Ellen Hillbom

Studierektor för forskarutbildningen, Ekonomisk-historiska institutionen, Professor

Indigenous Real Wages and Standards of Living in Colonial Bechuanaland Protectorate, 1900-1960

Författare

Jutta Bolt
Ellen Hillbom

Summary, in English

The economic history of colonial Bechuanaland has generally been under researched. In this article we aim at redeeming this situation by constructing real wage series for various occupations 1900-1960 using records from the colonial archives. We calculate nominal wages, subsistence consumption baskets and real wages. Our mapping means that we fill an existing knowledge gap. Throughout the text we continuously compare our results to the growing strand of literature on real wages and welfare standards in colonial Africa. Our study shows that Bechuanaland could serve as a ‘typical’ colony representative of Southern Africa with levels of real wages somewhat higher than those of East Africa, but lower than West Africa. We reflect on three divides captured by the real wage series: the urban-rural, public private and skilled-unskilled. We conclude that while the urban-rural divide is almost non-existing and the skill-unskilled divide is small in relative terms, wages in the public sector are forging ahead of the private sector in a significant way.

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