The slave trade
and the Atlantic economies 1451-187067gains or losses that may be associated with the slave trade. As John H. Williams
points out:
the relation of international trade to the development of new resources and productive
forces is a more significant part of the explanation of the present status of nations, of
incomes, prices, well-being, than is the cross-section value analysis of the classical
economists, with its assumption of given quanta of productive factors, already
existent and employed [with fixed technology and fixed market and productive
organization].^85
It is sometimes said that the slave trade brought from the Americas to Africa
new food crops, such as manioc, sweet potato, maize, groundnuts and some
others.^38 If we leave aside the controversy over the American origin of these
crops, and accept that as a fact, the argument that those crops came to Africa
because of the slave trade cannot be sustained on any ground, since these crops
are said to have been introduced into West Africa 'by Portuguese traders
early in the sixteenth century',^87 a period during which Portuguese slave trade
in West Africa was far less important, in volume and value, than Portuguese
trade in West African products, such as gold, pepper and so on.^88
Another way of relating the slave trade positively to African economic
development may be through the investment of profits made in the trade by
African dealers. It is possible that after the effective abolition of the external
slave trade late in the nineteenth century, profits earlier accumulated from it
by some African dealers may have flowed into the development of trade in
African products, such as palm oil, then in demand. This could be regarded as
a positive contribution by the slave trade to African economic development.
But during the 400 years or so of the slave trade before its abolition, profits
from that trade added nothing in terms of capital formation to the production
capacity of African economies.^89 Duke Ephraim, one of the greatest Efik
traders of pre-colonial times, 'peopled the vast agricultural area of Akpabuyo
to the east of Calabar with slaves purchased from the profits of his trade, not
so much to produce oil or even food, but to strengthen the power of his house
or ward. 'n In general, this was how slave-trade profits were employed in the
Cross River region of present-day Nigeria. It would seem, therefore, that the
economic conditions associated with the slave trade provided no demand
incentives for capital formation to take place. Hence economic development in
Africa was not stimulated by the slave trade. Indeed, it can be argued that
institutions and habits inimical to economic development, which developed and
became hardened during over 400 years of slave trade, became, in later years,
great obstacles to economic transformation in Africa.
If it is so difficult to isolate any positive contribution by the slave trade
to African economic development, two other propositions remain to be exam-