Economic Self-Interest Dictated Loyalty to Britain; While the Mainland Colonies Were Outgrowing the Imperial Economy, the Island Colonies Were Increasingly Dependent on the Discriminatory Duties Guaranteeing Their Home Market Monopoly

Sugar also made the planters economically dependent on Britain. For much of the eighteenth century, British sugar planters were unable to compete with the price of sugar offered by rival French producers. The inability of the islands to compete openly with the French was a cause of friction with North America, where northern merchants preferred to buy from the French West Indies. Only the monopoly of the British market allowed British sugar planters to flourish. Hence, while the mainland colonies were outgrowing the imperial economy, the island colonies were increasingly dependent on the discriminatory duties that guaranteed their monopoly of the home market. In the event of an imperial rift, economic self-interest dictated loyalty to Britain.

--Andrew Jackson O'Shaughnessy, An Empire Divided: The American Revolution and the British Caribbean, Early American Studies (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000), 58-59.