This book offers a view of shifts in labour relations in various parts of the world over a breathtaking span, from 1500 to 2000, with a particular emphasis on colonial institutions. How did growing demand for colonial commodities affect labour in the Global South? How did colonial interference with land and labour markets affect developments in labour relations? And what were the effects of the introduction of colonial currencies? The contributors to this volume answer those questions and more, combining global perspectives with impressively detailed case studies.

Karin Hofmeester (PhD, University of Amsterdam, 1999) is Senior Researcher at the International Institute of Social History and Professor of Jewish Culture at Antwerpen University.Pim de Zwart (PhD, Utrecht University, 2015) is Lecturer in Rural and Environmental History at Wageningen University

1. Introduction: Colonialism, Institutional Change, and Shifts in Global Labour Relations. Karin Hofmeester and Pim de Zwart Part I: Labour in the Production of Global Commodities 2. The Industrialization of the Developing World and its Impact on Labour Relations, 1840s to 1940s William G. Clarence-Smith 3. Economic Institutions and Shifting Labour Relations in the Indian, Brazilian, and South African Diamond Mines Karin Hofmeester 4. The Global Detour of Cane Sugar: from Plantation Island to Sugarlandia Ulbe Bosma 5. Threads of Imperialism. Colonial Institutions and Gendered Labour Relations in the Textile Industry in the Dutch Empire Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk 6. The Triumph of the Peasant Option and the Parasitic Cotton Sector in Malawi, 1891 to 1995 Elias C. Mandala Part II: Changing Labour and Land Market Institutions 7. Extractive Economy and Institutions? Technology, Labour, and Land in Potosí, the Sixteenth to the Eighteenth Century Rossana Barragan 8. Changing Tides: Maritime Labour Relations in Europe and Asia M. van Rossum 9. Wage Labour and Slavery on the Cape Frontier: the Impact of the Abolition of Slave Imports on Labour Relations in the Graaff-Reinet District Johan Fourie and Erik Green Part III: Monetization and the Payment of Work 10. Paying in Cents, Paying in Rupees: Colonial Currencies, Labour Relations, and the Payment of Wages in Early-Colonial Kenya Karin Pallaver 11. Labour and Deep Monetization in Eurasia, 1000 to 1900 Jan Lucassen