ABSTRACT
France’s economic policy in the colonies had secured neither a commensurate colonial development nor economic security for the nation. It had in effect been a class policy for the manufacturers of the north and east. Two extra-parliamentary commissions vigorously supported assimilation as the basis of all colonial administration, and arguments to the contrary; the arguments of economic statistics in particular, were thrust aside. The policy of tariff assimilation was thus the result of a number of influences. Economic and political theory combined to contribute the ideas of protection and assimilation; while in no sense developing so as to become competitors of France, should afford markets for French goods and become reservoirs of raw materials. Quite apart from general arguments in Paris on the plane of abstract economics, the deciding factors came from the development of the colonies themselves.
