British imperialism and portfolio choice in the currency boards of Palestine, East Africa, and West Africa

Tal BOGER

Abstract


Abstract. Did British colonial policy primarily benefit Britain, or its colonies? Wadan Narsey, in British Imperialism and the Makings of Colonial Currency Systems (2016),claims that Britain established currency boards to help itself at the expense of the colonies. Examining the history of several currency boards and their assets for select years, Narsey finds that under British influence, they held lower-yielding, shorter-maturity British assets than they need have done, costing colonial governments revenue. We explore this idea by analyzing full annual data on the securities and assets of the currency boards of Palestine, East Africa, and West Africa. An accompanying spreadsheet workbook shows the details of the analysis.

Keywords. British colonialism, British imperialism, Palestine Currency Board, East African Currency Board, West African Currency Board.

JEL. E10, E13, E40.

Keywords


British colonialism; British imperialism; Palestine Currency Board; East African Currency Board; West African Currency Board.

Full Text:


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DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1453/jsas.v5i4.1801

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