Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World

New York: Oxford University Press, 1972

George L. Beckford

Nathaly Fortich

September 22, 2011

CPO 4034

APA

George L. Beckford was born in Jamaica in 1934 and led a life of a normal peasant. He

eventually became a well-known agricultural economist with a belief that the Caribbean peasants

had the potential in them to take control of their lives for both social and economic

development1. In his book Persistent Poverty Beckford brakes down the legacy of these

institutions from the beginning of their time. Plantation economies have been around for

centuries and have come to play the most important role in the modern Third World economy.

From the early onsets of colonization plantation economies2 have made transitions from settling

into the “New World”, to conquest of the lands, and eventually exploitation. He notes the

plantation systems have become dominant key players in the developing Third World resulting

chronic dependency and the exploitation of resources and labor. A system where the plantations

have reached expansion, or in other words power, hovering over the Third World’s political,

economic, and social structure. The system is designed, as the readings argue, to benefit land

owners and the higher class system while the misallocation of these resources is preventing the

Third World societies from making progression towards social, political, and economic well-

being. The examples he presents throughout the readings come from Caribbean, North East

Brazil, and the US South. These underdeveloped societies have developed a mentality where

they believe they are inferior and not capable of doing anything but working in the plantations3

(no incentives). In order for a society to move on forward with development, its citizens must

become motivated to promote social, economic, and political welfare by standing up to these

plantation systems and demanding the redistribution and allocations of human resources- at the

end of the day, it is production that plays the important role in agricultural economy and workers

1 N. Girvan. (1966). Remarks on Receipt of the George Beckford Award of the Association of Caribbean Economist. 2 “Plantations” is a term that can be analyzed in different levels. It can be referred to in terms of production, social systems, and economies.3 In Third World societies plantations are the main source of income for workers. They are heavily dependent of these plantation economies to feed their families and produce some sort of income.

are the ones who produce4. Furthermore, it is imperative to see this relationship as an opportunity

to break this cycle of these industries exploiting the less developed societies.

Plantations have great impacts on peasant life. Going back to colonization of the

Europeans, the plantations have had a tendency to occupy the good lands. Peasants must

therefore compete for the land and resources and depend on wage-work in the plantations in

order to complete their income from their own farming; a man who takes a service on a

plantation does so because he finds it impossible to make a living as an independent cultivator5.

Plantations are often expanding, taking up most of the short supply these lands have and

preventing peasants from expanding their villages. This often leads to resentment from the

peasant class leading to social tension and political conflict (continuing to contribute to the

underdevelopment). These plantations provided the wealth colonizers needed in order to expand

and sustain themselves as a community. The wealth derived from privately owned plantations in

means of agriculture of raw materials and would eventually fund military organizations, an

organized population, and administrative organizations- as Beckford argued, “The plantation is a

capitalistic enterprise” (Beckford, 1972, p.33). Furthermore, it is said that the plantations conjoin

with political and international developments6 as well as social structure and social

organizations. Race and color played a crucial factor as to why large groups of people could not

participate in the economy or the political system. It was like if the plantation system was

designed just for the wealthy owners sitting at the top of the pyramid to participate and have a

say in society resulting in race conflict that contributes to the underdevelopment. The

misallocation of resources is also a factor contributing to the continuance of the under

4 The relationship between workers and industries are interrelated. Both depend on one another to survive and earn capital and maximize profit. 5 G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Under development in Plantation Economies of the Third World (New York, 1972), p.196 Developments such as mercantilism, free trade, slavery, independence, capitalism, and imperialism.

development in the Third World. At the end of the day, the development of these countries is

heavily dependent on plantation economies, and as Beckford argues:

Development possibilities in all countries are determined by institutional factors

that ultimately influence the more proximate growth variables, such as resources,

capital accumulation, technological change, and human capital7.

Beckford’s viewpoint is simply this: as long as plantation economies keep doing what

they are doing, the underdeveloped countries will always find themselves at the bottom of the

food chain. The system has such power politically and economically over the Third World that it

will take more than just capital to advance and sustain; it will also take potential and ambition

from its citizens to bring on a revolutionary change. Beckford’s informative writing gives the

reader a chance to explore the intention of these plantation economies in the developing world

and the changes it brought upon these traditional societies, both the good and the bad. It aids in

the understanding of plantation structures and the types of ownerships that coexist in the

plantation system. He also analyses the power they overtake in terms of property ownership, and

financial control. It is obvious through the readings Beckford feels strongly about the

underdevelopment of these plantations because of these industries (MNCs). It was exceptional

how Beckford pointed out how some companies contain some information and do not release it

to the public, and indeed provided evidence. Beckford is clearly eager to engage the reader of

what lays behind the truth of these economies in the Third World. The tables presented in the

book helped to paint the “big picture”, for example the table comparing companies’8 turnovers to

the small countries’ profits- each company exceeds profits heavily- Firestone’s sales are over ten

7 G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World (New York:, 1972) p. 1838 For example, Firestone and United Fruit Company

times the national income in Liberia (Beckford, 1972, p132). Through some of this evidence he

presented in this book, the reader can grasp an idea of how much profit these MNCs are making,

while the countries they occupy cannot compete against them.

