French Colonial Trade Patterns: European Settlement

Cristina Terra and Tania El Kallab ()

No 2014-27, THEMA Working Papers from THEMA (THéorie Economique, Modélisation et Applications), Université de Cergy-Pontoise

Abstract: We investigate how the colonial strategy through the settlement decision affected French trade patterns. In this regard, we construct a new database relying on various primary historical sources containing information on the value of French sectoral trade between 1880 and 1913. Our results show that French colonies with more European settlements traded more with France, whereas the opposite is true for other colonies. We also investigate two channels through which European settlements might have affected the French trade pattern with colonies: institutions and networking. We find that better institutions brought by European settlements had a negative impact on trade with French colonies, while it promoted trade with British colonies. These results are consistent with the extractive nature of French trade relations with its colonies. As for networking, it increases overall French trade within French colonies but reduces it in other colonies.

Keywords: European Settlement; Institutions; Networking; Trade; Colonization (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: D85 N50 N53 N70 P16 P51 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2014
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-gro, nep-his and nep-int
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Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ema:worpap:2014-27

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