ABSTRACT This article contributes to the growing literature on the impact of colonial legacies on long-run development. We focus on Kenya, where it is previously argued that land tenure and taxation policies created an impoverished class of wage workers leading to lower living standards, high inequality, and stunted economic development. We take issue with this interpretation. Using archival sources, we map the rise of profitable settler agriculture. Next, we correlate settler profitability with taxation and the development of African agriculture. Contrary to previous studies, we find that labour came from areas that became increasingly more commercialized. Thus, a decline in African livelihoods was not a necessary pre-condition for the establishment of successful European settler agriculture. Instead a restructuring of the settler agricultural sector coinciding with tightened labour control policies can explain the increased profitability. An increased cultivation of high-value crops raised the value of labour. Reductions of African mobility lowered both the wage and transaction costs of finding and retraining workers enabling the settlers to raise their profit share. Our finding calls for a revision of the colonial legacy of European settler agriculture for long-term economic and social development in Kenya.

中文翻译：

---

劳动控制与肯尼亚殖民地建立有利可图的定居农业，c-1920-45

摘要本文为有关殖民遗产对长期发展的影响的日益增长的文献做出了贡献。我们关注的是肯尼亚，之前曾有人争论说，土地保有权和税收政策造成了一类贫困的工资工人，从而导致生活水平降低，不平等现象加剧以及经济发展停滞。我们对此解释表示怀疑。利用档案资料，我们可以绘制出有利可图的定居者农业的崛起图。接下来，我们将定居者的获利能力与税收和非洲农业的发展联系起来。与以前的研究相反，我们发现劳动力来自日益商业化的领域。因此，非洲生计的下降并不是建立成功的欧洲定居者农业的必要先决条件。取而代之的是，对移民农业部门的调整与严格的劳动控制政策相吻合，可以解释盈利能力的提高。增加高价值农作物的种植提高了劳动价值。非洲人流动性的降低降低了寻找和再培训工人的工资和交易成本，使定居者能够提高其利润份额。我们的发现要求修订欧洲定居者农业的殖民遗产，以促进肯尼亚的长期经济和社会发展。