Royal Niger Company

The Royal Niger Company was a mercantile company chartered by the British government in the nineteenth century. It was formed in 1879 as the United African Company and renamed to National African Company in 1881 and to Royal Niger Company in 1886. In 1929, the company became part of the United Africa Company, which came under the control of Unilever during the 1930s and continued to exist as a subsidiary of Unilever until 1987, when it was absorbed into the parent company.[1]

The company existed for a comparatively short time (1879–1900) but was instrumental in the formation of Colonial Nigeria, as it enabled the British Empire to establish control over the lower Niger against German competition during the 1890s. In 1900, the company-controlled territories became the Southern Nigeria Protectorate, which was in turn united with the Northern Nigeria Protectorate to form the Colony and Protectorate of Nigeria in 1914 (which eventually gained independence within the same borders as Nigeria in 1960). The Royal Niger Company was eventually integrated into Unilever.

United African Company

Richard Lander first explored the area of

National African Company

Goldie first began addressing the administration's concerns by increasing the company's capitalization to £100,000. He then managed to corral £1,000 000 in investments in a new concern—the National African Company—which bought up the UAC and its interests in 1882.[5] The death of Léon Gambetta the same year deprived the French companies of their support within the French government and the strong subsidies it had been providing them.[4] Goldie's cash-flush NAC was then able to maintain 30 trading posts along the river,[6] and ruin its competition in a two-year price war: by October 1884 all three had permitted him to buy out their interests in the region and the NAC's annual report for 1885 was able to crow that it "remained alone in undisputed commercial possession of the Niger–Binué region".[4]

This monopoly permitted Britain to resist French and German calls to internationalize trade on the Niger River during the negotiations at the 1884–1885 Berlin Conference on African colonization. Goldie himself attended the meetings and successfully argued for including the region of the NAC's operations within a British sphere of interest. Pledges from him and the British diplomats that free trade (or, in any case, non-discriminatory tariff rates) would be respected in their territory were dead letters: the NAC's over 400 treaties with local leaders obliged the natives to trade solely with or through the company's agents. Large tariffs and license fees eliminated competing firms from the area. The terms of these private contracts were made into general treaties by the British consuls, whose own treaties expressly incorporated them.[7] Similarly, when King Jaja of Opobo organized his own trading network and even began running his own shipments of palm oil to Britain, he was lured onto a British warship and shipped into exile on Saint Vincent on charges of "treaty breaking" and "obstructing commerce".[3]

Despite treaties extending British control over the tribes of the Cameroons, however, Britain was willing to recognize the German colony that usurped the area in 1885[7] as a check on French activity in the upper Congo and Ubangi watersheds.

The scruples of the British government being overcome, a charter was at length granted (July 1886), the National African Company becoming The Royal Niger Company Chartered and Limited[8] (normally shortened to the Royal Niger Company), with Lord Aberdare as governor and Goldie as vice-governor.[9]

type	Act
parliament	Parliament of the United Kingdom
long title	An Act to make provision for certain Payments to be made in connection with the Revocation of the Charter of the Royal Niger Company.
year	1899
citation	62 & 63 Vict. c. 43
royal assent	9 August 1899
repealing legislation	Nigeria (Remission of Payments) Act 1937
status	repealed
collapsed	yes

Royal Niger Company

United African Company

National African Company

Niger Company

See also

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References