Lagos
Expenditure, Loans, Export Trade, Railway
| Expenditure, 1891-1902-03 | Liabilities Incurred | |
|---|---|---|
| 1891 | £66,388 | “The amount of the debt of the Colony on 31st March 1901 was £972,902. This debt has been incurred solely for the building of the railway from Lagos to Ibadan, the tramway from Lagos to Iddo, the Abbeokuta branch of the railway, and the bridges from Lagos Island to the mainland. “The Legislature has sanctioned the borrowing of £1,053,700 for these purposes.”304 It is recognised that the above amount will not be sufficient to defray the entire cost. |
| 1892 | 86,513 | |
| 1893 | 101,251 | |
| 1894 | 124,829 | |
| 1895 | 144,483 | |
| 1896 | 168,444 | |
| 1897 | 182,668 | |
| 1898 | 203,802 | |
| 1899 | 223,289 | |
| 1900-1901 | 187,124 | |
| 1901-1902 | 231,597303 | |
| 1902-1903 | 240,718 | |
Export Trade
(These figures include the export of specie.)
| 1891 | — |
| 1892 | — |
| 1893 | £836,295 |
| 1894 | 821,682 |
| 1895 | 985,595 |
| 1896 | 975,263 |
| 1897 | 810,975 |
| 1898 | 882,329 |
| 1899 | 915,934 |
| 1900-1901 | 831,257305 |
Owing to the intelligent way in which the Report for 1900-1901 is prepared, it is possible to separate the specie from the total exports for the years 1896-1900, 1901, as given in that Report. The total exports, less specie, for the above-mentioned period were as follows:
Export, Less Specie
| 1896 | £906,393 |
| 1897 | 740,179 |
| 1898 | 821,112 |
| 1899 | 834,358 |
| 1900-1901 | 705,237 |
There are special reasons to account for the heavy fall in 1900-1901. Nevertheless, a glance at the expenditure and export columns cannot fail to accentuate the fact that the growth in expenditure is incommensurate with the increase in the purchasing power of the Colony. The financial future of Lagos now depends entirely on the railway. When the entire sum authorised has been expended, which will be this year, I believe, and other expenses are added thereto, it is estimated that the railway will have cost about £9000 to £10,000 per mile. In this connection the Dahomey figures should be consulted.
The notes in the expenditure column include, of course, moneys expended on public works. The growth in expenditure and the relation it bears to the producing capacity of the country would, perhaps, appear even more clearly if the expenditure totals were given, minus the expenditure on public works. It has not been possible to satisfactorily separate them in every case; but, as a simple illustration, 1893 and 1900 may be compared.
| Ordinary expenditure. | Export trade. | |
|---|---|---|
| 1893 | £75,207 | £836,295 |
| 1900 | 131,742 | 831,257 |
It will thus be seen that whereas, within the period given—eight years—ordinary expenditure has nearly doubled, the producing power of the country is found, at the close of the eighth year, to be stationary. It may be argued, and justly, that the area of the Protectorate has been extended since 1893. But the point is, the way these dependencies are managed. Is not the management carried out upon altogether too elaborate and expensive a scale? Does this increase in ordinary expenditure correspond with an increase in the production, that is to say, in the prosperity of the colony and the people of the colony? If it does not, no special knowledge of political economy is required to predict that, if the system be not modified in the future, the steadily increasing expenditure will, before very long, act as a positive deterrent upon the producing power of the country. In fact, there is sufficient evidence to justify the fear that in some instances this stage has already been reached.