In the first half of the nineteenth century, virtually all Caribbean countries were experiencing scarce labour – a chronic condition in which the demand for labour exceeded the supply of free workers at the prevailing wage rates and where coercion (mainly through slavery) and net inward migration (including the slave trade) were used to close the gap. By the end of the century, the situation had completely reversed. Most countries now suffered from surplus labour, with the supply at prevailing wage rates exceeding the demand. The disequilibrium in the labour market then led to substantial net outward migration from the surplus labour countries rather than to falling wage rates.

Throughout the century, therefore, the imbalance between supply and demand in the labour market was met mainly through quantity adjustments rather than changes in wage rates. When the demand exceeded the supply, this implied net inward migration, with the slave trade – despite legal restrictions – dominating labour inflows in the first half of the century. In the second half, indentured labour from Africa, Asia, Europe and even Mexico came to be the most important form of inward migration, with wage rates fixed during the period of indenture. When the supply of labour eventually exceeded the demand, net outward migration took place, with the migrants going either to those countries in the Caribbean still facing labour shortages (especially Cuba) or to the Caribbean periphery (Panama, the eastern coast of Central America and southern Florida).