ABSTRACT
BY THE 1890s, the sugar industry was in crisis throughout the West Indies and the Colonial Secretary resolved to tackle the problem by dispatching a Royal Commission to take evidence throughout the islands. Chaired by Sir Henry Norman, a former Governor of Jamaica, the Commission sought the view of all interested parties. And no one was more interested than Henry Clarke. For years, Henry had denounced the sugar industry and its harmful social consequences. More recently he had advocated the development of ‘central factories’ to encourage small farmers to cultivate cane away from the old estates.
