East Africa ] 93 ZANZIBAR : COMMERCE diseases, and by local improvements effected in sanita tion and in road-making. But in the meantime the labour difficulty remains a serious deterrent to European enterprise .

(C) COMMERCE The retail trade of the Protectorate is mainly in the hands of Indians, who purchase cloves and copra from the plantations, and dispose of the dried products to the larger produce firms in Zanzibar . Zanzibar is the only commercial centre of importance, and before the war contained all the export firms— British, Indian, German, and Portuguese which traded with the mainland. The number and commercial standing of the foreign firms were, speaking generally, commen surate with the trade between their countries and Zanzibar , but the German firms, with the same advantages as they enjoyed in British East Africa, had secured a disproportionate percentage of import and export trade.

Forseveral years before the war exports had exceeded a million sterling per annum , and although for 1914 and 1915 there was a drop in value of 20 per cent . , the figures for 1916 showed a recovery to the pre-war average. The total of exports is composed, to the extent of 60 per cent., of the produceofthe Protectorate, and to the remaining 40 per cent. of goods imported and afterwards consigned to a further destination . In domestic produce the chief item is cloves and clove stems , which have attained , in the last six years, an average annual value of over £400,000 . Second on the list comes copra, with an average pre-war value of €200,000 , one-fourth of this representing re-export. These branches of export trade show no signs of falling off, but may be regarded as likely to maintain their position as the mainstay of Zanzibar's prosperity. Other exports include only small quantities of domestic products; amorg others. hides and skins, chillies, soap, and gum copal . ' 'Of re-exports to the mainland, the a