Describe And Assess The Main Steps Taken To Counter The Harmful Effects Of The British Policy Of Free Trade.
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 colonies were improving with new techniques and machinery, many BWI plantations faced higher production cost and fewer yields with old agricultural methods. If these colonies were to compete in an open, world market, as was the idea of free trade, they had to completely renovate sugar production. New technology was lacking in these colonies before 1846 but the Sugar Act made it even more crucial to the British plantocracy to improve their methods.
Another reason for the decline in thaw was the emancipation of slaves in 1838. The planters in many colonies, especially where land was readily available cried that there was a shortage of labour and any labour available was unreliable.
