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How were the problems of the sugar industry overcome in Jamaica in the 19th century?
The reason for this topic being analyzed by the researcher is to indoctrinate and examine the
strategies put in place to overcome the difficulties being encountered in Jamaica during the 19th
century. For the researcher history encourages critical thinking and this topic brought out that
opportunity. This topic itself was very interesting which played an important rolled why it was
The completion of this assignment would not have been possible `without the love, support and
help of this following. Firstly, I thank Almighty God for giving me life, health and strength
everyday so that I may push onwards and give my all in this accomplishment of this assignment.
Secondly, I thank my parents for their support throughout the completion of this assignment and
for providing my every need before their own. Thirdly, I thank my teacher, Mrs. Rivas, for her
constant attention and for guiding me to completing this assignment successfully. My gratitude is
truly heartfelt and I am very thankful for the support given by the mentioned parties.
INTRODUCTION
The planters introduced new equipment for workers to use on the fields because this
contributed to higher efficiency and reduced laboring. During slavery, the planters focused on
manpower rather than mechanical aids while the machinery of an estate was concentrated in the
factory-yard. An estate included a mill, a boiling-house, siphons, coppers and so forth. The
planters did not give the slave gangs ploughs, and pitchforks, for the slave gangs and in 1840’s
the harrow, the wheelbarrow, and the pitchfork, numerically sufficient to meet crop-time labour
requirements, provided a superfluity of manpower which had to be employed throughout the
year. When slavery was abolished and scarce labour had to be economized, the most obvious
starting place was in the fields 1.The value of the plough as a means of saving labour was
obvious, it reduces considerably the need to employ expensive first-gang labourers to dig cane
holes. English and American ploughs, harrows and other agricultural equipment came into use,
but they were not always suitable for the harder soil of Jamaica and some planters preferred to
make their own. The locally built plough were said to have:
a somewhat cumbersome appearance, but do much better work; make a deeper and
cleaner cane hole, and wider at the bottom than any I have seen done by the imported
ploughs.2
the planters on the sugar plantation overcome the problems of the sugar industry by the
implementation of new equipments which aided the cost of hiring expensive first-gang workers,
saving the wages to cane-hole diggers, as well as conserving the time and productivity on the
plantation.1
1
T. Henney, Eight Treatises on the Cultivation of the Sugar Cane 1845 (Jamaica: Spanish Town) 153-3
2
L. Wray, The Practical Sugar Planter (London, 1848) ch5
The initiation of steam power would allow for the introduction of more efficient mills in
the 19th century. The inefficiencies of the old mills arose out of several defects. Where vertical
mills were used, the canes had to be fed into the lower part of the rollers rather than evenly alone
their whole length. This put unequal stress on the machinery and tended to move its part out of
proper alignment. It special attempts were made to feed canes into the upper part of the rollers,
much of the juice was lost as it trickled own the machinery and away from the conveyors leading
to the siphons. Another limitation of the mill was it didn’t generate enough power to exert the
pressure for grinding. We are told that John Stewart, a millwright on a sugar estate, was ‘the first
to apply steam power to the operation of machinery in a manufacturing process3.” One hundred
and eight of Jamaica’s 300 estates were milling by steam in 18544.This strategy was initiated acted
as an energy source in Jamaica and replaced by the old animal mills and water/wind mills in some
plantations to help producers get more sugar from the canes crushed. Consequently the investment
these planters made was repaid and they faced an economic gain. 2
3
William A. Green, British Slave Emancipation (New York: Oxford) 212-13
4
Hilary McD. Beckles and Verene A. Shepherd, Freedoms Won (United Kingdom:Cambridge Press
2009) 104-5
The introduction of central factories proved to be a major source of cost-reduction in the
sugar industry in the 19th century. The sugar mills could not produce the level of sugar of the
centrales and disappeared rather quickly, especially after the Ten Year’s War, 1878. Jamaica
moved to this solution of amalgamations which involved the combination of cane areas so that
larger supply of could be provided for one central factory. In 1884 there were six
amalgamations. Eventually in Jamaica British sugar companies like Tate and Lyly worked
through the West Indies Sugar Company to buy up several properties to grow sugar on a larger
scale and run central factories, for example at Frome in Westmoreland5. The process of
amalgamation in Jamaica resulted in a decrease in the number of individual estates from 670 in
