Economic History of Tanzania part i

           ECONOMIC HISTORY OF TANZANIA

• Economic history is the study of the economic activities of man over time. Such activities include how man gets wealth and how they use that wealth.

• Economic historian is mainly concerned with the evolution of economic institutions such as agriculture, trade, industry, labor relations, etc.

ü The economic historian attempts to describe the changes that have occurred or taken place in each of those institutions and to explain the factors that have affected the evolution of those institutions.

ü The economic historian also attempts to show the influence of each of those economic institutions on man’s economic life.

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Approaches to economic history

• There are several approaches to the study and writing of economic history that have so far been employed by economic historians. The most important ones are:

• Studying economic activities by which man or human society has been engaged over time to acquire wealth and how man has used that wealth.

– In this approach:

• Economic historians attempt to describe the changes that have occurred in the economic institutions/activities of the society,

• He/she tries to explain the factors that have affected the evolution of economic institutions,

• He/she attempts to show the influence of economic institutions on man’s economic life.

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– Although in studying or writing economic history, economic historian may have to employ or make reference to some economic principles, he need not to be a competent economist.

– Nevertheless, he definitely may have to depend upon experts in other disciplines to give him the basic materials/information necessary for his own research. For example he may need the assistance of:

• economists

• geographers

• technologists

• scientists

• demographers

• agricultural experts, etc.



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• The neo classical approach.

– This school of thought has its origin in the 18th century (classical) theories of Adam Smith (1723-1790) and David Ricardo (1772-1823) and refined by the 19th and 20th centuries theories of economists like Alfred Marshal (1842-1924).

• It is Neo (New) in the sense that it departs sharply from classical view point in its analytic approach that places great emphasis on mathematical techniques/equations than qualitative techniques in the study of various aspect of the economy.

• It is classical in the sense that it is based on the classical belief that economic activities are determined by the market forces of demand and supply.

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– Generally, Under this approach, economic historian analyzes market processes and the problem of resources allocation.

• Analysis of Market process involves :

– Analysis of exchange system, for example; local, regional, inter-continental and analysis of mode of exchange ( money or batter)

– Analysis of market forces of demand and supply and the way they affect production.

• The problem of resource allocation involves the analysis of how resource distribution determine and affect human activities and production



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• The dependence approach. Under this approach, economic history of the society can be analyzed and written down basing on such concepts like unequal exchange, underdevelopment, center-periphery relation, development for underdevelopment. In this approach, the economy of the society is analyzed with reference to the above concepts.

• The Marxist approach. This approach examine how specific system ( trade, agriculture, industry, etc) originate, develop, function and change in a given historical epoch.

– For example, Economic historian can look at trade, agriculture, and industry and see how they have developed or changed over different historical epochs ( communalism, slavery, feudalism, capitalism and socialism)

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Basic concerns of Economic History

• The basic concerns of economic history, therefore, can be summarized as follows:

– To study demographic trends, particularly the way human population have been changing over time and the analysis of forces that triggered such changes.

– To examine the environment and asses how the environment affect economic transformations and development of human society.

– To make an examination of climatic changes and its impacts on the economic development of the society. This examination may also go further to the extent of understanding how societies responded to such changes.

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– To examine agricultural development of a given society. For example, economic historian can study different system of land use, different agrarian relations of production existing in the society, that is colonial agriculture, mixed agriculture, sedentary agriculture, nomadic agriculture, etc.

– To study trade and exchange systems existing in human society. For example, the development of local trade, long distance trade, international trade and their impacts on the society concerned.

– To examine the processes of migration and immigration. It generally covers migration patterns such as the movement of people from one area to another, rural to urban flow, rural to rural flow, urban to rural flow and urban to urban flow. It analyses the growth of urban centers and its associated problems.

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– To analyze production systems in a given society, for example, Nyaraubanja, Umwinyi, Kihamba, Ubugabire , etc.

