Trade Across Frontiers: an Overview of Internation- Al Trade Before the Advent of Modern Economic Sys- Tem in Nigeria

Historia Actual Online, 35 (3), 2014: 53-60 ISSN: 1696-2060

TRADE ACROSS FRONTIERS: AN OVERVIEW OF INTERNATION- AL TRADE BEFORE THE ADVENT OF MODERN ECONOMIC SYS- TEM IN NIGERIA

Aboyade Sunday Ariyo

Department of History & Strategic Studies, University of Lagos, Nigeria. Email: [email protected]

Recibido: 04 Mayo 2013 / Revisado: 05 Noviembre 2013 / Aceptado: 30 Junio 2014 / Publicado: 15 Octubre 2014

Resumen: El área ahora designada Nigeria tiene tiers with neighbours and distant lands long be- una larga historia de las comunidades de co- fore the arrival of the Europeans and the intro- mercio a través de las fronteras con las tierras duction of modern international trading system. vecinas y distantes mucho antes de la llegada de The various polities that emerged and con- los europeos y la introducción de los modernos trolled different parts of the area participated sistema de comercio internacional. Las diversas effectively and benefited from long distance organizaciones políticas que surgieron y que trade, which afforded them the opportunity to controlan diferentes partes de la zona participa- exchange their abundance for what they lacked ron y se beneficiaron de manera efectiva del but which was available elsewhere whether far comercio de larga distancia, lo que les dio la or near. With reference to the nature of the Ni- oportunidad de intercambiar sus excedentes gerian environment, regional specialisation, ex- por lo que les faltaba, pero que estaba disponi- ternal trade relations and the capacity of the ble en otros lugares, lejos o cerca. Con referen- traditional economy, this paper examines inter- cia a la naturaleza del medio ambiente de Nige- national trade in pre-colonial Nigeria and its ria, la especialización regional, las relaciones de impact on the economy. The paper concludes comercio exterior y la capacidad de la economía that the distortion of inter-regional trade ar- tradicional, este trabajo examina el comercio rangement and the structure of pre-colonial internacional de la Nigeria pre-colonial y su im- Nigerian economy began with the gradual pene- pacto en la economía. Se concluye que la distor- tration of Europeans into the hinterland to ef- sión del comercio interregional y de la estructu- fect direct purchase of palm produced from ra de la economía nigeriana pre-colonial co- producers after the abolition of slave trade. menzó con la penetración gradual de los europeos en el interior del país para llevar a cabo la Keywords: Trade, International trade, Long dis- compra directa de palma a los productores des- tance trade, External trade, Nigerian economy pués de la abolición del comercio de esclavos.

Palabras clave: Comercio, Comercio interna- 1. INTERNATIONAL TRADE IN PRE-COLONIAL cional, el comercio a larga distancia, el comercio NIGERIA exterior, la economía nigeriana. significant feature of the economic history of the areas now designated Nigeria Abstract: The area now designated Nigeria has a A before the advent of modern economic long history of communities trading across fron- system was a vibrant trade relation and exten-

