¹ Bauer, P. T., West African Trade. A Study of Competition, Oligopoly and Monopoly in a changing Economy (Cambridge, 1954Google Scholar). For a survey of the current historiography, see Hopkins, A. G., ‘Imperial Business in Africa, Part I: Sources’, J. Afr. Hist., xxvii (1976), 29–48CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and ‘Part II: Interpretations’, ibid. 276–90.

² Flint, John E., Sir George Goldie and the Making of Nigeria (Oxford, 1960Google Scholar). This limitation in no way lessens our debt to Professor Flint's pioneer contribution, though I am sure it would be recognized that there is a continuity between the economic functions of the chartered enterprise and the Niger Company which merits fuller treatment. The present article is based primarily on the Royal Niger Company Papers donated by Scarbrough, Lord to Rhodes House Library, Oxford, MSS. Afr. s. 85–101Google Scholar, and would require supplementation from other sources before some of the themes touched on can be more fully examined. I am indebted to the vigilance of Mrs Charlotte Willson-Pepper, who is analysing the material and who put me right on a number of points, though she is in no way responsible for any errors of fact or judgment that have escaped her scrutiny.

³ Wilson, Charles, The History of Unilever (2 vols., London, 1954), vol. i, 250–3.Google Scholar

⁴ Bauer, , p. 15 ff.Google Scholar

⁵ Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (1973), 201Google Scholar; and pp. 276–7 for a recognition that specialization came after 1945.

⁶ Especially Penrose, Edith T., The Theory of the Growth of the Firm (Oxford, 1966), 15–26Google Scholar, 89–92, 118–20; Burns, Tom and Stalker, G. R., The Management of Innovation (London, 1961).Google Scholar

⁷ That is: scientific or other knowledge applied to the processes of production. For technology as diffused ‘frontier’ innovations and techniques, see De Gregori, Thomas R., Technology and the Economic Development of the Tropical African Frontier (Cleveland and London, 1969)Google Scholar. In considering the performance of a business corporation I find the notion of ‘frontier’ unhelpful, as derived from very different modes of production on the Settlers' ‘frontier’ of North America. But the whole subject of technological adaptation in the African context of development during the earlier stages of market expansion requires rigorous examination, if only to sort out who the adapters were.

⁸ Many of the comments on market imperfection (in the economist's sense of the term) to be found in Ofori, J. M., ed., Factors of Agricultural Growth in West Africa (Legon, 1973)Google Scholar would apply to earlier decades of market growth; see especially the survey by Anthonio, Q. B. O., ‘Problems of Marketing Agricultural Produce with special reference to Foodstuffs in Nigeria’, pp. 251–9Google Scholar; and Anthonio's, dissertation, ‘The Marketing of Staple Foodstuffs in Nigeria’, Ph.D. thesis, University of London, 1963.Google Scholar

⁹ Flint, Appendix I; Pearson, Scott R., ‘The Economic Imperialism of the Royal Niger Company’, Food Research Institute Studies, x (1971), 60–88Google Scholar; Royal Niger Company Papers (RNCP), Directors' Reports in vol. i, Meetings, 1898–1914Google Scholar. The report for 1899 states a net profit (‘Commercial profit’) of £128,989 which was unusually high. The company also received £450,000 as excess expenditure on government, before surrender of the charter, and for lands and other rights, plus £114,795 for the sale of plant to the new administration.

¹⁰ RNCP, vol. 10. Miller, to Scarbrough, , 25 Dec. 1901, fo. 144.Google Scholar

¹¹ Pedler, Frederick, The Lion and the Unicorn in Africa. A History of the United Africa Company, 1787–1931 (London, 1974), 184–5.Google Scholar

¹² For much useful information on these and other directors, see Pedler, 126 and n.