– To analyze the development of financial institutions, that is, what they are, who owns and control them, their role in economic development of the society and heir impact on the society.

– To analyze how Tanzania was integrated into the world capitalist economy; through mercantilism and colonization and its resultant colonial economy and its legacy after independence.

– To describe the development of underdevelopment, through dependence, debt crisis, poverty, unequal exchange, center-periphery relations, etc.

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– To analyze neo-colonial situation, that is operation of multinational corporations, operation of world financial institutions, the Structural Adjustment Program, globalization, etc.

– To analyze the development of class struggle in Tanzania, that is the evolution and emergence of the classes of the “have” and the “have nots”.

– To analyze labor processes in Tanzania, that is the emergence of the working class in Tanzania and its associated movements.

• The Schema/description on the present economic reality of Tanzania

The economic reality of Tanzania is the neo-colonial economy. Neo colonial economy refers to the type of economy which is controlled by capitalist countries and economies. Such kind of an economy is there to serve and meet the interests of the capitalist world.

• This economy is characterized by backwardness against the demands of modern society, it is unable to meet the needs of contemporary society. These countries are usually behind because of obstacles such as:

– Lack of technology

– Unstable government

– Exploitation of periphery countries agriculture

– Natural resources found in these countries helps and maintain core countries to remain dominants

– Insufficient infrastructures

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Features of Neo-colonial economy

A Neo-colonial economy is featured by the following:

• Periphery economy: the world economy is built up only through capitalism for the purpose of fulfilling capitalist demands and interests. Therefore, Tanzania has no national economy, but an economy which is integrated into capitalist economy.

• Overdependence on market or liberal economy: Tanzania depends much on liberal/market economy. Liberal economy implies that the government should not try to control prices, rents or wages, but instead let the open competition and forces of demands and supply create an equilibrium prices, rents and wages. In this way the country loose control over her economy.

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• Poor and backward economies: economies of neo-colonial countries are poor and backward in terms of technology, capital, education, health, etc. All these create a state of dependence to the capitalist countries. This dependence create a room for the rich countries to exploit the poor countries.

• Collapse of subsistence sector or economy: there is a clear collapse of subsistence economy in most neo-colonial states as a result of extreme poverty in these countries. This is because subsistence sector has not been commercialized and therefore dormant. Producers in this sector are not motivated to produce because the sector has not been commercialized.

– Therefore there is a need to modernize and commercialize the subsistence sector so as to ensure its growth.

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• Underdeveloped economy: neo-colonial state is characterized by underdeveloped economy. An underdeveloped economy is defined as an economy which has got unexploited natural resources and unutilized human resources. In other words, it is an economy having potentialities to grow, but such potentialities are unexploited.

– An underdeveloped economy shows the following features:

• Natural resources remains unexploited due to various reasons such as lack of technology, lack of sufficient power supply, political instabilities, etc.

• An underdeveloped country is basically a primary producing country, engaging its factors of production to produce raw material and foodstuffs. The percentage of population engaged in agricultural sector is very high and a major part of the total national income comes from agriculture.



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• Lack of capital. This causes both low productivity and underdevelopment. Lack of capital limits the adoption of better production techniques.

• Low per-capital income and severe poverty as a result of low productivity.

• Backwardness in the field of human resources. The quality of people as producing agents is very low. There is low labor efficiency, lack of entrepreneurship skills and economic ignorance. People being illiterate are guided by blind beliefs, customs and traditions.

• There is lack of infrastructural facilities like transport, banking, health, power, education and information technology. People also adopt outdated techniques of production which results in low productivity.

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Why are we facing all these predicaments in our economy?/why neo-colonial economy?/why underdeveloped economy?

In order to answer all these questions we have to analyze the historiography of neo-colonial economy / underdeveloped economy in Africa.



