Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-mzp66 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-09T22:52:23.912Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An Economic Rationale for the West African Scramble? The Commercial Transition and the Commodity Price Boom of 1835–1885

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 April 2018

Ewout Frankema ,
Jeffrey Williamson  and
Pieter Woltjer
Ewout Frankema
Affiliation:
Ewout Frankema is Professor, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands. E-mail: [email protected].
Jeffrey Williamson
Affiliation:
Jeffrey Williamson is Professor, Harvard University and University of Wisconsin, 350 South Hamilton Street, Madison, WI 53703. E-mail: [email protected].
Pieter Woltjer*
Affiliation:
Pieter Woltjer is Postdoctoral Researcher, Wageningen University, Hollandseweg 1, 6706 KN Wageningen, The Netherlands.
*
Dr. Woltjer is the corresponding author. E-mail: [email protected].
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We use a new trade dataset showing that nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa experienced a terms of trade boom comparable to other parts of the “global periphery.” A sharp rise in export prices in the five decades before the scramble (1835–1885) was followed by an equally impressive decline during the colonial era. This study revises the view that the scramble for West Africa occurred when its major export markets were in decline and argues that the larger weight of West Africa in French imperial trade strengthened the rationale for French instead of British initiative in the conquest of the interior.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 78 , Issue 1 , March 2018 , pp. 231 - 267
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

We are indebted to Paul Rhode and Ann Carlos, whose help has guided us to substantially improve the article. Furthermore, we are grateful to Gareth Austin, Luis Bértola, James Fenske, Leigh Gardner, Jens Andersson, three anonymous referees, and the participants of the African Economic History Workshop, the RIDGE Workshop on Comparative studies of the Southern Hemisphere in global economic history and development, the Workshop on Colonialism, Growth and Development in the Southern Hemisphere, 1800–2000, and seminar participants at Oxford University, Warwick University, and Wageningen University for their comments on earlier drafts. We are responsible for all errors. We acknowledge financial support from the European Research Council (ERC Grant Agreement no. 313114) and the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO VIDI Grant no. 016.124.307). We thank Loes Oudenhuijzen, Jasmijn Appels, Rolinde de Haan, and Rens van Baren for excellent research assistance.

References

REFERENCES

Ajayi, J. F. Ade, and Austen, Ralph A.. “Hopkins on Economic Imperialism in West Africa.” Economic History Review 25, no. 2 (1972): 303–306.Google Scholar
Allen, Robert C. Global Economic History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2011.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austen, Ralph A. “The Trans-Saharan Slave Trade: A Tentative Census.” In The Uncommon Market: Essays in the Economic History of the Atlantic Slave Trade, edited by Gemery, Henry A. and Hogendorn, Jan S., 23–75. New York: Academic Press, 1979.Google Scholar
Austen, Ralph A.. “The Nineteenth Century Islamic Slave Trade from East Africa (Swahili and Red Sea Coasts): A Tentative Census.” Slavery and Abolition 9, no. 3 (1988): 21–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, Gareth. “Between Abolition and Jihad: The Asante Response to the Ending of the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1807–1896.” In From Slave Trade to “Legitimate” Commerce. The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa, edited by Law, Robin, Chapter 4, 93–118. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Austin, Gareth. Labour, Land, and Capital in Ghana: From Slavery to Free Labour in Asante, 1807–1956. Vol. 18. Rochester Studies in African History and the Diaspora. Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer, 2005.Google Scholar
Austin, Gareth, Frankema, Ewout, and Jerven, Morten. “Patterns of Manufacturing Growth in Sub-Saharan Africa: From Colonization to the Present.” In The Spread of Modern Manufacturing to the Periphery, 1870 to the Present, edited by O'Rourke, Kevin H. and Williamson, Jeffrey G., Chapter 14, 345–374. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Bairoch, Paul, and Etemad, Bouda. Structure Par Produits Des Exportations Du Tiers-Monde, 1830–1937. Geneva: Droz, 1985.Google Scholar
