Describe and assess the main steps taken to counter the harm

The once prosperous British West Indian sugar colonies, by 1838, were experiencing an over all decline. The Sugar Duties Act of 1846 jeopardized the sugar industry even more but it did not destroy it. The West Indian planters opposed the Act and evoked massive protests and cried that free trade would be their ruin, trying various methods to retain their preferential duties. None of the methods used were totally effective and by 1854 colonial sugar was deprived of protection in the British market. However, their methods did serve to prevent the complete collapse of the sugar industry in some BWI colonies and improve it in some areas.

The Sugar Act of 1846 had the effect of hastening the decline in an industry that had already been suffering from a combination of other causes. The main decline in the BWI was seen in the older colonies like Jamaica, Antigua, St. Vincent and Greneda. The other colonies were not in such a bad state. The decline in these various BWI colonies, after 1838, was a combination of firstly, their lack of technological innovation. Whilst colonies like Cuba and Brazil and even newer BWI col

Another challenge that the plantocracy in declining British colonies faced was the development of beet sugar in the 1870’s. The beet sugar was yet again another source of competition to the BWI that flooded the market, sending the price of sugar down. This however, presented itself years after the Sugar Act.

Their demands were not fully granted. They were not given access to the coast of Africa but rather allowed to recruit elsewhere. The tax on rum was lowered but not eliminated. They were given full liberty to regulate their own customs duties, to abolish restrictions on foreign goods and to eliminate differential duties which favoured the mother country. The navigation Act was removed in 1850.

On a whole however, West Indian planters were not able to meet the new conditions demanding higher output at lower cost. This was the bottom line that free trade had pushed ahead. On the other hand, new production in other parts of the empire increased ( British Guiana, Trinidad) even with new competition. The steps taken to counter the effects of free trade would have been taken anyway and the pre-1846 preferential tariff would not have provided any protection.

Some topics in this essay:
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