Aboyade Sunday Ariyo Trade across frontiers… sive commercial activities that existed between opment in means of transportation increased the people of the area and populations of fron- the scope and volume of the trade with distant tiers far and near. During this early period, the lands. In this regard, long distance trade and concept of international trade is unknown. The trading relations engendered increased contact movement of commodities, services and capi- between the people of the Nigerian area and tals across frontiers in exchange for products of places located outside the boundary of present state necessities or luxury values occurred in the day Nigeria. Thus, commercial links and long form of long-distance trade, which was con- distance trading arrangement constituted a ma- ducted over a complex network of overland and jor force that engendered close economic rela- water routes across the frontiers of states and tions and interdependence among the people regions of West Africa and beyond. of Nigeria and their neighbours during this period. Given this background, it would be gainful Indeed, the conduct of international trade in the to examine the pre-colonial economy of people context of long distance trade before the advent that settled the Nigerian area and how it facili- of modern economic system was not strictly tated trade beyond their frontiers. defined by exchanges of goods and services across distinct national boundaries, rather trade 2. PRE-COLONIAL NIGERIAN ECONOMY AND was basically across frontiers of chiefdoms, TRADE ACROSS FRONTIERS kingdoms, empires and regions within the West African sub-region and with the population The nature and structure of the economies op- North of the Sahara. Fundamentally, it would be erated by the people of the Nigerian area during inappropriate to apply the concept of nation- the pre-colonial period naturally supported and state invented in Europe in the seventeenth facilitated the development of external trade. century to the political entities that existed in This was because the Nigerian environment, pre-colonial West Africa. Rather, chiefdoms, which falls broadly within savannah, forest and kingdoms and empires existed as states in the the mangrove swamp, made interdependence region. Thus, within the geography of the pre- among the people that settled in the area inevi- sent day Nigeria, where there existed a number table and economic cooperation necessary. The of chiefdoms, kingdoms and empires, long dis- environment, to a large extent, determined tance trading activities occurred as international what was produced in each zone and conse- trade. The economic history of the people of quently influenced the pattern of distribution of this area, particularly, indicated the direction of products of the zones or the direction of trade. trade to be largely intra-West Africa and across More so, the diversity of the natural potentials the Sahara with the Arabs of North Africa. There of each zone also gave rise to specialisation in a were only a few indications of trade relations variety of viable economic activities and occu- between the people that inhabited the area and pation, which engendered the production of those of the East and Central African regions. surplus value for exchange and distribution. Exchange was largely by barter although there Thus, the people of this era, as a natural re- were evidences of the use of varieties of curren- sponse to the features of their environment, cy in some areas of West Africa, including the operated what some scholars have described as Nigerian area, to facilitate exchange where considerably market-oriented economies, which trade by barter appeared knotty. thrived on agriculture, industry and trade.

As an integral component of the traditional Across the zones of the Nigerian area, agricul- economy, long distance trade stimulated the ture was essentially the predominant economic growth of economic activities in the various re- activity. Communities engaged in production of gions of the Nigerian area. Essentially, the crops for food, economic and industrial purpos- growth of intergroup and interregional trading es, which were taken to local and distant mar- activities facilitated by the dependent and com- kets in exchange for products different from plementary nature of the geographical zones what they produced. In many of the communi- and regional specialisation gradually expanded ties, different markets were established for lo- into medium and long distance trade across cally produced and foreign goods to encourage frontiers and regions, while subsequent devel- local production as well as to attract long dis-

