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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:The Political Economy of Aboh, 1830-1857
Author:Nwaubani, EbereISNI
Year:1999
Periodical:African Economic History
Volume:27
Pages:93-116
Language:English
Geographic term:Nigeria
Subjects:Aboh polity
mercantile history
History and Exploration
Economics and Trade
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3601659
Abstract:This article examines the position of the Aboh kingdom (Nigeria) as a key participant in the Lower Niger trading system in the period 1830-1857. It first outlines the history of the commercial network on the Lower Niger, i.e. that portion of the River Niger which runs from the Niger-Benue confluence in the north to the Niger delta in the south. Then it focuses on the place of Aboh in the Lower Niger trade in the period 1830-1844. In the early 1830s, MacGregor Laird and R.A.K. Oldfield found that no one other than the Obi (King) Ossai of Aboh could muster the authority to control the flow of all trade on the Lower Niger. There is ample evidence that by 1845 Aboh's military force dwarfed that of Igala. Aboh's role in Lower Niger trade had to do first of all with its strategic location and the Obi's astuteness in manipulating this advantage. Obi Ossai also made extensive use of marriage alliances with long-distance traders. Within a decade of his death, in 1844, the Lower Niger trade was dislocated by the Fulani-led 'jihad' wars and the internecine Nupe dynastic struggles. Notes, ref.
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