Corsican Traders at Saint Thomas, Crossroads of the Caribbean
2004; Volume: 38; Issue: 1 Linguagem: Inglês
ISSN
0047-2263
Autores Tópico(s)Caribbean history, culture, and politics
ResumoIntroductionAccess and communication are two objectives in today's world of business and commerce. So is the concern about a safe working environment. When the European powers were challenging Spain's claim to the riches of America the same principles guided traders of all nations in the fractured markets of the Caribbean. Those nations that did not have the military might to maintain their own colonies had to depend on the niche markets of countries such as Denmark or the Netherlands, which offered an additional incentive by a freeport status in order to reach the suppliers of tropical produce. Danish Saint Thomas provided such a platform for buyers from German and Mediterranean ports that forwarded the produce to the interior of the continent. The entrepreneurship of some Corsican families who took part in such trade in the nineteenth century is the focus of this article.The Island of CorsicaThe island of Corsica has a tumultuous history. In the Middle Ages it was controlled by Genoa but became the object of international competition in the eighteenth century when, after a failed uprising, Genoa sold the island to France in 1768, which retained control until another nationalist revolt occurred in 1794. Great Britain then occupied the island for a two-year period, before a French expedition recaptured it. With the exception of a brief period in 1814 the island has remained a part of France.The population, of mixed origin, speaking an Italian dialect, had settled in the interior of the island because of frequent maritime attacks by foreign marauders. Agriculture and cattle raising provided a meagre living due to weather related crises. The main exception to this type of economy developed in the northern peninsula named Cap Corse, where soil conditions did not provide support for total dependence on subsistence agriculture, though some viticulture in Morsiglia furnished export earnings until the phylloxera invaded the island after mid-century. Various maritime occupations, such as fishing, boat building and shipping, dominated the northern peninsular economy. The people of Cap Corse became the carriers who brought emergency provisions from Genoa, Pisa, Livorno (Leghorn) and other mainland ports to the whole island and in their shipping ventures ranged over the Mediterranean as far as Spain, eventually to America.1Frequent communication with the outside world encouraged mobility and seasonal or permanent emigration during periods of economic or political stress at Cap Corse. As the rest of Europe, Corsica experienced a rapid population increase in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, caused by rising birth and declining death rates. In the interior of the island a solution was initially found by extending the cultivated area, expropriation of communal land and subdivision of private property among the numerous heirs. This traditional type of growth eventually reached its limit, and the population shifted towards the coastal areas before a massive emigration began in the middle of the nineteenth century. Meanwhile, the population pressure at Cap Corse found an earlier and smoother outlet by its long-standing overseas links.2The Role of Saint Thomas in the CaribbeanTrade System, 1765-1815As the European competitors to Spain's commercial monopoly moved into the Caribbean region, Denmark took control of the island of Saint Thomas from 1691. Because the island showed itself to be unsuitable for agriculture, it became a haven for smugglers and pirates who, over the years, succeeded in competing with Danish efforts to enforce its own monopoly of trade. After the acquisition of the prosperous sugar colony of Saint Croix in 1755, a decision was therefore taken to capitalize on Saint Thomas' strategic position by creating a freeport that was to support an international business community engaged in supplying the Spanish and other colonies with manufactured goods and assembling tropical produce from a dispersed market. …
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