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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The Commercial Development of the North: Company and Government Relations, 1900-1906 |
Author: | Swindell, Kenneth |
Year: | 1994 |
Periodical: | Paideuma |
Volume: | 40 |
Pages: | 149-162 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | Nigeria Northern Nigeria Great Britain |
Subjects: | colonialism multinational enterprises mercantile history Development and Technology Economics and Trade History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/40341681 |
Abstract: | The creation of Northern Nigeria in 1900 was brought about by the revocation of the Royal Niger Company Charter. The company was reconstituted as a private firm, while the British established a protectorate over the larger part of the Sokoto Caliphate. This article examines the subsequent relations between the British administration and the reconstituted Niger Company, focusing on the commercial development of the area. It shows that the monopoly position of the Niger Company inhibited competition, and the interests of the company frequently clashed with those of the administration. European merchant capital and government intervention had only limited impact in transforming the commerce of the protectorate, at least until the railway opened to Kano in 1912. Disagreements over the mobilization of labour and the mode of payment affected relations between the company and the government. The controversy over the use of salt and cloth in payment for produce and labour was especially important, as the introduction of British coinage was essential to the taxation system of the protectorate's high commissioner, Frederick Lugard. The long-term interests of local producers tended to be increasingly overridden, although neither government nor commerce were ever able to dominate the recruitment of labour totally. Bibliogr., notes, ref. |