Hire-purchase in Tanzania, the law and practice in historical social-economic perspective
No Thumbnail Available
Date
1976
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Dar es Salaam
Abstract
The evolution of hire-purchase system is not the invention of an economics genius. In Part I of this dissertation we see the historical origin of hire-purchase system. In here, the development of productive forces in England is historically analysed, and we see how they were propelled on by the desire for accumulation of capital through capitalization of the surplus-value, right from the period of feudal merchant capitalism, to British free trade imperialism, up to the development of modern monopoly capitalism. The material conditions for the evolution of hire-purchase system, the socio-economic conditions in Britain during the period of maturity of capitalism, their concomitant production relations, and the indispensability of hire-purchase institution, form the theme of the first two chapters of this dissertation. The desire for realising more surplus-value and for capitalising it led to capitalist expansion into backward parts of the world. This marked the beginning of modern imperialism, which is the highest monopolistic and last stage of capitalism. This began in the last quarter of the 19th century. Competition among the imperialist countries seeking to appropriate surplus-value by monopolizing areas of investment of finance capital, markets for their industrial products, and sources of cheap raw materials and auxiliary products led to the partitioning and repartitioning of the world between the imperialist countries which was completed by the end of the first imperialist world war. In Part II of this dissertation we see the objective role of hire-purchase in Tanzania during pre-1966 period. In chapter 3 we see how the country was made an appendage to the world capitalist system, and we also see the resultant relations of production. In a desire to increase surplus-value the prices paid to the producers of raw materials and auxiliary products as well as workers ' wages were artificially fixed at the lowest possible levels. Therefore hire-purchase was of insignificant importance since the incomes of the bulk of the population could not enable them to buy the basic necessities and acquire consumer durables on hire purchase terms. In chapter 4 we see that political independence did not change capitalist relations of production. By being entangled in a neo-colonial web, the country's economy, mutatis mutandis, continues to be integrated to the world capitalist system; and in this chapter we see the fundamental laws of motion it continues to obey. During the early post independence period, hire-purchase provided a sure means of satisfying the social and economic elites' aspirations for luxurious goods as well as producer goods. In Part III we see that the reformist measures taken by the Government purportedly to curb the drain of Tanzania’s resources by the capitalist countries have not posed a real threat to the latter. The partnership between Public Corporations and Multinational Corporations facilitate the siphoning off of Tanzania's surpluses to the metropolitan countries. Though legal-institutional controls have been placed on hire-purchase institution so that it no longer caters for the conspicuous consumption of Tanzania's petty-bourgeoisie, we observe in our conclusion that unless the superstructure is changed, there is no other formula to be adopted by Tanzania to enable her to escape from the predicaments noted in the dissertation.
Description
Available in print form
Keywords
Sales, Conditional, Tanzania, Commercial law
Citation
Kawamala, I.N (1976) Hire-purchase in Tanzania, the law and practice in historical social-economic perspective, Masters dissertation, University of Dar es Salaam. Available at (http://41.86.178.3/internetserver3.1.2/detail.aspx?parentpriref= )