Entrance Exams: economy Flashcards
Between 1702 and 1808 how many Africans were shipped to Jamaica
About 840,000
Unstable economy
A slave could cost anything from £5 to £80
Since they were treated as commodities their value went up and down
In just 50 years Britain’s sugar imports from the west indies had increased by 50%
American independence
After 1776 Britain’s sugar colonies declined as America could trade directly with the french and the Dutch in the West Indies
Industrial revolution
Cotton rather than sugar became the main produce of the British economy
Slave resistance
Revolts shocked the British government and made them see that the costs and dangers of keeping slavery in the West Indies was too Hugh
Wealth of nations ,Adam smith 1776
Thought slavery wasn’t economically viable
Believed in a free market economy
Slavery created an inefficient Market as slave openers had to maintain slaves due to high mortality rate - this could be avoided by switching to a wage-labour economy and providing a low wage for blacks
Eric Williams
1911-1981
Professor, author and prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago
‘Capitalism and slavery’ is an economic study of the role of ‘ergo slavery and the slave trate in provide the capital which financed the IR- 1944
Capitalism is an economic modality which quickly replaced slavery once European elite accumulated surplus capital
CLR James
Born in Trinidad in 1901
Became a member of a circle of anti-colonialist writers called the ‘beacon group’
What did CLR James write in 1967
Wrote a new play about the Haitian Revolution, titled the Black Jacobins - his motivations that he was tired of hearing about Africans being oppressed and wrote a book about people of African descent being the active subject
Demonstrated their freedom came out of their collective mobilisation and the achievements of Toissant
What did CLR James
Financial self-interest motivated the desire to end slavery
Black Jacobins
First published 1938 was a forbidden book in South Africa
The book provided a tool kit set of ideas and information for future liberation movements
Wrote it while active in the international african service bureau which founded pan-africanism.
How did west Africans react to slave trade
Tolerated the European brutality becase military backing gave them power and needed to import cheap brass and iron tools
Eric Williams ‘decline thesis’
As profits declined it became easier to criticise the slave trade and promote alternative systems.
It was challenge as the polemical approach reduces the importance of other factors
Bristol income
In the 1780’s 40% of people’s income in the city was slave-based .
Textile outputs
Between 1784-1786 87% of Britain’s textile output went abroad to African markets
In return for slaves african traders would be given these goods.
During the napoleonic wars British manufacturers had to rely on these markets alone .
