The Development of Indigenous Trade and Markets in West Africa

Originally published in 1971 and written in English and French, with summaries in both languages, the essays in this volume dsicuss the effects of internal economic and political conditions and of external relations on the development of trade and markets in West Africa from the period of the slave trade to the growth in the 20th century in production for overseas markets and rapidly expanding urban centres. Other essays discuss various aspects of local and regional trade and markets from the nineteenth century onwards.

Claude Meillassoux was a French neo-Marxist economic anthropologist and Africanist. Meillassoux, a student of Georges Balandier, did fieldwork among the Guro (Gouro) of the Côte d'Ivoire: his thesis was published in 1964. In the 1970s he criticised Marshall Sahlins's use of the notion of "domestic mode of production". Meillassoux was throughout his life a politically committed critic of social injustice

Part 1: Introduction Claude Meillasoux 1. Adaptations et réactions des sociétés ouest-africaines aux transformations de la traite 2. Les rapports de l'organisation sociale et du commerce 3. Le commerce à longue distance et les marchands 4. L'impact du capitalisme 5. Les marchés et les aires marchandes. English version Part 2: Special Studies: The Adaptation of African Economy and Trade to Changes in the Nineteenth-Century European Trade 1. Prices and Profitability Colin W. Newbury 2. De la traite des esclaves à l'exportation de l'huile de palme et des palmistes au Dahomey: XIXe siècle Catherine Coquery-Vidrovitch 3. Asante Policy Towards the Hausa Trade in the Nineteenth Century Ivor Wilks Trade and Social Organisation 4. Commerce pré-colonial et organisation sociale chez les Dida de Côte d'Ivoire Emmanuel Terray 5. L'organisation du commerce pré-colonial en Basse-Côte d'Ivoire et ses effets sur l'organisation sociale des populations côtières Marc Augé 6. Trade and Trading Patterns of the Akan in the 17th and 18th Centuries Kwame Y. Daaku 7. Le commerce pré-colonial et le développement de l'esclavage à Gubu du Sahel (Mali) Claude Meillassoux Long-distance Trading and the Development of Specialized Trading Groups 8. Atebubu Markets: ca. 1884-1930 Kwame Arhin 9. Les Yarse et le commerce dans le Yatênga pré-colonial Michel Izard 10. Pre-colonial trading networks and traders: The Diakhanké Philip D. Curtin 11. La cité marchande de Bouna dans l'ensemble économique Ouest-Africain pré-colonial Jean-Louis Boutillier 12. Parenté et commerce chez les kooroko Jean-Loup Amselle 13. Cultural Strategies int e organization of Trading Diasporas Abner Cohen Trade Areas and Market Centres 14. Cycles de marchés et 'espaces' socio-politiques Marc Piault 15. Two Types of West African House Trade Polly Hill 16. West African Market-Places: Temporal Periodicity and Locational spacing Robert H. T. Smith 17. Periodic and Daily Markets in West Africa B. W. Hodder The Impact of Modern Capitalism on African Trade 18. La politique coloniale française à l'égard de la bourgeoisie commerçante sénégalaise (1820-1960) Samir Amin 19. The Supply Response of Retail Trading Services to Urban Population Growth in Ghana Rowena M. Lawson 20. Capitalism, Capital Markets, and Competition in West African Trade Marvin P. Miracle