THE WEIGHT OF HISTORY: SOME RECENT EVIDENCE ON CHRONIC POVERTY IN GRENADA

Dennis A.V. Brown

Introduction

The Caribbean constitutes a unique entity in world historical terms. Historically, the region is a new society, brought into being by the forces of an expansive European capitalism. As CLR James has pointed out, this makes the Caribbean and its peoples an integral part of modern society. Recent debate about globalization and its impact on the region has brought to the fore the fact that the Caribbean is no stranger to global economic and technological forces.¹ Much of the argument on the present state of Caribbean development, though, has centred on the contemporary effects of world economic forces. There has been a corresponding neglect of the historical dimension of the impact of global economic forces on the contemporary Caribbean. This neglect is evident in the area of the study of poverty in the Caribbean. Arguments about the effects of structural adjustment on the well being of the peoples of the region, for example, have tended to focus on intrinsic features of these policies as causes of poverty, while ignoring the particularities of the societal context, including its historical experiences.² Furthermore, those Caribbean typologies of poverty that have been put forward that speak to the issue of long term deprivation seem conjectural rather than based on empirical evidence.³ The weight of history, the socio-economic legacy of the region and its effect on the contemporary social order, seems to have been underplayed.

In this paper, it is argued that the fact that the Caribbean region is distinguished by a long tradition of exploitation of its human resources for purposes of satisfying external needs is of paramount importance in any attempt at studying the aetiology of poverty in the contemporary period. Given the region's history, chronic or intergenerational poverty should prove to be of greatest significance in any empirical study of poverty in the region. Unlike the Developed world, the exploitation of physical resources has added more to outside societies than to the countries of the region themselves. In these circumstances of economic haemorrhage there is likely to be a well-established tradition of chronic or long-term absolute poverty, which reflects a continuous neglect of social infrastructure and the underdevelopment of human resources.⁴ This will exist alongside the newer expressions of deprivation that have their roots in recent changes in the global economy and the region's responses to them, structural poverty.⁵ According to this thesis, most of the contemporary expressions of Caribbean poverty ought not to be attributed to the very recent changes in the world economy that we have come to call Globalization.⁶ Rather, the most significant impact of recent global economic changes has been the reinforcement, or exacerbation of poverty rooted in a historical tendency of neglect and disregard of our human resources.

Having made the case for the salience of chronic or intergenerational poverty in the contemporary period, it is important to make explicit some of the theoretical and epistemological issues that underlie the argument. Most accounts of poverty can be categorized as either individualist or structural in their explanation.⁷ According to the first category of explanation, poverty is the outcome of individual weakness or shortcomings. These weaknesses may be genetic, psychological or cultural. Explanations based on the second category are distinguished by the view that poverty is the product of social arrangements that are outside of the control of any one individual. This refers to the arrangement of classes, groups, agencies and institutions within the socio-economic framework that makes up of any society. There is another category of theory that falls somewhere between these two. Proponents of this approach locate the causes of poverty in the family and the community. According to this perspective there is a cycle of deprivation in which poor quality parenting, low aspirations and expectations and deprived communities and physical environments become accepted as normal and are internalized by adults who pass on these values to their children. By the time they come to adulthood, therefore, they have been prepared for and readily accept a life of deprivation. Perhaps the most well known expression of this approach is Oscar Lewis' culture-of-poverty thesis.⁸ This model suggests that it is the poor themselves that reproduce their poverty but in a collective way through the culture of the family and community. In Lewis' account, this attitude on the part of the poor is deemed to be a rational response to marginality in a highly stratified class society where poverty is attributed to personal shortcomings.⁹

These intermediate-level theories seem, however, to be deficient in a number of respects. Like the individualist theories, they all but ignore the broader setting and probably as a consequence, do not explain how individuals came to be poor in the first place. At the same time, like the structural approach, these theories of poverty ignore the power of human agency and therefore are unable to account for the fact that some individuals escape their poverty. Indeed, studies based on the cycle of deprivation thesis conducted in Britain came up with evidence that suggested that most children of poor parents did not repeat their parents' poverty and most of those that were poor did not themselves come from poor households.¹⁰ The position taken in this paper is that poverty is a multifaceted process and that its manifestation at the level of the individual and the household can be attributed to the institutionalization of economic, psychological and sociological factors that ensure its reproduction.¹¹ Its expression in the present day period represents interplay between the parameters established by contemporary global economic forces and their local expression and a historically shaped capacity to respond to these circumstances. It is important to understand what has happened historically at the broader structural level as well as how these developments might have found expression at the level of the family and the community. It is also important that in our explanation we recognize volition and agency as being just as important as structure in determining the outcome of historical processes. It should not be argued simply that the poor are poor because of a set of international and local social and economic structures that operated in the past and have bequeathed their legacy to the individuals, families and communities of the present. According to this logic nobody with poor ancestors would have the chance of being non-poor in the present era. Neither is the case being made that people are poor because their ancestors were poor and endowed them with a set of values that would ensure their poverty in perpetuity. Historically conditioned structures or values do not manifest themselves in the contemporary period in such a dualistic or crudely deterministic sort of way. Structures and values do not operate so independently of each other, or in such a compelling way. It is being suggested, rather, that historically shaped or conditioned ideas and institutions provide a context that impels individuals through habits, expectations, and constraints to respond to their circumstances in particular ways. However, the factor of human agency or volition endows people with the capacity to resist, or adopt behaviour that departs from the patterned response.¹² Thus even though the case is being made for the salience of historical factors in influencing the character of contemporary expressions of poverty in the region we wish to avoid doing so in a way that is crudely deterministic. In the analysis that follows we bring this perspective to bear through an examination of the circumstances of a number of households in Grenada, noting the historical-structural forces that shaped these circumstances and some of the ways in which they have responded to these circumstances.

Origins and Causes: The Global and Societal Context

In this section of the paper we try to understand the nature of the larger macro-structural context within which the contemporary expressions of poverty in the family occurs. From the standpoint of political economy, the character of this larger setting is of critical importance in shaping the social and political institutional heritage of the Grenadian households in the contemporary period. In the Caribbean historical global economic forces have been particularly important in the region's political economy.¹³ Grenada like the other territories of the Caribbean region came into being to serve the economic and political interests of the European countries. In historical Grenada the primary expression of this was plantation export agriculture. The use of this country's agricultural resources is intimately related to its place in the international economic order. It has served as well to shape the nature of the internal productive and social arrangements that characterize that society. Material deprivation in contemporary Grenada has its roots primarily in the historical use that has been made of its agricultural resources.

