The London Society of West India Planters and Merchants was an organization established to represent the views of the British West Indian

plantocracy A slavocracy, also known as a plantocracy, is a ruling class, political order or government composed of (or dominated by) slave owners and plantation owners. A number of early European colonies in the New World were largely plantocracies, usually ...

, i.e. the ruling class who owned and ran the slave-based plantations in what is now the Caribbean. The organization played a major role in resisting the abolition of the

slave trade Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

and that of

slavery Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...

itself. The Society was formed in 1780, and brought together three different groups: British sugar merchants, absentee planters and

colonial agent A colonial agent was the official representative of a British colony based in London during the British Empire. About 200 men served. They were selected and paid a fixed salary by the colonial government, and given the long delays in communication, ...

Background

Estimates of the size of the West India Lobby vary between 20 and 60

members of parliament A member of parliament (MP) is the representative in parliament of the people who live in their electoral district. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, this term refers only to members of the lower house since upper house members of ...

, the wide variance arising from whether tight or loose criteria are used to define what was an informal lobby. This informal way of organizing was effective prior to 1763 while their interest was aligned with the

mercantilist Mercantilism is an economic policy that is designed to maximize the exports and minimize the imports for an economy. It promotes imperialism, colonialism, tariffs and subsidies on traded goods to achieve that goal. The policy aims to reduce a ...

approach which dominated British thinking: by supplying tropical staples, they did not compete with produce grown in Britain, and they provided a market for the produce they imported from within the empire. Thus informal contacts, dinners and individual solicitation were sufficient to see the passage of the

Molasses Act The Molasses Act of 1733 was an Act of the Parliament of Great Britain (citation 6 Geo II. c. 13) that imposed a tax of six pence per gallon on imports of molasses from non-British colonies. Parliament created the act largely at the insistence of ...

or the defeat of

Henry Pelham Henry Pelham (25 September 1694 – 6 March 1754) was a British Whig statesman who served as 3rd Prime Minister of Great Britain from 1743 until his death in 1754. He was the younger brother of Thomas Pelham-Holles, 1st Duke of Newcastle, who ...

's proposed sugar duty. However, particularly during and following the

American Revolution The American Revolution was an ideological and political revolution that occurred in British America between 1765 and 1791. The Americans in the Thirteen Colonies formed independent states that defeated the British in the American Revolut ...

, the West Indian merchants lost not only a market for rum, but also a source of provisions. This situation was exacerbated with the entry of France into the

American Revolutionary War The American Revolutionary War (April 19, 1775 – September 3, 1783), also known as the Revolutionary War or American War of Independence, was a major war of the American Revolution. Widely considered as the war that secured the independence of t ...

in 1778. Still, West Indian planters exerted their influence in the House of Commons, and by the 1780s it was estimated that as many as 74 MPs were absentee planters or had connections with various British West Indian colonies. These connections also translated into financial arrangements with the Incorporated Society for the Conversion and Religious Instruction of the Negro Slaves in the British West India Islands. The following is from the annual report of the Incorporated Society of the Conversion of Religious Instruction and Education of Negro Slaves in the British West India islands, ''“That the Treasurer of the West India Planters and Merchants, be authorized to pay over to the Treasurer of the Society of the Conversion of the Religious Instruction and Education of Negros in the British West India Islands of one thousand pounds ,from the general fund of the West India Planters and Merchants of the City of London. "'' The society started with a predominantly Jamaican leadership, but as emancipation approached, by the 1830s the leadership came to include a broader ranger of planter interests from across the British West Indies. The society evolved into the

West India Committee The West India Committee is a British-based organisation promoting ties and trade with the British Caribbean. It operates as a charity and NGO (non-governmental organisation). It evolved out of a lobbying group formed in 1780 to represent the inte ...

References

{{reflist 1780 establishments in England Slavery in the British West Indies

Background

Archives

See also

References