IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/exehis/v94y2024ics0014498324000627.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Elite persistence and inequality in the Danish West Indies, 1760–1914

Author

Listed:
  • Galli, Stefania
  • Theodoridis, Dimitrios
  • Rönnbäck, Klas

Abstract

The issue of how elites as a social group form, maintain their position, and influence the society they control is central to the debate on inequality. This paper studies one of the most extremely unequal societies ever recorded — the sugar-based economies in the West Indies — by focusing on the island of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies and examines the emergence and persistence of its economic elite. The study relies on a novel dataset that covers the entire population of the island over 154 years, allowing for a long-run analysis of elite persistence and the effects of significant economic, institutional, and social changes. Our study shows that elite persistence remained high in global comparison throughout the period of interest, despite several 'critical junctures'. These junctures only had a temporary effect. We contend that this result can be attributed to three mechanisms of persistence: inheritance, institutional co-optation and limited franchise. Finally, we find that although the Crucian elite maintained its relative standing, it came at the cost of severe impoverishment in absolute terms.

Suggested Citation

  • Galli, Stefania & Theodoridis, Dimitrios & Rönnbäck, Klas, 2024. "Elite persistence and inequality in the Danish West Indies, 1760–1914," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 94(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:94:y:2024:i:c:s0014498324000627
    DOI: 10.1016/j.eeh.2024.101636
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0014498324000627
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.eeh.2024.101636?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    Inequality; Wealth; Persistence; Elites; Caribbean; Slavery;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • D63 - Microeconomics - - Welfare Economics - - - Equity, Justice, Inequality, and Other Normative Criteria and Measurement
    • E01 - Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics - - General - - - Measurement and Data on National Income and Product Accounts and Wealth; Environmental Accounts
    • F54 - International Economics - - International Relations, National Security, and International Political Economy - - - Colonialism; Imperialism; Postcolonialism
    • N36 - Economic History - - Labor and Consumers, Demography, Education, Health, Welfare, Income, Wealth, Religion, and Philanthropy - - - Latin America; Caribbean
    • P16 - Political Economy and Comparative Economic Systems - - Capitalist Economies - - - Capitalist Institutions; Welfare State

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:exehis:v:94:y:2024:i:c:s0014498324000627. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/inca/622830 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.