266 PLANTING ENTEBPBISE IN THE WEST INDIES. lFeb,, 



Value of the Exports of Jamaica, Barbados, Trinadad, and British Guiana (includ- 

 ing Bullion and Specie), distinguishing the Principal Countries. 



a Includes £323,500 for cacao exported to France. 



] n a comparative statemeut extending back sonic ten years, it is 

 very noticeable that the United States and Canada are yearly 

 receiving a larger proportion of the West India exports in the form 

 of sugar and tropical fruits, while the export trade with tlie ]\Iothcr 

 Country is gradually decreasing. The same may be said of tlie import 

 trade, which with the United States and Canada, in the form of Hour, 

 dried and salted fish, lumber and canned goods, is assuming important 

 jiroportions. 



Wliether this distribution of trade will continue in the same 

 directions remains to be seen. Judging simply from the geogra- 

 phical position of our West India possessions, and their proximity 

 to the prosperous and rapidly increasing populations of the United 

 States and the Dominion of Canada, and the fact that they can 

 supply most conveniently and cheaply most of the Colonial produce 

 desired and in great demand in these countries, the natural infer- 

 ence is that it will probably do so. There are some, however, who 

 believe that when the Panama Canal is opened, not only will the trade 

 and prosperity of many of the West India Islands, and especially 

 of Jamaica, considerably improve, but they will be brouglit into more 

 direct and rapid communication with the Mother Country, and thus 

 to a great extent the distribution of their export and import trade 

 will be materially affected. 



To understand aright the relative positions and capabilities of our 

 West India possessions, it is necessary to remark that, with the 

 exception of the continental elements — British Honduras and British 

 Guiana — they are composed of numerous islands ' varying in size 

 from mere coral islets — dotted like stepping-stones for giants over the 

 Caribbean Sea — to a fair and fertile land as large as Yorkshire.' 

 Without entering upon any scientific details, it may be mentioned 

 that most of the smaller islands are of organic origin, being composed 

 of coral structures and the deb7-is of marine shells and forms upheaAed 

 to the surface by subterranean forces : others are purely volcanic, 

 yielding, when disintegrated, soils of great richness and fertilitv : 



