THE LABOR PROBLEM IN THE TROPICS. 483 



supply suffices for the utmost development of which the country is 

 capable; but such instances are rare. 



The experience of England in governing tropical colonies is fre- 

 quently cited by those who favor the so-called imperial policy for the 

 United States as a proof that tropical colonization in itself presents no 

 difficulties which can not be overcome by enlightened administration. 

 It would be difficult to point out in just what manner Great Britain 

 derives any benefit from her tropical possessions, but her experience 

 confirms the theory I have stated above — that the commercial de- 

 velopment of tropical colonies is possible only where there is an ex- 

 traordinary density of population or where a system of imported con- 

 tract labor is in force. 



A glance through the list of Great Britain's tropical colonies will 

 serve to prove the correctness of this theory. Imported contract 

 labor is used in British Guiana, Trinidad, Jamaica, Queensland, 

 the Fiji Islands, the Straits Settlements, and Mauritius; while the 

 pressure of population is extreme in Lagos and Barbados, which sup- 

 port respectively 1,333 and 1,120 persons to the square mile. 



The remaining tropical colonies of Great Britain — using the term 

 " tropical colony " in its strictest sense — are the Gold Coast, Sierra 

 Leone, Gambia, Hongkong, St. Helena, British Honduras, Grenada, 

 St. Vincent, St. Lucia, Antigua, St. Kitts-Nevis, Dominica, Mont- 

 serrat, and a few islands in the Pacific which are insignificant com- 

 mercially. 



A careful examination of the British trade returns shows that the 

 total export and import trade between the United Kingdom and all 

 the British tropical colonies in 1896 reached a value of $146,000,000, 

 and that of this sum $121,000,000 represented trade with the tropical 

 colonies which employ imported contract labor and with Lagos and 

 Barbados. In other words, the trade between the United Kingdom 

 and those British tropical colonies where free labor is used and where 

 there is no great pressure of population made up less than eighteen 

 per cent of the total trade with the British tropical colonies. 



It would appear from the facts I have given that the commercial 

 development of those parts of the tropics where the population is 

 sparse will be dependent on the importation of labor from more 

 densely peopled areas. 



If the question is approached from an entirely different stand- 

 point the necessity of contract labor in the tropics becomes more strik- 

 ingly apparent. The development of the tropics will be in the direc- 

 tion of agriculture rather than manufacturing, and the requirements 

 of tropical agriculture in respect of labor are most arbitrary. It is 

 not sufficient that the labor supply is ample, in the ordinary sense of 

 the word; it must be at all times immediately available. 



