This text highlights how state-centred economic activity was developed in cooperation with British international business. Founded on an economic model that was debt-driven, capital intensive, and cash-crop oriented–the colonial economy of Sudan was centred oncotton growing. This model locked Sudan into a particular developmental path that, in turn, contributed to the nature and timing of decolonization, and the consequent structures of dependency in the post-colonial era.
Simon Mollan is Senior Lecturer/Associate Professor in the Management School at the University of York (UK), where he was Head of the Head of the International Business, Strategy, and Management Group between 2012 and 2016. He is currently Director of the Sustainable Growth, Management, and Economic Productivity Pathway at the ESRC White Rose Doctoral Training Partnership, and previously held academic posts at York St John University, Durham University, and the University of Liverpool. He is Associate Editor of the journal Essays in Economic and Business History, and has published widely in the field of international economic history, financial history, and business history.