Showing posts with label Cocoa economy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cocoa economy. Show all posts

Sunday, 14 July 2019

Cocoa

Cocoa estate. Watercolour © Peter Shim.
Reproduced with the kind permission of the artist.
The Cocoa Economy in Trinidad

The Inca regarded cocoa as a drink of the gods, and it was reserved for the high nobility of this empire that once existed in the cloudy mountaintops of the Andes.
South America’s great jungles with their vast river systems of the Orinoco and the Amazon are the true home of the ‘Golden Bean’.
In Trinidad, cocoa has been cultivated since Spanish times, with varying degrees of success. After the abolition of slavery and the collapse of the French planters’ cane economy, the planters turned to cocoa cultivation so as to save the day. In the 1840s, when the nearly bankrupt planters, who were by now in their second generation, moved deeper into the valleys of the Northern Range, Grand Couva and the Montserrat Hills, cocoa was only moderately successful.
But little did those ‘cocoa pioneers’ know how right their timing was! Within another decade cocoa became a staple in Trinidad’s export market. Cocoa is a different crop than sugar: whereas cane is only viable with vast acreages, people with small plots of  land were able to participate in cocoa cultivation. 
The effect this had on the structure of the society was very positive: the middle classes of all races became if not wealthy but really very comfortable. Country people, the Hispanic-Amerindian population, also benefitted from the cocoa economy, clearing the forest and cultivating with loving care the cocoa fields. 
The cocoa industry in these islands played a key part in the socio-economic development between the 1860s and the 1920s. It was driven by the manufacture of eating chocolate which had been introduced by the Cadbury Brothers in Great Britain, as well as by technological advancements made in the production of cocoa as a drink.
The industrial revolution and the emergence of Europe’s middle class with its predilection for the ‘finer things of life’, served to create a very large market for cocoa and chocolate. For nearly three-quarters of a century, the Afro-Franco creole culture, together with its older ‘cocoa pagnol’ cousinage, boomed. Many small and medium businesses blossomed as a result of exporting cocoa and importing and distributing goods. Many families of the coloured lower and middle classes were able to own small cocoa estates, live comfortably, educate their children, and maintain the values and morals of that respectability so vital in colonial life in those years. In fact, the cocoa boom is what is referred to as the ‘good old days’, the longtime days of the collective memory of Trinidad as it has come down to us over the years.
Hon. Arthur Hamilton Gordon C.M.G., who was governor of Trinidad from 1866 to 1870, encouraged the opening up of crown lands for the cultivation of cocoa. As much as two thirds of the land were utilised, and by the 1870s, cocoa exports exceeded that of sugar. By 1884, with the depression of sugar releasing land, labour and capital, cocoa development increased in profitability.
In Port-of-Spain and the other main towns, development became increasingly apparent. New neighbourhoods came into existence. One could even say that the pretty little gingerbread houses of Woodbrook, Belmont, in San Fernando south of the Paradise cemetery, moving towards Rushworth Street, at St. Joseph and in Arima came about as the result of the ‘Golden Bean’.
The ‘cocoa pagnols’ were in fact the pioneers of the industry. They established the estates in two ways: one approach was for a family to acquire crown lands, fell the trees and plant the cocoa. Upon maturing of the trees, the family would sell the estate at a good profit, and go to repeat the process somewhere else. In so doing, they were making a small fortune over two or three genereations. 
The other approach for plantations to be established was through the contract system. These contracts would last about five or seven years, with an agreement made by the owner with peasant families to develop an area of forest into a plantation. The family had free usage of the land, with the stipulation to plant and care for a certain amount of cocoa trees per acre, and plant and sell their own market garden crops. When the trees reach maturity, the owner would take over the land and paid an agreed amount for each bearing cocoa tree to the family.


Cocoa served to develop Trinidad in those years in a variety of ways. New villages came into existence, with schools, churches, chapels, masonic lodges and friendly societies, post offices and warden’s offices, markets and shops. Old towns like Arima and Sangre Grande, Princes Town and San Fernando became active, busy and prosperous. The island’s population moved out of the original centres of settlement which had formed after emancipation. There was prosperity in the countryside. A new verve in the folk arts of the patois-speaking people expressed itself in dance and song. For the first time, it became possible for people of all races and combinations of races, to enjoy the benefits of the economy.

Historical and Statistical View of the Island of Trinidad  
This excerpt from Daniel Hart was written in 1890  

