CH. VIIl] IN PRIMITIVE TIMES 37 



is generally done by the Government, and the conquered country 

 is treated as a colony, but formerly, as in the case of the East 

 India Company, the exploitation or development of the country 

 was often placed in the hands of a great trading company 

 Such in general have been the methods in which English and 

 Dutch colonies in the tropics have been formed, whereas in the 

 case of the Spanish or Portuguese colonies of an earlier date, 

 the usual method was simple conquest for greed's sake. The 

 trading companies, and after them the Governments, of the 

 eastern colonies, for a long time worked upon very crude princi- 

 ples, usually endeavouring to establish monopolies and keep out 

 competitors, as was for instance the case for many years with 

 the cinnamon culture in Ceylon (see below). 



Once Europeans had entered the countries of the tropics in 

 the capacity of masters, the breaking up of the old primitive 

 systems of agriculture was assured. The first great development 

 in agriculture in the tropics was of course the sugar trade of the 

 West Indies, which was worked by European planters with the 

 aid of slave labour. The next was the coffee industry of Ceylon. 

 In general, the alteration brought about by Europeans in native 

 agriculture may be almost said to be due to their development 

 of improved methods of transport. The old native countries had 

 practically no methods of transport but by coolie or bullock 

 carriage and by water. The Europeans introduced good roads, 

 then railways, and often canals, which have opened up the 

 countries, and made agriculture for the purposes of export at 

 last reasonably possible. 



The invasion of the European races also altered finance in 

 the tropical countries. At first the white races were merely in 

 trading settlements at the mouths of the rivers, but they were 

 not long content simply to trade with the natives. Very soon 

 an exploitation of the countries began, with the aid of European 

 capital. Later the whites conquered the countries, arid wanted 

 to settle in and cultivate them themselves, as the only means to 

 ensure large and regular supplies for export. The first example 

 of this kind of thing, as already indicated, was the great sugar 

 industry of the West Indies, where the white planters set them- 

 selves to cultivate sugar with the aid of slave labour imported 



