Abstract
The central fact of West Indian economic history in the second half of the XIXth century is probably the disappearance of the old individual sugar estates of the slavery era and their replacement by modem sugar factories. This disappearance was slow. During the 18S08, it seemed at first that the traditionnal « Père Labat » System was not basically altered by abolition and that the sugar estates had gotten over the crisis and managed to carry on as before 1848. But this illusion of a possible survival of the system disappeared after 1860. The sugar estates had to face ever worsening conditions, eventually leading to their élimination : lack of manpower, competition coming from both European beetroot sugar and West Indian factory-produced sugar, greater difficulty in fmding markets, fall in sugar prices. After a few unconvincing attempts at modemization they soon had to stop production to turn into simple sugar cane plantations, selling all their crop to the nearby factories. After 1870, the decline picked up speed to turn into a complete roul. The last individual sugar estates still operating in the Guadeloupe disappeared after the great 1884 sugar dépression.
Published Version
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