Of these islands the population perhaps numbers 1,500,000, mostly blacks, and mulattoes, with a small percentage of white officials and merchants. The larger islands of Jamaica with 900,000 people, Barbados with 200,000 and Trinidad with 300,000 are the only ones worth visiting for business purposes, as merchants in these places have trading connections with residents of the smaller localities. Kingston in Jamaica, Georgetown in Barbados, and Port of Spain in Trinidad are the only large cities, and have good hotels and prosperous business houses.
English is spoken exclusively everywhere and American money accepted at its face value as readily as English currency in all these possessions. The larger islands have branches of Canadian and English banks with direct connection in New York. Credits are good.
In 1913 the exports were as follows:
| Trinidad and Tobago | $26,000,000 |
| Jamaica and her outlying islands | 11,000,000 |
| Barbados | 5,000,000 |
| Leeward Islands | 2,800,000 |
| Windward Islands | 2,900,000 |
| Bahamas | 1,300,000 |
| $49,000,000 |
Trinidad, (with Tobago, twenty miles distant), 1754 square miles in area, is perhaps the most important. Of the $26,000,000 it should be noted that $11,000,000 was for coal, trans-shipped and not produced in the country, thereby reducing her actual productive power in money to $15,000,000. Her chief exports were as follows:
| Cocoa | $7,000,000 |
| Sugar | 2,000,000 |
| Asphalt | 1,300,000 |
| Petroleum | 400,000 |
| Cocoanuts | 500,000 |
in addition to copra, rum and molasses. Of these exports the United States took $7,000,000, France $2,500,000, England $2,400,000, Canada $875,000, and Germany $675,000.
Her imports in 1913 were $13,750,000, England supplying $4,500,000; the United States $4,000,000, Canada, $1,250,000, France $300,000 and Germany $200,000.
Both England and Canada are favored by a preferential tariff.
Jamaica covers an area of 4424 square miles. Its exports in 1913 were $11,000,000 as against $14,000,000 in imports. Her chief exports are: