Politics and profits: The development of merchant capitalism and its impact on the political economy of Kordofan, 1820-1898

This is a study of the impact of merchant capitalism on the political economy of Sudan's Northern Kordofan region from 1820-1898. It posits that the predominant theme in the commercial history of Northern Kordofan between 1820-1898 was the struggle for control of the machinery of exchange between the state, the merchant class and groups within the merchant class. It also argues that the rapid development of commercial capitalism in the region fostered the growth of a merchant diaspora which dominated the economic life of the region. Their control and abuse of the commercial and political power fostered society wide animosities which eventually precipitated a socio political upheaval which significantly altered the political economy of Kordofan. The result of the altered political economic situation stifled further capitalist development until the imposition of colonial rule under the Anglo-Egyptian regime.;The first chapter of this study outlines the period from c.1700 to 1820 when an indigenous commercial class developed in northern kordofan which controlled the machinery of exchange and operated it according to capitalist principals. The second chapter discusses Egypt's conquest of Northern Kordofan in 1821 and the immediate imposition of an imperial monopoly over trade which altered the political economy of the province and deprived the commercial community of control over critical components within the machinery of exchange. The third chapter argues that by 1860 the merchant class had succeeded in gaining control of the provincial administration and reestablished its influence over the machinery of exchange. This chapter also suggests that the commercial elite faced a series of political, economic, demographic and environmental crises which threatened to undercut their dominant position within Kordofan. It also argues that the desire to guarantee their autonomy and dominance in political and economic affairs led to their support of the Mahdi in the early 1880s. The fourth chapter describes the commercial operations within the theocratic state created by the Mahdi and continued by the Khalifa. Finally it posits that the merchant class's relatively quick realization that they were not benefiting from the new Mahdist-imposed social order prompted them to abandon their support of the Omdurman regime and eagerly anticipate its demise.