1. Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World
New York: Oxford University Press, 1972
George L. Beckford
Nathaly Fortich
September 22, 2011
CPO 4034
APA
2. George L. Beckford was born in Jamaica in 1934 and led a life of a normal peasant. He
eventually became a well-known agricultural economist with a belief that the Caribbean peasants
had the potential in them to take control of their lives for both social and economic
development1. In his book Persistent Poverty Beckford brakes down the legacy of these
institutions from the beginning of their time. Plantation economies have been around for
centuries and have come to play the most important role in the modern Third World economy.
From the early onsets of colonization plantation economies2 have made transitions from settling
into the “New World”, to conquest of the lands, and eventually exploitation. He notes the
plantation systems have become dominant key players in the developing Third World resulting
chronic dependency and the exploitation of resources and labor. A system where the plantations
have reached expansion, or in other words power, hovering over the Third World’s political,
economic, and social structure. The system is designed, as the readings argue, to benefit land
owners and the higher class system while the misallocation of these resources is preventing the
Third World societies from making progression towards social, political, and economic well-
being. The examples he presents throughout the readings come from Caribbean, North East
Brazil, and the US South. These underdeveloped societies have developed a mentality where
they believe they are inferior and not capable of doing anything but working in the plantations3
(no incentives). In order for a society to move on forward with development, its citizens must
become motivated to promote social, economic, and political welfare by standing up to these
plantation systems and demanding the redistribution and allocations of human resources- at the
end of the day, it is production that plays the important role in agricultural economy and workers
1 N. Girvan.(1966).Remarks on Receipt of the George Beckford Award of the Association of Caribbean Economist.
2 “Plantations”is a term that can be analyzed in different levels. It can be referred to in terms of production, social
systems, and economies.
3 In Third World societies plantationsarethe main source of income for workers. They are heavily dependent of
these plantation economies to feed their families and producesome sortof income.
3. are the ones who produce4. Furthermore, it is imperative to see this relationship as an opportunity
to break this cycle of these industries exploiting the less developed societies.
Plantations have great impacts on peasant life. Going back to colonization of the
Europeans, the plantations have had a tendency to occupy the good lands. Peasants must
therefore compete for the land and resources and depend on wage-work in the plantations in
order to complete their income from their own farming; a man who takes a service on a
plantation does so because he finds it impossible to make a living as an independent cultivator5.
Plantations are often expanding, taking up most of the short supply these lands have and
preventing peasants from expanding their villages. This often leads to resentment from the
peasant class leading to social tension and political conflict (continuing to contribute to the
underdevelopment). These plantations provided the wealth colonizers needed in order to expand
and sustain themselves as a community. The wealth derived from privately owned plantations in
means of agriculture of raw materials and would eventually fund military organizations, an
organized population, and administrative organizations- as Beckford argued, “The plantation is a
capitalistic enterprise” (Beckford, 1972, p.33). Furthermore, it is said that the plantations conjoin
with political and international developments6 as well as social structure and social
organizations. Race and color played a crucial factor as to why large groups of people could not
participate in the economy or the political system. It was like if the plantation system was
designed just for the wealthy owners sitting at the top of the pyramid to participate and have a
say in society resulting in race conflict that contributes to the underdevelopment. The
4 The relationship between workers and industries areinterrelated.Both depend on one another to surviveand
earn capital and maximizeprofit.
5 G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Under development in Plantation Economies of the Third World
(New York, 1972), p.19
6 Developments such as mercantilism,free trade, slavery,independence, capitalism,and imperialism.
4. misallocation of resources is also a factor contributing to the continuance of the under
development in the Third World. At the end of the day, the development of these countries is
heavily dependent on plantation economies, and as Beckford argues:
Development possibilities in all countries are determined by institutional factors
that ultimately influence the more proximate growth variables, such as resources,
capital accumulation, technological change, and human capital7.
Beckford’s viewpoint is simply this: as long as plantation economies keep doing what
they are doing, the underdeveloped countries will always find themselves at the bottom of the
food chain. The system has such power politically and economically over the Third World that it
will take more than just capital to advance and sustain; it will also take potential and ambition
from its citizens to bring on a revolutionary change. Beckford’s informative writing gives the
reader a chance to explore the intention of these plantation economies in the developing world
and the changes it brought upon these traditional societies, both the good and the bad. It aids in
the understanding of plantation structures and the types of ownerships that coexist in the
plantation system. He also analyses the power they overtake in terms of property ownership, and
financial control. It is obvious through the readings Beckford feels strongly about the
underdevelopment of these plantations because of these industries (MNCs). It was exceptional
how Beckford pointed out how some companies contain some information and do not release it
to the public, and indeed provided evidence. Beckford is clearly eager to engage the reader of
what lays behind the truth of these economies in the Third World. The tables presented in the
7 G. L Beckford, PersistentPoverty: Underdevelopment in Plantation Economies of the Third World (New York:,
1972) p. 183
5. book helped to paint the “big picture”, for example the table comparing companies’8 turnovers to
the small countries’ profits- each company exceeds profits heavily- Firestone’s sales are over ten
times the national income in Liberia (Beckford, 1972, p132). Through some of this evidence he
presented in this book, the reader can grasp an idea of how much profit these MNCs are making,
while the countries they occupy cannot compete against them.
