Southern Nigeria. Report concerning Manilla Currency as used int he districts falling within the...

8/13/2019 Southern Nigeria. Report concerning Manilla Currency as used int he districts falling within the trading influence of Opobo, Bonny and Eket. N. p., 1913.

http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/southern-nigeria-report-concerning-manilla-currency-as-used-int-he-districts 1/20

SOUTH RN NIGERIA

CONFIDENTIAL

Report concerning Manilla urrency as used in the districts falling within the trading influence of

Opobo Bonny and Eket with Memorandum

relating to Barter ·



.,... . .. _ _ ......

· 1 . t the ~ h i l i n O : t·at H•a r, aofl i t is of intereR L ta\ t'l 'a t ' ln . l r u 1 JJtlllltlla e s ? . 1 t :. ·•t Ot).OIIt) l•• l· ' Jue t bn.t lie remcm

•. ' ' f t (' SCHIOI' n lP I ' l ' l tU l ..., ' u . .

note in t l m ~ OtiC

0

• 'lJ· . :bout i l j years a,cro at the rate or 22 Lo the shilhnh c i t h e ~ e H a n ~ e ~ n ~ .t1

out cir tlw c ~ u n t r y at a profi t .ut whiclt prwc a qnantlt) ' <lf3 sutppN

:i. 1t nH l\ he coDVl'Liic ut i f I at once t ·der to the ? t a ~ Yalu c h e ~ e o ~ ~ n1

lfiOfl ""P<.'l'iti tcnH o f m a u i ' e re : ~ • . m home 111 r. • oHlJC I to L lt e Cl 0\' n ~ n t~ t · ~ aud valuation, ttutl it. was then -ltall'd that llH metal worth ~ 3 . )\.: 10 , )lel tun in P1n ghtllll. A f{ ;,\\ m o n t h ~ g · > Lht• r o w l l A g e n l ~ W C llHkcd Lo.asce

Llll l thP l 'U l't 'P n t J>l'H'e of lllls lllet.l), autlm 1ht- reply of the hullton btokcrH d_utcd 25- i ~ • m h c l HH2 Lhc value WU.'i giv n a"' <.Lhout. £15 pet· t011 e . ~ . : t • c u · e o u H c l werpooL

6. to. Utm ·e will p t · o l h l ~ be a. further amwocia. ti on ill tlte va luo of m aui l lus

1 he lime an 1 i o u which be cons i llen.Jt l dcbirahl mig1 tt be taken on this repo

I th ir ll· ' ·e shall h<' [Wnclcut in unti••ipu.tin,. ~ h a t th • Clll'l' ·nt. raL ·o f lllanillas afl com

Jiat't>tl \\lth r·ash will hp u to tht• h i l h n ~ l Opobo tllll ing t l te p r c ~ e n t ~ e a On ~~ h . ; ut G, 7, anrl 8 t l Lhc l l i n t ' p•et n and 1 k i n ~ L: ,750 manillas 1 o I.he to

i t will he Sceu that th t lo ·ai Vtllue of Lhc:o;o token: , a:::; Clllroucy p e t· l.ou weightfollows: -

(g) 6 to 1/- .. .

(11 7 to l / - . . .o B tn L/- .

.£ s. d.

106 5 0

~ 1 0

70 11 0 l i o ~ i n g t.h . ofote fol'_lt:eigl11. <mrl " ' UUth·.l < U ~ e ' : f Lhink i t may he :-JtH.l d that W

mamllas al, (j tn Lhc lulhng, aud ~ S i l t lw metal to 11(' worLh .i:· t: l in Liv l pothe in tr ins•c 'aluc> ra](,... 0 iho t·L of the CIU' t·cnt lo< a l nn \·.

7. It i;.: to \ llo v nt· nr manilJa:.; a r ~ ; in ~ · o m m o n n:-;e an rl honrctlw ·ountr ,\, buL <.Wconling to e;;timaLe;; mnrle h;\ the vnl ious

oihOnld t- '::1\ t ltat al•out. f l r o n ~ Wl'l' ' iu thr· hands of l.he Opoho and .U onn mui'OIJCmcrehanLs alone on the 31Nt Deecml11w n., '1 , ; ., , , . ._, · L ... · ·



