This book was originally researched and written as an Oxford thesis submitted in 1958, yet it remains a valuable and pertinent study, by no means outdated by the passage of time. The fact is that the economic history of Trinidad and Tobago has been seriously under-researched, as compared with its political, social and cultural history. We still lack a scholarly account of the evolution of the country’s economy, both overall and for specific periods. What Alleyne has written is a detailed, empirically rich study of the economic (and social) history of the colony in the crucial twenty years between the two World Wars (1919–1939), the period when the foundations for the modern, post-war economy were laid. The study is based on the meticulous research into a wide range of primary sources, especially official reports and papers, and statistical materials such as the colonial censuses and fiscal records. No other work provides us with this kind of basis for understanding the modern economy of Trinidad and Tobago.
Co-published with the Sir Arthur Lewis Institute, University of the West Indies, Trinidad and Tobago.
