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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Theories of European Business Combines in the Lower Cross River Region, Nigeria: A Re-Assessment
Author:Udoka, Ini Akpan
Year:1996
Periodical:Transafrican Journal of History (ISSN 0251-0391)
Volume:25
Pages:55-67
Language:English
Notes:biblio. refs.
Geographic terms:Nigeria
West Africa
Subjects:foreign enterprises
trading companies
History and Exploration
Economics and Trade
History, Archaeology
Cross River State (Nigeria)
Mergers
history
economic concentration
Abstract:Trade agreements reached by representatives of European firms in the Lower Cross River region of Nigeria provided the foundation for the combination of firms into large companies, culminating in the formation of the United Africa Company (UAC) in 1933. In his 'Trade and imperialism in southern Nigeria, 1881-1929' (1979), Walter Ofonagoro posits that the process of consolidation was prompted by the initial undercapitalization of individual trading firms, the threatening encroachment of German firms from the Cameroons, and the wish to secure a royal charter. The present author posits that the amalgamation of firms in the region, epitomized in mergers and outright purchase of smaller firms by more powerful ones, was predicated rather on periodic slumps in global markets, hazards arising from the struggle of powerful chieftains to control the hinterland markets, and trade losses incurred by European firms and their desire to cut costs and reduce the cutthroat competition among them. The companies reasoned that Africans faced with only one buyer (firm) would have no alternative but to sell at dictated prices or have their produce waste on the coast. Notes, ref., sum.
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