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The characteristic feature of trade during most of the 18th century was its sporadic nature, maintained ever since the establishment of the Portuguese ivory trade in the 16th century. This situation changed during the English and Austrian periods of trade, when ivory was supplied on a far more regular basis because of the involvement of the country trade – a coastal trade in Asia, the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and, occasionally, the east coast of Africa, conducted by privately owned merchant vessels.Footnote1515 For discussion of the Bombay country trade, see A. Bulley, Bombay Country Ships 1790–1833 (Richmond, Curzon Press, 2000).View all notes The country trade was a special feature of the English East India Company (EEIC) that allowed either servants or ex-servants of the company to import quantities of certain goods on their own accounts.Footnote1616 Ibid., p. vii.View all notes This practice permitted legitimate private transactions, which generated an income in silver, a strength that the Company exploited. As country ships came to dominate English maritime trade, their business became invaluable to the Company that used the ready cash to pay for its annual tea order from China. And because the EEIC formally permitted their servants to conduct private trade, merchants became stakeholders in the company as a whole.Footnote1717 Ibid.View all notes Trade flourished in the Indian Ocean because traders were given the freedom to explore coasts and take advantage of trade within the terms of their licences.Footnote1818 Ibid., p. 3.View all notes It was under these favourable circumstances that Edward Chandler and his experienced crew made their way to Delagoa Bay with an official licence to exploit the ivory market from 1756. The importance of Chandler’s country trade was his access to capital with which to maintain a supply of a large quantity of trade goods, in particular the brass items that were in high demand in the southern hinterland of Delagoa Bay (see Table 1). Besides the limited political interference displayed by Europeans at this time, the greater level of ivory supply to the coast can be attributed to the ample supply of brass

The demand for ivory at Delagoa Bay was nothing new and was the reason for the Portuguese trade initiative in 1545. The Dutch, throughout their stay (1721–1730), did everything in their power to stimulate and expand the trade, and yet the supply stayed relatively low and dwindled to nothing when the desired trade goods ran out. The type of trade goods on offer decided the source and volume of the ivory supply. During the Dutch era, ivory traders from the north-west interior in search of dark blue glass beads approached the coast to trade, but because these beads were always in short supply, the ivory trade faltered. Judging by the Austrian inventories, the ivory supply came predominantly from the Nkomati and Maputo rivers.

By the late 18th century, then, Delagoa Bay had become primarily a refreshment station. It remained so well into the 19th century.Footnote8383 BdJ.L.M.L. Zimba, ‘Overseas Trade, Regional Politics and Gender Roles: Southern Mozambique, c.1720 to c.1830’, PhD thesis, University of Michigan, 1999, Chapter 3, pp. 161–73.View all notes The Tembe had provisioned ships from the 16th century through to the 18th century, and were naturally the group to maintain and expand this dominance over the food trade when whalers started to frequent the Bay.Footnote8484 Chewins, ‘Trade at Delagoa Bay’, p. 127.View all notes The Mfumo, situated on the northern shore, were known for a lack of cultivation (owing to the sandy soil found there), and their reliance on meat, even the ‘gedroogte spiere van hun vijande’, for sustenance.Footnote8585 CA C406 f. 117, ‘the dried flesh of their enemies’, a cynical observation of a disillusioned employee of the VOC, visiting the trading post in 1721.View all notes Cultivation on the northern bank, apart from the Dutch effort to establish a Company garden, was an activity that the Mfumo consistently avoided throughout the 18th century.Footnote8686 The Dutch pointed out the lack of non-cultivation in 1720, see CA C406 f. 117; the observation is repeated in White, Journal of a Voyage, p. 52.View all notes The Tembe side of Delagoa Bay was well suited to agriculture, having dark fertile soil and a higher rainfall than the opposite bank