Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-25T19:05:09.818Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Financing the African Colonial State: The Revenue Imperative and Forced Labor

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2018

Marlous van Waijenburg
Marlous van Waijenburg*
Affiliation:
Marlous van Waijenburg is Assistant Professor of Economics and Postdoctoral Scholar in the Society of Fellows at the University of Michigan, 611 Tappan Avenue, Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109. E-mail: mvanwaij@umich.edu.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Although recent studies on African colonial tax systems have deepened our understanding of early fiscal capacity building efforts in the region, they have largely ignored the contributions from a widely used but invisible source of state revenue: that of labor contributions. Exploiting data on corvée systems in French Africa, this is the first article to make these in-kind taxes “visible” by estimating a lower bound of how much they augmented governments' revenue base. Revealing that labor taxes constituted in most places the largest component of early colonial budgets, I argue that studies on historical taxation need to make a greater effort to integrate this significant source of government revenue into their analysis.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 40 - 80
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am grateful for the constructive feedback I received on this project from Ralph Austen, Bill Collins (JEH editor) Ewout Frankema, Jonathan Glassman, Regina Grafe, Joel Mokyr (dissertation advisor), Elise van Nederveen Meerkerk, Yannay Spitzer, Helen Tilly, two anonymous referees, and the participants of the Africa work-in-progress seminar at Brown University (2014), the SSHA meeting in Toronto (2014), the AEH workshop in London (2014), the EHA meeting in Nashville (2015), the African development conference at Harvard University (2015), and the conference on markets and states at the University of Warwick (2016). I could not have carried out the research for this paper without the generous financial support of the Buffett Institute for Global Studies, the Center for Economic History, the Program of African Studies, The Graduate School at Northwestern University, the Economic History Association, and the Balzan Foundation.

