Capitalism in the Colonies: African Merchants in Lagos, 1851–1931

Cover
Contents
List of Illustrations
Preface
Acknowledgements
Orthography, Currency Values, and Weights
Abbreviations
Prologue: A Gunboat for Christmas, 1851
Chapter 1: The Global Meets the Local
	The Revival of Economic History
	Port Cities in History
	The Colonial Port City
	Entrepreneurship in a Colonial Context
	The Entrepreneurs of Lagos
	Cases and Sources
	Three Shocks
	Signposts
Part I: The Shock of 1851
	Chapter 2: Creating a Cosmopolitan Frontier, 1851–1880
		The Expansion of Legitimate Commerce
		Business Uncertainty under the Consulate
		Founding a New Colony
		Settling In: The Town and Its Inhabitants
		The Saro Draw Lines in the Sand
		The New Order Established
	Chapter 3: The Mercantile Community
		The New Commercial Environment
		Property Becomes Big Business
		Winners and Losers
		Men of the Marina
		Taking Stock
	Chapter 4: Chief Daniel Taiwo and His Network
		Becoming a Lagosian
		From Kosoko to Glover
		‘The Head of All the Markets in the Colony‘
		Business and Politics
		The Closing Years
		Conclusion
	Chapter 5: James Davies, King of the Merchant Princes
		A Saro Story—With Royal Connections
		Davies and Taiwo: An Unexpected Alliance
		From the Heights to the Depths
		Returning to Business
		Halfway
Part II: The Shock of 1892
	Chapter 6: Crisis and Transition, 1880–1900
		The Commercial Outlook
		Business Uncertainty under the Colony
		Expanding the Colony
		The Commercial Consequences of Colonial Expansion
		The Port and Its People
		Reverberations
	Chapter 7: The Mercantile Community
		The Consequences of the Invasion of Yorubaland
		Failure and Success
		The End of a Golden Age
		‘Decline’ in Context
	Chapter 8: Merchants as Money Lenders: Richard Blaize and Isaac Williams
		Context
		Richard Beale Blaize: Beginnings
		Diversification: Property and Money Lending
		A Family Man
		Newspapers and Politics
		Blaize’s Legacy
		Isaac Benjamin Williams: Early Life
		The Import Trade
		Property, Mortgages, and Rentals
		Family and Church
		Two Lives Compared
	Chapter 9: James Davies: The First of the Cocoa Farmers
		Acquiring Woodland Estate
		Developing the Estate in the 1880s
		The Estate Farm Book, 1896–1899
		Ijon as a Centre of Innovation
		Output and Profits
		Final Years
		A Full Life
	Chapter 10: The Changing Economic Environment, 1900–1914
		Commercial Expansion and Colonial Development Policy
		The New Commercial Environment
		Institutional Innovation
		Political Aspects of Entrepreneurial Motivation
		The Port and Its Inhabitants
		The Consequences of the Second Shock
	Chapter 11: Accommodation and Diversification
		Mercantile Fortunes
		Accommodating Colonial Rule
		Diversifying the Economy
		Pioneers of Mechanisation
		Financial Innovation
		Bouncing Back
	Chapter 12: Negotiating Colonial Rule: Josiah Doherty and Samuel Pearse
		The Doherty Family: Beginnings
		Josiah Doherty Founds His Own Business
		Feeling the Strain, 1914–1928
		The Man in the Merchant
		Samuel Pearse: The Great Survivor
		Calabar and the Ivory Boom
		The War and Its Aftermath
		Final Years
		Two Kinds of Success
	Chapter 13: Jacob Coker and the New Farming Frontier at Agege
		From Commerce to Farming
		The Agege Plantation Complex
		The Farming Community
		The Agege Planters’ Union
		Costs and Benefits
		From Davies to Coker
Part III: The Shock of 1914
	Chapter 14: War and Its Consequences
		The Fortunes of War
		The Changing Commercial Environment
		Boom and Bust
		The Mercantile Community
		Co-operation and Innovation
		The Outcome
	Chapter 15: Peter Thomas: From Meteor to Falling Star
		The Making of a Civil Servant
		From Government Official to Merchant
		The Exigencies of War
		Life at the Top
		The Long Descent
		The Final Phase
		A Vision Postponed
	Chapter 16: A Conclusion, a Conundrum, and a Speculation
		Conclusion: Capitalists and the Spread of Capitalism
		Conundrum: The Missing Years
		Speculation: Development in the Long Run
Epilogue: Congestion for Christmas, 2022
Appendix: Lagos Entrepreneurs, 1851–1931
Sources
Index