ABSTRACT
For two centuries, the world has headed towards greater globalisation through trade in commodities and other socio-economic and politically motivated exchanges. Between the 16th and 19th centuries, Africa played a great colonial role in the supply of primary commodities, including human cargo in the form of slaves to the so-called new world. The disruptions of trade and aid flow, changes in trade and aid patterns, changes in socioeconomic institutions and possibly changes in economic and political power are indeed interconnected. In the traditions of Adam Smith, trade brings the benefits of specialisation and facilitates knowledge transfer and innovation. A major source of the poverty trap in developing countries is the persistence of low living standards, rising unemployment and growing income inequality underpinned by the highly unequal distribution of economic and political power between rich and poor countries.