With the end of slavery the overriding feature of the relationship between planters and ex-slaves had to do with the attempt by the former to prevent the latter from acquiring land and any measure of independence. Notwithstanding these attempts, the availability of marginal sugar estates and, following the Sugar Duties Act of 1846, abandoned sugar estates afforded the ex-slaves the opportunity to acquire land. This impetus was given a fillip by the introduction of cocoa as a major crop. Between 1845-55 the production of this crop was to treble.¹⁴

There was therefore conflict between the two major groups involved in the main productive activity in the country, export agricultural production. The mass of the population, ex-slaves with no property, aspired to some measure of economic independence through the acquisition of land. The former slave masters sought to frustrate this ambition on the part of the ex-slaves as it was in conflict with their own production efforts since it limited the amount of agricultural labour available.¹⁵

The focus on export agriculture had as one of its corollaries a neglect of domestic agriculture. By the turn of the present century domestic peasant agriculture had virtually been destroyed. By 1891 Grenada had almost completely opted out of sugar production with only 0.8 per cent of the total value of its exports being derived from that source. In its place had been substituted cocoa, for which there was a growing international demand, and which enjoyed a good market price.¹⁶

**Poverty: some of the internal historical mechanisms**
Two of the areas in which the domination of export agriculture by cocoa was demonstrated were: the labour utilization and absorptive capacities of agricultural land, and the patterns of land tenure. Cocoa was not a crop that required labour intensive cultivation. In the early stages of its cultivation it was usually planted with root crops, due to the availability of space in the field, and bananas, for purposes of shade. Once established, however, the amount of labour required for maintenance was minimal. One worker was able to cultivate five acres of cocoa, unlike sugar, which required five workers per acre.^a Furthermore, the labour requirements of this crop exhibited a marked seasonality. Between the months of December and May, the period of harvest, its labour requirements peaked. After this time, however, its needs were much reduced, since only pruning and cleaning of the fields were necessary.^b Notwithstanding the prosperity of the crop, therefore, its labour requirements were such that it would not have been able to fully absorb the locally available manpower.^c Here we see the historical roots of unemployment: the domination of agricultural resources by plantation export agriculture. Not only did this type of economic activity fail to absorb the available manpower but it led as well to a skewed land distribution. A high degree of concentration of land ownership in a society that is primarily agricultural points to the existence of a sense of oppression, limited opportunities, general dissatisfaction^d and the propensity to migrate. The percentage of the land holding above a certain size points to the extent of plantation dominance. This holds implications for a number of aspects of social organization, not the least among which was income distribution. Data on the use and distribution of land in Grenada are scarce. The 1891 census indicates that holdings of 100 acres and upward constituted some 62 percent of the total cultivable acreage of the territory and amounted to 1.3 percent of the total holdings. At the other end of the scale holdings of less than ten acres made up some 19 percent of the total cultivable land and comprised 40 percent of total holdings. If plantations are regarded as holdings of 100 acres and upwards, then 50 percent of this acreage was committed to cocoa production and the other 50 percent to mixed cultivation other than cocoa. Fifty seven percent of the total acreage under 10 acres was involved in the production of cocoa. Of the acreage in holdings of less than 5 acres 60 percent was committed to the production of cocoa and spices for export. Thus, at the beginning of the last two decades of the 19th century, a little more than half (52%) of the total cultivable land of the territory was committed to the production of export staples. As the international demand for cocoa grew, more and more land was brought under its control. Under the prevailing system of land tenure the increasing demand for land for cocoa production coupled with an increase in population size meant a splintering of land holdings. In 1891 there were 1,075 holdings of five acres and less. By 1921 this number had increased to 12,244.^e Indications are that this situation was associated with increasing hardships for certain categories of persons in Grenada. The cost of living, always fairly high in Grenada as compared with neighbouring colonies, has greatly increased and is still steadily rising. Generally speaking, it may be said that wages and rates of pay have not been augmented to the extent necessary to meet the changed conditions and depreciated purchasing value of money. Owing to the large numbers of landowners and the increased marketing price of their crops, a large section of the community are [sic] in the fortunate position of being better off than before, but for the labourer without land and the class who have fixed wages or salaries the conditions of living have become arduous in the extreme (Annual Colonial Report Grenada 1918-19: p.10).¹⁷

The historical record points to the central importance of the export agricultural sector to social structure and relations. According to the Annual Colonial Report of 1905,

The colony is entirely dependent upon its agricultural resources and its leading exports are cocoa, spices and cotton. The first mentioned contributes about 85 percent of the exports and the second about 10 percent (Grenada Annual Colonial Report, 1905).

The 1904 Annual Colonial Report for Grenada comments with reference to the increasing imports of "ground provisions",

Reference has been made to the appearance of these articles among the imports of the Colony of late years; twenty years ago not only were none imported but exports were worth about 600 pounds sterling per annum. The change is due to (1) the increase of population, which proceeds at the rate of twenty percent in ten years; and (2) the permanent absorption of the cultivable land of the island by cocoa and nutmegs. The result, while favourable to the large landowner, is distinctly unfavourable to the peasant...for whereas years ago he had his provision 'garden' always available for the support of himself and his family...the areas thus beneficially occupied either have been or are being absorbed by permanent cultivation, on the proceeds of which he is becoming more and more dependent (Grenada Annual Colonial Report, 1904: p.10).

Here we see the foundations being laid for the marginalization of domestic agriculture and the extreme dependence of the society on the fortunes of export agriculture that was to become one of its main features. In this regard, the pattern that emerged in this territory was one of increasing reliance on imported foodstuff to the neglect of the domestic agricultural sector.¹⁸

...so far as foodstuffs are concerned, there is evidence of a change in local conditions which is gradually but effectively taking place. With the extension of cocoa and nutmeg cultivation less land in the interior is available for the labouring class to cultivate ground provisions, the quantity of which in the local market is consequently diminishing while the price rises, and the people are thus compelled to resort to more and more imported food (Annual Colonial Report, Grenada 1898).