References

REFERENCES

Acemoglu, Daron, Johnson, Simon, and Robinson, James. “The Colonial Origins of Comparative Development: An Empirical Investigation.” American Economic Review 91, no. 5 (2001): 1369–401.Google Scholar
Akurang-Parry, Kwabena. “Colonial Forced Labor Policies for Road-Building in Southern Ghana and International Anti-Forced Labor Pressures, 1900–1940.” African Economic History 28 (2000): 1–25.Google Scholar
Arnett, E. J. “Economic Conditions in French West Africa.” Journal of the Royal African Society 34, no. 137 (1935): 434–45.Google Scholar
Ash, Catherine B. “Forced Labor in Colonial West Africa.” History Compass 4, no. 3 (2006): 402–6.Google Scholar
Austen, Ralph. African Economic History: Internal Development and External Dependency. London: J. Currey, 1987.Google Scholar
Austin, Gareth. Labour, Land and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807–1956. Rochester, NY: Rochester University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, Gareth, and Broadberry, Stephen. “Introduction: The Renaissance of African Economic History.” Economic History Review 67, no. 4 (2014): 893–906.Google Scholar
Azevedo, Mario. “The Human Price of Development: The Brazzaville Railroad and the Sara of Chad.” African Studies Review 24, no. 1 (1981): 1–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baker, Colin. “Tax Collection in Malawi: An Administrative History, 1891–1972.” International Journal of African Historical Studies 8, no. 1 (1975): 40–62.Google Scholar
Ball, Jeremy. “Colonial Labor in Twentieth-Century Angola.” History Compass 3 (2005): 1–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Besley, Timothy, and Persson, Torsten, “State Capacity, Conflict, and Development.” Econometrica 78, no. 1 (2010): 1–34.Google Scholar
Besley, Timothy. “The Origins of State Capacity: Property Rights, Taxation, and Politics.” American Economic Review 99, no. 4 (2009): 1218–44.Google Scholar
Bowden, Sue, Chiripanhura, Blessing, and Mosley, Paul. “Measuring and Explaining Poverty in Six African Countries: A Long-Period Approach.” Journal of International Development 20, no. 8 (2008): 1049–79.Google Scholar
Cooper, Frederick. Decolonization and African Society. The Labor Question in French and British Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Conklin, Alice. A Mission to Civilize: The Republican Idea of Empire in France and West Africa, 1895–1930. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 1997.Google Scholar
Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. “French Colonization in Africa to 1920: Administration and Economic Development.” In Colonialism in Africa, 1870–1960. Volume 1: The History and Politics of Colonialism 1870–1914, edited by Gann, Lewis H. and Duignan, Peter, 165–98. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1977.Google Scholar
Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine. “French Black Africa.” In The Cambridge History of Africa, Volume 7: From 1905–1940, edited by Roberts, A., 329–93. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Crowder, Michael. West Africa under Colonial Rule. London: Hutchinson, 1968.Google Scholar
Daviron, Benoit. “Mobilizing Labour in African Agriculture: The Role of the International Colonial Institute in the Elaboration of a Standard of Colonial Administration, 1895–1930.” Journal of Global History 5, no. 3 (2010): 479–510.Google Scholar
Echenberg, Myron, and Filipovich, Jean. “African Military Labour and the Building of the Office du Niger Installations, 1925–1950.” Journal of African History 27, no. 3 (1986): 533–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fall, Babacar. Le Travail Forcé en Afrique-Occidentale française, 1900–1946. Paris: Karthala, 1993.Google Scholar
Fall, Babacar. Social History in French West Africa: Forced Labor, Labor Market, Women and Politics. Calcutta: Centre for Studies in Social Sciences, 2002.Google Scholar
Fourie, Johan. “The Data Revolution in African Economic History.” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 47, no. 2 (2016): 193–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fourie, Johan, and Gardner, Leigh. “The Internationalization of Economic History: A Puzzle.” Economic History of Developing Regions 29, no. 1 (2014): 1–14.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout. “Raising Revenue in the British Empire, 1870–1940: How ‘Extractive’ Were Colonial Taxes?” Journal of Global History 5, no. 3 (2010): 447–77.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout. “Colonial Taxation and Government Spending in British Africa, 1880–1940: Maximizing Revenue or Minimizing Effort?” Explorations in Economic History 48, no. 1 (2011): 136–49.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout, and Jerven, Morten. “Writing History Backwards or Sideways: Towards a Consensus on African Population, 1850–Present.” Economic History Review 67, no. 4 (2014): 907–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Frankema, Ewout, and Waijenburg, Marlous van. “Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, c. 1880–1940.” Journal of African History 55, no. 3 (2014): 371–400.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout, and Waijenburg, Marlous van. “Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from Real Wages in British Africa, 1880–1965.” Journal of Economic History 72, no. 4 (2012): 895–926.Google Scholar
Gardner, Leigh. “Fiscal Policy in the Belgian Congo in Comparative Perspective.” In Colonial Exploitation and Economic Development: The Belgian Congo and the Netherlands Indies Compared, edited by Frankema, Ewout and Buelens, Frans, 130–52. London: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
Gardner, Leigh. Taxing Colonial Africa: The Political Economy of British Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gervais, Raymond, and Mandé., Issiaka “Comment Compter Les Sujets de L'empire? Les Étapes d'une Démographie Impériale En AOF avant 1946.” Vingtième Siècle. Revue d'Histoire 95, no. 3 (2007): 63–74.Google Scholar