Bauer, Peter Thomas. “Marketing Monopoly in British Africa.” Kyklos 9, no. 2 (1956): 164–80.Google Scholar
Bezanson, Anne, Gray, Robert D., and Hussey, Miriam. Wholesale Prices in Philadelphia 1784–1861. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1937.Google Scholar
Blattman, Chris, Hwang, Jason, and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. “The Impact of the Terms of Trade on Economic Development in the Periphery, 1870–1939: Volatility and Secular Change.” Journal of Development Economics 82, no. 1 (2007): 156–79.Google Scholar
Boahen, A. Adu, and Gueye, M'Baye. “African Initiatives and Resistance in West Africa, 1880–1914.” In General History of Africa VII. Africa under Colonial Domination 1880–1935, edited by Adu Boahen, A., Chapter 6, 114–48. Oakland: University of California Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Brunschwig, Henri. Mythes et R´ealit´es de l'Imp´erialisme Colonial Francais. Paris: A. Colin, 1960.Google Scholar
Cain, Peter J., and Hopkins, Anthony G.. “The Political Economy of British Expansion Overseas, 1750–1914.” Economic History Review 33, no. 4 (1980): 463–90.Google Scholar
Cain, Peter J., and Hopkins, Anthony G.. British Imperialism: Innovation and Expansion 1688–1914. New York: Longman, 1993.Google Scholar
Campbell, Gwyn. Structure of Slavery in Indian Ocean Africa and Asia. New York: Routledge, 2004.Google Scholar
Campbell, Gwyn. An Economic History of Imperial Madagascar, 1750–1895. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Chamberlain, Muriel Evelyn. The Scramble for Africa. New York: Routledge, 2009.Google Scholar
Clarence-Smith, William G. The Economics of the Indian Ocean Slave Trade in the Nineteenth Century. London: Frank Cass, 1989.Google Scholar
Clarence-Smith, William G.. “Rubber Cultivation in Indonesia and the Congo from the 1910s to the 1950s. Divergent Paths.” In Colonial Exploitation and Economic Development. The Belgian Congo and the Netherlands Indies Compared, edited by Frankema, Ewout and Buelens, Frans, Chapter 9, 193–210. London: Routledge, 2013.Google Scholar
Clingingsmith, David, and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. “Deindustrialization in Eighteenth and Nineteenth Century India: Mughal Decline, Climate Shocks, and British Industrial Ascent.” Explorations in Economic History 45, no. 3 (2008): 209–34.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cooper, Frederick. “Plantation Slavery on the East Coast of Africa in the Nineteenth Century.” Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1974.Google Scholar
Curtin, Philip D. Death by Migration. Europe's Encounter with the Tropical World in the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Dalrymple-Smith, Angus, and Woltjer, Pieter. Commodities, Prices and Risk: The Changing Market for Non-Slave Products in Pre-abolition West Africa. AEHN Working Paper No. 31. Sussex: African Economic History Network, 2016.Google Scholar
Deaton, Angus. “Commodity Prices and Growth in Africa.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 13, no. 3 (1999): 23–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Diewert, W. Erwin. Price Level Measurement. Amsterdam: Elsevier Science Publishing Company, 2014.Google Scholar
Dike, Kenneth O. Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta 1830–1885. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1956.Google Scholar
Dobado, Rafael, G´omez-Galvarriato, Aurora, and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. “Mexican Exceptionalism: Globalization and De-Industrialization 1750–1877.” Journal of Economic History 68, no. 3 (2008): 1–53.Google Scholar
Doorn, Peter K., Lindblad, Thomas J., and Touwen, Jeroen. “The Marion Johnson Data on African Trade.” In Anglo-African Trade in the Eighteenth Century: English Statistics on African Trade 1699–1808, edited by Johnson, Marion, Lindblad, Thomas J., and Ross, Robert, 13–36. Leiden: Centre for the History of European Expansion, 1990.Google Scholar