Unlike in Jamaica where the defeat of Bogle signalled the triumph of plantation agriculture and the consolidation of capitalism, in the eastern Caribbean the peasantry continued to expand well into the 20th century. Woodville Marshall¹⁹ suggests that this was brought about by the following factors: Weakness of the plantation sector due to late settlement of the territory, sparse population and the mountainous interior. Such a system was not able to withstand the long depression in the sugar industry. This meant that there was always land coming unto the market available for acquisition by the peasants. It is these factors that were responsible for the rapid growth of the Grenadian peasantry between 1860 and the first decade of the 20th century. In 1860 there were 3,600 land holdings of less than 10 acres. In 1911 this figure had grown to in excess of 8,000.²⁰

Acquisition of land, though, did not necessarily mean independence for the Grenadian masses. In the first place production was almost entirely geared to the satisfaction of an external market. This increased dependency on imported foodstuff. Secondly, in a vast number of instances the relationship of the people to the land was very backward, resembling a type of serfdom. The nature of this productive arrangement therefore did not conduce to the independence of the Grenadian peasantry. As a socio-economic category the Grenadian peasant was not able to better himself either economically, or politically.

The planter class even though weak was able to establish mechanisms that ordered the relationship of the mass of people to the land in a way that was characterized by dependency and a lack of control and independence. Meeks quotes Smith (M.G. Smith, 'Structure and Crisis in Grenada' in The Plural Society in the British West Indies) in explaining pre-capitalist and semi-capitalist arrangements that were put in place to maintain control. Absentee owners sold unprofitable sugar estates cheaply to local managers, who lacking the capital necessary to develop these estates let out plots to ex-slaves on the condition that they produce cocoa and bananas. Once the cocoa began bearing the landowner resumed control of the land. The ex-slaves would then be given another plot to develop along similar lines.²¹

There were a number of rights and obligations on the part of the owner and the peasant involved in this arrangement. Thus, in return for labouring on the land the tenants had the following rights: to harvest all of a particular variety of bananas on the land; to live on the estate rent free; to occupy all gardens near their homes; to pay a nominal rent for plots further afield; to tether stock on the estate; access to the non-commercial food production that took place on the land; to collect fuel-wood; to use estate timber to repair their homes. The owner, on the other hand, was expected to: buy manure from the tenant for use on the estate; put on a fete on occasions such as Christmas, Easter and Emancipation Day; settle disputes between tenants; act as Godfather for their children and provide general assistance to them.²²

In 1879 Crown Colony Government was instituted. This represented the dictatorship of the British Crown in the local political arrangements. It effectively put an end to the possibility of any meaningful participation by the peasantry in the political life of the colony and further ensured their economic subordination to the planter class. The underdeveloped character of the local manufacturing sector meant that no viable productive alternative to agriculture emerged that might provide an avenue for movement off of the land by the peasants. The economic and political arrangements that obtained in the territory therefore ensured that the peasantry was tied to the estate and subordinate and dependent to it. In addition, Grenadian society was steeped in the traditional race and colour relations of Caribbean colonial society.²³

By the 20th century Grenada had become a marginal colonial possession of Britain. There were therefore no British investments in mining, manufacturing and agriculture and only limited commercial investment. Furthermore the siphoning of the wealth of the country continued. Meeks quotes Brizan as estimating that in 1976 only 8.3 per cent of the final value earned from nutmeg was actually retained in the economy. "In the 11-year period 1966-1977, EC$742M was earned from Grenada's nutmeg and mace, while the country retained only EC75.97M or 10.2 per cent of the final value."²⁴ The rest we are told accrued to foreign companies involved in the processing and marketing of the product.

By the last quarter of the first half of the 20th century the socio-economic foundation that was to take Grenada well into the latter half of the 20th century had been set. In 1938 Grenadian society consisted of a small oligarchy of land owners with land over 100 acres and a small group of merchants and managers, a miniscule middle level professional grouping and a large mass of small land holders and landless agricultural labourers. Of 18,599 holdings only 131 were over 100 acres and 1 over 1,000. By 1945 holdings under 10 acres had increased to 19,592 but the picture at the other end of the scale remained virtually the same. Besides the large land owners the other members of the oligarchy identified in 1945 are 52 persons classified as merchants and managers in the 1946 census. This gives a figure of some 200 persons (excluding family members). Between this oligarchy and the peasantry were what Meeks terms 'a thin middle strata' comprised of clerical and professional persons. It is the weakness of small numbers as well as being relatively unschooled that prevented this stratum from fulfilling the mission of leading the territory to self government and political independence as was the case in the larger Caribbean territories.²⁵

Agriculture was the single largest employer of labour. Of a total of 27,606 persons gainfully employed in 1946, 18,142 were listed as being employed in agriculture by the census. "During the 30 years before 1949 the numbers of agricultural labourers had declined while the number of land holdings increased dramatically." Thus in 1921 there were 17,717 agricultural labourers; in 1930 the figure fell to 15,800 by 1949 it was 5,323. Agricultural labour was divided into four categories: "own account" peasant farming; those who sold their labour to the plantation on a part time basis and worked for themselves the rest of the time; those who operated one or more types of metayage system; and full time agricultural labourers.²⁶

Chronic Poverty: The Contemporary Manifestation of the Historical Process

A whole host of ramifications follow from the adoption of this type of productive arrangement. These have been well documented by scholars such as George Beckford.²⁷ Severe impoverishment, authoritarian political structures and hierarchical social institutions and an absence of linkage between the various sectors of the economy are some of the repercussions.²⁸ The Grenadian economy became skewed around the production of crops for export agriculture. This meant that it became extremely vulnerable to price fluctuations on the world market as well as the lack of development of the peasant sector and the infrastructure that would normally be associated with a more balanced type of economic growth and development. The peasantry, if it can be called that, was far from being an economically and socially independent category. The dependence and paternalism that characterized their social and economic relationships with the elite found expression in the corrupt and authoritarian character of their political processes and institutions.

For our purposes one very important consequence was the relegation of large sections of the population to the status of unskilled, uneducated, land-less agricultural labourers. Such persons are likely to live in economically depressed communities devoid of democratic social and political institutions.²⁹ In such circumstances the most able members of the community usually leave, leaving behind those who are unable or unwilling to do so. These individuals are left in depressed and disorganized communities and often in dysfunctional families. The school and the church in these circumstances are hardly vibrant and dynamic institutions. Recreational facilities are likely to be poorly developed or non-existent.