Historiographical note about neo-colonial situation

The historiography of Neo-colonial economy can be looked at through three paradigms, that is:

» Colonial view

» Nationalist view

» Marxist view







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– These three views are important in describing neo-colonial situation in Africa and Tanzania in particular since historians are not satisfied with simple answers and never take things for granted.

– Historical accounts depends on philosophical and political background of a situation. These resulted to the emergence of the three views about the prevalence of neo-colonial economy in Africa.

Colonial view

According to this school of thought, Africa's economic problems are a result of African themselves and their associated environment. Supporters of this school of thought argues for example; the major causes of Africa's economic predicaments are:

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» Africans are too lazy and they don’t want to work hard

» Insensitive utilization of natural and human resources

» Environmental hardship like too much diseases and it was in this context they referred Africa as a “sick or diseased continent”

» Political instabilities and continuous wars

» The rate of corruption in Africa is too high

» Existence of uncivilized culture.

– Therefore, according to these scholars, Africa's economic problems are a result of Africans themselves and their surrounding environment.

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Nationalist view

The advocates of this school of thought maintains that Africa's economic problems are a result of colonialism. It is colonialism which has brought Africa to persistent economic problems.

In supporting this view, several theories have been advanced . For example, the most famous are:

» The underdevelopment theory advocated by Walter Rodney

» The centre-periphery relation theory advocated by Paul Baran and Andre Gunda Frank.

– The nationalist school of thought was further advocated by Neo- nationalists who are based on egoism(selfish). These theoreticians blame foreigners for taking our resources. To them, they view foreigners as the main source of Africa's economic predicaments.

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The Marxist view

Supporters of this school of thought argues that much of our economic predicaments are a result of the integration of Africa's economy into the capitalist economy characterized by increased globalization. It is through this integration and globalization processes that wealth is siphoned from African countries, leaving them poor with a lot of economic problems.

– Therefore, the central argument of this school of thought is that Africa's economic integration into the world capitalist economy is the basic source of Africa's economic problems.

• However, each of these three views have their own weaknesses and strength. Therefore, while looking for solutions and responsive measures to Tanzania's economic predicaments, five (5) important grounds should be taken into consideration as far as our globalized world is concerned.

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– The globalized world of today is dominated by mature capitalist relations. In the 21st century, these capitalist relations take the form of multileralism, foreign investments, liberalism, etc. All these capitalist relations aims at maintaining capitalism by exploiting the poor countries.

– Globalization usually puts national interests at the fore front. Therefore, whatever activities that capitalist countries performs in Africa aims at fostering their national interests and not African interests.

– There are always economic opportunities in the globalized world. If we don’t make use of our opportunities, capitalism will kill us. Therefore, we have to find ways on how to use our opportunities. If we want to compete in a globalized world, we need take advantage of our opportunities like tourism, mineral resources, water resources, agricultural land, etc.

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– Importance of capital export. This is the key issue in the economic world of capitalism. The capitalists exports their capital abroad because of the fall of the rate of profit in their countries.

– Beyond that, outside their boundaries there is cheap availability of labor and competition among producers is minimal. Thus, the capital that African countries receives from capitalist countries aims at maximizing profit of the capitalists.

– Our economic predicaments can best be explained by looking at our internal dislocations, structures, relations and how these have evolved over time. All these can be looked at into three periods of Tanzanian history, that is:

• Tanzania up to the 18th century

• Tanzania under colonial rule, 19th c-1960s

• Post colonial Tanzania economic history from 1960s to the present.



• TOPIC 2: TANZANIAN SOCIETIES IN THE REMOTE PRE-CAPITALIST ERA/PRE-COLONIAL ERA

In the general process of describing and analyzing pre-colonial Tanzania economy, historians have developed three important frameworks:

– Most historians looks at Tanzanian economy up to the 18th century in terms of climatic/ geographical zones, for example the coastal region, the low plateau, mountainous region, the central plain, etc.

• Thus, the economy of Tanzanian societies by the 18th century was related to such geographical and climatic regions. In responding to the climatic and geographical challenges, Tanzanian societies developed economic activities which were favored by the surrounding environment.



