In fact, compared with a late-developing country like East Africa, France still possessed an excessively solid foundation. From the end of the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth, France had already become the world's second-largest exporter of capital, second only to Britain.
During this period, Europe was the unquestioned center of global finance. Apart from Britain, France, and Germany, countries such as Belgium, the Netherlands, and Switzerland also had relatively well-developed financial sectors. Belgium's overseas capital exports alone stood at around three billion Rheinland Shield, roughly five hundred million US Dollars.
Before the war, however, the destinations and priorities of these countries' capital exports differed. Britain's investments were mainly concentrated within its empire—that is, the vast colonies it possessed—followed by the Americas as a whole.
France's overseas investments were mainly in Europe, with Russia taking the largest share, East Africa coming second, and its own colonies only ranking last.
The reason for this was that the quality of the French colonies was clearly inferior to that of the British colonies. British capital could choose places such as India and Canada and gain handsome returns, whereas investments in French colonies were relatively slow to bear fruit.
Finally came Germany. Germany had far fewer investment options than Britain and France, mainly Central and Eastern Europe, the Ottoman Empire, and East Africa. It was worth mentioning that the Austro-Hungarian Empire was a key area for German investment.
However, since the World War, this pattern of global finance had also undergone enormous changes. For example, the United States had become the world's largest creditor nation, while East Africa had risen from being burdened by debt before the war to become one of the world's major creditor nations after it.
This transformation was actually in line with the economies of the two countries.