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Trade across frontiers… Aboyade Sunday Ariyo tance traders from other areas. Particularly, in teenth century, there developed trans-Atlantic areas where there was low soil fertility, like in trade to countries of South and Latin America, the northern section of Igboland, trading was an and later to Western Europe after the abolition appealing alternative to farming. Traders from of slave trade. An important point to note is that this region engaged in long distance and local the economies of the people of the Nigerian trade, specialising in the distribution of specific area during the era was able to sustain these merchandise in a way that guaranteed profits.1 trading links without any external support.2 In the coastal areas, fishing and salt making were the preferred economic activities while In the savannah region of the Nigerian area, farming and other occupation usually served as trade was especially strategic to the emergence complementary occupation. In the savannah of the organised communities that developed region, particularly the communities in the there. Essentially, between the eighth and four- northern part, agricultural production, animal teenth centuries, the various Hausa city-states, husbandry and extensive trading activities dom- such as Katsina, Daura, Kebbi, Kano, Rano, and inated the economic activities. Farming and Zazzau (Zaria) as well as the Kanuri state of trading were also dominant in the Yoruba coun- Ngazargamu in Kanem-Borno grew in signifi- try of the southwest. Essentially, across the re- cance and emerged as centres of flourishing gions of the Nigerian area, production for mar- commercial activities. They were destinations ket was a huge motivation for embarking on for traders and caravans from within and be- economic activities during the pre-colonial peri- yond the frontiers of the Nigerian area. Howev- od. Hence, long distance trading flourished as er, a great deal of trade transactions of these an integral component of the traditional econ- city-states was with North Africa through sever- omy. al trade routes from Kano to different locations, particularly Agadez, Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Long distance trading activities principally con- Tripolitania, Cyrenaica, Borno, Waddai, Darfur tributed to the emergence, growth and suste- and Egypt. In fact, the northern trading cities nance of states and empires that controlled the played host to a number of merchant traders, different parts of the Nigerian area during the mostly Arab, who organised caravans to and pre-colonial era. Indeed, as states and empires from North Africa and established a couple of of the forest and the savannah areas evolved merchant settlements. Caravans brought im- extensive city systems trading activities be- ports from North Africa and exported local tween them increased, especially as they products from Hausaland. By the fourteenth reached out to expand trade and profits to se- century, Kano, particularly, had become a thriv- cure resources for further expansion and pros- ing commercial emporium and the leading perity. The various articles of trade from each Southern terminus and entrepot of the trans- zone went into the various networks and rings Saharan trade controlling the trade in goatskins, of short and long distance markets that criss- tanned hides, leather goods, kolanut, salt, tex- crossed the length and breadth of the Nigerian tile, especially the famous Kano cloth, and im- area and connected the people with neighbour- ported manufactures from regions around the ing frontiers and beyond. There grew a number Mediterranean.3 of inter-regional trading centres and linkages in different directions, East-West and North-South, 2 Ibid., 179 – 180; “Nigeria: the Colonial Economy, to facilitate distribution and exchange of prod- 1860 – 1960,” http://www.onlinenigeria.com/ ucts. There were also trans-Saharan trade to links/adv.asp?blurb=467 (accessed 18 March 2011). 3 countries of North Africa, Nile Valley region and Akinjide Osuntokun, “Political Culture and Urban Southern Europe as well as transnational trade Development in Nigeria: A Historical Overview,” in to neighbouring countries, including communi- Akinjide Osuntokun and Ayodeji Olukoju (eds.), Nige- ties located in present day Cameroun, Republic rian Peoples and Cultures (Ibadan: Davidson Press, 1997), 44; Lawal, “The Economy and the State,” 184; of Benin, Togo, Niger and Chad. From the six- “Nigeria: The Northern Kingdoms of the Savanna,” http://www.mongabay.com/history/nigeria/nigeria- 1 A. A. Lawal, “The Economy and the State from Pre- the_northern_kingdoms_of_the_savanna.html (ac- Colonial Times to the Present,” in Akinjide Osunto- cessed 18 March 2011); R. A. Olaniyi, “North Africa kun and Ayodeji Olukoju (eds.), Nigerian Peoples and and Pan Africanism: Retrospect and Prospect,” being Cultures (Ibadan: Davidson Press, 1997), 179. paper presented at the North African Sub-Regional

