Robinson Crusoe & The
Establishment of Unequal
Wealth and Tourism
Jenna Sheeran
Thesis
 The foundations that allow some to be tourists and some to be
too poor to leave their “native” countries can be traced back to
the colonial practices of obtaining wealth more or less easily
from the natural and human resources on the Caribbean.
 I will explore how the mobility of European colonists fueled
such a drastic economic inequality that has persisted into
modern times by using ideas from Mimi Sheller and Stephen
Hymer in regards to the economics of colonialism.
 By doing so, it should become clear that tourism is not just a
way for Caribbean islands to generate revenue, but that it is a
continuation of colonial ideas in that it still disadvantages the
Caribbean from both an economic and an ethical standpoint.
How Economic Inequality
was Established
“Robinson Crusoe and the Secret
of Primitive Accumulation”
 Stephen Hymer: Canadian Economist
 Examines how Crusoe develops his wealth in a
book called Robinson Crusoe’s Economic Man
 “Once capitalism is on its legs, it maintains this
separation and reproduces it on a continuously
expanding scale. But a prior stage is needed to clear
the way for the capitalist system and get it started –
a period of primitive accumulation” (Hymer)
Stephen Hymer’s Cycles of
Economic Control
 M-C-M (Money-Commodity-Money): “[Crusoe]
starts off with money, exchanges it for commodities
and ends up with more money”
 Huge investment return because of mobility: “…this
voyage made me both a sailor and a merchant; for I
brought home five pounds nine ounces of gold-dust
for my adventure, which yielded me in London, at
my return, almost 300 pounds…” (Defoe 10). the
items he traded were only worth 40 pounds
Stephen Hymer’s Cycles of
Economic Control
 C-L-C (Commodity-Labor-Commodity): “[Crusoe]
uses his stock of commodities to gain control over
other people’s labor and to produce more
commodities, ending up with a small empire”
 Crusoe uses the natural resources of the island
(which he possesses for free) as a means of
providing for the individuals that come upon the
island, and thus is able to control them and use their
labor to produce goods that allow for his escape.
 Friday’s servitude
 English Captain’s debt for his life
Economic Continuities Between
Colonialism & Tourism
Economic Control Cycles &
Tourism Referenced in A Small
Place
 Kincaid satires how Westerners perceive themselves to have
become wealthy based on their own merits: “…the West got
rich not from the free (free-in this case meaning got-fornothing) and then undervalued labour, for generations, of the
people like me you see walking around you in Antigua but
from the ingenuity of small shopkeepers in Sheffield and
Yorkshire and Lancashire…” (Kincaid Loc 77).
 Position of the tourist made possible by “superiority” of
ancestors: “…and since you are being an ugly person this ugly
but joyful thought will swell inside you: their ancestors were
not clever in the way yours were and not ruthless in the way
yours were, for then would it not be you who would be in
harmony with nature and backwards in the charming way?”
(Kincaid Loc 143).
Post-Colonial Economic
Inequality in A Small Place
 Superior/inferior: “Every native would like to find
a way out, every native would like a rest, every
native would like a tour. But some natives-most
natives in the world-cannot go anywhere. They are
too poor. They are too poor to go anywhere…and
they are too poor to live properly in the place where
they live…” (Kincaid Loc 157).
 Inferior status as a source of joy for the superior:
“[The natives] envy your ability to turn their own
banality and boredom into a source of pleasure for
yourself” (Kincaid Loc 163).
The Caribbean Garden of EdenMarketing the Caribbean
 “In this part I found melons upon the ground, in
great abundance, and grapes upon the trees. The
vines had spread, indeed, over the trees, and the
clusters of grapes were just now in their prime, very
ripe and rich” (Defoe 63).
 “[The Caribbean] is represented as a perpetual
Garden of Eden in which visitors can indulge all
their desires and find a haven for relaxation,
rejuvenation, and sensuous abandon (Sheller 13).
Tourism & Bargaining
 Continuing with the idea that the Caribbean is a Garden of Eden for
tourists, bargaining is a practice that develops from the thinking that one
is entitled to the goods and productions of the Caribbean. In a more
modern sense, the practice of bargaining is similar to the idea that the
Caribbean is a place where goods can be attained for nothing or almost
nothing, which is what happens when tourists use both the exchange rate
and the destitute economic conditions of local sellers to their advantage.
 There are various blogs and tourism resources that instruct prospective
tourists how to bargain for items in tourist destinations. Most of these
sources say that bargaining is something that will typically always work,
and that tourists can expect to be able to haggle sellers to sell their
product(s) for 15-50% less than the original price.
 This is a small but relevant example of how tourism utilizes the elevated
economic status of the tourist in inferior host nations. The sellers are
forced to submit to bargaining because their only market is to sell to
tourists, showing that once the divides between economically superior
and inferior are established, they are reproduced and expanded upon.
Robinson Crusoe Styled
Getaways
 The nostalgia of colonial control and individual wealth is
clearly still attractive to tourists, as many destinations
offer tourism packages that are modeled after Defoe’s
novel.
 The idea of possession and nostalgia is appealed to in the
marketing of an untouched space: “Tobago is home to
the oldest protected rainforest in the Western
Hemisphere. It really is the last of the unspoilt
Caribbean. Once you behold her beauty, you will
understand why Tobago was Robinson Crusoe's isle and why our European settlers fought over her
ownership more than any other Caribbean island”
(Trinidad and Tobago Tourism).
Images From Robinson
Crusoe Tourist Ads
 There are clear
connections between the
economic practices of
colonialism and those of
tourism, suggesting that
the ideas of colonialism
did not really end, but are
instead manifested in the
dynamics of tourism,
which is merely a new
way of occupying and
controlling the
Caribbean.
Takaha White’s post on Art With A
Message Instagram Account
References

Works Cited

Defoe, Daniel. Robinson Crusoe. Philadelphia: G.W. Jacobs, 1913. Print.

Hymer, Stephen. "Robinson Crusoe's Economic Man." Google Books. Routledge Frontiers of Political Economy, n.d.
Web. 23 Jan. 2015.
<http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=89GoAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA42&dq=robinson%2Bcrusoe
%2Band%2Bwealth&ots=NFo06mzM6Z&sig=hqTeUgvJxepsw351lwSmRiISM84#v=onepage&q=robinson%20crus
oe%20and%20wealth&f=false>.

Kincaid, Jamaica. A Small Place. New York: Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 1988. Print.

Nanton, P. "Consuming the Caribbean: From Arawaks to Zombies. By Mimi Sheller (Routledge 2003. Ix plus 252
Pp.)." Journal of Social History 39.4 (2006): 1205-206. Web.

"Robinson Crusoe Style Tourism in Croatia." Robinson Crusoe Style Accommodation for Your Summer Vacation in
Croatia. Adriatic.hr, n.d. Web. 22 Jan. 2015. <http://www.adriatic.hr/en/robinson-tourism>.

"Trinidad & Tobago Tourism." Trinidad & Tobago Tourism. N.p., n.d. Web. 25 Jan. 2015.
<http://amgltd.biz/clientsDetail.php?Trinidad-Tobago-Tourism-29>.

"Vientiane Forum." Bartering. N.p., n.d. Web. 23 Jan. 2015. <http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g293950i11502-k4273944-Bartering-Vientiane_Vientiane_Province.html>.