¹³ RNCP, vol. 13, Miller, to Watts, , 16 Oct. 1908, fos. 363–8.Google Scholar

¹⁴ RNCP, vol. 4, Fynn, and Cowan, , ‘Notes on the Niger Company Limited’, fo. 386Google Scholar; and Fynn, to African Association, 14 Feb. 1900.Google Scholar

¹⁵ RNCP, vol. 4. Tables are scattered through the correspondence, esp. fos. 363, 364, 427, 512. The total of salaries (excluding commissions and bonuses) for 1902 was £18,794. There are no complete station records, but some valuable statistics for 1905 make it clear that at least twenty minor stations out of a total of fifty-one were in the charge of Africans: RNCP, vol. 12.

¹⁶ RNCP, vol. 10, fo. 285. Agents were paid between £200 and £300 a year; assistants, £180. Skilled technicians and engineers were paid the same as medical officers—£320; masters, £240. The agent-general received £920 in 1900. There were various adjustments to these scales. RNCP, vol. 4, fo. 364.

¹⁷ RNCP, vol. ii. Gunn (Aboh station), 13 Oct. 1904. Gunn was opposed, however, to any similar Africanization.

¹⁸ RNCP, vol. 4. Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 20 Sept. 1905, fo. 501Google Scholar; vol. 12, fos. 57–70.

¹⁹ RNCP, vol. 4. Diary, Walter Watts 1907–1908, fo. 325.Google Scholar

²⁰ RNCP, vol. 4. Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 20 Sept. 1905.Google Scholar

²¹ RNCP, vol. 13, Watts, to Scarbrough, , 8 Apr. 1908.Google Scholar

²² RNCP, vol. 13. Scarbrough, to Watts, , 15 May 1908.Google Scholar

²³ Pedler, , pp. 270–1.Google Scholar

²⁴ Flint, , p. 196.Google Scholar

²⁵ See Table I.

²⁶ See especially, RNCP, vol. 12: ‘Pooling Agreement Shares’, fo. 9.Google Scholar

²⁷ RNCP, vol. 12. Humphrys, to Niger Company, 11 Mar. 1907Google Scholar. The Niger Company also worked through Calabar traders as far as Degama.

²⁸ RNCP, vol. 12. Scarbrough, to Miller, , 2 Nov. 1907.Google Scholar

²⁹ The negotiations and numerous revised agreements are contained in RNCP, vol. 9.

³⁰ RNCP, vol. ii. Robson, to Owerri, D.C., 2 July 1905, fo. 368.Google Scholar

³¹ RNCP, vol. 10. Lugard, to Watts, , 12 07 1901Google Scholar. Lugard's views of the labour question and merchants' prices can be found in Colonial Reports. Northern Nigeria, no. 346, 1900–1901, pp. 21–4Google Scholar; no. 409, 1902, p. 67; no. 516, 1905–6, pp. 70–2.

³² It was to be paid at the rate of 12 per cent for African employees and 5 per cent on the cash paid to ‘non-natives’ (coloured clerks and Europeans), after deduction of all home remittances. Lugard hoped to retain some of the currency imported into northern Nigeria and which ‘disappeared’ into local commodity markets or was ‘exported’ by traders to the coast. See RNCP, vol. 10. Watts, memorandum on labour and wages, 1901Google Scholar. For the currency question, RNCP, vol. 10; and Ofonagoro, W. I., ‘The Currency Revolution in Southern Nigeria 1880–1948Google Scholar ’, Occasional Paper no. 14, African Studies Center, U.C.L.A. 1976Google Scholar; Hopkins, A. G., ‘The Currency Revolution in South-West Nigeria in the Late Nineteenth Century’, Jour. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, iii (1966), 471–83Google Scholar. Watts' correspondence indicates that different markets in the North used varying assortments of currencies. The whole topic still requires investigation for that region.

