Trade centres · c. 1461–1800s
The Grain Coast
The European name for this shore, from the malagueta pepper — grain of paradise — that it exported.
Biography
Malagueta pepper, Aframomum melegueta, was the region's first Atlantic export and its most distinctive. European charts labelled the shore accordingly, distinguishing it from the Ivory, Gold and Slave Coasts to the east.
The trade was conducted from canoes and beach markets rather than forts, which is why the Liberian coast has almost no European fortification compared with the Gold Coast.
Historical significance
Explains both the region's early integration into Atlantic commerce and the absence of a European territorial foothold before 1822.
Timeline
- 1461Portuguese contact
- c. 1600Dutch primacy
- c. 1700British and Anglo-American dominance
Related entries
References
- Dapper (1668). Naukeurige Beschrijvinge.
- Rodney (1970).
Suggested reading
- Rodney (1970). A History of the Upper Guinea Coast.