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The value within multiform commodities: North African phosphates and global markets in the interwar period

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2021

Rebecca Gruskin
Rebecca Gruskin*
Affiliation:
Stanford University, Stanford, California, 94305-6104, USA
*
*Corresponding author. E-mail: rgruskin@stanford.edu
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Abstract

Phosphates mined in France’s North African empire fed interwar Europe’s voracious appetite for chemical fertilizers. In critique of histories vesting commodities themselves with the agency to make the modern world, I trace not the substance but the value embedded within it. By following value, I argue that the ‘commodity’ is not a stable unit of analysis. Rather, commodities are multiform. They can acquire myriad properties when the value embedded within them changes across time and place. During the interwar period, phosphates’ character as a commodity transmuted in relation to flows of other goods, movements of labour, global financial exigencies and imperial considerations. As phosphates assumed new forms, the geographic scales over which they operated changed too. Through North African phosphates, I explore value-making processes that perpetuated capital-intensive farming, allowing for a history not of the commodity-as-substance but of the commodity-as-historical-object whose analytical boundaries and forms shifted across contexts.

Keywords

commoditiesNorth Africaglobal marketsTunisiaFrench empirelabour
Type
Article
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 16 , Issue 3 , November 2021 , pp. 315 - 335
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© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

1 Ministre du Commerce, de l’Industrie, des Postes et des Télégraphes (hereafter MCIPT) to Président du Conseil, Ministre des Affaires Étrangères (hereafter MAE) Afrique du Nord, 21 March 1917, folios 69–70, box 74CPCOM/223, microfilm roll P/2165 (listed with box’s first citation), Centre des archives diplomatiques de la Courneuve, France (hereafter CADC). 74CPCOM denotes Série Correspondance politique et commerciale / P - Tunisie (1917–1940).

2 This evokes, but is not analogous to, the Pacific-specific discussion of transplanted phosphate land in Katerina Teaiwa, Consuming Ocean Island: Stories of People and Phosphate from Banaba (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2015), 109–12.

3 Many of these histories follow Mintz’s earlier work, but not all share Mintz’s commitment to labour in particular production sites. Sidney Mintz, Sweetness and Power: The Place of Sugar in Modern History (New York: Viking, 1985); Mark Kurlansky, Cod: A Biography of the Fish that Changed the World (New York: Penguin, 1997); Arturo Warman, Corn and Capitalism: How a Botanical Bastard Grew to Global Dominance, trans. Nancy L. Westrate (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003); John Tully, The Devil’s Milk: A Social History of Rubber (New York: Monthly Review Press, 2011); Giorgio Riello, Cotton: The Fabric that Made the Modern World (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Sven Beckert, Empire of Cotton: A Global History (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2014).

4 Bruce Robbins, ‘Commodity Histories’, PMLA 120, no. 2 (March 2005): 454–63; Teaiwa, 7, 208n9; Priya Satia, review of Empire of Cotton: A Global History, by Sven Beckert, Journal of Modern History 88, no. 3 (2016): 640–2.

5 Aaron G. Jakes and Ahmad Shokr, ‘Finding Value in Empire of Cotton’, review of Empire of Cotton: A Global History, by Sven Beckert, Critical Historical Studies 4, no. 1 (2017): 107–36.

6 These terms derive from Marx, but I define them more broadly. Use value combines materiality with political and social considerations. Exchange value encompasses both labour time added and socio-political factors that shape prices and profits (colonial wage suppression, French imperial-monopolistic ambitions, financial market instability, etc.). Price influences exchange value, but the two are not synonymous. Finally, use and exchange value can influence each other. When a commodity’s exchange value changes, other uses can become profitable or desirable. When its use value changes, capitalists can harness new competition or collusion, thereby altering exchange value. Karl Marx, Capital: A Critique of Political Economy, trans. Ben Fowkes (New York: Vintage Books, 1977), 1: 125–31.

7 On tobacco varieties, types, curing methods and blends across place and time: Relli Shechter, Smoking, Culture and Economy in the Middle East: The Egyptian Tobacco Market 1850–2000 (New York: I.B. Tauris, 2006); Basma Fahoum, ‘The Rise and Demise of Tobacco Cultivation and Production in Palestine/Israel, 1880–1980’, (PhD diss., Stanford University, forthcoming).

