved, and for many years Jamaica lay half derelict, half forgotten.

The Jamaicans made no serious effort to stem the tide of their ebbing fortunes. They talked a lot, petitioned a lot, and grumbled a lot, and then they failed. There is no doubt that a little energy and enterprise would have materially altered the commercial history of the island. To-day, even though the majority of the sugar estates of Jamaica waste over 30 per cent of sugar by their antiquated system of crushing, the planters still manage to make both ends meet and keep a balance on the profit side.

Sugar bounties, Free Trade, labour troubles, antiquated machinery and 30 per cent loss notwithstanding, sugar planters still manage to eke out an existence. If the new methods of manufacture that some of the more enterprising of the planters are now beginning to try had been introduced fifty years ago, the history of the island would not be one of failure and famine.

The problem representing the most serious difficulties to the Jamaican planter has been the labour question. When we remember that the island has a population of something like 700,000 coloured people and only about 15,000 whites—the whites representing capital and the coloured people the labour—we are at the beginning of the difficulty. First, how shall the island be governed? When all the blacks were slaves and the whites their masters, things worked smoothly enough; crimes were committed, hundreds of thousands of people were abased and downtrodden, but still the island of Jamaica was free from labour troubles. Then came the Liberation Act. The slaves were released, and the majority of them threw away their industry with their bondage, and sat in the sunshine thanking their gods all day long. No doubt the primary cause of the unsatisfactory condition of the labour market which prevailed for many years was the action of the planters themselves. Enraged at their loss of authority, for the most part they turned the full measure of their anger on the wretched freed slaves.

When the Act came into force, meetings were held by planters at which rates of wages were fixed,—needless to remark, on the lowest possible scale,—and masters who had been humane, even kind, to their slaves became overbearing and impossible employers. Enormous rents were charged for labourers’ cottages, heavy fines were levied, and frequently the poor negro found that he had no wage to draw for his week’s work. Naturally enough, the natives became impatient of labouring under such conditions, and many of them refused to work. The planters then resorted to forcible ejectment. The discontented worker was flung into the open road, destitute and helpless, to get his living when and how he could. This was the beginning of the alienation of the labourers from the estates. The negro found it easy to live on the produce of a patch of land, and it became increasingly difficult to persuade him to work on a plantation. Slavery was impossible—it could not last; and inconvenient as the abolition has been to Jamaica, its chief evils have happily already vanished. There is to-day little difficulty in obtaining plenty of labourers for the plantations, and if he is treated fairly the free negro makes at least as good a servant as he did in the days of slavery.

Because of the injudicious action of the planters at the time of the slave liberation, much money has been spent by Jamaica in assisting coolie immigration. It is difficult for one who has recently visited the West Indies to imagine that it was ever necessary for Jamaica to import coolie labourers. The negro to-day is willing to work for any man who will treat him decently and pay him fairly and regularly. But necessary it was a few years back, and in Jamaica are to be found to-day many East Indians who thrive in the island, and do much useful labour in a characteristically unostentatious manner.

The commercial salvation of Jamaica rests entirely with the people of Jamaica. The abolition of sugar bounties, even the institution by this country of a system of preferential tariffs founded on protection, would mean much less to Jamaica than would the landing of 2000 British colonists.

Jamaica wants men—men of the best type that Britain can send. The infusion of new blood in her industries would effect a far greater improvement in the industrial condition of the island than would the introduction of the most enlightened system of fiscal

policy ever imagined. If there were more intelligent, unprejudiced Englishmen to employ and direct the natives, labour difficulties would quickly cease to exist. The great need of Jamaica is men—strong, young, intelligent, enterprising Britishers. There is room for them in their thousands.

One of the first impressions one gathers on landing in the colony is that, though British in name, the place is really quite American as it is British. This is a condition of affairs to be expected, since the United States take about four-fifths of the total exports of the island, and supply more than 50 per cent of her imports. It may be worth repeating that the well-worn story of the agitation in Jamaica favouring the annexation of the island by the United States is now entirely played out. Even if the majority of the people of Jamaica demanded annexation, England would not permit it, and even if England favoured the scheme, the United States would not countenance it. The wily Yankee is content to find in Jamaica a profitable market; it pays better to leave her politics and domestic difficulties severely alone. The American has already grasped the fact that there are dollars in Jamaica. The fruit trade, now probably the most important in the island, has been built up almost entirely by American enterprise and American capital. It is only within the last year or two that English capital has been invested to any great extent in this direction, though the trade has been of growing importance to the island for many years. The establishment of the Imperial line of steamers between Avonmouth and Jamaica was the first effort made by this country to participate in an industry which America had already found full of profit.

The Imperial direct steamer put Jamaica in direct mail communication with Bristol. All the boats belonging to the line are specially arranged for carrying bananas, and already the fruit trade of the island has been enormously improved by the influence of the English market. For the establishment of the line, Jamaica owes a deep debt of gratitude to Mr. Chamberlain and Sir Alfred Jones.

The Jamaican fruit-grower is in the happy position of having a market for his produce far larger than he can comfortably supply. America and England are eager to purchase more bananas than the island now produces, and the demand, already in excess of the supply, is still on the increase. There are many dollars in bananas, and in this trade alone there is room for more than 1000 Englishmen. The cultivation of the banana is simplicity itself; the fruit can be gathered every month in the year; the profits are large; the life of the planter is healthy, pleasant, and free from loneliness.

Jamaica will become increasingly prosperous by the intelligent development of her fruit, coffee and tobacco trades. Bananas, pine-apples, oranges, grapes, mangoes and cocoanuts, properly cultivated and exported, will help to bring the island to an extremely favourable condition. The sugar trade will not be neglected now that the beet bounties have been removed, and the island’s sugar and rum exports are bound to increase by leaps and bounds. The exportation of pimento, logwood, cocoa and tobacco is already steadily on the increase, and when we remember that at the end of last year—after such a long period of depression and deficits—the finances of the island showed a small balance on the right side, the commercial future of Jamaica assumes an extremely roseate hue. The fruit trade is still in its infancy, and the cultivation of tobacco is in an even younger stage of development; these two trades will grow in value by millions. The cultivation of cocoa is already an important and lucrative Jamaican industry, and there are still large areas of land admirably adapted for extension in this direction; and new industries will arise.

Already there is a small company in process of formation for the manufacture of starch from the cassava. Cassava starch is superior to that made from corn or potatoes, and the ordinary varieties of Jamaica cassava yield more starch to the acre than either corn or potatoes. It is claimed, with every appearance of justice, that starch can be manufactured from cassava at less than one quarter of the cost of the starch made from other materials. Here is a new and extremely promising industry.

Jamaica offers unequalled prospects to intelligent Britons who have sufficient capital to enable them to embark in one or other of her industries.