Business Barbados 2022

these goods. Of note to rum are the sheets of copper used for making the pot stills and the American white oak used to make ‘barrels suitable for rum’. This differentiation suggests that the softer American red oak, which was unsuitable for rum, was used for making sugar hogsheads, while the denser white oak was used for storing and transporting rum. The sale of rum to North America contributed greatly to offsetting the operational cost of the plantations, in some cases representing 30% of their annual income. Barbadian rum exports virtually ceased with the onset of the American War of Independence. The collapse of the trade and drastic decline of vital provisions, coupled with a debilitating drought in the early 1770s, saw the implementation of previously discussed sustainable agricultural practices in Barbados, diversifying the land into sugar production, food production and cattle grazing land in roughly equal proportions. Rum production decreased as the more profitable sugar was prioritized. However, Barbados did retain a flourishing internal rum market into the mid 19th century. Over 500,000 gallons per year were consumed or purchased by locals, transient merchant ships crews and the local British military presence. Barbados was one of the pillars of British transatlantic power projection throughout the age of sail, and there was ample opportunity for the large numbers of sailors and seamen deployed to the island to purchase rum. Following the conclusion of the Napoleonic Wars, the Barbadian rum industry saw hard times, briefly alleviated by the disruption in Jamaican production caused by the British abolition of slavery in 1834. During the second half of the 19th century the Barbados rum industry was obliterated by the industrialisation of sugar and successive legislative laws Above: Mount Gay Double Retort Pot Still BUSINESS BARBADOS 2022 76 T H E B A R B A D I A N R U M I N D U S T R Y