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– Other historians analyzed pre-colonial Tanzanian economy by paying particular attention to economic zones themselves. For example, the banana zone, the cattle zone, agricultural zone, and the shifting cultivation zone.

– Other economic historians adopted the approach of analyzing pre-colonial Tanzanian economy along lines of modes of production. For example:

» Communal mode of production

» Slavery mode of production

» Feudal mode of production

Out of these mode of production, then, they attempted to describe how pre-colonial Tanzanian societies were organized economically.

Through all these approaches, then, historians have been able to effectively map out the economy of pre-colonial Tanzanian societies.

• General map of Tanzanian economy by 1800

By 1800, Tanzania had a pre-capitalist economy with a lot economic influence. However, this kind of an economy reflected several elements of change or transformation from pre-capitalist economy to capitalist economy.

These elements of change were indicated by:

– The economy was integrated into the capitalist economy through mercantilism, with trade links/routes from the interior to the coast. The most common link was through the relay system.

• Through this system there was no direct control of a trade route by a particular society; the routes were broken down into pieces and each piece/route was controlled by a different society. This is what is referred to as the relay system.

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– Growing importance of commodity exchange. Items which were locally produced for subsistence became commodities for exchange. For example gradually, slaves, ivory, rubber, beads, honey, foodstuffs, etc turned to be commodities. These commodities built up exchange relations as founded by barter system.

– External contacts; this was reflected by the existence of Arabs, Europeans especially Portuguese, Asians especially Indians and Iranians. The presence of these outsiders also indicated possibilities of pre-colonial economic transformation as they influenced and shaped settlement patterns, barter trade and commodity production in general.

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Consequences of integrating pre-colonial economy to the external economies.

– Societies became specialized on production of non-consumable goods, for example, ivory, rubber, animal skin, etc. production of these commodities aimed at meeting external demands.

– The integration marked the beginning of unequal exchange relations between pre-colonial Tanzanian societies and the foreigners, for example, selling ivory in exchange for wine.

– It was the beginning of specialization in commodity production. Some societies turned to be merchant societies, they looked for commodities and sold them. However, the question remains why these traders could not transform into capitalists?

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– There was penetration of firearms which marked the beginning of barbarism in the interior.

– There was emergence of professionalism, for example, professional caravania who specialized in organizing caravans, professional potters like the Nyamwezi, Nyakyusa, Ha, etc.

– There was emergence of new culture and religion like Islam and Christianity.

– Emergence of commercial sex workers especially in Zanzibar.

• Thus, up to 1800, pre-colonial Tanzania societies had greatly changed.

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Climatic zones and Economic systems

Environment and its associated climate are vital in determining human economic activities in a given area. Favorable environment and climate supported a good number of human economic activities and vice versa is true.

– Favorable environment in terms of high rainfall, fertile soils, reliable water sources, free tsetse fly areas, etc, usually attracted a number of human economic activities and vice versa.

– Favored environment were able to support numerous economic activities such as permanent agriculture, cattle keeping, fishing and mixed agriculture.

– Examples per excellence of such areas included the Lake Victoria basin, the coastal lowlands, offshore of Zanzibar and Pemba, Northern highlands and some parts of the Southern highlands

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– Favored environment also included productive winds, especially the Monsoon winds. These winds played a central role in integrating Tanzanian societies and their economy in the external world economy resulting to the growth of coastal towns and its associated civilization, the Swahili civilization.

– On the other hand, harsh environment with poor soils, tsetse flies, poor water supply and marginal rainfall of such areas like Shinyanga, Dodoma, Singida, and Tabora could only support limited and simple human economic activities like hunting, gathering, and precarious agriculture.

– As a result of these variations in terms of climatic conditions and environment, different economic systems developed in different parts of the country. Good examples of such economic systems which featured pre-colonial Tanzania economy includes:

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Hunter gatherer economy

• This kind of an economy was the earliest form of economy in pre-colonial Tanzania. It was a very primitive form of economy when man had not developed the knowledge and art of cultivating and domesticating animals.

