Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- CHAPTER XXI
- CHAPTER XXII
- APPENDIX I
- APPENDIX II
- Plate section
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- CHAPTER I
- CHAPTER II
- CHAPTER III
- CHAPTER IV
- CHAPTER V
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VI
- CHAPTER VII
- CHAPTER VIII
- CHAPTER IX
- CHAPTER X
- CHAPTER XI
- CHAPTER XII
- CHAPTER XIII
- CHAPTER XV
- CHAPTER XVI
- CHAPTER XVII
- CHAPTER XVIII
- CHAPTER XIX
- CHAPTER XX
- CHAPTER XXI
- CHAPTER XXII
- APPENDIX I
- APPENDIX II
- Plate section
Summary
Notwithstanding the agitation that was kept up, and the excitement caused by the misrepresentations of a disappointed and now humbled opposition, the Governor has contrived, with the assistance of the many honourable and good men in the colony, to promote a thorough reform in most of the regulations that affected the commercial and financial prosperity of the province, and to place both upon a more liberal and a better foundation.
That British Guiana is perhaps the most important colony under the British crown, and will soon be the most valuable, is neither an improper nor an unwarranted assertion. With a body of labourers not more than one-fifth of the number employed in Jamaica, she was able, even in the days of the greatest depression, to raise produce nearly equal to three-fourths of all that Jamaica has ever exported. If such, then, was actually the case, during the existence of slavery, what may we not expect from the better regulated and improving arrangements of free labour? Besides, we must recollect that, in the course of the 300 and more years that the land in Jamaica has been under cultivation, the most productive soil has been greatly exhausted, and there is no new country to commence upon, whereas British Guiana may be pronounced as-almost in its virgin state.
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- Chapter
- Information
- The West IndiesThe Natural and Physical History of the Windward and Leeward Colonies, pp. 170 - 202Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010First published in: 1837