Colonial surplus

Last updated

A colonial surplus is a way of measuring the effects of the relationship between colony and metropolis.

A colony, in the sense of a region being ruled by a foreign overseas power, was in a different position from that of an independent country. As Maddison remarked some time ago of India, ‘The major burden of foreign rule arose from the fact that the British raj was a regime of expatriates.’ [1] Such expatriates generate a flow of funds out of the colony.

Simply, the Colonial Surplus is a measurement of the benefits in money terms gained by citizens, business and government of the colonising power (metropolis) from the colony. It is a measure of exploitation. It describes and calculates part of the economic relationship between colonising power and colony. The part it describes is revenue to the metropolis. The colonial surplus measures in money terms what the metropolis gets out of its colony, its gains. It includes the sum of the trading and financial relationship between the two. (and it covers gains made by other nationals operating in the colony). The foremost part deals with the balance of trade and services.

The presence of a Colonial Surplus may be evidenced by an export surplus on the part of the colony that was outstandingly large. The export surplus must be particularly large for it has to pay real expenses such as insurance and freight of the goods exported which may not be part of the colonial surplus. But it is better if there is a Balance of Payments account for the colony. Better still if this can be supported by statistics from the Balance of Payments or National Income for the metropolis or from other overseas accounts. It need not be supposed that those records of colonial exploitation are especially accurate for accountancy was in its infancy and there will be errors, omissions and downright evasions in them. Nonetheless used critically they should be enough to determine the size of the Colonial Surplus, if any.

Included in this calculation would be items not only like private and government dividends and profits transferred abroad but also pensions transferred abroad, travel expenses to and from the colony, other government expenditures overseas, changes in overseas bank balances and so on. Attention should be paid to profits made but not distributed in the colony and to investment out of undistributed profits which may or may not be included in the colony’s Balance of Payments. An example is the colony of the Netherlands East Indies (Indonesia) where they could not be included in the Balance of Payments for lack of evidence.

In several colonies special arrangements were made for the transfer of funds that should be included in the Colonial Surplus but do not appear in the colony’s balance of payments data. They have to be sought for elsewhere.

All but one of these items above deal with international transactions (or should do). The exception to this would be the inclusion of incomes made in the colony by non-indigenous private persons and businesses.

Further items might be added, such as the inclusion of the colonial budget (or part of it), special profits made by metropolitan nationals through their superior status, gains from exports to the colony that would not otherwise have been made and so on. These are more debatable items. All of them except for the colonial budget were presented and discussed in a paper on the Netherlands East Indies by a former colonial statistician in 1946. [2] A further method to include underestimated profits and tributes was outlined by Amiya Bagchi in 2002. [3]

Some authors incline to the view that taking changes into account the same principle may be utilised to measure exploitation of developing countries in the present-day world. Other authors deny the whole validity of the concept.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balance of trade</span> Difference between the monetary value of exports and imports

Balance of trade can be measured in terms of commercial balance, or net exports. Balance of trade is the difference between the monetary value of a nation's exports and imports over a certain time period. Sometimes a distinction is made between a balance of trade for goods versus one for services. The balance of trade measures a flow variable of exports and imports over a given period of time. The notion of the balance of trade does not mean that exports and imports are "in balance" with each other.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colonialism</span> Control by foreign groups

Colonialism is the pursuing, establishing and maintaining of control and exploitation of people and of resources by a foreign group of people. Implemented through the establishment of coloniality and possibly colonies, this colonization keeps the colonized territory and people socio-economically othered and subaltern to the colonizers and the metropole. While commonly advanced as an imperialist regime, colonialism can take the more particular and potentially autonomous form of settler colonialism, when colonial settlers pursue a more complete colonization of the land and people, often towards a replacement and possibly even genocide of the native populations.

The invisible balance or balance of trade on services is that part of the balance of trade that refers to services and other products that do not result in the transfer of physical objects. Examples include consulting services, shipping services, tourism, and patent license revenues. This figure is usually generated by tertiary industry. The term 'invisible balance' is especially common in the United Kingdom.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Economy of Mozambique</span>

The economy of Mozambique is $14.396 billion by gross domestic product as of 2018, and has developed since the end of the Mozambican Civil War (1977–1992). In 1987, the government embarked on a series of macroeconomic reforms, which were designed to stabilize the economy. These steps, combined with donor assistance and with political stability since the multi-party elections in 1994, have led to dramatic improvements in the country's growth rate. Inflation was brought to single digits during the late 1990s, although it returned to double digits in 2000–02. Fiscal reforms, including the introduction of a value-added tax and reform of the customs service, have improved the government's revenue collection abilities.

The Navigation Acts, or more broadly the Acts of Trade and Navigation, were a long series of English laws that developed, promoted, and regulated English ships, shipping, trade, and commerce between other countries and with its own colonies. The laws also regulated England's fisheries and restricted foreign—including Scottish and Irish—participation in its colonial trade. While based on earlier precedents, they were first enacted in 1651 under the Commonwealth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Government budget balance</span> Difference between revenues and spending

The government budget balance, also referred to as the general government balance, public budget balance, or public fiscal balance, is the difference between government revenues and spending. For a government that uses accrual accounting the budget balance is calculated using only spending on current operations, with expenditure on new capital assets excluded. A positive balance is called a government budget surplus, and a negative balance is a government budget deficit. A government budget presents the government's proposed revenues and spending for a financial year.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Income statement</span> Type of financial statement

An income statement or profit and loss account is one of the financial statements of a company and shows the company's revenues and expenses during a particular period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Balance of payments</span> Difference between the inflow and outflow of money to a country at a given time

