Abstract The Caribbean, with its focus on cash crop production, played a major role in the rise of England’s Atlantic trading system and the making of modern capitalism. Yet, there remains poor understanding of the processes by which the early colonizers built the economic and social capabilities necessary to extract wealth from an alien environment, and a common assumption that they relied overwhelmingly on metropolitan skills and knowledge. This article addresses these issues through a study of the canoe, an Indigenous transport technology. The first imperative of successful settlement was to construct robust regional supply networks and, although the colonizers were fortunate in that the fragmented Caribbean island-scape possesses abundant land and marine resources, they lacked the knowledge and tools necessary for effective extraction and distribution. The newcomers turned to native residents to develop the skills required to manage local geography and soon recognized the utility of canoes, dug out of single logs, with their low cost, shallow draft, speed, and agility, and learned how these boats should be made and used. Canoes in a range of sizes became objects in everyday use among the English colonists and played a central role in moving people, goods, and information around the region, with its shallows and tyrannical wind system; served as platforms for resource extraction; and provided a necessary defence capability. Understanding the challenges encountered in managing the Caribbean environment, and bringing canoes into the picture, pulls Indigenous people into sharper focus and highlights some of the transcultural exchanges that made mercantilism work.
Nuala Zahedieh (Wed,) studied this question.