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Central/Southern Africa

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Capital and Colonialism

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Economic History ((PEHS))

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Abstract

In this chapter, we study the return on investment in companies operating in Central or Southern Africa. This includes not only companies operating in Northern and Southern Rhodesia but also investments in some of the neighbouring countries, such as Belgian Congo. The chartered British South Africa Company was initially the largest company in the sample, but its relative dominance faded during the early decades of the twentieth century, as the number of companies operating in the region and traded on the London Stock Exchange expanded. Investments remained focussed on the mining sector throughout the studied period. Similar to the previous two chapters, we put our estimates into their historical context, drawing heavily on previous research. We also contribute to the historiography of the region by providing evidence on the actual return on investment, which generally has been lacking in previous research.

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  1. Department of Economy and Society, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Sweden

    Klas Rönnbäck & Oskar Broberg

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  1. Klas Rönnbäck
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Correspondence to Klas Rönnbäck .

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Rönnbäck, K., Broberg, O. (2019). Central/Southern Africa. In: Capital and Colonialism. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19711-7_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-19711-7_10

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