Revista de Historia Industrial — Industrial History Review

The Revival of African Economic History in the 21st Century: A Bibliometric Analysis

2024-09-03T11:34:52+00:00

Ten years have passed since the publication of the last special issue on African economic history proclaiming the “renaissance” of the field. We carry out a bibliometric analysis of 114 articles written by 104 distinct authors and published in the leading five economic history journals from 2000 to 2024. We derive an updated outline of the key features of the evolution of African economic history in terms of quantity and impact of publications, research topics, historical period, African geographical area, type of sources and data, analytical methods and author characteristics (affiliation and gender). The field has seen an impressive expansion in publication output and impact – also outside the main economic history outlets – as well as in conference participation, variety of research topics and innovation in the use of sources. However, immediately after the publication of the special issue in 2014, this revival plateaued in terms of absolute and relative publications as well as their citational performance. Authors based at African institutions and female authors remain underrepresented; former Belgian, German, Italian and Portuguese colonies, as well as the postcolonial period remain understudied.

The Origins of Formal Educational and Gender Inequality in Zambia, 1924-1990

2024-05-22T08:21:45+00:00

This paper examines the origins of formal education in colonial Zambia and its long-term consequences for educational attainment and gender inequality. Combining novel panel data on the location of missionary stations and mission school enrolment by gender and missionary society from 1924 to 1953 with contemporary data from the 1990 Zambian census, we analyze the long-term effects of missionary education. Our results are threefold. First, we document that despite substantial schooling expansion after the mid-1930s, overall enrolment remained low and uneven between the sexes at the end of the colonial period. Although Protestant missions provided more equal gender access than Catholic schools, this was insufficient to close the overall gender inequality in education by the end of the colonial period. Second, we find that historical missionary presence is associated with higher educational attainment post-independence. We document that the impact of early mission density on educational outcomes was smaller for early cohorts compared to the more substantial effects of later mission density on later cohorts, with no significant difference between Protestant and Catholic mission activity. Third, we find that the difference in years of education between males and females has narrowed post-independence, most prominently in areas with historically more mission activity.

Spatial inequality in living standards and the urban premium in late colonial French West Africa

2024-04-10T08:29:55+00:00

Were colonial capitals islands of relative prosperity in West Africa, or did incomes in smaller cities keep up with income levels in major cities like Dakar? Though recent work has shown that by the 1950s real wages for unskilled workers in the major cities of West Africa were relatively high by developing world standards, less is known about income levels in the smaller urban settlements of the region. Using nominal wages and retail prices, this paper estimates welfare ratios in 49 urban centres in French colonial Dahomey, Niger, Soudan français, Haute-Volta and Guinée française for the dry season of 1948. It shows that there was considerable variation in nominal wages, real wages, and the price level across the territory of French West Africa. Coastal towns generally had higher real wages than the hinterland, though coastal Guinea was relatively poor. Real incomes tended to be higher in areas connected to a colonial railway and in areas with higher land productivity. There was an appreciable urban premium, with higher real wages in towns with larger populations.

Imperialism of jackals and lions. The fiscal-military state in Portuguese Africa in the British and French African mirror, c. 1850–1940

2024-06-07T09:18:56+00:00

We adopt the metaphor of the “jackal” and the “lion” to explore whether variation in geo-political power of metropoles affected fiscal and military capacity building in colonial Africa. Zooming in on Portuguese Africa, we hypothesize that indigenous taxpayers in Angola and Mozambique were forced to invest more in order, security and their own subjugation, as Portugal lacked the wealth, the scale economies, the imperial cross-subsidies and the means of credible deterrence underpinning British and French imperial security policies. We show that military and police force expenditures extracted larger proportions of the colonial budget in Portuguese Africa. The Portuguese African army was also relatively large, relied extensively on forced labour recruitment and remained poorly equipped. While Britain and France supported African colonial armies with substantial metropolitan and imperial subsidies, and Britain also kept far fewer troops on African soil, the conditions of “jackal imperialism” placed greater burdens on long-term colonial state finances.

Explaining the transition from forced to free labour in colonial Angola’s diamond mines

2024-06-12T09:21:01+00:00

This paper examines the evolution of coercive labour institutions in Portuguese Africa through a detailed case study of Companhia de Diamantes de Angola (Diamang), one of the region’s most significant colonial enterprises. Utilising a theoretical economic model, the study delves into the persistence of these extractive practices and their eventual transformation into more inclusive, market-driven systems. By charting Diamang’s historical trajectory, the paper explores how this deeply entrenched system transitioned from coercive labour to a free-market system, catalysed by significant socio-political changes such as the abrupt independence of neighbouring countries, domestic unrest and international pressures. The model provides new insights into the historical dominance of coercive labour institutions and reveals how external shocks can precipitate rapid institutional change. Ultimately, this study enhances our understanding of colonial labour market dynamics and highlights the evolving nature of extractive practices within economic history, with specific reference to the understudied case of the Portuguese colonial empire.

Murphy, Anne L. 2024. Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 275 pp.

2024-10-28T11:51:33+00:00

Murphy, Anne L. 2024. Virtuous Bankers: A Day in the Life of the Eighteenth-Century Bank of England. Princeton and Oxford: Princeton University Press, 275 pp.

Semeraro, Riccardo. 2024. L’acciaio possibile: Resilienza e trasformazione della siderurgia lombarda nel secondo dopoguerra. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 162 pp.

2024-11-13T13:18:48+00:00

Semeraro, Riccardo. 2024. L’acciaio possibile: Resilienza e trasformazione della siderurgia lombarda nel secondo dopoguerra. Milano: FrancoAngeli, 162 pp.

Roldán de Montaud, Inés y Pablo Martín-Aceña. 2023. La banca en las colonias españolas: Cuba, Puerto Rico y Filipinas. Madrid: Marcial Pons Ediciones Historia, 456 pp.

2024-10-28T11:57:01+00:00

Roldán de Montaud, Inés y Pablo Martín-Aceña. 2023. La banca en las colonias españolas: Cuba, Puerto Rico y Filipinas. Madrid: Marcial Pons Ediciones Historia, 456 pp.

Sáez García, Miguel Ángel. 2023. Acero y Estado. Las políticas siderúrgicas en España (1891-1998). Granada: Comares, 318 pp.

2024-10-28T12:01:34+00:00

Sáez García, Miguel Ángel. 2023. Acero y Estado. Las políticas siderúrgicas en España (1891-1998). Granada: Comares, 318 pp.

Cardoni, Fabien. 2022. Le futur empêché. Une histoire financière de la défense en France (1945-1974). París: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 270 pp.

2024-10-28T12:06:18+00:00

Cardoni, Fabien. 2022. Le futur empêché. Une histoire financière de la défense en France (1945-1974). París: Éditions de la Sorbonne, 270 pp.