The region popularly known as the Niger Delta today derived its name from being situated at the mouth of the River Niger. An array of trade relations among several polities took place in the Niger Delta area before the 19th century. As a matter of fact, the ambit of these trades varying from local to international, made even more significant the roles of the Niger River in the conduct of economic activities in the region. Prior to the 19th country, economic activities in the Niger Delta entailed mainly export of salt and fish to the peoples in the hinterland. During the era of slave trade, the region was West Africa’s largest slave exporting area, and this was enhanced by its proximity to the sea. Slave traders, however diverted to palm oil trade in the 19th century, albeit a subtle exchange in humans continued.
Basically, several polities established at the mouth of the River Niger had varying economic relations in the countries during our period. The peoples occupying our area participated actively in intra and inter economic activities with other Nigerian and West African societies and by extension, the Europeans. Obviously, trade and economic relation is an intricate part of every society, either trade on a micro or macro scale, different set of people have been conditioned by natural forces to a particular economic fate. These peoples in turn would have to engage in economic relation with others around them to successfully acquire economic necessities to sustain their existence. Thus, the history of mankind is full of different economic relations among different peoples at different periods of their existence. In the case of our area, there was no exception. It is in the view of this that this paper shall attempt to examine the trade relationship around the Niger Delta area: what nature of trade occurred, how was it arranged, how far did they trade? Questions like these, this paper shall consciously attempt to answer.
TRADE RELATIONSHIP IN THE NIGER DELTA AREA.
Primarily, a fundamental economic relationship took place among the peoples around the Niger Delta which saw the exchange of agricultural products and other goods of commercial value. In this trade interconnectedness among peoples of our area, the Niger River played pivotal roles needless to say that it was this every river that made it possible for the peoples of the area to trade directly with the Europeans. By and large, the Niger Delta area was an agriculturally viable area from which several farm produces were procured and further distributed to the neighboring communities in exchange for commodities from these places. In this trade (local trade), the communities in the hinterland played significant roles. For example, most agricultural produces like yam, cassava, among others, came from the hinterland to the coast where they were further transported across the sea to the Hausaland, Yorubaland and other Nigerian areas. In other words, goods produced from the Niger Delta area were traded with peoples across Nigeria and beyond. In this trade, the roles and responsibilities of the middle men cannot be over emphasized. Niger Delta merchants were instrumental in the collection of agricultural products from the hinterland. Salt and fishes were very much available, and thus formed a fundamental part of Niger Delta exports to other Nigerian polities and by extension, West African states. Brenn John made an allusion to how rich Niger Delta merchants were in the period that preceded colonialism in his articles, 'Trade in the Delta - Those Who Profited from it'. He also talked about how rigorous merchants from Jukun, Igbanke struggled to procure fishes from the coast. Therefore, one can easily imagine the extent of trade relation in the Niger Delta area. Even the mighty Benin Empire had a strong commercial influence in the Niger Delta.
Pertinently, since the Niger River was not successfully navigated until the wake of the 19th century, Benin, on an elaborate capacity, served as the distributor of European goods to the Niger Delta communities. Slaves in an outrageous quantity from the Niger Delta area were used to exchange European goods like hacket, jean, umbrella et cetera. A particular reference at this juncture should be made to the activities of the Aro which to a very large extent influenced trade in our region. Although the activities of the Aro did not cover the whole of the western Igbo communities, not to talk of the Niger Delta, it however impacted on trade relationship in the area. It is noteworthy that at the peak of their activities (Aro traders), trade fairs which shook virtually the whole of the Niger Delta and outlining Igbo communities were established, serving different settlements or constituencies. These trade fairs which lasted for four days at an interval of twenty four days saw the patronage of peoples from Agbo, Anioma, Aguleri, Igbariam, Brass, Onitsha, Bonny, Oraeri, Nando, Calabar, among others. It must notwithstanding be emphasized that slave was a fundamental article of trade up to the first decade of the 19th century.
After the abolition of slave trade in 1807, European countries around the Niger River set purpose towards a more profitable trade relation. In the trade dubbed “legitimate trade” palm oil became the most important commodity. Other products were timber, Ivory and indigo. In exchange for these, European traders imported such items as beads, knives, razor, hats salt, cotton clothes, jugs basins, guns and gun powder, and spirit (whisky, gun , and rum). These articles were by far less in value than the commodities which Niger Delta traders gave in exchange for them.
The system of trade was mainly by barter. But there were accepted methods of valuing goods before they were bartered. In Bonny, Brass and old calabar, the medium of exchange was the iron or copper bar.
The absence of a circulating currency and the constant fluctuation in the value of the iron or copper bars made bargaining difficult. However, some direct trading was done through the use of countries shells and Manillas which were confined mostly to petty domestic trading. Spanish doubloons and American dollars were however widely used in trade between Africans and Europeans. On the whole, the system of exchange was more advantageous to European traders who made fantastic profits at the expense of African producers.
The trade was carried on through the agency of indigenous (Niger Delta) middlemen. These coastal middlemen bought palm oil cheap from producers in the interior, brought it along the creeks in canoes to the coast where they sold it at great profit to their European customers. In this way, the Niger Delta middlemen maintained a monopoly of the palm oil trade for numerous decades before the European eventually made foray into the hinterland.
In a bid to successfully facilitate this trade and secure their interests, the European created a system of credit called “Trust”. According to this system, European merchants gave manufactured goods on credit to Niger Delta middlemen often to the value of E5000 for periods of between Six to Twelve months. The middlemen exchanged these goods for palm oil in the interior with which the credit was repaid to the European customers. By mean of the credit system, white traders were able to maintain a monopoly of the trade with their Niger Delta customers. Attempts by the latter to break this monopoly in order to take advantage of higher prices offered by new European customers led to much quarrelling between them and their usual European customers. The overbearing and highhandedness of these middlemen coupled with other related factors (led to the eventual military conquest of the hinterland) further forced the British to make foray into the hinterland.
CONCLUSION
Having attempted to examine the trade relationship around the Niger Delta area during our period, extending to the 19th century, this paper by a way of concluding posit that trade relationship around the Niger Delta area was carried out in two varying direction – internal or local and external or international. The local trade has been examined to involve several challenges which the ability of the peoples of the region helped to surmount considerably. For example, the Niger River which could have been an obstruction to trade relation and altered movement of humans and goods was controlled and put to proper use, through the building of canoes. We have also established in the course of this manuscript how salt and fishes procured from the Niger River circulated to many Nigerian societies and perhaps beyond. We have attempted to examine the relationship among different polities like old Calabar, Bonny, Western Igbo states among others.
Importantly, an attempt was also made to explain the trade relationship between the Nigerian peoples of this region a trade the “foreign shifted from humans to goods party because of the industrial development in Europe, it would be rewarding to know this. The change in European trade interest largely transmogrified the structure of European trade relationship around the Niger Delta. In light of every issue examined, in as much as local trade bridged production or trade differences in the area, and wider West African Geo-polities, European trading activities provided a well-founded structure for the subjugation of the area and eventual colonialism of the region.
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