Perfecting the 'Fertile Seed': The 'Compagnie du sel Agglomere and Colonial Capitalism, c. 1890-1905

Abstract

n 1893, the Compagnie du Sel Agglomtr6 pour Exportation (C.S.A.) was launched under the patronage of the French colonial firm the Compagnie Frangais de l'Afrique Occidentale (C.F.A.O.). Both were headquartered in the port of Marseilles, which in turn was the center of lobbying efforts by both businessmen anxious to expand colonial commerce, and politicians eager to carry the colonial flag in the French parliament.' One of the most outspoken of the latter, Jules Charles-Roux enthusiastically endorsed the interests of the C.S.A., and in the influentialJournal des Debats (September 1894), argued for the ease and importance of penetrating such a lucrative market. "Salt does not exist in the Soudan," he wrote, pointing out that markets were presently being supplied by Saharans bringing "inferior quality salts" (specifically, those from Ijil in modern-day Mauritania), which in turn were selling for exorbitant prices. "Many people have insufficient salt or none at all as a consequence." He calculated this potential market as a population of i8o million Africans needing to consume a minimum of 6kg of salt per year. The French had barely tapped it Marseilles was exporting only 400 tons of sea salt a year when there was clearly room for a million or more. Worse still, he taunted readers in full colonial colours, England and Germany were already ahead of them!' He was therefore especially happy to announce that the physical impediments to transporting and marketing French sea salt that is to say its granular form which left it vulnerable to heat and moisture and liable to loss when its sacs tore, had been removed. Thanks to the newly established C.S.A. under the directorship of one Pierre B.J. Vincente: