Entrepreneurship in Barbados, 1625‐1660
1959; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1111/j.1540-6563.1959.tb01621.x
ISSN1540-6563
Autores Tópico(s)Caribbean history, culture, and politics
ResumoClick to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes1. Schumpeter's theory is developed at length in The Theory of Economic Development, tr., R. Opie, Harvard Economic Studies, XLVI (Cambridge. 1949), and is succinctly restated in Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (third ed., New York, 1950). p. 130. A similar analysis is that of A. Cole, “Approach to the Study of Entrepreneurship.” in Lane and Riemersma, eds., Enterprise and Secular Change (Homewood. I11., 1953). pp. 181 ff.2. Schumpeter, Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, p. 132.3. I hasten to point out that Schumpeters entrepreneur is not only the force behind “recurrent ‘prosperities’.” but also of “recurrent ‘recessions’,”ibidem, and Theory of Economic Deuelopment, chap. VI, but most fully in Business Cycles (New York, 1939).4. The criteria of economic growth are from S. Kuznets. “Toward a Theory of Economic Growth.”in R. Lekachman, ed., National Policy for Economic Welfare at Home and Abroad (Garden City, 1955), p. 16. Schumpeter also notes that most “colonial ventures” are “spectacular instances” of entrepreneurial activity. Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy, p. 132.5. Geographical and historical data may be found in A. C. Burns, History of the British West Indies (London, 1954), pp. 18–31; and in 0. P. Starkey, Economic Geography of Barbados (New York, 1939). pp. 2–4, 13–14, 45–50. ff. West Indian trade routes are mapped in R. R. Palmer, ed., Rand McNally Atlas of World History (Chicago, 1957). p. 148. The easterly position of Barbados kept the competition between rival claimants lively. In 1629 the dispute between two noblemen (both fronts for competing merchants) both of whom had been ‘given’ the “Caribbee Islands” was complicated by the opinion of the Lord Keeper of Coventry who found that Barbados was not one of the Caribbees. W. N. Sainsbury, ed., Calendar of State Papers, Colonial Series 1574–1660 (London, 1860), p. 104 [hereafter cited as CSP, Col., 1574–1660]. The quotation is from Richard Ligon's contemporary account, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbados, 1647–1650 (abridged, ed., P. Sherlock, Caribbean Affairs, No. 5). p. 8.6. CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 75; Ligon, True and Exact History, p. 8.7. “Relation of John Hilton,” in V. T. Harlow, ed., Colonizing Expeditions to The West Zndies and Guiana, 1623–1667 (Hakluyt Society, Second series, no. LVI: London, 1925), pp. 29–31.8. CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 240.9. CSP, Col, 1661, p. 496; quoted in N. Deerr, The Histoy of Sugar (London, 1949). I, 160, 205.10. J. H. Williamson, The Caribbee Islands Under the Proprietary Patents (London, 1926). pp. 6–9.11. CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 75.12. Rawlinson Mss. (Bodlian Library), quoted in Harlow, Colonizing Expeditions, p. 30 [dated 1626]; and CSP, Col, 1574–1660, Minutes and depositions concerning the title of Mr. Courteen to the island of Barbados, p. 488 [NO. 37]; Ligon, True and Exact History, p. 8.13. There is extant a petition of Courteen to the king (1625?) requesting “all the lands in the South partes of the world called Terra Australis incognita extending Eastwardes and westwardes from the Straightes of Le Maire. to gether with all the adiacent Islands as are yet undiscovered …” Williamson thinks that this was a request not for any Caribbee island but for Tierra del Fuego and the Falklands. Caribbee Islands, pp. 35–36; CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 76.14. Quotations are from Ligon, True and Exact History, p. 8. On William Courteen, see john Poyer, The History of Barbados, from the first Discovery of the Island in the year 1605 till the Accession of Lord Seaforth in 1806 (London, 1808), pp. 5–6; C. M. Andrews, The Colonial Period of American History (New Haven, 1934–38). II, 245 n.15. Andrews, Colonial Period, II, 245–6; Harlow, History of Barbados, p. 67, quotations on pp. 5–6; and Harlow, Colonizing Expeditions, pp. 36–38.16. On cassava (cassaui or cassador) cultivation see, “briefe Description of the Island of Barbados,” Trinity Coll., Dublin, MSS. quoted in Harlow, Colonizing Expeditions. pp. 46–47. Arawak enterprise is discussed in Starkey, Economic Geography of Barbados, p. 53. Also of note in the Arawak contribution to Barbadian civilization is the hammock‐discovered anew by succeeding waves of Europeans arriving in the West Indies.17. briefe Description, in