ABSTRACT
This chapter argues that the structure of legitimate commerce marked an important break with the past and signified a new phase in the growth of the market, a phase which can be seen as the start of the modern economic history of West Africa. It suggests that the strains involved in creating the economy, combined with fluctuations in its performance, are central to an understanding of the partition of West Africa in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. The main features of the new economy can be analysed by making use of staple theory, which has been developed specifically to explain the particular type of growth stemming from diversification around a well-defined export base. The character of the staple also influences the nature and strength of the linkages between export activities and the domestic economy. Economic development by way of staple exports can be a precarious and lengthy process.
