Paper short abstract:

The three Dutch plantation colonies in current Guyana experienced a rapid expansion of their plantation economy in the late eighteenth century, unexplainable from the official mercantilist perspective. The cross-cultural, self-organized network of the colonial actors is crucial for our understanding.

Paper long abstract:

In line with recent scholarship this paper seeks to understand the colonial experience from the perspective of the local agents rather than from a more structuralist, metropolitan view. After sketching the international context, in will be shown that Essequibo, Demerara and Berbice provide an interesting case study in the practice of 'colony building.' While all three were relatively unimportant colonies in the early eighteenth century, their plantation economy expanded quickly to rival neighbouring Surinam, before they fell into British hands in 1796. During most of this time, different factions in the Dutch Republic were so pre-occupied with internal struggles that they did not pay sufficient attention to the needs and demands of the colonists. The number of Dutch ships carrying soldiers, slaves or supplies was far too small, and complaints were numerous. Therefore this paper seeks to answer the question how these colonies were able to successfully expand without sufficient metropolitan support. The assumption is that the planters' agency in their oppositional, cooperative and representative roles was crucial, by establishing cross-cultural and cross-imperial networks. We know that the colonies had a large portion of British settlers and were visited frequently by different Atlantic (contraband) traders, but the exact nature of these networks remains to be explored. Who were these planters, how did they evade or bargain with the metropolitan power and with whom did they engage in either formal or informal transactions? The sources to answer these questions will consist of cargo lists, correspondence, petitions, resolutions, maps and ship reports.