Goudal, Jean. “The Question of Forced Labour before the International Labour Conference.” International Labour Review XIX, no. 5 (1929): 621–38.Google Scholar
Hailey, Lord. An African Survey: A Study of Problems Arising in Africa South of the Sahara. London: Oxford University Press, 1939.Google Scholar
Herbst, Jeffrey. States and Power in Africa. Comparative Lessons in Authority and Control. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Hochschild, Adam. King Leopold's Ghost. A Story of Greed, Terror, and Heroism in Colonial Africa. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1998.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Philip. “What Do States Do? Politics and Economic History.” Journal of Economic History 75, no. 2 (2015): 303–32.Google Scholar
Hogendorn, Jan, and Lovejoy, Paul. Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897–1936. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Antony G. An Economic History of West Africa. New York: University of Columbia Press, 1973.Google Scholar
Houben, Vincent, and Seibert, Julie. “(Un)freedom: Colonial Labor Relations in Belgian Congo and the Netherlands Indies Compared.” In Colonial Exploitation and Economic Development: The Belgian Congo and the Netherlands Indies Compared, edited by Frankema, Ewout and Buelens, Frans, 180–92. London: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
Huillery, Elise. “The Black Man's Burden: The Cost of Colonization in French West Africa.” Journal of Economic History 74, no. 1 (2014): 1–38.Google Scholar
Huillery, Elise. “History Matters: The Long-Term Impact of Colonial Public Investments in French West Africa.” American Economic Journal-Applied Economics 1, no. 2 (2009): 176–215.Google Scholar
International Labour Organization. Convention Concerning Forced or Compulsory Labour. Geneva, Co29, 1930.Google Scholar
Huillery, Elise. Informations Sociales, various issues.Google Scholar
Klein, Martin. Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Kuczynski, Robert. Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire. Volume I: West Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1948.Google Scholar
Kuczynski, Robert. Demographic Survey of the British Colonial Empire. Volume II: East Africa. London: Oxford University Press, 1949.Google Scholar
Law, Robin. “Slaves, Trade, and Taxes: The Material Basis of Political Power in Precolonial West Africa.” Research in Economic Anthropology 1 (1978): 37–52.Google Scholar
Levi, Margaret. Of Rule and Revenue. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Lowes, Sara, and Montero, Eduardo. “Blood Rubber: The Effects of Labor Coercion on Institutions and Culture in the DRC.” Working Paper, 2017.Google Scholar
Manning, Patrick. Francophone Sub-Saharan Africa, 1880–1985. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Manning, Patrick. “African Population. Projections 1850–1960.” In The Demographics of Empire: The Colonial Order and the Creation of Knowledge, edited by Ittman, Karl, Cordell, Dennis, and Maddox, Gregory, 245–75. Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Martin, C. “Population Census Estimates and Methods in British East Africa.” In Essays on African Population, edited by Barbour, K. and Prothero, R., 7–16. London: Routledge, 1961.Google Scholar
Mkandawire, Thandika. “On Tax Efforts and Colonial Heritage in Africa.” Journal of Development Studies 46, no. 10 (2010): 1647–69.Google Scholar
Mosley, Paul. The Settler Economies: Studies in the Economic History of Kenya and Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1963. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1983.Google Scholar
Northrup, David. Beyond the Bend in the River: African Labor in Eastern Zaire, 1865–1940. Athens, OH: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 1988.Google Scholar
Okia, Opolot. Communal Labor in Colonial Kenya: The Legitimization of Coercion, 1912–1930. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2012.Google Scholar
Phillips, Anne. The Enigma of Colonialism: British Policy in West Africa. London: James Currey, 1989.Google Scholar
Ross, Edward. Report on Employment of Native Labor in Portuguese Africa. New York: Abbott Press, 1925.Google Scholar
Salau, Mohammed Bashir. “The Role of Slave Labor in Groundnut Production in Early Colonial Kano.” Journal of African History 51, no. 2 (2010): 147–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sautter, Gilles. “Notes sur la Construction du Chemin de Fer Congo-Océan.” Cahiers d'Études Africaines 26, no. 7 (1967): 219–99.Google Scholar
Schumpeter, Joseph A. “The Crisis of the Tax State.” International Economic Papers 4 (1918): 5–38.Google Scholar
Suret-Canale, Jean. French Colonialism in Tropical Africa 1900–1945. Translated by Till Gottheiner. London: C. Hurst & Co., 1971.Google Scholar
Tadei, Federico. “Extractive Institutions and Gains from Trade: Evidence from Colonial Africa.” IGIER Working Paper No. 536, Milano, Italy, 2014.Google Scholar
Tilly, Charles. Coercion, Capital, and European States, A.D. 990–1990. Cambridge: Blackwell, 1990.Google Scholar
Young, Crawford, The African Colonial State in Comparative Perspective. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Van Onselen, Charles. Chibaro: African Mine Labour in Southern Rhodesia, 1900–1933. London: Pluto Press, 1976.Google Scholar
Waijenburg, Marlous van. “Financing the African Colonial State: The Revenue Imperative and Forced Labor.” Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research [distributor], 27 October 2017. http://doi.org/10.3886/E101190V1.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. “‘Special Circumstances’ in Geneva: The ILO and the World of Non-Metropolitan Labour in the Interwar Years.” In ILO Histories: Essays on the International Labour Organization and Its Impact on the World During the Twentieth Century, edited by Daele, Jasmien van, García, Magaly Rodríguez, and Goethem, Geert Van, 221–50. Bern: Peter Lang, 2010.Google Scholar

