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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Traditional contracts in German East Africa: the transition from precapitalist forms
Author:Lyall, A.
Year:1986
Periodical:Journal of African Law
Volume:30
Issue:2
Pages:91-129
Language:English
Geographic terms:German East Africa
Germany
Subjects:colonialism
dual economy
customary law
loans
Abstract:The material which forms the subject matter of this article constituted a chapter of a PhD thesis presented to London University in 1980. The thesis was largely based on the answers to Kohler's questionnaire which was distributed by the German colonial authorities throughout what was then German East Africa in 1909. The material contains information on petty commodity production and exchange, credit, capacity to contract, formation, sale, pledge, loans, employment contracts, and remedies. One of the striking features of the material is the general absence of a notion of interest on loans which was found among groups in the interior. When the development of capital gave rise to new economic forms, the legal ideas also began to change and much ingenuity was displayed in adapting customary law to accommodate the new conditions. A point this article seeks to make is that the transition from loans without interest to loans with interest marks a crucial point in the transition to a true law of contract. Notes, ref.