The Rubber Exporter Trade in Ibadan, 1893-1904: Colonial Innovation or Rubber Economy

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Periodical article

Title:	The Rubber Exporter Trade in Ibadan, 1893-1904: Colonial Innovation or Rubber Economy
Author:	Omosini, Olufemi
Year:	1979
Periodical:	Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria
Volume:	10
Issue:	1
Period:	December
Pages:	21-46
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	mercantile history exports rubber colonialism History and Exploration Agriculture, Natural Resources and the Environment Economics and Trade
Abstract:	Commenting on the first major export of rubber from Lagos Colony and Protectorate in 1895, the Colonical Office in London announced jubilantly that they had 'discovered' a 'new' source of rubber from the Lagos interior. This is typical of the conventional approach to colonial economic enterprises in colonial West Africa. Too much emphasis has always been placed on the contributions and the alleged innovations of external agencies to the processes of economic change during the colonial era. A discrete but deafening silence has always been maintained over areas of indigenous African enterprise and market responsiveness. This paper argues that the conventional approach ignores the contributions of the local African collectors and traders who demonstrated a considerable degree of economic initiative and market responsiveness in the development of the trade. Moreover, available evidence shows that the activities of the supposedly benevolent external agencies in the British 'civilizing mission' were not always as inspiring as traditional accounts pretend. - Notes, tab.