Trade costs and the integration of British West Africa in the global economy, c. 1840–1940

F. Tadei, N. Aslanidis, Oscar Martinez
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Abstract

Despite the essential role of trade for African economies, in the extensive literature on the historical evolution of international trade costs, Africa is still missing. In this article, we contribute to filling this gap by (1) providing the first estimates of British West Africa's trade costs with Britain c. 1840–1940 by computing relative price gaps in a representative sample of African export and European import prices, and (2) analysing the main determinants of trade costs trends, by regressing price gaps on measures of transport costs, market efficiency, and trade barriers. The results uncover a diverging pattern in African and global trade costs trends, which was not noticed in the previous literature. British West Africa experienced a reduction in its trade costs with Britain c. 1840–70, similar to the one we observe in other world areas, thanks to improvements in shipping technology and market efficiency. From the late 1870s, however, as colonial monopsonistic trading companies consolidated their control of African export markets, trade costs continued to decline in the rest of the world, but not in British West Africa. Consequently, from the late nineteenth century, trade for West Africa became relatively more expensive than for other world regions.
贸易成本与英属西非融入全球经济,约 1840-1940 年
尽管贸易对非洲经济起着至关重要的作用,但在有关国际贸易成本历史演变的大量文献中,非洲仍是空白。在本文中,我们通过以下方法填补了这一空白:(1) 通过计算非洲出口价格和欧洲进口价格代表性样本中的相对价格差距,首次估算了 1840-1940 年英属西非与英国的贸易成本;(2) 通过对运输成本、市场效率和贸易壁垒的价格差距进行回归,分析了贸易成本趋势的主要决定因素。研究结果揭示了非洲和全球贸易成本趋势的分化模式,这在以往的文献中并未注意到。由于航运技术和市场效率的提高,英属西非与英国的贸易成本在 1840-70 年间有所下降,这与我们在世界其他地区观察到的情况类似。然而,从 19 世纪 70 年代末开始,随着殖民地垄断贸易公司巩固对非洲出口市场的控制,世界其他地区的贸易成本持续下降,但英属西非的贸易成本却没有下降。因此,从 19 世纪末开始,西非的贸易成本相对高于世界其他地区。
本文章由计算机程序翻译,如有差异,请以英文原文为准。
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