Resources, techniques, and strategies south of the Sahara: revising the factor endowments perspective on African economic development, 1500–2000¹

Abstract

This article seeks to revise and re‐apply the factor endowments perspective on African history. The propositions that sub‐Saharan Africa was characterized historically by land abundance and labour scarcity, and that the natural environment posed severe constraints on the exploitation of the land surplus, are broadly upheld. Important alterations are suggested, however, centred on the seasonality of labour supply, Ruf's concept of ‘forest rent’, and, for precolonial economies, the role of fixed capital. This revised endowments framework is then applied in order to explore the long‐term dynamics of economic development in Africa, focusing on how the economic strategies of producers and political authorities created specific paths of change which shifted the production possibility frontiers of the economies concerned, and ultimately altered the very factor ratios to which the strategies had been responses.

“Rubber will not keep in this country”: Failed development in Benin, 1897–1921

“…One of the most notable difficulties they faced was labor scarcity. Usuanlele (nd) has made this argument, interpreting Benin as a "land abundant" region; this mode of analysis for Africa as a whole has been recently revitalized by Austin (2008). The population density of Benin was estimated at only 25 per sqm in 1927.…”

Does Land Abundance Explain African Institutions?

“…Austin (2009), for example, argues that authorities were eager to attract more immigrants in order to subdue nature and their neighbours. Thus, strangers could generally acquire land indefinitely for token payments, while citizens were given land virtually for free (Austin, 2008a). Formalisations of this theory have captured these changes as the selection of certain production technologies in response to the relative scarcity of land and labour (Hayami, 1997;Quisumbing and Otsuka, 2001), or as the profit-maximising choice of an elite (Lagerlöf, 2009).…”

“…Nieboer (1900) and Domar (1970) both argue that coercion is cheaper than paying a wage when labour is scarce and wages high. Proponents of the 'land abundance' view of African history, such as Austin (2008a), build on this argument. Lagerlöf (2009) andConning (2004) both provide models that formally capture this intuition.…”

“…Land tenure on much of the continent was, and still is, characterised by group rights and overlapping claims (Bruce et al, 1994). The 'land abundance' view of African history connects these facts (Hopkins, 1973;Iliffe, 1995;Austin, 2008a). From this perspective, since land was not scarce, it had no price and rights over it were ill-defined.…”

The Causal History of Africa: A Response to Hopkins

“…Second, he argues for a resurgence of the "land abundance" view of African history (e.g. Austin (2008), Hopkins (1973), Iliffe (1995)), in which it is argued that sparse population hindered political consolidation, leading to dispersal and fragmentation. If low population densities were geographically determined, geography needs to be part of the story of ethnicity.…”