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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Role of Colonial and Post-Colonial States in Imperialism: A Case Study of the Sierra Leone Development Company
Author:Hoogvelt, Ankie M.M.
Year:1978
Periodical:Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:16
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:67-79
Language:English
Geographic term:Sierra Leone
Subjects:neocolonialism
colonialism
History and Exploration
Development and Technology
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/159765
Abstract:A blow-by-blow account of the history of one (Scottish-owned) overseas mining concern - the Sierra Leone Development Company - from its inception in 1930 until its voluntary liquidation in 1975, serves here to prove, with the help of conventional techniques of finance and accounting, Marxist theories of imperialism. Assessed is the changing role of the state in its relation to the Company, and through it to the wider capitalist system. The passage from colonialism to political independence is marked by a metamorphosis in the capitalist relations of production, but throughout the changing seasons of imperialism one variable remains unaltered: the exploitation of overseas ressources, land, and labour, as witnessed in the constancy of the ground rents and the black wage costs. Political sovereignty, however, permits the state to demand an increasingly higher price for its comprador rôle: when this finally outweights the attractions of low wage costs and ground rents, the Company packs up and the curtain falls, Ref., tables, diagrams.
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