Vent For Surplus Research Articles

Strategic value of a Chinese-funded infrastructure project in Sri Lanka

Stakeholders implement infrastructure projects for strategic, exchange and use values. For transnational projects, the identification of strategic value is more complex because of greater diversity of interests and stakeholders. In this paper, the authors investigate the development and contested nature of strategic values of a transnational Chinese-funded infrastructure project in Sri Lanka under its One Belt One Road (OBOR) initiative. The framework is interpretive; it explores how these values are shaped through stakeholder interactions. The authors apply this framework to the Colombo International Financial Centre (CIFC) using data collected through documents such as official reports, press statements and scholarly articles. Apart from economic benefits, many strategic values emerged from the project. Domestically, these cases include the desire of governments to seek international support and reduce its fiscal burden, the intents of individuals and groups to seek rents or further their business or other interests and its use by political parties to seek electoral support. Internationally, Chinese investment in the project will strengthen the Maritime Silk Route and help fulfil the OBOR vision. The project is a vent for surplus, a market for excess construction materials and a trade node. Finally, India perceives CIFC as a security threat and financial competitor.

“Strange Farmers” and the Development of The Gambia’s Peanut Trade

This paper is a statistically based research and analysis that examines the historical evolution of the “Strange Farmer” phenomenon from the pre-colonial to the 1990s, and traces their contribution to The Gambia’s peanut export trade and to the colonial coffers, and subsequently those of the independent state. Strange farming is an agricultural contractual arrangement of “input (particularly labor and land) sharing” that enables Gambian landlords to “tie” migrant labor to their farms for the duration of the farming season. This is particularly important during periods of peak labor demand, when migrant-tenants could simply flee for better opportunities. The paper carries out simple linear regression and correlation analyses and finds significant correlation between the number of “Strange Farmers” in a given year and the volume of peanut exports in the subsequent year, contradicting Jarrett’s (1949) claim of no apparent correlation. The study describes the “Strange Farmer” system and also uses, but modifies, the classical “vent for surplus” theory, noting that expanded peanut production and exports must be understood against the background of seasonal labor supply augmentation by “Strange Farmers.” With these premises, the paper takes a long-term perspective on this important source of labor for The Gambia’s peanut trade.

Vent for surplus or productivity breakthrough? TheGhanaian cocoa take‐off, c. 1890–1936

Through a case study of cocoa‐farming inGhana, this article takes up the long‐running but recently neglected debate about the ‘cash crop revolution’ in tropicalAfrica during the early colonial period. It focuses on the supply side, to test the much criticized but never superseded ‘vent‐for‐surplus’ interpretation of the export expansion as a substitution of labour for leisure. The article argues that while the model captured certain features of the case, such as the application of labour to underused land, its defining claim about labour is without empirical foundation. Rather, the evidence points to a reallocation of resources from existing market activities towards the adoption of an exotic crop, entailing a shift towards a new, qualitatively different and more profitable kind of production function. This innovation is best understood in the context of the long‐term search ofAfrican producers for ways of realizing the economic potential of their resource of relatively abundant land, while ameliorating the constraints which the environment put upon its use.

Re‐thinking frontiers in Southeast Asia

Re‐thinking frontiers in Southeast Asia

Trade as Exploitation: Perspectives on the Political Economy of Colonial West Niger Igbo Area, C. 1886 – 1930

This is a study of the commercial operation of the Royal Niger Company and John Holt and Company in the West Niger Igbo area from 1886 to 1930. The activities of the companies in the area heralded significant political economic development, the penetration of merchant capital, the development of trade in palm product, and the alteration of the structure of the local economy and the concomitant increase in the “exchange value” component of production. The paper analyzes the economic impact of colonial penetration on production and exchange. It argues that although the penetration of merchant capital into the area provided a “vent for surplus” and therefore was a big fillip for the expansion of production, much of the benefit of expanded production was appropriated by merchant capital and its local agents not only through the unequal terms of trade built into the system, but also through chicanery and deceit.Lagos Historical Review Vol. 8 2008: pp. 1-19