trade. A clear example was the development of The trading empire of Kanem-Borno controlled the salt industry as well as the kolanut trade to the trade routes around the Lake Chad area and meet the needs of the region. enjoyed extensive long-distance trading relations with the states and trading cities occupy- During the fifteenth century, there was a general ing the Nile valley region and northeast Africa as rise in trading activities in West Africa and this well as with the Hausa states lying west of the had tremendous impact on agriculture in the empire. Borno's prosperity, essentially, depend- sub-region including the Nigerian area as agricul- ed on the trans-Sudanic trade in slave and the tural production became more and more market desert trade in salt and livestock. Ngazargamu, oriented; food and non-food commodities were the empire’s capital, was a major terminus on produced increasingly to meet market demands the eastern route of the trans-Saharan trade, for the products at home and abroad. The rise which linked the northeastern part of the Nige- was occasioned by growing demand for West rian area with such trading centres as Fezzan, African products by Arab traders, which thus Cyrenaica, Egypt and the Nile valley cities of placed increased demand on West African trad- Waddai, Darfur and the Funj Sultanate of Sen- ers and production centres. For instance, the dis- nar.4 covery of kolanut in commercial quantity during this period in the Yoruba countries of southwest- In Borno, just as in Hausaland and other states ern Nigeria as well as in the Asante forest of pre- and empires of West Africa, the control of ex- sent day Ghana subsequently led to the devel- ternal trade was an exclusive preserve of the opment of long distance trading activities be- state. The kings or designated officials of the tween the trading cities of northern Nigeria and state managed trade affairs within the state. Badagry5 in the southwest and Gonja in the This was because the sustenance and prosperity Asante forest. Caravan routes developed be- of some of these states depended on the reve- tween Sokoto and Badagry and between Kano nue generated from tolls and special taxes col- and Gonja both of which passed through Borgu- lected from traders that pass through or con- land6 and attracted more traders into the area, verge in their domain. Consequently, the inter- especially the Wagara and the Gambari (Hausa), connectedness and interrelations facilitated by who settled along the trade routes from Hau- the dependent and complementary nature of saland to Gonja and Badagry. Some scholars have the environment and the resulting specialisation particularly claimed that the high demand for of each zone made long distance trade relations kolanut in Hausaland in the fifteenth century at- inevitable as long distance trade became the tracted more traders from the Nigerian area and platform for the earliest form of ‘international beyond into the kolanut trade, such that the relations’ between the states and empires of trade routes that developed thereof between the Nigerian area and their counterparts with Hausaland, Badagry and Gonja brought immense which they had trade relations. Moreover, a wealth to Borguland, which lay between the pro- general trend observable, particularly, in the duction centres and the commercial towns.7 Savanna zone during this period was the development of trade out of needs of long distance 5 In the pre-colonial period, Badagry served as a commercial emporium for the Yoruba hinterland Conference, Cairo, Egypt, 27th – 28th September where caravans from the various hinterland coun- 2003; P. O. Elegalam, “Impact of External Trade on tries converged before dispersal to other parts of the Traditional Economy,” in G. O. Ogunremi and E. K. country. Faluyi (eds.), An Economic History of West Africa 6 Borgu was the inland region of West Africa, cover- since1750 (Lagos: First Academic Publishers, 2005), ing parts of what is now Benin and Nigeria and 74-76. bounded northeast and east by the Niger River. In 4 History of Nigeria before 1500, the Nigerian area, Borguland covers the traditional http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Nigeria_ emirate of Niger State, western Nigeria. before_1500 (accessed 18 March 2011); “History of 7 M. B. Idris, "Political and Economic Relations in the Nigeria,” http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/ Bariba States" (Ph.D. thesis, University of Birming- PlainTextHisto- ham, 1973) cited in Olayemi Akinwumi, “Princes as ries.asp?historyid=ad41#ixzz1Q07FE5cf (accessed 18 Highway Men,” Cahiers d'études africaines [Online], March 2011). 162 (2001): 333 – 350; P. E. Lovejoy, “Long Distance

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Trade across frontiers… Aboyade Sunday Ariyo

