Benin Warri and Calabar Trade in 1678 reveals a commercial landscape that was already deeply connected to international markets more than two centuries before the establishment of formal British colonial rule over the Nigerian region.
Much of what is known about the particular trade lists associated with the year 1678 comes through Mary Henrietta Kingsley, the British traveller and writer whose West African Studies was published in London in 1899. Near the end of the book, Kingsley included Appendix III, titled “Trade Goods Used in the Early Trade with Africa as Given by Barbot and Other Writers of the Seventeenth Century.”
The appendix preserved lists and descriptions associated with several West African trading regions. For the area that would later become southern Nigeria, Kingsley included material concerning Benin, Ouwere or Warri, New Calabar and Old Calabar.
Kingsley drew this material from much earlier European accounts, especially those associated with Jean Barbot.
Barbot, a French commercial agent employed by the Compagnie du Sénégal, made two voyages to West Africa between 1678 and 1682. His first voyage took place in 1678 and 1679, followed by another in 1681 and 1682. He later prepared an extensive description of the western African coast, combining information gathered during his travels with material obtained from earlier writers and commercial sources.
Jean Barbot and the 1678 Trade Records
Jean Barbot’s writings became an important source for the study of early European commerce on the West African coast.
Although Barbot personally visited parts of the coast, he did not travel to every kingdom he described. His accounts of Benin, Lagos and Allada incorporated information from previous European writers and commercial contacts, including material associated with the seventeenth-century Dutch author Olfert Dapper.
Barbot completed an important French manuscript, Description des Côtes d’Affrique, in 1688. After settling in England, he continued revising his work. An English version of his great description of Guinea appeared posthumously in 1732.
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More than a century and a half later, Kingsley reproduced portions of these older commercial records in West African Studies, preserving valuable descriptions of the goods and systems of exchange associated with the West African coast.
What Benin Warri and Calabar Trade in 1678 Reveals About Benin
The Benin section presents a striking picture of the goods associated with one of the most powerful states in the region.
Kingsley’s list includes cotton cloth, ivory, pepper, beads or stones, animal skins and enslaved women among commodities associated with Benin’s outward trade. Goods supplied by European merchants included textiles, linen, calicoes, iron, spirits, glass beads, velvet, cowries, brass rings, mirrors and other manufactured articles.
One detail in the old account refers to “tigers’ or leopards’ skins”. Africa has no indigenous tigers, and the relevant animal in the Benin environment was the leopard. European writers sometimes used inconsistent zoological terminology when describing African animals.
The leopard had particular cultural significance in Benin. It was closely associated with royal power, and representations of leopards appeared prominently in the artistic and political symbolism of the Benin court.
Imported metals were equally important. Brass and copper entered a sophisticated artistic and technological tradition within Benin. Imported metal could be transformed by specialist craftspeople, including the celebrated brass casters associated with the royal court.
The famous Benin plaques depicting Portuguese figures, weapons and manilla-like metal rings reflect an era in which commerce with Europeans became incorporated into the political and artistic world of the kingdom.
The Oba of Benin and Control of Foreign Trade
Benin was not simply a market into which European merchants could introduce whatever goods they wished. The monarchy played a major role in controlling access to foreign commerce.
The Oba and royal officials regulated relations with European traders, while commercial policies could change according to political and economic circumstances.
One of the most remarkable examples involved the export of enslaved males.
Portuguese documentation studied by historian A. F. C. Ryder indicates that restrictions on the overseas sale of male slaves appeared under the Benin monarchy in the early sixteenth century. The restriction developed into a long-lasting embargo on male slave exports.
Women continued to be exported in circumstances where the sale of men was prohibited or heavily restricted.
The embargo persisted through much of the seventeenth century and lasted until approximately the close of that century. The policy demonstrates the extent to which Benin’s rulers could determine important aspects of their kingdom’s participation in Atlantic commerce.
The reasons were probably connected to Benin’s political, military, demographic and labour requirements. Retaining adult males could preserve soldiers, workers and subjects who were important to the kingdom.
The policy remains a significant example of African political authority influencing the direction of early Atlantic trade.
