Report from the Select Committee on Slave Trade (East Coast of Africa); together with the proceedings of the Committee, minutes of evidence, appendix and index

Bibliographic data

Monograph

Identifikator:: 1028803699

URN:: urn:nbn:de:zbw-retromon-43559

Document type:: Monograph

Author:: Fisher, Irving http://d-nb.info/gnd/118533541; Brown, Harry Gunnison http://d-nb.info/gnd/123548152

Title:: Die Kaufkraft des Geldes

Place of publication:: Berlin

Publisher:: Druck und Verlag von Georg Reimer

Year of publication:: 1916

Scope:: 1 Online-Ressource (XX, 435 Seiten)

Digitisation:: 2018

Collection:: Economics Books

Usage license:: Get license information via the feedback formular.

Chapter

Document type:: Monograph

Structure type:: Chapter

Title:: IV. Kapitel. Störung der Gleichung und der Kaufkraft in Perioden des Übergangs

Collection:: Economics Books

36 MINUTES OF EVIDENCE TAKEN BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE G.C.S.I, K.C.B. 17 Juljr t-Byi. Sir B. Frere, might go to in dealing with those Governments, and prepared with some authority, and with the dignity of a special envoy to press these points on those governments. 453. What is the nature and extent of the Indo-African trade, exclusive of slaves?—It is very considerable. Some of the reports before the Committee give the figures. But the point that should be noted especially is, that it is a very old and reviving trade. Before any au thentic Greek history, it is quite clear that there was a very considerable trade on this coast, and India had a very considerable share in it. It is more than probable that a good deal of the African trade, such as it was, which found its way to l yre and Syria, was carried on then, as now, by Indian merchants, who had their houses of agency at African ports. The earliest travellers, both those who came from the north and those who came with the Portuguese round the Cape, found Indian traders at every port along the coast, and a very considerable Indian trade car ried on between Africa and India. And that trade was only crushed for a time, or very much lessened, at all events, by the action of European and Arab piracy. All the novels of Defoe’s time speak of piracy in those seas very much as we refer to expeditions into the far west of America; and it is quite clear, if you read the memoirs of Captain Singleton, or any books of that kind, that active young men went into those seas and plundered everybody, but especially the Indian merchants, almost without any sense that they were doing wrong. It was only when the trade had got to be almost entirely confined to large ships that piracy came to be less profitable. Of late years this trade has revived, and judging from all analogy, there can be no doubt that if it were properly dealt with, and not impeded, as it is impeded, by the slave trade, it would increase very rapidly. I may mention that almost all of what we may call the banking business at those ports is done by natives of India, who have their homes in Scinde, Kurrachee, Kutch, Kattewar, and Bom bay, and some as far south as Cananore and Cochin. They never take their families to Africa ; the head of the house of business always remains in India, and their books are balanced periodically in India. The house in Africa is merely a branch house, though many of those people will assure you, and they give very good evidence of the fact, that they have had branches in Africa for 300 years, and possibly for much more. When you have that kind of network of in digenous activity existing as a mercantile agency, it "is impossible to believe but that the traders will be as ready to push legitimate trade as they have proved themselves to be in India. 454. What is your view of the comparative importance of those African traders to England and India?—I should say the trade is equally important to both. 455. But I mean with regard to the amount ? —With regard to the amount of it, the trade used to be almost all carried on through Bombay. The first change was that a portion of it was taken to the entrepôt at Aden ; but latterly a great deal of it has come direct from Europe to Africa. There is a considerable and increasing American trade, or rather there was before the American war, and the German and French trade is very rapidly increasing. The German trade has become a matter of very great interest to all German mercantile men and political economists. and German attention has been very much di rected to that coast. But notwithstanding the large direct trade that has grown up, the Indian trade continues to increase almost as much as the English trade, and there seems to be an almost inexhaustible field for trade on that coast. I had the advantage of having Dr. Livingstone living with me for some time, between two of his expeditions to Africa, and he is, as the Coin- inittee are aware, one of the most keen and care ful observers that one could possibly meet with, lie was extremely struck when he had travelled a little in Western India; he made two or three journies to a short distance from Bombay, and he was extremely struck with the immense apparent facility for a very large mutual trade being carried on between the two continents. Dr. Livingstone pointed out that there was an almost unlimited power of producing food in Africa. We had been in the habit of supposing that in India we should never have to im])ort food from anywhere else ; but it so happened, during the time he was with me, that in one province oí India famine was threatened, and the prices were at once lowered by importation from the Persian Gulf. He remarked the fact immediately, and pointed out that the grain that was imported, was grain that could be produced to any extent in some of the high lands at a little distance from the coast of Africa, and that grain of dif ferent kinds, suited to the Indian taste, could be laid down on the coast at a rate which would render its transit to India a matter of commercial certainty. 456. Sir Jotm Huy.^ The grain being culti vated by free labour, I suppose ? — There was very little free labour known then, but he spoke rather of the capabilities of the coast ; he spoke particularly of the coast round Mombaza, where there are a few Englishmen settled, I think, who belong to the Church Missionary Society. 457. Chairman.'] How are the liberated slave? disposed of at Bombay and Aden?—When there were very few of them, I think it must be about 20 years ago, they were made over to the police in Bombay, and the chief magistrate of police was charged with the duty of finding employ ment for them. It was not difficult to do so a? long as they were very few, and as long as they were chiefly adults, but after a while a very large number of children were brought ; they quite exceeded the power of natural absorption by any means at the command of the police, and there were some very painful cases, some of the men being kidnapped, and others, women, being found in a state of prostitution in the bazaar?*. The Government of the time took the advice of some of the Missionary Societies, and the Mis sionaries, at the suggestion of the Government, took some of the children, who were made over’ to them, and gradually there grew up at Nassick, not far from Bombay, about 70 or 80 miles front Bombay, where there is a station of the Church Missionary Society, an African colony, and th6 children were all taught industrial occupations oí different kinds. They trained the boys as brick layers, carpenters, and smiths, and so on, and a? servants fitted to earn their own livelihood in India. Dr. Livingstone took from that institu tion nine boys, I think, who went with him to Africa, and I believe they are the African boy? who are supposed to be with him still. In the last letter I got from Dr. Livingstone, about twu years ago, there was an allusion to those boys,

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