Customs House, Steamers, and the Entrepôt

Abstract

This article addresses the adaptation problem of the nineteenth-century Sultanate of Zanzibar in responding to the challenges posed by international commerce following the industrial and transport revolution. It focuses on the ways the government and privately-run customs agencies managed the Zanzibar market. An analysis of the institution of customs, at both formal and informal levels, captures the dynamics of trade infrastructure and facilitates an understanding of the symbiosis of political and economic powers and the subsequent process of disintegration. It further considers international trade dynamics in the context of the transport and communication revolution that occurred in the second half of the nineteenth century. Changes in the economic situation in India, the main capital market in determining the credit situation in East Africa, are taken into account, in particular those related to the imbalance in the silver and gold markets. Archival sources consulted include French naval reports, British and American diplomatic documents, commercial correspondence, and the private letters and journals of American and German merchants and commercial agents.