The Model of the Plantation Economy: the Case of Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract

This paper seeks to analyze and offer a critique of the model of the plantation economy with reference to the experience of Trinidad and Tobago. The model, conceptualized by Lloyd Best of the University of the West Indies with some collaborative involvement of Kari Levitt of McGill University (Best, 1968; Best and Levitt, 1969), been chosen for three main reasons. First, it seems to be a seminal work in the new phase of Caribbean literature on development. A number of leading academic economists attached to the University of the West Indies and elsewhere have been influenced by this contribution. In his discussion of plantation economy, Beckford (1972:45) notes his indebtedness to Best, who has described the situation exceptionally well in his 'Outlines of a Model of Pure Plantation Economy' (1968). Girvan (in Beckford, 1975:125) acknowledges the support of Best and Levitt in the research work done for the project from which the plantation economy model developed. This work seemed to have strongly influenced Girvan's subsequent orientation. And Kari Levitt (1973:xix) states: My collaboration in work on plantation economy with Mr. Lloyd Best of the University of the West Indies during his two-year stay at the Centre for Developing Areas Studies of McGill University assisted me in clarifying the concept of the new mercantilism. Second, the school of thought which Best represents continues to exercise intellectual dominance in the English-speaking Caribbean. It should be added here that Thomas in large measure moved out of this tradition, and his work (1974) marks a noteworthy contribution to dependency/underdevelopment debate with particular reference to small economies. And third, Best is a practicing politician, and it is of interest to see to what extent, if any, the assumptions and analysis which characterize the model bear any relation to his political prescriptions. What follows is divided in a general schematic way into four sections. The first gives a brief outline of the main features of the plantation economy model. In the second, an attempt is made to ascertain whether, at a very general level, there is empirical evidence for the applicability of the model to Trinidad and Tobago and what tentative conclusions can be drawn. The third section subjects the model to a critique which involves reference to one stream of thought associated with the Economic Commission for Latin America (ECLA) tradition (see O'Brien, 1975, and Harding, 1976) subsumed under the broad amorphous category called dependency theory. Finally, the relevance of the model to a