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³ Davies, P. N., ‘The African Steam Ship Co.’, in Harris, J. R. (ed.), Liverpool and Merseyside (London, 1969), 212–38Google Scholar; Davies, P. N., The Trade Makers (London, 1973)Google Scholar; Davies, P. N., Trading in West Africa 1840–1920 (London, 1976);Google ScholarDavies, P. N., ‘The impact of the expatriate shipping lines on the economic development of British West Africa’, Business History, XIX (1977), 3–17CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Davies, P. N., Sir Alfred Jones (London, 1978).Google Scholar

⁴ Stilliard, , ‘Legitimate trade’, 185.Google Scholar

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⁶ Hargreaves, S. M., ‘The political economy of 19th century Bonny’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Birmingham, 1987), 268–9.Google Scholar It should be borne in mind that prices varied along the coast according to the type and quality of oil. Oil on the Ivory Coast could be half the price of oil from the Niger Delta: Martin, S. M., Palm Oil and Protest (Cambridge, 1988), 33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For prices earlier in the century, see Latham, A. J. H., ‘Price fluctuations in the early palm oil trade’, J. Afr. Hist., XIX (1978), 213–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷ McPhee, , Economic Revolution, 33Google Scholar; Newbury, C. W., ‘Trade and authority in West Africa from 1850 to 1880’ in Gann, L. H. and Duignan, P. (eds.), Colonialism in Africa 1870–1960, 1 (Cambridge 1969), 77–9Google Scholar; Hargreaves, J. D., West Africa Partitioned, 1: The Loaded Pause 1885–89 (London, 1974), 252.Google Scholar

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⁹ McPhee, , Economic Revolution, 31Google Scholar; Minchinton, W. E., The British Tinplate Industry (Oxford, 1957), 55.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Burton, R., ‘My wanderings in West Africa’, Fraser's Magazine, LXVII (1863), 150Google Scholar; McCulloch, J. R., Dictionary of Commerce (London, 1859), 952;Google ScholarPhilips, O., ‘Germany and the Palm Kernel trade’, Journal of the African Society, XIV (1914–1915), 193–8;Google ScholarMilbourne, A. H., ‘Palm Kernels from West Africa’, Journal of the African Society, XV (1915–1916), 133–44Google Scholar; McPhee, , Economic Revolution, 33–4.Google Scholar

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¹⁵ Parliamentary Papers (hereafter P.P.) 1852 xlix (284). The African Steam Ship Co. kept the Mail subsidy until 1872; thereafter it was shared between the two companies: Davies, , ‘African Steam Ship Co.’, 216–18Google Scholar; see also Chandler, G., Liverpool Shipping – a Short History (London, 1960).Google Scholar According to Dike, K. O., Trade and Politics in the Niger Delta, 1830–85 (Oxford, 1956), 115Google Scholar, the Liverpool traders on more than one occasion tried to charter all of Laird's ships in order to keep out rival traders.

¹⁶ The British and African had mainly Scottish shareholders in its early years: Thompson, W., ‘Glasgow and Africa, connexions and attitudes, 1870–1900’ (unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University of Strathclyde, 1970), 128–34Google Scholar; Davies, , Trade Makers, 56–62.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Davies, , Trade Makers, 62–9.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Leubuscher, C., The West African Shipping Trade, 1909–59 (Leyden, 1963), 13–28Google Scholar; Hopkins, , Economic History, 149Google Scholar; Davies, , Trade Makers, 92–113.Google Scholar Although West African freight rates fell in this period, from £5 per ton of oil to Britain in 1855 to around £2 perton in 1907, it was claimed that the Conference ensured that these rates were higher than in comparable trades elsewhere.

¹⁹ P.P. 1875 LXXV (1132), 238. For British trade in this area see Anstey, R. T., ‘British trade and policy in West Central Africa between 1816 and the early 1880s’, Trans. Hist. Soc. Ghana, III (1957), 47–71.Google Scholar

²⁰ Davies, , Trade Makers, 42–4Google Scholar, gives details of the maiden voyage of the ‘Faith’ of the African Steam Ship Co. which took 28 days to reach Fernando Po at an average rate of 91/2 knots. The ‘Boddington’, a sailing ship, took 21/2 months to reach Old Calabar in 1835–6 and was away from Liverpool for 11 months: ‘Memoranda of the African trade’, ascribed to W. A. & G. Maxwell, Sydney Jones Library, University of Liverpool. W. B. Hutton reported that his ships were absent for between 10–14 months between 1836–42, P.P. 1842 xii (551), 499.

