Colonial companies and the cost of introducing Indian immigrants into Fiji, 1884–1916

Abstract

Using Fiji as a case study, I conduct the first cost accounting of government-run Indian indentureship in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. I analyse multiple official data sources and estimate the total cost of bringing Indians to Fiji was £926,851, roughly a fifth of Fiji's reported expenditure. Businesses funded 92.6% of this cost. However, business payments to the government do not appear in official Blue Books. Incorporating business payments shows that both official revenue and expenditure were underestimated by 15%. My results show how one part of colonialism was funded and how colonial fiscal capacity may be underestimated more broadly.