Eltis, David. “The Slave Trade and Commercial Agriculture in an African context.” In Commercial Agriculture, the Slave Trade and Slavery in Atlantic Africa, edited by Law, Robin, Schwarz, Suzanne, and Strickrodt, Silke, 28–53. Woodbridge, Suffolk: James Curry, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltis, David, and Jennings, Lawrence C.. “Trade Between Western Africa and the Atlantic World in the Pre-Colonial Era.” American Historical Review 93, no. 4 (1988): 936–59.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Eltis, David, and Richardson, David. Extending the Frontiers: Essays on the New Transatlantic Slave Trade Database. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2008.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Estevadeordal, Antoni, Frantz, Brian, and Taylor, Alan M.. “The Rise and Fall of World Trade, 1870–1939.” Quarterly Journal of Economics 118, no. 2 (2003): 359–407.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, Niall. Empire: How Britain Made the Modern World. New York: Penguin, 2004.Google Scholar
Fieldhouse, David K. Economics and Empire, 1830–1914. London: Weidenfeld/Nicolson, 1973.Google Scholar
Forbes-Munro, John. Africa and the International Economy, 1800–1960: An Introduction to the Modern Economic History of Africa South of the Sahara. Worthing: Littlehampton Book Services, 1976.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout. “Colonial Taxation and Government Spending in British Africa, 1880–1940: Maximizing Revenue or Minimizing Effort?” Explorations in Economic History 48, no. 1 (2011): 136–49.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout, Green, Erik, and Hillbom, Ellen. “Endogenous Processes of Colonial Settlement. The Success and Failure of European Settler Farming in Sub-Saharan Africa.” Revista de Historia Econ´omica 34, no. 2 (2016): 1–29.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout, and Jerven, Morten. “Writing History Backwards or Sideways: Towards a Consensus on African Population, 1850–2010.” Economic History Review 67, no. 4 (2014): 907–31.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout, and Waijenburg, Marlous van. “Structural Impediments to African Growth? New Evidence from British African Real Wages, 1880–1965.” Journal of Economic History 72, no. 4 (2012): 895–926.Google Scholar
Frankema, Ewout. “Metropolitan Blueprints of Colonial Taxation? Lessons from Fiscal Capacity Building in British and French Africa, c. 1880–1940.” Journal of African History 55, no. 3 (2014): 371–400.Google Scholar
Gallagher, John, and Robinson, Ronald. “The Imperialism of Free Trade.” Economic History Review 6, no. 1 (1953): 1–15.Google Scholar
Gardner, Leigh. Taxing Colonial Africa: The Political Economy of British Imperialism. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2012.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gemery, Henry A., Hogendorn, Jan, and Johnson, Marion. “Evidence on English/African Terms of Trade in the Eighteenth Century.” Explorations in Economic History 27, no. 2 (1990): 157–77.Google Scholar
Goerg, Odile. “La Destruction D'un Reseau D'´echange Precolonial: L'exemple De La Guin´ee.” Journal of African History 21, no. 4 (1980): 467–84.Google Scholar
Hanson, John R. Trade in Transition: Exports from the Third World, 1840–1900. New York: Academic Press, 1980.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, John D. “Towards a History of the Partition of Africa.” Journal of African History 1, no. 1 (1960): 97–109.Google Scholar
Hargreaves, John D.. Prelude to the Partition of West Africa. London: MacMillan, 1963.Google Scholar
Harley, C. Knick. “Ocean Freight Rates and Productivity, 1740–1913: The Primacy of Mechanical Invention Reaffirmed.” Journal of Economic History 48, no. 4 (1988): 851–76.Google Scholar
Havinden, Michael, and Meredith, David. Colonialism and Development. Britain and its Tropical Colonies, 1850–1960. London: Routledge, 1995.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Anthony G. “Economic Imperialism in West Africa: Lagos, 1880–92.” Economic History Review 21, no. 3 (1968): 580–606.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Anthony G.. “Economic Imperialism in West Africa: A Rejoinder.” Economic History Review 25, no. 2 (1972): 307–12.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Anthony G.. An Economic History of West Africa. London: Longman, 1973.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Anthony G.. “Property Rights and Empire Building: Britain's Annexation of Lagos, 1861.” Journal of Economic History 40, no. 4 (1980): 777–98.Google Scholar
Hopkins, Anthony G.. “The Victorians and Africa: A Reconsideration of the Occupation of Egypt, 1882.” Journal of African History 27, no. 2 (1986): 363–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hyam, Ronald. Britain's Imperial Century, 1815–1914: A Study of Empire and Expansion. New York: Barnes & Noble Books, 1976.Google Scholar
