The Making of an Industrial South Africa: Trade and Tariffs in the Interwar Period

Abstract

The process of industrialization has long formed a central theme for historians of the modern world. The reasons are quite clear: the wealth and power of nations have long rested upon a well-established industrial sector. The historical study of industrialization in Africa, however, has generated a truncated literature, reflecting the poor performance of the continent's manufacturing sector. Far from seeking to explain the course of industrialization, most scholarly attention has revolved around discussions of the forces that have hindered the development of modern industry.3 By almost any measure South Africa stands apart from these conclusions. Over the course of this century the country has moved from being a peripheral, primary producing nation to the industrial powerhouse of the continent. Yet it is striking how few of the comparative themes that have preoccupied scholars of industrialization in Africa, Latin America, and even East Asia have been engaged by those analyzing the course of South African industrialization. In