Guy Pierre, a Haitian historian who now lives in Mexico, has written a remarkable book. Although ostensibly about the impact of the Great Depression on Haiti, it is in fact an economic history of the country covering the period from the mid-nineteenth century to the Second World War. In so doing, he has rendered a great service and has greatly improved our understanding of the Haitian economy. Although published relatively recently, the book was first conceived in the 1980s and Pierre has been working on it ever since. It is a testament to the value of intense research and deep scholarship.
Pierre sees the Great Depression as one of the many business cycles to which capitalism has been subject and starts his work with a detailed exegesis on the different theoretical approaches that economists have taken to the subject. He sees Haitian economic development as subject to these different cycles and the Great Depression as one, among many, which have hit the country hard. It is hard to disagree with this, especially as the Great Depression may not even have been the worst externally induced cycle from which Haiti has suffered.
Pierre's starting point (1848/9) is particularly appropriate as it marks the beginning of the long political rule of Faustin-Élie Soulouque, who declared himself Emperor as Faustin I two years after assuming the presidency in 1847. It is also the moment, however, when any hopes that Haiti might have had of re-establishing its economy on the basis of sugar exports were ended. Although sugar exports had been the basis of the French colony of Saint Domingue, all efforts to revive them after the establishment of Haiti as an independent country in 1804 failed.
Instead, Haiti built its economy on the basis of four exports, one of which – coffee – would come to dominate all others. Thus, the cycles in the Haitian economy revolved around the coffee sector and, in particular, the world price over which Haiti had no control. These coffee exports paid for almost all imports and the customs duties on exports and imports then provided 99 per cent of government revenue, making the Haitian state especially vulnerable to what happened to the world price of coffee.
Haitian economic history has been frustrated by the lack of easily accessible data on the most important statistics. This has led to wild exaggerations and generalisations about Haiti based on little more than prejudice and ignorance. Pierre goes to extraordinary lengths to track down the data needed to fill the gaps in the historiography and, in so doing, has demonstrated that much of Haitian history needs to be rewritten.
The book covers the long US military occupation from 1915 to 1934, which of course coincided with the Great Depression. Although Haiti was allowed to preserve the veneer of independence, in practice all important decisions were taken by the occupying power including the management of the economy. By prioritising payment of the public debt, and ruling out default, the US authorities deprived Haiti of the flexibility enjoyed by other Latin American governments during the Great Depression. Worse, by insisting on the maintenance of a fixed exchange rate, the US Financial Adviser placed the Haitian state in an impossible position.
Pierre's book contains a number of fascinating letters from representatives of the Haitian state to their overlords in Washington DC. One written on 29 September 1931, at the height of the economic crisis, pleads with the US State Department not to insist on cutting public sector jobs to balance the budget for fear of ‘condamner à la fin ou à la mort des citoyens haïtiens’ (‘condemning some Haitians to a deadly end’, p. 453). The reply is not included in the book, but all scholars are in agreement that the harsh treatment given to Haiti during the US occupation was a leading factor in the rise of ‘Papa Doc’ Duvalier a few years later.
The US Marines were withdrawn in 1934, but US oversight continued until 1947. Pierre is particularly informative on this period, when it is widely but incorrectly assumed that Haiti had regained its sovereignty. And all chapters are buttressed by a wide array of tables and figures from little-known sources that are conveniently presented at the end. All in all, it is an outstanding book and deserves to be translated into English and/or Spanish as soon as possible.
