IV. British West India Commerce as a Factor in the Napoleonic War

J. Holland Rose

doi:10.1017/S1474691300002092

IV. British West India Commerce as a Factor in the Napoleonic War

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 20 December 2011

J. Holland Rose

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J. Holland Rose: Affiliation:
Christ's College, Cambridge

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The decline in prosperity of the British West Indies after 1815 was so rapid as to obscure their importance during the Napoleonic War; but of their commercial pre-eminence among British colonies at that time there are many proofs. Thus, on 12 September 1804, while watching Toulon, Nelson, who knew them well, wrote in a lately published letter, “…I think the French will some day send their fleets to sea, and that the West Indies … is (sic) more likely for them to hurt us in than this country. We have but few troops to defend our islands and recent conquests; 10 or 12,000 French troops would injure us more there than in any other part of the world.” Herein he agreed with Dundas, who in August 1796 stated to Earl Spencer, First Lord of the Admiralty, that far more harm would result to our commerce and credit from a French invasion of Jamaica than of Great Britain or Ireland. As is well known, Nelson in April 1805 acted on his conviction recorded above, and, despite the perilously scanty news as to the course of the Franco-Spanish fleet, he chased it to the West Indies because of his conviction of the immense importance of those colonies. Lord Barham, now First Lord, approved his action; for he himself had come to the conclusion from the French moves against those colonies, “that depredation and the destruction of our trade is their grand object,” and that the invasion of England was now a secondary object. This view was for the present somewhat exaggerated; for Napoleon, who overworked his admirals even more than his generals, expected Villeneuve and Gravina first to devastate our Leeward Islands (with Tobago thrown in) and then to fly back, along with Ganteaume's fleet, to cover the invasion of England.

Type: Research Article
Information: Cambridge Historical Journal , Volume 3 , Issue 1 , 1929 , pp. 34 - 46

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S1474691300002092 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1929

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^{page 34 note 1} Naval Miscellany (Navy Records Society), III, 179; cf. Nicolas, Sir H., Despatches of Nelson, VI, 190, 193, 426–430, 436, 442.

^{page 34 note 2} Spencer Papers (N.R.S.), I, 318.

^{page 34 note 3} Nicolas, VI, 405.

^{page 34 note 4} Barham Papers (N.R.S.), III, 254, 315.

^{page 35 note 1} H. Brougham, Inquiry into the Colonial Policy of the European Powers (1803), I, 174–93.

^{page 35 note 2} Ibid. I, 215, 216.

^{page 35 note 3} C.O. III–18, Thomas King to Rt Hon. Geo. Rose, 17 Dec. 1813.

^{page 36 note 1} C[ustom] H[ouse] R[eturns] in C.O. III—4.

^{page 36 note 2} C.H.R. in C.O. III—14.

^{page 36 note 3} Castlereagh Corresp. V, 25–8.

^{page 37 note 1} C.H.R. in C.O. III—5.

^{page 37 note 2} Napoléon Correspondance, Nos. 6458, 6570.

^{page 37 note 3} Nap. Corresp. Nos. 8206, 8209, 8213, 8231.

^{page 38 note 1} C.O. 152–87, Lavington to Lord Hobart, 24 Feb., 2 April et seq., 1805, with enclosures from Dominica, St Christopher, etc.

^{page 38 note 2} Nap. Corresp. Nos. 8574–82.

^{page 38 note 3} Ibid. No. 8813.

^{page 39 note 1} C.O. 152–87, Lavington to Earl Camden, 5 June.

^{page 39 note 2} Ibid, same to same, 25 June 1805.

^{page 39 note 3} James, Naval History, IV, 94–104.

^{page 39 note 4} C.O. 166–5, Earl of Liverpool to Maj.-Gen. J. Brodrick, 6 July 1809. Pencilled at the side are the words “Also for Isles of Mauritius and Bourbon.”

^{page 40 note 1} Eyre Coote in June-October, 1807, reported to Castlereagh the fierce opposition of the Jamaica Assembly, which sought (though in vain) to stop the vote for maintaining the garrison (CO. 137–119). Probably it would have been stopped in time of peace.

^{page 41 note 1} C.O. 137–115 and 116.

^{page 42 note 1} C.O. 137–114, Camden to Nugent, 7 March 1805; Nugent to Camden, 11, 19 May 1805.

^{page 42 note 2} From evidence taken before select committee on Newfoundland trade (House of Commons for 1817, No. 436). I am indebted to Sir C. Alexander Harris, formerly Governor of Newfoundland, for these statistics. A quintal equals 100 lbs.

^{page 42 note 3} The returns for 1810 are missing.

^{page 43 note 1} Commons' Journals for 1816, App. 11.

^{page 43 note 2} C.O. 137–34. In Governor Morrison's despatch of 12 Dec. 1812 to Earl Bathurst. The rise of prices at Kingston, Jamaica, from Dec. 1811 to Oct. 1812 was: superfine flour (per barrel) 80s. to 200s.; cornmeal (per barrel) 40s. to 80s.; white oak staves (per 1000) 450s. to 900s.; and so on. For further details as to the dependence of our West Indies on the U.S. see Ragatz, L.J., The Decline of the Planter Class in the British Caribbean (New York and London, 1928), pp. 236et seq.Google Scholar

^{page 43 note 3} C.O. 71–41; C.O. 101–41, 43.

^{page 43 note 4} The figures for 1810–12 are taken from official lists in B. Edwards, History of the West Indies, vol. V, and App. 30; those for 1813 (not complete) are from Commons' Journals (1813–14), App. 10.

^{page 44 note 1} B. Edwards, vol. V, App. 30. In App. 22 he cites statistics which show that in 1801–6 the average imports of coffee into Great Britain were 363, 905 cwts., of which 334, 106 were re-exported. Very little raw cotton was re-exported. It is worth noting that after the war our imports of coffee greatly declined, viz. from the “official” value of £6,448,214 in 1814 to £3,341,227 in 1816 (Commons Journals, 1817, App. 8).

^{page 44 note 2} Nap. Corresp. 18431.

^{page 44 note 3} For this valuable table I am indebted to Professor E. Heckscher, of Stockholm, author of The Continental System (published in 1922 though Preface dated 1919).

^{page 45 note 1} Heckscher, op. cit. pp. 222, 236–7.

^{page 45 note 2} A. M. Broadley, Napoleon in Caricature, 1, 250.

^{page 45 note 3} Life of Admiral de Saumarez, by Sir J. Ross, II, 218–20, 228–49, 272–4, 286; Letters of Sir T. Byam Martin (N.R.S.) II, 174–80.

^{page 45 note 4} E.g. Nap. Corresp. No. 16,224.

^{page 46 note 1} F.O. Russia, 77, Advices of 24 May 1811. See, too, despatches in Comb. Hist, of British For. Policy, 1, 589–98.

^{page 46 note 2} Napoleon's finance minister, Gaudin (Due. de Gaëta), saw how precarious was his method of trying to end deficits by contributions from the newly annexed lands, e.g. the Illyrian Provinces and Holland in 1810–11 (Méms. I, 13–17).

^{page 46 note 3} C.O. 118–7.

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