CAPITALISM IN THE COLONIES, African merchants in Lagos, 1851-1931

551pp., illus., map, hardback, Princeton University Press, Princeton & Oxford, 2024

ISBN: 9780691258843

Professor A. G. Hopkins on the emergence and changing fortunes of indigenous entrepreneurs in Lagos, Nigeria, and how they were responsible for innovations in trade, construction, farming, and finance essential for understanding the development of Nigeria’s economy.

“Capitalism in the Colonies is a tremendously rich account of how African merchants in Lagos adapted to and shaped the processes of economic and political change in the region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It brings together an astonishing array of primary sources - some rarely or perhaps even never used - to examine the shift to ‘legitimate commerce’ and the process of colonial expansion from the perspective of the African commercial class which made both of these changes possible. A remarkable contribution. Leigh Gardner, London School of Economics

“Capitalism in the Colonies is not just a work of brilliant scholarship, it’s a time-travelling adventure into the heart of Nigeria’s economic awakening, packed with more intrigue and entrepreneurial spirit than a Lagos street market.” Johan Fourie, Stellenbosch University

A. G. Hopkins is Emeritus Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History at the University of Cambridge and an Emeritus Fellow of Pembroke College, Cambridge. He is the author of An Economic History of West Africa; American Empire: A Global History; Africa, Empire, and World Disorder: Historical essays, and (with P. J. Cain) British Imperialism, 1688–2016.