COCOA
The principal articles of produce exported are sugar, cocoa, coffee, rum, molasses, and cotton. Indigo is also exported, but not raised in the island; it is brought from Venezuela for exportation, but in 1783, there were plantations and manufacturers of the article established  in the island. The number of sugar estates does not exceed from 152 to 155, and those of cocoa and coffee, 700. The total extent of land under cultivation is as follows:—canes, 36,739 acres; cocoa and coffee, 14,238 acres; provisions, 9,914 acres; pasture, 7,356 acres. Total, 67,247 acres.
The correct name of the cocoa is ‘cacao’. The cultivation of cocoa, with the exception of a small quantity grown in the island of Grenada, is peculiar as an article of British production to Trinidad. With the exception just mentioned, Trinidad is the only colony throughout the wide extent of the British Colonial Empire producing the materials for this wholesome and palatable beverage. In 1827, the number of cocoa trees amounted to 3,091,945, and the quantity exported that year was 3,696,144, valued according to official returns at £57,851. The value of each tree being then taken at two dollars, or eight shillings and four-pence.
After 1827, a sudden depression in the price of the article reduced the cocoa proprietors, at once and without warning, from a state of affluence to one of comparative—nay, in many cases, real—destitution. For the last ten years, however, the article has maintained a fair and remunerative price. The culture of cocoa is the only one of our Tropical productions at all adapted to the constitution of Europeans. The cocoa tree itself of some 20 feet in height, and affording a grateful shade from the blaze of the sun, is again shaded in its turn by the bois immortel, whose protecting services have justly obtained for it among the South Americans the appellation of La Madre del Cacao. The weeding of the soil, picking of the pods, husking them, and carrying the produce to the drying house; in short, the whole of the agricultural operations and all but the last stage of the manufacturing process is carried on under this impervious and ever verdant canopy; the air gently agitated and refreshed by the river or mountain stream, upon whose vegas or banks these plantations are invariably established.
Here, and here only, the European may measure his strength with the descendants of the Africans and derive direct from the soil without the intervention of the latter, the subsistence which in every other kind of agricultural pursuits seems denied him by his own physical exertions. Under the double shade of the cocoa tree and the Madre del Cacao, the European feels himself as in his native climate. By official returns made in 1842, there were 182 small plantations having from 100 to 500 trees; 147 having from 500 to 1,000 trees, and 268 having from 1,000 to 5,000 trees; 55 having from 5,000 to 10,000 trees; 29 having from 10,000 to 20,000 trees; 28 having from 20,000 to 50,000 trees, and I above 50,000, making a total of 710. Upon a general average, each cocoa tree ought to yield annually two and a half pounds net of cocoa. The distance at which cocoa is planted in this island differs from four to five varas. I have taken the latter as the basis of my calculations. At that distance, there are about 800 trees in a quarrée, which is the old Spanish measurement of 3.1-5 English acres.
Consequently, 40,000 trees occupy fifty quarrées, and the average yield bring something near 2 ½ lbs. per tree, 22 fanegas per 1,000 trees, and $12 (with few exceptions) to be the highest price obtained in the market in 1865. Pruning is an essential operation. Five years would be sufficient to intervene between the pruning; and on an estate of 40,000 trees, I would do it by using the knife to 8,000 trees only in one year, and continue at such rate until the whole shall have been pruned-to re-commence again by the first 8,000 trees. Forty-eight dollars is put down to be expended in that operation, not that the whole of that amount would be expended (for the pruning should be light), but because in that sum is included the cleaning of trees from moss, parasites, ants, and guatepajaro—a work which, though strongly recommended to both men and women (for on many estates picking is performed by women) employed in picking pods, it is, nevertheless, very imperfectly done, or not done at all.
Hence, at the proper season, which is immediately after the December crop, say, in March and April, a skilful gang should be employed to trim and clean the 8,000 trees apportioned for the season. The expenses and net revenue of cocoa estates are subject to  variation, according to extent and locality:—an estate of 30,000 trees requiring almost the same establishment as one of 40 or 50,000—hence the increase or decrease of the net revenue and cost per bag of cocoa on different estates. The amount paid for cutlassing 100 trees varies from 30 to 60 cents. Some estates in the quarter of Maracas, not having labourers located on the property, are in the habit of cutlassing their estates by ‘gallapa’, a system much preferred by small proprietors, though it raises the expense to the ruinous amount of $1 20 per 100 trees. The 2 ½ lbs. that I have put down as the yield which each tree in the present imperfect state of cultivation can produce; but I am quite certain that with increased care and attention, a cocoa tree at 13 feet apart can be made to yield double that quantity. As a proof, on the estate of Mr. Victoriano Gomez, in the Ward of Maracas, there are 200 trees planted at 22 feet apart that yielded 6 lbs. per tree.
A quarrée planted at that distance holds 288 trees, giving a total of 2,128 lbs. At 13 feet, a quarrée, as already stated, contains 800 trees, at 2 ½ lbs. per tree gives 2,000 lbs—a difference of 128 lbs. in favour of wide planting. But is wide planting more profitable? The following particulars will show. Cocoa planted at 22 feet apart require 139 quarrées for 40,000 trees, at 6 lbs. per tree would give 24,000 lbs.; 139 quarrées planted at 13 feet apart would contain 111,400 trees, which, at 2 ½ lbs. per tree is 278,000 lbs.; planted at 22 feet in 50 quarrées there are 14,400 at 6 lbs. is 86,400; at 13 feet, there are 40,000 trees, which, at 2 ½ lbs. will give 100,000 lbs. Difference in favour of narrow planting in 50 quarrées, 13,000 lbs. or 123 ½ fanegas, which, at $12, would give a total profit of $1,480. In addition to the foregoing remarks, it is necessary to state, that on every well-regulated cocoa estate, there should be a nursery of cocoa trees of the best quality, in order to supply ‘fallos’ or missing trees. The following is a statement of the expenses of a cocoa estate of 40,000 trees, and cost per fanega (110 lbs.) or bag:—
It is worthy of remark that a cocoa estate by the planting of provisions and the raising of Stock ought to considerably tend to decrease the expenses above given, because the labourers are only required to pick twice in the year:—June and December. Each estate of the size herein given should also be provided with 8 or 10 good donkeys for crooking, and 25 good steady labourers would be sufficient to carry on the working of an estate of 40,000 trees. It is necessary, however, to state that for the last 3 or 4 years cocoa has been disposed of in the London Market from 65s., 70s., 80s., 90s. and as high as 110s. per cwt., nor has it been under nine dollars in the Trinidad Market. Indeed as much as 13 dollars the fanega (110 lbs.) has been paid, hence the net annual income should be much more than is herein given. There is however, a want of energy on the part of the cocoa planters in regard to planting provisions and the rear of stock. It is, at the same time, just to remark that they labour under great difficulties in the way of procuring labourers. A Negro can live for 24 hours on a sugar cane. Hence, he would rather work on a sugar estate for one shilling a day than for two shillings on a cocoa estate. In former years when the price of cocoa was low, little or no attention was paid to the cultivation; the increase of price has, however, acted as a real stimulus to the planters of the article, and greater attention is now paid both to the cultivation and to the curing and preparing of the article.

Santa Cruz, Trinidad. Originally the property and residence of Don Antonio Gomez, Senior Judge at the time of Governor Sir Ralph Woodford, 1813 to 1828. La Pastora was later acquired by Hippolyte Borde, Esq. This picture was originally published in J.H. Collens’ “A Guide to Trinidad” and was redrawn by Peter Shim in 1987, © Paria Publishing Co. Ltd. 

The largest cocoa estate in the island is the ‘La Pastora’, situated in the Ward of Santa Cruz, and belonging to Mr. H. Borde. On this estate there are 50,000 trees, but this estate, like others, in 1837 (a year also that the cocoa planter laboured under very great disadvantages for the want of labour) only yielded a crop of 70,200 lbs. In the year 1727, the cocoa trees were greatly injured by the severity of the north wind—a disaster which the priests represented as a judgement upon the inhabitants for their enormity in refusing the payment of tithes. Alcedo relates this ridiculous story—‘The production of the greatest value in this island’, he says, ‘is the cocoa which from its fine quality, is everywhere in request, in preference to that of Caracas, and the crops were even bought up before they were gathered, so that the person to whom they belonged refused to pay their tenths to the clergy, and strange to say, that, as it should seem, Heaven in chastisement of their covetousness had entirely deprived them of this means of emolument in as much as, since the year 1727, the whole of their crop have turned out fruitless and barren, with the exception of one that belonged to a certain man named Robles, who had continued to pay his tithes and whose estate is the only one in which that production is now furnished.’ Unfortunately for the theory of the monks, and the faith of Alcedo, the crops of cocoa have been, and I hope they ever will be, exuberant since Trinidad has been cultivated, as the tables of exports herein given fully proves. It is worthy of remark that the ‘Robles’ mentioned by Alcedo was the father of Christoval de Robles, who inherited from his father the San Antonio and Santa Catalina estates in the Ward of Santa Cruz.

