Federal consolidation gave the Dakar Government General fiscal autonomy and redistribution power

Evidence

The years from 1902 to 1904 thus witnessed the reorganization of the Government General, the launching of a unified program of public works, and the inauguration of a public health policy for West Africa. The federal government had finally acquired fiscal autonomy, and with its new monopoly of customs receipts, port charges, and consumer taxes, Dakar could redistribute essential services and development projects more equitably among the member colonies. It could likewise finance public works requiring heavy capital investment more easily than any individual colony, as experience had shown, because of its superior ability to raise large consolidated loans. In return for appropriating these sources of revenues, the federal government paid for all colonial debts, contributions toward metropolitan expenditures, the expenses of the French judiciary, and the costs of its own administration. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 172