From Slave Trade to 'Legitimate' Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa (African Studies)

291 Pages·1995·6.22 MB·English

by  Robin Law

During the nineteenth century, the trans-Atlantic slave trade was made
illegal and eventually suppressed, and superseded by alternative forms
of 'legitimate' trade with western Africa, especially in vegetable products
such as palm oil. This commercial transition marks the beginning of the
modern economic history of the region.
This book considers the implications of that process for the African
societies involved, through ten case-studies written by leading specialists
in the field. These studies address the central issue of continuity and
change in economic structures, and critically assess the argument that
the transition posed a 'crisis of adaptation' for African rulers by under-
mining their control over the income from overseas trade. Also high-
lighted are the effects of transition on slavery and gender relations
within Africa and its links to the growth of European imperialism,
culminating in the Partition of Africa at the end of the nineteenth
century. The book is a major contribution to the interpretation of
nineteenth-century African history.

From slave trade to legitimate' commerce
African Studies Series 86
Editorial Board
Professor Naomi Chazan, The Harry S. Truman Research Institute for
the Advancement of Peace, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Professor Christopher Clapham, Department of Politics and Interna-
tional Relations, Lancaster University
Professor Peter Ekeh, Department of African American Studies, State
University of New York, Buffalo
Dr John Lonsdale, Trinity College, Cambridge
Professor Patrick Manning, Department of History, Northeastern Uni-
versity, Boston
Published in collaboration with
THE AFRICAN STUDIES CENT RE, CAMBRIDGE
A list of books in this series will be found at the end of the volume.
From slave trade to
'legitimate' commerce
The commercial transition in nineteenth-
century West Africa
Papers from a conference of the
Centre of Commonwealth Studies,
University of Stirling
Edited by
Robin Law
CAMBRIDGE
UNIVERSITY PRESS
PUBLISHED BY THE PRESS SYNDICATE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE
The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS
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© Cambridge University Press 1995
This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception
and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,
no reproduction of any part may take place without
the written permission of Cambridge University Press.
First published 1995
First paperback edition 2002
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data
From slave trade to legitimate commerce: the commercial transition in
nineteenth-century West Africa / edited by Robin Law.
p. cm. - (African studies series: 86)
Includes bibliographical references (p. ).
ISBN 0 52148127 9
1. Africa, West - Commerce - History - 19th century.
2. Slaves - Emancipation - Economic aspects - Africa,
West - History - 19th century.
3. Africa, West - Economic conditions.
I. Law, Robin. II. Series.
HF3920.F76 1995
382'.0666'009034-dc20 95-3428 CIP
ISBN 0 521481279 hardback
ISBN 0 52152306 0 paperback
Contents
List of contributors page ix
List of abbreviations xi
Introduction 1
ROBIN LAW
1 The initial 'crisis of adaptation': the impact of British
abolition on the Atlantic slave trade in West Africa, 1808-1820 32
PAUL E. LOVEJOY AND DAVID RICHARDSON
2 The West African palm oil trade in the nineteenth century
and the 'crisis of adaptation' 57
MARTIN LYNN
3 The compatibility of the slave and palm oil trades in Dahomey,
1818-1858 78
ELISEE SOUMONNI
4 Between abolition and Jihad: the Asante response to the ending
of the Atlantic slave trade, 1807-1896 93
GARETH AUSTIN
5 Plantations and labour in the south-east Gold Coast from the
late eighteenth to the mid nineteenth century 119
RAYA. KEA
6 Owners, slaves and the struggle for labour in the commercial
transition at Lagos 144
KRISTINMANN
7 Slaves, Igbo women and palm oil in the nineteenth century 172
SUSAN MARTIN
8 'Legitimate' trade and gender relations in Yorubaland and
Dahomey 195
ROBIN LAW
vii
viii Contents
9 In search of a desert-edge perspective: the Sahara-Sahel and
the Atlantic trade, c. 1815-1900 215
E. ANNMCDOUGALL
10 The 'New International Economic Order' in the nineteenth
century: Britain's first Development Plan for Africa 240
A. G. HOPKINS
Appendix: the 'crisis of adaptation': a bibliography 265
Index 272
Contributors
GARETH AUSTIN Lecturer in Economic History, London School of
Economics; editor (with K. Sugihara) of Local Suppliers of Credit in
the Third World, 1750-1960 (1993); currently preparing a book on the
history of cocoa-farming in Ghana.
A. G. HOPKINS Smuts Professor of Commonwealth History, Univer-
sity of Cambridge; author of An Economic History of West Africa
(1973) and (with P. J. Cain) British Imperialism (2 vols., 1993); editor
(with Clive Dewey) of The Imperial Impact: Studies in the Economic
History of Africa and India (1978); formerly co-editor of the Journal of
African History and of the Economic History Review.
RAY A. KEA Professor of History, University of California, Riverside;
author of Settlements, Trade and Polities in the Seventeenth-Century
Gold Coast (1982); currently preparing a book on the cultural and social
history of the Gold Coast in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
ROBIN LAW Professor of African History, University of Stirling, Scot-
land; author of The Oyo Empire c. 1600-c. 1836 (1977), The Horse in
West African History (1980) and The Slave Coast of West Africa 1550-
1750 (1991); co-editor of the Journal of African History
PAUL E. LOVE JOY Professor of History, York University, Ontario;
author of Caravans of Kola (1980), Salt of the Desert Sun (1986),
Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa (1983) and
(with Jan Hogendorn), Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition
in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936 (1993); editor of several collections of
essays on the history of slavery and African economic history,
including most recently (with Toyin Falola) Pawnship in Africa (1994);
co-editor of African Economic History.
MARTIN LYNN Senior Lecturer in History, Queen's University,
Belfast; author of several articles, in the Journal of African History and
elsewhere, on British trade with West Africa in the nineteenth century.
ix
x contributors
E. ANN MCDOUGALL Associate Professor of History, University of
Alberta; editor of Sustainable Agriculture in Africa (1990); currently
preparing a book on the salt industry and economic development in
the pre-colonial southern Sahara.
KRISTIN MANN Associate Professor of History, Emory University,
Atlanta; author of Marrying Well: Marriage, Status and Social Change
among the Educated Elite in Colonial Lagos (1985); editor (with
Richard Roberts) of Law in Colonial Africa (1991).
SUSAN MARTIN Formerly Lecturer in History, School of Oriental and
African Studies, University of London; author of Palm Oil and
Protest: An Economic History of the Ngwa Region, South-Eastern
Nigeria, 1800-1960 (1988).
DAVID RICHARDSON Reader in Economic History, University of
Hull; editor of Bristol, Africa and the Slave Trade to America (4 vols.,
from 1986); author of several articles on the history of the Atlantic
slave trade.
ELISEE SOUMONNI Assistant Professor of History, Universite Natio-
nale du Benin; author of several articles on the history of Dahomey in
the nineteenth century.