Coffee and Cotton Bulk Purchase in Tanzania, 1939 – 1954

Abstract

This paper examines bulk purchase of coffee and cotton during the war and post- Second World War period under the long-term contract arrangements as provided under the Defence Ordinance and Orders of 1939, 1940 and 1943 as well as review of various Colonial policies, annual reports, meeting minutes, memoranda and circulars on coffee and production and marketing. Evidence for this topic have been extracted from Tanzania National Archive (TNA) primary sources. It analyses the consequences in employment of administrative machinery, such as the marketing boards, traders and co-operatives in execution the contracts agents on behalf of the British Ministry of Food and Supplies to growers.