Royal archives and tributary economies in the Merina Kingdom

This presentation will focus on new elements in the history of Madagascar’s pre-colonial economies. Historiography has long been based on essentially European sources (mainly French and British). These sources are capital, but archives produced by Malagasy governments in the 19th century allow us to offer new approach to precolonial economies of Madagascar.

In this paper, I propose to discuss the types of sources I use for my actual researches, with the aim of understanding both the economic structures of the kingdom, and the way in which exchanges were an essential cement in the construction of the social and political contract within the Merina kingdom. The focus will therefore mainly focus on monarchical rituals. But I will also present some elements on the fiscal aspects, which were at the basis of the consolidation of the Merina kingdom, the most powerful kingdom in Madagascar in the 19th century.

Biography: Samuel F. Sanchez is associate professor in Modern history at the University of Paris 1 – Panthéon Sorbonne, Institut des Mondes Africains. His research focuses on the economic and political history of Madagascar and the western Indian Ocean (18th-20th c.). His work focuses on the political economy of the Malagasy kingdoms, trade networks in the Indian Ocean and the social history of early colonization in Madagascar. Publications