Palm Oil Trade Research Articles

Royal Monopoly and Private Enterprise in the Atlantic Trade: The Case of Dahomey

The kingdom of Dahomey is often presented as the classic instance of the operation of a royal monopoly of the Atlantic trade in West Africa. Detailed study establishes, however, that there was never any such royal commercial monopoly in Dahomey, although there were attempts to establish such a monopoly in the 1780s and in the 1850s. The kings of Dahomey enjoyed a number of commercial privileges, and controlled the distribution of the war captives taken by the Dahomian army, but they were never the sole sellers of slaves. There was always an important group of private merchants in Dahomey, who were mainly concerned with marketing the slaves imported into the kingdom from the interior. The replacement of the slave trade by the palm oil trade in the nineteenth century strengthened the position of the private merchants, since they were able to move into the production of oil as well as marketing it. The kings of Dahomey also engaged in the production of oil for export, but were not able to establish as complete control of the production of oil as they had exercised over the ‘production’ of slaves.

The Compatibility of the Slave and Palm oil Trades in the Bight of Biafra

The rise of the legitimate trade in palm oil in the nineteenth century is often described as following (or due to) a decline in the overseas slave trade. In fact in the most important oil producing region, the Bight of Biafra, the palm oil trade expanded well in advance of any decline in the slave trade and the suppression of the slave trade occasioned no marked increase in the rate of palm oil export growth. It would appear that the direct and indirect effects of the slave trade in this region had created economic conditions which enabled its small farmers to respond so rapidly to external demand for palm oil. The failure to understand the relationship between the slave and the palm oil trades is a result of misunderstanding the relationship between these oil producers and the coastal middlemen.

Fly and Elephant parties: Political polarization in Dahomey, 1840–1870

Analysis of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Dahomean history reveals, not the existence of an absolute despotism, but the presence of a complex and institutionalized political process responsive to the needs and demands of Dahomeans from every part of the country. Each year at Xwetanù (Annual Customs), Dahomean officials met to discuss and decide administrative, military, economic, and diplomatic policies of the nation. In the mid-nineteenth century an obvious polarization developed as two groups, the Elephant Party and the Fly Party, sought to mould foreign policy. The Elephant Party, composed of the Crown, the wealthiest Creole traders, and the highest male military officials, advocated continuing the established practice of capturing and exporting slaves. Therefore, the Elephant Party wanted to destroy Abeokuta, an African rival and threat to slave raiding, and to resist England, a European obstacle to the trans-Atlantic shipment of slaves. After 1840, as slaving became more difficult and as the palm oil trade emerged as an alternative to the slave trade, the Fly Party rose to challenge the goals of the Elephant Party. Comprised of the Amazon army, shrine priests, middle-level administrators, Dahomean entrepreneurs, and trade officials (groups who were unwilling to pay the costs of a major war and who were eager to gain access to the profits of ‘legitimate’ international trade), the Fly Party counselled peaceful co-existence with Abeokuta and restored commercial relations with England. Eventually, the Fly Party was able to gain ascendancy over the Elephant Party. By 1870 the great Creole traders had suffered severe economic reverses, the Crown and the high military officers were divided over the question of Abeokuta, and members of the Fly Party had obtained positions of political and economic dominance within the country. Thus, the economic and military transformations which affected all of West Africa in the first half of the nineteenth century evoked political polarizations, coalitions, and realignments in the nation of Dahomey.

The Development of Institutions in the States of the Eastern Niger Delta

It has been observed for a long time that the states of the Eastern Niger Delta responded in recognizable ways to the introduction of European overseas trade in slaves and palm-oil from the sixteenth through the nineteenth century. It is suggested here that by the time of European advent these states were already in the process of profound changes in response to other internal situations.First, migration from the fresh water Central Delta to the salt-water Eastern Delta (possibly before A.D. 1000) dictated changes. A change from a farming to a fishing economy led to changes in the social and political system.Second, the inability of the fishing economy to satisfy all the basic needs of these communities led to the growth of long distance trade to the hinterland and to other parts of the Niger Delta. This trade set in motion other structural changes which were accelerated by the European overseas trade.Thus were the institutions of the farming village, based largely on age and the simple lineage, developed into the kingship (before about 1400) and House system (before about 1600) of the states of the Eastern Niger Delta, described variously as city-states and trading states.

