In recent years, German colonialism has received growing public attention - a history long overshadowed by the World Wars. Due to its short-lived character, a long-term comparative view of German colonialism has...
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Keyword: trade
One of the central questions in African and global economic history is how West Africa contributed to economies outside the region. The debate has often focused on West Africa’s contribution to the...
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The African Commodity Trade Database (ACTD 2.0) aims to stimulate and deepen research on African and global economic history. The database provides export series at the commodity level from all African countries for more than two centuries of African trade (1790-2020). The data from the ACTD 2.0 is freely available as long as reference is made to: Frankema, Ewout & Meier zu Selhausen, Felix (2026). ‘Africa’s Mineral Transition in Long-Term Perspective,’ AEHN Working Paper No. 86, African Economic History Network.
ACTD 2.0
Prices, quantities and values, 1790-2020: ACTD_2_Frankema_Meier_zu_Selhausen_Sept2026
Supplemental Material
– Notes on the ACTD: ACTD_2_Frankema_Meier_zu_Selhausen_Notes
– British Customs Records, 1697-1808, unprocessed: ACTD_1697t1808_raw_data
Contact and Acknowledgements
The data was collected by the Economic and Environmental History Group at Wageningen University and Social and Economic History Group at Utrecht University. The construction of this database was made possible by the generous funding from the Royal Netherlands Academy of Arts and Sciences (KNAW) AMMODO Science Award for Ewout Frankema’s project: “African Trade in Historical Perspective: From the ‘Commercial Transition’ to the ‘Mineral Transition’ and Beyond”. Frankema and Meier zu Selhausen gratefully acknowledge Denis Cogneau (PSE) and Yannick Dupraz (CNRS) for the collection of the French empire’s component of the ACTD 2.0 database.
For comments and suggestions please contact Felix Meier zu Selhausen ([email protected])
I trace the impact of the trans-Atlantic slave trade on the evolution of political authority in West Africa. I present econometric evidence showing that the trans-Atlantic slave trade increased absolutism in pre-colonial...
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This chapter deals with economic development in pre-colonial Africa. Was the continent underdeveloped or developing? In this chapter we will see that it was both. Pre-colonial history shows us evidence of progress...
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