Pieter (Jop) WOLTJER

The Commercial Transition and the Commodity Price Boom of 1835-85

ABSTRACT: We use a new trade dataset showing that nineteenth century Sub-Saharan Africa experienced a terms of trade boom comparable to other parts of the ‘global periphery’. A sharp rise in export prices in the five decades before the scramble (1835-1885) was followed by an equally impressive decline during the colonial era. This study revises the view that the scramble for West Africa occurred when its major export markets were in decline and argues that the larger weight of West Africa in French imperial trade strengthened the rationale for French instead of British initiative in the conquest of the interior.

AUTHORS: Ewout Frankema, Jeffrey Williamson and Pieter Woltjer.

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Value of slaves and commodities from West Africa, 1700-1913

Net Barter Terms of Trade West Africa, 1808-1939 (1900=100)

Terms of trade and volume of exports from West Africa, 1850-1939 (1900=100)

Total exports from British and French West Africa, 1808-1939

Key commodity exports: Palm Oil

Regional Net Barter Terms: East Africa

Terms of trade commodities: Groundnuts

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Supplementary Materials

	file	description
	Online_Appendix	The online appendix provides a description of the methods and sources used for the derivation of import prices

Data

The data-set and a full description of the sources and methods used for this paper are available here.

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