Finances publiques et conquête coloniale : le coût budgétaire de l'expansion française entre 1850 et 1913

Résumé En

Public financing of French expansion abroad between 1850 and 1913 was based on three sources of credit : the State budget, local budgets and the issuing of bonds. This article studies the first of these forms of financing in an effort to evaluate the cost for the mother country of the colonization. State expenditures for Algeria, which always represented more than 50% of colonial expenses, were essentially allotted to military operations and payment of interest on railroad stock. In the other territories, the mili- tary also accounted for the principal expenses incurred by the Department of Colonial Affairs, the Department of Defense, the Department of the Navy and the Department of Foreign Affairs. Civilian expenses were divided between expenditures for installation, in the form of subventions (private companies and local budgets) and operating expenses for the central services, local administration being entirely the responsibility of the territories. In sum, although the colonial expenses of the mother country were in constant progression throughout this period, they were relatively modest (less than 7% of the total State expenditures) and foreign expansion appears from the beginning to have been profitable enterprise