Freeport, established under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement of 1955, was granted sweeping tax concessions and administrative autonomy that made it effectively a city operating outside normal Bahamian jurisdiction — a deliberate experiment in free-market urban development backed by Wallace Groves and the Grand Bahama Port Authority. The arrangement remained politically contentious for decades.
This issue marks the fiftieth anniversary of that agreement.
Freeport, established under the Hawksbill Creek Agreement of 1955, was granted sweeping tax concessions and administrative autonomy that made it effectively a city operating outside normal Bahamian jurisdiction — a deliberate experiment in free-market urban development backed by Wallace Groves and the Grand Bahama Port Authority. The arrangement remained politically contentious for decades.
This issue marks the fiftieth anniversary of that agreement.