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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Yoruba Toll System: Its Operation and Abolition
Author:Falola, ToyinISNI
Year:1989
Periodical:The Journal of African History
Volume:30
Issue:1
Pages:69-88
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:tolls
Yoruba polities
Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups)
History and Exploration
Economics and Trade
colonialism
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/182695
Abstract:The Yoruba toll system has not been studied, in spite of its important place in Yoruba economy and politics. This essay fills the gap by examining toll collection among the Yoruba-speaking states of southwestern Nigeria. In the first part, it emphasizes the dominant aspects of the system during the precolonial era, most notably the significance of toll revenue in relation to other sources of income; the control of toll gates by chiefs in order to appropriate the revenues; the character and privileges of collectors; and the features of collection at the toll gates, especially the duties imposed and their implications for trade. The second part explains the steps taken by the British colonial administration to regulate toll collection after 1893, notably by the reduction of customs houses and the printing of tariffs. These reforms failed to solve the problems of corruption by toll clerks and evasions and smuggling by traders. Consequently, the colonial administration abolished the system between 1904 and 1908. Notes, ref.
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