ABSTRACT
The exclusion of American shipping would mean expensive food for their slaves, cutting back profits and producing periodic famine. To the planters of the British West Indies the advantages of such a plant as food for their slaves seemed obvious. Reconstruction work on the site was to begin immediately with the specific view of cultivating introduced economic and medicinal plants. Cheap food for the slave populations would give British sugar producers a competitive edge, and the decision conformed to the new assertiveness of the Board of Trade. In those Pacific Islands where it was the single staple, there were always problems of seasonal scarcity — problems which survive in the Marquesas and on Truk Island where it remains the principal food crop. Although the breadfruit slipped into the West Indian diet, it never quite lived up to expectations or replaced other basic foods.
