The Global Finance database was the basis of Olivier Accominotti, Marc Flandreau, and Riad Rezzik’s 2011 article “The Spread of Empire: Clio and the Measurement of Colonial Borrowing Costs”, in The Economic History Review. The database is an extension of the one published in Marc Flandreau and Frédéric Zumer’s 2004 book The Making of Global Finance, which can be read online here.
The Global Finance database includes 18 sovereign countries: Argentina (ARGE), Austria- Hungary (AH), Belgium (BELG), Brazil (BRAZ), Denmark (DENM), France (FRAN), Germany (GERM), Greece (GREE), Italy (ITAL), Netherlands (NETH), Norway (NORW), Portugal (PORT), Russia (RUSS), Spain (SPAI), Sweden (SWED), Switzerland (SWIT), the United Kingdom (UNIK) and the United States (USA) and 15 colonies of the British Empire: Canada (CAN), Cape Colony (CAP), Ceylon (CEY), Egypt (EGY), India (IND), Jamaica (JAM);Mauritius (MAU), Natal (NAT), New South Wales (NSW), New Zealand (NZL), Queensland (QUE), South Australia (SAU), Tasmania (TAS); Victoria (VIC), Western Australia (WAU).
You can download the entire database in Excel files here.
The series provides all sorts of interesting data for the countries in the period 1880-1913: Government revenue, Budget Deficit, Nominal public debt, Nominal exports, Population,Yields on government bonds, Exchange rates, percentage of the population with the right to vote. From a political economist`s perspective, the last variable is perhaps the most interesting.
I have noticed a very interesting gap in the data. I`m not pointing this out to criticize any of the scholars involved in creating the dataset. I simply want to identify an opportunity for additional research.
Data about the level of enfranchisement in sovereign countries is provided (see below), but equivalent figures for the self-governing British colonies such as Canada, New Zealand, etc are not. This is a major omission.
| 21. ENFRANCHISED PERCENTAGE OF POPULATION | |||||||||
| Sovereign Countries | |||||||||
| Fraction of population with right to vote |
| AH | ARGE | BELG | BRAZ | DENM | FRAN | GERM | GREE | ITAL | ||||||||||
| 1880: | 0.004 | 0.020 | 0.015 | 0.000 | 0.037 | 0.215 | 0.065 | 0.050 | 0.013 | |||||||||
| 1881: | 0.004 | 0.020 | 0.015 | 0.000 | 0.045 | 0.184 | 0.056 | 0.050 | 0.013 | |||||||||
| 1882: | 0.004 | 0.020 | 0.015 | 0.000 | 0.045 | 0.184 | 0.056 | 0.050 | 0.042 | |||||||||
| 1883: | 0.004 | 0.020 | 0.015 | 0.000 | 0.045 | 0.184 | 0.056 | 0.050 | 0.042 | |||||||||
| 1884: | 0.004 | 0.020 | 0.019 | 0.000 | 0.035 | 0.184 | 0.061 | 0.050 | 0.042 | |||||||||
| 1885: | 0.005 | 0.020 | 0.019 | 0.000 | 0.035 | 0.204 | 0.061 | 0.050 | 0.042 | |||||||||
| 1886: | 0.005 | 0.020 | 0.013 | 0.000 | 0.035 | 0.204 | 0.061 | 0.050 | 0.048 | |||||||||
| 1887: | 0.005 | 0.020 | 0.013 | 0.000 | 0.054 | 0.204 | 0.079 | 0.050 | 0.048 | |||||||||
| 1888: | 0.005 | 0.020 | 0.018 | 0.000 | 0.054 | 0.204 | 0.079 | 0.050 | 0.048 | |||||||||
| 1889: | 0.005 | 0.020 | 0.018 | 0.000 | 0.054 | 0.208 | 0.079 | 0.050 | 0.048 | |||||||||
| 1890: | 0.005 | 0.020 | 0.013 | 0.000 | 0.053 | 0.208 | 0.073 | 0.050 | 0.049 | |||||||||
| 1891: | 0.007 | 0.020 | 0.013 | 0.000 | 0.053 | 0.208 | 0.073 | 0.050 | 0.049 | |||||||||
| 1892: | 0.007 | 0.020 | 0.017 | 0.000 | 0.053 | 0.208 | 0.073 | 0.050 | 0.053 | |||||||||
| 1893: | 0.007 | 0.020 | 0.017 | 0.000 | 0.051 | 0.186 | 0.075 | 0.050 | 0.053 | |||||||||
| 1894: | 0.007 | 0.020 | 0.202 | 0.021 | 0.051 | 0.186 | 0.075 | 0.050 | 0.053 | |||||||||
| 1895: | 0.007 | 0.020 | 0.202 | 0.021 | 0.049 | 0.186 | 0.075 | 0.050 | 0.039 | |||||||||
| 1896: | 0.007 | 0.020 | 0.195 | 0.021 | 0.049 | 0.186 | 0.075 | 0.050 | 0.039 | |||||||||
| 1897: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.195 | 0.021 | 0.049 | 0.186 | 0.075 | 0.050 | 0.038 | |||||||||
| 1898: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.208 | 0.026 | 0.047 | 0.202 | 0.071 | 0.050 | 0.038 | |||||||||
| 1899: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.208 | 0.026 | 0.047 | 0.202 | 0.071 | 0.050 | 0.038 | |||||||||
| 1900: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.207 | 0.026 | 0.047 | 0.202 | 0.071 | 0.050 | 0.039 | |||||||||
| 1901: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.207 | 0.026 | 0.081 | 0.202 | 0.071 | 0.050 | 0.039 | |||||||||
| 1902: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.207 | 0.033 | 0.081 | 0.216 | 0.071 | 0.050 | 0.039 | |||||||||
| 1903: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.207 | 0.033 | 0.086 | 0.216 | 0.081 | 0.050 | 0.039 | |||||||||
| 1904: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.204 | 0.033 | 0.086 | 0.216 | 0.081 | 0.050 | 0.046 | |||||||||
| 1905: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.204 | 0.033 | 0.086 | 0.216 | 0.081 | 0.050 | 0.046 | |||||||||
| 1906: | 0.021 | 0.020 | 0.207 | 0.014 | 0.115 | 0.224 | 0.081 | 0.050 | 0.046 | |||||||||
| 1907: | 0.084 | 0.020 | 0.207 | 0.014 | 0.115 | 0.224 | 0.090 | 0.050 | 0.046 | |||||||||
| 1908: | 0.084 | 0.020 | 0.209 | 0.014 | 0.115 | 0.224 | 0.090 | 0.050 | 0.046 | |||||||||
| 1909: | 0.084 | 0.020 | 0.209 | 0.014 | 0.118 | 0.224 | 0.090 | 0.050 | 0.053 | |||||||||
| 1910: | 0.084 | 0.028 | 0.215 | 0.025 | 0.127 | 0.214 | 0.090 | 0.050 | 0.053 | |||||||||
| 1911: | 0.080 | 0.028 | 0.215 | 0.025 | 0.127 | 0.214 | 0.090 | 0.050 | 0.053 | |||||||||
| 1912: | 0.080 | 0.028 | 0.221 | 0.025 | 0.127 | 0.214 | 0.092 | 0.050 | 0.053 | |||||||||
| 1913: | 0.080 | 0.028 | 0.221 | 0.025 | 0.129 | 0.214 | 0.092 | 0.050 | 0.142 |
If a reader knows of anyone who has compiled the enfranchisement figures for the self-governing British colonies, I would be grateful if they could contact me.
The Past Speaks 