ARCHIVAL RECORDS

Archives Nationale d'Outre-Mer, AOM 14MI - 1575, S 22.Google Scholar

DATA

Agence Économique de l'Afrique Occidentale Française. Annuaire Statistique de l'Afrique Occidentale Française. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, various volumes.Google Scholar
Gouvernement Générale de l'Afrique Occidentale Française. Budget Général. Goreé: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Annuaire Statistique de l'Afrique Occidentale Française et du Togo Placé sous Mandat de la France. Paris: Agence Économique de L'Afrique Occidentale Française.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local de la Colonie de la Mauritanie. Gorée: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local de la Haute-Volta. Bamako: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local du Haut-Sénégal-Niger. Bamako: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget du Territoire Militaire du Niger. Gorée: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local du Soudan Français. Koulouba: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Dahomey: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Porto-Novo: Imprimerie, du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Dahomey: Projet de Budget, Recettes et des Dépenses. Porto-Novo: Imprimerie, du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Sénégal: Budget des Pays de Protectorat. Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Sénégal: Budget du Service Local. Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Sénégal: Budget des Territoires d'Administration Directe, Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Sénégal, Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie la Guinée Française: Budget du Service Locale de la Guinée Française. Conakry: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie la Guinée Française: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Conakry: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses, Budget Annexe Territoire Civil de la Mauritanie. Goree: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses, Budget Locale de la Mauritanie. Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses de la Colonie du Niger. Gorée: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses du Budget Général. Goreé: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Côte d'Ivoire, Budget du Service Locale. Bingerville: Imprimerie, du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Côte d'Ivoire: Compte Définitif. Paris: Imprimerie Administrative Centrale, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Haute Volta: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses du Budget Local. Bamako: Imprimerie Administrative & Commerciale, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel de l'Afrique Occidentale Française. Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du Sénégal, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel de la Colonie du Dahomey. Porto Novo: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel de la Colonie du Niger. Ouagadougou: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel de la Côte d'Ivoire. Grand Bassam: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel de la Haute Volta. Ouagadougou: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel du Haut-Sénégal-Niger. Bamako: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel du Sénégal et Dépendances. Saint-Louis: Imprimerie du Sénégal, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel du Soudan Française. Bamako: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Gouvernement Générale de l'Afrique Équatoriale Française. Budget Général. Brazzaville: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local du Gabon. Brazzaville: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local du Moyen Congo. Brazzaville: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local de L'Oubangui-Chari. Brazzaville: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Local du Territoire du Tchad. Brazzaville: Imprimerie du Gouvernement Général, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie de l'Oubangui-Chari: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Paris: Librairie Larose, various issuesGoogle Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Gabon: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Paris: Librairie Larose, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Moyen-Congo: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Paris: Librairie Larose, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Colonie du Tchad: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Paris: Librairie Larose, various issuesGoogle Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Budget Génerale: Compte Définitif des Recettes et Dépenses. Paris: Librairie Larose, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Évolution Économique Des Possessions Françaises de l'Afrique Équatoriale. Paris: Librairie Félix Alcan, 1913.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel de l'Afrique Équatoriale Française. Brazzaville: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
République Française, Ministère des Colonies. Cameroun, Budget des Recettes et des Dépenses. Yaoundé: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel des Territoires du Togo Placés sous le Mandat de la France. Lomé: Imprimerie du Gouvernement, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Journal Officiel des Territoires du Cameroun. Yaoundé: Imprimerie du Gouvernement.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Madagascar et Dépendances, Budget des Recettes et des Dépenses du Service Local. Tananarive: Imprimerie Officielle, various issues.Google Scholar
Zimmermann, Susan. Territoire du Togo, Budget Local. Imprimerie de L'École Professionelle, various issues.Google Scholar

NEWSPAPER ARTICLES

“Travail forcé au Congo: le CRAN poursuit l'Etat pour « crime contre l'humanité »” Le Monde, 25 February 2014. Accessed 15 November 2017. http://www.lemonde.fr/societe/article/2014/02/25/le-cran-poursuit-l-etat-pour-crime-contre-l-humanite_4373170_3224.html.Google Scholar