value, viz., £57,000 at 7 to the shilling, is equal to barely ;. or the total trade -ofthatport. That is to say the imports at Opobo in 1911 were valued at £4.a7,000 (first costin Emope plus freight and packing), and the exports at £762,000. To arrive at therading (selling) value of the impor ts, Customs Duty to the exteat of £196,000 mu tbe added, and also a reasonable margin for the merchants' expenses and profits.Taking these items together, it may fairly be stated that the total trading value ofimports and exports together at Opobo is about 1l millions sterling, upon which£57,000 invested in manillas at the factories would be e4ual to 3 ; -. But one mu tremember that a.Uhougb. the value of the manillas in the mechants' hands at the endof the year was eq ual to under 4j on the total trade, thetoken'l are used twice, i.e.once in payment of goods giveri out to natives, and once in the purchase of producefrom nat ives. To grasp the position quite clearly it should be stated that about 9 /

of the impot·ts (selling value) are paid for in manillas and S o of the expot·ts arepurchased with these tokens at the factories. Or taking the value of exports of oilalone (casks excluded), and assuming that these accumulated t o k ~ of manillaswere used only for buying oil, the percentage would be about 13 ;-. Thereforelooking at the matter in the most unfavourable light, only one-elevent of the goodsare paid for in manillas at the European factories and under one-seventh of the oil. s

there bought with maniUas.

t is not possible to say exactly what proportion of the manillas i received bythe European firms each montll from J une to December, but in the com Se of myenquit•ies, and taking 8 millions as a bas' I gatllet·ed that the following divisionmight be accepted as a reasonably approximate one:-

July only negligible quantity received at factories.

August about 1 million, say equal to £7,000 at 7 to a shilling.

September 2 millions £14,000

October 2 millions £14,000 .

November 2 millions £14,000

December 1 million ,, £7,000

The interest on this capital value lying idle for some months until the manillas

at·e exchanged for oil is a small matter in comparison with the broad issue, but it isone worth mentioning. ·

16. Perhaps it may be as well befot·e proceeding furthe1· to attempt to analysethe reasons for the annual appreciation in local value of manilla. Fir t 1 think weneed to remember that the export tt·ade at Opobo has, owing to mot·e settledconditions and the opening of waterways, enormously increased since 1902 when thefurther importation of these tokens was prohibited. On the basis of oil and kerneltonnage, the cost yalue of e x porh; of palm produce from Opobo ten years ago w s

tmder £300,000, as compared with £717,000 in 1911 (packages excluded). .\laking acomparison with more recent year S, for' which complett- returns are available,it may be stated that the total trade of Opobo (imports and exports together) in

1906/1907 averaged £880,009-.l er annum, as compal'ed with £1,170,000 in 1910/1911.

In considering this large increase of business as related to curt·ency conditionsgenerally, one must of cour·se take into account the fact that more r i t i ~ h ilxer isimported into Opobo now than was the case a few years ago. I regret that reliablefigures of the 1:1pecie impo1·t.s at the port named are not ayailable for the years priOl'to 1910, but the following are of interest:-



L agos O alabar

Opobo

13

TRADE SPIRITS AND TOB \CCO WITH DUTY ADDED.

ID, oi the whole im port plu s duty and exc lud ing pecic.

32f do. do. do.

« 1 do. do. do.

8 The follO\Ying t;..1.ble indicates the proportion borne hr Imports to Exports at

Lagos, Oalabar, and Opobo respectively

O O M l\IE RC IA L l li iPO R TS A.. 'ID EXPORTS

pecie e:Jeclttded.

I'n ports. E: cp01•ts

Lagos 1910 1,982,821 2,062,789

1911 2,004,619 2,045,349

3,987,4 40 ·1,108,138

Calabar 1910 637,440 680,797 1911 572,8 13 675,176

1,2 10,2 53 1,355,973

Opobo 1910 461,432 661,6 0

1911 ·156,846 762,583

918,2 78 1,4 24,1 87

The Import Yalues shown above denote the cost price o r good· without n ~ Customs Dut added , and it w ill be seen tltat on this ba s

Lagos Imports were 31- less than Exports

Oalabar , , 1 f Opobo , , 5·r ,

Adding the Cust<>ms Duty to the value of imports the fo llowing pcrccn tarres

are arrived at:-

Lagos Imports plus Customs Duty 221' more than Exports

Calabar , , , , 2 {· .

Opobo 6 · less tb n Exports

Southern Nigeria. Report concerning Manilla Currency as used int he districts falling within the...

Documents

Transcript of Southern Nigeria. Report concerning Manilla Currency as used int he districts falling within the...