islands are predominantly negro lands and are likely
to remain so.

The industrial developments which affect the Carib-
bean in general have touched the British possessions.
Some old industries, like sugar-cane raising, are again
increasing in importance, but the chief changes are in
the introduction or rapid development of comparatively
new industries such as fruit raising in Jamaica and
cocoa production in Trinidad. Less change has been
brought by the introduction of new capital. There has
been no rapid rise of foreign investments such as has
made possible the development of the commercial re-
sources of Cuba and Porto Rico in the last fifteen years.

Jamaica is the largest, and was once the richest and
most highly prized, of British West Indian possessions.
For years the wealthiest of British subjects was a Ja-
maican. It was formerly not only self-supporting, but,
in return for a grant of freedom from imperial inter-
ference in law making, agreed to pay annually "an irre-
vocable revenue" to the Crown amounting to £8,000
Jamaica currency, an arrangement which continued
from 1728 to 1839. ¹

But the days of great prosperity are now history, and
the social, economic and political conditions of the island
are far from uniformly encouraging. The planter aris-
tocracy has disappeared, the former wide degree of
self-government has been cut down, the abolition of

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