Sugar Plantation Guides and the Transnational History of the Plantation Complex, 1750 - 1910

甘蔗种植园指南和种植园综合体的跨国历史，1750 年至 1910 年

• 批准号: 2572280
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Edinburgh
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2021
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2021 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2572280
• 关键词: Sugar; Plantation; Guides; Transnational; History

This research will identify changes in the sugar plantation as it spread globally, including its geographical shift, the end of dependence on enslaved labour and evolving cultivation and production methods. It will also search for continuities in the sugar plantation's logic and functioning over time. Key research questions include: How did approaches to sugar production change over time? How did authors write about the sources, organisation and productivity of plantation labour? How did changing/consistent approaches to plantation labour and sugar production relate to one another? These questions will guide me in analysing the role of written knowledge of sugar production in the global, trans-imperial spread of the plantation complex. My research builds on the work of scholars who reveal a historical continuum from the colonisation of the 'New World', to plantation slavery, to modern capitalism with its excesses and harms. Their work underpins my understanding of the plantation economy's functioning, legacy and its key role in globalisation, capitalism and the developmental disparity between global north and south. My research will provide new insights into the plantation complex's history using an under-studied collection of primary sources. My research will use English and Dutch plantation guides. These guides convey knowledge of plantation management to ensure efficiency in sugar production. I will analyse these guides to explore change and continuity in the plantation complex over time, relating to two major themes: sugar cultivation and manufacturing techniques, and plantation labour. I will structure the research thematically within a chronological framework, rather than a guide-by-guide analysis. I will supplement this with the papers of plantation guide authors. I anticipate dividing the dissertation into three sections: Pre-emancipation Caribbean guides (approx. 1750 - 1820). Potential themes include the agro-industrial plantation's idealised functioning, planters' preoccupation with enslaved labourers' productivity and reproduction, and ameliorationism. Post-emancipation Caribbean guides (approx. 1830 - 1850). Pertinent themes include the transition from enslaved to 'free' labour, the consequent decline in plantation productivity and mechanical and chemical scientific knowledge of sugar production. Extra-Caribbean plantation guides (approx. 1794 - 1910). This section will form the research's main part. These guides are increasingly transnational in scope, often referencing two or more sugar-producing locations (including Bengal, Australia, the Dutch East Indies, Ceylon and Natal) for a global audience of sugar producers. The specific function and utility of plantation guides as a resource ensure my work's originality. Although some guides have been subject to focused studies, and others are referenced elsewhere, they have not been studied together as a united body of primary sources. The genre's specificity lends sufficient focus to examine the plantation globally, in a manageable and defined project, rather than being restricted to localised case studies. Furthermore, written by economically-minded men responding to the contingencies of their time, plantation guides are uniquely valuable sources in understanding the logic of plantation management, particularly its connection to labour exploitation and imperial expansion and the technology and labour of sugar production. While historians have studied the plantation's functioning on local and global scales, they have neglected the role of written knowledge in the development and global spread of the plantation complex. My dissertation will address this gap. My research lies at the intersection of the histories of plantations, technology, slavery, labour and knowledge production and circulation. It will draw these diverse strands of historiographical enquiry together using a unique collection of primary sources.

这项研究将查明甘蔗种植园在全球蔓延过程中发生的变化，包括其地理位置的转移、对奴役劳动的依赖的结束以及不断演变的种植和生产方法。它还将寻找甘蔗种植园的逻辑和运作随时间的连续性。关键的研究问题包括：糖生产的方法如何随着时间的推移而变化？作者们是如何描述种植园劳动力的来源、组织和生产力的？种植园劳动力和糖生产的不断变化/一致的方法是如何相互关联的？这些问题将引导我分析蔗糖生产的书面知识在种植园复杂的全球跨帝国传播中的作用。我的研究建立在学者的工作上，他们揭示了从“新世界”的殖民化到种植园奴隶制，再到现代资本主义及其过度和危害的历史连续性。他们的工作巩固了我对种植园经济的运作、遗产及其在全球化、资本主义和全球南北发展差距中的关键作用的理解。我的研究将提供新的见解种植园复杂的历史使用一个未充分研究收集的主要来源。我的研究将使用英语和荷兰语的种植园指南。这些指南传授种植园管理知识，以确保制糖生产的效率。我将分析这些指南，探索随着时间的推移，在种植园复杂的变化和连续性，涉及两个主要主题：糖种植和制造技术，种植园劳动力。我将在一个时间框架内按主题组织研究，而不是一个指南一个指南的分析。我将用种植园指南作者的论文来补充这一点。我预计将论文分为三个部分：解放前加勒比指南（约。（1750 - 1820）。潜在的主题包括农工种植园的理想化功能，种植园主对奴役劳动者的生产力和繁殖的关注，以及改良主义。解放后的加勒比指南（约。（1830 - 1850）。相关的主题包括从奴役劳动力向“自由”劳动力的过渡、随之而来的种植园生产力的下降以及制糖业的机械和化学科学知识。加勒比海外种植园指南（约1794 - 1910）。这一部分将构成本研究的主体部分。这些指南的范围越来越跨国化，经常为全球糖生产者提供两个或更多的产糖地点（包括孟加拉、澳大利亚、荷属东印度群岛、锡兰和纳塔尔）。种植园指南作为一种资源的特定功能和效用确保了我的工作的原创性。尽管一些指南已经过重点研究，而另一些指南则在其他地方引用，但它们尚未作为一个统一的主要来源进行研究。这一类型的特殊性使我们有足够的关注力在一个可管理和定义的项目中全面审视种植园，而不是局限于本地化的案例研究。此外，种植园指南是由具有经济头脑的人根据他们所处时代的突发事件撰写的，是理解种植园管理逻辑的独特宝贵资源，特别是它与劳动力剥削和帝国扩张以及制糖生产技术和劳动力的联系。虽然历史学家研究了种植园在地方和全球范围内的功能，但他们忽视了书面知识在种植园综合体的发展和全球传播中的作用。我的论文将解决这个差距。我的研究是在种植园，技术，奴隶制，劳动和知识生产和流通的历史的交叉点。它将利用独特的主要来源收集这些不同的史学调查。