ABSTRACT
Europeans were impressed by the display of privilege and wealth at Senegambian funerals. In 1588 Don Antonio awarded Devon and London merchants a monopoly of Senegambian trade. The research of Nize Izabel de Moraes highlighted the value of Dutch and French sources regarding Petite Cote commerce in cotton textiles and garments produced from cotton grown in the Senegambian hinterland. European competition for Senegambian commerce continued unabated during the seventeenth century, with a gradual concentration of spheres of interest. Portuguese, Cabo Verdeans, Luso-Africans, and associated grumetes developed progressively stronger link-ages between the Banyun-Bak and Biafada-Sapi commercial networks, expanding trade in kola, cotton textiles, and other commodities. Rainolds learned about commercial links between the Petite Cote, the Gambia River, and the Banyun-Bak and Biafada-Sapi networks. The analysis of regional networks makes it clear that Banyun and Niominka traders maintained a monopoly over commercial exchanges along the lower and middle Gambia.
