(^114) THE WEALTH AND POVERTY OF NATIONS
The Spanish posted small garrisons and maintained naval stations to
protect the treasure that moved through these islands from the conti
nent to Europe. But aside from a few administrators in Cuba, Santo
Domingo (Hispaniola), Jamaica, and Puerto Rico (the Greater An
tilles), they went on to settie the mainland, to live like dons and hidal
gos of Castile. Thereafter they gave littie thought to the economic
possibilities of these sun-drenched pieces of paradise. To quote Chaunu
again: "Spanish colonization is premised on the Indian." With the
Arawaks wiped out and the Caribs unwilling, que duties inutiles! What
useless islands!^1
In retrospect, the Spanish passion for gold was a big mistake. The is
lands were there for the using, and Spain's failure was Europe's op
portunity. Columbus had understood. When he did not find the gold
he had hoped for, he wrote his sovereigns that these islands were made
for sugar. At the time, he was trying to hold their interest, to justify his
voyage. And he was right. Columbus had learned about sugar cane in
the Madeiras and Canaries. He was in effect recommending the con
tinuation of a plant migration, and the agriculture that went with it,
that had begun centuries before in South Asia and was as much driven
by soil exhaustion as drawn by consumer demand.
The sugar leap from the African-Atiantic islands to the New World
came not with the Spanish but with the Portuguese, who early on
planted cane in Brazil, and the Dutch, who served as merchants, re
finers,^2 and financiers of the Brazilian crop. The Dutch seized the
northeast coast (Pernambuco) for some years (1630-43) during the
period of Luso-Hispanic union, and learned about soil and cane; even
before they were expelled, they were looking for fresh cane fields. This
search turned them north to the nearest weak point in the enemy
armor, the Lesser Antilles. There they seized a few islands (Aruba, St.
Martin, Curaçao, Santa Lucia), "mere crumbs of land." They also
planted themselves on the South American mainland (Surinam), where
they established a few plantations on virgin soil. These did poorly. The
Dutch proved better at moving sugar and slaves than growing the one
and working the other.
Meanwhile the English were already jostling them, occupying St.
Christopher (St. Kitts) in 1624, Nevis in 1628, and other tiny isles. The
best of these early prizes was Barbados (1627), because it was essen-
dictionary, le Robert, says the word meant the smoked meat, and by extension the grill.)
But hides came to be the big staple, and once the freebooters began to supply these,
the herds were not long for this world.
nora
(Nora)
#1