Imperial Profits. The globalization of financial markets the return on investments in Africa, 1869-1969
Short description
The aim of this project is to estimate the return on capital from British investments in Africa during the colonial era, from the end of the nineteenth century to the middle of the twentieth century. We investigate how the return develops over time, in different parts of Africa.
The aim of this project is to study the possibilities that private investors had of profit from imperialism, from the middle of the nineteenth century until the wave of independence around the 1960s. Our analysis departs from international investors based in Great Britain. This means that we study the concrete investments choices they faced 鈥 for example in domestic British industries, Swedish railways, gold mines in Australia or in South Africa. The overarching research question is concerned with what return was generated from investments in different colonies, and how high this return was in comparison with investments domestically or in non-colonized territories.
The project contributes to our understanding of the first wave of globalization, and its long-term consequences for long-term economic development. By analyzing the return on investments in ventures operating in Africa, we will be able to contribute with new knowledge on the level of financial market integration and on what terms that the periphery was integrated in the expanding global financial markets at the time.
Many colonies, particularly regions rich in natural resources, were heavily influenced by imperialism during the nineteenth century process of globalization. These countries experience differ from other countries in the global periphery 鈥 such as the Nordic countries 鈥 since the colonial institutions imposed limited the possibilities for managing the consequences of globalization. By studying the patterns of international investments and returns, we can describe the complexities of the process of globalization.
In the project, we have constructed a longitudinal database consisting of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, but operating in Africa, during the period 1869 to 1969. The database is used to calculate the total return on investments, including both the dividends and the capital gains, which is by now standardized methods employed in financial history,
Publications related to the research project
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Kondwani Ngoma (forthcoming): 鈥漅egulatory Capture in the British Empire: The British South Africa Company and the Redefinition of Property Rights in Southern Africa鈥, accepted for publication in Business History.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas & Oskar Broberg (2024): 鈥淪wedish Capital and the Coloniality of the Global Economy: Industrial Relations at LAMCO in the 1960s鈥 in Michael McEachrane & Louis Faye (eds.), Decolonial Sweden. Routledge.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2023): 鈥滵en svarta veckan i Nimba 鈥 och dess efterdyningar鈥, Arbetarhistoria.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas, Oskar Broberg and Dimitrios Theodoridis (2022): 鈥滷ool鈥檚 Gold: The Return on Investments in Global Mining, 1869-1969鈥, Journal of European Economic History.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2022): 鈥From defensive to transformative business diplomacy. The British South Africa Company and the end of chartered company rule in Rhodesia, 1910鈥1925鈥, Business History Review.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2022): 鈥滻nstitutions Coloniales, Exploitation Imp茅riale et Rendement des Capitaux Investis: Comparaison des Histoires de la Malaisie et de l鈥橝frique du Sud鈥, Revue d鈥櫭塩onomie Financi猫re
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas, Oskar Broberg and Dimitrios Theodoridis (2022): 鈥淭he Gains of Going Global: The Return on Investments in International Copper-Mining during the Second Industrial Revolution鈥, Born with a Copper spoon. A Global History of Copper 1830-1980. (edited by Robrecht Declercq, Hans Otto Fr酶land and D. J. Money)
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas, Oskar Broberg and Stefania Galli (2022): 鈥淎 Colonial Cash Cow: The Return on Investmens in British Malaya, 1889-1969鈥, Cliometrica 16:149-173.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2021): 鈥漈he Crumble in the Jungle: The London Financial Press and the Early Booms-and-Busts of the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, 1895-1914鈥, Enterprise & Society 22(4): 970-996.
Broberg, Oskar and Klas 搁枚苍苍产盲肠办 (2020): 鈥滱ednan och Bolaget: ett kolonialt perspektiv p氓 gruvbrytning i S谩pmi vid 1900-talets b枚rjan鈥, Historisk Tidskrift 2020 (3): 476-497.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2019): Capital and Colonialism: The Return on British Investments in Africa, 1869-1969. London: Palgrave Macmillan.
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2019): 鈥滽olonialism, kapital och ekonomisk utveckling鈥, Ekonomisk Debatt
搁枚苍苍产盲肠办, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2018): 鈥淎ll that glitters is not gold: The return on British investments in South Africa, 1869-1969鈥, Studies in Economics and Econometrics 42(2):61-79.