COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY OF BARBADOS

Abstract

Until a century ago this coral island, strategically located 100 miles east of the other Lesser Antilles and blessed with fertile limestone soils, held commercial leadership in the Eastern Caribbean. Its growing population, now 235,000 or 1, 400 per square mile, puts it among the most densely settled political units in the world. Today, as for three centuries, sugar provides the bulk of its exports and sugar cane still occupies most of its arable land. However, tourism, merchandizing profits, remittances from overseas, and the beginning of an industrial economy, now supplement sugar as sources of income. Barbados is a medium-sized frog in a small pond. Its exports surpass those of all the British Windwards and Leewards put together although it has only half the population of those islands. Barbadians earn more and live better than neighboring islanders; they are bettereducated, more hard-working, and more thrifty. Their island is well cultivated, an almost English landscape plus palms. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Mar 01, 1961
Accession Number
AD0263177

Entities

People

  • Otis P. Starkey

Organizations

  • Indiana University Bloomington

Tags

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Atlantic Ocean Islands
  • Barbados
  • Earth Sciences
  • Geography
  • Interdisciplinary Science
  • Islands
  • Landforms
  • Leadership
  • Lesser Antilles
  • Overseas
  • Planetary Sciences
  • Space Sciences
  • Topography
  • West Indies

Readers

  • East Asian Political and Security Studies within the Soviet Union
  • Economics
  • Urban Planning and Geography.