A key theme in the West African trading system of the nineteenth century is the transition from the slave trade to "legitimate" commerce, and its significance for the African societies of the region. In this period of transition, trade in palm oil was at the core of relations between Britain and West Africa in the nineteenth century, and of immense importance to the economies of large parts of West Africa. Filling a major gap in the literature, Martin Lynn's authoritative study of the trade covers the whole of this critical period for all of West Africa.