IMF. Export and Import Price Index Manual: Theory and Practice. Washington: International Monetary Fund, 2009.Google Scholar
Inikori, Joseph E. Africans and the Industrial Revolution in England: A Study in International Trade and Economic Development. New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacks, David S., O'Rourke, Kevin H., and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. “Commodity Price Volatility and World Market Integration since 1720.” Review of Economics and Statistics 93, no. 3 (2011): 800–13.Google Scholar
Jedwab, Remi, and Moradi, Alexander. “The Permanent Effects of Transportation Revolutions in Poor Countries: Evidence from Africa.” Review of Economics and Statistics 98, no. 2 (2016): 268–84.Google Scholar
Kanya-Forstner, Alexander S. “French African Priorities and the Berlin West Africa Conference.” In Bismarck, Europe, and Africa. The Berlin Africa Conference 1884–1885 and the Onset of Partition, edited by Förster, Stig, Mommsen, Wolfgang J., and Robinson, Ronald, 171–88. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Klein, Herbert S. The Atlantic Slave Trade. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2010.Google Scholar
Law, Robin. “The Historiography of the Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa.” In African Historiography: Essays in Honour of Ade Ajayi, edited by Falola, Toyin, 91–115. Harlow: Longman, 1993.Google Scholar
Law, Robin, ed. From Slave Trade to “Legitimate” Commerce: The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa. African Studies Series 86. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Law, Robin. “Introduction.” In From Slave Trade to “Legitimate” Commerce. The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa, edited by Law, Robin, 1–31. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Lewis, W. Arthur. The Evolution of the International Economic Order. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1978.Google Scholar
Liesegang, Gerhard, Pasch, Helma, and Jones, Adam, eds. Figuring African Trade. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1986.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, Paul E. Slavery, Commerce and Production in the Sokoto Caliphate of West Africa. Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, Paul E.. Transformations in Slavery: A History of Slavery in Africa. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Lovejoy, Paul E., and Richardson, David. “British Abolition and Its Impact on Slave Prices along the Atlantic Coast of Africa, 1780–1850.” Journal of Economic History 55, no. 1 (1995): 98–119.Google Scholar
Lynn, Martin. “The West African Palm Oil Trade in the Nineteenth Century and the ‘Crisis of Adaptation’.” In From Slave Trade to “Legitimate” Commerce. The Commercial Transition in Nineteenth-Century West Africa, edited by Law, Robin, Chapter 2, 57–77. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Maddison, Angus. Monitoring the World Economy 1820–1992. Paris: OECD, 1995.Google Scholar
Manning, Patrick. Slavery, Colonialism, and Economic Growth in Dahomey, 1640–1960. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.Google Scholar
Martin, Susan M. Palm Oil and Protest: An Economic History of the Ngwa Region, South-Eastern Nigeria, 1800–1980. Cambridge, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2006.Google Scholar
Meissner, Chris. “A New World Order: Explaining the Emergence of the Classical Gold Standard.” Journal of International Economics 66, no. 2 (2005): 385–406.Google Scholar
Meredith, David. “State Controlled Marketing and Economic Development: The Case of West African Produce during the Second World War.” Economic History Review 39, no. 1 (1986): 77–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, Brian R. British Historical Statistics. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Mitchell, Brian R.. International Historical Statistics: Europe 1750–2005. Basingstroke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007.Google Scholar
Mitchener, Kris J., and Weidenmier, Marc. Trade and Empire. NBER Working Paper No. 13765, Cambridge, MA, January 2008.Google Scholar
Newbury, Colin Walter. “On the Margins of Empire: The Trade of Western Africa, 1875–1890.” In Bismarck, Europe, and Africa. The Berlin Africa Conference 1884–1885 and the Onset of Partition, edited by Förster, Stig, Mommsen, Wolfgang J., and Robinson, Ronald, 35–58. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Newbury, Colin Walter, and Kanya-Forstner, Alexander S.. “French Policy and the Origins of the Scramble for West Africa.” Journal of African History 10, no. 2 (1969): 253–76.Google Scholar