In international economics, the balance of payments of a country is the difference between all money flowing into the country in a particular period of time and the outflow of money to the rest of the world. In other words, it is economic transactions between countries during a period of time. These financial transactions are made by individuals, firms and government bodies to compare receipts and payments arising out of trade of goods and services.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Current account (balance of payments)</span> Record of imports, exports, and net capital transfers of a country

In macroeconomics and international finance, a country's current account records the value of exports and imports of both goods and services and international transfers of capital. It is one of the two components of the balance of payments, the other being the capital account. Current account measures the nation's earnings and spendings abroad and it consists of the balance of trade, net primary income or factor income and net unilateral transfers, that have taken place over a given period of time. The current account balance is one of two major measures of a country's foreign trade. A current account surplus indicates that the value of a country's net foreign assets grew over the period in question, and a current account deficit indicates that it shrank. Both government and private payments are included in the calculation. It is called the current account because goods and services are generally consumed in the current period.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization</span> Accounting measure of a companys profitability

A company's earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization is a measure of a company's profitability of the operating business only, thus before any effects of indebtedness, state-mandated payments, and costs required to maintain its asset base. It is derived by subtracting from revenues all costs of the operating business but not decline in asset value, cost of borrowing, lease expenses, and obligations to governments.

Superprofit, surplus profit or extra surplus-value is a concept in Karl Marx's critique of political economy subsequently elaborated by Vladimir Lenin and other Marxist thinkers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Export-oriented industrialization</span> Development strategy based on global trade

Export-oriented industrialization (EOI), sometimes called export substitution industrialization (ESI), export-led industrialization (ELI), or export-led growth, is a trade and economic policy aiming to speed up the industrialization process of a country by exporting goods for which the nation has a comparative advantage. Export-led growth implies opening domestic markets to foreign competition in exchange for market access in other countries.

Operating surplus is an accounting concept used in national accounts statistics and in corporate and government accounts. It is the balancing item of the Generation of Income Account in the UNSNA. It may be used in macro-economics as a proxy for total pre-tax profit income, although entrepreneurial income may provide a better measure of business profits. According to the 2008 SNA, it is the measure of the surplus accruing from production before deducting property income, e.g., land rent and interest.

In its balance of payments accounts, Japan has traditionally run a deficit in services. Trade in services includes transportation, insurance, travel expenditures, royalties, licensing fees, and income from investments. The deficit in services rose steadily from US$99 million in 1960, to nearly US$1.8 billion in 1970 and to more than US$11.3 billion in 1980 which can be attributed to rising royalty and licensing payments for Japan's acquisition of technology from other industrial countries and to rising deficits in the trade-related services of transportation and insurance. The transportation deficit rose after the 1960s, as rapidly climbing labor costs made Japanese-flag vessels less competitive, leading to greater use of foreign-flag carriers.

Unequal exchange is used primarily in Marxist economics, but also in ecological economics, to denote forms of exploitation hidden in or underwriting trade. Unequal exchange is usually calculated by assuming that any trade between a country with a high price level and a country with a low price level, is exploitation. Originating, in the wake of the debate on the Singer–Prebisch thesis, as an explanation of the falling terms of trade for underdeveloped countries, the concept was coined in 1962 by the Greco-French economist Arghiri Emmanuel to denote an exchange taking place where the rate of profit has been internationally equalised, but wage-levels have not. It has since acquired a variety of meanings, often linked to other or older traditions which perhaps then raise claims to priority.

The role and scale of British imperial policy during the British Raj on India's relative decline in global GDP remains a topic of debate among economists, historians, and politicians. Some commentators argue the effect of British rule was negative, and that Britain engaged in a policy of deindustrialisation in India for the benefit of British exporters which left Indians relatively poorer than before British rule. Others argue that Britain's impact on India was either broadly neutral or positive, and that India's declining share of global GDP was due to other factors, such as new mass production technologies or internal ethnic conflict.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Kingdom National Accounts – The Blue Book</span>

The annual United Kingdom National Accounts records and describes economic activity in the United Kingdom and as such is used by government, banks, academics and industries to formulate the economic and social policies and monitor the economic progress of the United Kingdom. It also allows international comparisons to be made. The Blue Book is published by the UK Office for National Statistics alongside the United Kingdom Balance of Payments – The Pink Book.

Paradox of competition in economics names a model of a situation where measures, which offer a competitive advantage to an individual economic entity, lead to nullification of advantage if all others behave in the same way. In some cases the finite state is even more disadvantageous for everybody than before. The term Paradox of competition was coined by German economist Wolfgang Stützel. It is about a case of a rationality trap.

The economic de-industrialisation of India refers a period of reduction in industrial based activities within the Indian economy from 1757 to 1947. The process of de-industrialisation is an economic change in which employment in the manufacturing sector declines due to various economic or political reasons. The decline in employment in manufacturing is also followed by the fall in the share of manufacturing value added in GDP. The process of de-industrialisation can be due to development and growth in the economy and it can also occur due to political factors.

References

  1. ‘The Economic and Social Impact of Colonial Rule in India’ Chapter 3 p. 19 of Class Structure and Economic Growth: India & Pakistan since the Moghuls A. Maddison (1971)
  2. This was done in Dutch by J. B. D. Derksen, in 1946. A translation of his table conveniently may be found on p. 25 of Economic Benefits from Colonial Assets: The Case of the Netherlands and Indonesia 1870-1958 by P. Van der Eng. 1998. (An internet entry).
  3. Amiya Bagchi, ‘The Other Side of Foreign Investment by Imperial Powers.’ Pp. 2236-8. Economic and Political Weekly June 8, 2002.