Harlow, Colonizing Expeditions. p. 43; Ligon, True and Exact History, pp. 8–9; Poyer, History of Barbados, pp. 16–17; Chancery Proceedings, 9 September, 1629, quoted in Appendix I. Williamson. Caribbee Islands, pp. 218 ff.: Harlow, History of Barbados, pp. 16–23. The visitor was Father Andrew White. C. C. Hall, ed., Narratives of Early Maryland (New York, 1925). p. 35. On tobacco, see Starkey's discussion, Economic Geography of Barbados, pp. 55–56.18. On Ligon. Bee the introduction to his True and Exact History, pp. 5–7.19. James' Counterblaste is quoted in S. E. Morison and H. S. Commager, Growth of the American Republic (2 vols.: New York. 1954) I, 40–41. For Charles' feelings about tobacco, see CSP, Col, 1574–1660, pp. 86. 251. The Privy Council document is quoted in N. D. Davis, Cavaliers Roundheads of Barbados, 1650–1652, with Some Account of the Early History of Barbados (Georgetown, British Guiana. 1887). pp. 68–69; CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 104. Stuart policy toward tobacco is discussed in G. L. Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System (New York. 1908), pp. go ff., and chap. VI.20. Andrews. Colonial Period, II, 235. Winthrop's letter is quoted more fully in Davis, Cavaliers Roundheads of Barbados, pp. 345–346. Carlisle's price, which comes to about gd per pound was only id less than the price Providence (Island) tobacco was fetching in 1634. Cf. CSP, CoL, 1574–1660, pp. 94 and 186. Andrews also neglects to mention that Henry Winthrop's crop of 1629 was only his first, and he is told to cure the leaf differently next time. Andrews infers. from an ambiguous remark of Ligon's about “earthy” Barbadian tobacco (and other of Ligon's statementenone—none a direct comment on the quality of the leaf) that Barbados could not produce good tobacco. But Ligon is no impartial judge of tobacco, since his book is a polemic against the leaf in favor of the blessings of sugar.21. The tariff was 15 for Barbadian leaf compared with 9d for the Virginian product. Acts of the Privy Council, I, cited in Starkey, Economic Geography of Barbados, p. 55. 390 worth of Barbadian ginger was unloaded at London, 25 December 1655. CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 434.22. As Harlow puts it: “A sturdy English colony was converted into little more than one large sugar factory, owned by a few absentee proprietors, and worked by a mass of alien labour.”History of Barbados, p. 44.23. Nicholas Foster, A briefe Relation of the late Horrid Rebellion Acted in the Island of BARBADAS in the WEST INDIES c. (London, 1650). pp. 1–2; Starkey, Economic Geography of Barbados, p. 57; Deerr, History of Sugar, I, 162–164.24. I shall distinguish another species of entrepreneurship (political) below; see part III.25. For the efficacy of imitation in social development, see the work of Gabriel Tarde. especially his Les lois de l'imitation (1890), and the discussion of Tarde's theories in P. Sorokin, Contemporary Sociological Theories (New York and London, 1928), pp. 636 ff.26. Br. Museum, Add. MSS., quoted in Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System, pp. 412–413. The five part model of “Classic” entrepreneurship is Schumpeter's, from his Theory of Economic Deuelopment, p. 66. The Colonial Calendar of State Papers, first volume, is full of instances of British ships (the King's, Parliament's, as well as Cromwell's) surprising a dozen or more Dutch vessels in Carlisle Bay, Barbados. See, for example, CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 362. Also so many orders by the King and later, the Council of State prohibiting trade with the Dutch is good evidence for a thriving trade. Ibid., pp. 251, 403 and passim. The West Indies were not unique in their dependence upon Dutch trade. Governor Berkeley of Virginia declared in 1651 that London merchants “would faine bring us to the same poverty wherein the Dutch found and relieved us.” (quoted in Beer, Origins, p. 394). The Governor of Barbados made a similar reflection (p. 389). Also see, Harlow, History of Barbados, p. 38; Davis, Cavaliers Roundheads of Barbados, p. 70; Andrews, Colonial Period, II, 353–4; and the contemporary “Letter from Barbados by y* Way of Holland concerning y* condiccon of honest Men there,” 9 August, 1651, in Harlow, Colonial Expeditions, p. 51. The author alludes to the “excellent business” of dealing with the Dutch.27. The Ingenios (“Ingenious”) were the sugar factories whose operation is so well described in Ligon, and Oviedo. Historia general y natural de Indias, quoted in Deerr, History of Sugar, I, 118–119. The quotations are from Br. Museum, Add. MSS. (in Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System. p. 392), and Sloane MSS., Br. Museum (in Harlow, History of Barbados, pp. 41–42). See also CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 276, on the enterprising Dutch, who according to one disgruntled English colonist, support plantations and “do conquer, not plant tobacco and puritanism only, like fools.”