ABSTRACT
When it achieved independence in 1948, Sri Lanka did not have a strong entrepreneurial economy. Sri Lankan entrepreneurs were small in number as well as in size – most of them grew from the plantation economy and mining during the colonial era, and the capital they had accumulated by the time of independence was too limited to embark on large-scale industrialization of the economy. The entrepreneurial strength during the early 1950s has been documented in the existing literature. For example, De Silva (1982: 10) notes that when the private sector was called by the government to produce tea chests from plywood for the country’s tea industry there was hardly any response. Due to the weak private sector, even a free market-oriented regime in the early 1950s intervened to establish a few industries, for example, the cement factory in Kankesanturai. However, until about 1956, state involvement in the productive areas of the economy was not significant.
