The West India Interest lobbied on behalf of the Caribbean sugar trade in Britain during the late eighteenth century. Beginning in the 17th century, Caribbean colonies appointed paid lobbyists, who were called colonial agents, to act on behalf of the legislatures in the colonies. These local legislatures represented the interests of the plantation owning class in the colonies. The agents, who lobbied to protect the interests of plantation owners, were often members of the British Parliament.

Lillian Penson Dame Lillian Margery Penson, DBE (18 July 1896 – 17 April 1963) was a professor of modern history at the University of London, and the first woman to serve as Vice-Chancellor of the university. Early life She was born in Islington, London, the ...

identified three distinct interest groups in London, who decided to work together: agents from the West Indian colonies, merchants who traded with the colonies and plantation owners who lived in London. This group supported 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 1733, which sought to tax molasses that was shipped to

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York (state), New York to the west and by the Can ...

from the Caribbean. This tax was supposed to be collected from the American people. When tensions between the American colonies and the British Crown increased in the years before 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 ...

, the West India Interest sided with the Crown. In the 1780s, the British Parliament acted against the wishes of Caribbean plantation owners by banning American ships from ports in the Caribbean colonies. The relationship further deteriorated in 1790s when the British armed Caribbean slaves during the

Anglo-French War The Anglo-French Wars were a series of conflicts between England (and after 1707, Britain) and France, including: Middle Ages High Middle Ages * Anglo-French War (1109–1113) – first conflict between the Capetian Dynasty and the House of Norma ...

. The group's influence declined when sugar prices dropped in the late 1820s, which undermined their financial influence. Other factors that undermined the group's influence included the rise of the anti-slavery Whig Party and the passing of the

Great Reform Act The Representation of the People Act 1832 (also known as the 1832 Reform Act, Great Reform Act or First Reform Act) was an Act of Parliament of the United Kingdom (indexed as 2 & 3 Will. IV c. 45) that introduced major changes to the electo ...

of 1832. They blamed

abolitionists Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The Britis ...

for their increasing economic problems and lobbied for "compensation" until the

Slavery Abolition Act The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 (3 & 4 Will. IV c. 73) was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom which provided for the gradual abolition of slavery in most parts of the British Empire. It was passed by Earl Grey's reforming administrati ...

was passed in 1833.

See also

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Further reading