Between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries, from the era of the Atlantic slave trade to colonial conquest, the trade economy of Senegambia underwent two major phases: the slave trade (seventeenth to early nineteenth century) and the so-called “legitimate” commerce (early nineteenth century). From the seventeenth century onward, European trading companies established themselves along the Senegambian coast with the consent of local rulers, who granted them the right to build forts, trade, and navigate inland waterways in exchange for dues, most often paid in kind. These dues, known as “customs,” were governed by rules that varied according to economic, political, and social contexts.
In Senegambia, customs profoundly structured the political, economic, and social life of states, notably by regulating European access to trade, from the founding of Saint-Louis, the first permanent French settlement established in 1659. However, in the second half of the nineteenth century, recurring conflicts, abuses associated with these levies, and the failure of some local leaders to uphold security commitments fueled policies challenging—and ultimately abolishing—customs.
Long neglected by a historiography focused on European statistics and profits, customs nonetheless constituted a key marker of the Atlantic economy. Their study makes it possible to renew the history of maritime exchange and trade economies by focusing on their most granular components.