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²² Neal, F., ‘Liverpool shipping in the early 19th century’, in Harris, J.R. (ed.), Liverpool and Merseyside, 159Google Scholar; Austen, R., African Economic History (London, 1987), 89.Google Scholar

²³ For these structural changes see Thomas, W. N., ‘On the Oil Rivers of West Africa’, Proc. Royal Geog. Soc., XVII (1873), 148–55Google Scholar; Babington, W., ‘Remarks on the general description of the trade on the West Coast of Africa’, Jour. of the Society of Arts, XXIII (1875), 245–57Google Scholar; Cowan, A. A., ‘Early trading conditions in the Bight of Biafra’, I, Jour. Royal African Soc. XXXIV (1935), 397Google Scholar, dates the move from ship to shore to the 1880s. Newbury, C. W., ‘Prices and profitability in the early 19th century West African trade’, in Meillassoux, C. (ed.), The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa (London, 1971), 91–107.Google Scholar See also Tigwell, R. E., ‘James Deemin and the organisation of West African trade 1880–1915’ (unpublished M.Phil, thesis, University of Liverpool, 1978), 41–44, 56.Google Scholar I am grateful to Dr P. N. Davies for drawing this thesis to my attention.

²⁴ The lack of natural harbours meant that one form of potential competition, tramp steamers, left West Africa alone: McPhee, , Economic Revolution, 96.Google Scholar

²⁶ Hopkins, , Economic History, 151Google Scholar; Munro, , International Economy, 71.Google Scholar

²⁶ ‘Steam has also developed a goodly number of Black traders’, Jour, of the Society of Arts, xxii (1874), 118.Google Scholar

²⁷ Swanzy, H., ‘A trading family in the 19th century Gold Coast’, Trans. Hist. Soc. Ghana, 11 (1956), 113.Google Scholar See also Whitford, J., Trading Life in West and Central Africa (Liverpool, 1877), 130.Google Scholar

²⁸ P.P. 1875 (1). 4. See also Dike's description of ‘a savage trade war lasting till the eighties’, Trade and Politics, 115.

²⁹ Carson, E., ‘The Customs Bills of Entry’, Jour. Maritime Hist., 1 (1971), 176–89.Google Scholar A copy of the Bills is held by the British Newspaper Library, Colindale.

³⁰ In this period imports of oil from parts of West Africa outside British rule are recorded in the official records as from West Africa ‘not particularly designated’.

³¹ A few cargoes are expressed in ‘pipes’, ‘puncheons’ etc; these quantities have been excluded from the tables that follow. Due to the complexity of the units involved the following study is based on oil cargoes only; palm kernel cargoes have only been included, as in Tables 7 and 10, where appropriate to the analysis.

³² Poole, B., The Commerce of Liverpool (London, 1854), 114Google Scholar; Billows, H. C. and Beckwith, H., Palm Oil and Kernels (Liverpool, 1913), 29–30Google Scholar; Babington, , ‘Remarks’, 249–51.Google Scholar Burton gives 120 gallons as the size of a puncheon, ‘Wanderings’, 150. See also Hargreaves, , ‘Bonny’, 198.Google Scholar

³³ From 1870 the Bills record which ships are steamers; before that date the figures have been established by counting the ships used by the African Steam Ship Co.

³⁴ McPhee, , Economic Revolution, 71Google Scholar, gives higher figures for the total tonnage of British shipping visiting West Africa. The discrepancy may be accounted for by the fact that Table 2 only refers to ships carrying palm oil. His view that steam surpassed sailing tonnage in the 1860s is borne out by Table 2. Leubuscher, , Shipping Trade, 24Google Scholar, however, gives figures for the 1890s which are slightly lower than Table 2.

³⁵ Hargreaves, , Loaded Pause, 209Google Scholar, makes the point that for isolated parts of the coast sail remained paramount to a late date.

³⁶ Burton, , ‘Wanderings’, 415Google Scholar, recounts how ‘Liverpool’ and ‘England’ were synonymous in parts of the Niger Delta.

