Colonial economy refer to the system of production and consumption which were introduced in the colonies by the colonialist in order to fulfill their economic demands such as raw materials, markets, area for investment and areas for settlement. The colonial state played vital role establishing and controlling colonial economy.
“Colonial economy means a production system deliberately established in a society which had been physically dominated by imperialist power in all aspect of life, politically economically, culture and socially.
BACKGROUND OF COLONIAL ECONOMY:-
Colonial economy was built in Africa over a span of years after establishment of colonial political control. It was the geographical extension of the European imperialist economies to their colonies abroad. During the period African economy were destroyed transformed or subordinate.
After the colonial state had take over the colonies the next step was to establish colonial economy. This was to establish colonial economy. This was basically the primary purpose of the European conquest of Africa in the last quarter of the 19th century. The purpose of establishing colonial economy was to ensure constant supply of raw materials, cheap labor, market ,area for investment and area for settlement. During that period African self-sufficient economies were transformed and made inferior
FORMS OF COLONIAL ECONOMY:-
The forms or system s of colonial economy were agriculture, mines, industries, commerce and financial institution . among the sector of colonial Economy was colonial Agriculture .
COLONIAL AGRICULTURAL ECONOMY:-
Colonial agriculture was introduced by colonialist to produce cash crops which were to be exported to European to feed various industries. There were three categories of colonial agriculture namely.
Plantation agriculture is a large production unit of agriculture producing for sell and employing a large number of unskilled laborer who are closely supervised.They were huge agriculture plantations with a single production, they were either owned by the colonial government or absent capitalist in Europe who sent representative to take over plantation.
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| sisal plantantion |
Settler agriculture: Is a foreign immigrant from the foreign country particular Europe who had a home in the colony and engaged in commercial agriculture by using cheap African labor migrant labor and forced labour. Example Kenya Settler economy involved production by foreigners who had settled permanently in the colonies.
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| tea plantation |
Peasant agriculture; Is a person who owned or rented a small plot where he worked using his family labour to produce for his own subsistence and also for non-agriculture production It was the type of agriculture where small farmers were allowed to grow cash crops in their small plots along side with their subsistence crops using the family labor and crude technology.
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| cassava plantation |
Therefore colonial economy in African was most exploitative in nature as long the modes used to impart the economy were more profitable to the whites rather than the native africans HENCE colonial economy made africans to produce what they not consume and consume what they not produce. likely to be dependent.
