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The United Kingdom and the political economy of the global oils and fats business during the 1930s*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 March 2009

Ayodeji Olukoju
Ayodeji Olukoju
Affiliation:
Department of History and Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Akoka-Yaba, Lagos 101017, Nigeria E-mail: [email protected],[email protected]
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Abstract

This article examines an aspect of the globalization of commodity production, exchange, and consumption in the interwar years: the differential impact of protectionism on primary producers in the context of the Great Depression. Focusing on West African oilseeds, especially Nigerian palm produce, it highlights the dilemma of imperial Britain in the synchronic interplay of forces that operated in the north and south, and globally in the two-dimensional inter-product competition of the late 1920s and 1930s. Imperial Britain was caught in intricate and interlocking facets of inter-product competition on the world market, both north–south (palm produce versus whale oil), and south–south (West African palm produce, Indian groundnuts, and Dutch East Indies palm produce). The article highlights the implications and consequences of the extensive interchangeability of these products, the dilemmas of the colonial and imperial governments, reactions to protectionist policies, and the differential impact of the interwar depression upon the growth and freedom of commodity flows within the global economy.

Type
Articles
Information
Journal of Global History , Volume 4 , Issue 1 , March 2009 , pp. 105 - 125
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2009

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References

1 van Stuyvenberg, J. H. , ed., Margarine: an economic, social and political history, 1869–1969, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 1969Google Scholar.

2 This paragraph draws on the following sources: Geoffrey Jones, ‘Unilever: a case study’, Harvard Business School, Working Knowledge for Business Leaders, 2002, http://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/3212.html (consulted 31 December 2007); Charles Wilson, The history of Unilever: a study in economic growth and social change, 3 vols., New York: Praeger, 1968.

3 A study of the West African predicament is provided by S. M. Martin, ‘The long depression: West African export producers and the world economy, 1914–45’, in Brown, Ian , ed., The economies of Africa and Asia in the inter-war depression, London: Routledge, 1989, pp. 74–94Google Scholar. A Nigerian case study is Kehinde Faluyi, ‘The impact of the Great Depression of 1929–33 on the Nigerian economy’, Journal of Business and Social Studies (Lagos), 4, 2, 1981, pp. 31–44.

4 See, for example, Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘Nigeria and the world market, 1890–1960: local and global economic dynamics in the colonial context’, in Jomo, K. S. and Khoo, K. J. , eds., Globalization and its discontents, revisited, Delhi: Tulika Books, 2003, pp. 141–56Google Scholar.

5 Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘Slamming the “open door”: British protectionist fiscal policy in inter-war Nigeria’, Itinerario: European Journal of Overseas History, 23, 2, 1999, pp. 13–28, deals with the differential export duty (and anti-Japanese import quotas). Export duties, imposed in 1916 and collected beyond the period covered by this article, are the subject of Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘Anatomy of business–government relations: fiscal policy and mercantile pressure group activity in Nigeria, 1916–1933’, African Studies Review, 38, 1, 1995, pp. 23–50.

6 National Archives of Nigeria, Ibadan, Chief Secretary's Office (henceforth NAI, CSO) 26/1 02794, vol. 1, ‘Questions and answers in Parliament relating to Nigerian affairs, 1922', reply by Churchill to question no. 32 by Mosley, 14 February 1922’.

7 For a graphic illustration of the complexity of the oils and fats trade, and for global trade statistics in the sector between 1934 and 1964, see C. W. S. Hartley, The oil palm, 3rd edn, London: Longman, 1988, ch. 1, especially p. 33, table 1.

8 Grundstone, F. D. ‘Oils and fats: past, present and future’, in R. C. Cambie, ed., Fats for the future, Chichester: Ellis Horwood Ltd., 1989, pp. 1–16Google Scholar. See also Chong-Yah Lim, Economic development of modern Malaya, London: Oxford University Press, 1967, ch. 5, especially pp. 130–2.

9 NAI, CSO 26 28659, ‘Whale oil competition with the West African oil palm industry’, Cunliffe-Lister to Governor Donald Cameron, Lagos, 8 September 1933.

10 Grundstone, ‘Oils and fats’. I thank an anonymous referee of this journal for the insights in this paragraph.

11 NAI, CSO 26/1 03688, vol. 4, ‘Annual General Report’, Director of Agriculture to Chief Secretary to the Government (henceforth CSG), 6 December 1927.

12 National Archives of the United Kingdom (formerly the Public Record Office), Colonial Office (henceforth NAUK, CO) 554/81/12, ‘United States import duty on palm oil’, minute by J. E. W. Flood, 1 March 1929, for the discussion in this and the following paragraphs. An analysis of US imports of foreign vegetable oils, though for a later period, is supplied by Albert J. Nyberg, ‘The demand for lauric oils in the United States’, American Journal of Agricultural Economics, 52, 1, 1970, pp. 97–102.

13 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, minute by J. E. W. Flood, 1 March 1929.