lower Niger area from the seventeenth century In the forest region of the Nigerian area, trade until European penetration. and distribution of agricultural and non- agricultural products also kept up continuous In the Niger Delta, long-distance trade particu- interaction between the various communities, larly served as focal points for the states that kingdoms and empires that developed there as developed in the region. Although broadly cate- well as with those in the coastal and Savanna gorised as part of the forest region, geograph- areas, interchanging their abundance for what ically, the Niger Delta area is an extensive man- they lacked or needed. Caravan routes linking grove swamp with limited dry land area for agri- one town to another facilitated the movement culture or resources needed for the formation of goods within the region. Although the trade of large states.10 Hence, the Niger Delta states routes interlinked and crisscrossed one another, depended largely on long-distance trading rela- the direction of trade was largely towards the tions with commercial and agricultural centres savanna area until the sixteenth century when located several miles away from the region for the trade routes were gradually re-oriented to- survival. Essentially, long-distance trading activi- wards the coast in response to the demand of ties in the Niger Delta developed along two dis- the emergent trans-Atlantic trade. tinctive directions: the north-to-south axis, which was depended upon for the supply of The Igbo of the southeastern area of the forest agricultural produce to the states in exchange zone were particularly agricultural people and for salt and fish and a east-to-west axis linking long distant traders, who settled in a well- the states with places as far west as Lagos and structured society with wide-ranging economic the Ijebu country for trade in specialist goods relationships. Their settlement at Igbo-Ukwu produced in various localities.11 Particularly, was an outpost for the trans-Saharan trade there are records indicating the existence of routes. The Igbo traded such item as gold, slave, trade relations between traders from the Niger salt, cowry shells, weapons, expensive cloth, Delta and people of Ijebu waterside (Makun pepper, ivory, kolanut, and leather goods and Omi) as far back as the eighteenth century. were good travellers.8 They had extensive long Moreover, oral tradition of the Niger Delta indi- distance trade relationship with Igalaland, Benin cated that trade passed westwards to Warri and Kingdom, the coastal states of the Niger Delta, beyond the Benin River to connect the routes to the Yoruba hinterland, Tadmekka in the Sahara, the lagoon ports of the Ijebu country and La- Arab traders from North Africa and, to a lesser gos.12 extent, with neighbouring communities in present day Cameroun. Copper and lead used in The Yoruba country of southwestern Nigeria producing bronze for bronze casting were ob- was a destination point for a number of long- tained from Tadmekka, while coloured glass distance traders during the pre-colonial period. beads used for ornaments were obtained Hence, long-distance trade was an integral part through Arab traders who brought in the item of the economy of the people of the area and from Venice and India via the trans-Saharan was as important as agriculture, the dominant trade routes linking Egypt, the Nile valley, the economic activity in the region. A vibrant long- Chad basin, and Kanem-Borno with the trade distance trading relation thus existed between outpost of Igboland.9 More so, Western Igbo the people of the region and populations across kingdoms like Aboh, dominated trade in the frontiers as far as the delta region east of the

10 Martin B. Thorp, David P. Gamble and Rosemary Trade and Islam: The Case of the Nineteenth Century Lois Harris, “Western Africa,” Encyclopaedia Britanni- Hausa Kola Trade,” Journal of Historical Society of ca 2009 Ultimate Reference Suite (Chica- Nigeria IV, no. 4 (1971): 537-539. go: Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2009). 8 “Origin & History,” http://www.icsn.co.uk/page. 11 E. A. Alagoa, “Long-Distance Trade and States in php?pageID=history (accessed 18 March 2011). the Niger Delta,” Journal of African History XI, no. 3 9 J. F. Ade Ajayi and Toyin Falola, "Nigeria," Encyclo- (1970): 319-329. paedia Britannica Online, http://www. 12 Faluyi Kehinde, “Migrants and the Development of britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/414840/Nigeria Lagos from Earliest Times to 1800,” Lagos Historical (accessed 18 March 2011). Review 1(2001): 68-79.

