Factor Endowments and Farm Structure : Algerian Settler Agriculture During the First Globalization (1870-1914)

The adaptation of crops, agricultural techniques, and farm size to the new environments ushered in by colonialism help identify the sources of long-term development. This paper is a simplified approach to this adaptation process. It analyzes the relative factor endowments (land and labor) based on the timing of settlement to study the regional differences in the adoption of improved agricultural techniques in Constantine at the beginning of the 1900s. During the colonial years, the Algerian farming system diverged into large estates reliant on indigenous wage labor and sharecropping. As fertile land became increasingly scarce, the ability to participate in the grain export market depended on the capability of engaging in new and non-labor saving agricultural techniques. The results demonstrate that innovation in cash-crop production depended on the abundance of indigenous labor but also required a significant capital investment to offset the worse land quality. Thus, access constraints to agricultural advancement help explain the Algerian origins of colonial land inequality and the failure of colonial institutions to create a small-peasant settler economy.