Currency, Credit and Commerce: Early Growth in Southeast Asia

Financing Early Growth: Natural resources versus borrowing in economic development The economic development of British Malaya to 1914: an essay in historiography with some questions for historians The British agency houses in Malaysia: survival in a changing world (with J.H. Drabble) Vent for surplus, the subsistence fund, and the evolution of money. The Provision of Local Money: Southeast Asian monies and the problem of a common measure, with particular reference to the nineteenth century The evolution of money in Singapore since 1819 The working of the Malayan Currency Board and the implications of the currency board system Monetary developments in Malaya and Singapore, 1959-1965 Singapore and Malaysia: the monetary consequences Monetary and exchange rate management in tiny, open underdeveloped economies. Emerging Securities Markets: Securities markets in less-developed countries The new-issue boom in Malaya and Singapore 1961-1964 The development of equity and bond markets in the Pacific region Some reflections on problems affecting securities markets in less-developed countries Bank loans or bonds: some lessons of historical experience (with H.W. Arndt).

Vent for Surplus: A Case of Mistaken Identity

Adam Smith's theory of the gains from trade has caused a great deal of controversy among economic theorists. Throughout much of his work Smith argues that markets efficiently allocate resources. Smith's treatment of the gains from trade, however, is considered inconsistent with his system of natural liberty. This paper offers a new interpretation of the vent‐for‐surplus model. It is argued that Smith's theory of trade should be considered as an extension of his domestic theory of markets and his theory of productive and unproductive labor. Once interpreted in this light, no inconsistency is found between Smith's theory of trade and his system of natural liberty.

Vent for Surplus: A Case of Mistaken Identity

1. Introduction Adam Smith's theory of the gains from international trade has caused a great deal of controversy and confusion among economic theorists and historians of economic thought. On the one hand, Smith is interpreted as arguing that foreign trade that vents products is necessary to maintain or generate a full utilization of a country's resources. On the other hand, Smith, throughout much of the Wealth of Nations, advocates a system of natural or perfect liberty, which insures that markets operate to efficiently allocate productive resources across industries so as to direct that industry that its produce may be of the greatest (Smith 1994, p. 484). But, if markets allocate resources to their most productive uses, how are we to make sense of such stark statements that surpluses in any given sector be sent abroad.... Without such exportation, a part of the productive labour of the country must cease, and the value of its annual produce diminish (Smith 1994, p. 403). Many economists write off the apparent discrepancy between a vent-for-surplus gain from trade and a system of natural liberty, and suggest it is a flaw in Smith's logic. J. S. Mill states, is in truth a surviving relic of Mercantile Theory (Mill 1987, p. 579). Others have attempted to vindicate Smith's theory of the gains from trade, arguing that the for is meant to apply only to underdeveloped economies (Myint 1958, 1977; Staley 1973) or where goods are produced jointly (Kurz 1992). Blecker (1997) develops an approach that reconciles the vent-- for-surplus gain with other aspects of Smith's trade theory for economies that are subject to an unnatural and retrograde order. (Smith 1994, p. 412) These arguments, although significant, fail to explain why Smith appears to have applied the vent-for-surplus gain from trade to all economies involved in trade, including otherwise nondistorted developed nations trading in single-product goods. This paper offers an alternative interpretation of the vent-for-surplus argument that is both consistent with trade between developed economies and with Smith's system of natural liberty. We show how a vent-for-surplus gain from trade can exist in the context of trade between developed nations by emphasizing the link between this gain from trade and Smith's theory of productive and unproductive labor. We argue that a move away from a freely developed pattern of trade will cause market prices to deviate from natural prices, shifting resources from more to less productive uses, causing the value of national output to fall. Smith never argues that capital and productive labor will become unemployed without sufficient vents. This formulation, combined with an understanding of Smith's rhetoric, shows that Smith's theory of the gains from trade is completely compatible with his system of natural liberty and suggests a more coherent theory of the gains from trade than is typically attributed to Smith.' In this interpretation of Smith, the term vent for surplus is a misnomer. 2. Vent for Surplus and the Proposed Defense of Smith Smith's treatment of the gains from trade is, almost without exception, thought to consist of two separate arguments. In Chapter I, Book IV, Smith states: Between whatever places foreign trade is carried on, they all of them derive two distinct benefits from it. It carries out that part of the produce of their land and labour for which there is no demand among them, and brings back in return for it something else for which there is a demand. It gives a value to their superfluities, by exchanging them for something else, which may satisfy part of their wants, and increase their enjoyments. By means of it, the narrowness of the home market does not hinder the division of labor in any particular branch of art or manufacture from being carried to the highest perfection. By opening a more extensive market for whatever part of the produce of their labour may exceed the home consumption, it encourages them to improve its productive powers, and to augment its annual produce to the utmost, and thereby to increase the real revenue and wealth of the society. …

