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This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the global economy. It explores their demand for Indian cotton textiles and how their consumption shaped patterns of global trade, influencing economies and businesses from Western Europe to South Asia. In turn, the book examines how cotton textile production in southern India responded to this demand. Through this perspective of a south-south economic history, the study foregrounds African agency and considers the lasting impact on production and exports in South Asia. It also considers how European commercial and imperial expansion provided a complex web of networks, linking West African consumers and Indian weavers. Crucially, it demonstrates the emergence of the modern global economy.
List of contents
1 Introduction.- 2 West African Seaborne Trade, 1750-1850: The Transition from the Slave Trade to the 'Legitimate' Commerce.- 3 Guinées in the Lower Senegal River: A Consumer-Led Trade in the Early Nineteenth Century.- 4 Procurement of Indian Textiles for West Africa, 1750-1850.- 5 Western European Merchants and West Africa, 1750-1850.- 6 Conclusion.
About the author
Kazuo Kobayashi is Associate Professor of Economic History at Waseda University, Tokyo, Japan. He completed his PhD at the London School of Economics and Political Science, UK. His research and teaching focus on African and global economic history.
Summary
This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the global economy. It explores their demand for Indian cotton textiles and how their consumption shaped patterns of global trade, influencing economies and businesses from Western Europe to South Asia. In turn, the book examines how cotton textile production in southern India responded to this demand. Through this perspective of a south-south economic history, the study foregrounds African agency and considers the lasting impact on production and exports in South Asia. It also considers how European commercial and imperial expansion provided a complex web of networks, linking West African consumers and Indian weavers. Crucially, it demonstrates the emergence of the modern global economy.
Additional text
“Indian Cotton Textiles in West Africa is an ambitious new entry in this field. … This is a remarkable book, which masterly combines research and theoretical approaches. … This seems to be exactly what took place in the Senegambian region after the demise of the transatlantic slave trade.” (Gustavo Acioli, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol. 23 (1), 2022)
“Indian Cotton Textiles in West Africa represents an important contribution to the burgeoning scholarly canon that centers Africa and Africans in the creation of the modern world. The book is structured thematically and regionally.” (Philip Gooding, Asian Review of World Histories, Vol. 10 (2), 2022)
“Kobayashi’s illuminating focus on African agency invites us to assess the evolution of the global economy and the modern world from a hitherto overlooked perspective. In doing so, this book lights up corners of economic history previously unexplored, posing many more questions and opening new avenues of research. … this book places long-ignored African consumers, Indian artisans, and the cotton cloth that connected them, at the centre of the premodern world, throwing global history wide open to newer insights and interpretations.” (Alka Raman, The Economic History Review, Vol. 73 (3), 2020)
Report
"Indian Cotton Textiles in West Africa is an ambitious new entry in this field. ... This is a remarkable book, which masterly combines research and theoretical approaches. ... This seems to be exactly what took place in the Senegambian region after the demise of the transatlantic slave trade." (Gustavo Acioli, Journal of Colonialism and Colonial History, Vol. 23 (1), 2022)
"Indian Cotton Textiles in West Africa represents an important contribution to the burgeoning scholarly canon that centers Africa and Africans in the creation of the modern world. The book is structured thematically and regionally." (Philip Gooding, Asian Review of World Histories, Vol. 10 (2), 2022)
"Kobayashi's illuminating focus on African agency invites us to assess the evolution of the global economy and the modern world from a hitherto overlooked perspective. In doing so, this book lights up corners of economic history previously unexplored, posing many more questions and opening new avenues of research. ... this book places long-ignored African consumers, Indian artisans, and the cotton cloth that connected them, at the centre of the premodern world, throwing global history wide open to newer insights and interpretations." (Alka Raman, The Economic History Review, Vol. 73 (3), 2020)
