Uncover the heated debate over sugar, trade, and slavery in 19th‑century Britain. This concise work gathers letters and testimony that challenge government policy and show how economic and moral questions intertwined in the West Indies and abroad. Readers will see how advocates and critics used reports from governors, consuls, and merchants to argue for or against free trade and protection.
This edition frames a complex historical moment where parliamentary speeches, colonial accounts, and private letters collide to shape public opinion on sugar, abolition, and global commerce. It presents a critical look at how policy choices affected workers, planters, and economies, without assuming simple answers.
- How free trade and protection policies were debated in Parliament and among colonial officials.
- Evidence and counter-evidence about the impact of slave labor and the shift to free labor in sugar cultivation.
- Accounts of trade, slavery, and the slave trade from multiple observers and regions.
- The broader questions of prosperity, moral responsibility, and imperial policy in the mid‑1800s.
Ideal for readers of historical economic debates and nineteenth‑century imperial policy, who want a focused look at how sugar, slavery, and free trade intersected in public discourse.