The indigenous people were soon outnumbered by European planters in the 1740s, who found they could grow sugar there in abundance, using enslaved African labour.

Because Europe's only sources of sugar at that time were limited quantities from the Canaries and Cyprus, the West Indies became economically significant.

The Grenadines passed from France to the British in 1763; farmers Alexander Campbell and John Aitcheson bought the island of Mustique that year.

Mustique's seven plantations were abandoned and eventually swallowed up by scrub, leaving remnants, such as the sugar mill at "Endeavour" and its "Cotton House".

There was one dilapidated building used for picking over the cotton, and the remaining villagers lived in corrugated tin shacks which desperately needed upgrading.Significant improvements were made over the subsequent years.

According to a 2018 report, "since the 1960s, Mustique has been an exclusive sanctuary for royalty, rock stars, celebrities and heads of industry to relax in anonymity".

[13] In 1960, Princess Margaret, the sister of Queen Elizabeth II, accepted as a wedding present Colin Tennant's gift of a 4 ha (10 acres) plot of land, where she built a villa called Les Jolies Eaux.

[14] Before her death, the princess gave the property to her son David Armstrong-Jones, Viscount Linley to avoid later payment of inheritance tax.

[17] Most of the island locals, who work in Mustique, (roughly 500 people) [18] live in Lovell and for years were served by a church, school, restaurant, a medical clinic, a store and a police station.

[21] When The Mustique Company was formed in 1968, its new manager Hugo Money-Coutts obtained import and other tax free status in return for an annual fee.

[22] In 1976, due to financial problems, Tennant sold a controlling interest (60%) in The Mustique Company to Venezuelan industrialists Hans Neumann and Alberto Vollmer Herrera[23].

Neumann, a Czech national who had survived the Holocaust by hiding in plain sight in Berlin[24], led the operations for the consortium, while Vollmer provided financial backing.

After 2007, major improvements were made on the island including a desalination plant, solar panels to provide electricity and the recycling of certain types of trash.

[8] In 1988 Hans Neumann set up the ownership structure as it is today and Mustique Island was transformed into a private limited company with the 104 homeowners as minority shareholders.

The business was owned by Basil Charles for over twenty years; he was previously the barman at Tennant's Cotton House Hotel.

One report states that "the makeover of Basil’s Bar sought to pay homage to its heritage (a legendary island institution), while updating it in a chic, sophisticated and playful way.

Try the extreme sports of kite-surfing or deep sea diving and fishing, or take a more gentle approach, with a snorkel in the many hidden coves around the island followed by a nurturing spa treatment.

Children are indulged with a host of fun activities, with water sports galore, drive in cinemas for golf buggies, tennis, pony camp, beach picnics and treasure hunts, kite flying competitions and children’s menus everywhere.The primary beach is Macaroni on the Atlantic side; large waves make it more suitable for surfing than for swimming.

[41] From the 1960s, its visitors began to include a group whose influence created its current cachet: Lord Glenconner, Oliver Messel, Princess Margaret, Tommy Hilfiger and Mick Jagger.

[48] Former Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Boris Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds spent Christmas 2019 on Mustique with the Bismarck family.

[49] Other people who have holidayed on Mustique over the years include Liam Gallagher, Johnny Depp, Kate Moss, Paul McCartney, Jon Bon Jovi, Peter Lynch, Denzel Washington, Pierre Lagrange, Tom Ford, John Travolta and Bryan Adams.