THE ROYAL NIGER COMPANY

The Royal Company is one of the Chartered Companies that played a significant role in the Niger area during the Colonization of Nigeria. Chartered Companies were used by the Colonial rulers to sign treaties with the natives, monopolize trade and establish their supremacy. The activities of the Company are similar to the East India Company.

History of the Royal Niger Company

  The history of the Royal Niger Company can be traced to the ideas of George Taurbam Goldie. Sir George Taurbam Goldie who was a Mann administrator conceived the idea of starting the company after visiting the Niger area in 1877 and seeing how the British Chartered Companies failed to gain control over the economy within the area.

The idea of the Royal Niger Company indeed came as a solution to solve the problem faced by the British Merchants in the Niger area. The problems entail an increase in the competition of trade, maintenance of staff, cost of payment of duties and trading, low profits and the high increase of palm oil products.

However, after analysing the problems George Goldie then argued for the merging of the surviving British firms into a single monopolistic chartered company a method other British leaders considered a failure due to the failure of the East India Company in Asia.

However, in 1879, George Taubman Goldie was able to combine Central African Company ( a company established by David Macintosh), James Crowthers WAC, Williams Brothers and James Pinnocks Firms into a single firm named “United African Company”.

United African Company

United African Company’s ability to control the Niger area was due to the wisdom and idea of Taubman Goldie who acted as the agent of the merged firm within the territory. The revitalization of the British strength by Taubman Goldie saw the Firm stand toe to toe with other dominant companies within the Niger area.

The Other Dominant companies who were interested in the niger area were the french companies and the Germans. the French Companies Compagnie Francaise de l Afrique Equitoriale and the Compagnie du Senegal in addition to the french plan of establishing a colonial empire and the advance of the Germans from the northern part of Nigeria led by Otto Bismark into the area in the 1880s pushed Goldie to reinforce the United African Company.

In 1882, Goldie was able to increase the capital of the United African Company from 200,000 pounds to a million pounds and then changed the company name from United African Company to the National African company in 1884.

National African Company

The powerful strength acquired by the company helped it break several monopoly trades of the local tribes in the area gave and also the opportunity to stand against the Germans Otto Bismark in the area also helped against the French competitors.

Goldie who had persuaded the french companies to join the National African Company but failed developed an idea to affect their prices. Goldie’s idea against the french companies worked and in 1884 they were out of business.

The rise of colonial expansion made Goldie request a charter from the British in order to stand against the new aggression of the germans and the french into the area. the carter also will give Goldie the ability to control the niger territory and not only trade. in 1886, the royal charters were given to Goldie and also with this he changed the company name from National African company to The Royal Niger Company.

The Royal Niger Company

Royal Charter granted to Goldie by the British who had already made Lagos a colony in 1861 gave The Royal Company to have more power beyond trade. The Royal Charter was a formal grant issued by the British Monarch used to promulgate laws and a right of power to an individual or a corporate.

The company under the leadership of Taubman Goldie played tremendous roles in the control of colonial Nigeria, as it aided the British empire to establish control over the lower Niger and breaking off any opposition to the monopoly of trade by any tribes within the area. The ability of the company to break off several trade monopolies between tribes and European counterparts in the lower Niger gave the company an extreme strength to exercise territorial control of the area.

However, with the Royal charter power, the Royal Niger Company was able to carry out some important things.

ROYAL CHATER GAVE THE COMPANY THESE STRENGTHS.

• The Royal Niger Company was able to sign treaties and acquire new territories, collect taxes to assist the cost of administration and also govern tribes that had signed treaties of protection with the British.
• The Company was to also make sure that slavery was totally abolished in its territories and cut off all forms of the slave trade.
• The Royal Charter also gave The royal Niger company the ability to prevent trading or transferring any part of the Niger Territory to any country, company or individual without the permission of the British foreign affairs ministers which includes the Crown, the secretary of state and the British minister in charge of foreign territories.
• The royal Nigeria company also created room for the British to move more from the coastland into the hinterland of the Niger area. This also provided an opportunity for the British consul to move around the hinterlands to sign more treaties with communities and trade firearms. For instance, Consul Hewlett moved to the hinterland to sign treaties for the British.

THE COMPANY AND THE NATIVES OF THE NIGER

The ideas of Taubman Goldie played a significant role in the British colonisation of Nigeria. However, they are several untold stories about the company and the natives of the niger.

Before the dominant power of the company, trade within the niger area was controlled by the natives. The chiefs of the delta areas collected levies from trades making use of their waterways. The levies collected by the delta chiefs sometimes result in disputes among them however they were no serious battles, One of the dominant tribes who collected levies on trade is the Iteskiri.

The Itesikiri tribe which can still be found in the delta area of modern Nigeria are the first people to have contact with the Portuguese missionaries and trade. The opportunity of being the first people within the area to have contact with the Portuguese created commercial opportunities for them which include trading slaves with Portugues and also getting firearms from the Portuguese and reselling them to other tribes around them.

The natives also became rich middlemen in the coastal area. The establishment of Taubman Goldie’s company destroyed not only the middleman power they have but eventually, their political leaders. For instance, in 1891 Jaja of Opobo was banished for his town, Nana of Iteskiri in 1894, Oba Ovonranmwen in 1897 and the conquest of Bini the same year.

The British claimed that some of these kings were banished because of their involvement in the slave trade even after the British put an end to the slave trade in 1807.

In late 1897 the company was attacked at Onitsha by the natives of the area but the firm was able to overcome the attack with the help of HMS PIONEER (a gunboat).

Other facts about The Royal Nigeria Company

• The Royal Niger Company did not play a serious role in the colonization of Northern Nigeria. Although it signed some treaties with Sokoto, Nupe and Gwandu.It was in 1900 that the British used force against the Northerners. In 1900, Governor Lugard oversaw the establishment of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria, which marked the start of a battle against the Sokoto Caliphate. Kano was taken by the British in 1903.
• The royal charter given to the royal niger company was withdrawn in 1899. The Niger company charter was revoked in 1899 due to the fact that a chartered company can not hold state-supported protectorates. On January 1st 1990 the Royal  Niger Company sold its terrorists to the British government for the sum of 865,000 pounds and also gained a nine-month opportunity to trade TIN in Nigeria.