³³ Colonial Office Confidential Print, African no. 701Google Scholar, Niger Company to C.O., I Sept. 1904.Google Scholar

³⁴ Under the Master and Servants Proclamation of 1902Google Scholar. RNCP, vol. 10, Watts, to Lugard, , 21 Nov. 1902.Google Scholar

³⁵ RNCP, vol. 6. Minutes and chairman's report, fo. 315.Google Scholar

³⁶ Statistics are taken from annual reports to shareholders and internal reports to the chairman: RNCP, vols. I, 2Google Scholar and 7. For general trade, see Table 2.

³⁷ RNCP, vol. 7. Miller, to Hillingdon, , 5 07 1900.Google Scholar

³⁸ RNCP, vol. 7. memorandum, 14 07 1906.Google Scholar

³⁹ RNCP, vol. 7. Niger Company to Crown Agents, 2 Aug. 1907Google Scholar. Davies, P. N., The Trade Makers. Elder Dempster in West Africa 1852–1972 (London, 1973), 136–7.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ RNCP, vol. 7. Jones, to Scarbrough, , 27 Nov. 1909.Google Scholar

⁴¹ E. A. Biggs, ‘Report of eighteenth months’ working on the Keffi transport', fo. 12: Edwardes, H. S. W. Papers, 1906–1924Google Scholar, Rhodes House Library, MSS. Afr. s. 1049; RNCP, vol. 10, Laws to Niger Company, 3 07 1909.Google Scholar

⁴² These arrangements can be followed in Trigge's reports to Scarbrough in RNCP, vols. I and 2, and in the Mining Department Reports.

⁴³ RNCP, vol. 4, fo. 624.

⁴⁴ RNCP, vol. 8. Draft agreement, 21 Sept. 1912, fo. 207; and for the river contract, II Feb. 1913, fos. 269, 319. In 1911 the rates for Kano–Kaduna–Lagos and Kano–Baro–Burutu were equalized. By the later agreements the Kano–Baro rates were set at percentages of the Kano–Lagos rates; and the river rates were set at percentages (roughly one third) of the Kano–Lagos rates for freights. See Walker, Gilbert, Traffic and Transport in Nigeria (London, 1959), 158–9.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ RNCP, vol. 1. Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 16 07 1914.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Pedler, , p. 126Google Scholar and 127.

⁴⁷ RNCP, vol. 10, Miller, to Watts, (‘Private and Confidential’), 18 Apr. 1900.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ This particular venture deserves more space than can be given here. See Anjorin, A. O., ‘Tin Mining in Northern Nigeria during the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth centuries’, Odu, no. 5 (1971), 54–67Google Scholar; RNCP, vol. 10. Nicolaus to Lenthall, 3 Nov. 1902; Laws, W. H., ‘Nigerian Tin Mining expedition’, 1903Google Scholar: Rhodes House Library, MSS. Afr. s. 888.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ RNCP, vol. ii, fo. 304.

⁵⁰ RNCP, vol. ii. Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 7 Sept. 1905, fo. 466.Google Scholar

⁵¹ For example, palm oil and kernels dominated Nigerian exports in 1903, leaving other exports only 6.7 per cent of values (excluding re-exports); by 1920, oil and kernels still occupied first place, but other products including tin and groundnuts were worth 31.1 per cent of values. Cocoa had climbed to fourth place by that date. Trade Supplement to the Nigeria Gazette, 1903–20; Nigerian Trade Report: (1932) ‘Statistical Record’ and ‘Statement of Values’, 1903–1931, pp. 26–34.Google Scholar

⁵² There are lists of stations opened and closed in RNCP, vols. 11 and 15. More work is required on this aspect of station operations before coming to any conclusions about the local details of market strategies.

⁵³ RNCP, vol. 12.

⁵⁴ Especially at Oguta and the southern stations. RNCP, vol. 7. Agent to Produce Department, 10 Jan. 1908Google Scholar, fos. 452–61.

⁵⁵ RNCP, vol. 7. Ratsey to Niger Company, 24 Nov. 1909Google Scholar, fo. 552.