North, Douglas C. “Ocean Freight Rates and Economic Development 1750–1913.” Journal of Economic History 18, no. 4 (1958): 538–55.Google Scholar
Northrup, David. “The Compatibility of the Slave and Palm Oil Trades in the Bight of Biafra.” Journal of African History 17, no. 3 (1976): 353–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Obstfeld, Maurice, and Rogoff, Kenneth. Foundations of International Macroeconomics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 1996.Google Scholar
Officer, Lawrence H. “Measuring Worth: Dollar-Pound Exchange Rate from 1791.” 2015. http://www.measuringworth.com/exchangepound/.Google Scholar
Pakenham, Thomas. The Scramble for Africa: The White Man's Conquest of the Dark Continent from 1876–1912. New York: Avon Books, 1992.Google Scholar
Pamuk, Sevket, and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. “Ottoman De-Industrialization 1800–1913: Assessing the Shock, Its Impact and the Response.” Economic History Review 64 (February 2011): 159–84.Google Scholar
Panza, Laura, and Williamson, Jeffrey G.. “Did Muhammad Ali Foster Industrialization in Early Nineteenth Century Egypt?” Economic History Review 68, no. 1 (2015): 79–100.Google Scholar
Platt, Desmond Christopher M. “Further Objections to an ‘Imperialism of Free Trade’, 183060.” Economic History Review 26, no. 1 (1973): 77–91.Google Scholar
Prados de la Escosura, Leandro. “Output per Head in Pre-Independence Africa: Quantitative Conjectures.” Economic History of Developing Regions 27, no. 2 (2012): 1–36.Google Scholar
Prebisch, Raul. The Economic Development of Latin America and Its Principal Problems. Lake Success, NY: UN Department of Economic Affairs, 1950.Google Scholar
Ratcliffe, Barrie M. “The Economics of the Partition of Africa: Methods and Recent Research Trends.” Canadian Journal of African Studies 15, no. 1 (1981): 3–31.Google Scholar
Richardson, David. “Prices of Slaves in West and West-Central Africa: Toward an Annual Series, 1698–1807.” Bulletin of Economic Research 43 (1991): 21–56.Google Scholar
Robinson, Ronald, and Gallagher, John. Africa and the Victorians: the Official Mind of Imperialism. London: MacMillan, 1961.Google Scholar
Rodney, Walter. How Europe Underdeveloped Africa. London: Bogle-L'Ouverture Publications, 1972.Google Scholar
Roy, Tirthanker. “Economic History and Modern India: Redefining the Link.” Journal of Economic Perspectives 16, no. 3 (2002): 109–30.Google Scholar
Sauerbeck, Augustus. “Prices of Commodities and the Precious Metals.” Journal of the Statistical Society of London 49, no. 3 (1886): 581–648.Google Scholar
Sauerbeck, Augustus. “Prices of Commodities in 1893.” Journal of the Statistical Society of London 57, no. 1 (1894): 172–83.Google Scholar
Sauerbeck, Augustus. “Prices of Commodities in 1904.” Journal of the Statistical Society of London 68, no. 1 (1905): 138–53.Google Scholar
Sauerbeck, Augustus. “Prices of Commodities in 1916.” Journal of the Statistical Society of London 80, no. 2 (1917): 289–309.Google Scholar
Sauerbeck, Augustus. “Prices of Commodities in 1931.” Journal of the Statistical Society of London 95, no. 2 (1932): 303–19.Google Scholar
Sauerbeck, Augustus. “Wholesale Prices in 1950.” Journal of the Statistical Society of London 114, no. 3 (1951): 408–22.Google Scholar
Sessions, Jennifer E. By Sword and Plow: France and the Conquest of Algeria. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2011.Google Scholar
Sheriff, Abdul. “Ivory and Commercial Expansion in East Africa.” In Figuring African Trade, edited by Liesegang, Gerhard, Pasch, Helma, and Jones, Adam, 415–50. Berlin: Dietrich Reimer Verlag, 1986.Google Scholar
Sheriff, Abdul. Slaves, Spices and Ivory in Zanzibar: Integration of an East African Commercial Empire into the World Economy, 1770–1873. London: James Currey, 1987.Google Scholar
Sheriff, Abdul. “Localisation and Social Composition of the East African Slave Trade, 1858–1873.” Slavery and Abolition 9, no. 3 (1988): 131–45.Google Scholar
Singer, Hans W. “The Distribution of Gains between Investing and Borrowing Countries.” American Economic Review 40, no. 2 (1950): 473–85.Google Scholar
Temperley, Howard. White Dreams, Black Africa: The Antislavery Expedition to the River Niger 1841–1842. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1991.Google Scholar
Thornton, John. Africa and Africans in the Making of the Atlantic World, 1400–1800. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1998.Google Scholar
