Cogneau Denis auteur aut IRD Dupraz Y. auteur aut IRD Huillery E. auteur aut IRD Mesplé-Somps Sandrine auteur aut IRD text report Litérature grise eng How much did France pay for its colonial empire? Did colonies benefit from large transfers from French taxpayers and private investors, or were they on the contrary drained of their capital? So far, Jacques Marseille (1984) was the only attempt to investigate these questions, by deducting from the structural trade deficit of the French colonies that they were a heavy financial burden for France. We collect novel budgetary and loan data from archives and compute public monetary flows between France and the colonies between 1833 and 1962. We also provide figures of colonial private investment through the Paris Stock Exchange. Public expenditure spent by France on the empire only represented 1.3% of its GDP, of which four fifths were in the military. The persistent trade balance deficits of French colonies did not correspond to large public or private capital transfers, as they were in fact counterbalanced by military expenditure from the Metropole. Once accounting for this, the colonial drain of the French empire is comparable to British India. specialized FRANCE 094COMIN Paris PSE 2024 55 multigr. 55 multigr. 55 multigr. https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010094060 [F B010094060] https://www.documentation.ird.fr/hor/fdi:010094060 IRD - Base Horizon / Pleins textes 2025-06-20 2025-07-03 fdi:010094060 fre