How the International Slave Trades Underdeveloped Africa

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: University of Michigan System; University of Michigan
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050722000110
• 发表日期: 2022
• 页码: 403-441
• 关键词: economic-development; western africa; IMPACT; centralization; institutions; context

摘要

I use newly-developed data on Africa to estimate the effects of the international slave trades (circa 1500-1850) on the institutional structures of African economies and societies (circa 1900). I find that: (1) societies in slave catchment zones adopted slavery to defend against further enslavement; (2) slave trades spread slavery and polygyny together; (3) politically centralized aristocratic slave regimes emerge in West Africa and family-based accumulations of slave wealth in East Africa. I discuss implications for literatures on long-term legacies in African political and economic development.