8 Sandip Hazareesingh and Jonathan Curry-Machado, ‘Editorial – Commodities, empires, and global history’, Journal of Global History 4, no. 1 (2009): 1–5; Jonathan Curry-Machado, ed. Global Histories, Imperial Commodities, Local Interactions (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2013); Frederick Cooper, ‘What is the Concept of Globalization Good For? An African Historian’s Perspective’, African Affairs 100, no. 399 (April 2001): 189–213.

9 Sous-Secrétaire d’État des Transports Maritimes et de la Marine Marchande to MAE Direction des Affaires Politiques et Commerciales (hereafter DAPC), 22 January 1918, 7, 74CPCOM/224, P/2165, CADC.

10 Imperial Mineral Resources Bureau (hereafter IMRB), The Mineral Industry of the British Empire and Foreign Countries – Statistical Summary (Production, Imports and Exports) 1913–1920 (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1921), 67; Résident Général de la République Française à Tunis (hereafter Résident Général) to Stéphen Pichon, 10 July 1919, 21–2, 74CPCOM/221 supplément, P/2165, CADC; MCIPT to Président du Conseil, MAE Afrique du Nord, 21 March 1917, 69–70, 74CPCOM/223, CADC; Résident Général to Ribot, 27 April 1917, 96–7, 74CPCOM/223, CADC. On food insecurity: Frank Trentmann and Flemming Just, eds. Food and Conflict in Europe in the Age of the Two World Wars (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2006); Melanie S. Tanielian, The Charity of War: Famine, Humanitarian Aid, and World War I in the Middle East (Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2017).

11 This is about use value; diplomats bartered access, not pricing.

12 Here, cargo space is a commodity because it had use value and was bought, sold, and bartered. Embedded in it is the labour required for the ship to sail.

13 MAE to Ambassadeur français Londres, 10 August 1917, 131, 74CPCOM/223, CADC; ‘Procès verbal de la Conférence pour la Répartition des Phosphates Africaines’, 25 March 1918, 67–70, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; Ministre de l’Agriculture et du Ravitaillement (hereafter MAR) to MAE Sous-Direction de l’Afrique (hereafter Afrique), 26 April 1918, 81–3, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] to Tunis [Résident Général], 1 May 1918, 87, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; MAE to Résident Général, 15 May 1918, 89, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; MAE to Résident Général, 18 May 1918, 94, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; MAR to MAE Afrique, 26 April 1918, 95–6, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; MAE to Résident Général, 25 May 1918, 99, 74CPCOM/224, CADC.

14 Directeur général des Travaux publics to Directeur des Mines and Ministre de la Reconstitution Industrielle (hereafter MRI) Service et Produits métallurgiques, 3 February 1919, 7–16, 74CPCOM/221 supplément, CADC; Résident Général to Ministère des Affaires Étrangères (hereafter Ministère AE), 12 January 1919, 5–6, 74CPCOM/226, P/2164, CADC; MAR to MAE Afrique, 18 January 1919, 9bis-9ter, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; MAR to MAE DAPC, 10 March 1919, 27–9, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; British Embassy Paris to Ministère AE, 30 August 1919, 113–14, 74CPCOM/226, CADC.

15 Underline in original. MAR to MRI, 4 October 1919, 153, 74CPCOM/226, CADC.

16 Résident Général to Ministère AE, 16 October 1919, 193, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; British Embassy Paris to Ministère AE, 31 October 1919, 241–2, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; Ministère AE to [Ministry of] Reconstitution Industrielle (Direction des mines), 7 November 1919, 18, 74CPCOM/227, P/2164, CADC; MRI to MAE Afrique, 13 November 1919, 29, 74CPCOM/227, CADC.

17 Simon Jackson, ‘The Phosphate Archipelago: Imperial Mining and Global Agriculture in French North Africa’, Jahrbuch für Wirtschaftsgeschichte 57, no. 1 (2016): 187–214 (see 202–3).

18 MAR to MRI, 4 October 1919, 153, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; MRI to MAE Direction politique Afrique, 14 October 1919, 188–9, 74CPCOM/226, CADC. On Alsace-Lorraine potash: Jackson, 203; Charles Baron, ‘Rapport fait au nom de la Commission des Mines et de la Force Motrice’ (hereafter Baron, ‘Rapport’), 20 January 1927, 171, 74CPCOM/231, P/2175, CADC.

