Economy & TradeThe 1900s

Economy & Trade in the 1900s

Every event in the Terralore archive tagged economy and trade — trade, currency, industry and resources, narrowed to the 1900s — 12 of them, drawn from 10 nations, running from 1900 to 1909. Each entry keeps the sources it was verified against and links back to the chronicle it came from.

Events
12
Nations
10
Earliest
1900
Latest
1909
Africa
7
Asia
2
North America
2
South America
1

Every entry below is the same record, with the same sources, as the one on its nation’s chronicle.

  1. South America

    Bolivia

    The age of the tin barons

    Tin replaces silver as Bolivia's great export, making a handful of mine owners enormously rich while the indigenous mine workers labour in poverty.

    Era: Lost Wars, the Sea, and the Tin Republic

    Sources: Bolivia: A Country Study · Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Bolivia: Early period · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  2. Africa

    Comoros

    Plantation economy

    Colonial rule reorganises the economy around export crops—vanilla, cloves, copra and especially ylang-ylang—making the Comoros a leading supplier of perfume essence.

    Era: French Colonisation

    Sources: Economy of the Comoros · Wikipedia, Comoros: History · Encyclopædia Britannica

  3. Africa

    Ivory Coast

    Head tax and forced labour

    France imposed a head tax in 1900 and a forced-labour regime that compelled African men to work without pay on infrastructure and plantations, drawing recruits from the lands later organised as Upper Volta and provoking repeated revolts.

    Era: Colony, forced labour, and the road to independence

    Sources: History of Ivory Coast · Wikipedia, History of Côte d'Ivoire · Encyclopædia Britannica

  4. Africa

    Lesotho

    Migrant labour to South Africa

    With little arable land, large numbers of Basotho men become migrant workers on South African farms and gold mines, and remittances become central to the economy.

    Era: High Commission Territory to Independence

    Sources: Migration, Remittances and 'Development' in Lesotho · Southern African Migration Programme (SAMP), History of Lesotho · Wikipedia

  5. Africa

    Togo

    A 'model colony' built on forced labour

    Germany promoted Togoland as a profitable Musterkolonie, but its plantations, railways and balanced budget depended on heavy taxation and the coercion of forced African labour.

    Era: German Togoland, the 'model colony'

    Sources: Togoland · Wikipedia, Germany–Togo relations · Wikipedia, Togo (country overview and history) · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  6. North America

    Guatemala

    Rise of the United Fruit Company

    United Fruit acquires extensive lands, railways, and the main port, becoming Guatemala's largest landowner and a dominant economic force.

    Era: Coffee and the Liberal Dictatorships

    Sources: Guatemala: History (Postcolonial period and after) · Encyclopaedia Britannica, Foreign Relations of the United States, 1952-1954, Guatemala · U.S. Department of State, Office of the Historian

  7. Africa

    São Tomé and Príncipe

    World's largest cocoa producer

    Worked by the roças and their contract labourers, São Tomé became for a time the world's leading producer of cocoa.

    Era: Cocoa, the roças and the 'cocoa slavery' scandal

    Sources: History of São Tomé and Príncipe · Wikipedia, Sugar, Cocoa, and Slavery in Portuguese Colonial Africa · Chocolate Class (Harvard University course site), The Serviçais — Plantation Contract Workers · São Tomé Expert

  8. Africa

    São Tomé and Príncipe

    Nevinson exposes 'A Modern Slavery'

    The journalist Henry Nevinson published A Modern Slavery, exposing the serviçal contract-labour system as forced labour, with around one in five workers dying each year.

    Era: Cocoa, the roças and the 'cocoa slavery' scandal

    Sources: Sugar, Cocoa, and Slavery in Portuguese Colonial Africa · Chocolate Class (Harvard University course site), The Serviçais — Plantation Contract Workers · São Tomé Expert

  9. Asia

    Iran

    Discovery of oil

    Oil is struck in south-western Iran, making the country a strategic prize and tying its economy to foreign-controlled concessions for decades to come.

    Era: The Qajars, Constitutional Revolution and the Pahlavi Shahs

    Sources: Iran — history · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  10. Asia

    Jordan

    The Hejaz Railway crosses the plateau

    The Ottomans completed the Hejaz Railway through the territory, linking Damascus toward the holy cities and binding the region more tightly to the empire on the eve of the Arab Revolt.

    Era: Islam, the Caliphates and Four Centuries of Ottoman Rule

    Sources: Jordan: A Country Study · Library of Congress, Federal Research Division, Great Arab Revolt Begins · EBSCO Research Starters

  11. North America

    Trinidad and Tobago

    Commercial oil production begins

    The first commercial oil flowed near the Pitch Lake at La Brea, beginning the petroleum industry that would dominate Trinidad and Tobago's economy for over a century.

    Era: Indenture, oil, and one colony

    Sources: Historical Facts on the Petroleum Industry of Trinidad and Tobago · Ministry of Energy and Energy Industries, Trinidad and Tobago, Trinidad and Tobago: History · Encyclopaedia Britannica

  12. Africa

    São Tomé and Príncipe

    Cadbury and the cocoa boycott

    After Joseph Burtt's report confirmed the abuses, the chocolate firms Cadbury, Fry and Rowntree announced a boycott of São Tomé cocoa, an international scandal that shamed Portugal but left coerced labour largely intact.

    Era: Cocoa, the roças and the 'cocoa slavery' scandal

    Sources: Sugar, Cocoa, and Slavery in Portuguese Colonial Africa · Chocolate Class (Harvard University course site), The Serviçais — Plantation Contract Workers · São Tomé Expert