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...

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...

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...

"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. --...

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...

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...

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,...

This paper examines the role of human capital persistence in explaining long-term development. We exploit variation induced by a state-sponsored settlement policy that attracted a pool of immigrants with higher levels of schooling to particular regions of Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th...

This paper examines the role of human capital persistence in explaining long-term development. We exploit variation induced by a state-sponsored settlement policy that attracted a pool of immigrants with higher levels of schooling to particular regions of Brazil in the late 19th and early 20th...

"The Passages: Key Moments in History series brings highly accessible introductory histories to students and academics alike, supplemented by a wealth of rich original-source materials. In The East India Company, Ian Barrow elucidates the birth, reign, and death of one of the most formidable...

"Food insecurity takes a disproportionate toll on the health of Canada's Indigenous people. "A Land Not Forgotten" examines the disruptions in local food practices as a result of colonization and the cultural, educational, and health consequences of those disruptions. This multidisciplinary work...

The key role played by indentured servants in the settlement and development of the English colonies in the West Indies and the North American mainland in the first century of English colonisation has been overshadowed by interest in the much larger later trade in African slaves. 'There is Great...

Introduction. The colonial Cul de Sac -- Province and colony -- Production and investment -- Humanity and interest -- War and profit -- Husband and wife -- Revolution and cultivation -- Evacuation and indemnity -- Epilogue

What are the fundamental issues, processes, agency and dynamics that shape the political economy of life in modern Africa? In this book, the contributors - experts in anthropology, history, political science, economics, conflict and peace studies, philosophy and language - examine the...