19 Ministère AE to de Gaiffier d’Hestroy, 8 November 1919, 23, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; British Embassy Paris to Ministère AE, 16 January 1920, 189–90, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; MAE to Ministre Français Stockholm, 17 January 1920, 192, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Résident Général to Ministère AE, 15 January 1920, 181, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Charles Benoist to MAE, 28 January 1920, 33, 74CPCOM/228, P/2164, CADC; MAE to Directeur de l’Office des Produits Chimiques et Pharmaceutiques, 30 January 1920, 41, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; Benoist to MAE, 4 February 1920, 64, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; Ministère AE Afrique to Sous-Direction des Relations Commerciales (hereafter RC), 27 February 1920, 122, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; Ministre de France en Pologne to MAE, 31 January 1920, 46–7, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; Ministère AE RC to Afrique, 26 October 1920, 79–85, 74CPCOM/229, P/2175, CADC; Ministère AE RC to Afrique, 29 October 1920, 72–6, 74CPCOM/229, CADC. On Dutch quinine: Arjo Roersch van der Hoogte and Toine Pieters, ‘Science, industry, and the colonial state: a shift from a German- to a Dutch-controlled cinchona and quinine cartel (1880–1920)’, History and Technology 31, no. 1 (2015): 2–36.

20 On Tunisia’s Italian workers: Gianni Marilotti, ed., L’Italia e il Nord Africa: L’emigrazione sarda in Tunisia (1848–1914) (Rome: Carocci editore, 2006); Marinette Pendola, Gli italiani di Tunisia: Storia di una comunità (XIX-XX secolo) (Foligno: Editoriale umbra, 2007), 21–8, 60–4; Valeria Deplano, ed., Sardegna d’oltremare: L’emigrazione coloniale tra esperienza e memoria (Rome: Donzelli editore, 2017), 84–5; Daniela Melfa, Migrando a sud: Coloni italiani in Tunisia, 1881–1939 (Rome: Aracne, 2008), 18–9, 67–9; Noureddine Dougui, Histoire d’une grande entreprise coloniale : la Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa, 1897–1930 (Tunis: Faculté des Lettres de la Manouba, 1995), 274; Daniela Melfa, ‘Regardes italiens sur les Petites Siciles de Tunisie’, Revue Ibla 1, no. 199 (2007): 3–27.

21 Ministère AE, ‘Renseignements généraux sur les exploitations de phosphates en Tunisie pendant la guerre et antérieurement’, 12 February 1917, 21–33, 74CPCOM/223, CADC; Hfaïedh Tabbabi, al-Ḥaraka al-niqābiyya fī manājim qafṣa khilāl al-fatra al-istiʿmāriyya (The Trade-Union Movement in the Gafsa Mines During the Colonial Period) (Tunis: al-Maʿhad al-Aʿlā li-Tārīkh al-Ḥaraka al-Waṭaniyya, 2005), 33–7; Dougui, 266.

22 The mining school in Iglesias, Sardinia (currently the Museo dell’Arte Mineraria) taught methods used in colonial-era Gafsa.

23 Directeur général des Travaux publics to Directeur des Mines and MRI Service et Produits métallurgiques, 3 February 1919, 7–16, 74CPCOM/221 supplément, CADC.

24 Ibid ., 11.

25 Ibid ., 13.

26 Ministère AE RC to Afrique, 22 July 1919, 96–7, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; Ministère AE Afrique to RC, 26 June 1919, 100, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; Ministère AE RC to Afrique, 12 August 1919, 105–7, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; Délégué à la Résidence Générale de la République Française à Tunis (hereafter Délégué Résidence Générale) to Pichon, 24 September 1919, 134, 74CPCOM/226, CADC.

27 Clive Parry, ed. The Consolidated Treaty Series. Edited and Annotated by Clive Parry (Dobbs Ferry, NY: Oceana Publications, [1969]-c1981), 226: 215–25; Ministère AE to Ambassade d’Italie à Paris (hereafter Ambassade Italie), 17 October 1919, 199–201, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; Ministère AE to [Ministry of] Agriculture et Ravitaillement, 28 November 1919, 63, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Ambassade Italie to Ministère AE, 5 December 1919, 79, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Ambassade Italie to Ministère AE, 18 December 1919, 107, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Tyler Stovall, ‘Colour-Blind France? Colonial Workers During the First World War’, Race & Class 35, no. 2 (October 1993): 35–55.

