Paper short abstract:

An imbalanced dynamic of corporate favoritism is how the tale of colonial concessions unfolded. This study brings the focus on colonial concessions in an attempt to bring a missing stone to our understanding of the history and the foundation of foreign direct investment.

Paper long abstract:

The accounts on granting concessions to foreign corporations in the late nineteenth-century sank into oblivion. The scarcity of research on colonial concessions from a third world lens resulted in a lack of understanding of the foundation of corporate favoritism in the periphery. So far, no attention has been given to understand how these contracts contributed to shaping the colonial imbalanced dynamic that characterized and characterizes still the terms of foreign direct investment. This study brings the focus on how concessions through the process of commodification of the capital of the periphery favored colonial corporations.

A case study of concessions granted to corporations in Tunisia and Egypt under the French and the British Empire between 1860 and 1900 show us the involvement of the metropole in favor of its corporations of affiliation. These interventions took the form of providing support in times of crisis, but also of bargaining and recourse to diplomatic arrangements for the acquisition of concession privileges and establishment of monopolies in favor of their concessionaires in the host territories. Thus the dynamic of interaction that distinguished concessions is one favoring the concessionaires and the metropole at the expanse of the periphery. A thorough study of concessions from the prism of these interactions lead us to identify the corporate favortism that distinguished late nineteenth century economic imperialism and capitalist expansion.

Following a legal and historical study of concessions this project aims to contribute to third world readings of the histories of late nineteenth century capitalist expansion in the periphery.