Capital Shortage
Credit and Indian Economic Development, 1920–1960

Bridging history and development, a study of credit scarcity, low investment and widespread poverty in colonial and postcolonial India.

Maanik Nath (Author)

9781009359078, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 31 July 2023

250 pages
28 x 19 x 2.1 cm, 0.599 kg

The great majority of the population in colonial and postcolonial India lived in the countryside and were poor. Many were unable to find gainful work outside agriculture and remained dependent on a livelihood that provided only subsistence, and a precarious one. Seeking the roots of persistent poverty, Maanik Nath finds that the pervasive high cost and shortage of capital affected the peasant's ability to invest in land. The productivity of land, as a result, remained small and changed little. Bridging economic theory and historical evidence, Capital Shortage shows that climate, law, policy design, and interactions between these factors, perpetuated a stubborn cycle of low investment and widespread deprivation over several decades. These findings can be tested against credit and development in preceding and succeeding periods as well as positioned in comparative global context.

1. Introduction
2. Agriculture, commerce and governance in the Longue Durée
3. Climate and credit
4. Courts and credit
5. Regulating moneylenders
6. Regulating cooperatives
7. Credit after 1960
8. Conclusion
Epilogue: risk and regulation across colonial India.

Subject Areas: Economic history [KCZ]