_THE ROYAL NIGER COMPANY._
It has ever been a good thing for British commercial enterprise that
its agents have never had to rely on their Government to pioneer new
trade routes, and secure for them unexploited territory. Our merchants
have required nothing but a free hand to cut out their own paths, and
that the fruits of their labours should not be taken from them by the
political action of other nationalities. What has been accomplished on
these terms let half our colonies say.
The above rule, though general, has not been invariably applied, as
witness the case of West Africa, already described, in which, as the
result of Government restriction and interference, the harvest of
British labour has passed into French hands, and commercial enterprise
has become crushed and degraded along with the regions in which it has
been carried on.
Happily for our position in West Central Africa, the Niger basin never
fell under these blighting influences. When our Government withdrew
from that region it withdrew completely, otherwise there would have
been yet another chapter of lamentable mal-administration and gross
betrayal of a nation’s trust to add to the annals of West African
history.
The Niger was thus left free to be made the most of by the operations
of private enterprise.
For a few years after Baikie’s expedition nothing more was done to
establish a trade in the river. Not that the task was abandoned as
hopeless. On the contrary, new plans were germinating and steadily
taking shape and form preparatory to renewed attempts under more
hopeful conditions.
By this time people had begun to realise more thoroughly the nature
of a tropical life, and knew better how to fight the insidious and
dangerous influences of excessive heat and moisture, and the germs of
disease they fostered. By substituting quinine for the lancet in the
treatment of fever, that hitherto deadly disease had been robbed of
half its terrors.
Once more Macgregor Laird--a name that must be bracketed with those
of Park, M‘Queen, and Lander--was the leader in the new movement.
Undaunted by past losses and failures--on the contrary, shown by their
teaching how victory was to be achieved--he again entered the Niger
in 1852--this time not to leave it till he had laid the permanent
foundations of British commercial influence.
In this new enterprise the pioneer did not restrict himself to mere
voyages up the river and passing calls at the chief marketing centres.
He established stations at various points, in the form of movable hulks
moored in the river, which had the double advantage of being capable
of removal bodily, and of providing a certain measure of security from
hostile attack. At the same time, profiting by past experience of the
deadly nature of the climate, the number of European agents was reduced
to a minimum, and educated coast natives were employed instead.
Palm oil, ivory, and Benni-seed were the sole products exported--cotton
goods, metals of various kinds, beads and salt, being the chief
articles given in exchange. Nearer the coast, gin, rum, gunpowder, and
guns were largely in demand, as a result of the old shameful days of
slave dealing. A profitable trade was soon established, and before many
years Macgregor Laird had to compete with new firms who sought to share
the profits.
But though the Europeans thus increased in numbers, their position
continued to be extremely precarious. The cannibal tribes of the delta
were not slow to recognise that their monopoly of the trade of the
upper river was being completely abolished, and they sought to bar the
way by incessant attacks on the steamers and stations of the various
traders. These having conflicting interests, could not be made to
combine for common action against the common enemy. From time to time
a gunboat paid a hurried punitive visit, but produced no permanent
impression upon the refractory inhabitants.
The result of this divided action on the part of the traders, and
the growing power and truculence of the native tribes, was extremely
disastrous for Macgregor Laird, who eventually was forced to retire
from the river.
Along with the growing dangers to the various houses engaged in the
Niger trade, new troubles began to loom up before them, retarding
the proper and healthy commercial development of the region, and
threatening all in a common ruin. At first the field to be exploited
was so large that the traders came but little into conflict. Gradually,
however, with the entrance of new firms, and the planting of new
stations, they began to encroach on each other’s districts. The result
was soon seen in the keen competition which ensued. The price of
native produce began to go up, till it threatened to rise above its
value. To keep the trade going profitably the agents were forced to
become more and more unscrupulous as to the nature of the articles of
import--more and more regardless of the claims of their commercial
competitors. Each sought to drive the other out, and the natives,
not slow to see the advantages to themselves, did their best to
encourage the strife. Under such conditions all legitimate progress
was rendered impossible. At any given point the inhabitants were in
a position to say, Thus far shalt thou go and no further, or could
clear the merchants out if they thought fit. Enterprise requiring
considerable outlay was out of the question when the fruits were
probably to be reaped only by rivals. The trade, from being restricted
to useful articles, was rapidly degenerating, so as largely to include
vile spirits and weapons of destruction. Gradually the conditions
of competition were making a wholesome trade an impossibility, and
the natives, instead of being bettered spiritually and materially by
European intercourse, were being driven down into deeper depths of
barbarism. A state of things which our prophet M‘Queen had foretold
in these memorable words--“If this erroneous policy is pursued, then
to the latest period of time the central and southern parts of that
vast continent are doomed to remain in the same deplorable state of
ignorance, degradation, and misery which has been their lot during the
lapse of three hundred years.”
