A balance sheet analysis of the Banque de l’Afrique Occidentale

Siwei Bian
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Siwei Bian: The Johns Hopkins University

Turkish Economic Review, 2022, vol. 9, issue 2, 80-103

Abstract: The Banque de l’Afrique Occidentale was a Paris-based bank that operated in French colonies in West Africa and Equatorial Africa. From 1901 to 1955 it was a monopoly note issuer and so had one characteristic of a central bank alongside its commercial banking functions. This paper briefly reviews its history during that period, which apparently has not previously been done in English; collects the main legal enactments related to the bank, never done before for the whole period of its existence as a note issuer; and analyzes its balance sheet, which has never been digitized before and is available in an accompanying spreadsheet workbook. Through the balance sheet, the paper examines the composition of the bank’s assets and liabilities and how they evolved over time. It concludes with some observations about the bank’s role in French colonial Africa.

Keywords: Banking; Colonialism; French Equatorial Africa; French West Africa. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: E59 N17 N27 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cvv:journ2:v:9:y:2022:i:2:p:80-103

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