CH. l] VILLAGE OR PEASANT AGRICULTURE 145 



mankind, as must under these conditions almost necessarily 

 be the case. 



A country in which a peasant proprietary has largely come 

 into existence in recent years is the island of Montserrat in the 

 West Indies, and from an interesting report upon that island 

 by the Hon. Mr Francis Watts we may quote as follows : 



" It may be interesting to draw attention to the circumstances 

 of the people living in the northern district of Montserrat.... 

 Lying beyond... Church Hill there exists a somewhat isolated 

 and self-contained community, largely consisting of peasant 

 proprietors, or of peasants cultivating land upon a share system. 

 These people suffered severely in the hurricane ; all their houses 

 and practically all their belongings were destroyed. They have 

 now built up the elements of a small peasant community, which 

 has no means of wage earning, but which grows its own food 

 and obtains the small amount of money necessary for the 

 purchase of clothing, tools, and the like, from its small exports 

 from the district. These exports consist of sugar, grown and 

 manufactured on a share system ; of vegetables taken to the 

 village markets in other parts of the island ; of small numbers 

 of cattle, horses, and small stock : and of vegetables and fruit, 

 chiefly bananas, shipped to Antigua. All these exports are 

 small, but they suffice for the modest requirements of the 

 district. This district will probably feel somewhat acutely 

 the loss of the papain industry 1 . The conditions of life here 

 are on a comparatively low plane, but they are interesting 

 as illustrating what results from a peasant proprietary, cut 

 off from the power of wage earning by the absence of regular 

 estates employing labourers. The habit of wage earning has 

 been weakened or lost. This is seen by the fact that, when a 

 short time ago the Montserrat Company planted a small area 

 in cotton in this district, difficulty was found in obtaining labour, 

 and comparatively high rates had to be paid. The resources of 

 such a district are few, civilising influences are apt to weaken, 

 roads are likely to be poorly kept, public works, in the way of 



1 Which by the way, was mainly destroyed by the competition of Ceylon, 

 showing that even the poorest peasant community cannot altogether escape 

 from the world-wide competition that now goes on. 



w. 10 



