Navigation auf uzh.ch
Because of their ubiquity and the variety of forms applied we were not able to code the core aspects of economic colonialism, the degree of expropriation (1), especially of land, and of financial exploitation (2).
To cover the costs of colonial administration and investment in infrastructure (and often further conquest), all colonial governments relied on different forms of resource organization out of the colony. Most colonies relied initially on corvée, forced labor, and substituted that in course of time through paid labor. Common were also direct and indirect taxes (e.g. land, village or hut tax; custom duties on exports/imports) and mono¬polies (salt, tobacco, liquor etc.). While traditional forms of forced labor were relatively easy to be continued by colonial governments (e.g. for big infrastructure projects), taxes (especially direct ones) were difficult to collect and met frequently with resistance and/or emigration. Immigrants from the metropole country usually profited from different rules, many exemptions and numerous loopholes. The financial systems of colonies were a mix of different elements and frequently subject of changes over time. Certainly, the levels of financial exploitation were higher in some colonies than in others, and some forms more exploitative than others, but this proved impossible to code in a systematic manner. We consider this to be a major gap in our coding of the impact of colonialism. However, here as in the case of expropriation, we measure these effects to a certain degree indirectly: the more wars and violence, the more investment in infrastructure, the more distortive the trade policy, the higher the costs for which the colonial population had to pay.