Plantation economy
The examples and perspective in this article deal primarily with the United States and do not represent a worldwide view of the subject. (December 2010) |
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A plantation economy is an economy based on
The longer a crop's harvest period, the more efficient plantations become. Economies of scale are also achieved when the distance to market is long. Plantation crops usually need processing immediately after harvesting. Sugarcane, tea, sisal, and palm oil are most suited to plantations, while coconuts, rubber, and cotton are suitable to a lesser extent.[1]
Conditions for formation
Plantation economies are factory-like, industrialised and centralised forms of agriculture,[citation needed] owned by large corporations or affluent owners. Under normal circumstances, plantation economies are not as efficient as small farm holdings, since there is immense difficulty in proper supervision of labour over a large land area.[citation needed] When there are large distances between the plantations and their markets, processing can reduce the bulk of the crop and lower shipping costs.
Large plantations produce large quantities of a good are able to achieve economies of scale for expensive processing machinery, as the per unit cost of processing is greatly diminished. This economy of scale can be achieved best with tropical crops that are harvested continuously through the year, fully utilising the processing machinery. Examples of crops that are suitable to be processed are sugar, sisal, palm oil, and tea.[2]
American plantations
In the Thirteen Colonies, plantations were concentrated in the South. These colonies included Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. They had good soil and long growing seasons, ideal for crops such as rice and tobacco. The existence of many waterways in the region made transportation easier. Each colony specialized in one or two crops, with Virginia standing out in tobacco production.[3]
Slavery
According to the
- Number of slaves in the Lower South: 2,312,352 (47% of total population) 4,919 million.
- Number of slaves in the Upper South: 1,208,758 (29% of total population) 4,165 million.
- Number of slaves in the Border States: 432,586 (13% of total population) 3,323 million.
Fewer than one-third of Southern families owned slaves at the peak of slavery prior to the
On a plantation with more than 100 slaves, the capital value of the slaves was greater than the capital value of the land and farming implements. The first plantations occurred in the Caribbean islands, particularly, in the West Indies on the island of Hispaniola, where it was initiated by the Spaniards in the early 16th century. The plantation system was based on slave labor and it was marked by inhumane methods of exploitation. After being established in the Caribbean islands, the plantation system spread during the 16th,17th and 18th century to Mexico, Brazil, Britain’s southern Atlantic colonies in North America and Indonesia. All the plantation system had a form of slavery in its establishment, slaves were initially forced to be labors to the plantation system, these slaves were primarily native Indians, but the system was later extended to include slaves shipped from Africa. Indeed, the progress of the plantation system was accompanied by the rapid growth of the slave trade. The plantation system peaked in the first half of the 18th century, but later on, during the middle of 19th century, there was a significant increase in demand for cotton from European countries, which means there was a need for expanding the plantation in the southern parts of United States. This made the plantation system reach a profound crisis, until it was changed from being forcing slave labour to being mainly low-paid wage labors who contained a smaller proportion of forced labour. The monopolies were insured high profits from the sale of plantation products by having cheap labours, forced recruitment, peonage and debt servitude.[5]
Atlantic slave trade
Enslaved Africans were transported from Africa by European slave traders to Europe's colonies in the Western Hemisphere. They were shipped from
By some estimates, it is said that some ten million
As the plantation economy expanded, the slave trade grew to meet the growing demand for labor.[7]
Industrial Revolution in Europe
Pterocarpus santalinus
Pterocarpus santalinus, with the common names red sanders, red saunders, Yerra Chandanam, Chenchandanam, red sandalwood, Rakta Chandana, and saunderswood, is a species of Pterocarpus endemic to the southern Eastern Ghats mountain range of South India. Red sandalwood has been used for making the bridge and also the neck of the Japanese musical instrument shamisen. The heartwood is preferred for this purpose. Pterocarpus santalinus is used in traditional herbal medicine as an antipyretic, anti-inflammatory, anthelmintic, tonic, hemorrhage, dysentery, aphrodisiac, anti-hyperglycaemic and diaphoretic.
Sugar plantations
The
In the mill, the cane was crushed using a three-roller mill. The juice from the crushing of the cane was then boiled or clarified until it
With the 19th-century
Indigo plantations
Mahatma Gandhi's investigation of indigo workers' claims of exploitation led to the passage of the Champaran Agrarian Bill in 1917 by the British colonial government.
Southeast Asia
In Southeast Asia British and Dutch colonies established plantations to produce agricultural commodity products including tea, pepper and other spices, palm oil, coffee, and rubber. Large scale agricultural production continues in many areas.[9]
Currencies
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The currency for the Georgia colony was the pound sterling, a gold coin or very light green bill with the national pound symbol. The currency is worth about one and one half U.S. dollar.
The currency for the New York was at the time of the colony the New York pound. This currency was primarily used and made in the 1700s.
See also
- Banana republic
- History of commercial tobacco in the United States
- History of sugar
- King Cotton
- Latifundium
- Sugar plantations in the Caribbean
- Tropical agriculture
References
- ^ Jeffery Paige, Agrarian Revolution, 1975.
- ISBN 0029235502.
- ^ a b The Southern Colonies: Plantations and Slavery, by Kalpesh Khanna Kapurtalawla
- ^ "PBS The Slaves' Story". PBS. Retrieved 2006-03-24.
- ^ Plantation System. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://encyclopedia2.thefreedictionary.com/Plantation System
- ^ Stephen Behrendt (1999). "Transatlantic Slave Trade". Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience
- ^ "How Slavery Helped Build a World Economy". National Geographic News. 2003-01-03. Archived from the original on August 8, 2019. Retrieved 2020-04-22.
- ^ The Abolition Project, http://abolition.e2bn.org/slavery_42.html, accessed 3-26-2013
- ISBN 9780231547901.