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  • September 2014
  • Article
  • Journal of African History

Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, 1880-1940

By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
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Abstract

The historical and social science literature is divided about the importance of metropolitan blueprints of colonial rule for the development of colonial states. We exploit historical records of colonial state finances to explore the importance of metropolitan identity on the comparative development of fiscal institutions in British and French Africa. Taxes constituted the financial backbone of the colonial state and were vital to the state building efforts of colonial governments. A quantitative comparative perspective shows that pragmatic responses to varying local conditions can easily be mistaken for specific metropolitan blueprints of colonial governance and that under comparable local circumstances the French and British operated in remarkably similar ways.

Keywords

Colonial Administration; Quantitative Sources; Governance; Money; Taxation; Trade; History; Africa

Citation

Frankema, Ewout, and Marlous van Waijenburg. "Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, 1880-1940." Journal of African History 55, no. 3 (September 2014): 371–400.
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About The Author

Marlous van Waijenburg

Business, Government and the International Economy
→More Publications

More from the Authors

    • Summer 2023
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    Editors' Note

    By: Marlous van Waijenburg and Anne Ruderman
More from the Authors
  • (Un)principled Agents: Monitoring Loyalty after the End of the Royal African Company Monopoly By: Anne Ruderman and Marlous van Waijenburg
  • What About the Race Between Technology and Education in the Global South? Comparing Skill-premiums in Colonial Africa and Asia By: Ewout Frankema and Marlous van Waijenburg
  • Editors' Note By: Marlous van Waijenburg and Anne Ruderman
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