Description
First in-depth account of the role played by the Crown Agents in the growth of the colonies.
The Crown Agents Office played a crucial role in colonial development. Acting in the United Kingdom as the commercial and financial agent for the crown colonies, the Agency supplied all non-locally manufactured stores required bycolonial governments, issued their London loans, managed their UK investments, and supervised the construction of their railways, harbours and other public works. In addition, the Office supervised the award of colonial land and mineral concessions, monitored the colonial banking and currency system, and performed a personnel role, paying colonial service salaries and pensions, recruiting technical officers, and arranging the transport of officers, troopsand Indian indentured labour. In this important book, the first in-depth investigation of the Agency, David Sunderland examines each of these services in turn, determining in each case whether the Crown Agents' performance benefited their clients, the UK economy or themselves. His book is thus both an account of a remarkable and unique organisation and a fascinating examination of the "nuts and bolts" of nineteenth-century development.
David Sunderland is Reader in Business History, Greenwich University.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
The Office of the Crown Agents
Supply monopoly and the purchase of goods
Service provision: costs, delay, quality
The department system of infrastructure construction
Construction by contractor, private sector and public works
Public loan issue
The external finance safety net
- monitoring the Crown Agents
External finance, the remittance of funds and colonial investments after 1899
Concessions, currency and stamps
The Crown Agents and personnel
The enquiries of 1901 and 1908
by "Nielsen BookData"