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Returns on investments during the colonial era: the case of the Belgian Congo1

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  • FRANS BUELENS
  • STEFAAN MARYSSE

Abstract

Before the First World War, Belgium participated in a global wave of foreign direct investment. After the war, a shift towards the Belgian colony of the Congo was observed. With regard to these investments, it is commonly argued that higher (expected) profit rates were a strong incentive, although others propose that the colonial powers lost money on their colonial possessions. We measure ex post performance in terms of the time‐weighted rate of return by making use of a new database of Congolese stocks and compare the Congolese data with a Belgian sample. Returns on Congolese stocks were much higher, at least until country risk became a reality.

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  • Frans Buelens & Stefaan Marysse, 2009. "Returns on investments during the colonial era: the case of the Belgian Congo1," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 62(s1), pages 135-166, August.
    • Handle: RePEc:bla:ehsrev:v:62:y:2009:i:s1:p:135-166
    DOI: 10.1111/j.1468-0289.2009.00482.x
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    1. Robert Lemoine, 1934. "Finances et colonisation :la concentration des entreprises dans la mise en valeur du Congo belge," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/273947, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
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    Cited by:

    1. Annaert, Jan & Buelens, Frans & De Ceuster, Marc J.K., 2012. "New Belgian Stock Market Returns: 1832–1914," Explorations in Economic History, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 189-204.
    2. Marc Deloof & Ine Paeleman, 2024. "International entrepreneurship without investor protection: Evidence from initial public offerings in Belgium before the First World War," Economic History Review, Economic History Society, vol. 77(2), pages 523-553, May.
    3. Mai, Nhat Chi, 2020. "Post-war Labour Market Reconstruction : The Case of the Democratic Republic of the Congo," OSF Preprints w87nc, Center for Open Science.
    4. Klas Rönnbäck & Oskar Broberg & Stefania Galli, 2022. "A colonial cash cow: the return on investments in British Malaya, 1889–1969," Cliometrica, Journal of Historical Economics and Econometric History, Association Française de Cliométrie (AFC), vol. 16(1), pages 149-173, January.

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