In the case studies that follow what we are really seeing at work are the outcomes of decisions made by individuals in the context of an opportunity structure skewed by an unfavourable historical political economy. These decisions are made on the basis of the set of 'skills and habits' that these individuals have acquired during their course through life. These skills and habits are shaped by the relationships at work in families and the immediate community of which they are a part.³⁰

Poor Grenadian Households.³¹

May Ali, Clonmel

The first case we look at is that of May Ali. May is a 61-year-old grandmother. She lives in a one bedroom wooden house in the rural district of Clonmel. The house is in an advanced state of disrepair. The house is furnished with a long chair, a table and a cabinet, which has no glass. The house is located on a quarter acre of land, which belongs to May's husband. It has no running water, and uses the public standpipe and the nearby river as its water sources. The house has a pit latrine, and does not have any electricity.

May has lived in this house since 1955 with her husband. He is 71 years old. May is of Asian ancestry and was born in the rural community of Leetown. She comes from a small family of one brother and two sisters and grew up with her mother and stepfather. Both were agricultural labourers. She attended Primary school up to sixth standard, leaving school when she was 10 years old. In keeping with the Indian cultural tradition of the day she got married at age 12 and went to live with her husband. He was a labourer who never attended school. She had her first child at age 14 and had five others subsequent to that. They are now aged 47, 40, 41, 37, 31 and 30.

She sent her children to Primary school; some attended up to grade 7. These children themselves started having children in their teens. She now has 24 grandchildren and 6 great grand. Many of these do not go to school regularly because there is no money for lunch.

The three grand children who live with May and her husband belong to her fourth child, a daughter Cindy, who is unemployed. Cindy has six children by three different fathers. The other three children live with her. She does not use any form of birth control and has no immediate plans of doing so. She attended primary school up until standard 8. She is at present unemployed and has no skill, although she has a school-leaving certificate. Cindy earns some income by doing washing for a family in the District. She also receives some income in the form of child-support, from one of the fathers of her children. Her final source of income is from the sale of produce from a 'garden' that she plants on one acre of land. The corn, peas and pumpkin that she reaps are sold to people in the District in which she lives. Cindy has not gone in search of a substantial job. She maintains however that if one became available she would take it. She maintains that a job in, say, a store in the nearby town would not pay enough to cover daily bus fare and lunch and buy clothes. Even though the family for whom she washes has a restaurant she has never asked them for a job. She has no plans to do anything else in life. May's other daughters are either unemployed or work as domestic workers or small-scale cultivators.

Helen Hardy, Riverton

A similar pattern emerges in the case of Helen Hardy, a resident of Riverton, a poor community in St. Georges. Helen is 40 years of age, though she appears to be in her early fifties. She lives with three children in a one bedroom wooden house that is in an advanced state of disrepair. The house is wired for electricity but this has been disconnected because of the non-payment of the bill. She has lost her fridge due to non-payment of hire purchase payments. The house has no television, radio or gas stove. It was built with the assistance of the Catholic Church on Government lands.

Helen has 10 children aged 21, 20, 15, 14, 10, 9, 6, 4, 3, 1. The three children who live with the respondent are aged 10, 9 and 1. The others either have their own households or are being raised by other persons, including their respective fathers.

Helen grew up in a rural township. She has three sisters and two brothers. One of those sisters grew up in Trinidad. Her mother was a small cultivator who sold her produce in the market. She also reared animals for a living. Helen was the first child for her mother who is now in her mid fifties. A female friend of her mother, who had five children of her own, raised Helen. She worked as a seamstress at a clothes factory in St. Georges. Helen attended Primary school up to standard 4, thereafter her biological mother took her from school to help her care for the other children that she had gotten by then. She moved into a household comprising her mother, stepfather and brothers and sisters. By age 17 she left because of problems with her mother. She had her first child at 18 years of age. She did road work for a couple of years and eventually moved on to become a street cleaner with a government ministry.

At the time of the interviews, Helen has been unemployed for one year. Her employment problems started when the government privatized its street cleaning function. At that time the company that took over that activity laid off some of the workers. Since then she has been without a job. One immediate effect of this is that the children who live with her are not able to attend school. Food is a problem for the household. She is dependent on friends for money. Sometimes she goes to the bakery where her friends work and she is able to get some bread. If she has sugar she makes sugar and water (sweet drink) and gives the children with the bread. The father of the children who live with her does not provide any support for the children. She has tried to take him to court but the case has never been called up.

Helen's 20-year-old daughter was present throughout the interview. She has already had 2 children. Their ages are three years and one year. She lives with the father of these children. He works at a mortuary. She reached standard 7 in Primary school, having unsuccessfully taken the Common Entrance. She left school at 17 having learnt the rudiments of handicraft.

Constance Cooper, Riverton

We return to the theme of powerlessness and fatalism in the case of Constance Cooper. Constance is a shy, retiring 24-year-old woman who speaks in very soft tones. The shack in which she lives rests precariously on a hillside. It has one bedroom, a dining room and a kitchen. The bedroom has a makeshift bed made from a large piece of sponge framed by some pieces of board. It has no electricity, no water and the household uses the neighbour's toilet as it has none of its own. The shack belongs to Constance's sister. Besides Constance and her sister, the household consists of four of Constance's six children. Her other two children live in Carriacou, one with its father and the other with 'a lady'. The children are aged 13, 11, 8, 5, 2, and 9 months. It is the four youngest children that live with Constance. Of these only one, the 8 year old, attends school.

Constance grew up in St Georges. She has 4 brothers and 3 sisters. She is the last child for her mother. Their mother raised her and her siblings. She worked as a cleaner in the Catholic Church. Constance attended Primary school up to standard 7. She left school at age 11 to have her first child. She has not done much work, only being able to point to the seasonal Crash Programme work as a job experience.

Constance receives $150 per month from the father of her last two children. She also receives help from a male friend who works in a supermarket and she gets clothes from the Church as well. With all of this she still finds herself without food at times. Today is one of those times. During the interview she reveals that she and the children have had no food for the past 24 hours. I inquire what about the children's father with whom she currently has a relationship. She says she last saw him on Sunday (today is Tuesday) and he told her that he would not get any money until Friday. Whenever she finds herself without food she gives the children some sweet water (sugar and water) and sends them to bed. Sleep she reveals is one of the means through which she deals with hunger. She frequently finds herself with no food.

