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Royal Niger Company

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"Central African Company" redirects here. For companies in the modern nation, seelist of Central African companies.

Flag of the Royal Niger Company

TheRoyal Niger Companywas a mercantile company chartered by theBritishgovernment in the nineteenth century. It was formed in 1879 as theUnited African Companyand renamed toNational African Companyin 1881 and toRoyal Niger Companyin 1886. In 1929, the company became part of theUnited Africa Company,[1]which came under the control ofUnileverduring the 1930s and continued to exist as a subsidiary of Unilever until 1987, when it was absorbed into the parent company.[2]

The company existed for a comparatively short time (1879–1900) but was instrumental in the formation ofColonial Nigeria,as it enabled the British Empire to establish control over the lowerNigeragainst the German competition led byBismarckduring the 1890s. In 1900, the company-controlled territories became theSouthern Nigeria Protectorate,which was in turn united with theNorthern Nigeria Protectorateto form theColony and Protectorate of Nigeriain 1914 (which eventually gained independence within the same borders asNigeriain 1960). The Royal Niger Company was eventually integrated intoUnilever.

United African Company

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Richard Landerfirst explored the area ofNigeriaas the servant ofHugh Clapperton.In 1830, he returned to the river with his brotherJohn;in 1832, he returned again (without his brother) to establish a trading post for theAfrican Steamship Company"[3]at the confluence of the Niger andBenuerivers. The expedition failed, with 40 of the 49 members dying offeveror wounds from native attacks. One of the survivors,Macgregor Laird,subsequently remained in Britain but directed and funded expeditions to the country until his death in 1861. He opposed the failedNiger expedition of 1841but the success of thePleiad's first mission in 1854 led to annual trips underBaikieand the 1857 foundation ofLokojaat the Niger–Benue confluence.

There were no voyages for the three years following Laird's death, but the establishment of theWest African Companywas soon followed by several other firms. The competition reduced prices to the point that profits were minimal. Arriving in the region in 1877,[4]George Goldieargued for the amalgamation of the surviving British firms into a single monopolisticchartered company,a method contemporaries supposed had been buried with the ultimate failure of theEast India Companyfollowing theSepoy Rebellion.By 1879, he had helped combine James Crowther's WAC, David Macintosh'sCentral African Company,and the Williams Brothers' and James Pinnock's firms into a singleUnited African Company;he then acted as the combined firm's agent in the territory.[5]

Almost immediately, the firm saw renewed competition as twoFrenchfirms—theFrench Equatorial African Associationand theSenegal Company—and another English one—theLiverpool and Manchester Trading Company—begin establishing posts on the river as well.[6]A native attack on the UAC's outpost atOnitshain 1879 was repulsed with help fromHMSPioneer,[5]but theGladstone administrationsubsequently denied Goldie's attempt to procure agovernment charterin 1881, on the grounds that the international rivalry might occasion unnecessary conflict and that the united firm was undercapitalized for the expense of genuine colonial administration.[6]

National African Company

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George Goldiein 1898.
See also:Berlin Conference

Goldie first began addressing the administration's concerns by increasing the company's capitalization to £100 000. He then managed to corral£1 000 000 in investments in a new concern—theNational African Company—which bought up the UAC and its interests in 1882.[7]The death ofLéon Gambettathe same year deprived the French companies of their support within theFrenchgovernment and the strong subsidies it had been providing them.[6]Goldie's cash-flush NAC was then able to maintain 30 trading posts along the river,[5]and ruin its competition in a two-year price war: by October 1884 all three had permitted him to buy out their interests in the region and the NAC's annual report for 1885 was able to crow that it "remained alone in undisputed commercial possession of the Niger–Binué region".[6]

