ABSTRACT

The Public Debt is a part of the general question of capital investment in Africa which has recently been the subject of a careful investigation by Dr. Frankel. He has classified the foreign capital invested between 1870 and 1936 under the heads of (a) public and private listed capital including government loans and grants, and other capital issues as listed on stock exchanges or in the financial press; and (b) non-listed capital including that brought in by settlers. The figures given by him for the amounts of the capital investments from abroad in the African tropical territories between 1870 and 1936 will be found in the Appendix. 1 Investments in Southern Rhodesia and Bechuanaland cannot, however, be separated from those in Northern Rhodesia, nor investments in Tanganyika from those in Zanzibar, and the figures for these territories are therefore included in the statement. The corresponding figures for the Union of South Africa, including Basutoland and Swaziland, are public listed capital £225,000,000, private listed capital £251,000,000, and non-listed £48,000,000, giving a total investment of £524,000,000, as compared with £543,000,000 in the whole of Central Africa.