Jan Hogendorn

African economic history : internal development and external dependency

So much is written on African Economic History without thorough knowledge of Economic theory. It has become popular to apply sociological analytical paradigms to the historical analysis of African economic development, since the results often provide material useful for political purposes. Propaganda has its place. Austen tries to write the Economic History of Africa in broad terms and from the perspective of Economics, without ignoring historical processes.

The Atlantic Slave Trade: A tentative economic model

Two necessary conditions for the existence of New World slavery and the slave trade are an acute labour shortage and an elastic supply of coerced labour. Though the former condition has been the mainstay of hypotheses on slavery where high land/labour ratios were viewed as causal determinants, less attention has been given to the role of labour supply responses. This paper joins these conditions in a model which postulates that labour demand stemming from open resource pressures induced a politico–economic supply response in West Africa. The model shows a derived demand for labour evolving over time into a specific demand for slaves as entrepreneurs sought the lowest cost method of expanding the production of agricultural staples. Free and indentured labour were both characterized by inelastic supply, but the supply of slaves was elastic due to factors discussed within a vent for surplus framework. African governments and private traders responded to the new effective demand from the Americas with improved organization which widened the pre-existing market for slaves. The desire for imported goods, with firearms especially significant, plus various technical changes in transport, money, and credit all combined to ensure the further development of the slave trade and the continued maintenance of a longrun elastic supply pattern

Revolutionary Mahdism and Resistance to Colonial Rule in the Sokoto Caliphate, 1905-1906

The Mahdist uprising of 1905–6 was a revolutionary movement that attempted to overthrow British and French colonial rule, the aristocracy of the Sokoto Caliphate and the zarmakoy of Dosso. The Mahdist supporters of the revolt were disgruntled peasants, fugitive slaves and radical clerics who were hostile both to indigenous authorities and to the colonial regimes. There was no known support among aristocrats, wealthy merchants or the ‘ ulama. Thus the revolt reflected strong divisions based on class and, as an extension, on ethnicity. The pan-colonial appeal of the movement and its class tensions highlight another important feature: revolutionary Mahdism differed from other forms of Mahdism that were common in the Sokoto Caliphate at the time of the colonial conquest. There appears to have been no connection with the Mahdists who were followers of Muhammad Ahmed of the Nilotic Sudan or with those who joined Sarkin Musulmi Attahiru I on his hijra of 1903. The suppression of the revolt was important for three reasons. First, the British consolidated their alliance with the aristocracy of the Caliphate, while the French further strengthened their ties with the zarmakoy of Dosso and other indigenous rulers. The dangerous moment which Muslims might have seized to expel the Europeans quickly passed. Second, the brutality of the repression was a message to slave owners and slaves alike that the colonial regimes were committed to the continuation of slavery and opposed to any sudden emancipation of the slave population. Third, 1906 marked the end of revolutionary action against colonialism; the radical clerics were either killed or imprisoned. Other forms of Mahdism continued to haunt the colonial regimes, but without serious threat of a general rising.

The Economics of Slave Use on Two "Plantations" in the Zaria Emirate of the Sokoto Caliphate

Studies of the economics of slave use on Americas plantations have proliferated in recent years. In great detail writers such as Michael Craton and James Walvin have examined the microeconomic aspects of individual plantation operation, setting the standard by which such information is obtained and processed,2 while the wealth of available materials has led to a rapid growth in quantitative studies of plantation management such as R.W. Fogels and Stanley L. Engermans celebrated Time on the Cross.3 The student of plantation4 operation in

Evidence on English/African terms of trade in the eighteenth century

Abstract Newly available data from the English customs records on Englands trade with Africa in the 18th century, when combined with data on Africas slave exports, allow for the construction of a terms of trade series. Englands terms of trade with Africa are found to have risen from the beginning of the century to 1720, fallen sharply in the 1720s, behaved in mixed fashion in the 1730s and 1740s, and thereafter fallen steadily and deeply to a figure about one-third that of the start of the century in the decade 1771–1780. A rise followed, until in 1800 a figure about one-half that at the beginning of the century had been achieved.

Continuity in West African Monetary History? An Outline of Monetary Development

Imported rather than indigenous moneys dominate the monetary history of West Africa, and represent a strong though not always recognized element of continuity. The role of imported currencies in that regions economic development is readily apparent from the works of Philip D. Curtin, A. G. Hopkins, Marion Johnson, Paul Lovejoy, Walter Ofonagoro, and other historians who have painstakingly reconstructed the monetary patterns of societies with few statistical records.1 Many questions on money imports during the pre-colonial and colonial periods have, however, remained unanswered by the historical work. In particular, the theorizing on money and monetary history in the developed countries has been little applied to the moneys most used in West Africa. Among the many questions that warrant examination are: what were the similarities and dissimilarities in the acquisition of the new moneys; what were the costs of these

Slow Death for Slavery: The Course of Abolition in Northern Nigeria, 1897-1936

List of maps List of tables Preface 1. Slavery and the British conquest of Northern Nigeria 2. Fugitive slaves and the crisis in slavery policy 3. The debate on legal-status abolition 4. Emancipation and the law 5. Upholding proprietary rights to land 6. The role of taxation in the reform of slavery 7. The colonial economy and the slaves 8. The persistence of concubinage 9. Legal-status abolition: the final phase Appendix Notes Glossary Bibliography Index.

The Shell Money of the Slave Trade

Maps Tables and chart Preface Introduction 1. The cowrie 2. The Maldive Islands 3. The Portuguese domination 4. The Dutch and English enter the trade (seventeenth century) 5. Prosperity for the cowrie commerce (eighteenth century) 6. Boom and slump for the cowrie trade (nineteenth century) 7. Collection, transport and distribution 8. Cowries in Africa 9. The cowrie as money: transport costs, values and inflation 10. The last of the cowrie Notes Bibliography Index.

Review Essay/The Economics of the African Slave Trade

The Transatlantic Slave Trade: A History. By James A. Rawley. (New York: Norton, 1981. xv + 452 pp. Maps, illustrations, tables, notes, and index.

A Research-trip to the Maldive Islands, 1982

24.95.) The Notorious Triangle: Rhode Island and the African Slave Trade, 1700-1807. By Jay Coughtry. (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1981. xiii + 361 pp. Illustrations, charts, tables, appendix, notes, bibliography, and index.