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States, money and the persistence of colonial financial hierarchies in British West Africa
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Bernards, Nick (2023) States, money and the persistence of colonial financial hierarchies in British West Africa. Development and Change, 54 (1). pp. 64-86. doi:10.1111/dech.12745 ISSN 0012-155X.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12745
Abstract
This article contributes to debates about the persistence of colonial hierarchies in global finance by examining the reproduction of key features of colonial monetary and financial systems through the end of formal colonialism in West Africa, with a focus on Ghana. The article draws together engagements with Marxian theories of money and of the colonial state, and an examination of a key period which has often not received sufficient direct attention in debates about colonialism and financial subordination: the breakdown and end of formal colonial rule, roughly between 1930 and 1960. The central puzzle addressed in this article is how, despite the explicit desire on the part of nationalist political leaders to overturn colonial financial systems, these wound up being reproduced through the negotiation of political independence. The article shows how the entanglements of colonial monetary and financial systems with processes of state formation posed severe limits on efforts to articulate a ‘developmental’ colonialism after World War II. Efforts to work around these limits ultimately reinforced the reliance of the colonial and postcolonial state on extractive and hierarchical structures of global finance. In short, the article shows how the contradictory position of the state in colonial capitalism is vital to understanding the persistence of colonial monetary and financial structures.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | D History General and Old World > DT Africa H Social Sciences > HG Finance |
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Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > School for Cross-faculty Studies Faculty of Arts > School for Cross-faculty Studies > Global Sustainable Development |
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Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Africa, West -- Economic conditions, Great Britain -- Colonies -- Economic conditions, Great Britain -- Colonies -- Africa, West, Africa, West -- Colonization | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Development and Change | ||||||||
Publisher: | Wiley-Blackwell Publishing, Inc | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0012-155X | ||||||||
Official Date: | January 2023 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 54 | ||||||||
Number: | 1 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 64-86 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1111/dech.12745 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Re-use Statement: | This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Bernards, N. (2022), States, Money and the Persistence of Colonial Financial Hierarchies in British West Africa. Dev Change. , which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/dech.12745. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited. | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Restricted or Subscription Access | ||||||||
Copyright Holders: | © 2022 The Authors. Development and Change published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of International Institute of Social Studies. | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 14 October 2022 | ||||||||
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