Paget Henry examines the impact of various phases of capitalism—mercantilism liberal capitalism, and monopoly capitalism—on the economy and society of the island of Antigua, first colonized by the British in the seventeenth century. He rests his discussion of Antigua as a peripheral capitalist colony and state on the concepts and categories of dependency theory. As such, there are abundant data which reveal the dependent relationship of the Antiguan economy with the British economy in particular. In the mercantile phase, Antigua became an agrarian capitalist economy based on sugar production and slave labor, and was dependent on the protectionism provided by mercantilism. Henry discusses the adverse impact of liberal capitalism on the Antiguan economy, which also had to adjust to the postemancipation labor system. In the twentieth century, the Antiguan economy was gradually transformed from an agrarian periphery to a service and light-manufacturing periphery. The author is convinced that dependency analysis has not sufficiently addressed itself to the “roles and problems of cultural systems” (p. 4) and therefore attempts, quite successfully, to link economic and social change with the cultural system. For example, racist ideology predominated as the major instrument of class/race domination during slavery, but the crisis after the middle of the nineteenth century necessitated new strategies—including the symbolic integration of the dominated population. Again, the nationalist movement in Antigua contributed to the eventual “collapse of the plural structure of the cultural system and the emergence of the formal dominance of the Afro-Caribbean cultural system” (p. 184). The book takes us up to the decolonization process (through constitutional change) and into contemporary Antiguan politics.
Henry’s monograph is a contribution both to the historiography of Antigua (which became independent in 1981) and to dependency theory. The work is clearly not intended for the general reader but is certainly a valuable and welcome addition to our knowledge of the area.