.28. On soil exhaustion which began in the late 1650s, see Starkey. Economic Geography of Barbados, p. 76 and the interesting chart on pp. 8–9. Quotations from the letter of R. Wines to John Winthrop are in Davis, Cavaliers Roundheads of Barbados, pp. 72–75.29. Burke is quoted in Morison and Commager, Growth of the American Republic, I, 63. Adam Smith also noted that the American colonies, being less in the view and less in the power of the mother country;' have prospered under this freedom from interference. Wealth of Nations, (Cannan ed.; New York, 1937). IV, 7:ii 534.30. On Dutch trade, see supra; Harlow, History of Barbados, p. 24. A complaint in 1652 from Barbidos to the Council of State about th; local Governor, Philip Bell (“a weak old man and fearful”). warned that because of Bell a strong sentiment for Barbadian independence was developing. The new governor (in 1655), Daniel Searle, noted that restless spirits in Barbados were plotting to make “this little limb of the Commonwealth into a free state.” CSP, Col., 1574–1660, pp. 384, 399,408; Andrews, Colonial Period, 11, 253, and n. On the population of Barbados in 1654. see Henry Whistler's journal of the West India expedition sent by Cromwell in 1654–55. (“The genterey heare doth liue far better then ours doue in England … and they haue that Libertie of contienc which wee soe long haue in England foght for: But they doue abus it. This Island is inhabited with all sortes: with English, french, Duch, Scotes, Irish. Spaniards they being Iues [Jews]: with Ingones [Indians?] and miserabell Negors borne to perpetuall slauery thay and thayer seed … This Illand is the Dunghill wharone England doth cast forth its rubidg …”) in C. H. Firth, ed. Narrative of General Venables. Royal Historical SOC., Publications, Camden ser. No. 60 (London, 1900), p. 146.31. This quotation is from Harlow, History of Barbados, p. 12. The Courteen‐Carlisle feud is most fully unravelled in Williamson, Caribbee Islands, pp. 38–63; recent researches are synthesized in Andrews, Colonial Period, 11, 246–249, where the Earl of Carlisle is characterized. The “foul debate” is the judgment of Davis, in Cavaliers Roundheads of Barbados, p. 52. John Smith made the following comment on the warring Barbadians in 1629: “… there have beene so many factions amongst them, I cannot from so many variable relations give … any certainty for their orderly Government.” in Arber & Bradley, eds., Travels and Works (Edinburgh, 1910), II, 907.32. Letter from Barbados by y* Way of Holland concerning y* Condiccon of honest Men there in Harlow, Colonizing Expeditions, p. 48. The Cavalier‐Roundhead dispute, in its many phases, is told in Andrews, Colonial Period, II, 257–267; A. P. Watts, Une Histoire des colonies anglaises aux Antilles de 1649 à 1660 (Paris, 1924). chaps. V‐X; Harlow, History of Barbados, pp. 45–82: F. Strong “Causes of Cromwell's West Indian Expedition” American Historical Review IV January, 1899 228‐245 John Webb, apparently a Commonwealth man, was tortured in Barbados, and unsuccessfully petitioned the Council of State for redress. CSP, Col., 1574–1660, p. 340.33. The mercantilist statement is from the Br. Museum, Add. MSS., (in Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System, p. 392) “Olivers time” is fondly recalled in an anonymous pamphlet: Reasons Humbly Offered (in behalf of the island of Barbados) to the Honorable HOUSE OF COMMONS, against laying a further Duty on SUGAR (n.p. n.d., but, by internal evidence, after the accessionb of Charles II, copy in the Library of Congress), 2.34. This analysis is an attempt to utilize and build upon certain theoretical suggestions of Professor Frederic C. Lane. Especially helpful were his: “Economic Meaning of War and Protection,” Journal of Social Philosophy and Jurisprudence, VII (April, 1942), 254–270: “Force and Enterprise in the Creation of Oceanic Commerce,”Tasks of Economic History, supplementary volume of the Journal of Economic History (1950). 19–30. Professor Lane is in no way responsible for my conclusions. See also, David Hamilton, “The Entrepreneur as Cultural Hero;” Southwestern Social Science Quarterly, XXXVIII (December, 1957). pp. 248–256: Beer, Origins of the British Colonial System, p. 18, on the necessity of “protection” in seventeenth century colonial enterprise.
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