Imperial profits – the return on British investments in Africa, 1869-1969

• In this paper, we study the return on British investments in Sub-Saharan Africa during the colonial period. The paper analyzes investments in a larger set of countries and over a longer time-period than what has been done in any previous studies, using modern-day methods of estimating the return on investments. Our results show that the return was substantially higher on investments in Africa than the return on investments in Britain or elsewhere in the world during this time. The return was highest during the Scramble for Africa and during the interwar period. The latter fact has been almost completely missed in previous research in the profitability of imperialism. The high return was clearly associated with investments in mines in Southern Africa in general (and South African in particular), and thus seem attributable to a combination of rich mineral deposits, and colonial institutions driving down many of the costs associated with the extraction of these resources.

Ämnesord

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Ekonomisk historia (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economic History (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

Africa

colonialism

capital

return on investments

Publikations- och innehållstyp

vet (ämneskategori)

kon (ämneskategori)