28 Ministère AE to Légation du Portugal à Paris (hereafter Légation Portugal), 16 October 1919, 204–6, 74CPCOM/226, CADC; Ministère de l’Agriculture to de Peretti, 7 November 1919, 19, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; MAR to MAE DAPC Afrique, 15 November 1919, 31–2, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Légation Portugal to Ministère AE, 11 December 1919, 97, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Légation Portugal to Ministère AE, 11 December 1919, 98, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Daeschner to Pichon, 10 January 1920, 156–7, 74CPCOM/227, CADC.

29 Ilham Khuri-Makdisi, The Eastern Mediterranean and the Making of Global Radicalism, 1860–1914 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2010).

30 Michele Brondino, La stampa italiana in Tunisia: storia e società, 1838–1956 (Milan: Editoriale Jaca Book, 1998), 71–3; Romain H. Rainero, Les italiens dans la Tunisie contemporaine (Paris: Publisud, 2002), 39–49; Gianni Marilotti, ‘Stampa e tutela dei diritti. Un caso esemplare: “Il Minatore”’, in Marilotti, L’Italia e il Nord Africa, 177–211; Melfa, Migrando, 75–81; Mohamed Hamdane, Dalīl al-dawriyyāt al-ṣādira bi-l-bilād al-tūnisiyya: min sanat 1838 ilā 20 mārs 1956 (Directory of Periodicals Published in Tunisia: From the Year 1838 to 20 March 1956) (Carthage: al-Muʼassasa al-Waṭaniyya li-l-Tarjama wa-l-Taḥqīq wa-l-Dirāsāt, Bayt al-Ḥikma, 1989), 2: 212–13.

31 Tabbabi, 98–107; Dougui, 428–40.

32 The category ‘indigène’ was a colonial-racial marker for non-Europeanness. Here, it comprises both Tunisians and North African migrant workers: colonized subjects regardless of indigeneity to Gafsa. Résident Général to Ministère AE, 24 April 1920, 181, 74CPCOM/228, CADC.

33 Inspecteur général des mines, ‘Note sur le développement de la production des phosphates algériens & tunisiens’, 7 May 1920, 207–11, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; Résident Général to Millerand, 21 February 1920, 47–9, 74CPCOM/221 supplément, CADC.

34 Tabbabi, 106–7; Dougui, 439–40; Ministère AE Afrique to RC, 9 July 1920, 37, 74CPCOM/229, CADC; ‘Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa – Assemblées générales ordinaire et extraordinaire du 10 Mai 1920 – Exercice 1919’, 10 May 1920, 219–20, 74CPCOM/228, CADC.

35 Minutes, ‘Commission interministérielle des phosphates – Séance du 1er Décembre 1919’, 16 January 1920, 182–6, 74CPCOM/227, CADC; Inspecteur général des mines, ‘Note sur le développement’, 7 May 1920, 211, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; L’Ingénieur, Chef du Service des Mines à Tunis, Note, 4 May 1920, 17, 74CPCOM/229, CADC; Ambassade de la République Française à Rome to Leygues, 4 October 1920, 61–2, 74CPCOM/229, CADC; Délégué Résidence Générale to Leygues, 16 November 1920, 94–101, 74CPCOM/229, CADC; MAE to Ministre de l’Agriculture (hereafter MA), 18 November 1920, 103–5, 74CPCOM/229, CADC; Newspaper clipping, Camille Fidel, ‘L’accord franco-italien pour les phosphates Tunisiens’, La Dépêche Tunisienne, 4 January 1921, 121–2, 74CPCOM/229, CADC; ‘Informations Financières – Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa’, Les Annales coloniales : organe de la ‘France coloniale moderne’ (Paris) 22, no. 66 (6 June 1921), 2, Gallica.

36 ‘Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa – Assemblée générale ordinaire du 30 Mai 1928 – Exercice 1927’ (hereafter CPCFG Exercice 1927), 30 May 1928, 112–23, 74CPCOM/232, P/2175, CADC.

