During the period between Slave Emancipation in 1834, and the publication of the Report of the Royal West Indian Cormrission in 1897, important changes took place in the economies of the British West Indian Islands. A predominantly monetary economy replaced the pre-Emancipation system of exchange, in which money had not played a substantial role. The planters continued to barter their production for imports forwarded by English marchants, but after 1834 labour had to be paid for in cash and expressed its consumption demand in monetary form. This labour which was required by the planters was now subject to market supply and demand since in most islands there were alternatives to work on the plantation. [...]

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