African agricultural productivity and the transatlantic slave trade: evidence from Senegambia in the nineteenth century

• The role of agriculture has been central in Africa’s long-term economic development. Previous research has argued that low productivity of African economies has posed significant challenges in African efforts to produce an agricultural surplus or develop commercial agriculture. Low agricultural productivity has also served as a key explanation for the transatlantic slave trade, on the basis that it was more profitable to export humans overseas than to grow and export produce. The field has however suffered from a lack of comparable empirical evidence. This paper contributes to this field by presenting quantitative data on historical land- and labour productivity in Africa, from a case study of the agricultural productivity in Senegambia in the early nineteenth century. Focusing on five key crops, our results suggest that both land- and labour productivity was lower in Senegambia than it was in all other parts of the world for which we have found comparable data. We thus lend support to claims that stress ecological factors as one of the main determinants of Africa’s historical development.

Subject headings

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Ekonomi och näringsliv -- Ekonomisk historia (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Economics and Business -- Economic History (hsv//eng)

Keyword

Senegambia

Agriculture

Productivity

Nineteenth Century

Comparative

Transatlantic Slave Trade

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)