Akori Beads and the “Blue Coral”
Among the most intriguing objects mentioned in the Benin records are akori beads, rendered in Kingsley’s text as “acory” and associated with descriptions of a blue substance resembling coral.
Early European accounts claimed that this material grew in branching formations beneath the waters of rivers or lakes and could be fashioned into highly prized ornaments.
The term akori was used for valuable beads that varied in colour, form and material. Historical descriptions associated the name with objects made from glass and stone, while older traditions sometimes connected the beads with water and coral.
Archaeology has provided further information about glass production in West Africa.
At Igbo Olokun in Ile-Ife, archaeologists discovered thousands of glass beads alongside crucibles and material associated with glass working. Scientific analysis identified a significant indigenous glass-making industry. Much of the production discovered there dates broadly from between the eleventh and fifteenth centuries, long before Barbot wrote about West African trade.
The discoveries at Ile-Ife demonstrate that sophisticated glass manufacture existed in the region before the seventeenth-century expansion of Atlantic commerce.
The name akori, however, was used in different places and periods for beads that were not necessarily identical in composition or origin. It formed part of a long history of prestigious beads circulating through West African political and commercial networks.
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Ouwere, Iwere and the Kingdom of Warri
Kingsley’s appendix presents another section under the heading “Ouwere (now called Warri) Trade, and the New Calabar Trade, 1678.”
Ouwere belongs to a group of European spellings associated with the historical Iwere or Warri kingdom of the Itsekiri people.
The kingdom occupied a strategic position within the western Niger Delta and maintained commercial and diplomatic relationships with Europeans from the early modern period. Its rulers bore the title Olu, and Portuguese missionary activity created notable connections between the kingdom and the Atlantic world.
Historical Iwere extended through a wider network of waterways, settlements and trading routes in the western Niger Delta and should not be understood simply as the geographical equivalent of modern Warri city.
The goods associated with Ouwere and New Calabar in Kingsley’s list included enslaved people and locally produced cloth.
New Calabar Was Not Present-Day Calabar
The name New Calabar can cause considerable confusion for modern readers.
New Calabar did not refer to the present-day city of Calabar in Cross River State. Historically, New Calabar was associated with the Kalabari people and the waterways of the eastern Niger Delta, especially the New Calabar River system in present-day Rivers State.
Old Calabar, meanwhile, belonged to the Cross River commercial region farther east and became especially associated with Efik trading communities.
New Calabar and Old Calabar therefore represented separate geographical and political trading systems.
The New Calabar records also describe metal objects used in commerce. Brass rings identified in the old text as bochie could function as recognised objects of value. Copper imported by Europeans in rods could be worked locally into forms desired by African consumers.
African craftspeople did not simply consume imported European materials in their original form. Metals could be reshaped according to local technologies, preferences and commercial requirements.
Copper Bars and Commerce at Old Calabar
Old Calabar became an important centre of commerce within the Cross River region.
Efik merchants and communities played a prominent role in the trading networks that connected the coast with settlements farther inland. European vessels entered the region seeking ivory and, increasingly, enslaved Africans.
Kingsley’s list mentions iron bars, copper bars, coloured textiles, bells, pewter basins, tankards, beads and copper armlets among commodities circulating within Old Calabar’s trading system.
Copper bars could function as recognised units of value.
Kingsley’s version of the older account states that one iron bar equalled four copper bars. It also gives a figure of 38 copper bars for an enslaved man and 36 or 37 for an enslaved woman.
The figure of 38 has a complicated textual history. Editors of Barbot’s writings have suggested that the intended figure may have been 48 copper bars.
Prices for enslaved people were not permanently fixed. They could vary according to period, age, sex, physical condition, availability, competition among traders and wider market circumstances.
The Old Calabar system nevertheless demonstrates the existence of established commercial practices in which copper and iron bars served as recognised standards of valuation.
African Merchants and Atlantic Commerce
The Benin Warri and Calabar Trade in 1678 records reveal far more than lists of imported and exported commodities.
African political authorities, merchants and craftspeople operated within sophisticated markets. European traders needed commodities that African buyers actually wanted. Metal rings could be accepted or rejected according to local standards. Imported copper could be reshaped by African craftsmen. Cowries, bars and metal objects could function as media of exchange or units of account.