Thismonopolypermitted Britain to resist French andGermancalls to internationalize trade on the Niger River during the negotiations at the 1884–1885Berlin ConferenceonAfrican colonization.Goldie himself attended the meetings and successfully argued for including the region of the NAC's operations within a British sphere of interest. Pledges from him and the British diplomats thatfree trade(or, in any case, non-discriminatory tariff rates) would be respected in their territory were dead letters: the NAC's over 400 treaties with local leaders obliged the natives to trade solely with or through the company's agents. Large tariffs and license fees eliminated competing firms from the area. The terms of these private contracts were made into general treaties by the British consuls, whose own treaties expressly incorporated them.[8]Similarly, whenKing JajaofOpoboorganized his own trading network and even began running his own shipments ofpalm oilto Britain, he was lured onto a British warship and shipped into exile onSaint Vincenton charges of "treaty breaking" and "obstructing commerce".[4]

Despite treaties extending British control over the tribes of theCameroons,however, Britain was willing to recognize theGerman colony that usurped the areain 1885[8]as a check on French activity in theupper CongoandUbangiwatersheds.

The scruples of theBritish governmentbeing overcome, a charter was at length granted (July 1886), the National African Company becomingThe Royal Niger Company Chartered and Limited[1](normally shortened to the Royal Niger Company), withLord Aberdareas governor and Goldie as vice-governor.[9]

Niger Company

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Royal Niger Company Act 1899
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to make provision for certain Payments to be made in connection with the Revocation of the Charter of the Royal Niger Company.
Citation62 & 63 Vict.c. 43
Dates
Royal assent9 August 1899
Other legislation
Repealed byNigeria (Remission of Payments) Act 1937
Status: Repealed
Nigeria (Remission of Payments) Act 1937
Act of Parliament
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Long titleAn Act to remit any sums which have become or may become payable to the Exchequer under section three of the Royal Niger Company Act, 1899, and to extinguish the liability for the payment of such sums.
Citation1 Edw. 8 & 1 Geo. 6.c. 63
Dates
Royal assent30 July 1937
Other legislation
Repeals/revokesRoyal Niger Company Act 1899

It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of France andGermany,and in consequence its charter was revoked in 1899[10]and, on 1 January 1900, the Royal Niger Company transferred its territories to the British Government for the sum of£865,000. The ceded territory together with the smallNiger Coast Protectorate,already under imperial control, was formed into the two protectorates ofNorthern NigeriaandSouthern Nigeria.[9]

The company changed its name toThe Niger Company Ltdand in 1929 became part of theUnited Africa Company.[1] The United Africa Company came under the control ofUnileverin the 1930s and continued to exist as a subsidiary of Unilever until 1987, when it was absorbed into the parent company.[2]

See also

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References

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  1. ^abcBaker, Geoffrey L (1996).Trade Winds on the Niger: Saga of the Royal Niger Company, 1830-1971.London: Radcliffe Press.ISBN978-1860640148.
  2. ^abTayo, Ayomide O. (26 July 2019)."How Nigeria transformed from a business into a country".Pulse NG.Retrieved27 July2019.
  3. ^public domainBaynes, T. S., ed. (1902)."Niger (river)".Encyclopædia Britannica(9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  4. ^abMáthé-Shires, László. "Lagos Colony and Oil Rivers Protectorate"in theEncyclopedia of African History,Vol. 3, pp. 791–792. Accessed 5 April 2014.
  5. ^abcGeary, Sir William N.M. (1927),pp. 174 ff.
  6. ^abcdMcPhee, Allan.The Economic Revolution in British West Africa,pp. 75 ff.Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. (Abingdon), 1926 and reprinted 1971. Accessed 4 April 2014.
  7. ^"Chartered Companies" in theEncyclopædia Britannica,10th ed.
  8. ^abGeary, Sir William Nevill Montgomerie.Nigeria under British Rule,p. 95.Frank Cass & Co, 1927. Accessed 5 April 2014.
  9. ^abOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911a). "Goldie, Sir George Dashwood Taubman".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 211–212.
  10. ^Falola, Toyin; Heaton, Matthew (2008).A History of Nigeria.Cambridge University Press. p.101.ISBN978-0521681575.
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