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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Commoditization and class formation: a critical synthesis and contribution to theory
Author:Mukonoweshuro, E.G.
Year:1984
Periodical:Civilisations
Volume:34
Issue:1-2
Pages:211-224
Language:English
Geographic terms:Sierra Leone
Great Britain
Subjects:colonialism
dual economy
Abstract:The idea that trade induces capitalist accumulation which in turn leads to innovation and transformation of pre-capitalist to capitalist mode of production and social formation -as propounded for example by S. AMIN (1974) and I. WALLERSTEIN (1974) - is particularly misleading when analysing social and economic change during the colonial and post-colonial periods. Sierra Leone is a case in point. The nature of the colonial political economy meant that the development of commerce and the commoditisation of peasant production did not lead to the automatic development of agrarian capitalist production. The economic surplus extracted was not invested in production but was used to pay for administrative expenses, including those institutions (police, native courts) whose function it was to maintain the stalled social structure in the rural areas. Notes, sum. in French.
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