Mercantile communities in the Ceded Islands: the Alexander Bartlet & George Campbell Company

Until the American Revolution, planters and merchants throughout the Ceded Islands had reason to be optimistic about the region's economic future. West Indian goods brought high prices and ensured planters in the region steady profits throughout most of the 1760s and 1770s. (51) Bartlet and Campbell avoided specialization by purchasing a variety of crops including sugar, coffee, cocoa, indigo, and cotton. The company further diversified its operations by seeking to meet the needs of its clients by supplying them with slaves. The firm owned shares in numerous slave trading ventures, including a one-fourth share of the sloop Polly which traveled from Grenada to the African Gold Coast. (52) The American Revolution brought higher insurance rates and pirate raids that threatened the company's existence. Although Bartlet and Campbell continued to operate as slave traders until the 1780s, wartime losses left the partners with enormous debts and accounts that could not be collected. (53) Wartime disruptions to local trade created growing complaints among the firm's customers and rising costs that ultimately spelled the company's doom. (54)

During the late 1770s, the company's expenses rose due to higher insurance premiums and growing regional insecurities. The disruptions caused by the American Revolution proved that the Bartlet-Campbell partnership had miscalculated their business strategy. The French invasion of Grenada not only devastated the image of British security but also contributed to the dissolution of the Bartlet-Campbell partnership and necessitated Bartlet's arrival in Grenada in 1779. Although Tobago formally remained under British rule until 1783, French reoccupation of Grenada took away what had been the most lucrative segment of the Bartlet-Campbell operation. Over the next six years, Bartlet attempted to salvage his operations in the Ceded Islands. Unfortunately, wartime losses and the inability of many bankrupted planters to pay off their debts left Bartlet in serious financial trouble. From 1785 until 1815, Bartlet's trustees oversaw the company's remaining operations as they attempted to pay off creditors and collect several outstanding debts. Between 1808 and 1815, trustees of the Alexander Bartlet & George Campbell Company aggressively attempted to retire its debts and liquidated its remaining assets. (55) In the end, Bartlet's mercantile and planting activities fell victim to the lengthy French occupation of Tobago (1783-1793) that made it impossible to salvage what had once been profitable business connections.

The partnership's dissolution in 1778 and regional tensions created additional problems for the management of Bartlet's Tobago estates. Wartime losses had devastating consequences for Alexander Bartlet & George Campbell Company--losses that could not be easily overcome. The firm's dissolution required Bartlet to relocate to Grenada to fill the role vacated by Campbell, but left him unable to oversee the Toboggan operations. During the partnership, Campbell and Bartlet had added additional estates, including two plantations in Courland Division, at the opposite end of the island, and another in the Northeast Division. Increasing regional hostilities brought a decline in the colony's agricultural production. Between 1775 and 1780, the island's sugar and rum exports declined fourteen and forty-four percent, respectively, while cotton and indigo production increased eighty-three and seventy-eight percent, respectively. By 1780, other crops such as ginger, coffee, and cocoa were being cultivated in larger quantities. Regional conflict provoked nervousness among Toboggan planters who began cultivating crops that were less labor intensive and less volatile to market conditions. (56)