The Rise of the Market in Madagascar

The colonial government was explicit about the need to make sure that peasants had at least some money of their own left over. The whole project might seem no more than a cynical scheme to squeeze cheap labor out of the peasantry, but it was also something more. Most people are not stupid, and most malagasse understood exactly what their conquerors were trying to do to them. Many were quite open in saying that they saw themselves as resisting a trap. Still, such defiance rarely lasts forever. Markets did gradually take shape, even in those parts of the island where none had previously existed. With them came the inevitable network of little shops. And by the time i got there in 19 90,