Constance has attempted to get a job, as a cleaner at an office but has not been successful. Although she would like a job as a cleaner she has not sought one since trying at the office. If she were to get a job her father's mother would mind her children during her absence. Her sister has one child who lives with her mother. She works as a maid and uses most of her pay to support that household. Constance says she would like her children to stay in school for as long as possible and try and get jobs when they are through. She does not have any plans for the future. She would not like to have any more children and intends to go on Family Planning. To this point in time, two months after the birth of her last child she has not made any effort to acquire any form of birth control. She relies instead on the likelihood that during the post partum period she will be infertile.

According to Constance the biggest problem that faces her right now is to get a home for herself. She got some board that she stores at the home of a friend. However she has no land to build a house on. Her current boyfriend lives in an adjoining parish in his grandmother's house with his sisters and other family. He works as a mechanic.

Maria Evans, Pasfield District

The next household has most of the features of the others. The antecedents of the household in marginal agriculture, high levels of fertility, underemployment and low levels of education are all features of this home. Maria Evans is 31 years of age and lives in the hilly district of Pasfield. Maria is a woman of mediuum size. Her face seems to combine a look of mischievousness, sadness and a profound sense of responsibility. She has lived in Pasfield for approximately 15 years and is the mother of 8 children. She grew up in a district about two miles from where she lives at present. She had 12 brothers and sisters, five girls and seven boys. Her mother and father raised her. Her mother cultivated a half-acre of land and her father was a tradesman. She attended Primary school, but left at 14 because of her first pregnancy. She had her first child at 15. She did not pass any exams in school but did some cookery in school. Her children are 16, 14, 12, 10, 9, 8, 6 and 5 years of age (3 boys and 5 girls). Eight persons (herself and seven of her children) live in the household on a regular basis. In addition, her present boyfriend visits regularly.

Maria identifies herself as the head of her household. She takes the major decisions in regard to the spending of money. All of her money goes into the house. Her previous partner was a man who fathered seven of her children. He died three years ago. Presently she receives $154 per month from the National Insurance Scheme (NIS) as a result of her partner's death. Her other sources of income are monies from the sale of coal that she prepares with the assistance of her present boyfriend and the sale of produce from the 4 acre plot they both cultivate. She complains that in recent times that source has dried up since no rain has fallen for sometime. She learnt the skill of coal burning from her mother. She usually gets eight bags of coal from the coal pit. She sells the coal in the market in St. Georges, but it is not a regular source of income since the demand for it is seasonal, usually at holiday time. Occasionally, Maria gets employment doing short spells of roadwork. Apart from the NIS, she receives no assistance from the government, even though a number of people have taken her particulars with the promises of adding her name to the poor relief programme. Maria's money is spent on food, electricity and clothes.

One important coping mechanism is credit from the local grocery store. An elderly gentleman, who takes an interest in Maria's welfare, runs it. When she has no money she obtains food on credit at the shop. The most recent occasion was yesterday when up to nightfall her children had not eaten. She sent one of them with a note to the shopkeeper and was able to obtain a few items, which she was able to prepare for the children. When she gets any money she pays a part of her bill at the store and continues to credit goods until the next payment time comes around. When I approached her home to begin the interview Maria was in the process of picking some half-ripe plums from a tree in the front of her home. During our discussion she eats a couple of them and drinks some water from her fridge. From all appearances she is hungry.

Two of Maria's sisters live abroad, one in Italy and the other in Canada. The one in Italy is her youngest sister, aged 21-22. She met and got married to an Italian tourist a couple of years ago. The sister in Canada went there with the assistance of a former co-worker who had migrated to that country. She receives no assistance from either of them.

Maria's present boyfriend, John, is a man in his mid to late 30s. He is a mason by trade, but presently lives off the land. He has not been employed for a number of years even though he has been actively seeking for a job. His most recent attempt was yesterday when he went to a local contractor doing some work on a road in the area. He claims that the man is employing 3 persons to do work that should be done by at least 10 persons. Many persons turned up at the site for work and were not successful in getting a job. He feels he has little prospect of getting a job there and declared that the process of work allocation was corrupt. He had no intention of going back there to try again. John who is one handed, having lost one of his hands in a fall from a tree a number of years ago has a shack near to his cultivation. He lives there when he is not staying with Maria. He is himself the son of parents who were cultivators.

Maria's children attend the local primary school. They walk to school in uniforms that are hand-me-downs from their neighbours or bought through credit and loans from people in the community. Maria points out that it is difficult to look for work because she has to care for her children. Her second eldest daughter is to do the school leaving examination in Primary school shortly. If she passes she will be entitled to attend secondary school. If she does not then she will continue in primary school for 2 more years. Maria is anxious that she remains in school. If she does not go to secondary school Maria's plan is to send her to trade school run by the government. However there is a fee to attend this school which she is not sure she will be able to afford.

Judy Smith, Kingstown

Judy Smith lives in the coastal district of Kingstown. She is in her mid-30s. Her physical appearance suggests that she is living in a state of absolute poverty. Her clothes are tattered and soiled, her front teeth are missing and her haggard face presents a picture of distress.

Judy grew up with her single parent mother in the same district in which she now lives. Her mother made her living as a land-less agricultural labourer working in nutmeg and cocoa. This represents the continuation of a tradition in which Judy's mother's parents worked in the nutmeg fields as landless labourers as well. Judy was the sixth of eleven children. She left Primary school at an early age with no certification and no trade, to do nothing in particular. At age 15 she had her first child. Twelve years later she had her second child and since then she has had five more children, the last one as recently as two months ago. Her children (six girls and a boy) are of ages 23, 9, 8, 6, 3 and 2months. They are for five different fathers, none of whom provide support for their children.

The house in which Judy and her children live is in an extreme state of dilapidation. It is made of wood and concrete and gives the impression that it is on the verge of collapse. An unsound roof, with holes through which sunlight pours, highlights its rickety appearance. The glass panes in the windows have been replaced by bits of weather-beaten cardboard. The condition of the walls makes it difficult to discern exactly what type of material they are made of. The dwelling consists of a bedroom of about 4 feet by 6 feet and a kitchen of about 3 feet by 6 feet. Judy and five of her children live in this house. Her eldest child is now 23 years of age and lives with her 'babies'-father'. She already has 3 children for him. The eldest of these children is eight years old. Another child lives with Judy's mother 'up the road'. There is no electricity, no running water and the family uses the public toilet which is contiguous to their home. Cooking is done on a 'table model' gas stove.

Judy lives on the edge of the main road that passes through Kingstown. The only work she has done in recent times is two weeks of work repairing the road. The road is now fixed so that opportunity no longer exists. In days gone by Judy used to obtain work occasionally in the nutmeg 'pool' or government station where the crop is prepared for commercial undertakings. These opportunities no longer exist.

