Assessing Productivity in Precolonial African Agriculture and Industry 1500-1800

Hogendorn, Jan; Gemery, Henry A.

doi:10.2307/3601889

Cited by 6 publications

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“…This, however, ignores the significant differences in the quantity of labor required to grow and harvest each plant. Of the staple crops in Africa, maize has the lowest labor requirements (Purseglove, 1972;Hogendorn andGemery, 1990-1991;McCann, 2001), particularly after processing, storage and transport are taken into account (Miracle, 1966). Given that a hectare of maize has a similar energy content to a hectare of cassava or sweet potatoes, this suggests that maize was the most productive of the New World crops introduced into Africa, and had the greatest potential to create an agricultural productivity shock.…”

Section: A Digression On Maizementioning

confidence: 99%

Maize and Precolonial Africa

Cherniwchan

Moreno‐Cruz

2017

SSRN Journal

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Columbus's arrival in the New World triggered an unprecedented movement of people and crops across the Atlantic Ocean. We study a largely overlooked part of this Columbian Exchange: the effects of New World crops in Africa. Specifically, we test the hypothesis that the introduction of maize increased population density and slave exports in precolonial Africa. We find robust empirical support for these predictions. We also find little evidence to suggest maize increased economic growth or reduced conflict. Our results suggest that rather than stimulating development, the introduction of maize simply increased the supply of slaves during the slave trades.

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Section: A Digression On Maizementioning

confidence: 99%

Maize and Precolonial Africa

Cherniwchan

Moreno‐Cruz

2017

SSRN Journal

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“…95 The interest here is not in inaccuracies as such but in whether there are systematic biases relating to geography in the national accounting procedures. 99 In the same issue, E. Ann McDougall raised the issue of the integration of these pre-colonial economies, and wondered to what extent one-off observations on the quality or quantity of output in agriculture and industry answer any questions when what we are interested in is the total production of the economy. They thus ignored the fact that different techniques such as crop mixtures and cross-cropping are not only very common but also more productive.…”

Section: Production Versus Income: Measurement In Decentralized or Wementioning

confidence: 99%

“…In particular, Jan Hogendorn and Henry Gemery argued that this observation was misleading because the data quoted in the article related to yield per seed or yield per unit of land, while the constraining factor in the African context was labour. 99 In the same issue, E. Ann McDougall raised the issue of the integration of these pre-colonial economies, and wondered to what extent one-off observations on the quality or quantity of output in…”

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confidence: 99%

An unlevel playing field: national income estimates and reciprocal comparison in global economic history

Jerven¹

2012

Journal of Global History

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AbstractIf we take recent income per capita estimates at face value, they imply that the average medieval European was at least five times ‘better off’ than the average Congolese today. This raises important questions regarding the meaning and applicability of national income estimates throughout time and space, and their use in the analysis of global economic history over the long term. This article asks whether national income estimates have a historical and geographical specificity that renders the ‘data’ increasingly unsuitable and misleading when assessed outside a specific time and place. Taking the concept of ‘reciprocal comparison’ as a starting point, it further questions whether national income estimates make sense in pre-and post-industrial societies, in decentralized societies, and in polities outside the temperate zone. One of the major challenges in global history is Eurocentrism. Resisting the temptation to compare the world according to the most conventional development measure might be a recommended step in overcoming this bias.

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“…See, for example, Austen, ‘Comparing’; Hogendorn and Gemery, ‘Assessing productivity’; McDougall, ‘Production’.…”

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African agricultural productivity and the transatlantic slave trade: evidence from Senegambia in the nineteenth century

Rönnbäck

Theodoridis²

2018

The Economic History Review

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Agriculture has played a central role in Africa's long-term economic development. Previous research has argued that the low productivity of African economies has posed significant challenges to African efforts to produce an agricultural surplus or to develop commercial agriculture. Low agricultural productivity has also served as a key explanation for the transatlantic slave trade, on the basis that it was more profitable to export humans overseas than to grow and export produce. However, the field has suffered from a lack of comparable empirical evidence. This article contributes to this field by presenting quantitative data on historical land and labour productivity in Africa, from a case study of the agricultural productivity of Senegambia in the early nineteenth century. Focusing on five key crops, our results suggest that both land and labour productivity was lower in Senegambia than it was in all other parts of the world for which we have found comparable data. This article thus lends support to claims that stress ecological factors as one of the main determinants of Africa's historical development.

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Assessing Productivity in Precolonial African Agriculture and Industry 1500-1800

Cited by 6 publications

References 0 publications

Maize and Precolonial Africa

Maize and Precolonial Africa

An unlevel playing field: national income estimates and reciprocal comparison in global economic history

African agricultural productivity and the transatlantic slave trade: evidence from Senegambia in the nineteenth century

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