Nembe : the City Idea in the Eastern Niger Delta.

The following discussion of the delta city is confined to the four main 1j9 metropolitan centres of the Eastern Delta, namely Nembe (Brass), Elem Kalabari (New Calabar), Bonny, and Okrika; and excludes the cities of Ode Itsekiri (Warri) in the Western Delta, and Atakpa (Old Calabar) on the Cross River estuary to the east. The four cities seem to have started from a similar cultural and political base-line, and to have responded to similar historical factors such as the overseas trade in slaves, and later, palm oil, with only slight variations. A number of attempts have already been made to define the cities in the Niger Delta. Dike (I956) first studied them in the nineteenth century. He considered them proper states and not tribal states, since citizenship in them was based on residence rather than on kinship. Specifically, he named them city-states, comparable to the Greek city-states, because of the manner in which their political authority radiated from one city to surrounding settlements, and especially to posts in the hinterland. Jones (I963) called the cities trading states. He saw them as creations of the European trade in slaves and palm oil, and as organised, in the main, for the purposes of carrying on overseas trade. The problems of interest in their internal history were, accordingly, the intergroup rivalries between the 'Houses' (trade corporations organised on a lineage model) to be expected in a society organised for commercial competition. Horton (I969, p. 5o) has paid greater attention to the cultural criteria for citizenship, and especially the fact that even bought slaves could become full citizens by becoming fully acculturated: In positive terms, the identity of New Calabar was seen in the possession of a distinct, isolated settlement area; of autonomy under a distinctive body of laws; and of the possession of a distinctive culture. As in the villages, this definition of identity was essentially open in its implications. Any one who could acquire the culture and pull his weight could become a citizen. As the drum-name of the earth of New Calabar puts it: 'If a dog walks on him, he does not spurn the leg; if a goat walks on him, he does not spurn the leg'. All these views of the Delta city are largely valid, in the aspects of their organisation considered. It is only necessary to sketch in one view that has so far escaped adequate treatment, that is, the religious dimension. Religion, in fact, serves as the ligament holding together the various joints of the social and political structure of each of these Eastern Delta city-states.

Sixty Years of Plantation Agriculture in Southern Nigeria: 1902-1962

LIKE many underdeveloped territories in the tropics, Southern Nigeria relies upon the export of primary products to earn the foreign exchange to pay for her imports. This has been the case since the early years of the last century when the trade in palm oil replaced the traffic in slaves. The indication today is that agriculture will continue for some time to be the chief basis of the export trade of the whole country, despite a growing emphasis on industrialization and a rapid increase in revenue of crude petroleum for export.1 In the current Six-Year Development Plan, therefore, first priority is given to agriculture, with emphasis on a rapid expansion of tree crops.2 By the end of 1901 much of Southern Nigeria was under British administration and as a means of raising revenue, the government felt a need to increase the volume and improve the quality of produce for export. Under the Colonial government, which controlled policy until 1951, the plantation system had no place in the agricultural development of the country, and any improvements made were brought about by encourag-

The Career of Domingo Martinez in the Bight of Benin 1833–64

The career of Martinez provides a guide to the economic and political fortunes of the Brazilians in the coastal States of the Bight of Benin in the eighteen-forties, fifties, and early sixties. The first phase of his career took place while the Brazilian slave trade was still at its height; the second phase covered the successful Brazilian adaptation to the new commercial patterns involved in the introduction of the palm oil trade; the third phase took place when Brazilian commerce was in decline following increased British intervention and growing contact between European merchants and the African States. The graph of his political influence follows exactly that of his commercial affluence. In the early eighteen-forties he was a prominent figure in the confused politics of the Bight. In the late forties he was as influential in Dahomey as Francesco Felix De Souza had been in the previous decade. At the end of his life his importance had declined so much that he was unable to prevent the King of Dahomey entering into an agreement which would have dealt a final blow to his commercial position.

Packages for the palm oil trade

Packages for the palm oil trade