Introduction

Does foreign direct investment occupy a larger role today in the economies of the Third World than it did at the beginning of the twentieth century? Specifically, do foreigners now own more of the Third World’s productive assets? What can be said about the timing of the expansion of the foreignowned capital stock in the colonies, and how does that differ by which country was the metropolitan power? How important was the achievement of independence in affecting the amounts of foreign direct investment (hereafter, FDI) in the previously colonial areas? What lies behind the late twentieth-century surge in FDI, and will it last?