An Alternative Interpretation

Barbara Ingham
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Barbara Ingham: University of Salford

Chapter 3 in Tropical Exports and Economic Development, 1981, pp 33-60 from Palgrave Macmillan

Abstract: Abstract The question of the empirical validity of vent for surplus has been brought sharply into focus in recent years by accumulating evidence from fieldworkers in West Africa, that on a number of key issues the implications of vent for surplus, especially in its leisure-preference version, are at odds with the historical experience.1 All the writers discussed so far rely on a mixture of logical deduction and inference from statistical and other published sources. This may be a source of considerable weakness in their interpretation of the historical experience. In a contribution to the debate Sara Berry has argued that: The shortcomings of the ‘vent for surplus’ model can in part be traced to its proponents’ almost exclusive reliance on the limited nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Researchers who have gone beyond these data to collect oral evidence and observe the activities of African traders and farmers directly have put much greater emphasis on the role of local initiative and enterprise in the growth of export production.2

Keywords: Cocoa Production; Cocoa Farmer; Marginal Propensity; Cocoa Tree; Migrant Farmer (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 1981
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:pal:palchp:978-1-349-05347-6_3

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DOI: 10.1007/978-1-349-05347-6_3

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