ABSTRACT
This chapter aims to describe and account for the modifications which were made to the open economies of West Africa during the years 1930–1960. The economist’s formal assumption that each factor of production is homogeneous is seriously at variance with reality. The discussion can move on to consider the domestic economy. The examination of domestic exchange is related to the analysis of the strain exerted on the open economy in several ways. Important modifications were made to the open economies of West Africa in the years between 1945 and 1960. African protest movements acquired one additional, highly distinctive feature in the post-war era: they assumed a more organised and a more overt political form. From 1930 until the end of the Second World War, West Africa experienced a period of severe and increasing hardship as the barter and income terms of trade of export producers underwent a serious deterioration.
