Foreign Trade in the Twentieth Century

In the previous two chapters we have dealt with two types of trade of the nineteenth century, the patterns of internal African trade and external Arab—African trade. The chapter on the latter has illustrated the mechanics of the trade which initially opened East Africa to the goods of an industrialising Europe. The Arab incursions into Eastern Africa were, in a sense, the first stage in economic integration of the area with Europe. The second stage of this economic integration came with colonisation. The introduction of crops for export — cotton, coffee, sisal, tea, pyrethrum and a few others — provided the means of earning foreign exchange, mainly sterling. With this cash East African communities began to import a wide range of goods manufactured in Europe, such as motor cars, whisky and fertilisers.