We trace the development of human capital in today's Senegal, Gambia, and Western Mali between 1770 and 1900. European trade, slavery and early colonialism were linked to human capital formation, but this connection appears to have been heterogeneous. The contact with the Atlantic slave trade...

This paper identifies historic patterns in the dialectic between nationalism and development across various East, South, and Southeast Asian nations. Nationalism as the rationale for development is used by regimes to achieve high levels of growth, but also generates exclusivism and hostilities,...

We trace the development of human capital in today’s Senegal, Gambia, and Western Mali between 1770 and 1900. European trade, slavery and early colonialism were linked to human capital formation, but this connection appears to have been heterogeneous. The contact with the Atlantic slave trade...

We study Virginia's suffrage from the early 17th century until the American Revolution using an analytical narrative and econometric analysis of unique data on franchise restrictions. First, we hold that suffrage changes reflected labour market dynamics. Indeed, Virginia’s liberal institutions...

We study Virginia's suffrage from the early 17th century until the American Revolution using an analytical narrative and econometric analysis of unique data on franchise restrictions. First, we hold that suffrage changes reflected labour market dynamics. Indeed, Virginia’s liberal institutions...

Although growth has improved substantially in most African countries in recent years, poverty across the continent has fallen very little in the aggregate. There have been strong poverty reduction performances in some countries, but others exhibit higher poverty rates now than in 1990 despite...

Using a novel method to measure racism at the individual and country level, we show, our measure of racism has a strong negative and significant impact on economic development, quality of institutions, education and social capital. We test different hypotheses concerning the origin of racism and...

After the abolition of slavery in the Indian Ocean and Africa, the world of labor remained unequal, exploitative, and violent, straddling a fine line between freedom and unfreedom. This book explains why. Unseating the Atlantic paradigm of bondage and drawing from a rich array of colonial,...

Prospectors, politicians, and the question of "progress": the first and second gold booms in Wassa -- Labor recruitment in the nineteenth century: the place of practicality -- Disrupted recruitment at the turn of the twentieth century: women, whites, and other labor agents -- Government...

German colonialism, development policy, and colonial power -- Development education and the (de-)stabilisation of colonial power -- Billboard advertising and the potential for subverting colonial power -- Transforming childbirth-related care in East Africa and challenges to colonial power --...

"Although colonies are often viewed as having been of crucial economic importance to Britain's empire, those responsible for administering the colonies were often not at all interested in or supportive of commercial ventures, as this book demonstrates. Based on extensive original research, and...

The earliest times, 1786-1850 -- Taking root, 1850s-1870s -- Straits politics and trade infrastructure, 1867-1873 -- Opening the peninsula, 1874-1896 -- Currency and banking -- Rapid economic growth and change, 1896-1914 -- Merchant firm 1: Guthrie & Co. -- Merchant firm 2: Boustead & Co. --...

Following the Brexit vote, this book offers a timely historical assessment of the different ways that Britain's economic future has been imagined and how British ideas have influenced global debates about market relationships over the past two centuries. The 2016 EU referendum hinged to a...

This study draws on extensive archival research to explore the social history of industrial labor in colonial India through the lens of well-being. Focusing on the cotton millworkers in Bombay in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the book moves beyond trade union politics and...

Introduction: liberalism and empire in a new key -- Colonial capitalism and the dilemmas of liberalism: framing an inquiry -- In the beginning, all the world was America: John Locke's global theory of property -- Not a partnership in pepper, coffee, calico, or tobacco: Edmund Burke and imperial...

Introduction: ways of living, ways of knowing -- From scramblers for fruit to banana empire, 1870-1930 -- Tropical vexations -- Corporate welfarism meets the tropics -- Wandering foci of infection -- Becoming banana cowboys -- Serving science on the side -- Conclusion