Cayenne and the transatlantic world-economy. From interdependence to commercial self-organization?

Abstract

Guyana’s colonial history started from an unfavorable place in the geopolitical context created by the European trade interests of the 17th century. The introduction of a slave system began with the decimation of almost all the native groups, thus starting the coercive trade whose exclusive goal was to provide profits for the metropole. To understand the origins of the particular social group that emerged from this systematic exploitation and forced labour, one needs to take an interest in the European economic system. Such a study considers the reification of discourses that are often contradictory to those written by the hand of the system of l’Exclusive.