4. Bulmer-Thomas, Barbara and Bulmer-Thomas, Victor. The Economic History of Belize: From the 17th Centruy to Post-Independence. Benque Viejo del Carmen, Belize: Cubola Productions, 2012.
The Economic History of Belize is a relatively short text (214 pages including references) covering Belizean economic history from initial European settlement in the mid-17th century to 2012. While written primarily by an economist, it is intended for undergraduates and general readers alike.
The Bulmer Thomas’s text contains only six chapters, four of which are on Belizean economic history. Chapter one dispels a handful of myths surrounding the origins of Belize and Chapter five takes up a case study of the Belize Botanical Station in the early 20th century. Chapters two, three, four and six explore economic history directly and correspond to the periods (1) origins-1763, (2) 1763-1862, (3) 1862-1981, and (4) 1981-present respectively. The text clearly links geopolitical conditions, imperial policy, and the local elite’s successful lobbying to the shifting fortunes of logwood and mahogany, to the lucrative entrepôt trade with Spanish Central America, and to the modest success of the botanical station. The authors effectively utilize economic and statistical data to drive their claims and their final chapter on the Belizean economy in 2012 is strong in part because of the wealth of data available and in part because they address poverty and unemployment.
This text certainly has its limitations. It has been criticized for its historiography; economic history may not be as neatly linked with political status as the dates outlining chapter breaks clearly suggest. It has also been noted that it is relatively quiet when it comes to the ideas, actions and economic concerns of workers in Belize. In addition, coverage of the economy is uneven at times. For example, logwood and mahogany are explored at much greater depth at their heights than export crops like sugar, citrus, or bananas are during theirs. Finally, some have criticized the inclusion of the “unsound work of mythmaker Emory King” and the exclusion of major works of Belizean economic history such as Norman Ashcraft’s Colonialism and Underdevelopment.
The broad scope and short length, as well as the prose being written for a more general readership, lends this text to be considered early on in the process of reading Belizean history. Victor Bulmer-Thomas’s expertise as an economist manifests itself in a plethora of tables and charts that prove themselves useful for referencing when examining other historical works. I recommend that this text be among the three to five initial texts examined and kept handy for future references.
About the authors: Barbara and Victor Bulmer-Thomas are a scholarly couple based in England. Barbara is a Belizean-born plant taxonomist and Victor is a British-born economist and economic historian with focuses on Latin America and the Caribbean. Victor graduated from the University of Oxford with a PhD in economics in 1975. He is among Britain’s foremost scholars of Latin America and the Caribbean, holding the official title “Reader in Economics in Latin America.” This is the only monograph explicitly about Belize that Victor was written in his career.
Links:
Ohio State University Libraries does not have this text.
OhioLINK – The Economic History of Belize
1. Thirteen Chapters of a History of Belize by Assad Shoman
2. The Making of Modern Belize by Cedric Grant
3. The Formation of a Colonial Society by O. Nigel Bolland
4. The Economic History of Belize by Barbara Bulmer-Thomas and Victor Bulmer-Thomas
5. Colonialism and Underdevelopment by Norman Ashcraft
6. Decolonizing Development by Joel Wainwright
Further Reading