How Africans Shaped British Colonial Institutions: Evidence from Local Taxation

• 成果类型: Article
• 署名作者: Lund University; University of Groningen; University of London; London School Economics & Political Science; Stellenbosch University
• 刊物名称: JOURNAL OF ECONOMIC HISTORY
• ISSN/ISSBN: 0022-0507
• DOI: 10.1017/S0022050720000455
• 发表日期: 2020
• 页码: 1189-1223
• 关键词: precolonial centralization; political centralization; historical origins; STATES; INEQUALITY; capacity; revenue; IMPACT; GROWTH

摘要

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.