Cocoa Export Permit and Quota System In Nigeria During World War II, 1939-45

Abstract

The cocoa trade in colonial West Africa, before World War II, had been operated through market forces. All attempts made by foreign trading firms to form ‘cocoa buying pool’ and eliminate market forces met with stiff opposition by African farmers and middlemen, the famous of which was the cocoa hold-up in Ghana in 1937-8. However, following the outbreak of World War II in 1939, the British colonial government abrogated the virtue of free market and took control of the cocoa trade in West Africa, appointing the trading firms as its buying agents. This paper examines the organisation, operations and contradictions of cocoa permit and quota system which were the principal elements of the war-time cocoa control scheme in British West Africa.