| dc.description.abstract | The issue of how elites as a social group come to be, how they maintain their
position and how they affect the society they come to control is very much at the centre
of the inequality debate. The present paper studies one of the most extreme unequal
societies ever recorded, that of the sugar-based economies in the West Indies, and
examines the emergence and persistence of its economic elite by focusing on the island
of St. Croix in the Danish West Indies. The study spans 154 years, enabling us to study
long-run elite persistence along with the effects that major economic, institutional, and
social changes had on it. Our study shows that elite persistence remained high
throughout this period, despite several potential ‘critical junctures’ taking place. The
Crucian elite not only managed to maintain its relative standing but also to accumulate a
growing share of the total wealth available on the island. Maintaining a grip on the
economy did, nonetheless, coincide with a severe and rapid impoverishment in absolute
terms. | sv |