Niger River, the Benue basin, and the commer- posing numbers that stretch over miles cial centres of northern Nigeria. Caravan routes in length”.15 existed between Lagos and northern Nigeria, which passed through such area as Ota, Eruwa, The major Yoruba kingdoms that emerged in the Lanlate, Iseyin, Okaka, Saki, Ilesa, and from pre-colonial period particularly owed a great there to Borgu, Nupe, Sega and other parts of deal of their survival and prosperity to their in- northern Nigeria just as there were water routes volvement in long-distance trade. The kingdom linking the region with communities in the Niger of Ife, which lay at the centre of a trading net- Delta.13 Trade in agricultural produce dominated work with the north, supported its court with transactions with other regions. Of comparable tolls levied on trade caravans and participated in importance to trade in agricultural products was long-distance trade. Oyo, which succeeded Ife at the textile industry, which equally engendered the border between the savanna and the forest, long-distance trade as specialised cloths were also used the profits of long-distance trade to made for export to neighbouring regions. develop the state and to secure extensive trade link with countries farther west and north.16 Yoruba traders were good travellers; their trade Oyo participated profitably in the trans-Saharan caravans travelled as far west as communities trade. In addition, the Ijebu kingdom for several located in present day Togo and Ghana. Indeed, centuries dominated the trade between the so significant was the caravan trading system ports of the Lagos Lagoon and the Yoruba hin- that developed in Yorubaland during the pre- terland. The capital of the kingdom was a major colonial period that some scholars have argued collecting station for kolanuts, which were sub- that any discussion of trade in pre-colonial sequently transported to the commercial cen- southwestern Nigeria without a proper atten- tres in the north via Badagry.17 tion to the place of caravans would be incom- plete.14 W. H. Clarke noted this phenomenon However, the development of legitimate trade and wrote in his mid-nineteenth century travel in the nineteenth century as a strategy to sup- and exploration account of Yorubaland: press slave trade as well as to provide industrial input and market support for Europe had signif- “On the various trading routes may be icant transforming effect on trade relations seen caravans of fifties passing almost within and beyond the frontiers of the Nigerian daily from one town to another, acting area as virtually all internal long-distance trade as branches of the great reservoirs of a routes were gradually re-orientated towards the network of trade carried to a distance of Atlantic coasts. Thus, the trans-Atlantic trade hundreds of miles, and with an energy beginning with slave trade and, later, legitimate and perseverance scarcely compatible trade engendered long-distance trade relations with a tropical people... Hundreds and between the people of the Nigerian area and thousands of people are thus engaged merchants from America and Europe. in the carrying trade. In the disturbed

state of the country, when several cara- The towns of Ughoton, southwest of Benin, vans are thrown together for the pur- Badagry and Lagos were important ports for the poses of defence a correct idea of the Atlantic trade, and control of the trade routes extent of trade may be found in the im- into the interior was a major issue, especially in

15 W. H. Clarke, Travels and Explorations in Yoruba- 13 L. C. Dioka, Lagos and Its Environs (Lagos: First land, 1854 – 1858, ed. by J. A. Atanda (Ibadan, 1972), Academic Publishers, 2001), 21; Olukoju Ayodeji, 263 – 65. “The Politics of Free Trade between Lagos and the 16 “History of Nigeria,” http://www.historyworld. Hinterland, 1861 – 1907,” in Ade Adefuye, Baba- net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ad41#i tunde Agiri and Jide Osuntokun, The History of the xzz1Q08dkQms (accessed 22 June 2011); “Early Peoples of Lagos State (Lagos: Lantern Books, 1997), States Before 1500,” http://countrystudies.us/ 91. nigeria/5.htm 14 Toyin Falola, “The Yoruba Caravan System of the 17 “Ijebu-Ode,” Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, Nineteenth Century,” The International Journal of http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/28251 African Historical Studies 24, no. 1 (1991): 111. 2/Ijebu-Ode (accessed 22 June 2011).

