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1921 373 The London West India Interest in the Eighteenth Centtt,ry x THE character of society in the West India Islands in the eighteenth century was, in some respects, very similar to that of Maryland, Virginia, and the Carolinas. Their trade was not competitive with that of the mother country ; they had a staple product, sugar ; their cultivation was carried on by slave labour. But between the society of the West India Islands and that of the southern colonies of North America there were two principal differences : in the West India Islands there was greater disproportion between the negro and the white populations, and amongst the proprietors of the plantations absenteeism was far more rife. These differences made the protection given by the mother country essential to the islands, as preventing not only foreign aggression, but also rebellion at home. The preva- lence of absenteeism had also another result. The absentees formed at home a wealthy and influential body of men. In the London West India organizations of the eighteenth century they were an element which can have existed only to a very small degree in the societies connected with the North American colonies. The amalgamation of the West India planters in England with the London merchants trading to the West Indies 1 The main authority for this article is a collection of minute books in the possession of the West India Committee (15 Seething Lane, E.C.). These are in two series and are dated as follows : (a) West India Committee, Minutes, West India Merchants : vol. i, April 1769- April 1779 ; vol. ii, June 1779-August 1783 ; vol. iv, August 1794-December 1802. These are the minute books of the Society of West India Merchants, founded c. 1750 and continuing to 1843. They are referred to in the foot-notes as Merchants' Minutes. (6) West India Committee, Minutes : vol. i, May 1785-December 1792 ; vol. ii, February 1793-April 1801. These are the minute books of the standing Committee of West India planters and merchants, founded c. 1782 and continuing to the present day. They are referred to in the foot-notes as Standing Committee's Minutes. Information has also been obtained from the records of a firm of West India merchants trading to Barbados, Messrs. Wilkinson and Gaviller (34 Great Tower Street, E.C.). These records comprise entry books of outgoing letters and account books; they commence in 1739/40 and are almost complete for the remainder of the eighteenth century. The firm is referred to in the foot-notes as Messrs. Lascelles and Maxwell, the name used in 1739/40.