A classification of different phases of development in the export sector of Nigerian agriculture

The Nigerian agricultural export sector has been through three different development phases: transition, peak, and de-agriculturalisation. Blending simple international trade theory with actual facts, this study supports the notion that production during the transition phase enjoyed a classical "vent for surplus" type of growth, involving increased utilisation of available factor inputs, which in turn produced increased per capita income. Coupled with the classical factors were several technological packages introduced to farmers in later years. These led to the attainment of output peaks mainly in the 1950s and 1960s. Finally. the study argues that the foundation for de-agriculturalisation was already laid during the peak phase when farmers were taxed heavily, and several agricultural projects were biased against them.

Agricultural Development in Darfur Region, Sudan with Special Reference to Innovation, Technical Change and Open Access Resources

This London University PhD Thesis thesis examines agrarian change in Darfur over the first seven decades of the twentieth century. Based on extensive socio-economic surveys carried out during the 1980s, it describes how the Darfur economy had developed rapidly through expansion of the cropped area, the adoption of a range of new technologies, and exploitation of export opportunities. From 1972, a series of droughts resulted in increased relief and development efforts. Famine and desertification led to an emphasis on conservation as well as development. The Tragedy of the Commons thesis was been influential. Three main models of agrarian change are tested against the evidence from Darfur: Schultz' Transforming Traditional Agriculture, Myint's Vent for Surplus and Boserup's Autonomous Transformation. A distinction is drawn between those models, (Schultz and Myint), which suggest that traditional agriculture has special characteristics and models which see change as a function of a shifting resource endowment, (Boserup). The first view is implicit in aid-funded development programmes which attempt to overcome the 'special characteristics' of traditional economies. They have had little success in Darfur. Attempts to tackle the Tragedy of the Commons have also failed. Darfur has many traditional characteristics. Nevertheless, institutions are flexible, adaptive and no obstacle to agrarian change. There is clear evidence of how they evolved in response to shifting resource endowments, market opportunities in particular. When that process did come to a halt it was the result of a failure of political and economic management at the macro-level. Political development had been influenced by both pre-colonial and colonial history, but the macro-failure was also a reflection of what can be described as the current political resource endowment; that is to say the balance between the governor and the governed. Because aid resources are so substantial they have a very important impact on that balance.

Vent for Surplus? Tropical Exports and Economic Development. By Barbara Ingham. London: Macmillan, 1981. Pp. xi + 123. £12.

Vent for Surplus? Tropical Exports and Economic Development. By Barbara Ingham. London: Macmillan, 1981. Pp. xi + 123. £12.

Vent for surplus reconsidered with Ghanaian evidence

Adam Smith's vent for surplus theory of international trade was revived by Myint in the 1950s and subsequently generated a number of new contributions on the nature of the trade‐growth relationship in traditional peasant economies under colonialism. The theme of this paper, which uses some empirical material from Ghana (Gold Coast) in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, is to suggest that economists have been too ready in their acceptance of these newer versions of vent for surplus, which now set the approach firmly within neoclassical microeconomics and a framework of comparative statics, as valid representations of the historical experience.