User:Guettarda/Sandbox 27

The cultivation of sugar cane and the manufacture of sugar, molasses and rum dominated the economy of Trinidad and Tobago between the 1783 Cedula of Population and the rise of oil production in the 1930s. Sugar continued to be a major crop until the 2003 closer of Caroni (1975) Limited.

Establishment of a plantation economy in Tobago
The Treaty of Paris in 1763 ended Tobago's status as a neutral territory and brought it under British control. A plantation economy was quickly established on the island. Under the direction of the Board of Trade, the island was surveyed, divided into 100-500 acre plots, and sold to planters. Between 1765 and 1771 over 50000 acres of land were sold by the Crown for over £167,000. Through the efforts of Soame Jenyns, a commissioner of the Board of Trade and Member of Parliament, the upper portions of the Main Ridge were reserved as "Woods for the Protection of the Rains" and remained uncleared and uncultivated.

In 1785, cotton was the dominant crop in Tobago, but the Haitian Revolution eliminated sugar exports from the former French colony of Saint-Domingue. Planters in Tobago took advantage of this shortfall and greatly increased sugar production. In 1794, 5300 long ton of sugar were exported from Tobago, and this rose to a peak of 8890 long ton in 1799.

Crisis in sugar
The last quarter of the nineteenth century was a time for crisis for sugar production in the British West Indies.


 * Sugar Duties Act 1846
 * By 1876, imports of "bounty-fed" European beet sugar entering the British market posed a serious threat to West Indian sugar producers.
 * In 1884 Germany doubled bounties, France "greatly" increased exports.
 * In the 1890s Germany and France doubled bounties, US imposed "heavy" duties on British West Indian sugar.
 * West India Royal Commission of 1897 noted only the best sugar estates could make any profit on sugar, and many estates were producing sugar at a loss.
 * In 1898 the US imposed duties equal to the full value of bounties, effectively barring European sugar from the US. In 1900 Canada "offered a general preference" to sugar from the British West Indies. The Brussels Sugar Convention of 1902 eliminated bounties on beet sugar exports.
 * Beet sugar crisis: 1884-1897

Consolidation
While sugar production continued to play a dominant role in the economy, there was a change in the ownership of the plantations. The French Creole ownership of the major estates declined, while British ownership increased. By 1897 most of the major estates were either in the hands of British corporations English Creoles, or British-born residents of the colony.

The major British corporations included the Colonial Company, Turnbull, Stewart and Company, W. F. Burnley and Company, Tennant and Company. They had access to capital and were able to invest in lowering the cost of sugar production. The Colonial Company, which was established in 1866 by British investors, built the Usine Ste. Madeleine in the early 1870s. The factory was the largest in the British Empire, second only in size to one in Guadeloupe.