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British and French Colonial Statistics: Development by Hybridization from the Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries

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British and French Colonialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East

Part of the book series: Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies ((CIPCSS))

Abstract

This chapter examines the construction, perception, and representation of the colonial space by official statistics and what, because of their imperfections, these statistics do not represent. It also considers the beginning of an international statistical apparatus. After considering the development of statistics in the French colonial empire, perceived as a reflection of the British “model,” it explores the processes of capillary action and hybridization that led to the adoption of common practices in the two colonials’ spaces between the nineteenth century and Second World War. Taking note of the constant reference to a British “model” in the history of French official statistics, it analyzes those statistics’ scope and limitations. In exploring their universal dimension, this chapter questions the very meaning of statistics that sought—and sometimes failed—to shed light on decision-making in the colonial territories.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Delafosse (1909, 37).

  2. 2.

    Ulmer (1938, 241), translated by author.

  3. 3.

    Archives nationales de l’Outre-Mer/National Overseas Archives (ANOM) 1 AFFECO/101 Brazzaville Conference. Minutes of the first plenary session, Tuesday 1 February 1944. Copy no. 4 by Peter (Pleven) marked “Confidential.” Pleven: “in French black Africa, demographics rules. The general density is less than three inhabitants per km2 and the manpower issue dominates the whole problem” (9).

  4. 4.

    Desrosières (2000), Barbieri (2007), Schnakenbourg (1980, 12), Guilmoto (1998), Touchelay (1998), Heffner (1918), d’Aguilera (2017).

  5. 5.

    Beaud and Damasceno Fonseca (2017), Etemad (2007), Ittmann et al. (2010).

  6. 6.

    Kateb (1998). Annuaire statistique de la Guadeloupe 1949–1953/Guadeloupe Statistical Yearbook 1949–1953, Paris: Imprimerie nationale, 1954. Retrospective section Chapter XIV: remark on agricultural statistics, sugar and rum production: “No census of the areas under cultivation has been undertaken. In the absence of a land registry, the agricultural authorities are reduced to estimating the areas. […] All the figures given in the present yearbook are, therefore, largely approximate” (55).

  7. 7.

    Sibeud et al. (2013, 8).

  8. 8.

    The Archives Nationales d’Outre-Mer (ANOM) in Aix-en-Provence houses the collections of the former Ministry of the Navy and Colonies and of the Ministry of the Colonies and the institutions tasked with documentation (Exposition coloniale, or Agence économique de la France d’Outre Mer-Colonies (AGEFOM) and Affaires économiques (AFFECO)), which stretch over several linear metres but in which the information on statistics is not categorized; the Centre des archives économiques et financières (CAEF) at Savigny-le-Temple (Val-de-Marne, France) houses the archives of the economics administrations, for example: CAEF B-0057570/2 Statistique coloniale, activités opérationnelles, enquêtes démographiques, résultats des economic and financial authorities in the colonies, for example, CAEF B-005750 Colonial statistics, operational activities, demographic surveys, census results, Guadeloupe (1921, 1926, 1931); Colonial statistics, Middle and Far East, country statistical studies, Indochina, conduct of the censuses of 1921 and 1931, Yearbooks. National Archives of Vietnam (ANV) housed at National Archives Center 1 in Hanoi were also consulted.

  9. 9.

    Brian (1998, 1989).

  10. 10.

    Topalov (1999). The expression is borrowed from this author, who speaks of “a reforming nebula.”

  11. 11.

    Chevry (1970).

  12. 12.

    Bonin et al. (2008).

  13. 13.

    Legoyt (1863), Huber (1914).

  14. 14.

    El Mechat (2009), Gervais and Mandé (2007).

  15. 15.

    Blum et al. (1996), Touchelay (1998).

  16. 16.

    Bunle (1924), Huber (1913). ANOM 1AFFECO/59 Affaires économiques (1930–). Memorandum on the subject of the projected survey in the African colonies addressed to the department of economic affairs of the Ministry of the Colonies, 21 August 1942. Statistical results of the 1939 survey of industrial output in French West Africa and Togo. The survey questionnaire attests to the “imbalance that is typical of the narrowness of perspective that is all too frequently adopted at the Ministry of the Colonies: foreign trade takes up a huge amount of space while much information of considerable interest is ignored. […] Is it really necessary to leave space to list in detail 20 destinations for the products manufactured by such and such a company (which usually does not know where its products go to)? [...] We are allowed just two figures for average hourly wages, which are not defined at all, either in the directive or in the questionnaire, and we are not even given any information on the nature of the energy used.”

  17. 17.

    Ulmer (1938, 241).

  18. 18.

    Sanner (1994).

  19. 19.

    ANOM AGEFOM//852 Ministerial collection. Colonial Office. Report submitted in the name of the board of governors of the Colonial Office, typescript, no date, 18 pages.

  20. 20.

    ANV Gouvernement général de l’Indochine 8848. Memorandum on the subject of Indochina population statistics (1904–1912), 4 pages.

  21. 21.

    ANOM AGEFOM//852 Ministerial collection. Colonial Office. Specimen documents (1900–1911), Finance Act and order.