This was a consummation of their labours which the merchants could not
contemplate with equanimity. That they were honourable men we have
no reason to doubt. True, they went to the Niger in order to make
money, but they had no thought of growing wealthy on the ruin and
degradation of the people among whom they traded. They had become the
victims of the circumstances under which their business was carried on,
whereby they were driven irresistibly and even unwittingly into the
deplorable situation in which they at length found themselves. In a
manner they were more to be pitied than blamed, for they had conjured
up a Frankenstein that threatened to be their ruin. To one and all it
was alike clear that as long as open unregulated competition lasted,
the character of the trade could not be altered--must indeed go from
bad to worse--their profits become less and less, and their footing in
the country more precarious, subject as it was to the whims, enmities,
extortions, and restrictions of the barbarous tribes, armed by the
traders themselves with guns which on occasion were turned against the
vendors.
A turning point in the commercial history of the Niger had been
reached, and everything now depended on the course pursued whether the
next departure would be for the weal or for the woe of all concerned.
Happily the right man was forthcoming at this critical juncture, when
the necessity of a change was evident to all. Clear-headed, far-seeing
business men were in the trade--the peers among British merchants
wherever engaged; but something more was wanted in him who should
extricate his fellows from the difficult situation in which they had
placed themselves. Some one was needed who, with business instincts and
knowledge, should combine the _savoir faire_ and knowledge of the world
of the diplomatist. Such an one was Sir George T. Goldie--then Mr. G.
Goldie Taubman--a name which, like that of Macgregor Laird, must ever
rank in the galaxy of great names associated with the annals of Niger
enterprise.
At the time Sir George Goldie joined the Central African Company of
London, the only other houses in the river were Messrs. Miller & Co.,
Glasgow, the West African Company of Manchester, and Mr James Pinnock
of Liverpool. Trade was carried on as far north as Egga, though
commercially the Benué still remained a closed river. A visit to the
seat of operations was sufficient to make Sir George aware of the exact
situation, and the absolute necessity of a change, if a legitimate
and at the same time profitable trade were to be continued. The other
firms were already impressed with the same opinion, and the result of a
little laying of heads together was the amalgamation of all the firms
into the United African Company in the year 1879.
The happy results of this policy were soon made apparent in improved
profits. The expense of management was enormously reduced. Where
formerly there had been floating hulks, permanent stations were built
on land, and at the same time the number was increased. The Company
thus found itself on an altogether new footing with the natives, who
could now be treated with on equal terms. The trade grew by leaps and
bounds, and bade fair to become of national importance.
Naturally such prosperity could not continue without attracting the
envious attention of other nations, and more especially of the French,
who, having succeeded far beyond their wildest expectations in reaping
the harvest sown by the English in the Upper Niger basin, hoped by a
little judicious manipulation to be able to do the same along the
lower course of the river, and so carry out their dream of an almost
exclusive African Empire stretching from Benin to the Mediterranean.
Under the patronage, more or less open, of Gambetta--certainly
instigated and encouraged by him--the first feelers were thrown out
in the establishment of two commercial associations--the Compagnie
Française de l’Afrique Equatoriale of Paris, with a capital of
£160,000; and the Compagnie du Senegal et de la Côte Occidentale
d’Afrique of Marseilles, with a subscribed capital of £600,000.
Happily for British enterprise in the Niger basin our interests were
watched over by argus eyes, else the course of events would have taken
a different turn, French commerce bringing everywhere with it the
French flag and administrative system, to the eventual strangling of
any trade of ours.
The United African Company, till then private, was promptly thrown
open to the public, and the capital raised to a million sterling.
Thus provided with “the sinews of war,” the Company proceeded to give
battle to the foreign interlopers, and speedily swept them out of the
entire region. None the less, however, did the French contrive to do
incalculable harm during their brief inglorious career, under which the
gin trade flourished, and further anarchy was spread among the savage
tribes, as usual ever ready to take full advantage of division and
enmity among the European traders.
With the annihilation of the French Companies our merchants once more
reigned supreme, and all immediate danger of French political and
commercial aggression was completely quashed.
The footing, however, which the former had even temporarily been able
to effect, had shown the precarious position of the British Company’s
hold on the country, unsupported as they were by Government backing.
They were still open to renewed attempts at aggression--still liable
to have the fruits of their labour and enterprise wrested from them.
Under such conditions there could be no real attempts to develop the
resources of the country, or introduce new civilising institutions
among the natives, to effect which ends it was perfectly clear that
two things were necessary--first, that the Niger basin below Timbuktu
should be declared British, as a guarantee against all further foreign
intrusion; and second, that a Royal Charter should be obtained, under
the authority of which the Company would be enabled to proceed with the
work of development and progress.