A lovely old cocoa tree (from: http://sweetriot.com/riot/cacao-fun/cacao-story/)

Cocoa, the Golden Bean
Cocoa and the Second Frontier (1870-1920)
by Bridget Brereton
from: The Book of Trinidad

Trinidad was first opened up for plantation development and large-scale settlement in the 1780’s with the influx of French speaking immigrants after the Cedula for Population of 1783 was promulgated. (There were 1,093 European French people in Trinidad and 2,925 French speaking Afro/French people in Trinidad in 1797. The total 'Free' population was 7, 536, enslaved Africans 28,000) The first phase of rapid development—the first frontier—was dominated by the expansion of sugar production and could be said to have lasted from the 1780’s to the 1820’s. Yet, even by the 1830’s, Trinidad was still an undeveloped country. Vast amounts of potentially fertile land were still untouched by human enterprise. In 1838, only some 43,000 acres were cultivated out of a total acreage of 1.25 million. Much of the island was still in the hands of the Crown and under its original forest cover. Only a fairly narrow band of territory stretching west to east from Chaguaramas to Arima and north to south from Port of Spain to San Fernando was extensively settled and cultivated. The southern half of the island, the north coast and its hills and valleys, the whole of the east coast and much of Central Trinidad were virtually untouched and unpopulated. Trinidad was still a frontier colony by the middle decades of the nineteenth century. (In 1838, at emancipation, the population was:
Whites………………………………………..4,326


Free Black and people of Colour…............. 16,412

Carib…………………………………………   727

Slaves………………………………………22,436
                                                                                             Total  49,721)
The second phase of internal colonisation of the island began around 1870 and was associated above all with the expansion of cocoa, though later on (after 1910) the development of the oil industry was also important especially for the southern half of the island. But it was cocoa which dominated the second frontier; settlement and population followed the cocoa trees into the newly opened up districts.
Cocoa is indigenous to the New World—it was the Aztecs’ chocolate, Moctezuma’s favourite drink—and it had always been cultivated in Spanish Trinidad. By around 1850, it was quite insignificant as an export crop. Its take-off into a period of rapid expansion can be dated to around 1870. As eating chocolate, and cocoa as a beverage, became items of mass consumption in the industrialised countries, demand for cocoa in Europe and North America expanded tremendously; this was the most important single reason for the expansion of cocoa in Trinidad.
Locally, the opening up of Crown lands through a change of government policy in the late 1860’s and the gradual improvement of internal communications after 1870 (roads, railways, bridges) had the effect of removing serious obstacles to the progress of settlement and cultivation. Capital, labour, and some land became available in the years between 1884 and 1903 because of the sugar depression in that period. For instance, workers retrenched by the sugar estates might enter cocoa as wage labourers or as peasant growers, money received through sale of small, marginal sugar estates to big firms could be invested in the establishment of cocoa plantations, and in some cases, abandoned sugar land could be switched to cocoa. Since the establishment of a modest cocoa estate did not require a massive outlay of capital (unlike sugar), many local families could mobilise their personal resources and finance the gradual building-up of a cocoa property.
While the market situation remained favourable, therefore, and it did right up to 1920, all the ingredients for a rapid expansion of production were present. Exports had averaged 8 million lbs. a year in 1871-80; by the decade 1911-20 they averaged 56.3 million, a seven-fold increase. By the turn of the century, cocoa had overtaken sugar as Trinidad’s most valuable export; King Sugar had been dethroned.
The new King Cocoa, during his short ascendancy, profoundly influenced many aspects of Trinidad’s social and economic development. Previously inaccessible areas which had been barely populated at all were opened up  to cultivation and settlement, especially the valleys of the northern range, the country between Sangre Grande and the east coast, and parts of central Trinidad and the deep south. New villages sprang into life, with their churches and chapels, schools, lodges and friendly societies, post offices and warden’s offices, markets and shops. Old towns like Arima took on a new lease of life as cocoa marketing centres. The population spread out from the original centres of settlement along the Eastern Main Road to Arima and from Port of Spain to San Fernando. People of all races were involved in this movement:—the Creole blacks, the peons who had been the first pioneers of cocoa, the African and West Indian immigrants, the ex-indentured after 1870.
Cocoa, however, was never exclusively an estate crop. Thousands of peasants of all races cultivated the cocoa trees as contractors (raising trees on land belonging to estates) and as small producers on their own land. Cocoa contributed very significantly to the growth and prosperity of Trinidad’s peasantry, and these small farmers created new settlements and new social and cultural institutions all over the country. To take just one example:—parang and the culture associated with it are inseparable from the cocoa peasantry. As cocoa prospered, some of the profits filtered down to the labourers and small producers, and many of them were able to educate their children, contributing to the growth of the middle class and the general spread of literacy and modernisation.
King Cocoa fell, in his turn, in the 1920’s and 1930’s; but not before he had played a key role in opening up the island, strengthening its economy and enriching its social and cultural development.

San Juan Estate, Gran Couva.
Country residence of Francis Agostini, ca. 1900.
Illustrated by Peter Shim from a photograph by Hélène Farfan.
© Paria Publishing Co. Ltd.


Excerpt from the List of Trinidad Cocoa Estates 
in C.B. Franklin’s Year Book 1916

Arima Ward Union
Mon Repos, La Reunion Hrs L. Centeno
L’Espérance, Verdant Vale          “
Willow Vale, Trinidad Cocoa and Coffee Co. Ltd.
St. Patrick, La Razón,
San Mateo, Cedar Hill
Mount Pleasant Hrs. de Lapeyrouse
El Retiro Hrs. De Martini
Mon Plaisir F.J. Le Blanc
La Compensación S. De Gannes
San José          “
Buena Vista Hrs. Jules Cipriani
La Victoria, Belle Vue Wm. E. Foster
Prospect J.S. McDavid
Oropuna H. Machado
San Antonio A.M. Tinoco
San José A. Harry
Torrecilla M.S. Strickland
Santa Rosa Hrs. C.G. Seheult
Sin Verquenza, Hermitage F.A. Neubauer
La Ressource Robt. J. Miller
Mausica & Trianon Hrs. C. Cleaver
Valley Vale F.W. Meyer
San Francisco, Orange Hill C. Leotaud
El Ricon, San Felipe
Mon Repos C.O. & L. Robertson
La Retraîte L. Hamel-Smith
S. Carlos de Caigual West Indian
St. Patience Trustees
Agua Santa C. Blasini
St. Adelaide L.A. Riley
Spring Bank, El Socorro Gordon Grant & Co.
La Solidad, Prosperidad
Sta. Isabella, La Soledad
Santa Crux S. Bercon
Felipé C. Pamphile
San Carlos C. Stollmeyer
Candelaria L.A. Sellier
Experanza A.D. Brown
Santa Cruz Jos. N. Maingot
San Antonio Heirs of Garcia
Santa Maria, Glencora, Perseverance F.A. Neubauer
Piedmonte, La Fertilité Paul Caracciolo
El Carmen, Monte Cristo
Jouvence, Santa Barbara Hrs. of Hospedales
El Combata, La Concepcion H.J. Delisle
La Horqueta Hrs. Joa. Ribeiro
Belle Vue J.R. Metivier
Jouvence P. Stevens
San Rafael A. Angeron
Los Armadillos C. Faustino
Sta. Catalina Thos. Lacon
Santa Rosalia, San Gregorio Manuel Luces
San Rafael          “
Prosperite Hrs. C. de Verteuil
Havering W. Carpenter
Laventille Heirs of Llanos
Monte Cristo Paul Caracciolo
San Jose M.J. Roach
L’Agnesia Dr. R.C. Bennett
New Providence G. de Verteuil
La Cruz P.R. Pierre
La Soledad Carmona
El Regalo, La Corona A. Giuseppe
La India M.A. Vignale
La Esmeralda George F. Huggins
Arizona H. Monceaux
San Bartolo, Providence H.K. Viera
Murray’s Vale Henry E. Murray
Santa Maria Hy. Court
New Providence, Val de Cacao Alb. H. Cipriani
La Romancia Dr. A.H. Burt
La Marouna Heirs of J. Payne
C. Stollmeyer San Juan J.A. Aquie
Paradise C. Luces
Santa Maria, Spring W.S.E. Barnardo
Dios Me Ayudes A. de Matas
La Ventura, Good Hope Alfred Mendes
La Providencia M.D. Smith
El Carmen, San Antonio Heirs C. Lange
La Concepcion, San Juan
El Carmen A.V. Stollmeyer
Prospect Madoo Lala
Santa Rosa Chas. Cleaver
Spring Hill F.W. Meyer
La Prospérité, San Antonio N. Cowlessar
San Antonio T. de Soublette
Melton R. Hamlyn Nott
Brothers F. Léotaud
El Cedro M. Quesnel
Naranjo Hrs. J.A. Rapsey
San Frederico & La Violeta C.O. & L.N. Robertson
La Trinidad S. Thannoo
Mon Bonheur, Providence G.R. Alston & Co.
San Expedito A. Albert
Mt. Hope H. Josse Delisle
San Salvador A.C. de Verteuil
Perseverance C. de Verteuil & J D’Abadie
La Conformidad A. Gómez
Buena Vista M. Martinez
La Gloria Jos. de Verteuil
St. Ann P. Pampellonne
Prosperidad A. de Verteuil
Talparo T.H. Warner
Spring W.E.S. Barnardo
Santa Ignalis, Santa Barbara C.A. Pollonais
Spring & Armonica Hrs. Edgard Borde