The most important evidence Beckford presents in Persistent Poverty supporting his
thesis is that there was several factors that create distortions and result in resource misallocation
and limited development prospect in plantation economies (Beckford, 1972, p.176). Beckford
compares a family owned industry of Northeastern Brazil with corporate owned Brazilian Center
South. He argued that the “backwardness” of the Northeast industry can be “attributed to the
value orientations of the planter class in the Northeast” (Beckford, 1972, p.176). This
comparison of the two companies was exceptional- family owned plantations have certain views.
They are traditional and view modernization- change, science, and technology as non-existent
(oppose). Among these values are: anti-technologism and anti-scientific traditions, the
restricting of data accumulation to prove if these techniques are being effective to production,
and a traditional concept that leaves change to the supernatural instead of human intervention. In
conclusion, social aspects of land ownership, absenteeism, and tradition create distortion which
results in resource misallocation and limited development prospects within plantation economy
(Beckford, 1972, p.177). The values owners have do affect the production! The author shows
numerous amounts of evidence throughout the points he made in the book. He backs up his
argument of the political power over these countries as he pointed out that the Colonial Sugar
Refining Company was known as the “other government” in Fiji, and the nickname of “banana
8 For example, Firestone and United Fruit Company
6. republics” Latin America countries got after the United Fruit Company’s political power.
Another example Beckford gave claiming his argument was when Tate & Lyle had sufficient
power to mobilize British opinion against Labor government’s proposals to nationalize sugar
refining in that country (Beckford, 1972, p.141). Lastly, this same company of Tate & Lyle
threatened Jamaica’s government to shut down one of their operations in the country if the
government didn’t comply with their demands of greater mechanization9.
The book evidence is exceptional to the reader. He uses evidence to display the
disparities of plantation economies. The counter evidence Beckford presents adds more emphasis
to the readings10. It also shows that these companies are all pursuing self-interest disregarding
the rest of the plantation society11. Beckford almost sounded a bit sarcastic when disproving the
intentions of these industries in the developing world, stating that their arguments sounded like if
God himself gave the power and ability to the MNCs because the Third World was not capable
to achieve anything themselves. Overall, evidence backs up Beckford’s argument about the
undergoing continuance of poverty and underdevelopment of the Third World plantation
economies because of these large industries. Going back to the United Fruit Company
president’s statement:
9 G. L Beckford, PersistentPoverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.141)
10 Evidence: Vice chairman of Tate & Lyle Ltd. From a speech he made points out the company is lookingto
diversify becauseof modest growth prospects, but it persuaded West Indian governments not to diversify those
plantation economies becausesugar was better. G.L Beckford, PersistentPoverty: Underdevelopment in
Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.150)
11 Evidence: President of United FruitCompany and his plans for further deterioration of the development
potential of the countries G. L Beckford, Persistent Poverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the
Third World (p.152).
7. The fact is that the enormous complexities of the development process require
abilities and attributes which are as natural to the multinational corporations as
they are unnatural to government12.
This makes it seem like these MNCs have the capabilities of doing anything, and discredit the
developing countries stating that they are not capable of performing at the same level (which
they are, but it needs the contribution and incentives from it people).
Through the evidence presented, it is determined this book’s argument is highly
convincing. From a reader who has never encountered the subject of under developing
economies in the Third World, and the culprits for such underdevelopment, Persistent Poverty
might just be the book to read to get a better insight of how these MNCs work within plantation
economies inside developing countries. His book gives a better understanding of the
“exploitation” and the reason behind the continuance of such poverty. The plantation system
creates the following:
Persistent and expanding unemployment, relatively low levels of national income,
a most unequal distribution of what little income is produced, gross
underutilization of land, and extreme under consumption generally13.
Persistent Poverty’s argument is much like other readings such as Modern Latin America by
Thomas E. Skidmore and Peter H. Smith. As it develops the concept of the revolutionary paths in
Latin America during the 1950s-1980s, these countries lacked resources, capital, technology and
market14. Their only choice was to continue to produce agricultural products to the United States.
12 G. L Beckford, PersistentPoverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.152)
13 G. L Beckford, PersistentPoverty: Underdevelopment in Plantations economies of the Third World.(p.177)
14 T. E. Skidmore and T. Smith. (2010). Modern Latin America. New York: Oxford University Press (pg.386)
8. This book (Modern Latin America) also pointed out the one of the major struggles was land as
well as they seized lands and profits from peasants and small owners, an argument Beckford
presented as well.
In conclusion, Beckford’s Persistent Poverty serves as an informative and educative
source for understanding the underdevelopment in the Third World plantation economies. It
serves as a tool to look into some of the causes for the continuance of underdevelopment and
also it provides some solutions to the problem. Of course, these solutions will not take place until
the both governments and citizens of the developing world are ready to standup for their sake
and say this is enough. Social scientists should find this book very useful because it provides
more details as to the social structure these industries have formed from the beginning of time in
and have somewhat stayed the same as social aspects do affect political and economic factors.
Economists should also find this book useful. The book analyses certain companies such as Tate
& Lyle Ltd and United Fruit Company and the profits they are capable of doing opposed to the
developing countries. This book emphasizes on social and economic changes brought on to the
developing world through plantation economies.