Rulers could regulate market access. Benin’s monarchy could restrict particular exports. Niger Delta merchants controlled riverine networks connecting coastal shipping with communities farther inland.
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The Atlantic slave trade formed an important and devastating part of this commercial world, but it was not the only commerce taking place. Textiles, ivory, pepper, metals, beads and manufactured objects circulated alongside enslaved people.
The societies participating in these exchanges possessed established governments, markets and technological traditions before sustained European commercial contact. Atlantic commerce was therefore incorporated into political and economic systems that already existed.
Conclusion
The records preserved by Mary Kingsley provide a detailed picture of the economic world of southern Nigeria during the age of expanding Atlantic commerce.
Benin emerges as a powerful kingdom whose monarchy regulated foreign trade and maintained a prolonged restriction on the export of male slaves. Historical Iwere or Warri appears as an important Niger Delta kingdom connected to wider commercial networks. New Calabar belonged to the Kalabari trading world of the eastern Niger Delta, while Old Calabar developed within the Cross River region associated especially with Efik merchants.
The goods passing through these systems were remarkably diverse. Cloth, ivory, pepper, beads, iron, copper, brass objects, cowries, alcohol and other manufactured articles moved alongside enslaved people.
The working of imported copper, the circulation of valuable beads and the use of copper bars as standards of value reveal commercial systems governed by established preferences, rules and specialised knowledge.
Seventeenth-century Benin, Warri, New Calabar and Old Calabar were therefore active participants in extensive regional and Atlantic networks centuries before formal colonial rule transformed the political landscape of what later became Nigeria.
Author’s Note
The history of seventeenth-century commerce in Benin, Warri and the Calabar regions shows that Atlantic trade reached societies with established governments, technologies, markets and commercial traditions of their own. African rulers and merchants negotiated access, determined the value of commodities, transformed imported materials and pursued political interests within expanding international networks. At the same time, the growing trade in enslaved people brought profound human suffering and increasingly connected parts of the region to the violent economy of Atlantic slavery. Together, these developments reveal the complexity of the commercial world that existed in southern Nigeria long before colonial conquest.
References
Kingsley, Mary H. West African Studies. London: Macmillan and Co., 1899, Appendix III, “Trade Goods Used in the Early Trade with Africa as Given by Barbot and Other Writers of the Seventeenth Century”.
Hair, P. E. H., Adam Jones and Robin Law, eds. Barbot on Guinea: The Writings of Jean Barbot on West Africa, 1678–1712. 2 vols. London: Hakluyt Society, 1992.
Law, Robin. “Jean Barbot as a Source for the Slave Coast of West Africa.” History in Africa, Vol. 9, 1982, pp. 155–173.
Law, Robin. “Trade and Politics Behind the Slave Coast: The Lagoon Traffic and the Rise of Lagos, 1500–1800.” The Journal of African History, Vol. 24, No. 3, 1983, pp. 321–348.
Ryder, A. F. C. Benin and the Europeans, 1485–1897. London: Longman, 1969.
Fage, J. D. “Slaves and Society in Western Africa, c. 1445–c. 1700.” The Journal of African History, Vol. 21, No. 3, 1980, pp. 289–310.
Kalous, Milan. “A Contribution to the Problem of Akori Beads.” The Journal of African History, Vol. 7, No. 1, 1966, pp. 61–66.
Babalola, Abidemi B., Laure Dussubieux, Susan Keech McIntosh and Thilo Rehren. “Chemical Analysis of Glass Beads from Igbo Olokun, Ile-Ife (SW Nigeria): New Light on Raw Materials, Production, and Interregional Interactions.” Journal of Archaeological Science, Vol. 90, 2018, pp. 92–105.
Jones, G. I. “Native and Trade Currencies in Southern Nigeria during the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries.” Africa, Vol. 28, No. 1, 1958, pp. 43–54.
Latham, A. J. H. Old Calabar, 1600–1891: The Impact of the International Economy upon a Traditional Society. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1973.
Behrendt, Stephen D., and Eric J. Graham. “African Merchants, Notables and the Slave Trade at Old Calabar, 1720: Evidence from the National Archives of Scotland.” History in Africa, Vol. 30, 2003, pp. 37–61.
