Imperievinster. Finansmarknadernas globalisering och avkastning på brittiska investeringar i Afrika

The aim of this project is to study the possibilities that private investors had of profit from imperialism, from the middle of the nineteenth century until the wave of independence around the 1960s. Our analysis departs from international investors based in Great Britain. This means that we study the concrete investments choices they faced – for example in domestic British industries, Swedish railways, gold mines in Australia or in South Africa. The overarching research question is concerned with what return was generated from investments in different colonies, and how high this return was in comparison with investments domestically or in non-colonized territories.

The project contributes to our understanding of the first wave of globalization, and its long-term consequences for long-term economic development. By analyzing the return on investments in ventures operating in Africa, we will be able to contribute with new knowledge on the level of financial market integration and on what terms that the periphery was integrated in the expanding global financial markets at the time.

Many colonies, particularly regions rich in natural resources, were heavily influenced by imperialism during the nineteenth century process of globalization. These countries experience differ from other countries in the global periphery – such as the Nordic countries – since the colonial institutions imposed limited the possibilities for managing the consequences of globalization. By studying the patterns of international investments and returns, we can describe the complexities of the process of globalization.

In the project, we have constructed a longitudinal database consisting of companies listed on the London Stock Exchange, but operating in Africa, during the period 1869 to 1969. The database is used to calculate the total return on investments, including both the dividends and the capital gains, which is by now standardized methods employed in financial history,

Publications related to the research project

Rönnbäck, Klas and Kondwani Ngoma (forthcoming): ”Regulatory Capture in the British Empire: The British South Africa Company and the Redefinition of Property Rights in Southern Africa”, accepted for publication in Business History.

Rönnbäck, Klas & Oskar Broberg (2024): “Swedish Capital and the Coloniality of the Global Economy: Industrial Relations at LAMCO in the 1960s” in Michael McEachrane & Louis Faye (eds.), Decolonial Sweden. Routledge.

Rönnbäck, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2023): ”Den svarta veckan i Nimba – och dess efterdyningar”, Arbetarhistoria.

Rönnbäck, Klas, Oskar Broberg and Dimitrios Theodoridis (2022): ”Fool’s Gold: The Return on Investments in Global Mining, 1869-1969”, Journal of European Economic History.

Rönnbäck, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2022): “From defensive to transformative business diplomacy. The British South Africa Company and the end of chartered company rule in Rhodesia, 1910–1925”, Business History Review.

Rönnbäck, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2022): ”Institutions Coloniales, Exploitation Impériale et Rendement des Capitaux Investis: Comparaison des Histoires de la Malaisie et de l’Afrique du Sud”, Revue d’Économie Financière

Rönnbäck, Klas, Oskar Broberg and Dimitrios Theodoridis (2022): “The Gains of Going Global: The Return on Investments in International Copper-Mining during the Second Industrial Revolution”, Born with a Copper spoon. A Global History of Copper 1830-1980. (edited by Robrecht Declercq, Hans Otto Frøland and D. J. Money)

Rönnbäck, Klas, Oskar Broberg and Stefania Galli (2022): “A Colonial Cash Cow: The Return on Investmens in British Malaya, 1889-1969”, Cliometrica 16:149-173.

Rönnbäck, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2021): ”The Crumble in the Jungle: The London Financial Press and the Early Booms-and-Busts of the Ashanti Goldfields Corporation, 1895-1914”, Enterprise & Society 22(4): 970-996.

Broberg, Oskar and Klas Rönnbäck (2020): ”Aednan och Bolaget: ett kolonialt perspektiv på gruvbrytning i Sápmi vid 1900-talets början”, Historisk Tidskrift 2020 (3): 476-497.

Rönnbäck, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2019): Capital and Colonialism: The Return on British Investments in Africa, 1869-1969. London: Palgrave Macmillan.

Rönnbäck, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2019): ”Kolonialism, kapital och ekonomisk utveckling”, Ekonomisk Debatt

Rönnbäck, Klas and Oskar Broberg (2018): “All that glitters is not gold: The return on British investments in South Africa, 1869-1969”, Studies in Economics and Econometrics 42(2):61-79.