French colonial trade patterns

Abstract

We investigate how the colonial strategy through the settlement decision a ected 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. We suggest two channels through which European settlements might have impacted the French trade patterns: institutions and networking. Our results suggest that worse institutions in the French colonies increased the levels of extraction through trade, whereas better institutions in the British colonies promoted better trade relations with France. Even among the extractive environment, the network increases overall French trade within French colonies but reduces it in other colonies.