Judy and her children survive through the generosity of her family. Her eldest daughter does not work but is able to give her an occasional '20 or 25' dollars, which she obtains from her 'babies-father'. He makes his living by acting as an 'unofficial' guide for tourists who come to Grenada on cruise ships. The other persons that support Judy and her children are her mother and a brother who owns a shop. Her mother, she reports, occasionally gives her money and her brother seems to be the main source of food for the children that live with her.

Her children, Judy tells us, are bright in school. They receive a lot of encouragement to stay in school from the teachers. Given her state of affairs this is very difficult to ensure. They attend school very irregularly. Judy is committed to the care of her children. Recently she was in the hospital and was beside herself with worry over the safety of her children. She left them with her mother, but realizes that she is too old to properly care for them. By the same token she is unable to search for work properly since she is unwilling to leave them unprotected to go in search of work. Judy feels that conditions now are worse than those that obtained 5 years ago, at least in those days she could get a little work at the 'pool'

Pauline Jones, Sea View District

Pauline is 34 years of age. She reports that she is from a large family. By her mother she has one brother and six sisters. By her father she has four sisters and four brothers. She grew up with her mother who was an agricultural labourer. She reached as far as Standard 4 in Primary school. She left at age 15 to have her first child. Since then she has had five children. Their ages are 14, 11, 10, 8, and 2 months. Her first child attends the secondary school in the district and is to take her CXC examinations this year. The 14-year-old took her Common Entrance examination and failed and is now in All Age Primary school. The other children of school age are in Primary school. Pauline has had her children with different men. Her current boyfriend is the father of her last two children. He has been unemployed for an extended period of time. Although he has been searching very hard he has not been able to find a job. He is a mason by trade. Her boyfriend contributes to the household when he has money but this is not very often. Pauline reports that her boyfriend and herself are joint heads of their household. Important decisions are taken jointly by both persons. As the woman of the house she does the cooking but is assisted by her boyfriend. She gives her children the responsibility of washing their own clothes, cleaning the yard and accompanying her to the bush to look for food.

Pauline's eldest daughter lives with her mother. She has gotten some of her school books free from school. All of her children eat food in the subsidized school-feeding programme. Even if they have no money the persons who cook still give them food. This arrangement was put in place by the teacher who visited with regard to the child's non-attendance. Pauline values education very much and would like her children to stay in school as long as possible.

Pauline's main means of support comes from her association with a blind neighbour who has a shop down the hill from where she lives. She looks after the shop and on that basis receives money, food and assistance from the neighbour. This assistance is the means by which she has been able to keep her children in school. Even so she has not always been able to send them to school on a regular basis and has been visited by the teacher at the school because of the non-attendance of one of her children at school for a month, because she had no uniform. Other neighbours also help with clothes for the children. Food, soap and clothes and costs associated with school are the major expenses faced by the household. Even though she has 2 brothers and 2 sisters living abroad Pauline receives no support from them

Pauline is uncertified and has no skills. Her most pressing need she says is to obtain a job. Her whole future, she says, turns on whether or not she obtains a job. She feels that conditions have gotten worse over the past five years.

Pauline and her five children and boy-friend live in a one bedroom wooden house. Like most of the houses in the community the house is located on government land. It has no electricity but has running water outside the house. The family uses the public toilet.

In spite of the conditions under which they live Pauline and her children all appear to be well fed and healthy. Her 2 months old baby is breast-fed and is a perfect picture of health. The house though small is not decrepit. It appears to be made from sturdy material.

Oneil Macdonald, Riverton

Oniel recently lost a hand that became gangrenous and had to be amputated. He shares his household with his wife and three children. The children are aged 16, 14 and 11. The youngest child is Oniel's but the others are not. He is also the father of four of Helen Hardy's children. Because of the loss of his hand he has had to stop working at the company where he has worked as a security guard for a number of years. His wife works as a maid in the kitchen of a hotel. Oniel's income is now the NIS benefit ($300 per month) that is paid to him as a result of his loss of limb. He expects to receive gratuity from his former workplace at some time in the future.

Oniel grew up in the rural area with three brothers and three sisters. He was raised in part by mother and in part by some other person whom he does not identify. His mother worked as a labourer on an estate. He went to Primary school and reached as far as 3rd standard. After school he worked in the cinema in a nearby town for seven years. He has also done road work and worked on a truck as a labourer.

Even with his wife's salary the children are sometimes unable to attend school on a regular basis. He complains that it is very hard to have to find $2.50 for each child for school every day. He makes no contribution to the upkeep of his other children. He rationalizes this by saying that when he lost his leg they did not visit him. Nonetheless the respondent reports that the family is able to find food to eat, there is no hunger in the household.

The house in which the family lives has one bedroom, a living room and a kitchen. It is made of wood and concrete. It is a clean and sturdy house and it has a brand new zinc roof. An outside verandah overlooking a sharply declining hillside is unfinished. On it is a new water tank that has not yet been installed. The intention is for it to be fed by rainwater from the roof. There is no running water, but the house has electricity, and a number of appliances - fridge, new gas stove and television. The household uses a pit toilet.

The Non-poor Households

In trying to understand the patterns that are evident in the situation of the poor households it is important to look at the case of the non-poor household. The objective in doing this is more than just to establish the fact that where there is poverty certain factors can be seen to operate and where there is no poverty they are absent. More than just trying to establish the logic of causality the case is being made for the salience of volition or agency in any given situation where poverty is a possible outcome. It has been argued that the historical circumstances of the Caribbean region have endowed it with a socio-economic structure and a set of values that are conducive to significant numbers of its people falling into a situation of absolute poverty. For this reason in the study of poverty in the region the chronic dimension should be given disproportionate weighting. Even so there is nothing that is necessarily inevitable about the process. The case of the non-poor household points to the importance of human volition over riding this historical momentum. In its antecedents at least one of these households had many of the features of the poor ones that we have examined; in particular, forebears who eked out an existence on small plots of agricultural land. It differs however in the fact that within the household at least two generations have been involved in external migration. During the sojourn abroad the second-generation traveller acquired education and training that would allow her to properly function in the local job market.

