It Is An Error, Easily Fallen Into, To Imagine That The Natives In
The Interior Are Willing To Give Much Higher Prices Than The Sea-
Coast Natives For Goods.
Be it granted that they are compelled now
to give say on an average seventy-five per cent.
Higher prices to
the sea-coast natives who at present act as middlemen between them
and the white trader, but if the white trader goes into the
interior, he has to face, first, the difficulty of getting his goods
there safely; secondly, the opposition of the native traders who
can, and will drive him out of the market, unless he is backed by
easy and cheap means of transport. Take the case of Coomassie now.
A merchant, let us say, wants to take up from the Coast to Coomassie
3,000 pounds worth of goods to trade with. To transport this he has
to employ 1,300 carriers at one shilling and three pence per day a
head. The time taken is eight days there, and eight days back, =
sixteen days, which figures out at 1,300 pounds, without allowing
for loss and damage. In order to buy produce with these goods that
will cover this, and all shipping expenses, etc., he would have to
sell at a far higher figure in Coomassie than he would on the sea-
coast, and the native traders would easily oust him from the market.
Moreover so long as a district is in the hands of native traders
there is no advance made, and no development goes forward; and it
would be a grave error to allow this to take place at Coomassie, now
that we have at last done what we should have done in 1874 and taken
actual possession, for Coomassie is a grand position that, if
properly managed for a few years, will become a great interior
market, attracting to itself the routes of interior trade.
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