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262 Antonio Carreira

and Principe, was also introduced on the island of Fernando Po, on the Ivory
Coast, the Gold Coast, now Ghana, and other places ; a very high volume of
production was achieved, particularly in the Ivory Coast and in the Gold Coast.
This kind of agriculture and mining could only be developed because of
the huge demand on the European and American consumer and producer
markets.
These products were grown in the tropics for two reasons : first, to meet
the demand on the domestic consumer market and/or the export markets;
second, to obtain the revenue which would enable African producers to engage
in the trade from which they were practically excluded during the slavery era.
These products served as a basis for the fiscal systems necessary to the European
administrations in the various territories (through the hut levy, taxes, licences
and other forms of taxation). The administrations also resorted to indirect
strategies, such as creating a demand for certain essential goods among African
populations who had never or hardly ever felt the need for them. This was the
practical way to control the African markets and import European and Ameri-
can manufactured products.
These processes occurred persistently over a long period of time. How-
ever, they only gained a certain momentum in the second half of the nineteenth
century, at a time when European policies on the domination of the African
continent were clarified and defined. The main historical development in this
lengthy process of evolution was the political and social crisis of the eighteenth
century (the French Revolution, the Napoleonic Wars, etc.) which culminated
in the General Act of the Berlin Conference (1884-85) with all its political and
economic implications.
There is no doubt that a number of European countries derived con-
siderable wealth from Brazilian gold and diamonds ; raw materials (especially
those we have listed) brought them even greater prosperity. Portugal benefited
the least from all this trade. Despite her pioneering activities, she received a
very small slice of this prosperity. The blame for this phenomenon may be laid
squarely upon the society of the day, which saw everything purely in terms of
territorial occupation.

Cultural considerations

In a limited study such as this, it would be quite impracticable to attempt even
a brief survey of the impact of the slaves on the cultural life of each area where
slave-holding was a common practice.
We shall confine ourselves to a number of passing references which are
necessarily incomplete and do not therefore give a full and accurate picture of
the cultural interchange and miscegenation which occurred.