Audrey Hamilton, Riverton

Audrey is a young woman in her mid to late 20s who lives in a modern concrete house on the fringes of the low-income community of Riverton. The house she lives in is rented. Though not elaborately furnished it has enough furniture and electrical appliances to make it seem comfortable to live in. It is a spacious house of three bedrooms and in addition to a stereo, refrigerator, television and gas stove has electricity and running water. The rest of Audrey's family consists of her husband, a master welder and her infant son and daughter. Audrey works as a sales representative for a commercial enterprise in St Georges.

Audrey was raised by her maternal grandmother, who farmed a small piece of land in the country. Her grandmother had a number of sons, some of whom migrated to Canada. The remittances that they sent back to her grandmother supplemented the earnings she made from farming the land. This income Audrey says was enough to provide the family with food and clothes and enable her to go to school. Audrey attended Secondary school although she left school without any certification. However one of her uncles living in Canada sent for her to look after his children in that country. Whilst there, Audrey took the opportunity to complete her secondary schooling and got a number of passes at the GCE O level exams. She eventually returned to Grenada, got married and started a family. Her husband is a high school graduate with training in welding. He was at the time employed in the construction of a sports stadium that was being built nearby. Audrey attributes the fact that she has achieved some measure of success in life to the efforts of her Grandmother and the examples of her uncles. She describes them as persons who were hardworking and always trying.

Barrington Levy, Pasfield District

Barrington Levy is 41 years of age. He lives just across the road from Maria's house. His house is somewhat sturdier and a little bigger than Maria's. It is made from wood and has two bedrooms and a relatively big living room. It has electricity. Barrington has one brother and one sister. He grew up in Pasfield with his mother and father. His father, now deceased, worked with explosives blasting stones for a road maintenance company. He also had a small cultivation as well. Barrington's mother was a housewife.

Barrington attended primary school up to Standard 7. He left school at 16 in order to assist his family. He worked for 5 years as a mason's apprentice and then went into electrical wiring of houses, his present occupation.

The house in which he lives is his parent's house. He shares it with his mother, and step-son. He has fathered no children of his own. The boy is the son of his wife from whom he has separated. Barrington makes his living wiring houses. He works as an independent contractor, although he is still interested in full-time employment with a firm. He has not been able to obtain this type of employment even though he has sought it since 1989 when he was last employed to a firm. Currently he obtains enough jobs to keep him occupied for six months of the year. He also plants a field in the planting season, and has plans to start a pig farm in the future.

Barington's step-son is 19 years old and works with him as an apprentice. He left primary school in standard 4. The brother and sister of Barrington now live in Trinidad. They used to send things for their mother, but have not been heard from for the past two or three years.

This family can best be described as being in a state borderline poverty. The family does not eat a balanced diet, but does not want for food. In the event of his mother becoming ill, Barrington would be able to afford to seek private medical treatment if public care proved to be inadequate. During the time when he worked for a firm Barrington lived and worked in Montserrat, Antigua and St.Kitts/Nevis for four years as part of his job. He has also worked in Trinidad and Tobago on his own. He would like to return to Antigua to work but will not be able to do so immediately since he is his mother's main source of care and support.

Discussion

The outcome of the historical processes outlined above is to be seen in many of the poorest households in Grenadian society today. The case studies of poverty stricken Grenadian families that we have examined highlight the micro-level features of chronic poverty in this society and provide some insight into the mechanisms that ensure its continuity. An examination of these case studies as manifestations of poverty in Grenada reveals a number of features of poverty in Grenada that can usefully be considered in relation to the historical experiences of the country. The most immediate feature is the salience of intergenerational poverty in Grenada. This is pointed to by the fact that all of these households demonstrate a family history of poverty. These households represent examples of what Grenadian people regard as poor. In absolute terms, some of the households were poorer than others were. There were some that were in a state of indigence while others were able to ensure that their members escaped hunger. The poorest were female headed, or had marginal males, pointing to the historically determined inability of the African male to meet manly responsibilities in an agricultural setting in which the productive land has been alienated by the large land owner.

The large number of children in these households is one of the factors that ensure insufficiency within the household. In this regard, all of the women started child-bearing at very early ages. Except in the case of May Ali, this phenomenon points to the dysfunctional nature of the family of these young girls. It represents a breakdown of discipline and authority within the family and a consequent lack of control over the activities of the young females within it. Furthermore the fact that these women continue having children well into adulthood in a society in which family planning devices are readily available suggests a sense of fatalism and powerlessness on their part. Constance at age 23 has six children for whom she cannot provide food, but she has not bothered to visit the Family Planning clinic. Similarly Cindy, May Ali's daughter, has six children for three different men and has not bothered to employ any form of birth control. She has no plans to change her life and even though she might get a job with a little effort she has not bothered to make it. These things speak of a sense of hopelessness and lack of belief in the ability to change the circumstances of one's life. This is not surprising given that this has been the case with all of these women for generations and there is no public effort to address this aspect of their situation.

The 'skills and habits' of the individuals described are not likely to carry them very far beyond the context that the historical political economy has placed them in, nor are the expectations that they or others have of them. The instances of the non-poor that we have looked at are those who have been fortunate enough to have had positive role models and support and exposure to positive influences outside of their communities and the society. They come from families that are supportive and in which the principals have found occupational alternatives to export agriculture.

In most of the case studies on poor households in the present day period that have been assembled here, there is an antecedence of either miniscule land holding or landlessness. The dedication of the society to primary export agricultural production and the neglect of human resources that is a natural corollary of this is the foundation upon which much of the material deprivation that this society has known has been built.

The intergenerational dimension of the poverty that we have just examined is evidenced by the fact that all of these poor households have an antecedence of parents and grandparents as poor, landless agricultural labourers. It is noteworthy that the poorest of the households are headed by females, or have men who play marginal roles within them. In all instances, the levels of educational attainment are low. The principals are either unemployed or are faced with a limited number of occupational options.

