Contraband, free ports, and British merchants in the Caribbean world, 1739-1772

Abstract

This article examines the evolution of contraband to legitimate trade in the eighteenth century Caribbean world during the War of Jenkins’ Ear and Seven Years’ War. It focuses on the informal networks of the British South Sea Company and the trade of informal actors. The article explores how British legislators shifted Jamaican and Dominican colonial economies away from contraband trade by opening free ports in 1766. The British Parliament passed the Free Port Act of Jamaica and Dominica following Danish and Dutch colonial efforts to crack down on contraband trade in the Caribbean world. This transition from contraband to legitimate trade enabled British merchants to engage in free trade by importing and exporting an assortment of commodities and enslaved people to and from Jamaica to other colonies in the Caribbean world.

Keywords

• contraband
• Caribbean
• War of Jenkins’ Ear
• Seven Years’ War
• Free Port Act of Jamaica and Dominica
• contrabbando
• Caraibi
• Guerra dell’Orecchio di Jenkins
• Guerra dei Sette Anni
• Legge sul porto libero della Giamaica e della Dominica