Business in New Markets Under New Masters

Verhoef dispels the notion of immediate colonial superiority, by presenting evidence of mutual dependence, successful adaptation by African entrepreneurs and the co-existence of struggling metropolitan chartered companies and local entrepreneurs and middlemen. The pendulum swung between colonial state power enforcing cash crop production and business concentration and resisting local businessmen and farmers persevering on the margins of the market. Entrepreneurial survival in kinship networks in West and East Africa contrasts with the dual model of European and African business development in South Africa. Verhoef offers compelling evidence of entrepreneurial ingenuity and successful survival and growth strategies under colonial and minority governments, dispelling the notion of African business inability to compete in the capitalist market. Local banks from South Africa competed successfully with imperial institutions.