ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to an analysis of the open economy during the first half of the colonial era. The central problem is to identify and evaluate the main formative influences on the open economy. Economic policy was limited both in its philosophy and in its techniques. In economic affairs the political officers merely acted as Great White Umpires, ensuring that the rules were observed, not that they were changed. The prevailing view of the role of government in the economy found characteristic expression in the principles underlying colonial finance. West Africa, along with other parts of the world, benefited from modern transport in many of the ways predicted by the classical economists. African producers and consumers may well have benefited from competition among the expatriate firms, from the economies of scale which they were able to achieve, and from the regularity and continuity of service which they could offer.
