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An Industry Vanishes: Cotton Cloth Manufacturing in Malawi’s Lower Shire Valley, 1850–1930

In: Twilight of an Industry in East Africa

Author

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  • Katharine Frederick

Abstract

This chapter analyzes the decline of cloth production in Malawi’s Lower Shire Valley during the second half of the nineteenth century. First, it establishes that cloth imports did not cause industrial decline, for import levels would only significantly rise after local manufacturing had virtually disappeared. Second, it challenges the proposition that strong global terms of trade for tropical products motivated producers in the Global South to reallocate labor from industry to export-oriented agriculture. Rather, the valley’s deindustrialization and shift to cash-crop production was motivated by local factor endowment changes that affected the region’s production possibilities. The local labor supply declined sharply, while the availability of fertile land simultaneously increased. Within this altered context, villagers chose to abandon highly labor-intensive cloth production in favor of cash-crop cultivation.

Suggested Citation

  • Katharine Frederick, 2020. "An Industry Vanishes: Cotton Cloth Manufacturing in Malawi’s Lower Shire Valley, 1850–1930," Palgrave Studies in Economic History, in: Twilight of an Industry in East Africa, chapter 0, pages 37-67, Palgrave Macmillan.
    • Handle: RePEc:pal:palscp:978-3-030-43920-0_2
    DOI: 10.1007/978-3-030-43920-0_2
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