Indian Cotton Textiles in West Africa

‘A much-needed, excellently researched history of Senegambia’s non-slave trade role in global commerce, centred on the south-south trade in Indian cloths facilitated by both the French and British empires… The scholarship is of the highest quality.’

—    Bronwen Everill, Gonville & Caius College, University of Cambridge, UK 

This book focuses on the significant role of West African consumers in the development of the global economy. It explores their demand for Indian cotton textiles and how their consumption shaped patterns of global trade, influencing economies and businesses from Western Europe to South Asia. In turn, the book examines how cotton textile production in southern India responded to this demand. Through this perspective of a south-south economic history, the study foregrounds African agency and considers the lasting impact on production and exports in South Asia. It also considers how European commercial and imperial expansion provided a complex web of networks, linking West African consumers and Indian weavers. Crucially, it demonstrates the emergence of the modern global economy.