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" British policy and chartered company administration in Nigeria, 1879-1900. "
Flint, John Edgar.
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Latin Dissertation
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| Record Number
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1092992
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TLets261625
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| Main Entry
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Flint, John Edgar.
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| Title & Author
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British policy and chartered company administration in Nigeria, 1879-1900.\ Flint, John Edgar.
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| College
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Royal Holloway, University of London
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| Date
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1957
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| student score
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1957
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| Degree
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Ph.D.
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| Abstract
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By 1819 trade on the Niger was so competitive thatGoldie Taubman {later Sir George Goldie) induced the tradersto amalgamate, in order to achieve a monopoly. But the amalgamwas soon faced with competition trom Frenoh oompanies, supportedby their Government. Goldie saw the solution in obtalningpolitical power; through treaties with the Chiefs, and byacquiring a charter. The British Government wished to preventthe Niger becoming French, but was not prepared to pay the cost.To g~ye a charter to Goldie's company provided the ideal wayof fUlfilling British obligations incurred at the Berlin Conferenceof 1884-5, where Goldie's timely purchase of the Frenchcompanies allowed Britain to appear alone on the Niger.The chartered company evaded the restrictions placedplaced upon it, and used its powers to exclude competitors.The main oppOSition came from Liverpool. The Foreign Officeencouraged a plan to amalgamate the rivals and extend theCharter to the Oil Rivers, but the Liverpool shipowners wereirreooncilable, and the German Government forced an inquiryby Major MacDonald, who condemned the scheme. The Liverpooltraders sold out their Niger assets in 1893. Thereafter thecoastal Africans were left without support, and they attackedthe headquarters of the Company at Akassa 1n 1895.Since 1893 Goldie had disl~ked the monopoly. He hadbeen concerned largely with political affairs, helping tonegotiate the Anglo-French Agreement of 1890 and the Anglo-German Agreement of 1893. He now, through Kirk, appointedin 1895 to investigate the Brass uprising, put forward ascheme whereby the Company ceased to trade.But Chamberlain was bent on Colonial Office ruleof Nigeria, and blocked reform of the Company, which thusfaced the Niger-8udan war and French encroachments on the NigerBend without knowledge of'its future. When the West Af'ricanFrontier Force was organised to face the French, the Companywa.s no longer of use to the Government. The revocation ofthe Charter in 1900 recognised this fact.
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Royal Holloway, University of London
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