1836 to 39 in 19305. However, the implementation central factories were extremely expensive
costing £60,000. But there were many advantages to these implementation, it reduces the
demand for factory labour and also conserve production time, hence saving over 138,000 man
days per crop year. The first-class equipment of the central factory would produce more and
better quality sugar than the estates could do on their own resources. The benefit to the factory
owner would be that when everything was going smoothly the centrals would be able to make
sugar at cost about £5 a ton6. This problem the sugar industry was overcome by the
implementation of central factories which reduced the demand for labour, hence decreases the
cost the planters had to put out for labour, as well as increases the productivity time in the
plantation, and lead to the production of more and better quality of sugar.3
5
Hilary McD. Beckles and Verene A. Shepherd, Freedoms Won (United Kingdom:Cambridge Press
2009) 104-5
6
Douglas Hall, Free Jamaica (Caribbean University Press, 1969) 55-57
Railways revolutionized transportation within the plantation sector. They connected the
fields to the factories and connected the plantations to the towns. By the second half of the
century this was how the modern plantation sector functioned. Whereas the traditional plantation
depended upon oxen and mule carts, in addition the use of human as beasts of burden7. Two
English brothers, William and David Smith, asked the Government to allow them to build the
railway and this was to become the first railway in the British West Indies. They began building
the railway in 1844 on a standard gauge line (i.e. 4’8 ½” between the inner rails), across the
Liguanea Plains, from Kingston to Spanish Town8. The cost of the original undertaking,
including buildings and rolling stock, was £222, 250. By late 1845 the railway was completed
and was subsequently opened on November 21st, 1845 by the Governor, Lord Elgin. The railway
was 13 miles long and ran from Kingston to Spanish Town. Railways allowed for the faster and
greater transportation of canes to the mills, it lessen the heavy traffic between Kingston and
Spanish Town. This was important for the new mills needed larger quantities of cane supplied at
a faster rate. The railway also allowed workers to live away from the plantation. In fact they
could now live in towns and travel to work consequently this living quarters had a huge effect on
workers’ social life. This allowed them to have greater social and cultural freedom as apart from
living on the plantation. This was a long-term investment because it would be some time before
7
Forsythe, H.G. Railways of Jamaica: The Jamaica Railway Society, 1967 (Jamaica: Spanish Town)
8
Hilary McD. Beckles and Verene A. Shepherd, Freedoms Won (United Kingdom:Cambridge Press
2009) 105-6
9
Douglas Hall, Free Jamaica (Caribbean University Press, 1969) 60-65
Now that slavery was abolished, there was an increase in the price of slaves and this caused an
uncompetitive rise in the price of slaves and this caused an uncompetitive rise in the price of
sugar. Due to this labour became scarce and expensive. Some planter continued and hired ex-
slaves to work for them and they had to pay them wages. These wages accounted for as much as
two thirds of the total cost of production. In 1843 the West Indian Interest sent a deputation to
the secretary of state for the colonies. They complained that the Africans immigration was
insufficient, and asked for the organization of Indian immigration. In 1843 the West Indian
planters had been granted the right to import labour from India. The passage from India,
excluding any other charges was about £16 per person10. They were given free rent, a cottage
with garden attached and they were also to be provided with free medicines and medical
attendance. The first Indians arrived at Old Harbour on 9th may 1845, they numbered 261, and
were dispatched to estates in Vere and Clarendon11. They were to remain as labourers under
contract for a period of 5 years, at the end of which time they could apply for passage back to
India at the expense of the Jamaica Government or, if they preferred, have their return passage
commuted into a cash bounty and settle as ordinary residents in the Island12. The whites also
attempted chines immigration but it is unproductive because of the lack of people willing to
immigrate to the West Indies, the few from the first set that they got died on the journey to the
Caribbean and the majority was ill when they arrived to Jamaica.13
10
Colonial Office Minute on Darling to Newcastle, No. 63,7th May 1861.
11
Elgin to Stanley, No, 130, 21st November 1844
12
Memo to Sir John Pakington on B.W.I immigration
13
Douglas Hall, Free Jamaica (Caribbean University Press, 1969) 60-65
In conclusion, these strategies put in place to aid the problems that occurred on the sugar
plantation in Jamaica 19th century was a success. The implementation of new equipment, steam
power, central factories, railways and immigration didn’t only overcame the financial problems
directly but indirectly as well. In such cases it reduces the amount of stress forced upon the
enslaves, consequently the death rate in the plantation dropped a bit hence they was no need to