The Economic History of Colonialism by Leigh Gardner and Tirthankar Roy (review)

Abstract

The economic aspects of (European) colonialism have been under debate for a long time. In this book, economic historians Leigh Gardner and Tirthankar Roy attempt to review key literature in this field. Thematically, the book covers a number of economic aspects of colonialism: patterns of the process of colonization (Chapter 2); colonialism’s role for economic globalization, i.e. trade, capital and migration flows (Chapter 3); economic growth and development in the colonies (Chapter 4); the costs and economic benefits of colonies to the colonizing power (Chapter 5); how colonial states worked, most importantly in terms of taxation (Chapter 6); the institutions and institutional legacy of colonialism (Chapter 7); the colonial impact upon the environment (Chapter 8); business ventures under colonial rule (Chapter 9), and decolonization (Chapter 10).