– The main preoccupations of this form of economy were hunting for wild animals, fishing, digging up roots, and collecting wild fruits and honey from the forests. The major tools for hunting and gathering were made up of stone, woods, and bones.

– Under hunting and gathering economy, the mode of appropriation was the most primitive, that is, communal appropriation of nature ( appropriation was done through hunting and gathering bands)

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– Typical examples of hunting and gathering remnants are:

» The Hadzabe, occupying areas around Lake Eyasi.

» The Sandawe are also said to be among the remnants, but these were able to transform from hunting and gathering economy into food production in the 19th century.



Crop cultivation economy

• It appears that in East Africa crop cultivation had started as early as 500 BC. At the beginning, the crop cultivated were mainly root and fruit crops.

– In the interlucustrine region, for example, the earliest crops were yams and palm oil. At the beginning of the 1st millennium AD, grain crops such as millet and sorghum began to be grown.

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– With time, people were able to adopt crop varieties in accordance with their environmental and weather conditions. Sorghum and millet proved to be suitable in areas with little and unreliable rainfall, while bananas did well in wetter and more fertile soils and cool temperatures.

– Most of the societies which engaged in pure crop cultivation were to be found in South East and Eastern parts of the country. These areas found it difficult to develop pastoralism due to the presence of livestock diseases and tsetse flies.

– Prominent crops grown in these areas includes millet, cassava, rice, peas, beans, and coconut as the basis of their subsistence.

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Pastoral economy

• It is not clear when pastoralism began in East Africa, although the art of domesticating animals is even older than that of cultivating crops.

• However, in the development of pastoral economy, cattle grew as the most important livestock followed by goats and sheep.

– Societies which practiced pure pastoral economy were fewer than crop cultivators. The Masai provide us with the a typical example of such societies. They occupied some parts of central and north central Tanzania.

– They did not have permanent settlement as they led a nomadic way of life with their herds of cattle in search of new grazing land and water.

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– Pastoralism formed the basis of the Masai subsistence, providing them with milk, blood, meat, and skin products. As they interacted with crop cultivators, they could also acquire grain through bartering their livestock or livestock products with the crop cultivators.

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Mixed agricultural economy

Many societies in the southern, north western, northern, north eastern and central parts of the country had developed mixed agricultural economy.

– Examples of societies which had mixed agriculture economy include the Nyakyusa, Gogo, Nyamwezi, Sukuma, people of Mara region, etc.

– Since these societies practiced both, crop cultivation and livestock keeping, their communal ownership relations were much complex.

– This is because such relations were always characterized by contradictions between crop cultivation and livestock keeping

– To show these contradictions, let us use the Nyakyusa society as a case study.



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– As a result of this mixed agriculture, the Nyakyusa were able to:

• Develop agriculture practicing permanent agriculture and applying both green manure and animal manure. Bananas and beans were the most important staples.

• Livestock, especially cattle, also occupied an important position in the economy, providing meat and milk, means of exchange, dowry and accumulating wealth.

• Mixed agriculture had resulted to complex and contradictory communal ownership relations. Why?

– While land for crop cultivation was communally owned by the village communities, livestock was a common property of a clan or kinship group.

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– What makes matters more complicated, is the fact that village communities were based on age village called Amafumu. This means that people of the same age group lived in the same village. This implied then, that, people of the same clan or family lived in different villages, but had common ownership of livestock



Industrial economy

Tanzanian societies like other parts of the world, by the 19th century developed a variety of local industries which were predominantly in a form of handcraft industries ranging from the art of metal working, weaving, carpentry, bark cloth making and pottery.



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– Perhaps the development of metal working, particularly the skill of smelting and forging iron, was the most important in the development of other industries since it formed the basis of the development of other industries.

