A Polite and Commercial People in the Caribbean

Abstract

British people throughout the empire as well as at home envisaged themselves as ‘polite and commercial’. There could be no doubt of the commercial success of West Indian plantation islands, but were their societies polite? This chapter focuses on the efforts of an individual planter, Sir William Young (1725–88) to live to the highest ideals of politeness both in England and in the Caribbean, especially in the island of St Vincent, where he acquired extensive estates. For a time he undoubtedly succeeded, but early British settlement on St Vincent encountered problems that meant that Young and other planters could not extract resources from the island adequate to sustain their ambitions. Young ended his life as a debtor to the Crown on his St Vincent plantation rather than enjoying the eminence in English landed society and cultured circles to which he aspired.