LABOUR SUPPLIES AAND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT IN RHODESIA

Abstract

In Southern Rhodesia the exchange economy was set up through the inflow of foreign capital into mining and agriculture. The initial shortage of labor was overcome through non-economic measures. The recruitment of foreign labor and the presence of periodic underemployment meant unlimited supplies of unskilled labor. The control of government machinery exercised by capitalist agriculture resulted in policies limiting alternative opportunities of earnings to wage employment in the traditional sector. Skilled labor was imported from outside the country and this being the other controlling interest in the superstructure it successfully kept most of the African labor migrant unskilled and backward. This of course does not mean that the point that the traditional sector is resistant to change has no value. The rapid growth of the economy due to exogenous factors especially after the war meant an increased demand for skilled labor which the high rate of European immigration was unable to fulfil. Manufacturing capitalists then turned to African labor to fill the gap. Skilled stabilized labor of necessity had to be paid higher wages. The sectoral rising trend of wages is due to increasing productivity of and competition for this small African group. To reduce demand for skilled labor the capitalists employed more capital -intensive techniques. The European control of the superstructure naturally resulted in effective internal demand becoming dependent on the rate of European immigration - in turn the rate of inflow of investment funds in dependent on the above. The stagnation in European population since 1960 has meant a virtual stagnation of the economy since 1960.