Entrepreneurship and Property Development: The Case of A. E. Nana

Abstract

The importance of land ownership and property development in South-East Asia lay not only in their potential for large capital accumulation in this period but also in the longer term nature of such investments. Alien commodity traders who invested seriously in land and property were indicating longer term objectives in the region, and they were also narrowing the gulf between merchanting and industrial investment. Large merchants commonly integrated backwards and forwards, investing in such fixed assets as mills and warehouses. But the purchasing of land for property development was diversification out of commodities and their associated industries into a different industry. A willingness to diversify was important for future industrial investment in the region. Property developers also encouraged the growth and modernisation of the main cities, making them more acceptable for industrial ventures, either by the developers themselves or new entrepreneurs attracted to the developing region.