Above: PERSEVERANCE ESTATE HOUSE
Perseverance estate house at Moka in Maraval, was the home of Jeanne Besson, born 1822, and her husband Louis Latour. Jeanne was the daughter of François Besson III and Marie France Olivière. She took into her home the children of her husband, Louis Latour, and Léonide (Lorraine) Besson, as teenagers, upon the death of their mother who may have been a person of colour. It is likely that Louis Latour and Léonide, also called Lorraine Besson may have had a plaçage relationship over several years. The children’s names were Frederick Louis Latour and Louise Ultima Latour. I have not been able to discover the parentage of their mother. In her will she leaves them, as teenagers, in the care of their father, Louis Latour. Louise Ultima Latour married Jules Cipriani, also known as Cipriani de Rose or Jules De Rose Cipriani, reputed son of Léon Cipriani and a woman of colour by the name of Rosalie Labastide, (she may have been a relative of the Bessons and de la Bastides). One of their children was Michael, “Mikey” Cipriani, sportsman and pioneer aviator. Jules de Rose Ciprianis’ sister, Marie Alix, married Charles James Milne.This house and its extensive grounds, gardens and cocoa fields was eventually bought by Albert Henry Cipriani (Baba), son of Albert Henry Cipriani, brother of Emmanuel Cipriani, who had married Lucy Ganteaume, whose mother was Theresa Adèle Besson, the second wife of Pierre Alphonse Ganteaume.Albert Henry’s (Baba) brother was Captain Arthur Andrew Cipriani, several times Mayor of Port-of-Spain. He was a labour leader, and champion of the poor. Perseverance estate passed into the hands of the Battoo family and was used as a music hall for several years, until it was eventually abandoned, and destroyed by fire in the 1980s.
Illustrated by Peter Shim after an old photograph. © Paria Publishing Co. Ltd.


CEDROS WARD UNION
Annandale, Buenos Ayres, St. Michael L.F. Ambard
La Ressource, Providencia West Indian Estate Co.
Sta. Barbara, El Pilar          “
Bon Aventure, Santa Isabella          “
L’Union, La Stella and Buena Vista Edwin Clapham
St. Joseph Mrs. Solano
San Francisco Hrs. Mejias
Villanueva Malze Bros.
Erin G.F. Huggins
El Perial, San José and El Cocal Carmen Anduze
La Victoria G.F. Huggins
Good Hope Donatien Gervais
Sta. Maria A.S. Kernahan
Denmark Chs. Ker (Trustee)
Enterprise Geo. Grant
S. John A. Attin
Industry The Industry Est. Corporation of N.Y.
Monte Cristo L. Tanwing & Sona
Penbury E.C. Skinner
El Puerto P. Collington

COUVA & CHAGUANAS WARD UNION
Cocoloco J.B. Todd
Montrose Dr. A.P. Lange
Rich Ville A.B. Richards
Ednavale Geo. Bancroft
Edinburgh Hrs. S. Henderson
Esmeralda Gordon, Grant & Co.
Sta. Emilia Hrs. of Joyce Ltd.
La Providencia Fritz L. Boos
Henksdale Hrs. Hendrickson
Félicité Smith Bros. & Co.
Souvenir A.V.M. Thavenot
St. Marie Hrs. de Boissière
Roupell Park Dan McD. Hart
Bon Aventure Hrs. C. Robertson
St. Jules Jas. Stewart
Murrayvale Onnarey & Robertson
Eva’s Hope Heirs Langton
Waterloo Kleinworth, Sons & Co.
Pays Perdu, S. Madeleine J.R. Tom
Målaga Heirs H. Stone
St. Margaret J.W. Fletcher
Sta. Philippa, Hillandale W. Mills
Orange Field Beatrix A. Lange
La Soledad & Sta. Isabella E.W. Savary
Uquire, Las Lomas & Elibox E.L. Agostini
Palmiste Miss Léotaud
Tcarridonum Carr Brothers
Mes Voeux & Bon Accord Heirs of Smith and Langton
Friendship Hall Black and McLeod
St. Charles & Esperanza Heirs Hoadley
Verdant Vale Heirs Penco
Philippine Hrs. L. Preau
Balmain J.P. Bain
La Rosalia J.A. Ortiz
Belle Vue Boodhin
Peking Numa Nathaniel
Williams Nuseban
Good Luck Satuarine
Enaree Beddoo Bhagat
Sitar-i-Hind E.M. Madoo
Hope E.V. Downey
Carolina Agostini and McLelland
Prospect F. Isaac
Perseverance J.E. Bonneterre
Don José F.A. Gómez
The Hope & St. Luke Dyett & Grant
Bon Aventure & Mon Plaisir Heirs W.C. Dyett
St. Vale, Lee Vale C.P. Lee
L’Argenville Dr. A.B. Duprey

