Industries of The Bahamas

This set of vocabulary flashcards covers the various industry sectors of The Bahamas, including primary, secondary, tertiary, and quaternary industries, as well as the history and decline of specific trades like salt, sponging, and wrecking.

Industry

The production of goods and or related services within an economy.

Primary Industry

The category of industry that involves getting raw materials and deals directly with the environment through extraction, such as mining, forestry, farming, and fishing.

Secondary Industry

The category of industry involving manufacturing, which is the processing of raw materials into more valuable end products like coconut to oil or bauxite ore to aluminum.

Tertiary Industry

A service-based industry where the end product is the actual service provided, such as that from teachers, nurses, or the banking and tourist sectors.

Quaternary Industry

A technology-driven sector involving intellectual services such as research development, information sharing, consultancy, financial planning, and designing.

Gross Domestic Product (GDP)

A measure of a country's economic activity; the tourism industry is responsible for approximately $50\%$ of this in The Bahamas.

Freeport

A location on Grand Bahama that holds the distinction of being the nation’s largest manufacturing sector.

Subsistence Farming

The practice of growing crops and raising livestock sufficient only for one’s own use, without any surplus for trade.

Commercial Farming

The practice of growing crops and livestock for sales and export profit.

Eleutheran Adventurers

Settlers who started the export of salt and introduced wrecking to The Bahamas as early as $1648$, writing the first constitution in $1647$.

Turks and Caicos

The number one producer of Bahamian salt that was separated from The Bahamas in $1848$, contributing to the decline of the salt industry.

Gustave Renouard

The Frenchman who introduced the sponging industry to The Bahamas.

The Mud

The nickname for the Great Bahama Bank, which was the main sponging area in the country.

Kraal

A shallow water enclosure where sponges are stored to be soaked before being scraped.

Nassau Sponge Exchange

The location where sponges were sold to mainly Greek merchants using the silent auction method.

Sisal

A plant with a long strong fibre used to make ropes, brought from Yucatan, Mexico in $1845$ by C.R. Nesbit.

Wrecking

The action of causing the destruction of a ship to steal the cargo or salvaging goods from a wrecked ship at sea.

Wreck Master

The designation given to the first person on the scene of a shipwreck.

Elbow Reef Lighthouse

Located in the Abaco islands, it is the last kerosene-burning lighthouse of its kind in the world.

Central Bank of The Bahamas

An institution formed in $1974$ that regulates interest rates, the buying and selling of gold, and the flow of foreign currency.

Bank of Nassau

The first private bank in The Bahamas, formed in $1889$, which was later taken over by RBC in $1917$.

Government Savings Bank

The first public bank in The Bahamas, established in $1835$.

Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)

The first international bank in the country, which opened its flagship branch on November $2, 1908$.