The Economies of Africa and Asia in the Inter-war Depression (Routledge Revivals)

The great inter-war depression has long been seen as an unprecedented economic disaster for the peoples of the non-European world. This book, with its detailed assessment of the impact of the depression on the economies of Africa and Asia, challenges the orthodox view, and is essential reading for those with a teaching or research interest in the modern economic history of those continents. Established specialists in the modern economic history of parts of Africa or Asia put forward a number of revisionist arguments. They show that some economies were left essentially unscathed by the depression, and that for many export-dependent peasant communities which did face a severe drop in cash income as world commodity prices collapsed from the late 1920s, there was a range of important responses and reactions by which they could defend their economic welfare. For many peasant communities the depression was not a disaster but an opportunity.

Acknowledgements; Contributors; Introduction; 1. The Agrarian Economy of Central Province, Kenya, 1918 to 1939 2. ‘Magomo’s Maize’: State and Peasants during the Depression in Colonial Zimbabwe 3. The Peasant and the Depression: The Case of the Bombay Presidency, India 4. The Long Depression: West African Export Producers and the World Economy, 1914-45 5. Subsistence in the Slump: Agricultural Adjustment in the Provincial Philippines 6. Japan’s Rural Economy in Crisis 7. Egypt in the World Depression: Agricultural Recession and Industrial Expansion 8. Japan’s Industrial Recovery, 1931-6 9. The Effects of the Great Depression on Industrialisation in Equatorial and Central Africa 10. Some Comments of Industrialisation in the Philippines during the 1930s 11. The Consequences of the Post First World War Depression for the China Treaty-Port Economy 1921-3 12. The World Depression and the Chinese Economy 1930-6; Subject Index

Ian Brown