V. DEMAND FOR LABOR, KINDS OF LABOR, WAGES.
British Guiana possesses a superabundance of the most fertile land. The planters are wealthy, and well provided with the most complete machinery for the manufacture of sugar. The only deficiency is a lack of labor. The harvest is abundant, but the laborers are few. For example,—on a coffee plantation, called Dankbaarheid, in the county of Berbice, belonging to Mr. Carbery, it was estimated by the owner and other competent persons in September last, that the crop of coffee on the trees exceeded one hundred thousand pounds weight. Of this crop, through deficiency of labor, only forty thousand pounds weight were gathered. Sixty thousand pounds of coffee on that single plantation, worth, in the British market, sixty thousand sterling shillings, or about fifteen thousand dollars, perished for lack of hands to gather it. It is the same to a greater or less extent, on every other plantation. Indeed this deficiency of labor is more peculiarly felt on the sugar estates, upon many of which it is not uncommon for ripe canes, which if manufactured would have produced the value of several thousand pounds sterling, to perish in the field for want of hands to gather it.
There is indeed a great opening for industry of every kind. All sorts of mechanics are sure of steady employment at wages from one to two dollars per day, according to their skill. Seamstresses and domestics are much needed and will find full employment. Any emigrant who can command a small capital, can open a shop, or set up various kinds of business to good advantage. Georgetown, the capital, situated at the mouth of the river Demarara, is a place of about twelve thousand inhabitants, and furnishes abundant employment in all those branches of business usually carried on in a commercial town. New Amsterdam, at the mouth of the Berbice, has about four thousand inhabitants, and there are besides several villages, containing each some hundreds of inhabitants.
The greatest demand however for labor is, on the plantations. Agricultural laborers are always sure of abundant employment and high wages. The labor of agriculture is of various kinds, and may be performed by any man accustomed to work, with little or no previous instruction. It consists principally in cutting up weeds with the hoe, cutting down sugar-cane, and throwing it into boats on the canals, to be transported to the sugar-house; tending the sugar boiling; packing away the sugar; boating it to market; picking and curing coffee, which is very light work; tending cattle; cutting timber; and a great variety of other labor, almost all of the simplest kind.
Every laborer on a plantation has a comfortable house, with a plot of ground annexed, capable of raising a much greater quantity of provisions and poultry than the laborer can consume. For this he pays nothing. He is also provided with medical attendance, medicine, and a support at the expense of the estate, gratis, whenever he is sick. Fuel is abundant, and close at hand. It is needed only for cooking, and the laborer has but to help himself. Clothing, which in that climate is very light, may be amply provided, at one-third the expense incurred for that article in the United States. So many of the wants of the laborer are thus supplied, free of expense to him, or at a very trifling rate, that if he choose to do so, he can lay by a great part of his wages.
The labor on a plantation is divided into tasks which a laborer of any activity can easily perform in four hours. The lowest rate of wages ever paid, is thirty-three and a third cents a task, and very frequently, much more is given. For cutting cane, attending in the boiling house, boating sugar, and several other kinds of labor, higher wages are always paid. The people employed in making sugar, in addition to their wages, are supplied with food at the expense of the estate. This is in addition to the laborer's house, provision ground, fuel, medical attendance, gratuitous schooling for his children, and a variety of other perquisites. The wages are paid weekly in cash.
I have now before me an original journal, for the month of October, 1839, of the plantation Thomas, adjoining Georgetown, owned by Mr. Carbery. This journal is a printed form, with blanks filled up in writing, containing an account for each day of the month, of the number of laborers on the estate; the number actively employed, and in what way; the number, sick, absent, or otherwise prevented from working; the work done each day; with all the articles bought, sold or shipped, and all the money paid on account of the plantation during each day in the month,—in fact a complete history of all the business of the estate for that time. Similar journals are kept on every estate by the head manager, and are transmitted monthly to the proprietor. This excellent custom was derived from the early Dutch settlers.
On the plantation, Thomas, there are three hundred and twenty-five acres of canes in cultivation. It appears by the journal above referred to, that during the month of October, the number of persons employed on the estate, varied from 163 to 176, of which latter number 89 were men, 68 women, 14 boys, and 5 girls. Of these, however, only 106, on an average, were daily at work on the estate. To these laborers there was paid during the month of October, in weekly payments, $1229 16, or an average of $11 60, to each laborer, exclusive of house rent, provision grounds, fuel, medical attendance, and many gratuities beside. It is to be considered that this average amount of wages was earned by men, women, boys and girls, including many old people and invalids, who did but very little, and whose pay was therefore small. It therefore must be obvious that the more active and industrious of the laborers, earned from fifteen to twenty dollars, a month.
This single case, which is taken at random, will serve to show how abundantly the laborer is rewarded. The laborers in this case did not probably work on an average more than five hours per day. They were employed in weeding and cutting cane, and making sugar, and a portion of them as boatmen, watchmen, and mechanics. Though they are all included under the class of agricultural laborers, only about sixty out of the hundred and six were actually at work in the fields. Many more are classed in the journal, "as jobbing and at work about the buildings," that is, engaged in making sugar, and in a great variety of other work necessary on such an estate.