Trade across frontiers… Aboyade Sunday Ariyo the politics of the Yoruba kingdoms. During the such as the Yoruba, Hausa, Nupe Ka- nineteenth century, the Ijebu benefited from kanda, Igbira, Bini, Igara, Tiv, Idoma, the shift in the Atlantic trade to Lagos acting as Junkun and Igbo, who developed some intermediaries on the trade route between the means of effective communication that coast and the interior, particularly with the con- promoted multilateral relations and fa- trol of Ikorodu, the shortest route to the Lagos cilitated exchange of goods and ser- port. As legitimate trade replaced slave trade vices”.19 along the coasts, the kingdom became a collecting point for cocoa and palm oil and kernels From the foregoing description of trade and brought from the hinterland to Lagos from trading across frontiers in pre-colonial Nigeria, it where it was then exported to Europe. In the is evident that extensive trading activities oc- Benin Kingdom and some of the states in the curred across the frontiers of states and regions Yoruba hinterland, trade with the Europeans in the area within the framework of the tradi- was strictly a state monopoly, which was con- tional economy. Trade relations were multilat- ducted by the issuance of a royal licence to eral in nature and not constrained or moderated traders and merchants specifically appointed by by any global rule neither were there any su- the king.18 pranational institutions that acted as trade um- pire. Trade rules usually developed out of a Adebayo Lawal observed in his work, “The state’s economic interest or strategy intended Economy and the State from Pre-Colonial Times towards profiting from trade carried on within to the Present,” the extensive long-distance or across its frontiers. Moreover, trade were trading relations that characterised the Nigerian carried out without any form of trade policy area up to the nineteenth century, particularly because long-distance trade developed as a in response to the development of legitimate natural consequence of regional specialisation trade prior to the colonisation of the area and arising from the complimentary and dependent the subsequent integration of its economy into nature of the environment. Very evident, also, is the western economic model. He argued: the fact that international trade in the context of long-distance trade was not carried on in “By the nineteenth century, trading and ways that negatively affected existing industry; commercial activities were promoted in rather it engendered the development of new towns and cities that sprang up... These industries to meet specific needs. included Lagos, Kano, Ilorin, Ibadan, Be-

nin, Sokoto, Yola, Oshogbo, Calabar, Za- Clearly, the economic relations among the trad- ria, Abeokuta, Bida and Kukawa... These ing state, kingdoms and empires of the Nigerian market towns were linked by various area, West Africa and the North Africa was a trade routes that crisscrossed the whole relation among equal economies as there were of the Nigerian area. Even the various no obvious wide gap in the level of develop- rivers and creeks served as waterways ment. All the trading economies were primary for riverine traders who transported producing and their productive base was suffi- fish, shells and European goods to the cient to sustain the extensive long-distance mainland consumers from whom they trade system. Moreover, as a result of the grow- bought food crops. In the savannah ar- ing profitability of the long-distance trade and ea, camel caravans plied the various its capacity to engender wealth for the state, routes from the north to the middle belt the economies of the people of the Nigerian area. The Niger and Benue Rivers were area became increasingly commerce-oriented used by traders from various parts of and characterised by a high degree of trade the country for distribution of mer- 20 openness . chandise by long distance traders. The Niger-Benue confluence was particularly connected by a network of routes that 19 Lawal, “The Economy and the State,” 183 – 184. 20 facilitated the movement of traders, Trade openness in this context refers to the sum total of the volume of goods and services exchanged as imports and exports among the people and across 18 J. S. Eades, The Yoruba Today (London: Cambridge the regions. The term should not be misconstrued as University Press, 1980) free trade, which presupposes removal of all forms

Essentially, the distortion of inter-regional trade arrangement and the structure of pre-colonial Nigerian economy began with the gradual penetration of Europeans into the hinterland to effect direct purchase of palm produce from producers after the abolition of slave trade. Conse- quently, it could be safely concluded that the effective colonisation of the Nigerian area in the late nineteenth century inevitably culminated in the transformation and integration of its pre- colonial economy into the western capitalist economic system, which by design supported the exploitation of resources of the area for the benefit of the industrial economies. Imperial Britain, the foremost industrial economy in the emergent western capitalist economic system, masterminded the deliberate integration of the Nigerian economy into a global arrangement of opposite and complementary system – a bias, lopsided division of labour between the developed and the underdeveloped – as a dependent to profit her growing industrial economy at the expense of Nigeria’s primary producing economy.

of restrictions or barriers to trade. Essentially, trade openness is defined as the sum of exports and imports in relation to gross domestic product (GDP). During this period, the profitability of the long- distance trade motivated production for market at an increasing rate because there appeared to be com- mensurate returns on labour. Consequently, increased production for market resulted in increased volume of trade.