^{Page 1 note 1} Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (London, 1973), p. 288.Google Scholar

^{Page 1 note 2} The French equivalent is produits du cru, a term which combines produits agricoles and produits de cueillette.Google Scholar

^{Page 2 note 1} van der Laan, H. L., The Lebanese Traders in Sierra Leone (The Hague, 1975), pp. 66–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 3 note 1} The export of cotton required the collaboration of African peasant farmers and foreign ginners. Viewed from the production perspective, cotton could be classified as produce, but traders did not do so.

^{Page 3 note 2} Some palm kernels were gathered in the forests, and some were the by-product in the preparation of palm oil. Because of this, palm kernels are sometimes classified as forest and sometimes as agricultural products.

^{Page 3 note 3} Some alluvial minerals, such as gold, tin, and diamonds, were extracted by African miners. The associated collecting trade resembled the produce trade in many ways. For an example of the diamond trade, see van der Laan, H. L., The Sierra Leone Diamonds (London, 1965), pp. 116–24.Google Scholar

^{Page 3 note 4} Capet, Marcel, Traite d'économie tropicale: les économies d'A.O.F.? (Paris, 158), pp. 121–30. Like many other French authors, Capet speaks of commercial circuits, which largely coincide with the flows in the above diagram.Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 1} Bauer, P. T., West African Trade (Cambridge, 1954), is a rich source of information on the produce as well as the merchandise trade, but uses the conventional terms ‘import’ and ‘export’ trade.Google Scholar Fully based on the commercial concepts is Pedler, Frederick, The Lion and the Unicorn in Africa: a history of the origins of the United Africa Company, 1787–1931 (London, 1974).Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 2} Hancock, W. K., Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, 1918–1939, Vol. I, pt. 2 (London, 1942), p. 173, contrasted peasant and plantation production. In British West Africa the former predominated.Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 3} See Munro, J. Forbes, Britain in Tropical Africa, 1880–1960 (London, 1984), pp. 40–50, for a discussion of authors who use this term.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

^{Page 4 note 4} Hopkins, op. cit. pp. 168 ff.Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 5} Amin, Samir, ‘Underdevelopment and Dependence in Black Africa – Origins and Contemporary Forms’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), 10, 4, 12 1972, p. 520.Google Scholar

^{Page 4 note 6} Amin, Samir, L'Afrique de l'ouest bloquée (Paris, 1971).Google Scholar

^{Page 5 note 1} Ibid. p. 18, where Amin speaks of la mise en valeur extravertie. See also Hopkins, op. cit. p. 169, for a description of the aim of expatriate policy: ‘to assist the flow of primary products’ and ‘to keep the door open for the sale of manufactured goods’. It must further be remembered that Hancock contrasted the overseas expansion of Great Britain with the overland expansion of the United States in Empire in the Changing World (Washington, D. C., 1943), pp. 69–75.Google Scholar

^{Page 5 note 2} Hancock, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, pp. 154 ff.

^{Page 5 note 3} The United Africa Company tried to bridge the gap by publishing the admirable bi-annual journal Statistical and Economic Review (London), started in 1948 and continued till 1963.

^{Page 5 note 4} For details on names and literature, see Hopkins, A. G., ‘Imperial Business in Africa, Part I: Sources’, in Journal of African History (Cambridge), XVII, I, 1976, pp. 38–41. A negligible number of the companies confined their activities to merchandise.Google Scholar

^{Page 6 note 1} Hancock, Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, pp. 201–15, and Bauer, op. cit. pp. 224–5.

^{Page 6 note 2} van der Laan, H. L., ‘Modern Inland Transport and the European Trading Firms in Colonial West Africa’, in Cahiers d'études africaines (Paris), 84, XXI–IV, 1983, pp. 566–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 6 note 3} Bauer, op. cit. pp. 263–343;Google ScholarLeubuscher, Charlotte, Bulk Buying from the Colonies (London, 1956), pp. 87–114;Google ScholarWestcott, N., ‘Stabilising Commodity Prices: state control of colonial commodity trade during and after the Second World War’, in Dewey, C. J. (ed.), The State and the Market: studies in the economic and social history of the Third World (Riverdale, Md, and Delhi, 1987).Google Scholar

^{Page 6 note 4} For an early account, see Mars, J., ‘Extra-Territorial Enterprises’, in Margery, Perham (ed.), Mining, Commerce, and Finance in Nigeria (London, 1948), pp. 87–95.Google Scholar

^{Page 7 note 1} van der Laan, H. L., ‘The European Trading Companies in West Africa: their withdrawal from up-country, 1945–1980’, in Laboratoire Connaissance du tiers-monde (ed.), Enterprises et entrepreneurs en Afrique, XIXe et XXe siécles, Vol. II (Paris, 1983), pp. 375–6.Google Scholar

^{Page 7 note 2} van der Laan, The Lebanese Traders in Sierra Leone, pp. 62–3.

