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Population and Economic Change: The Emergence of the Rice Industry in Guyana, 1895–1915

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 February 2011

Jay R. Mandle
Jay R. Mandle
Affiliation:
Temple University
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Extract

Considered analytically population growth may either have positive or negative influences on economic growth. Population expansion may, by facilitating a widening of markets, allow for economies of scale to be realized and permit the introduction of new industries, or by relieving labor scarcities, facilitate economic expansion. Possible negative implications for economic growth may result however, as Malthus argued, through the mechanism of diminishing returns or by changing the age structure of the population so as to increase the proportion of dependents relative to economically active producers and thus reduce the volume of goods and services available to each individual. The point is that economic analysis prima facia is agnostic with respect to the net effect of population change on economic change. One or all of the above relationships may be operative in any individual country experience and without careful empirical observations, it is impossible to identify accurately whether the negative or positive effects are dominant. Clearly what is needed before general statements about the relationship between population and economic change can be supported is a series of country studies whose purpose will be not only to determine the frequency with which the optimistic or pessimistic influences predominate, but in addition to identify the intervening economic and social institutions which account for the predominance of one or the other effect.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 30 , Issue 4 , December 1970 , pp. 785 - 801
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1970

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References

I would like to thank Professor Richard A. Easterlin and Mr. William Newall for helpfully commenting on earlier drafts of this article. Remaining errors are, of course, my own responsibility.

1 For a more complete discussion of these analytic discussions of these analytic relationships see Easterlin, Richard A., “Effects of Population Growth on the Economic Development of Developing Countries,” The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science (Jan. 1967, reprinted 1968), pp. 99–105Google Scholar.

2 For these estimates, see Mandle, Jay R., Economic-Demographic Interrelations in British Guiana, 1838–1960 (Ann Arbor: University Microfilms, 1970), pp. 17–18Google Scholar.

3 For the details of this immirgation, see Jay R. Mandle, “Causes of Immigration to British Guiana, 1838–1921” (Mimeo).

4 For an account of the rise of the beet sugar industry see Deer, Noel, The History of Sugar, II (London: Chapman and Hill, 1950), pp. 407–508Google Scholar.

5 For evidence of wage reductions in this period see Beachey, R. W., The British West Indies Sugar Industry in the late 19th Century (Oxford: Basil Blackwell. 1957), p. 101Google Scholar.

6 See British Guiana, Report of the Immigration Agent General—1894–1895.

7 British Guiana, Court of Policy and Combined Court, Debates, Feb.-Dec. 1898, p. 122.

8 Nath, Dwarka, A History of Indians in British Guiana (London: Thomas Nelson, 1950), p. 98Google Scholar.

9 In the debates on the land reform of 1898 a Government official indicated that the 1839 regulations “… were framed … with a view to make it difficult for the smaller people to get land.” Court of Policy and Combined Court, Debates, Feb.-Dec. 1898, p. 123. See also British Guiana Legislative Council Paper 3/1956, Resumption of Crown Land, Appendix, Title to Crown Lands: Historical Background, Early Policy—Sale of Crown Lands.

10 Legislative Council Paper, Mar. 1956, p. 4.

11 Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1901–1902.

12 For a contemporary evaluation of the reasons for their failure see the Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1904–1905, in which as an Appendix there is reproduced a copy of the Report of the Superintendent of East Indian Settlements. In this report the land settlement failures are attributed to the fact that houses were too close together and thus were far from the land to be cultivated, that the land at plantation Helena was worn out, that there was no care and supervision of the people, that a succession of dry years were experienced in the late 1890's, that the settlers were dependent in character, and that the land available for settlement had no irrigation facilities.

13 British Guiana Blue Book, 1895–1896.

14 Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1896–1897.

15 J. A. Luckhoo, “The East Indian in British Guiana,” Timehri, V, No. 19, p. 59.

16 R. W. Beachey, The British West Indies Sugar Industry, p. 101, n. 1.

17 Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1894–1895.

18 Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1896–1897.

19 Dawson, Edward R., “British Guiana and Its Development,” Proceedings of the Royal Colonial Institute, XXXIX (1907–1908), p. 234Google Scholar.

20 Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1906–1907.

21 Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1907–1908.

22 Report of the Immigration Agent General, 1912–1913.