, 1866-11-27

deficient. In the former, for fear Of giving offence. there was no dstnc-
ton made between the whites and blacks in the latter there are nc dis
tmctlons OF trade, profession, or pursuit am unable, therefore to as
certain accurately what it is important to knOW-the exact IabOrine force
of the island The census of 1914 puts down aborers above IS, male
and female, at 30,005 persons above Is, male and female, and employ
ed in trade, 28,l25; persons above IS, and having no employment,
1886, and children under Is years 55,1l2. Making these figures the
basis OF an estimate for the present year, / should say that there are, in
round numbers, $4,000 black and coMed people in Barbados who NAV
thus be classified: $4,000 under the age of Is; $4,000 employed in
trade; $4,000 field laborers, and about as many engaged in domestic and
other subordinate occupahons-leavmg a white population of some
10000 souls. There has been a great increase since 1888 of persons
engaged in trade and mechanical arts, causing a large deficiency of field
labor, which, under slavery, was estimated at $1,000 in 1917, $4,000 in
1923, $4,000 III 1880, and $1,000 in 1882. These figures included child
rem, who, in the estimate of a planters expenses, had to be ranked at so
much per capita with adults but, deductng them from the laboring
population for the purpose of this argument, it will be seen that there is
a very material difference between the available field force of Barbados
to-day and its field force before emancipation. IT, then, Barbados, with
a diminished lab0ring force and the sam amount of land under cultiya-
ton, produces more now than she ever did before, what is the cause of
the Improvement? In spite of all drawbacks this island exported last
year twice as much as she did in any year from the period of her first
settlement down to the day of emancipation. Judging Barbados by her
sell, without reference to any other island or country whatsoever, I can
Imagine, II conceive, or give no other explanation of her increased and
increasing resources than the adoption of a cheaper system of labor in
the production of her great staple. And fit be urged that the negro in
Barbados has been driven by force of circumstances to work for his dalv
the sake of argument), practical observation as well as statistical returns
alike show that, under emancipation, his labor is far moro valuable to the
proprietor and the country than it was under slavery.
In the year 1880 Barbados exported 22, 100 hhds. of sugar and In
1034-the year of abolition she exported 2781S hhds, the largest crop
ever recorded under slavery. But in an island like Barbados. where
trade, owing to hurricanes, and unaVorabe weather for crops, has huc-
tuated very much, it is scarcely fair to judge of its Improvement by a
comparison OF particular seasons. | prefer to fake an average of sugar
expectations, which from 1870 to 1900 was $4,000 hhds. per annum, and
from 1900 to 1880 was 10000 hhds, showing a decline under slavery of
5000 hhds, a decline apparent at the time in most of the West India
colonies, and to be attributed, as I have explained in a former chapter.
to the large hypothecaion on landed property.
Let us now look at the Barbados sugar expectations of the present
day, promising with the observation that from 1926 to 1880 the average
weight OF a hogshead of sugar was II cwt; from 1880 to 1850, IA cwf,