In order to try to at least temporarily alleviate some of these problems, the planters of the British West Indies had to keep the sugar production going by finding new markets. They used these to export their sugar states (1875 - 1897) and Canada (1898 - 1912). This was profitable for the planters as these two markets were very developed, wealthy countries. Of course, this period of profitability only lasted for a couple of years.
In 1882, England sent a Royal Commission to the British Caribbean, in order to make an estimate of the problems and figure out if sugar production was still viable or not. They decided that the decline in sugar production was due to subsidized beet sugar from Europe. Years after in 1897, the British government sent the Norman Commission to study the sugar industry in the British Caribbean. Their findings were exactly like those of the Royal Commission. His suggestion was that sugar should remain the staple crop in Barbados, Antigua and St. Kitts. He encouraged all other islands to search for new crops.
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