RlCHARD B. SHERIDAN CHANGING SUGAR TECHNOLOGY AND THE LABOUR NEXUS IN THE BRITISH CARIBBEAN, 1750-1900, WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO BARBADOS AND JAMAICA

I Technology can be defined as the organization of knowledge for the achievement of practical purposes. It consists of knowledge, skills, methods, tools, and machines that enable people to shape materials and produce objects for practical ends. In this paper I will examine the pattern and direction of technological change in the cane sugar industry of the British West Indies and analyze the impact of this change on the employment, productivity, and welfare of workers engaged in the production of sugar. I will use the term "technology" in a comprehensive sense to include techniques and such non-material aspects as management, organization of work, and other elements of social organization. I plan to compare the sugar islands of Barbados and Jamaica from circa 1750 to 1900 in terms of innovations which changed the processing structure, changes in the agricultural sphere, and connections between technological developments and changing labour relations. I shall be concerned with the geographic environment and the technology which made that environment useful; with the availability of capital, access to skilied and unskilled labour, presence or absence of members of the planter class, metropolitan influences , changing sugar prices, duties, and profitability. Barbados, with its high density labour force and compact and relatively uniform physical characteristics, will be contrasted with Jamaica, its low density labour force and extended and diverse physical characteristics (Barbour 1980: 30, 35-36). I.Z. Bhatty maintains that since agriculture is basically a biological process, it is important to distinguish between mechanical and biological technology. "The former", he writes, "makes non-human power available