^{Page 7 note 3} The marketing board in Liberia and the caixa in Guinea-Bissau resemble the British model.

^{Page 8 note 1} Authors who operate with the concepts of peasant economy and économie de traite assume, like me, a high degree of continuity in African agriculture, while those who think in terms of the ‘integration of West Africa into the world economy’ attribute great continuity to the international markets.

^{Page 8 note 2} The export-marketing boards in Côte d'Ivoire and Cameroun share their bridge functions with private enterprises.

^{Page 8 note 3} When colonial governments used the word marketing, a paternalistic concern for the peasant farmer was usually included.

^{Page 9 note 1} Lewis, W. Arthur, Some Aspects of Economic Development (London, 1969), p. 44.Google Scholar

^{Page 9 note 2} Davies, Peter N., The Trade Makers, Elder Dempster in West Africa (London, 1973).Google Scholar

^{Page 9 note 3} For the shipping of bananas, see Beaver, Patrick, Yes! We Have Some. The Story of Fyffes (Stevenage, 1976).Google Scholar

^{Page 9 note 4} The absence of mechanised handling necessitated much physical exertion in hoisting and carrying sacks of produce over the years, but ‘casual labour’ and ‘yard boys’ were not held in high esteem.

^{Page 9 note 5} The Niger Company, one of the predecessors of U.A.C., constructed bulk installations in Burutu in 1927 and in six other Nigerian ports in the following years; see United Africa Company, Statistical and Economic Review, 13, 1954, p. 33. When the marketing boards were established, it was only U.A.C. that possessed bulk installations suitable for loading ships, which suggests that the other companies had invested less in bulk storage. Presumably the competition among the trading companies from about 1930 onwards was less for palm oil than for other produce.

^{Page 10 note 1} Leubuscher, Charlotte, The West African Shipping Trade, 1909–1959 (Leyden, 1963), pp. 46–55.Google Scholar

^{Page 10 note 2} Statistical and Economic Review, 13, 1954, p. 34.

^{Page 10 note 3} Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa, p. 197.

^{Page 10 note 4} As Hopkins states in ibid. the open economies came under strain, with 1930 as a turning point.

^{Page 10 note 5} Hancock, Survey of British Common wealth Affairs, pp. 200, 237, and 323–4.

^{Page 11 note 1} The establishment of the Economic Community of West African States marked the desire to increase inter-African trade in this region. E.C.O.W.A.S. concentrates on industrial products and has no plans to reduce trans-oceanic exports.

^{Page 11 note 2} These frustrations may well explain why Samir Amin's ideas, as expressed in L'Afrique de l'ouest bloquée, have received so much attention.

^{Page 11 note 3} Marketing boards can accumulate surpluses only when the farmers cannot evade low producer prices – that is, when a product is exported. Cf. Hesp, Paul and van der Laan, H. L., ‘Marketing Boards in Tropical Africa: a survey’, in Kwame, Arhin, Hesp, , and van der Laan, (eds), Marketing Boards in Tropical Africa (London, 1985), p. 11.Google Scholar

^{Page 12 note 1} Comparing colonial and contemporary export statistics is not without problems because (i) the composition of agricultural exports has changed; and (ii) where processed products like oil have replaced raw materials like oil seeds, the classification has changed and a weight conversion factor is necessary.

^{Page 12 note 2} Specialisation in export crops was extremely rare and was probably confined to cocoa in southern Ghana.

^{Page 12 note 3} Walker, G., Traffic and Transport in Nigeria (London, 1959), p. 6.Google Scholar

^{Page 12 note 4} Pedler, Frederick J., Economic Geography of West Africa (London, 1955), p. 151. The physical concentration of stocks of produce (and merchandise) in the ports facilitated the emergence of large organisations.Google Scholar

^{Page 12 note 5} van der Laan, ‘Modern Inland Transport and the European Trading Firms in Colonial West Africa’, pp. 553–5.

