Merchant capital and economic decolonization
Subtitle: the United Africa Company, 1929-1987
By: D.K. Fieldhouse.
Publisher: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press
Published: 1994
Place of publication: Oxford; New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 832
Subjects: United Africa Company, ltd. -- History.; Capital -- Africa -- History.; Africa -- Economic conditions.; Africa -- Colonial influence.; Africa -- Dependency on foreign countries.
Description: The United Africa Company (UAC), formed in 1929 by the fusion of the Niger Company and the African and Eastern Corporation, was by far the largest single commercial organization in West and Equatorial Africa, and thus central to modern African economic history. This is the first detailed account to be published and one which fills a serious gap in the literature.

It was not commissioned by the company (now reabsorbed into Unilever), but the author had full access to all confidential material in the UAC and Unilever archives and complete freedom in what he wrote. The book is not intended to be primarily a company history but uses the UAC as a focal point for detailed study of how the role of foreign merchant capital changed in response to economic and political developments in Black Africa during this critical half century.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (p. [811]-814) and index.