ABSTRACT
The first European traders settled on the Gazelle Peninsula in 1872 intent on buying copra. In exchange for steel axes, knives, guns and ammunition, the coastal Tolai were prepared to give as many coconuts as were asked. One stick of trade tobacco fetched about twenty-five to thirty nuts. The period from 1896 to 1930 saw a rapid expansion of coconut cultivation, which brought an increased income and at first a more than proportionate increase in consumption. The prospect of a higher and more varied level of consumption served to induce production for the market. This involved the creation of capital through the extension and improvement of agricultural properties, facilitated by the availability of steel tools. At the beginning of the 1930s when, as a result of the world crisis, copra prices began to tumble and consequently Tolai earnings from copra were greatly reduced, more growers looked for other sources of income.
