In economics, colonial goods are goods imported from
European colonies, in particular
coffee,
tea,
spices,
rice,
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or double ...
,
cocoa
Cocoa may refer to:
Chocolate
* Chocolate
* ''Theobroma cacao'', the cocoa tree
* Cocoa bean, seed of ''Theobroma cacao''
* Chocolate liquor, or cocoa liquor, pure, liquid chocolate extracted from the cocoa bean, including both cocoa butter and ...
and
chocolate, and
tobacco.
At a time when food and agriculture represented a relatively large proportion of overall economic activity, economic statistics often divided traded goods between "colonial goods", "domestic (
agricultural and extractive sectors) production" and "manufactured (
secondary sector) production".
The term "colonial goods" became less appropriate with the
collapse of the western European empires that followed the
Second World War. It nevertheless still appeared in books and articles in the 1970s, by now covering not merely agricultural output from (formerly) colonial countries but all long-life staple foods, regardless of provenance, as well as
soap,
washing powder and
petrol/gasoline, and other newly important basic household supplies.
Colonial goods stores
Colonial goods stores were retailers specializing in colonial goods. The name is now used generically for grocery stores selling non-perishable items.
Notes
{{Authority control
History of international trade
Late modern economic history
Goods