ABSTRACT
The main themes in J. Slater Lewis book are the need for efficiency in a closely competitive commercial environment and the connected emphasis on strict discipline in the production situation. The basic dichotomy between the administrator and the administered, defined in the process of production, was a more powerful influence on this particular social situation than was the traditional, and very powerful, emphasis on ritualized hospitality. In a given geographical area within the prevailing limits of soil fertility, rainfall, and other natural factors, one would predict that there is a hypothetical peak yield which can be obtained under the ruling mode of production. Imperialism involved the export of, among other things, assumptions about the organization of production. Overall, the structure of the organization was solely designed to function as a means of producing and extracting cotton.
