The kinship system of the Dyula was very well adapted to their precolonial status as an ethnic minority enjoying a monopoly over trade. The basic units in the system were the joint family and the kabila, or clan ward; the preference for in-marriage within the kabila provided an integrating mechanism. For males particularly, the joint family was both a budgetary unit and a unit of production, headed by the senior male of the group. The association of several joint families within a single kabila reinforced this structure of authority. Accession to leadership within the kabila was ascribed according to strict principles of seniority determining a precise order of succession. Strong pressures to settle internal disputes within the framework of a kabila council further buttressed the moral authority of senior members over their junior dependents. On the other hand, the kabila was large enough to serve as a bridge between individual joint families on the one hand and the local community as a whole on the other. Kabilas were, on occasion, units of economic specialization, and they were inevitably a preponderant factor in local faction politics. High rates of in-marriage within the kabila, accentuating the relative independence rather than the interdependence of the constituent kabilas within any local community tended to impede political integration on a larger scale. On the other hand, such a pattern of marriage made junior members of the kabila doubly dependent on seniors in positions of authority in order to obtain wives.