How Africans shaped British colonial institutions: evidence from local taxation

Jutta Bolt and Leigh Gardner

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: The institutions that governed most of the rural population in British colonial Africa have been neglected in the literature on colonialism. We use new data on local governments, or "Native Authorities,"to present the first quantitative comparison of African institutions under indirect rule in four colonies in 1948: Nigeria, the Gold Coast, Nyasaland, and Kenya. Tax data show that Native Authorities' capacity varied within and between colonies, due to both underlying economic inequalities and African elites' relations with the colonial government. Our findings suggest that Africans had a bigger hand in shaping British colonial institutions than often acknowledged.

JEL-codes: N0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 35 pages
Date: 2020-12-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-afr, nep-evo and nep-his
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

Published in Journal of Economic History, 1, December, 2020, 80(4), pp. 1189 - 1223. ISSN: 0022-0507

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http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/107519/ Open access version. (application/pdf)

Related works:
Journal Article: How Africans Shaped British Colonial Institutions: Evidence from Local Taxation (2020)
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:107519

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