– In Tanzania as else where in Sub- Saharan Africa, the manufacture of iron tools, implements and weapons replaced those made of stone. Hence iron industry stimulated development of other industries as well as mixed agriculture since it provided different tools and weapons

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Conclusion:

A general observation about pre-colonial Tanzania economy indicates that:

– The majority of societies with matrilineal / matrilocal societies were those based on crop cultivation.

– Matrilineal or matrilocal societies can be defined as:

• Societies in which ancestry and descent of a person male or female are drawn from the mother and the motherly descendants. Clan heritage is based on the mother.

• A social lineage that traces its descendants via the mother’s family tree instead of the father's family tree.

– In this kind of societies, properties or wealth is often passed from mothers to daughters, the young also belongs to the mother.

– Examples of such societies includes Wamwera, Wamakonde,and Wanyakyusa.

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• Most patrilineal societies were based on either pastoralism or mixed agricultural economy.

– A patrilineal society can be defined as :

• Societies in which ancestry and descent of a person, male or female are drawn from the father and fatherly descendants. Clan heritage is based on the father.

• A social lineage that traces its descendants via the father’s family tree instead of the mother’s family tree.

– In these kind of societies, properties or wealth is often passed from fathers to boys , the young belongs to the father.

– Examples of such societies includes the Masai, Sukuma, Nyamwezi, Gogo, Kurya, etc.

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• The differences are due to the fact that:

– Under crop cultivating economy, kinship organization of labor as well as the mechanisms of redistribution of social products were based on the matrilineal clan.

– Under pastoral and mixed agricultural economies relations of labor as well as the mechanisms of redistribution of social products were based on patrilineal clan.

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Regional exchange relations in Pre-colonial Tanzania

• In pre-colonial Tanzania trade transactions began at local level between neighboring clans or lager societies. For example:

– Iron smiths exchanged their goods with carpenters or basket weavers.

– Pottery makers exchanged their pots with cereals and beans from crop cultivators

– Bark cloth makers exchanged their pieces of cloth with fishermen or pastoralists from whom they obtained fish or livestock or livestock products.

• At a higher level of development in the process of specialization, exchange transaction involved long distances, giving rise to the emergence of specialized traders who stood in the middle of two or more producing zones / centers of production.

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• However the conception of specialized traders should be handled with great care, why?

– Because the so called “specialized traders” were specialized in a seasonal sense, that is they were involved in trade transactions mainly during the dry season, while during the rainy season, they were actively involved in agricultural production. In other words, they were not pre-occupied with trading activities throughout the year.

• It is obvious that, the emergence of traders, whether seasonal or permanent, facilitated the growth of regional and inter-regional trade net works of trade.

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Trading networks in Pre-colonial Tanzania

In Pre-colonial Tanzania, a number of different trade routes can be identified:

The Yao trade system:

One of the earliest known regional and inter-regional trade network was conducted by the Yao traders.

– Coverage:

• The Yao trade system constituted a wide area covering the southern parts of Tanzania as far as northern Mozambique, and it extended to as far as east as the region around lake Nyasa and pats of Central Africa.

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– Periodization:

• The Yao traders had developed trade in iron and iron tools as early as the beginning of the 17th century. By the middle of the 18th century, the Yao were importing beads and other commodities from the coast to the interior.

• The skill of smelting and forging iron ( shaping heated iron into different shape to get metal implements) had also been developed within the Yao society by iron smith known as the Cisi.

– Commodities:

• Apart from iron and iron tools, the Yao also traded tobacco, pots, and salt. Yao women had developed the tradition of pottery, producing considerably high quality pots, the surplus was exported to neighboring societies.

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The South western Trade system

Another important trading network had developed in the South western parts of Tanzania.

– Coverage:

This trade network covered a zone surrounding the northern parts of lake Nyasa. Here most of the known traders came from among the Kinga people who resided in the present day Makete district in Iringa region.