⁵⁶ RNCP, vol. 4. Walter Watts, Diaries, esp. for Egga and Loko, fos. 177, 180; and on tour, fos. 68–357.

⁵⁷ RNCP, vol. 4. Walter Watts, Diaries, fo. 180.

⁵⁸ See especially, Hogendorn, J. S., ‘The Origins of the Groundnut Trade in Northern Nigeria’, Ph.D. thesis (University of London, 1966)Google Scholar, chaps. 14–18.

⁵⁹ Hogendorn, chap, 2; Leubuscher, Charlotte, The Processing of Colonial Raw Materials. A Study in Location, (London, 1951), 40–3.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ RNCP, vol. 11, fo. 87; RNCP, vol. 4. Watts, Diary, entries for Aug. 1907. The company purchased some 8,000 tons of shea nuts in 1909 and had contracted with J. E. De Bruyn (which it eventually acquired) when this firm invented a new process for refining shea fats into vegetable lard at a very competitive price; see managing director's reports in RNCP, vol. 1; Hogendorn, , p. 116.Google Scholar

⁶¹ RNCP, vol. 13. Scarbrough, to Jones, , 2 Oct. 1908Google Scholar, fo. 335. Trigge was doubtful whether Liverpool milling firms were sufficiently well equipped to undertake contracts usually made with the company's buyers at Marseilles. And he could not see how Jones' freight rates of 40 s. per ton from Burutu could compete with rates to European ports at 15 s. per ton or less for groundnuts.

⁶² Cf. Report of the Committee on Edible and Oil-Producing Nuts and Seeds, Minutes of Evidence (1916, Cd. 8248), p. 60.

⁶³ RNCP, vol. 2, fo. 321.

⁶⁴ There is an excellent description of the process in Colonial Reports. Northern Nigeria, 1906–1907, p. 63.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ RNCP, vol. 13, fo. 130.

⁶⁶ The evolution of wage policies and the organization of labour on the mines can be followed in the reports of the company's engineers in RNCP, vols. 5 and 6.

⁶⁷ RNCP, vol. 15. Trigge, to Fiddes, , 4 Sept. 1914.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ RNCP, vol. 4, Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 25 Jan. 1913Google Scholar, fo. 624.

⁶⁹ RNCP, vol. 15. Produce and General to agent-general, 17 Mar. 1914.

⁷⁰ RNCP, vol. 15. Produce and General to Southern Division agent, 17 Mar. 1914, fos. 60–1.

⁷¹ RNCP, vol. 15, 24 Mar. 1914, fos. 79–81.

⁷² RNCP, vol. 15, fo. 427.

⁷³ RNCP, vol. 16. ‘Financial Position’ in Trigge to Scarbrough, 19 Mar. 1918.

⁷⁴ RNCP, vol. 16, Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 7 Oct. 1919.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ By the end of the war, the company had a New York Office and a contract for oils in New Orleans. It also ran three American-built schooners from Burutu for this trans-Atlantic trade.

⁷⁶ RNCP, vol. 16. Mills, to Scarbrough, , 14 Oct. 1919Google Scholar, fo. 10.

⁷⁷ RNCP, vol. 16. ‘Produce in Sight’, 31 Dec. 1919.

⁷⁸ RNCP, vol. 16. Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 5 Jan. 1920.Google Scholar

⁷⁹ RNCP, vol. 16. Memorandum, , 10 Jan. 1920Google Scholar, fos. 130–1; Wilson, vol. 1, p. 252.

⁸⁰ RNCP, vol. 2. Report of the Mining Department for 1918, 23 Jan. 1919.

⁸¹ RNCP, vol. 2. Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 18 Oct. 1917Google Scholar, fos. 137–58.

⁸² RNCP, vol. 2, fo. 265.

⁸³ RNCP, vol. 2. Report of the Mining Department for 1918, 23 Jan. 1919.

⁸⁴ RNCP, vol. 9. Trigge, to Scarbrough, , 4 Apr. 1916.Google Scholar