Bert hamminga Back to: Index: Teaching Docs: Lecture Notes Philosophy of Economy
Page title: Economy: modern market versus near subsistence

Compare Uganda, a country mainly producing agricultural products, and mainly for self supply of the farmer, with The Netherlands, and industrial country.

People in Uganda live mainly in the country, in the Netherlands people mainly live in the cities.

In Uganda 53% of the production is agricultural produce, in the Netherlands only 8%. This Dutch 8% is in calories per capita higher than the Uganda 53%!

Uganda earnes its import dollars in a few agricultural branches only, some cotton and tea, mainly coffee. It is highly vulnerable to changes in wirld market prices.

Compare the Dutch import of a kilo of coffee from Uganda with a bottle of wine from France. The Dutch consumer pays roughly the same for for a kilo of koffie as he does for a bottle of wine. The farmers who produce the Ugandan kilo and the French bottle receive roughly the same.

What is the big difference? In the time a Ugandan farmer produces one kilo of coffee, the French farmer produces 1000 bottles of wine!