– Commodities:

Among the Kinga and their neighbors, the Pangwa and the Bena, the skill of smelting and forging iron had greatly developed. Thus, the Kinga traders became important exporters of iron tools from Ukinga, Ubena, and Upangwa to other neighboring societies like the Nyakyusa and the Sangu and the Cisi.

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From the Cisi, they obtained pots as the Cisi were famous pot makers exporting some of those pots to Malawi.

Further more, the Kinga traders were to obtain bark and cotton cloth from the Fipa. Beans and dried banana from the Nyakyusa, cattle and animal products from the Sangu.

The Interlucustrine trade system

• For a number of centuries in the western and northern western regions of Tanzania had developed the so called Interlucustrine trade system. It has been observed that, around lakes Tanganyika and Rukwa, relatively strong trade links had grown.

– The most important trade items were salt and iron. Gradually, the Nyamwezi and Sumbwa traders emerged dominating the trade networks in the region.

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– In the late 18th century, the Nyamwezi and Sumbwa traders expanded their trade transactions as far west as Katanga, in eastern Zaire, as far north as Buhaya, Karagwe, Buganda, and Bunyoro.

– By the beginning of the 19th century, they were able to visit the Indian ocean coastal hinterlands in the east.

Commodities:

– Salt from Uvinza became an important commodity. It was bartered for copper from Katanga, robusta coffee(originating in Kaffa, Ethiopia since the 800AD) from Buhaya, bark cloth from Buganda and iron hoes from Bunyoro.

– Iron hoes from Bunyoro were in turn carried by both, the Nyamwezi and Banyoro traders to various parts of the interlucustrine region. Trade in iron ores was so important that at a certain stage, hoes assumed the function of medium of exchange

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The North Eastern Trade System

In the North Eastern region of Tanzania, there also developed another important trade system.

– Periodization:

Already by the 18th century, trade links had been established between the Shambaa, the Pare, the Kamba, the Masai, the Mbugu and the Chagga, just to mention a few of them.

– Commodities:

The main items of exchange included:

• Iron and iron tools mainly from

– The Shana iron smith among the Pare

– The Turi iron forgers from among the Shambaa

– The Mamba iron smiths among the Chagga.

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• Pots from the Pare were traded to the Chagga, the Shambaa and the Kamba.

• The Chagga exchanged their spears as well as beans, banana, and yams with livestock from the Masai and Mbugu pastoralists.

• Traders from among the Shambaa linked this regional trade with the coast by exporting tobacco and skins to the Zigua, the Bondei, and the Digo people. Likewise, the Kamba linked this trade network with the coastal trade around the coastal hinterland of Kenya.

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Medium of exchange which facilitated exchange system in Pre-colonial Tanzania.

• The most common system of exchange in the trade networks in pre-colonial Tanzania was mainly in the form of barter. Barter system involved the exchange of goods without the use of money or currency or any form of medium of exchange.

• However, as the trade systems became more complex and involving longer distance, it became necessary to make use some different forms of medium of exchange to facilitate simpler and faster trade transactions.

• Thus, by the beginning of the 19th century, medium of exchange like iron tools, beads, cloth, salt, copper, had began to be used widely.

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Conclusion:

• The development of regional and interregional trade systems in Tanzania had by the 19th century, reached the stage of long distance trade.

• However, colonial historians have argued that, the development of long distance trade in East Africa and Tanzania in particular, has been mainly associated with the 19th century Zanzibar and the coastal based trade system, dominated by Arabs and other foreign traders.

• The above colonial view is false. This is so because, long before the establishment of the Arabs or externally dominated trade from the 1830s, as it has been described in the course of this discussion, long distance trade systems had already evolved, such as those dominated by the Yao, the Nyamwezi, the Sumbwa, and the Kamba traders.





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• The penetration of Zanzibar and coastal trade systems into the interior were, in fact, greatly facilitated by the already internally based long distance trade infrastructures.