The necessity of this latter step had already been foreseen by M‘Queen
long before the Lower Niger had been explored, except in M‘Queen’s own
mind. With an insight truly prophetic, he pointed out that if ever
Great Britain’s mission in the Niger was to be achieved, it could only
be by means of a Chartered Company. While deprecating a prolonged term
of privilege, he argues that its duration ought not to be narrowed
too much, otherwise that circumstance would tend to discourage the
merchant, and prevent him from laying out money at the first outset,
or embarking in the trade with that vigour which alone could render it
productive and successful.
In answer to the argument against exclusive privilege, he shows that
this exclusive privilege is for a trade yet to be formed, and that
the commercial conditions of a civilised and an uncivilised country
are totally different. In the latter “everything is to do. Regular
commerce is to be created. Society is almost altogether to be formed.
Security and civilisation, law, order, and religion are each and
all yet to be introduced. Unity of action and design, therefore,
become absolutely necessary to accomplish all these desirable
objects--conflicting interests amidst such a disjointed population must
and will indefinitely retard it. A charter is clearly and indispensably
necessary in order to conduct mercantile affairs to a prosperous
issue--in order to regulate the supply, to explore the country and find
out the proper markets, to negotiate as an irresistible and stable
power with the native princes, to purchase lands, to protect trade, to
punish aggression, to rear up gradually an empire in Africa such as
had been done in India, against which no native power shall be able
to raise its head. Then and not till then the trade may be thrown
open.... Without such regulations for a time there is too good reason
to dread that our connection with Africa will never be more than the
transient visitations of insulated merchants,” &c. &c. In these and
other remarkable words M‘Queen graphically sketches the history of the
sixty years of British intercourse with the Niger subsequent to the
time at which he wrote. Only after such a lapse of time, and through a
long series of mistakes and the rude buffeting of facts, were our eyes
opened to the necessity of taking his advice.
Even then, however, the National African Company might have petitioned
the Government in vain to make the Niger secure from foreign
aggression, or to put them on the only possible footing to exploit and
develop a savage country lying under the blight of a deadly climate,
but for the sudden awaking of Europe to the supposed-to-be vast
latent possibilities of the African continent. A magnificent bubble
was puffed up into view, dazzling all eyes with its iridescent hues,
and inflaming all minds with its promise of wealth and power. European
commerce was to be regenerated--the pressure on the population was to
be relieved--nations were to rise in power and importance. El Dorado
and Second India were terms too weak to express the possibilities of
the future when Africa was under discussion.
Under the electric glow of the new craze deserts were made to bloom
like Eden, swamps became veritable arcadias, the wilderness was
repeopled, and peace and a demand for European goods were discovered
to be the prevailing characteristics of the natives. The result was
the scramble for Africa, in which the chief nations of Europe made
themselves ridiculous by the indecent haste with which they rushed to
raise their respective flags. Our own Government was the last to feel
the quickening influences, and then only awoke under the pressure of
public opinion, and after much that should have been ours had been lost.
But for the National African Company the Niger would probably now have
fallen a prey to France or Germany, but with admirable forethought they
had strengthened their position and secured their rights by treaties
with every native tribe from the mouth of the Niger to the Benué. By
virtue of persistent nagging at the Foreign Office, these treaties were
recognised by Government, and a protectorate proclaimed over the region
thus acquired.
Then came the Berlin Conference in the winter of 1884, in which the
free navigation of the Niger was established, but the administration
of the river from Timbuktu to the sea was left in the hands of the
British.
This was much; but more remained to be done. The Niger and Benué above
their confluence still lay open to political and commercial aggression,
which might be fatal to the best interests of this country as well as
to the Company which had already done so much.
Thanks to the persistent efforts of one Herr Flegel, the Germans were
not slow to recognise this fact. This indefatigable trader and explorer
commenced his career as a clerk in a trading house in Lagos. Filled
with an ambition to explore and extend German influence, he contrived
to ascend the Niger in British mission steamers and trading vessels,
spying out the land wherever he went, and ever on the outlook how the
British bread he ate might be turned to German account. With much
daring and industry, and assisted by German funds, he added much on
subsequent trips to our knowledge of some parts of the Niger and Benué.
The result of his inquiries and exploration was to fire the German
Colonial Society with the hope of establishing their national influence
in the regions beyond the British Protectorate.
Happily the National African Company were as usual wideawake, and soon
became aware of the new danger which threatened them. Immediately they
set about preparing to forestall any action on the part of the Germans.
Already in their self-imposed task of securing Britain’s rights in the
Niger they had used up all the profits of their trade, but they had no
thought of shrinking from the work. To have the Germans in the Niger
would mean irreparable ruin to legitimate commerce, and the flooding of
the whole land with the styx-like flood of gin which would inevitably
flow in a devastating flood from Hamburg. At this supreme moment it
became necessary once for all to secure the Niger basin to Britain. The
Company did the writer of these lines the honour of inviting him to
take up the task. Accordingly, in February 1885, I found myself once
more steaming towards the tropics, while as yet my friends for the most
part imagined me recruiting in the Mediterranean from the effects of my
recent expedition to Masai-land.