This chapter introduces and motivates the main theme of the book and the key questions related to the development of fiscal capacity in colonial Asia and Africa. We situate the colonial fiscal state in the context of the changing world order in the long century between 1850 and 1960. We discuss the historiography and existing theoretical perspectives on fiscal development, arguing that these remain biased towards the European, or Eurasian experience at best. We also summarize the key insights of all the chapters in light of the general patterns that emerge from the comparative perspective adopted in this book. Finally, we formulate a brief future research agenda which identifies the next steps to be taken to improve our understanding of the various ways in which fiscal states have developed across the globe since the mid-nineteenth century.

South Africa made remarkable progress from 1850 to 1961 with the establishment of a ‘modern’ fiscal state. This chapter shows that the discovery of diamonds and gold in the second half of 19th century facilitated the modernization of the country's fiscal system by providing the impetus for modern economic growth and by generating vast resources for the financing of infrastructure and essential social services. It also identifies two consequences of apartheid that negated vital potential benefits of the fiscal modernization process: the state could not achieve the legitimacy needed for political stability and long-term economic development, and the economic diversification that is essential for sustained economic progress in economies built on the extraction of exhaustible resources was thwarted by the debilitating effects of apartheid on policy priorities and the country's skills base. The main conclusion of the chapter therefore is that apartheid prevented South Africa from capitalizing on the opportunities afforded by its mineral wealth and otherwise solid governance foundations.

This chapter surveys the fiscal policies and practices in the Portuguese African colonies of Mozambique and Angola from the 1850s to 1970s. It explores the fiscal implications of a long history of trade relations and cultural exchange, including early forms of colonial settlement (merchants, missionaries, prazeros), which were moulded into a relatively late and severely contested occupation wave in the late nineteenth century. It discusses the constraints to revenue centralization and fiscal unification and shows how spending policies prioritized security, administration and infrastructure over welfare services. I argue that local conditions, including this specific ‘pre-colonial’ history of Portuguese-African relations, limited possibilities of fiscal modernization, while major ruptures in metropolitan politics (e.g. the Salazar dictatorship) were key in the reorganization of imperial finances.

This chapter examines the changing role of the state in Southeast Asia in the decades from 1900 through to 1960, a period which covers the last phase of colonialism in the region, and the transition to independence. To what extent did colonial governments establish modern fiscal states in the region? By the end of the nineteenth century the three main European colonial powers, Britain, France and the Netherlands, all controlled substantial territories in the region. The Spanish, who had occupied the Philippine islands since the seventeenth century, ceded control to the Americans after their defeat in the Spanish-American War at the end of the nineteenth century. Siam, which became Thailand at the end of the 1930s, had managed to remain independent, although at the cost of losing territory to both British and French possessions. This chapter compares and contrasts revenue, expenditure and borrowing policies across the major colonial territories and Thailand, and examines the transition to independence in the years from 1946 to 1963, when the Federation of Malaysia was formed.