Thomas Horton James was a merchant who managed several failed ventures in Australia and the Pacific in the 1820s and 30s. In 1831, he purchased a ship and sailed to Hawaii where he observed the increasing influence of American missionaries and entrepreneurs in the kingdom. This pamphlet was published on his return to London in 1832. It petitioned the British government to establish a proprietary colony (a colony under the control of a private individual, run for profit) over Hawaii and the Bonin Islands.
James’s colony was to take over American-owned sugar and tobacco plantations to counter what he perceived would be a drop in trade if enslavement was abolished in the West Indies – the slave trade had been made illegal in the British Empire in 1807 but the institution of enslavement was not abolished until 1834. He believed that any labour shortages, if not supplied by Indigenous Hawaiians could be met by transporting ‘free labour’ (i.e. indentured labour) from elsewhere in the Pacific, particularly New Zealand. James’s opinions and ideas were based on prejudiced views of different ethnic groups that were prevalent in the nineteenth century.
In addition to his hopes to establish plantations on Hawaii, James also believed that taking advantage of the deep harbour at Honolulu would ensure the existence of a major port ideally situated to control trade to the western coast of the Americas. It would also give British traders access to China and Japan as well as providing a safe harbour for whaling ships.
James's ideas were ultimately rejected by the British government, although Britain did maintain an interest in Hawaii and Hawaiian affairs until the annexation of the country by the United States of America in 1898.