International trade theory implicitly assumes that countries participating in external trade each have sovereign status. Its failure to recognise the pervasive importance of colonial trade as an intermediate stage of external trade development, interposed between autarky and 'international trade' narrowly defined creates a serious gap In its explanatory structure and direct applicability.

Anthony John's book is an attempt to examine the properties of colonial resource management on the process of territorial specialisation. He considers the implications of such foreign involvement for the trade patterns which may ensue after political independence when formal 'international' trade entry is effected.

Richard Anthony Johns is a member of the department of Economics and Management Science at the University of Keele, UK.

List of Figures
List of Tables
Acknowledgements
Preface
1 Idealised models of 'efficient' international exchange
2 Aboriginal external trade and the global evolution of inter-state trade relations
3 The national political economy of overseas colonial expansion in historical perspective
4 Proto-generic external trade specialisation: some 'regional' aspects of empire
5 Exchange aspects of colonial separatism: some macroeconomy effects of trade abnormalisation
6 The economics of graduation from colonial to national economy
7 Reflective synopsis
Bibliography
Index