An Economic Rationale for the West African Scramble? The Commercial Transition and the Commodity Price Boom of 1835–1885
利用新贸易数据集，发现19世纪撒哈拉以南非洲经历了与全球其他边缘地区相当的贸易条件繁荣，出口价格在殖民争夺前50年急剧上升，随后在殖民时代大幅下降。研究修正了西非争夺发生在其主要出口市场衰退时的观点，并指出西非在法国帝国贸易中的更大权重强化了法国而非英国征服内陆的经济理由。
We use a new trade dataset showing that nineteenth century sub-Saharan Africa experienced a terms of trade boom comparable to other parts of the “global periphery.” A sharp rise in export prices in the five decades before the scramble (1835–1885) was followed by an equally impressive decline during the colonial era. This study revises the view that the scramble for West Africa occurred when its major export markets were in decline and argues that the larger weight of West Africa in French imperial trade strengthened the rationale for French instead of British initiative in the conquest of the interior.