  22. 22.

    ANV Gouvernement général de l’Indochine. 3684 Establishment, instatement and operations of the Colonial Office in Paris, (1895–1915). Director’s report to the board of governors and development committee on the Office’s activities during the financial year 1905, 20 January 1906, Melun, Government Printing Office.

  23. 23.

    ANOM AGEFOM//852 Ministerial collection. Colonial Office. Minutes of the meetings of the development committee, first meeting, 7 April 1900.

  24. 24.

    A republican from a farming family, Auricoste (1844–1909) became a teacher of physical and natural sciences. He embarked on an administrative career as head of division in a prefecture before entering politics when he was elected a departmental councillor for the canton of Marvejols in 1893 and then a member of parliament for the department of Lozère at the general election of 20 August 1893. Defeated in the general election of 1898, he was appointed director of the Office of the Colonies in Paris. http://www2.assemblee-nationale.fr/sycomore/fiche/(num_dept)/280. Consulted 14 February 2018.

  25. 25.

    ANOM AGEFOM//852 Ministerial collections. Colonial Office. Minute of the meetings of the development committee, first meeting, 7 April 1900.

  26. 26.

    Idem. Minutes of the meeting of 12 May 1900.

  27. 27.

    Idem. Minutes of the meeting of 15 December 1900.

  28. 28.

    Idem. Minutes of the meeting of 12 February 1902.

  29. 29.

    Idem. Minutes of the meeting of 4 July 1901.

  30. 30.

    Idem. Report by the director of the Colonial Office for the development committee, 1903, p. 28 et seq.

  31. 31.

    Idem. Minutes of the meeting of 22 January 1903.

  32. 32.

    Idem. Minutes of the meeting of 8 July 1904.

  33. 33.

    ANV Gouvernement general de l’Indochine, 138. Indochina population statistics. Confidential memorandum from the resident-superior in Tonkin to the Chief Residents in Tonkin Province: “I cannot advise you strongly enough to take the greatest possible care in compiling these statistics and to proceed with the greatest possible caution in conducting your census surveys of the Annamite population in order to avoid offending the indigenous people’s sensibilities or arousing their fear. Above all, it is essential that the Administration’s intentions are not misrepresented and that the Annamite population cannot be led by tendentious information to fear the imposition of a new tax,” Hanoi, 22 September 1904, for duplication, Cabinet Chief of Staff, signed Bosc.

  34. 34.

    Ibid. 3684. Organisation of the Office colonial in Paris (1895–1915). Reports of the director for the Conseils d’administration et de perfectionnement on services during the year 1905, 20 January 1906, Melun, Government Printing Office.

  35. 35.

    Idem, 27–28.

  36. 36.

    Idem, 30.

  37. 37.

    Idem, 23.

  38. 38.

    Idem, 26.

  39. 39.

    ANOM AGEFOM//3674 Statute of the Agence générale des colonies. Report on its establishment.

  40. 40.

    ANOM AGEFOM//408 Office colonial and Agence générale des colonies. Harmois, Alfred, Léon, born 8 January 1868 in Nantes, former adjutant-major in the marines (1901–1905), draughtsman in the department of naval artillery in Cherbourg (3 July 1906–1 July 1912), administrative officer in the French Post Office at Saint Brieuc (15 December 1913) then recruited as an assistant in the Colonial Office, editor/copywriter seventh class in 1914 then editor/copywriter in the Agence générale des colonies 1 January 1919, appointed head of internal department 1 November 1927 then head of department first class 1 August 1932.

  41. 41.

    ANOM AGEFOM//902 Creation of the Agence de la France d’Outre-mer (FOM). Report by Marius Moutet, Minister for the Colonies, for the President of the Republic concerning the abolition of the Agence générale des colonies by the government decree of 4 April 1934, 12 March 1937.

  42. 42.

    ANOM AGEFOM//4101 Ministère des colonies. Department of Economic Affairs and Planning (1835–1964).

  43. 43.

    For example: ANOM 1 AFFECO//101 Missions of inspection. Mission Picanon, inspector of the colonies first class, head of mission (1924–1925).

  44. 44.

    ANV Gouvernement général de l’Indochine. 9029 Report to the council of government on the workings of the Department of Economic Affairs, 1924, Leurence, 11 August 1924.

  45. 45.

    Idem. Gouvernement général de l’Indochine. Direction of the Affaires économiques (1924) 37004 Visit by Leurence. Official telegram from the resident-superior addressed to the Department of Economic Services: “Further to our conversation, I am sending you herewith a list of the visits I intend to pay to the residences in Tonkin […] Despite the full schedule, I expect to keep to the programme barring unexpected events of which I will inform you immediately being scheduled to leave mid-June for Annam and Cochinchina,” signed Leurence, Head of the Statistical Service, Hanoi, 20 May 1922.

  46. 46.

    Idem. Fonds de la résidence supérieure du Tonkin 41,952 Report from the head of the statistical service, proposal for a survey method for gathering statistics on rice production.

  47. 47.

    Idem. Gouvernement général de l’Indochine. Direction of the Affaires économiques (1925) 9030 Report from Leurence.