Tosh, John. “The Cash Crop Revolution in Tropical Africa: An Agricultural Reappraisal.” African Affairs 79, no. 317 (1980): 79–94.Google Scholar
van Waijenburg, Marlous. “Financing the African Colonial State: The Revenue Imperative and Forced Labor.” Journal of Economic History 78, no. 1 (2018): 40–80.Google Scholar
Williamson, Jeffrey G. Trade and Poverty: When the Third World Fell Behind. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2011.Google Scholar

PRIMARY SOURCES

Administration des Douanes. Tableau General du Commerce de la France avec ses Colonies et les Puissance Etrangeres. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1830–1895.Google Scholar
Administration des Douanes. Tableau General du Commerce et de la Navigation. Volume I. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1896–1928.Google Scholar
Administration des Douanes. Tableau General du Commerce Exterieur. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1929–1939.Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Annual Statement of the Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode (1856, 1861, 1866, 1871, 1876, 1881, 1887, 1892, 1897, 1902).Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Statistical Abstract for the United Kingdom in Each of the Last Fifteen Years. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode (1868, 1874, 1887, 1898, 1903, 1907).Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Statistical Abstract for the Several Colonial and Other Possessions of the United Kingdom. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1 (1865); 10 (1874); 20 (1885); 28 (1891); 32 (1895).Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Statistical Abstract for the Several British Colonies, Possessions, and Protectorates. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 43 (1906).Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Statistical Abstract for the Several British Self-Governing Dominions, Crown Colonies, Possessions, and Protectorates. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 48 (1911).Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Statistical Abstract for the Several British Oversea Dominions and Protectorates. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 57 (1926).Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Statistical Abstract for the British Empire. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 63 (1935); 68 (1939).Google Scholar
Board of Trade. Statistical Abstract for the British Commonwealth. London: His Majesty's Stationery Office, 69 (1947); 70 (1950).Google Scholar
British Customs Ledgers, Ledgers of Imports under Countries, CUST 4. Kew: The National Archives, 1809–1850.Google Scholar
British Customs Ledgers, States of Navigation, Commerce and Revenue, CUST 17. Kew: The National Archives, 1784–1808.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Blue Book for the Gambia. London: Government Printer, 182–1849; 1851–1939.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Blue Book for the Gold Coast. London: Government Printer, 1846–1861; 1867–1939.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Blue Book for the Colony of Lagos. London: Government Printer, 1862–1905.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Blue Book for Nigeria. London: Government Printer, 1914–1939.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Blue Book for Northern Nigeria. London: Government Printer, 1900–1913.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Blue Book for Sierra Leone. London: Government Printer, 1819–1939.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Blue Book for Southern Nigeria. London: Government Printer, 1899–1913.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Cape of Good Hope Blue Book. London: Government Printer, 1821–1904.Google Scholar
British Foreign and Commonwealth Office. Tanganyika Territory Blue Book. Dar Es Salaam: Government Printer, 1921; 1926; 1931; 1936.Google Scholar
Ministere de l'Agriculture et du Commerce. Annuaire Statistique de la France. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1878–1899.Google Scholar
Ministere du Commerce, de l'Industrie, des Postes et des Telegraphes. Annuaire Statistique. Paris: Imprimerie Nationale, 1900–1939.Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970. Washington, DC: GPO, 1975.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Frankema et al. supplementary material

Online Appendix

Download Frankema et al. supplementary material(File)
File 141 KB