The case of May Ali is illustrative of most of the factors at work in intergenerational poverty. May's ancestors would have come to Grenada at some time during the course of the Nineteenth Century to work as indenture labourers on an estate, in one of the export crops. The daughter of poor parents, she left school at age ten and started her own family at the tender age of 12 years. The fact that May's parents had fewer children than she did is probably reflective of the dire circumstances faced by their generation. Their poor living conditions were associated with an absence of proper hygiene and high rates of morbidity and mortality. These factors tended to have a dampening effect on fertility levels well into the first two or three decades of the Twentieth Century. Subsequent to this, advances in medical science and the control of morbidity and mortality were associated with improvements in fertility rates.³² With virtually no schooling May's occupational options would have been limited to unskilled agriculture, like her parents before her. Given the agrarian setting, low levels of education and improved living conditions the size of May's family is not surprising.³³

The fertility behaviour of her daughters, especially Cindy gives stark portrayal to the link between the values of parent and child in intergenerational poverty. In a sense, Cindy did what was 'expected' of her given the circumstances of her life and the family that she came from. Cindy's endowment of low levels of educational attainment and lack of marketable skills leaves her dependent on her mother and with a sense of powerlessness and fatalism about life. At a time when other young women in the national community to which she belongs are reducing the rate at which they bear children, Cindy along with other poor women are making no effort to curtail the number of children they bear.³⁴ She reflects very much the hypothesis regarding low levels of expectation being passed on from parent to child. Cindy carries the weight of history on her shoulders and is making no attempt to divert from the path along which it is driving her. It is instructive that in spite of the fact that well-established family planning programmes exist in Grenada, the sense of fatalism and powerlessness among young women such as Cindy puts them beyond the reach of these programmes. This attitudinal dimension is very important to an understanding of intergenerational poverty. Both May and Cindy in their attitudes give expression to it and it seems safe to conjecture that the daughter learnt it from the mother.

As with May, Helen is the child of poor parents who were involved in a marginal way in agriculture. She encountered an opportunity structure that afforded low levels of educational attainment, no skill training and limited employment possibilities. These are much the same circumstances that her parents would have faced. Helen's mother started having children when she was fifteen years of age. This fact alone is a good indicator that she was already poor. Early childbearing and the bearing of many children would have compounded this situation. Not surprisingly, she was unable to properly provide for them and had to give Helen to a friend to 'raise' for her. Helen started her career as a mother three years later than her mother and like her ended up with more children than she could properly care for. There is thus a repeat of the pattern that she experienced with her mother, in her life. There is a distinct possibility that Helen's daughter will repeat the pattern. The specific set of circumstances faced by each generation is different, but it is very much a variation on a theme of constrained circumstances, limited choice and a response that seems to have become habitual.

Attitudinally, the parallel between Constance and Cindy is quite striking. There is a seeming inability to make decisions that will improve the quality of their lives. There is also what looks like a surrender of their will to the forces that are at work to keep them poor, or push them in the direction of greater impoverishment.

Judy's case also highlights the chronic, or long-term nature of the poverty that has been encountered in these households. She is the grandchild and child of poor landless agricultural labourers.

The relevance of the nature of the wider community to the aetiology of poverty is also brought out by the case studies. Note that in the communities of Riverton, Clonmel and Pasfield, which are either deep rural or urban slum, the poverty described has a depressing quality to it. This contrasts with Sea View, the seaside district on the main route out of town. Here there is an air of optimism and contentment that is absent from the respondents in the other communities. Sea View is a seaside district. Fishing is an important means of livelihood for some of the men in the district. Those who do not fish for a living often assist in the drawing of nets and are given fish in return. This is likely to be an important source of protein for the community and might explain the robust appearance of most of its residents. Return migration also provides another important economic fillip for the district. Throughout it there are a number of prominent houses built by elderly residents who have returned to Grenada after a number of years of living in England and North America. Sea View is the community in which the teacher's involvement with the family stands a chance of making a difference in the lives of Pauline's children. The material resources and the broader perspective on life born of exposure that the returning residents and their children are likely to bring to Sea View will make a difference to the poor youth of that community. Their understanding of the outside world and the possibilities that it offers will make a difference to the choices that the young people from this community make.

Whereas the first case of a non-poor household highlights the importance of education, the second points to the importance of skill. Both the father and the son in this household were tradesmen. Both of them have been able to earn a livelihood on this basis. Also noteworthy is the fact that there is no immediate antecedence of involvement in agricultural labour. In both cases external migration has been an important part of their coping strategy.

The poor households represent concrete manifestations of the ways in which the historical legacy we have examined translates itself into poverty in the contemporary period. Chronic or intergenerational poverty in this society represents a legacy of the inability of the parents of the respondents to command the resources necessary to generate sufficient income in order to properly provide for them in life. Poverty in the contemporary period in Grenada should be understood to be in large part the outcome of this historical institutional legacy. At the level of the community and its interface with the wider national community this legacy manifests itself in the form of joblessness, dysfunctional families, resource poor institutions, poorly developed skills and habits, low levels of expectation, powerlessness, and fatalism. The situation of these households and the communities of which they are a part, therefore, follow from the institutionalization of economic, psychological and sociological factors that impel, but do not compel individuals in the direction of perpetual poverty.

In the contemporary period, the roles of Grenada and the rest of the Caribbean region as producers of primary produce have remained virtually unaltered. Even where aspects of the manufacturing process or the provision of services with some measure of technological sophistication have been relocated to the region it is those stages of the process that require minimal levels of skill. Monetary returns are therefore small and technological transfers are virtually nonexistent.³⁵ The region's historical place in the global system of economic production has ill-prepared it for the open competition inspired by a globalized neo-liberalism. Thus the continued role of these societies within the global economy as producers of primary produce subject to the vagaries of weather and the terms and conditions of a fickle world market provide the structural context within which traditional poverty is exacerbated and perpetuated.

Conclusion

In this paper it has been argued that chronic, intergenerational poverty is the most important of the various manifestations of poverty in the Caribbean. Poverty can usefully be understood to be the outcome of processes at work in the family and the community of which it is a part. The paper makes the case for the importance of volition or agency in any analysis of poverty. While the cycle of deprivation thesis is useful, examination of the circumstances of the non-poor households demonstrate that the will of the individual can make a crucial difference to eventual outcomes. The family/community context we have argued is shaped by the wider political economy of the society. According to this perspective, the historical dimension is of critical import to an understanding of the contemporary. Current circumstances at the local level, which give expression to the international economy, such as the globalization of local production activities, neo-liberalist trade policies and structural adjustment policies should be understood to be at work in a field that has been prepared by the plough of history. Contemporary manifestations of poverty in the region should be seen therefore as the result of a historically conditioned inability on the part of the individual and the household to respond to their circumstances in ways that will enable them to provide the basic needs of human existence. If the causes of poverty are conceptualized as a set of elements woven into a dynamic process,³⁶ then the Caribbean's place in the global system of trade and production, which formed an essential part of European economic expansion, makes the historical factor of critical importance.

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