The most important evidence Beckford presents in Persistent Poverty supporting his

thesis is that there was several factors that create distortions and result in resource misallocation

and limited development prospect in plantation economies (Beckford, 1972, p.176). Beckford

compares a family owned industry of Northeastern Brazil with corporate owned Brazilian Center

South. He argued that the “backwardness” of the Northeast industry can be “attributed to the

value orientations of the planter class in the Northeast” (Beckford, 1972, p.176). This

comparison of the two companies was exceptional- family owned plantations have certain views.

They are traditional and view modernization- change, science, and technology as non-existent

(oppose). Among these values are: anti-technologism and anti-scientific traditions, the

restricting of data accumulation to prove if these techniques are being effective to production,

and a traditional concept that leaves change to the supernatural instead of human intervention. In

conclusion, social aspects of land ownership, absenteeism, and tradition create distortion which

results in resource misallocation and limited development prospects within plantation economy

(Beckford, 1972, p.177). The values owners have do affect the production! The author shows

numerous amounts of evidence throughout the points he made in the book. He backs up his

argument of the political power over these countries as he pointed out that the Colonial Sugar

Refining Company was known as the “other government” in Fiji, and the nickname of “banana

republics” Latin America countries got after the United Fruit Company’s political power.

Another example Beckford gave claiming his argument was when Tate & Lyle had sufficient

power to mobilize British opinion against Labor government’s proposals to nationalize sugar

refining in that country (Beckford, 1972, p.141). Lastly, this same company of Tate & Lyle

threatened Jamaica’s government to shut down one of their operations in the country if the

government didn’t comply with their demands of greater mechanization9.

The book evidence is exceptional to the reader. He uses evidence to display the

disparities of plantation economies. The counter evidence Beckford presents adds more emphasis

to the readings10. It also shows that these companies are all pursuing self-interest disregarding

the rest of the plantation society11. Beckford almost sounded a bit sarcastic when disproving the

intentions of these industries in the developing world, stating that their arguments sounded like if

God himself gave the power and ability to the MNCs because the Third World was not capable

to achieve anything themselves. Overall, evidence backs up Beckford’s argument about the

undergoing continuance of poverty and underdevelopment of the Third World plantation

economies because of these large industries. Going back to the United Fruit Company

president’s statement:

The fact is that the enormous complexities of the development process require

abilities and attributes which are as natural to the multinational corporations as

they are unnatural to government12.

9 G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.141)10 Evidence: Vice chairman of Tate & Lyle Ltd. From a speech he made points out the company is looking to diversify because of modest growth prospects, but it persuaded West Indian governments not to diversify those plantation economies because sugar was better. G.L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.150)11 Evidence: President of United Fruit Company and his plans for further deterioration of the development potential of the countries G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World (p.152).12 G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.152)

This makes it seem like these MNCs have the capabilities of doing anything, and discredit the

developing countries stating that they are not capable of performing at the same level (which

they are, but it needs the contribution and incentives from it people).

Through the evidence presented, it is determined this book’s argument is highly

convincing. From a reader who has never encountered the subject of under developing

economies in the Third World, and the culprits for such underdevelopment, Persistent Poverty

might just be the book to read to get a better insight of how these MNCs work within plantation

economies inside developing countries. His book gives a better understanding of the

“exploitation” and the reason behind the continuance of such poverty. The plantation system

creates the following:

Persistent and expanding unemployment, relatively low levels of national income,

a most unequal distribution of what little income is produced, gross

underutilization of land, and extreme under consumption generally13.

Persistent Poverty’s argument is much like other readings such as Modern Latin America by

Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith. As it develops the concept of the revolutionary paths in

Latin America during the 1950s-1980s, these countries lacked resources, capital, technology and

market14. Their only choice was to continue to produce agricultural products to the United States.

This book (Modern Latin America) also pointed out the one of the major struggles was land as

well as they seized lands and profits from peasants and small owners, an argument Beckford

presented as well.

13 G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.177)14 T. E. Skidmore and T. Smith. (2010). Modern Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press (pg.386)

In conclusion, Beckford’s Persistent Poverty serves as an informative and educative

source for understanding the underdevelopment in the Third World plantation economies. It

serves as a tool to look into some of the causes for the continuance of underdevelopment and

also it provides some solutions to the problem. Of course, these solutions will not take place until

the both governments and citizens of the developing world are ready to standup for their sake

and say this is enough. Social scientists should find this book very useful because it provides

more details as to the social structure these industries have formed from the beginning of time in

and have somewhat stayed the same as social aspects do affect political and economic factors.

Economists should also find this book useful. The book analyses certain companies such as Tate

& Lyle Ltd and United Fruit Company and the profits they are capable of doing opposed to the

developing countries. This book emphasizes on social and economic changes brought on to the

developing world through plantation economies.

Bibliography

Beckford, G. L. (1972). Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World. New York: Oxford University Press.

T. E. Skidmore, P. H. Smith. (2010). Modern Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press