SETTLEMENT COLONIES X EXPLOITATION COLONIES: FROM HEEREN TO ACEMOGLU

Abstract

The paper compares various forms of the thesis which states that the type of colonization determines or shapes the fate of societies. Smith (1776) already presented this proposition and a typology of colonies. Yet the German authors Heeren (1817) and Roscher (1856) were responsible for the elaboration of the thesis. These historians influenced the economist Leroy-Beaulieu (1902). And it was from this French economist that Caio Prado Júnior took the thesis “settlement colony versus exploitation colony” and applied it to the Brazilian history. In the United States, the idea reappears in the works of North (1955, 1959) and Baldwin (1956). More recently, economic historians Engerman and Sokoloff (1997) elaborated on the issue but without reference to European authors. Finally, Acemoglu, Johnson, and Robinson (2001, 2002) spread the thesis to a wider academic audience and presented econometric evidences. The paper concludes that the academic success of the thesis stems from its flexibility. Market-friendly analysts can attribute economic development to the quality of institutions associated with settlement colonies, while the more critical ones emphasize the spoiling character of the colonies of exploitation.