14 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, Edgar Sanders, Director, The Niger Company, London to J. E. W. Flood, Colonial Office (henceforth CO), 27 February 1929.

15 A.G. Hopkins, ‘Economic aspects of political movements in Nigeria and the Gold Coast, 1918–1939’, Journal of African History, 7, 1, 1966, pp. 133–52; Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘“Nigeria or Lever-ia?”: nationalist reactions to economic depression and the “menace of mergers” in colonial Nigeria’, Journal of Third World Studies, 19, 1, 2002, pp. 173–94.

16 The United States increased its consumption of the world's supply of palm oil from 20% between 1909 and 1913 to 50% by 1930. Its purchases ‘continued at a high level until 1937, reaching 183,000 tons’ (see Hartley, The oil palm, p. 29). A good analysis of this subject is Lim, Economic development, pp. 130–2, including the statistics in tables 5.1 and 5.2.

17 ‘America to attack our palm oil: how about American motors we import?’, Nigerian Daily Times, 4 March 1929, editorial.

18 Ibid.

19 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, telegram from Sir E. Howard, Washington, DC, 2 April 1929.

20 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, Asst. Sec., Commercial Relations and Treaties (henceforth CR&T) Department, Board of Trade to Undersecretary, CO, 15 April 1929.

21 See Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘The politics of free trade between Lagos and the hinterland, 1861–1907’, in Ade Adefuye, Babatunde Agiri, and Jide Osuntokun, eds., History of the peoples of Lagos State, Lagos: Literamed, 1987, pp. 85–103; Olukoju, ‘Anatomy of business–government relations’.

22 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, minute by Flood, 1 March 1929.

23 Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘Economic relations between Nigeria and the United States of America in the era of British colonial rule, ca.1900–1950’, in Alusine Jalloh and Toyin Falola, eds., The United States and West Africa: interactions and relations, Rochester, NY: Rochester University Press, 2008, pp. 90–111.

24 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, minute by Flood, 1 March 1929.

25 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, Flood to Asst. Sec., CR&T Department, Board of Trade, 14 March 1929.

26 NAUK, CO 554/81/12, minute by Flood, 22 April 1929.

27 Eno J. Usoro, The Nigerian oil palm industry (government policy and export production, 1906–1965), Ibadan: Ibadan University Press, 1974, p. 31, n. 16.

28 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 1, Nigeria 1063 of 7 December 1934, Maybin to Cunliffe-Lister, enc: ‘Chief Secretary's response to question by Member for Rivers Division, Mr. S. B. Rhodes, Legislative Council Debates’, 22 October 1934.

29 Usoro, Nigerian oil palm industry, p. 31.

30 Nigeria, Trade report, 1931, p. 9; Trade report, 1934, p. 8.

31 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 1, Nigeria 1063 of 7 December 1934, Legislative Council Debates, 22 October 1934.

32 For instances and case studies of protectionism, see Brown, The economies of Africa and Asia. A Nigerian case study is given in Olukoju, ‘Slamming the “open door”’.

33 See Brown, The economies of Africa and Asia; and Ayodeji Olukoju, The Liverpool of West Africa: the dynamics and impact of maritime trade in Lagos, 1900–1950, Trenton, NJ: Africa World Press, 2004, chs. 3 and 4.

34 NAI, CSO 26/28660, ‘German monopoly for oils and fats’, memo dated 16 June 1933, p. 3.

35 NAI, CSO 26/1/03109, vol. 4, ‘Nigerian groundnuts’, Chamber of Commerce, Kano to CSG, 25 May 1934.

36 Shankarappa Talawar, Peanut in India: history, production, and utilization (Peanut in local and global food systems research series report, no. 5), Athens, GA: University of Georgia, 2004, p. 3.

37 Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘“Subsidizing the merchants at the expense of the administration”: railway tariffs and Nigerian maritime trade in the 1920s’, Indian Journal of African Studies, 10, 1 & 2, 1999, pp. 61–77.

38 Studies of the industry, especially its Nigerian epicentre, include Usoro, Nigerian oil palm industry, and Susan M. Martin, Palm oil and protest: an economic history of the Ngwa region, south-eastern Nigeria, 1800–1980, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.

39 See, ‘P. S. D.’ to Editor, West Africa, 22 April 1933; ‘D’ to Editor, 29 April 1933; ‘D. K. G.’ to Editor, 10 May 1933; ‘Economist’ to Editor, 12 May 1933; A. S. Cann to Editor, 15 May 1933.

40 Elliot, Gerald, A whaling enterprise: Salvesen in the Antarctic, Norwich: Michael Russell, 1998, pp. 9–52.Google Scholar

41 Ibid, p. 30.

42 Ibid, p. 44.

43 ‘D’ to Editor, West Africa, 29 April 1933.

44 Undated minute in NAUK, CO 554/94/10, ‘Palm products: whale oil competition’.

45 ‘D. K. G.’ to Editor, West Africa, 10 May 1933.

