Metropolitan blueprints of colonial taxation? Lessons from fiscal capacity building in British and French Africa, c. 1880-1940

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Periodical article

Title:	Metropolitan blueprints of colonial taxation? Lessons from fiscal capacity building in British and French Africa, c. 1880-1940
Authors:	Frankema, Ewout Waijenburg, Marlous van
Year:	2014
Periodical:	The Journal of African History (ISSN 0021-8537)
Volume:	55
Issue:	3
Pages:	371-400
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Africa Great Britain France
Subjects:	taxation colonial administration 1880-1889 1890-1899 1900-1949
External link:	https://doi.org/10.1017/S002185371400036X
Abstract:	The historical and social science literature is divided about the importance of metropolitan blueprints of colonial rule for the development of colonial states. The authors 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. App., notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]