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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | Mechanisms to Assure the Quality of Imported Goods in Precolonial West African Trade |
Author: | Hogendorn, Jan |
Year: | 1999 |
Periodical: | African Economic History |
Volume: | 27 |
Pages: | 23-43 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | West Africa |
Subjects: | mercantile history imports Economics and Trade History and Exploration |
External link: | https://www.jstor.org/stable/3601656 |
Abstract: | This paper analyses the institutional arrangements that assisted in assuring that the quality of goods imported in West Africa's overseas trade would be acceptable to buyers. Precolonial West African coastal trade, carried on from the 17th to the 19th centuries, is conventionally divided into a so-called 'fort' or 'factory' trade and a 'ship' or 'peddler' trade. There was a serious danger of quality surprises, i.e. cheating on quality, in particular with technically advanced items, such as firearms and gunpowder, and with alcoholic beverages. The author shows that the quality of imported goods was policed by three main considerations. First, the necessity for traders to maintain an acceptable reputation; second, the vulnerability of sunk capital held ashore if quality surprises occurred; third, the risk of non-repayment for imported goods advanced on credit. All three mechanisms worked to insure quality in the fort or factory trade, while only one (non-repayment of credit advances) was important in the itinerant ship trade. Notes, ref. |