Landlords and Brokers: A West African Trading System (With a note on Kumasi Butchers)

Abstract

In this summary article I am concerned firstly to generalise about the West African "landlord system of long-distance trade"; secondly to provide a little comparative material relating to an important cattle market, Kumasi, where the traditional credit – granting system has broken down; and thirdly to raise some points about the changing organisation of Hausa butchers, again with special reference to Kumasi.