37 ‘Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa – Assemblée générale ordinaire du 29 Mai 1922 – Exercice 1921’, 29 May 1922, 15–27, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; ‘Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa – Assemblée générale ordinaire du 25 Mai 1925 – Exercice 1924’ (hereafter CPCFG Exercice 1924), 25 May 1925, 70–81, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; ‘Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa – Assemblée générale ordinaire du 31 Mai 1926 – Exercice 1925’ (hereafter CPCFG Exercice 1925), 31 May 1926, 117–28, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; CPCFG Exercice 1927; ‘Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa – Assemblée générale ordinaire du 27 Mai 1929 – Exercice 1928’ (hereafter CPCFG Exercice 1928), 27 May 1929, 218–29, 74CPCOM/232, CADC.

38 On the CPCFG’s land and water expropriation, and on resistance against exploitation, pollution, and industrial disease: Rebecca Gruskin, ‘Capitalism, Resistance, and Environment in Tunisia’s Gafsa Phosphate Mining Region, 1880s–1960s’, (PhD diss., Stanford University, 2021).

39 Jackson, 187–214; Teaiwa, 6; Gregory T. Cushman, Guano and the Opening of the Pacific World: A Global Ecological History (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013); Lino Camprubí, ‘Resource Geopolitics: Cold War Technologies, Global Fertilizers, and the Fate of Western Sahara’, Technology and Culture 56, no. 3 (July 2015): 676–703 (see 687).

40 British statistics converted to metric tons. IMRB, The Mineral Industry of the British Empire and Foreign Countries – Phosphates 1913–1919 (London: His Majesty’s Stationery Office, 1921), 58–65; IMRB, Summary 1913–1920, 67–8.

41 IMRB, Phosphates 1913–1919, 60; U.S. Federal Trade Commission (hereafter USFTC), Report on International Phosphate Cartels (Washington, DC: Federal Trade Commission, 1946), 1, 3–4, 12, 18–20; Marion W. Dixon, ‘Chemical Fertilizer in Transformations in World Agriculture and the State System, 1870 to Interwar Period’, Journal of Agrarian Change 18 (2018): 768–86.

42 USFTC, 4–6, 23–8.

43 These officials did not mention France’s colony in Makatea as a viable source of high-grade rock at this time. Makatea’s distance, along with wartime transport bottlenecks, would have complicated any sustained import program. Ministère AE to [Ministries of] Agriculture Ravitaillement, Transports Maritimes et Marine Marchande, 15 January 1918, 4, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; Sous-Secrétaire d’État des Transports Maritimes et de la Marine Marchande to MAE DAPC, 22 January 1918, 7, 74CPCOM/224, CADC; [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] to Tunis [Résident Général], 29 January 1918, 8, 74CPCOM/224, CADC.

44 Newspaper clipping, [Untitled], l’Information (financière), 15 February 1920, 97, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; Newspaper clipping, [Untitled], l’Information, 1 March 1920, 133, 74CPCOM/228, CADC; ‘Valeurs Diverses’, Journal des finances : cote universelle et correspondance des capitalistes (Paris), 53, no. 8 (20 February 1920), 9, Gallica; U.S. Consulate-General Tangier (hereafter Tangier) to Department of State (hereafter State), Report 74222, 18 October 1922, file 881.6377/2, 1910–29 Central Decimal File (hereafter CDF), Record Group 59: General Records of the Department of State (hereafter RG 59), United States National Archives, College Park, Maryland (hereafter USNA), available on National Archives Microfilm Publication M577; Albert B. Fall to Secretary of State, 25 July 1921, 881.637/1, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; Teaiwa, 3; Cushman, 128.

45 Europe imported some Pacific-Island high-grade phosphates, but French officials primarily worried about US competition. CPCFG Exercice 1924; U.S. Consulate Casablanca (hereafter Casablanca) to State, Report 174987, 4 June 1925, 881.6377/6, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; USFTC, 22, 30, 47.

46 Conseiller d’Etat, Directeur des Mines to de Beaumarchais, 13 October 1924, 41, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; Ministère des Travaux Publics, Minutes, ‘Commission Chargée de l’Examen des Questions Minières de l’Afrique du Nord’, 29 September 1924, 42–52, 74CPCOM/231, CADC.