  48. 48.

    Idem. 6586 Ministère des Colonies. Pay book for Smolski, assistant in the statistical service of the governor-general of Indochina (1923–1936).

  49. 49.

    Idem. 3296 Ministère des Colonies. Pay book for Marcel Lenoir, senior statistician at the SGF assigned to serve in Indochina, 1926.

  50. 50.

    Idem. 122 File on Truong Vinh, statistical assistant in the General Statistical Service (1935–1936). Ulmer (1938, 241).

  51. 51.

    Ulmer (1934).

  52. 52.

    Idem. Gouvernement général de l’Indochine 9029 Report to the Council of Government on the workings of the Department of Economic Affairs, 1924: “An industrial yearbook for Tonkin is also in preparation,” p. 16.

  53. 53.

    Idem. 9031 Report to the Council of Government on the workings of the Department of Economic Affairs, 1926, pp. 4–5.

  54. 54.

    Idem. Gouvernement général de l’Indochine. See, for example: T50 05310 Review of the pay of European personnel in Indochina (1927–1928), 40 pages; T53 02814 Monthly allowance claimed by the indigenous secretaries in the Department of Economic Affairs (1912–1919), 43 pages or 6725 On the subject of the cost-of-living allowance paid to civil servants in Indochina (1921–1932), 62 pages. Barbieri (2007, 113).

  55. 55.

    Idem. Fonds de la Résidence supérieure au Tonkin série L7 Price statistics.

  56. 56.

    Idem. Gouvernement général de l’Indochine 3493 Statistical yearbook published by the Kingdom of Siam.

  57. 57.

    Idem. 344 Economic and financial situations of Indochina from 1930 to 1937, report from the Director of Finances for Indochina, 34 pages.

  58. 58.

    Idem. 2728 Direction des Affaires économiques et administrative, bureau de la Statistique générale, Hanoi 12 August 1934.

  59. 59.

    Idem. 3376 Direction des Affaires économiques: “The print run for the statistical yearbook can be reduced to 600 without any adverse effect, which does not reduce the cost to any great extent,” 22 September 1934.

  60. 60.

    Ulmer (1938, 237).

  61. 61.

    Huber (1913).

  62. 62.

    Huber (1921).

  63. 63.

    ANOM AGEFOM//902 Creation of the Agence de la FOM. Report from Marius Moutet, Minister of the Colonies, to the President of the Republic on the reform currently under way in order to draw up the rules governing the operations of the agencies and organize the coordination of their efforts, 12 March 1937.

  64. 64.

    AGEFOM//9 Commission Guernut. Formation, history.

  65. 65.

    Ibid. Présidence du Conseil, service administratif. List of the Commission’s archives in the overseas territories: “1. List of the archives in a filing cabinet in M. Darras’s office numbered from 1 to 84 […] 3. List of the archives in the back room and in two locked cupboards.”

  66. 66.

    Ulmer (1938, 233).

  67. 67.

    ANOM 7 AFFECO/39 Affaires économiques – main-d’œuvre. Emigration and immigration statistics (French colonies), correspondence with the ILO.

  68. 68.

    Ibid. Letter from the ILO to Regismanset, director of the economics departments of the Ministry of the Colonies: “Dear Sir, I recall with pleasure the instructive conversation we had while engaged in the research for the historical study of migration statistics,” Geneva, 29 March 1926.

  69. 69.

    Idem. Direction of the Affaires économiques, 4e bureau. Memorandum from the governor to the Minister of the Colonies on the subject of tables of migration statistics for 1921–1923, 23 April 1926.

  70. 70.

    Idem. Reply from the governor-general of French Equatorial Africa to the Ministry of the Colonies: “in a territory that we estimate to be four times the size of France, there are only 83 administrators and 147 civilian service agents currently present in the colony,” 10 December 1927.

  71. 71.

    Idem. Execution of memorandum 340/S/G from the governor of Guadeloupe dated 5 March 1929, West Indies group, Guadeloupe assignment.

  72. 72.

    Idem. Memorandum from the department of political affairs on the subject of the documentation for the ILO, 27 April 1928.

  73. 73.

    Idem. Memorandum for the department of economic affairs, 20 March 1928. Noted in pencil “turn down Thomas’s request,” signed by the Councillor of State, the Ministry’s director of political affairs.

  74. 74.

    Yann Stricker, “Migration Statistics and the Making of an International Point of View in the Interwar Period,” October 2017, University of Lucerne, Switzerland. https://historyofknowledge.net/author/y-stricker/

  75. 75.

    Ulmer (1938, 240).

  76. 76.

    Ulmer (1938, 241).

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  1. Université de Lille, Lille, France

    Béatrice Touchelay

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  1. European Studies, University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong, Hong Kong

    James R. Fichter

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Touchelay, B. (2019). British and French Colonial Statistics: Development by Hybridization from the Nineteenth to the Mid-Twentieth Centuries. In: Fichter, J.R. (eds) British and French Colonialism in Africa, Asia and the Middle East. Cambridge Imperial and Post-Colonial Studies. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-97964-9_11

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