DIEGO MARIN & ST. ANN’S WARD UNION
La Chaguaramas & Mt. Hazard Chaguaramas Estates, Limited
Crystal Stream Heirs of J. Dickson
Fond Palmiste & St. Sophie J.C. Benlisa
St. Lucien Croney & Co.
Richplain Enroll & A. Artfield
Les Fontaines, La Ressource, Bagatelle Michael P. Maillard
Cedar Hill F. & J.A. Jones
Hermitage, Esperanza Anna Lange
La Puerta Dr. J.L. Senior
Tucker Valley T’dad Ltd. & Finance
Haleland Park Co.,  Ltd.
Moka W.G. Gordon
Val de Oro J.C. Benlisa
Mon Espoir, Cascabelle & Vineyard Trinidad Produce Company
Belle Vue L.E. Bernard
River and Cascade Trinidad Government
Mt. Carmel Pitman & de Suze
San Diego & Victoria George G. Brown
La Ressource Catherine R. Rist
La Ressource Jean Isidore
San Carlos W.T. Campbell
Perseverance L.S. Disney
St. Emelia L.D. Alcazar
Mon Repos Edgar Borde
Covigne E. Hamel-Smith
St. John & Grand Fond Madeleine Joseph
Jamson J.A. Brown
La Fromage Mrs. C Fitzwilliam
Mount Catherine Louis Julien
La Oferta André de Verteuil
La Sagesse, Zig Zag Hrs. J.E. Coryat
Santa Barbara, Prospéridad          “
Santa Carolina, La Madeleine          “
La Pastora, Tranquilidad J. Ribeiro
Maracas Bay Hrs. de Lapeyrouse
Paradis Terrestre, Mon Repos J. Penco
Perd Mon Temps          “
San Antonio Sir J. Needham
Soconusco Wilsons, Limited
El Castillo S. Bissessar
San Patricio François Tomasi
El Carmen Henrietta Kavanagh
La Soledad (Guanal) J.S. de Bermudez
Concordia Marie Duprey
Brasso Toco J.C. Poyer
North Laventille Morvant Gordon Grant & Co. Ltd.
South Laventille Earl of Dundonald
Beau Séjour J.A. Antoni
San Miguel Emma Dreyfus
San Antonio & El Corosal Joaquim Webster
Providence Louis de Gannes
San Carlos Mrs. Jul. Borde
L’Eugenie G. Ferrari
Union F. D’Heureux
Belle Air Heirs of B. Mussio
Hermitage Arthur Cipriani
La Regalada, San Rafael, El Guamal C.F. Stollmeyer
La Deseada C.C. Stollmeyer
Mon Valmont, La Fortunée A.V. Stollmeyer
Clydesdale, El Ordo & Sta. Ann’s          “
St. Luce & Mon Desir Mrs. C. de Verteuil
La Soledad Smith Bros. & Co.
El Socorro, Concord F. Herrera
Barataria & Aranjuez Hrs. J.A. Rapsey
Coblentz Carlos Rovedas
La Trinidad Solomon Dreyfus
Belle Fleur Ed. Manuel    
Ste. Marie H.F. Figeroux
La Ultima Jos. J. Ribeiro
Champs Fleurs M.M. Gransaull
Brothersville Jones Bros.

LA BREA & OROPOUCHE WARD UNION
Alta Gracia Albert A. Sobrion
Patna Boodhoosing
Nelson J.J. McLeod
La India Partap
S. Martin & S. Philip Hrs. of Allum
Santa Maria T. Geddes Grant
Perseverance C.C. Stollmeyer
El Socorro & El Kola W.C. Robertson & Others
Canton & Santa Cecilia Geo F. Huggins
Esperanza Mrs. Felix Smith
San Francisco & Good Intent A.M. & R.A. Low
Adventure J.B. & S. Waith
La Fortunée De Wolf & Mathison
El Campo Beatrice Huggins
Pluck Tennant’s Est. Ltd.
Common & Kingsland Shadrach Medford
La Siparia, La Tranquilidad Trinidad Properties Ltd.
Kimberley Geo. Blake
Cura John Bleasdell
La Pastora Smith Bros. & Co.
St. Mary, Paradise Pierre Bartlett
La Virgin y Tierra Linda Albert Mendes
Eureka and Cura E.D. Clarke
Otaheite Hrs. Clem. Lange
Boa Ventura Hrs. Joaq. Ribeiro
La Fortunée, Clifton Hill United Brit. Oilfields
St. Valentine Harold Fahey

MANZANILLA WARD UNION
La Josephina F.A. Neubauer
Sta. Estella General Pacheco
Windermere Croney & Co.
S. José de Comparo L.P. Pierre
St. Joseph Mrs. O. de Gannes
La Concordia, San Antonio C. Allard
La Union E. Hernandez
Brooklyn Percival Stevens
Barcelona J.B. Robinson
Non Pareil, St. Marie & Santa Rita E.A. Robinson
Concord A.P. Maingot
El Reposo Hrs. C. F. Sellier
St. Privat Dr. de Gannes
Santa Rita Geo. Jonson
Errolvale Thomas Lyder
Perseverance George McLean
St. Elizabeth Henry A. Reid
El Palmito A. Protheroe
St. Joseph J. Riley
Mt. Taldon B. Romney
La Mascotte R. Vignales
St. John John F. Wallen
Sta. Clara J. Jacelon
Santa Anna Ms. C. Kirton
St. Patrick Heirs of Logan
Montrose E. Damian
Williamsville George Williams
El Recuerdo Murray and Wake
May Vega Dr. C. F. Lassalle

TACARIGUA & BLANCHISSEUSE Ward Union
Glenside Commdr. W.H. Coombs, R.N.
Charles Vale S. Augustin
Redemption Hrs. B. de Lamarre
St. Michael Resal Maharaj
Mount St. Benedict Mayuel de Caigny
Trafford Marie Holler
Tumbason Dr. L Lota
Las Cabecerras Jos. Lota
Santa Barbara, San Pedro J.F. Alonzo
Santa Isabella J.M. Blanc
Mamoral Mrs. L. Johnstone
Magdaline, St. Antoine F.A.Neubauer
La Guadeloupe, St. Ignes
El Socorro, La Pastora
La Rosina, El Manacal
Concordia, La Florida, Avondale Windward Islands Estates Co. Inc
San Vincente Joseph Gomez
La Véronica Mary L. O’Connor
El Socorro Margaret Rapsey
San José Robert de Freitas
Homburg W. Holler
San José M.A. Prieto
La Reconaissance C.J. La Coste
Wardour Bridget Jardine
Mon Deisr Berenice Garcia
Santa Basilio, La Soledad Manoel Alonzo
Mundo Nuevo, Valencia Max Reimer
La pastora Gordon, Grant & Co. Ltd.
Algarabo Heirs of J. Philip
La Soledad E. Lezama
Montserrat, San Francisco, La Deseada J.P Zepero
La Realista Mrs. M.E. Olivieri
Des Consue, La Florida, La Victoria Wilsons Ltd.
San Francisco Geo. B. Geoffroy
Santa Ignes, San Joachim Heirs Nakid
Tierra Nueva Heirs C. Leotaud
Cautira, Guamal, Hope Well, San Pedro
Destin G. De Silva
San Domingo Josepfita de Léon
La Soledad Hrs. Of de la Rosa
Gonzales, San Isidoro Allan McD. Horne
Trafford Marie Holler
Redemption Edward Mohipath
Santa Rita Jos. Reyes
La Soledad Heirs Reyes
Maracas Valley, San Pedro Cadbury Brothers
Santa Barbara, La Sombadoura V.L. Wehekind
San Pedro del Valle J.B. Garner
Ortinola Tennants Est. Ltd.
Santa Rita D. Betancourt
La Providencia, La Fortuna A.A. Matas
Bickham Heirs of Wharf
San Lorenzo Fred Herrera
La Victoria, La Carola Caroline Borberg
Belle Vue Dhanoolall
Guiria Hrs J.V. de León
La Soledad E. Gonzales
El Retiro Heirs T.B. Meja
Buena Vista, San Miguel M.J. de Silva
San Antonio, San Juan, Santa Barbara Simon B. Pierre
Calcutta Cadamee
El Reposo, Esperanza Hrs. S. Castillo
El Discurso G.T. Brash
La Lucia E. Gabaira
St. Jena Xavier Hardy
Providence Margaret Hunter
San Juan, Rosalia Edm. Kelly
El Guamo C.A. Morrison
Santa Lucia Hrs. José Votor
Canaan Bennysingh and Rampersadsingh
La Belle View Hrs. Chinibas
St. Ann’s Rev. Dr. Maingot
El Choro, St. Helena Victor Adrien
Laurel Hill Juliana Bonair
La Soledad A.A. De Matas
St. Catherine, La Florida F. De Matas
El Broyo, Santa Margarita          “
La Merced, San Pedro Cadbury Brothers
San Miguel A.T. Eligon
La Soledad, Williams Field Fred Herrera
Lorete A.V.C. Gomez

