Trinidad stamps
Ed Fletcher sketches the history of Trinidad, from its first inhabitants to its first private postage stamps, and then to its official colonial issues from Queen Victoria to George VI
At about the time Mesolithic migrants arrived in numbers on Great Britain’s shores from the European Continent (c. 7,000 BC), South American tribes began to cross the narrow waters that separate modern Venezuela from the islands of the Caribbean, and to settle on Trinidad’s coasts. They would later develop agricultural skills, but initially exploited the vast oyster beds and the large and valuable pearls awaiting discovery in those shallow waters. Native traders came from many parts of South America, bringing pottery and textiles to Trinidad’s busy foreshore markets to exchange for pearls.
On his third voyage to the New World in the 1490s Christopher Columbus is said to have sighted an island with three prominent peaks which brought the Holy Trinity into his Catholic thoughts and prompted him to name the island La Isla de la Trinidad. The discovery would soon afterwards shatter many relatively peaceful native lives as news of the region’s pearl riches reached Europe. Insatiable demand for pearls, as well as for silver, gold and other treasures, fuelled greater demand for slave labour across the New World. Spanish fortune hunters exterminated or enslaved the earlier native settlers, and spent the next century extracting and carrying off to Spain all the wealth their slave labour forces could extract. Britain became involved when Sir Walter Raleigh stumbled on Trinidad during his voyage to Eldorado in 1595. He and his small force held the island for several months, eventually deciding that plundering home-bound Spanish ships brought greater profits than digging or diving for treasure.
Another century and several European wars passed before British interest in the island rekindled. British privateers based in Jamaica captured Trinidad in January 1666 – only to surrender to French invaders a few months later. Squabbles between Dutch, British, French and Spanish claimants simmered for more than a century until 1749, when Britain and France agreed to uphold the island’s neutrality whenever Europe’s war clouds blew in their direction. The agreement
brought an uneasy peace that endured for almost fifty years. By 1791 the population had climbed to 15,020 (541 whites; 14,170 slaves). In that year 37 sugar factories, 99 cotton factories, and four coffee factories operated at full capacity. The unexpected discovery of nutmegs on Trinidad added 40 nutmeg plantations, all using slave labour. Then, in 1802, as the Napoleonic Wars drew to a close, the island became a permanent British possession, its status ratified by a European treaty in 1814.
The 1840s brought another Trinidad product to greater attention. It was described in the English press in these glowing terms: In consequence of a reduction in the duty on cocoa, a very nutritious and cheap food is now placed within reach of Britons from noble and middling classes. [..] Two varieties grow well in Trinidad, to which colony the English plantations are now chiefly confined. The best variety is called Creole cocoa. It begins to bear fruit after about five years’ growth, and can yield good harvests for twenty years. [..] An excise duty on chocolate, and heavy duties on cocoa have hitherto prevented any great consumption of these two articles in England. The Navy regularly bought up almost all production to supply each sailor’s allowance of an ounce per day. With duties now greatly reduced cocoa has come down to half the price of coffee, and one-fifth the price of tea.
- Hereford Journal Trinidad’s agricultural and commercial activities soon encouraged islanders to clamour for improved postal services; but civil servants in London thought they might run at a loss, so the first official stamp issues suffered delays for several years. One man who grew overly impatient for newfangled adhesive stamps owned a coastal ferry vessel, Lady Mcloyd, that carried passengers, parcels and foreign-bound mail on the thirty-mile trip between San Fernando and Port of Spain. To solve the problem of a shortage of small coins for change when charging for tickets and parcel receipts, the proprietor had his own private stamps printed. They carried an image of the Lady Mcloyd vessel; were sold only at the ship’s boarding station; and had to be stuck to tickets and parcel labels before boarding the ferry. Selling at 5 cents (1d) per stamp when issued, a used v.f. example might set you back at least £3,000 today.)
The seated figure of Britannia featured on the early stamps of several
British colonies, including, when finally issued in 1851, those of Trinidad, where the same figure appeared on the colony’s stamps up to 1869. The island then enjoyed more than a quarter of a century using colonial key plate issues with the head of Queen Victoria in a standard circular frame. Then, in 1896, larger Britannia stamps, with a range of values from ½d to £1, decorated Trinidad’s postal covers. Even when King Edward VII took the throne in 1903, Britannia monopolized all issues, save for a Landing of Columbus recess-printed commemorative in 1898. Nor did the postal amalgamation of Trinidad and Tobago in 1913 depose Britannia from the joint issues. A nine-stamp set of recess-printed pictorials carrying views of Trinidad and Tobago appeared in the reign of George V in 1933. A similar set of fourteen with views and the head of George VI were issued from 1938 to 1940. You can see several examples of stamps from this fascinating Caribbean island in our pictorial prices round-up.