46 See Ayodeji Olukoju, ‘“Buy British, Sell Foreign”: external trade control policies in Nigeria during the Second World War and its aftermath, 1939–50’, International Journal of African Historical Studies, 35, 2 & 3, 2002, pp. 363–84.

47 A. S. Cann to Editor, West Africa, 15 May 1933.

48 NAI, CSO 26 28659, sub-enclosure to enclosure in Despatch 351 of 18 July 1933, C. E. Cookson, Acting Governor, Sierra Leone, to Cunliffe-Lister, 28 June 1933; ‘Palm oil and whale oil: West African interests’, letter to Editor, Manchester Guardian, 15 May 1933. See also, Nigerian Pioneer, 23 June 1933.

49 See Martin, Palm oil and protest, p. 146, table 3 for Nigerian and UK palm produce prices, 1911–48.

50 NAI, CSO 26 28659, sub-enclosure to enclosure in Despatch 351 of 18 July 1933.

51 NAI, CSO 26 28659, enclosure in Despatch 351 of 8 July 1933, C. J. Kempson, Secretary, Sierra Leone Chamber of Commerce to Colonial Secretary, Freetown, 28 June 1933.

52 NAI, CSO 26 28659, G. L. M. Clauson to Cameron, 22 June 1933.

53 NAUK, CO 554/94/10, minute by J. O. Bailey, Colonial Office, 17 May 1933; Elliot, A whaling enterprise, p. 45.

54 NAI, CSO 26 28659, ‘Memo by G. L. M. Clauson dated 10 May 1933 on Parliamentary Question No. 72 (Oral) for 16 May 1933, by Mr. Robinson’.

55 NAI, CSO 26 28659, Cameron to Cunliffe-Lister, 20 July 1933. As indicated below, he later proposed another ‘radical’ measure: a retaliatory import duty on soap containing whale oil.

56 NAI, CSO 26 28659, Cunliffe-Lister to Cameron, 8 September 1933.

57 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 2, ‘Conditions of world trade in palm products: report of a discussion concerning the probable developments in the African and Malayan oil palm industries’, 24 September 1936. Cf. Elliot, A whaling enterprise, pp. 17, 31.

58 NAI, CSO 1/34/37, Confidential despatch, Cameron to Cunliffe-Lister, 19 September 1933.

59 W. Addison (Shoreham, Sussex) to Editor, West Africa, 2 September 1933, p. 877.

60 See Hartley, The oil palm, pp. 15–16, for the origins and development of this industry.

61 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 2, ‘Report of a discussion’, 24 September 1936; ‘Lord Trenchard's memo. of 5 November 1936, enc. in Ormsby-Gore to Officer Administering the Government of Nigeria’, 24 November 1936.

62 Lim, Economic development, pp. 128–9, 135–6. The growth of the Malayan oil palm industry is captured in Susan M. Martin, The UP Saga, Wassenaar: NIAS Press, 2004, ch. 2, esp. table 1, which contains statistics for 1917–40.

63 Martin, The UP Saga, p. 68.

64 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 1, ‘Conditions of world trade in palm products’, AWAM to Bourdillon, Lagos, 4 June 1936. See details in Usoro, Nigerian oil palm industry, esp. ch. 3.

65 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 1, ‘Poynter, Agric. Dept., Ibadan to Chief Secretary to the Government’, 26 August 1936.

66 R. K. Udo, ‘Sixty years of plantation agriculture in southern Nigeria’, Economic Geography, 41, 1965, pp. 356–68; Usoro, Nigerian oil palm industry, pp. 37–40; Martin, Palm oil and protest, pp. 60–3; Phillips, Anne, The enigma of colonialism: British policy in West Africa, London, James Currey, 1989, chs. 5 and 6.Google Scholar

67 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 1, G. C. Whiteley to AWAM, 3 October 1936.

68 NAI, CSO 26/1/03109, vol. 2, ‘Nigerian groundnuts’, Alan Burns to Chamber of Commerce, Dakar, 13 January 1931. See also Olukoju, ‘Anatomy of business–government relations’, and ‘Subsidizing the merchants’.

69 NAI, CSO 1/32/136, enc. in 462 of 14 June 1935, Maybin to MacDonald.

70 Susan Martin notes that, by 1934, ‘the Netherlands East Indies had replaced Nigeria as the world's major exporter of palm oil’. The respective export figures for the two territories in 1934–38 were 171,000 and 137,000 tons (Martin, The UP Saga, pp. 67–8).

71 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 1, Cunliffe-Lister to Cameron, 16 October 1934.

72 NAI, CSO 26/3/29777, vol. 1, G. C. Whiteley to AWAM, 3 October 1936.

73 I am grateful to an anonymous reader for drawing my attention to this point.

74 NAUK, CO 554/94/10, minute by Clauson, 9 May 1933, emphasis added. He was probably alluding to rubber producers of Malaya and the Dutch East Indies, and Chilean copper miners, whose customers also had alternative, metropolitan sources of supplies. I thank the editors for this comparative insight.