More was spent on building up their infrastructure and creating cities than was earned from exports.
💡 Inside Track & Deep Insight
Musk’s tweet strikes at the heart of a long-standing debate: was colonialism primarily an economic exploitation machine or a costly geopolitical gamble? By arguing that colonies were, on net, unprofitable for European powers, he aligns with some economic historians (e.g., David S. Landes, or more recently stats suggesting Britain’s rate of profit on colonies was <1%). But this ignores the immense wealth extracted from slave labor, minerals, and cash crops—and the long-term structural debt imposed on former colonies. Musk’s framing may be intended to provoke a re-evaluation of postcolonial economic development, possibly to justify his own ventures in Africa or elsewhere, or to distract from regulatory scrutiny. The tweet is likely to fuel both academic debate and polarised social media reactions. For markets, expect little direct impact, but it could intersect with ESG investing narratives or crypto projects promising ‘decolonized finance’.