Comparative Perspectives on Taxation and the Colonial State

Questions of colonial legacies continue to be subjects of heated public as well as academic debate. The concrete workings of European colonial conquest and rule have been analyzed by a great body of literature, but the ways in which European colonialism was financed has recently gained more scholarly attention in economic history. This renewed interest in colonial taxation allows for a detailed fiscal analysis of the (European) state and its colonial entanglements over time and space. The conference brought together scholars from this emerging field to discuss the differences between and commonalities among European empires regarding their fiscal systems and policies. The main focus was on historical case studies, covering different colonial empires and various local contexts.