mahogany and logwood cutters in Belize

This is the first economic history of Belize covering the period from the 17th century to post-independence. The book begins with the myth of Peter Wallace, who was widely believed to have been the first British settler, however this is shown to be false. It then explores the economic system established by the first settlers in the late 17th century that was almost exclusively centred on the export of logwood. This logwood economy operated outside the British imperial system until the Treaty of Paris in 1763, when Belize became a British settlement. In the next century the economy became more diversified through both the export of mahogany as well as the entrepot trade with Central America. When Belize became a British colony in 1862, it coincided with the decline of the entrepot trade and a crisis in the world mahogany industry. This led to an attempt by the British authorities to introduce agricultural exports. The Belize Botanic Station was founded in 1892 to promote economic diversification and agricultural exports, which tried various ways to end the colony’s total dependence on forestry. However, these efforts were insufficient and the economy went into serious decline before devaluation at the end of 1949. By the time of independence in 1981, the economy had become much more diversified, but Belize’s position still compared unfavourably with the rest of the Caribbean. The performance of the economy since independence has been very volatile with periods of boom followed by slumps leading to high unemployment and a deterioration in income distribution. The reasons for this are examined in detail, while the authors conclude with a series of policy recommendations designed to improve Belize’s long-run economic performance.

Colonel James Lawrie was one of the most significant mahogany and logwood cutters in Belize during the last quarter of the 19th century. The Journal upon which this book is based forms part of a private collection of Lawrie Papers held at the Scottish Record Office in Edinburgh. As far as we know, it is one of the only day to day accounts of the activities of timber slaves involved in the extraction of mahogany and logwood in Belize during a logging season, that has survived and as such, is a valuable insight into the nature of slavery in a colony that remained on the periphery of the sugar plantation economies of the British West Indies until well after emancipation in 1834.