^{Page 13 note 1} Industrialisation has hardly changed the pattern because the factories that now use the ‘export’ crops as inputs are usually located near the ports. An interesting exception is Northern Nigeria, where such factories are located far in the interior.

^{Page 13 note 2} The old buying stations consisted mainly of timber and corrugated iron sheets, where as much cement was used in the new buildings.

^{Page 13 note 3} See Swanzie, Agnew and Michael, Stubbs (eds), Malawi in Maps (London, 1972), pp. 88–9, for the location of the buying stations of the Farmers' Marketing Board in 1968.Google Scholar

^{Page 13 note 4} Private enterprise consists only of former middlemen and a few traders of miscellaneous backgrounds. Most of the private traders are recognised as licensed buying agents, but not all.

^{Page 14 note 1} Pedler, Economic Geography of West Africa, p. 83.

^{Page 15 note 1} Ord, H. W. and Livingstone, Ian, An Introduction to West African Economics (London, 1969), pp. 171–3.Google Scholar

^{Page 15 note 2} But groundnuts in Nigeria were also graded, according to ibid. p. 173.

^{Page 15 note 3} Pedler, Economic Geography of West Africa, p. 83. I am not sure whether a cost-benefit analysis would yield an unequivocal answer: the benefits of higher sales proceeds must be compared with the additional costs of the boards and those of the farmers, who have to spend more time in ‘conditioning’ their crop.

^{Page 16 note 1} Some products like palm kernels lost weight in transit, which prompted licensed buying agents to speed up transport. Cf. Bauer, op. cit. p. 243.

^{Page 17 note 1} Notably ibid. pp. 315–6. Smuggling in its turn may weaken the monopoly boards and thus be favourable for the farmers.

^{Page 17 note 2} Latham, A. J. H., The International Economy and the Undeveloped World, 1865–1914 (London, 1978), p. 35.Google Scholar

^{Page 18 note 1} van der Laan, ‘Modern Inland Transport and the European Trading Firms in Colonial West Africa’, p. 559.

^{Page 18 note 2} van der Laan, H. L., ‘The Selling Policies of African Export Marketing Boards’, in African Affairs (London), 85, 340, 07 1986, pp. 365–83.Google Scholar

^{Page 18 note 3} van der Laan, H. L., ‘Selling Tropical Africa's Export Crops: the experience of the inter-war period’, in Dewey (ed.), op. cit.Google Scholar

^{Page 19 note 1} Pedler, Frederick, Main Currents of West African History, 1940–1978 (London, 1979), p. 134, describes the Cocoa Producers' Alliance as Kwame Nkrumah's brain child. He suggests that the ‘trade’ was convinced from the start that the C.P.A. attempt would fail.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For a different view, see Assoumou, Jean, L'Économie du cacao (Paris, 1977), pp. 123–9.Google Scholar

^{Page 19 note 2} Letter from Sir Frederick Pedler, 14 June 1985. It was the task of the station master to ration the railway waggons among the companies.

^{Page 19 note 3} For a summary, see Hopkins, An Economic History of West Africa, p. 192.

^{Page 19 note 4} In countries such as Nigeria, the Gambia, and Sierra Leone, where the companies operated river fleets of their own, they themselves could compare the two categories of cost.

^{Page 20 note 1} van der Laan, The Lebanese Traders in Sierra Leone, pp. 55–6.

^{Page 21 note 1} Bauer, op. cit. pp. 104–6. Part of their capital manifested itself as surplus cash from ‘about May to September’, according to Pedler, 14 June 1985.

^{Page 21 note 2} Bauer, op. cit. p. 180.

^{Page 22 note 1} Ibid. p. 294.

^{Page 22 note 2} Ibid. p. 288.

^{Page 22 note 3} Report of the Commission on the Marketing of West African Cocoa (London, 1938), p. 101.Google Scholar

^{Page 22 note 4} Mars, ‘Extra-Territorial Enterprises’, pp. 89–92.

^{Page 23 note 1} The companies had always been hostile to new-comers and ‘interlopers’, not merely as disliked rivals – the common interpretation – but mainly because they were unwilling to shoulder the burdens of continuity.Google Scholar

^{Page 23 note 2} Perhaps economic crises were not the only grounds for reorganisation. One wonders whether the slackness and laxity which would gradually creep in did not also call for regular shake-ups.