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Periodical article | Leiden University 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. |