47 Tangier to State, Despatch 57, 31 October 1922, 881.6377/3, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; Casablanca to State, Report 174987, 4 June 1925, 881.6377/6, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; Casablanca to State, Despatch 352, 19 July 1927, 611.81, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Casablanca to State, Despatch 355, 23 July 1927, 881.6377/10, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; Department of the Treasury (hereafter Treasury) to State, 1 November 1927, 142.15/3424, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Casablanca to State, Despatch 377, 4 October 1927, 881.6377/11, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; Louis Domeratzky to Wilbur J. Carr, 9 November 1927, 881.6377/12, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; Treasury to State, 30 November 1927, 142.15/3450, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Casablanca to State, Despatch 397, 14 November 1927, 142.15/3460, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Casablanca to State, Despatch 398, 14 November 1927, 142.15/3461, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; State, Office of the Economic Adviser, Memorandum, 1 February 1928, 611.813Phosphates/2, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Treasury to State, 9 February 1928, 611.813Phosphates/3, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Treasury to State, 30 July 1928, 611.816/2, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Casablanca to State, 31 July 1928, 611.816/3, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; H. Earle Russell to State, 31 July 1928, 611.816/4, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Casablanca to State, Despatch 463, 31 July 1928, 611.816/6, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA; Curtis, Fosdick & Belknap Attorneys & Counselors at Law to Frank B. Kellogg, 11 September 1928, 881.6377/15, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M577; USFTC, 22, 39.

48 Leo Panitch and Sam Gindin, The Making of Global Capitalism: The Political Economy of American Empire (New York: Verso, 2012), 49, 51–2.

49 CPCFG Exercice 1925; CPCFG Exercice 1927. On French interwar monetary policy: Nicolas Barbaroux, Monetary Policy Rule in Theory and Practice: Facing the Internal vs. External Stability Dilemma (New York: Routledge, 2013), 81–127; Bertrand Blancheton and Samuel Maveyraud, ‘French exchange rate management in the 1920s’, Financial History Review 16, no. 2 (2009): 183–201; Douglas A. Irwin, ‘The French Gold Sink and the Great Deflation of 1929–32’, Cato Papers on Public Policy 2 (2012): 1–56; Kenneth Mouré, ‘Undervaluing the franc Poincaré’, Economic History Review 49, no. 1 (1996): 137–53; C. Perkins, ‘French currency and exchange’, Editorial Research Reports 1926, vol. 3 (Washington, DC: Congressional Quarterly, Inc., 1926), [n.p.], CQ Electronic Library; Barry Eichengreen, Globalizing Capital: A History of the International Monetary System (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2008), 49–55.

50 CPCFG Exercice 1927; MA to Président du Conseil, MAE DAPC, 28 May 1926, 113, 74CPCOM/231, CADC.

51 Report, ‘Commission des Phosphates – Séance du 20 juillet 1926’, 20 July 1926, 136, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; MA to MAE DAPC Afrique-Levant Maroc, 8 September 1926, 140–1, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; MAE to Lucien Saint, 14 December 1926, 150–1, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; MA to MAE Afrique et Levant DAPC, 14 December 1926, 152, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; Minutes, ‘Notes prises au cours d’une réunion interministérielle tenue le 21 Décembre 1926 pour la création d’une caisse de propagande des engrais phosphatés’, 21 December 1926, 157–60, 74CPCOM/231, CADC.

52 Lucien Saint to Ministère AE, 28 December 1926, 161, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; Baron, ‘Rapport’, 167–71; MA to Ministre de l’Intérieur Direction des Affaires algériennes, [n.d.] December 1926, 173–5, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; MA to Gouverneur général de l’Algérie, 31 January 1927, 176–7, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; Roux to Ministère AE, 3 February 1927, 178, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; U.S. Consulate Algiers to State, Report 94902, 26 April 1923, 851R.6377/1, 1910–29 CDF, RG 59, USNA, M560. On Djebel Onk: Dossier 2, ‘Phosphates du Djebel Onk’, December 1922-May 1923, 57–104, 107–32, 135–45, 148–51, 154, 160, 74CPCOM/230, P/2175, CADC.

