From a figure of a mere 900,000 lire in 1905, the budget rose continuously, reaching 2,500,000 lire in 1908, and an average of 74 million lire in the early 1930s. Local revenue, derived mainly from customs and excise duties on imports and exports and licences – there was no significant direct taxation – also rose steadily but came nowhere near meeting expenditure. Indeed, in the same period, local revenue produced only 27 million lire, considerably less than half the colony's budget.

I.M. Lewis, I. M. Lewis, A Modern History of the Som…, loc. 283