ABSTRACT
This chapter is devoted to the thesis Ida Greaves submitted for the PhD at the London School of Economics. The thesis was published in book form by George Allen and Unwin in 1935. It is a pioneering study, much neglected, in the emerging discipline of development economics, and blends political economy, classical economics and institutional economics in an intriguing and highly original way. The timing of publication was unfortunate as LSE academics were being redirected to war services. This included the three distinguished LSE professors who had recommended her thesis for publication. The title of the book was also unfortunate, with its reference to backward peoples. It was open to misunderstanding, with potential readers not realising that the book was a critique of the way in which indigenous people in tropical areas were depicted as primitive and backward in contemporary economic literature. The book shows how labour supply in tropical areas was subject to diverse historical and political influences. It was an important precursor of the better-known Lewis “surplus labour” model of the 1950s.
