Jamaican Economy History And Population Growth

Though the lack of an expanding market for agricultural products has proved to be a big handicap to the economic progress of the West Indies, an even bigger one has been the rapid rise of population in recent years. This is no longer the result of immigration but is due in part to a high birth-rate and in part to a sharp reduction of the death-rate. The actual increase since 1921 has been tremendous. These factors have resulted in a strain on Jamaican economy history.

This increase has taken place in spite of the emigration of many thousands of West Indians to other parts of the world in search of better conditions. Early in the century they went to Panama to help to construct the canal, to the Central American republics to work on the giant banana plantations there and to Cuba and the Dominican Republic to work in the cane fields. As a result Jamaican bananas history has benefitted due to a concentration on cultivating the crop. A brief overview of Jamaica economy has shown that there were signs of hope during the down periods.

Later they went to the oil industries of Venezuela, Curacao and Aruba and to the golf fields of French Guiana. More recently still they have gone to the developed parts of the world. Thus, during the 1950s, about a quarter of a million West Indians went to Britain where they found employment in London and other large cities. When Britain imposed restrictions on immigration in the 1960s, this movement declined, and an increase took place in the number of people going to the United States and Canada and hence the history Jamaican economy structure changed dramatically as remittances now took center stage.

There can be no doubt that emigration has reduced the pressure of population on limited resources. But it is a mixed blessing. It tends to attract people with professional and technical skills, the very people the West Indies can least afford to lose. Emigration is in no sense a substitute for economic development, it mere set up factors to help Jamaica improve economy variables.

The effect of the rising population has been felt in agricultural districts where small farmers have had to divide their holdings between so many depend- ants that they are no longer capable of fully supporting the people. The result has been a migration from the countryside to the towns, which have grown in size very rapidly and which contain large numbers of unemployed people who live in sub-human conditions. This led to the implementation of IMF policies on Jamaica economy in the 70's.

Each territory is dominated by one town—the chief port. This has come about because the West Indies are very dependent on overseas trade and because there is rarely more than one harbor that can accommodate large steamships. Moreover, the territories are compact enough for a single port to be able to distribute imported goods quickly and cheaply to all districts by road and, in some cases, by railway. The chief port has also become the capital and the chief commercial, shopping, manufacturing, and educational and entertainment centre of each territory. This mean that at some time there would result a Jamaica mixed economy.

If the standard of living of a country is to rise, its economic development must proceed faster than the rise of population. It is clear that in the West Indies considerable development is necessary even to maintain standards. This is very difficult to do where resources are so meager. Agriculture is restricted by steep slopes, poor soils and drought to small portions of most territories. The proportion of arable land ranges from the outstandingly high figure of 60 % of the total land area in Barbados to a low of 14% in Dominica, with an average for all the islands of 27 %.

If the land has its limitations, so also has the sea. The Caribbean is not rich in fish. In 1970 it supplied only one fifth of the region’s needs, the remainder having to be imported. Though output is expected to increase, particularly on the shallow banks between Jamaica and Belize and the continental .shelf between Trinidad and Brazil, it may never be able to meet local demand. To some extent, however, fish imports are offset by growing exports of lobsters and shrimps. What of the two remaining primary industries— forestry and mining? Large-scale forestry is restricted to Guyana and Belize, and in any case forestry cannot maintain an advanced economy. Large deposits of minerals appear to be limited to petroleum in Trinidad and bauxite in Jamaica and Guyana, yet these two minerals account for half the exports from the Commonwealth Caribbean territories when the refined petroleum and alumina made from them are included.

Some of the most valuable ways in which development is being undertaken in the West Indies are the establishment of new industries which help to create employment reduce imports of manufactured goods, and—in some cases—to increase exports. Among the recently established heavy industries are alumina production in Jamaica, Guyana, and St Croix, oil refining (from imported crude petroleum) in Jamaica, Grand Bahamas, St Croix, Puerto Rico, and Antigua, and the manufacture of cement in Jamaica, Puerto Rico, Trinidad, and Grand Bahamas. Light industries are growing in number and variety in most territories, particularly in Puerto Rico (which has more than all the other territories put together), Jamaica, Trinidad, and Barbados.