British firms on the Cameroons coast 1916-1961: An assessment of the open door policy

The British take over of part of German Kamerun after negotiations
with the French at the end of the First World War in 1916 gave them latitude to freely run commercial irms in the territory. This article examines the activities of the irms and assesses the extent to which they responded to the critical demands of the European economy. The article maintains that in the context of an open door policy, the British allowed different expatriate firms to operate in the territory but tried to occupy the intermediate space that served the input and output needs of the European industrial economy by securing vital raw materials for industrial production and creating consumption zones for manufactured goods. The article illustrates that in spite of the administrative advantage, the open door policy did not give British irms the opportunity to effectively dominate the economy of the Cameroons coast. Inappropriate technical know-how to manage the hub of the economy, the plantations; lack of tenacity, loose protectionism and flexible concessions, especially the amalgamation of the plantations to form the Cameroons Development Corporation (CDC) after the Second World War, drastically fragilized the grip of the British firms over the economy of the territory. However, the
article concludes that the fate of the British irms brought significant changes notably, the emergence of new actors and developments that succeeded as well as expanded on the activities hitherto controlled by the irms.