Senegalese groundnut exports drove the entire federation’s prosperity

Evidence

According to statistics provided by Guiraud, L’arachide senegalaise (p. 37), peanut exports increased from I48,843 metric tons (34,575,000 fr.) in I903 to 242,084 metric tons (59,229,000 fr.) in I9I3. This was in direct proportion to the increase in total federal revenues, suggesting the extent to which the federation’s prosperity was pegged to the trade in Senegalese groundnuts. Figures from I9I7 confirm the extent to which Senegal led the federation in wealth. While its foreign trade amounted to 275,997,6I 5 fr., the respective figures for the next two richest colonies, Guinea and Ivory Coast, were 36,650,245 fr. and 25,839,820 fr. — Alice L. Conklin, A Mission to Civilize_ The Republican…, 1035

Categorization

• XREF: Concrete data on a single-crop export economy piggybacking a whole political structure — useful for understanding the economic base underpinning republicanism in AOF.