Taxing Colonial Africa: The Political Economy of British Imperialism

288 Pages·2012·2.06 MB·English

by  Leigh A. Gardner

TAXING COLONIAL AFRICA
OXFORD HISTORICAL MONOGRAPHS
Editors
p. clavin
l. goldman j. innes r. service
p. a. slack b. ward-perkins
j. l. watts
Taxing Colonial Africa
Th e Political Economy of British
Imperialism
L EIGH A . G ARDNER
1
3

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To my parents, for always believing in me
Preface
E mpires have rarely been profi table for those governing them. ‘Imperial
overstretch’, as Paul Kennedy describes it in his Th e Rise and Fall of the
Great Powers, has been the downfall of expanding states for millennia. In
recent decades historians have attempted to quantify the costs and bene-
fi ts of the Empire to Britain, and have largely concluded that at best the
British government broke even (though private individuals often profi ted
handsomely along the way). A pioneering work in this literature is Davis
and Huttenback’s M ammon and the Pursuit of Empire: Th e Political Econ-
omy of British Imperialism, 1860–1912 , which investigates, as the authors
put it, the ‘profi tability of Empire’ for the British Treasury. Th is volume
draws its inspiration (and its subtitle) from Davis and Huttenback, but
rather than asking h ow much the Empire cost, investigates how Empire
was funded.
Its starting point is the policy of making colonies pay for their own
administration, which is often mentioned in imperial history but rarely
explored in depth. By the twentieth century, this policy was suffi ciently
successful that most of the cost of governing the Empire was borne pri-
marily by colonial subjects rather than the British taxpayer. Th is eased the
burdens of the British Treasury, but led to the emergence of new and
often unpredictable political and economic dynamics in the colonial per-
iphery. Diff erences in initial endowments, and subsequent bargaining
and negotiation between stakeholders, produced unique fi scal systems in
each colony. How this aff ected the political and economic institutions
which emerged in the colonies and which former colonies inherited at
independence is the subject of this book.
A study of local dynamics within a vast empire must necessarily sacri-
fi ce breadth for depth. Th is book focuses particularly on two of Britain’s
colonies in sub-Saharan Africa. While certainly not the wealthiest nor the
most strategically important, the vast and at the time largely uncharted
territory acquired by the British Empire in Africa in the late nineteenth
century presented a singular challenge for an empire at the height of its
powers. Th e immediately exploitable resources of the region were few, but
the demands of administering such large colonies were great. Africa’s ex-
perience can therefore shed light on the lessons learned by Britain over
several centuries of imperial rule.
L ike most academic endeavours, writing this book has produced more
questions than answers. Th e extent to which Africa’s experience mirrors
Preface vii
that of older colonies in Asia or the Americas is one of them. Th is book
provides a foundation for answering this as well as many other questions
about how the Empire worked and the legacy it left behind. My greatest
hope for it is that it will return the spotlight of imperial history to the
earnest bureaucrats who struggled to fi nd ways of funding the most ambi-
tious extension of political and economic might in human history, duti-
fully keeping the account books on which this book is largely based. Th eir
eff orts have long been neglected in favour of the more glamorous exploits
of traders, explorers, and missionaries. But they still have many more
stories to tell us about the hard realities of building and then dismantling
an empire.
Th is book would not have existed without the support, both personal
and professional, of a wide network of people and institutions. It began
its life as a doctoral dissertation at the University of Oxford. Revision into
its current format began while I was fi rst lecturer in the Department of
Historical Studies at the University of Cape Town and then Researcher at
the British Museum. Th e manuscript was completed at the London
School of Economics and Political Science, where my colleagues in the
Department of Economic History have provided much encouragement
and guidance.
T oo many individuals have contributed to this research at its various
stages to name them all, but I would particularly like to thank David
Anderson, who supervised the writing of the dissertation on which this
book is based and then patiently guided me through the process of turn-
ing a dissertation into a book. Gareth Austin and Avner Off er, who exam-
ined the dissertation, provided invaluable feedback in both their examiners’
report and during a highly enjoyable viva. Beyond reading parts of the
manuscript, Jane Humphries has been a supportive mentor throughout.
Deborah Oxley and David Meredith (and Chloe and Ted) deserve par-
ticular thanks for their helpful guidance and unfailingly generous hospi-
tality during subsequent trips to Oxford.
From beginning to end, this work benefi ted from the vibrant intellec-
tual exchanges of Oxford University’s economic history and African stud-
ies groups. Comments on seminar presentations and a range of informal
discussions have infl uenced the fi nal product in ways I can no longer ar-
ticulate, but without which it would not have assumed the form that it
has.
viii Preface
O utside Oxford, a wide range of people have read and commented on
parts of this research at various stages, providing invaluable feedback.
Wm. Roger Louis and other participants in the National History Center
Seminar on Decolonization helped shape both the discussion on decolon-
ization and the message of the book as a whole. Of these, Jennifer Foray
has been particularly helpful during the process of revising the disserta-
tion. Participants in university seminars and workshops in Cambridge,
Cape Town, Copenhagen, Lusaka, Stellenbosch, and at the London
School of Economics have also provided valuable discussion and feed-
back. Any remaining errors and omissions are my own responsibility.
M y greatest debt is to my parents, who in the writing of this book have
learned far more than they ever cared to about the public fi nances of
countries they haven’t (yet) visited. Th is book is dedicated to them.
Leigh A. Gardner
Acknowledgements
Th is research would not have been possible without the patient help of
archivists at the Kenya National Archives, the London Metropolitan
Archives, Rhodes House in Oxford, the UK National Archives, the US
National Archives and Records Administration, and the World Bank. I
would particularly like to thank the World Bank for permission to pub-
lish research based on its archival holdings, and Katie Eagleton for giving
me access to her research from the Uganda National Archives.
E qually, the archival research on which this book is based also depended
on fi nancial support from the Beit Fund, Clarendon Fund, Economic
History Society, the Hicks Fund, the National History Centre, Jesus Col-
lege Oxford, and the Oxford Research Network on Governance in
Africa.
P arts of Chapters 2 and 7 appear in modifi ed form in a paper entitled
‘Decentralization and Corruption in Historical Perspective: Evidence
from Tax Collection in British Colonial Africa’, published in E conomic
History of Developing Regions , Volume 25:2. Parts of Chapters 6 and 8
were published in a chapter entitled ‘An Unstable Foundation: Taxation
and Development in Kenya, 1945–63’, in D. Branch, N. Cheeseman,
and L. A. Gardner (eds.), Our Turn to Eat: Politics in Kenya Since 1950
(Berlin, 2010).