Metayage, Capitalism and Peasant Development in St Lucia 1840-1957 (New Generation Series 4)

This work attempts to explain the phenomena of transformation and marginalization in rural and urban Dennery, a rural district in St Lucia, by tracing the nature, direction and pace of social and structural changes in the district between 1840 and 1957. Based on the assumption that the dominant form of production in society provides the motor for social change, the author posits the view that the "metayage" system set in train mechanisms for the changes which ensued.

The central argument of the study is that the "metayer" class was the 'feeder' class from which the 'capitalist' peasant classes, which presently dominate the export agricultural sector, evolved. It shows that the character of the accumulation process under "metayage" (among other factors) led to the emergence of an agrarian capitalist class from the labouring population which altered the character of the social structure of the colony and influenced the pace of development of the rural district.

It was this marked differential in accumulation, in particular, that conditioned the simultaneous transformation and marginalization of the lowland and highland communities. The data analysed suggest an increasing differentiation among the labouring class and the emergence of a large and influential differentiated free peasantry under "metayage".