Toco Ward Union
El Carmen, El Calvario, La Soledad W.G. Gordon
La Maravilla, Santa Barbara, St. John
El Toco, Mon Plaisir, Belle Vue
Susannah, Santa Teresa, St. Luke
Aragua, St. Pasqual, San Philipe
Cascabel, La Jalousie, Esperanza
Woodford Valley
Cumana Theresa Campbell
Sans Souci M.A. Bowen
La Soledad G.R. Alston & Co.
Buenos Ayres F.G. Scott
St. Antonio, St. Laurent, La Soledad Samuel Hosang
La Ardita, La Anicetta
San Antonio, Belle Vue, San Isidore L.J. Gransaull
La Palmiste, La Providence
La Juanita E. Paisley
Malgretout Mrs. M. Gransaull
Adventure Elizabeth A. Hosang
Diamond Field, Orphan, La Victoria Thomas Hosang
Nola Fana, California, Esperanza
La Prosperité, Belle Vue A. Besson
Poor Man’s Progress McBurnie

Sunday, 26 May 2013

Independence of Trinidad and Tobago - The Way It Began

This series of articles, written by Gerard Besson and illustrated with images from the Paria Publishing Archives, was published by Newsday in a special magazine on 31st August 2013, in celebration of the 50th anniversary of Independence of Trinidad and Tobago. 

Click here to see the entire magazine! 


Trinidad and Tobago came under British rule at the end of the European wars that marked the close of the 18th century. It is interesting to observe how our population developed over the next century and a half. To understand why so many people came here from so many corners of the world, one needs to take the various economies that were developed here into consideration, as these shaped our collective characteristics and the uniqueness of the variety of cultures which have contributed in the formation of our national identity. However, to begin, it would be suffice to say that “We are all here because of sugar, cocoa and oil” in that historical sequence.

The Cedula of Population of 1783 and the Sugar Economy
The sugar, cotton and tobacco economies brought the first Europeans, mostly French families and “Free Blacks and Coloureds” (meaning people from the French Antilles, some of whom were of mixed European, mostly French and African heritage, but were free and slave-owning), and African enslaved peoples to Trinidad in the closing decades of the 18th century. The Cedula of Population of 1783, which was the endeavour of a French Creole Grenadian by the name of Phillip Roume de St. Laurent, was the legal instrument that made their settlement possible. This document, according to Professor Carl Campbell of the UWI, must be viewed as our first constitution, as it outlined the legal framework that made the populating and settlement of a Spanish colony by a non-Spanish people possible, thus putting into place an Afro-French-Creole population that expressed a French identity.
Upon arrival, the cedulants encountered the remnant Spanish colonists as well as the remainder of the Amerindian population which pre-dated Spanish colonisation. This influx of farmers and unfree labour, which occurred against the backdrop of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars, led to large-scale cultivation of the countryside mainly with sugar, but also with all sorts of other agricultural produce for export and domestic consumption. French and Creole Patois speaking, the free population was in the main Catholic, and apart from some Republican elements, was almost entirely French Royalist in outlook, a distinguishing quality that would endure for some one hundred and fifty years, influencing cultural mores, manners, cuisine and the Carnival arts.

Tobago and Emancipation
Tobago, our elder sister, with her older history of European colonisation and African slave importation, was already an established plantation economy in the 1780s, possessing representative institutions, albeit very limited. Tobago had in fact changed hands several times as a result of the various European conflicts. From the time it became a British colony in 1814 until its eventual union with Trinidad, Tobago had sugar and cotton as the main crops until these were replaced by coconuts. Tobago, one could say like Barbados, is a Protestant island. Over the generations, Tobagonians became a conservative, hard working, land-owning Yeomanry, who are well known for their hospitality and their sense of serenity. Towards the end of the 19th century, Tobago, despite possessing its own representative systems was ignoble reduced to becoming a Ward of Trinidad.
In 1807, ten years after the capture of Trinidad, the British government  abolished the trade of African slaves in the Empire, and thirty-one years later, in 1838, all enslaved people were given their full freedom. This action—for whatever the reasons given or the causes explained, whether an expeditious economic necessity, a political trick to achieve a moral position, or an act that was based on a sense of ‘justice and humanity’—when passed into law by the government of the United Kingdom was in truth significant moral achievement. These laws, when enacted, demonstrated a major advancement of Western civilization.
Emancipation signalled the end of that first plantation economy. For the sugar planters—mostly French, although by this time there were some English—this meant an acute dearth of labour on the estates. Many were reduced to poverty, despite being paid large sums for the loss of free labour. The former enslaved people received nothing. Understandably, the former slaves did not feel inclined to continue the hard labour in the cane fields for their former masters, even for wages. After the horrific experience of slavery, they preferred to set up themselves in their own small-scale operations, as artisans, labourers, gardeners, clerks, minor trades people, or simple just to do nothing at all.
The French-Patois speaking Free Blacks and People of Colour, who had benefited from the generous terms of the Cedula of Population, having survived attempts by the British colonial government to reduce their legal rights and other privileges, also suffered as the result of this first plantation economy coming to a close. They were joined, however, by the more upwardly mobile former slaves and commenced the ardorous process of gaining an education and establishing themselves in the new post slavery society. In fact, they, by the end of the 19th century, had created a core professional class, from which a university-trained intelligentsia would eventually emerge.
After some “experimentation” (in fact, British Prime Minister Canning described Trinidad a few decades later as an “experimental colony”) with people from China and Portuguese Madeira and other improvished Europeans, all groups having proven unsuitable for work in the cane fields, the British government began from 1845 to 1917 to “import” people from the Indian sub-continent as indentured labourers for the sugar estates. This scheme worked very well for the British investors and a new thriving sugarcane economy was reestablished and continued to flourish well into the 20th century.

