TRANSFER OF TERRITORIES 369 river, it was, from artificial as well as from natural causes, more difficult to attract into British channels. It was, of course, of a very different order from that of the south. Indigo, cotton, and tobacco, as well as other exports of the northern territories, are products of organised industry which, unlike the native products of the palm - oil belt, demand the employment of regular labour. Conditions of peace and security are as necessary for their production as for the development of sustained trade relations. The slave- raiding operations of the Mohammedan rulers were undertaken for the purpose of obtaining labour. But, while the industrial system was based on slavery, the ceaseless disturbance to which slave-raiding gave rise, coupled with political conditions of civil war and the exactions of a practically uncurbed foreign tyranny, of which some account has yet to be given, operated to prevent the prosperous development of all industry. In addition to these disturbed conditions, there was also, In the Mohammedan states, long-established tradition to contend with. If the wants of the people were more elaborate than those of the southern population, they had better means of satisfying them. What trade there was was done either locally, between state and state, or across the desert, by the old routes, with the north of Africa. Tea and sugar, commonly sold in the market of Kano, were brought with other commodities by Arab caravans from the Mediterranean coast.

This was also the case with many other necessities of life. Beyond the valley of the Niger and the Benue no administrative influence had been exercised by the Company. Its intercourse with the Mohammedan emirs had been confined to political missions, of which the direct object was to obtain promises of future trade and to exclude antagonistic foreign influence from their territories. By these treaties prospective markets were secured, but the condition of the country was such that trade was not open to the north. 2 A