TRADE AND COMMERCE COLONIAL TIME
Trade is the activity of buying and selling (exchanging) goods or services between people and countries. Commerce is the activity involved in buying and selling things. In colonial time the leading trading and commercial activities were meant at benefiting the colonialists.
Through those activities, Europeans were able to accumulate raw material from Africa and sell the manufactured goods from Europe to Africa. The Europeans and the Indians had large transporting and exporting companies.
In many areas of colonial Africa the Asians became middle men in the whole process of business. They also established many exporting and importing companies in Africa.
OBJECTIVES OF TRADE AND COMMERCE IN COLONIAL AFRICA
Accumulation of raw material for European industries in Europe.
Ensuring markets for the European manufactured goods in Africa.
CHARACTERISTICS OF COLONIAL TIME TRADE AND COMMERCE
Existence of foreign financial institutions: Such as banks (commercial bank). They were allowed to accept people’s deposits and cash such as bank withdrawing activities. They also issued loans to investors and were used as salary channels between employers and employees. For example standard Chartered Bank, Barclays bank, Greenland bank, Bank of Baroda of India etc.
Existence of commercial class: Trade and commerce made Asians such as Indians to emerge as the commercial class in Africa along with other natives and the whites. Until today the Asians form a commercial class in Africa.
Existence of clearing and forwarding companies: They were formed for the purpose of handling import and export commodities in harbors and in airport. They managed the uploading and unloading of ships.
Unequal exchange: Trading activities in colonial Africa were based on unequal terms, Africans who were the main producers of raw materials, weren’t involved in setting the price of their raw materials at a very low price from the native producers.
Existence of multinational companies: These were the companies based in Europe, America, Asia and other parts like South Africa etc. They established their branches throughout Africa and employed the natives to assist foreign exports of those companies e.g. Coca-Cola Company, food processing, breweries, insurance companies, finances institutions, mining companies etc.
Existence of colonial trade permits and licenses: Trading permits and licenses were mostly offered to Asians and European traders by the colonial government very few natives were permitted to trade. They trade on the retail bases.
The commercial laws formed by colonial legislature and executive were set in favor of the Europeans e.g. In Kenya, before WWI, the natives were forbidden to grow cash crops, after WWI they allowed to grow cash crops.