The Cocoa Economy creates the first Trickle-down Economy
Towards the last quarter of the 19th century, cocoa farming came into its own as significant acreages in the northern, central and southern regions were devoted to this crop. Cocoa was an important addition to the agricultural economy of these islands, because it involved many levels of the society. It meant that a much larger cross-section of society were able to enjoy what could only be described as a windfall. Cocoa formed the livelihood for people of various ethnicities, including those of Amerindian descent, known to us as cocoa pañols. From small holdings—and these were in the vast majority, belonging to ‘ordinary’ people—on to the large estates, belonging to the French Creoles and foreign firms such as Cadbury’s, people of all backgrounds were able to benefit materially and so improve themselves and educate their children as a result of the cocoa economy. Cocoa was a genuine trickle down economy. From the countryside to the towns, particularly as the railways were extended, Trinidad bustled with agricultural activity. Small and large businesses were set up in Port-of-Spain and San Fernando to export the island’s produce, of which its cocoa was regarded as the best in the world. By the end of the 19th century, King Cocoa had dethroned King Sugar as the colony’s most profitable export. It was at that time that Tobago and Trinidad were joined together as a twin-island colony by Colonial Office decree.
Commerce flourished with the growth of the import-export houses that lined Marine Square, now Independence Square, and saw the introduction of numerous insurance companies and commercial banks. All this served to produce an enlarged and more specialised Civil Service. These all provided jobs and increased income streams for the emerging middle class, which grew exponentially in this period, thus making Trinidad and Tobago one of the more prosperous colonies in the British West Indies. The pretty suburbs of Port of Spain and San Fernando with their gingerbread house architecture emerged during this time, and grand public buildings were erected. It was during this era, towards the end of the 19th century, that Port of Spain, which still possessed its original Spanish and French architecture, with its Grand Savanna, tree-lined streets and spacious parks, was known as the most attractive town in the British West Indies.
This greater spread of wealth and access to education led the population to a more vocal demand for greater self-rule, reform of the colony’s administration, and participation in the affairs of government by the local intelligentsia and the emerging Labour movement.
In the meanwhile, people continued to come to Trinidad and Tobago. In fact, no other territory in the West Indies has experienced such a constant stream of immigration over the last two centuries. Besides the Indian indentured workers, immigrants in quantity came from the other West Indian islands from the late 1840s and indeed from all over the world. From Europe came Germans, Corsicans, the Scots and some Irish, from Asia came more Chinese, and from the Middle East, as the 20th century dawned, came the Lebanese and Syrians.

Oil Discovery and the Birth of the Trade Unions
Trinidad was famous from early times for its pitch lake at La Brea. Sir Walter Raleigh in caulking his ship there in the 1590s, could be regarded as our first exporter of petroleum. Oil, however, was extracted in Trinidad in commercial quantities in the early 20th century in the south of the island, adding yet another facet to the colony’s overall wealth. This attracted yet another wave of immigrants. Social inequalities and low wages that had always existed emerged more dramatically during this period, particularly in the years between the world wars, which led to the coming into being of a strong Trade Union movement that fought not only for the rights of workers, but for a greater say and a deeper involvement of everyone in the colony’s affairs. The Trade Unions’ new and robust involvement in civil society, notably headed by the oil and sugar workers, together with the Reform Movement, was instrumental in putting into place the foundation for the political movements that were to form the features of our nascent national identity and later the Independence movement, as our earliest politicians were invariably Trade Union leaders.
The First and especially the Second World War made Trinidad and Tobago’s oil a precious commodity, making us doubly blessed by having a two-tiered economy comprising agriculture and petroleum, unique in the Caribbean. The refineries at Point Fortin and at Pointe-a-Pierre led the way in the world’s development of high grade aviation fuel. This 100 octane aviation fuel was instrumental in the overall successful war effort, and in particular in the winning of the Battle of Britain, where the Spitfires and the Hurricanes were flying on ‘Trinidad oil’. This period saw the establishment of American bases in Trinidad which provided jobs for skilled and unskilled workers, both blue collar and white collar. And also left its mark on the social fabric of these islands many felt in a negative way.
The post-war era witnessed the de-colonisation of the former British Empire, when within a decade the most amount of nations came into existence since the Wars of Liberation broke Spain’s domination of the New World.

Agriculture just before Independence
In 1955 there were 409 agricultural credit societies with 16,000 peasant membership, assets $300,000 and working capital of $1,067,140. Sugar Estates canes acreage 36,000. Farmers’ canes acreage 44,000; number of farmers 111,000. Citrus acreage planted 13,000, 432,000 crates of citrus handled in 1954. Bananas 45,546 stems exported in 1953, Rice; 18,000 acres devoted to rice production in 1953, 288 mills produced 12,000 tons of rice. Coconuts, 40,000 acres under cultivation, 21,400 tons of copra valued $1,840,509, 1953. Cocoa 120,000 acres under cultivation produced 200,000 cwt., in 1954. Forest production reserves in 1953 were 49,000 acres; protection reserves, 194,900 acres; Teak plantation 7,000 acres. Timber production for 1954 all woods, 5,607,000, ft. Life stock population; 1954, cattle, 37,900, water buffaloes, 3,000, goats, 39,000, sheep, 5,000, swine, 35,000, horses, 2,400, mules,2,800, donkeys, 6,000, poultry, 1,134,244.
“Because of the perception that industrialisation by invitation was the motive force for growth and development, agricultural production in general received little emphasis. The combined result of these foreign policy strategies was that from being net exporters of food, Trinidad and Tobago became net importers of food from 1963.”
(Rosina Wiltshire-Brodber, Institute of International Relations, UWI. Excerpt from “The Independence Experience 1962–1987” by Selwyn Ryan (editor), p. 298)


Bhadase Sagan Maraj
Born in Caroni on 28 February 1919, losing his father as a lad of 13, he was looked after by loving relatives. Bhadase Sagan Maraj understood that education was the ticket to independence, first a Canadian Mission School in Caroni, later Pamphylian High School in P.O.S. As a young man he became a wrestler, set himself up as a contractor, by 1939 he was working for the U.S. Army on the Bases. He entered warehousing, he went into trucking. He became involved with the development of the residential area to be known as ‘Champs Fleurs’. Representing the Hindu Sanatam Dharma Association he travelled to the U.K. in 1949. He was elected President, Caroni East Indian Association and served as patron and member of several East Indian organisations. He entered politics and won the Tunapuna seat in the Legislative Council ‘handsomely’ in 1950. In 1952 he formed the Sanatan Dharma Maha Sabha, a religious organisation which had as its goal the preservation of Hindu philosophy and possessed a political wing, the People’s Democratic Party (PDP). A great wellspring of support rose about him. He was, however, not without detractors, who accused him of using his “Indianness” for political ends. It touched him, and he declared that he was a Hindu and could do nothing else but. He embarked on a school building programme. He became the leader of the Democratic Labour Party (DLP) in 1953. He passed the reins of leadership to Rudranath Capildeo in 1960.


