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¹³ Coquery-Vidrovitch, Catherine, ‘De la traite des esclaves à l'exportation de l'huile de palme et des palmistes au Dahomey au XIXe siècle’, in Meillassoux, , The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa, 107–23Google Scholar; Law, Robin, ‘Royal monopoly and private enterprise in the Atlantic trade: the case of Dahomey’, J. Afr. Hist., XVIII, iv (1977). 555–77CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Peukert, Werner, Die Atlantische Sklavenhandel von Dahomey 1740–1797 (Wiesbaden, 1978).Google Scholar

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¹⁸ Public Record Office, London [hereafter, PRO]: C. 113/276, f.59v, William Baillie, Whydah, 18 Jan. 1718.

¹⁹ ‘Journal du Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais’ (ms. of c. 1726/8, in Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris: Fonds français, ms. 24223), f. 129v. The identity of the ‘Aquerates’ (or ‘Aqueras’) is unfortunately uncertain, but a possible identification is with the Kuare (or Kabre), north-west of Dahomey.

²⁰ Ibid. f. 59.

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³⁰ AN: C.6/25, Levet, Juda, 26 Aug. 1733, lettre de commerce.

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⁸⁶ PRO: T.70/1158, Day Book, William's Fort, Whydah, July-Aug. 1754, Jan-Feb. 1755, Sept.–Oct. 1757; T.70/1159, Day Book, William's Fort, Whydah, Sept.-Oct. 1759. The post of Yevogan of Whydah was even more perilous, with executions of three occupants in the single year of 1755, and another in 1760: cf. Akinjogbin, , Dahomey and its Neighbours, 120.Google Scholar

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¹²⁹ Quénum, , Les Ancêtres de lafamille Quénum, 78–89.Google Scholar For another instance of tension between the Dahomian monarchy and the merchant community, cf. the liquidation of the Chacha, Julio de Souza, for negotiating the cession of Whydah to Portugal in 1887; Hérissé, Le, L'Ancien Royaume du Dahomey, 336–8.Google Scholar For the issue in general, see Reid, , ‘Warrior aristocrats', 484–7Google Scholar; the merchants’ disaffection and consequent collaboration with French imperialism is also noted (but not explored in detail) by Garcia, Luc, Le Royaume du Dahoméface à la pénétration coloniale (1875–1894) (Paris, 1988), 28–30.Google Scholar

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