Abstract:
During the period under review the economy of Sri Lanka was sustained through
plantation activities. Among them rubber, tea, coconuts and the by products of coconut
such as copra, coconut oil, poonac, coir yarn etc. played a vital role in stregnthening the
economy of the country.
The demand for rubber became impressively higher due to the rapid development of the
motor industry during and after the World War I. United States of America was the chief
buyer of rubber. the great economic depression firstly occured in USA in 1929, had its
repercussions in the primary producing ecnomics like Sri Lanka in general. This lead to a
remporary halts in the gradual economic expansion that had been going on in Sri Lanka
for about a hundred years. However the depression did not affected the economy of the
Galle district compared to the rest of the country in general.
The planataion in the Galle district developed in small holdings, managed by the planters
themselves with the local labour and indegeneous capital. In this enviorment the Galle
district planters had the advantage of their cultivation of alternative cash crops and the
dependence on subsistance agriculture and in cottage industries making use of their
available natural resources and the technical know-how. This led to a miracles recovery
of the economy when the rest of the island was in a crisis.
This paper examiners this situatiion in general and the recovery of Galle economy and its
features during the period of the great depression.
