Italian-ruled Somalia ran persistent budget deficits after thirty years

Evidence

This consolidation of rule and construction of the basis necessary for economic exploitation proved exceedingly costly. From a figure of a mere 900,000 lire in 1905, the budget rose continuously, reaching 2,500,000 lire in 1908, and an average of 74 million lire in the early 1930s. Local revenue, derived mainly from customs and excise duties on imports and exports and licences – there was no significant direct taxation – also rose steadily but came nowhere near meeting expenditure. Indeed, in the same period, local revenue produced only 27 million lire, considerably less than half the colony’s budget. However, by this time, the export trade – principally of hides and skins, and cotton and bananas, the latter taking precedence over the former after 1932 – had begun to show some return, reducing the adverse balance of trade from a peak of almost 131 million lire in 1927 to just under 29 million lire in 1934. Nevertheless, after thirty years of direct rule, despite a great expenditure of finance and effort, the colony was still running at a marked deficit, and was very far from being the economic asset to their country which the early Italian pioneers had forecast. — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 283

Categorization

• corroborated: 2 independent passages support this claim — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 283
• XREF: connects to: Italian Somalia ran at a large budget deficit throughout direct rule; Post-independence Somalia remained economically dependent on British and Italian aid — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 423; Somalia became independent despite not being economically viable (+1 more)

Related

• Independent Somalia would need foreign aid for up to twenty years (similarity 0.86)
• Somalia became independent despite not being economically viable (similarity 0.85)
• Former colonial powers funded 31 percent of Somalia’s initial budget. (similarity 0.84)
• British Somaliland’s budget remained pitifully small as late as 1937 (similarity 0.83)
• Post-independence Somalia remained economically dependent on British and Italian aid (similarity 0.83)
• Great-power expediency delivered Somalia back to Italy for ten years (similarity 0.83)
• The Protectorate’s development spending remained minimal through the 1930s (similarity 0.79)
• Somalia stayed non-aligned and aid-rich despite the N.F.D. loss (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Italian Somalia ran at a large budget deficit throughout direct rule #corroborates (0.95)
• Somali public expenditure dwarfed local revenue throughout the trusteeship #corroborates (0.65)
• Somalia became independent despite not being economically viable #corroborates (0.60)
• Post-independence Somalia remained economically dependent on British and Italian aid #expands (0.50) — I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Somali_ Nation…, 423