Royal Niger Company

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(Redirected from
National African Company
)
"Central African Company" redirects here. For companies in the modern nation, see
list of Central African companies
.

Flag of the Royal Niger Company

The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It was formed in 1879 as the United African Company and renamed to National African Company in 1881 and to Royal Niger Company in 1886. In 1929, the company became part of the United Africa Company,[1] which came under the control of Unilever during the 1930s and continued to exist as a subsidiary of Unilever until 1987, when it was absorbed into the parent company.[2]

The company existed for a comparatively short time (1879–1900) but was instrumental in the formation of

Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914 (which eventually gained independence within the same borders as Nigeria in 1960). The Royal Niger Company was eventually integrated into Unilever
.

United African Company

Richard Lander first explored the area of Nigeria as the servant of Hugh Clapperton. In 1830, he returned to the river with his brother John; in 1832, he returned again (without his brother) to establish a trading post for the African Steamship Company"[3] at the confluence of the Niger and Benue rivers. The expedition failed, with 40 of the 49 members dying of fever or wounds from native attacks. One of the survivors, Macgregor Laird, subsequently remained in Britain but directed and funded expeditions to the country until his death in 1861. He opposed the failed Niger expedition of 1841 but the success of the Pleiad's first mission in 1854 led to annual trips under Baikie and the 1857 foundation of Lokoja at the Niger–Benue confluence.

There were no voyages for the three years following Laird's death, but the establishment of the West African Company was soon followed by several other firms. The competition reduced prices to the point that profits were minimal. Arriving in the region in 1877,

Sepoy Rebellion. By 1879, he had helped combine James Crowther's WAC, David Macintosh's Central African Company, and the Williams Brothers' and James Pinnock's firms into a single United African Company; he then acted as the combined firm's agent in the territory.[5]

Almost immediately, the firm saw renewed competition as two

French Equatorial African Association and the Senegal Company—and another English one—the Liverpool and Manchester Trading Company—begin establishing posts on the river as well.[6] A native attack on the UAC's outpost at Onitsha in 1879 was repulsed with help from HMS Pioneer,[5] but the Gladstone administration subsequently denied Goldie's attempt to procure a government charter in 1881, on the grounds that the international rivalry might occasion unnecessary conflict and that the united firm was undercapitalized for the expense of genuine colonial administration.[6]

National African Company

George Goldie in 1898.
See also: Berlin Conference

Goldie first began addressing the administration's concerns by increasing the company's capitalization to £100 000. He then managed to corral

£1 000 000 in investments in a new concern—the National African Company—which bought up the UAC and its interests in 1882.[7] The death of Léon Gambetta the same year deprived the French companies of their support within the French government and the strong subsidies it had been providing them.[6] Goldie's cash-flush NAC was then able to maintain 30 trading posts along the river,[5] and ruin its competition in a two-year price war: by October 1884 all three had permitted him to buy out their interests in the region and the NAC's annual report for 1885 was able to crow that it "remained alone in undisputed commercial possession of the Niger–Binué region".[6]

This

Saint Vincent on charges of "treaty breaking" and "obstructing commerce".[4]

Despite treaties extending British control over the tribes of the

German colony that usurped the area in 1885[8] as a check on French activity in the upper Congo and Ubangi
watersheds.

The scruples of the

Lord Aberdare as governor and Goldie as vice-governor.[9]

Niger Company

It was, however, evidently impossible for a chartered company to hold its own against the state-supported protectorates of France and

£865,000. The ceded territory together with the small Niger Coast Protectorate, already under imperial control, was formed into the two protectorates of northern and southern Nigeria.[9]

The company changed its name to The Niger Company Ltd and in 1929 became part of the United Africa Company.[1] The United Africa Company came under the control of Unilever in the 1930s and continued to exist as a subsidiary of Unilever until 1987, when it was absorbed into the parent company.[2]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-1860640148
    .
  2. ^ a b Tayo, Ayomide O. (26 July 2019). "How Nigeria transformed from a business into a country". Pulse NG. Retrieved 27 July 2019.
  3. ^ public domain Baynes, T. S., ed. (1902). "Niger (river)". Encyclopædia Britannica (9th ed.). New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
  4. ^ a b Máthé-Shires, László. "Lagos Colony and Oil Rivers Protectorate" in the Encyclopedia of African History, Vol. 3, pp. 791–792. Accessed 5 April 2014.
  5. ^ a b c Geary, Sir William N.M. (1927), pp. 174 ff.
  6. ^ a b c d McPhee, Allan. The Economic Revolution in British West Africa, pp. 75 ff. Frank Cass & Co. Ltd. (Abingdon), 1926 and reprinted 1971. Accessed 4 April 2014.
  7. ^ "Chartered Companies" in the Encyclopædia Britannica, 10th ed.
  8. ^ a b Geary, Sir William Nevill Montgomerie. Nigeria under British Rule, p. 95. Frank Cass & Co, 1927. Accessed 5 April 2014.
  9. ^ a b  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911a). "Goldie, Sir George Dashwood Taubman". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 12 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 211–212.
  10. ISBN 978-0521681575
    .

External links

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