53 MA to Ministre de l’Intérieur Direction des Affaires algériennes, [n.d.] December 1926, 173–5, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; MA to Gouverneur général de l’Algérie, 31 January 1927, 176–7, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; Newspaper clipping, ‘Phosphates et Phosphores’, La Tunisie Française, 23 March 1927, 190–1, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; Charles Baron, ‘L’Industrie Phosphatière en Tunisie’, Le Mercure africain : commercial, industriel, maritime, minier (Algiers), 10 April 1927, 8, no. 204, 73–5, Gallica; Newspaper clipping, ‘Les phosphates nord-africains en France’, Agence Française et Coloniale, 13 April 1927, 207, 74CPCOM/231, CADC; CPCFG Exercice 1928.

54 Ministry of Foreign Affairs Memorandum of Conversation, ‘Exportation des phosphates marocains’, 9 December 1931, 2–8, 74CPCOM/617, P/2047, CADC.

55 Ibid .

56 Ibid .; CPCFG to Résident Général, 11 December 1931, 9–13, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ministre Plénipotentiaire, Délégué Résidence Générale to MAE, 19 December 1931, 14–7, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; MAE to Résident Général, 4 January 1932, 23, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; [Ministry of Foreign Affairs] to [Ministries of] Agriculture, Commerce, 9 January 1932, 27–30, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; MA to Président du Conseil MAE, 25 January 1932, 39, 74CPCOM/617, CADC.

57 Compagnie Tunisienne des Phosphates du Djebel-Mdilla to de Saint Quentin, 30 December 1931, 18–21, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Baron to MAE, 12 January 1932, 31–3, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; ‘Note de Monsieur Charles Baron, Député, Président de la Commission des Mines, sur l’Industrie des Phosphates en Tunisie’, [n.d.] January 1932, 34–6, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; MAE DAPC Afrique-Levant to Baron, 19 January 1932, 37, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; ‘Consultation de M. A. de la Pradelle Professeur de Droit des Gens à l’Université de Paris’, 25 January 1932, 40–60, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; MAE to Résident Général, 2 February 1932, 66, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; ‘Extrait du Journal Officiel Tunisien du 6 Février 1932’, 6 February 1932, 67–9, 74CPCOM/617, CADC.

58 Ministère AE RC to Afrique, 18 March 1932, 76, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; British Embassy Paris to de Saint-Quentin, 1 April 1932, 90–1, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ambassade Italie to Ministère AE, 21 April 1932, 95–6, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; British Embassy Paris to de Saint-Quentin, 30 April 1932, 97, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ambassade Italie to Ministère AE, 23 June 1932, 98, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ambassade Italie to Ministère AE, 20 July 1932, 106, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Tyrrell to Edourad Herriot, 28 July 1932, 107–9, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ministère AE to Légation des Pays-Bas à Paris, 16 August 1932, 112–13, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ministère AE to Ambassade Italie, 16 August 1932, 114–15, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ministère AE to Lord Tyrrell, 16 August 1932, 116–18, 74CPCOM/617, CADC.

59 Légation Portugal to A. Tardieu, 15 March 1932, 70–2, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; E. Pralon to Tardieu, 8 March 1932, 77–87, 74CPCOM/617, CADC.

60 CPCFG to MAE Afrique, 29 June 1932, 99–100, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; CPCFG to MAE Afrique, 9 July 1932, 101–2, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; CPCFG to MAE Afrique, 16 July 1932, 103–5, 74CPCOM/617, CADC; Ministère AE to Ministre de Portugal à Paris, 16 August 1932, 119–20, 74CPCOM/617, CADC.

61 USFTC, 15; ‘Les cotations de la semaine, Valeurs tunisiennes’, Les Annales coloniales 32, no. 54 (21 May 1932), 4, Gallica; ‘Informations financières – Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa’, Les Annales coloniales 32, no. 60 (4 June 1932), 4, Gallica; ‘Phosphates de Gafsa’, Les Annales coloniales 33 no. 61 (27 May 1933), 4, Gallica; ‘Phosphates et chemin de fer de Gafsa’, Les Annales coloniales, 33, no. 66 (10 June 1933), 3, Gallica; CPCFG Exercice 1928.

62 ‘Compagnie des phosphates et du chemin de fer de Gafsa’, L’Écho des mines et de la métallurgie (Paris) 62, no. 3181 (1 August 1934), 368–9, Gallica; USFTC, 15–7, 30–42, 47–9.

63 USFTC, 2–3, 45–6; Cushman, 128.