By Leigh A. Gardner
How a lot did the British Empire expense, and the way did Britain pay for it? Taxing Colonial Africa explores a resource of cash a lot missed in examine at the monetary constitution of the Empire, particularly profit raised within the colonies themselves. Requiring colonies to be financially self-sufficient was once one in all quite a number thoughts the British executive used to reduce the price of imperial enlargement to its personal Treasury. concentrating on British colonies in Africa, Leigh Gardner examines how their efforts to stability their budgets motivated their relationships with neighborhood political stakeholders in addition to the imperial govt. She reveals that efforts to stability the finances formed colonial public coverage at each point, and that compromises made within the face of monetary constraints formed the political and financial associations that have been verified via colonial administrations and inherited by means of the previous colonies at independence.
Using either quantitative info on public profit and expenditure in addition to archival documents from records in either the united kingdom and the previous colonies, Gardner follows the improvement of financial guidelines in British Africa from the start of colonial rule during the first years of independence. through the youth of colonial management, either the constitution of taxation and the allocation of public spending mirrored the 2 imperative pursuits of colonial rule: conserving order as affordably as attainable and inspiring export creation. Taxing Colonial Africa examines how the financial structures proven ahead of 1914 coped with the upheavals of next many years, together with the 2 international Wars, the nice melancholy, and at last the move of strength.
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But which types of taxes could be imposed effectively in each colony depended on the existing political and economic features of the colony. Most colonial budgets relied on two key sources of revenue, trade taxes and direct taxes, but the structure and importance of each of these taxes varied enormously across the continent. Diversity in the structure of colonial tax states emerged from a very early period, as colonial administrators discovered the revenue sources that would and would not work. The differences which emerged were important in the economic and political development of the colonies for two reasons.
The loan was forgiven in 1933. Kubicek, ‘British Expansion’, p. 258; Wrigley, ‘Patterns of Economic Life’, p. 211. 7 For the impact of railways, see Munro, Africa and the International Economy, p. 94. 8 For an overview of Chamberlain’s policies, see Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, pp. 86–90. 9 For more detail on British colonial development policy before World War One, see Constantine, Colonial Development Policy, ch. 2; Havinden and Meredith, Colonialism and Development, ch.
The end of the Napoleonic wars and the collapse of the Spanish Empire left only two major players in the imperial game. 32 As a result of these tensions, the policy of colonial self-sufficiency was born. British taxpayers were no longer willing to subsidize the governance of an ever-expanding Empire, but nor were they (mostly) willing to give it up. 33 If the resources to support the administration of the Empire were not going to come from Britain, they had to be raised in the colonies themselves.