Editing Economy of Seychelles (section)

== Economic history ==
{{More|History of Seychelles}}
The French originally settled the [[Seychelles]] in 1770, setting up plantations which relied heavily on slave labour to produce cotton, sugar, rice, and maize. The British took control of the Seychelles during the [[Napoleonic Wars]] without removing the French upper class.

After the British prohibited slavery in 1835, the influx of African workers did not end because British warships captured [[Indian Ocean slave trade|Arab slavers]] and forced the liberated slaves to work on plantations as apprentices without pay.

In the 1960s, about 33% of the working population worked at plantations, and 20% worked in the public or government sector.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://catalog.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=Economic+study+of+the+seychelles&Search_Code=TAL2&SL=None&PID=3ef5tcc4nTlpyPr3xA4cH6qhBBQj9&SEQ=20130408092258&CNT=50&HIST=1 |title=UCLA Library Catalog - Titles |publisher=Catalog.library.ucla.edu |access-date=2013-04-22 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://archive.today/20130626182024/http://catalog.library.ucla.edu/cgi-bin/Pwebrecon.cgi?Search_Arg=Economic+study+of+the+seychelles&Search_Code=TAL2&SL=None&PID=3ef5tcc4nTlpyPr3xA4cH6qhBBQj9&SEQ=20130408092258&CNT=50&HIST=1 |archive-date=2013-06-26 }}</ref>

=== Advent of the tourist industry (1971) ===
{{Unreferencedsect|date=December 2024}}
[[File:Seychelles 083.JPG|thumb|left|Aircraft at [[Seychelles International Airport]].]]

Plantations were the main industry of the Seychelles until 1971, when the international airport opened. Overnight, tourism became a serious industry, basically dividing the economy into plantations and tourism. The tourism sector paid better, and the plantation economy could only expand so far.

The plantation sector of the economy declined in prominence, and [[tourism]] and [[fishing]] became the primary industries of Seychelles. In the 1960s, about 33% of the working population worked at plantations, but by 2006 it was less than 3%.

While the tourism and [[fishing industry|industrial fishing]] industries were flourishing in the late 1990s, the traditional [[plantation]] economy atrophied. [[Cinnamon]] barks and [[copra]]—traditional export crops—dwindled to negligible amounts by 1991. There were no exports of copra in 1996; 318 tons of cinnamon bark was exported in 1996, reflecting a decrease of 35% in cinnamon bark exports from 1995.

The US military [[Indian Ocean Station|Indian Ocean Tracking Station]] on Mahé operated from 1963 until 1996.