Outlines of a Model of Pure Plantation Economy

Abstract

The larger studyl of which this outline essay forms a part is concerned with the comparative study of economic systems.Following Myrdal2 and Seers3, we have taken the view that economic theory in the underdeveloped regions at any rate, can profit by relaxing its unwitting pre-occupation with the special case of the North Atlantic countries, and by proceeding to a typology of structures4 each having characteristic laws of motion.s Plantation Economy, the type which we have selected for intensive study, falls within the general class of externally-propelled economies.5Specifically, we isolate Hinterland Economy which can be further distinguished, for example, from Metropolitan Economy.In the latter, too, the adjustment process centres on foreign trade and payments but the locus of discretion and choice is at home and it is by this variable that we differentiate.Hinterland economy, indeed, is what is at the discretion of metropolitan economy.The relationship between the two may be described, summarily at this point, as mercantilist.In this designation inheres certain specifications regarding what may be called the general institutional framework of collaboration betweeen the two.It will suffice here to note the five major rules of the game, as it were.First, there is the most general provision which defines exclusive spheres of influence of a metropolis and the limitations on external intercourse for the hinterland.In the real world there have been, and still are, many examples of this: the Inter-American System, the British Commonwealth, the French Community, the centrally-planned economies, and so on.For con-aThis is a somewhat revised version of the paper presented to the Conference.

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