³⁷ Dike, , Trade and Politics, 49Google Scholar; Reid, R. C., ‘Annals of the Tobin family’ (1940)Google Scholar, City of Liverpool Library, 20–6, 31–43; Drake, B.K., ‘Liverpool's African commerce’ (unpublished M.A. thesis, University of Liverpool, 1974), 122–49Google Scholar; Drake, B. K., ‘Continuity and flexibility in Liverpool's trade’, Business History, XVIII (1976), 85–97.CrossRefGoogle ScholarAnon, , Liverpool and Slavery, An Historical Account of the Liverpool African Slave Trade by a Genuine Dicky Sam (Liverpool, 1884), 120–9Google Scholar, gives a list of slave traders in 1799, many of whom were to be prominent in the oil trade.

³⁸ Little work has been done on these early oil traders. Some material can be found in Pedler, F., The Lion and the Unicorn (London, 1974).Google Scholar

³⁹ Lynn, M., ‘Change and continuity in the British palm oil trade with West Africa 1830–55’. J. Afr. Hist., XXII (1981), 331–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁴⁰ Thompson, , ‘Glasgow’, 32.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Ibid., 76–93.

⁴² Minchinton, , Tinplate, 58.Google Scholar The South Wales tinplate industry was particularly hit by U.S. tariff policy at the end of the century. I am grateful to Dr. A. C. Davies for this point.

⁴³ Drake, , ‘Liverpool's African Commerce’, 145–7.Google Scholar Liverpool's African traders were slow to specialize in palm oil and only did so from the 1830s.

⁴⁴ Swanzy, A., ‘On trade with Western Africa’, Jour. of the Society of Arts, XXII (1874), 480.Google Scholar

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⁴⁷ A number of ships, particularly before 1850, enter ‘Africa’ as their port of origin. This practice dies out over time however.

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⁴⁹ Some of these descriptions are less than satisfactory for this period but they have been used in the absence of any alternative. Work is still to be done on breaking down the precise sources of oil in this period.

⁵⁰ Interestingly, Bonny seems little affected in the short term by the secession of Opobo in 1869. Hargreaves, , ‘Bonny’, 276–393Google Scholar, has considerable detail on the oil trade in the state in this period.

⁵¹ Increasingly the Bills cease to record the consignees of cargoes and use the label ‘sundry consignees’ instead, particularly after 1880.

⁵² Little work on these traders has been done but see Hieke, E., G. L. Gaiser (Hamburg, 1949).Google Scholar

⁵³ Many of these Sierra Leonians and Lagosians traded for established British companies so their names would not appear in the Bills. For examples of African traders trying to use the steamers to circumvent the European merchants' hold on the trade: Fyfe, C., ‘Peter Nicholls, Old Calabar and Freetown’, J. Hist. Soc. Nigeria, 11 (1960), 105–14Google Scholar; Gertzel, C., ‘Relations between African and European traders in the Niger Delta 1880–96’, J. Afr.Hist., III (1962), 361–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Reynolds, E., Trade and Economic Change on the Gold Coast 1807–74 (London, 1974), 153–4Google Scholar; Hargreaves, , ‘Bonny’, 311, 375.Google Scholar

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⁵⁷ P.P. 1864 xli (424), 581.

⁵⁸ The Association of African Traders had existed since 1843; in 1889 it was incorporated as the African Association Ltd. The constituent firms were the British and Continental African Co. Ltd; Couper, Johnstone and Co.; Thomas Harrison and Co.; Hatton and Cookson; Holt and Cotterell; R. and W. King; Stuart and Douglas; Taylor, Laughland and Co.; and George Watts: Pedler, , Lion and Unicorn, 139.Google Scholar

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⁶⁰ Hynes, W. G., The Economics of Empire (London, 1979), 101–2.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Hopkins', Hence description of ‘the silent imperialism of the steamship’, Economic History, 131.Google Scholar See also Flint, J. E., ‘Economic change in West Africa in the 19th century’, in Ajayi, J. F. A. and Crowder, M. (eds.), History of West Africa, 11 (London, 1974), 399–401Google Scholar; Munro, , International Economy, 71–3Google Scholar; Hynes, , Economics, 93–95.Google Scholar For a counter view, Gertzel, , ‘Relations’ 361–6.Google Scholar