Uriah Butler
His name is famous, in fact synonymous in the struggle for improvements in the lot of the working classes in Trinidad and Tobago. Born in Grenada in 1897, he worked as a telegraph clerk there and saw service in the West India Regiment in World War I. He came to Trinidad in 1921 and found employment in the oilfields, where he was injured on the job. He then became a Spiritual Baptist preacher. In 1936 he was expelled from the Trinidad Labour Party for his “extremist tendencies”. He formed the British Empire Citizens’ and Workers’ Home Rule Party. He was also the founder and President of the British Empire Workers and Ratepayers Trade Union. He was instrumental in the organisation of hunger marches in 1935 for the unemployed, taking the march into Port of Spain. He style was courageous and confrontational, and he fearlessly challenged the Imperial might of Great Britain. Organising workers in the oil industry, he led the oilfield strikes of 1937 for improved wages and better working conditions in which several workers as well as police officers were killed. As a result of these riots, a Royal Commission of Inquiry was held in 1938, resulting in some modest improvements in working conditions for workers on the whole. At the outbreak of the Second World War, Butler was interned on Nelson Island for alleged seditious practices and served 18 months for inciting to riot and sedition. Butler visited the United Kingdom in 1948 where he lectured, returning in 1950. He was elected to the Legislative Council 1950–1955 for St. Patrick West. He served as a member of the Standing Orders Committee. The Butler Party captured the largest block of seats in the Legislative Council, but the Governor of the day chose to exclude Butler, and instead Albert Gomes became the first Chief Minister. Butler is looked upon as the founding father of the Oilfields Workers’ Trade Union (OWTU) and the labour movement and is honoured with a statue in Fyzabad. He was awarded the Trinity Cross, the nation’s highest honour, in 1970. Butler passed away in 1977.


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Wednesday, 15 August 2012

Cocoa - a New World Product


The impact of the New World on the old is hard to grasp in these times of globalisation, but may be glimpsed in the appreciation of the sweet potato as being highly praised. It was precious a delicacy that when Falstaff in Shakespeare's play thinks of the wonderful treat that he will give to the ladies of Windsor, he cries "Let the sky rain potatoes" and he meant sweet potatoes, the rare delicacy from the Americas.
Historians and social scientists often talk of the debt of the New World to the Old; of the crops that were brought in to supplement the cassava and the maize of the Amerindians: rice, oranges, lemons, bananas, the grapefruit and the sugar cane. But the New World also gave many new things to Europe. New words entered European literature, such as tobacco, potato, maize, hammock, savannah, cannibal, hurricane, pirogue, manatee, tomato, quinine, alpaca, guano and cocoa.
The metals that come from Mexico and Peru were the cause of a price revolution that took place in Europe in the 16th and 17th centuries, and you will find countless references in English literature of the period to the silver, gold and jewels of the Americas. During this period, several references were made to gold, the bright red gold of the Guianas, and to the jewels and birds, the strange foods and fruit of the New World.
Some years ago, I went to Gran Couva to visit Mr. Louis de Verteuil, who had been in his time one of the great cocoa planters of Trinidad. Acres upon acres of cocoa trees surrounded the estate house, shaded by enormous immortelles, blazing a remarkable vermillion. He sat in his gallery, a wide-brimmed straw hat slightly tilted over his forehead. At first, I thought he was asleep. but as it turned out, he was listening to his cocoa growing. Later on, he told me about the "golden bean". He said that it was one of the really great gifts to the world. Europe, he said, knew nothing of the cocoa until the early years of the 16th century. Perhaps its first home was in the basins of the Orinoco and Amazon, but by the time that Columbus came to the Caribbean, it was known in Mexico and other parts of America. The tribes of Mexico thought that it was of divine origin, a plant from heaven. They used the beans as money, so that a province might pay some of its tribute to the chief in cocoa beans, and a man might pay ten beans for a rabbit and 100 beans for a slave.
He said that in South America long ago, in the time of Christopher Columbus and Herman Cortes, cocoa was prepared by boiling it with a mixture of ground corn and flavouring it with red pepper. The Emperor Montezuma is said to have been very fond of this drink and when his palace was taken, the Spaniards found vast amounts of cocoa.
The Spaniards, however, did not take to drinking cocoa until some nuns in Guanaco began to prepare it with sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Louis de Verteuil said that by the beginning of the 17th century, chocolate was a popular drink with the Europeans. Chocolate houses were opened in Oxford and London, one of the most famous being White's Chocolate House, which became a famous London club.
You would have found some of these early recipes a little too rich, and certainly costly. One recipe called for 100 cocoa beans, two heads of chili, a handful of anise or vanilla, a dozen almonds and some hazelnuts, some cinnamon, half a pound of sugar and a little annatto (ruccou) for colouring.
Most of the cocoa for Europe at first came from Venezuela, but slowly Trinidad gained some of the trade. cocoa seems to have been grown in the island quite early, for the Spaniards reported finding it in 1617, but it does not seem to have been cultivated on any scale before the end of the 17th century.
By 1710, however, it was the staple crop of the island.  Cocoa groves began to spread through the fertile Santa Cruz valley and in the Maraval valley, and money began to flow into Trinidad. Up to that time, this island had no staple crop. It had been a stopping place for foreign traders and pirates, raiding the coast of the mainland to the south. It had been a base for adventurers like Don Antonio de Berrio and Sir Walter Raleigh, who used it as a forward camp for exploring the Orinoco in and attempt to find El Dorado. Now, the golden bean gave Trinidad a crop that was valuable.
Barbados had its sugarcane, Trinidad had its cocoa, and we were told that cocoa grown in Trinidad was of a much better quality than the cocoa grown in Caracas and other parts of the mainland. It fetched a good price. Settlers began to move into the island and the Catholic missions did much to pacify the cannibals so as to encourage the industry. But as soon as man begins to grow any crop on a large scale, he provides some pest or disease with opportunity. In 1727, a "blast" hit the cocoa industry in Trinidad and wiped it out. The cocoa planters were ruined. Those who could manage to do so moved to the mainland. The Amerindians who had been growing cocoa under the guidance of the missions went back to their subsistence crops of cassava and maize—the result was that in 1735, the total population of Trinidad exclusive of the Amerindians stood at 162.
What was the disease? One can only guess. We are told that "the trees were apparently healthy and vigorous, flowering abundantly, giving fruits". None of them came to maturity, as young pods dried up before the full fruits. Different reasons were given for the outbreak of the disease. One planter said it was caused by the north wind. Another thought that it was due to the long spell of dry weather, another that it was caused by the appearance of a comet. One of the priests, Father Gumilla, was quite sure that it was an act of God, a punishment sent on the planters who had not paid their church dues.
Some thirty years later, a new variety of cocoa was brought into Trinidad, the "forastero". However, the cocoa industry did not really begin to flourish again until the Spanish government published its famous cedula of 1783, offering very generous terms to those who would like to come to Trinidad to settle, providing they were Catholic and took an oath of loyalty to the King of Spain.
This opened the door to significant development and later prosperity. Cocoa became, especially from the 1860s, a source of wealth for Trinidadians of all classes, conditions and colours. From small farmers to very large estates, the demand for Trinidad-grown cocoa created a trickle-down of wealth. Everyone got something. Money from the cocoa economy allowed middle and lower class people to provide an education for their children, enabling a generation to become teachers, doctors, lawyers, engineers and surveyors, and as such leave behind the prison of poverty and ignorance.
The cocoa economy provided disposable income which benefited the traders and commission agents who imported goods. This in turn provided employment to thousands of sales people, clerks and book keepers. It stimulated shipping, banking and insurance, and jobs in the growing government bureaucracy of this, the most prosperous island of the Lesser Antilles. Those were the good old days!