300 BUREAU OF AMERICAN ETHNOLOGY [BuU. 188 



(Manners, 1956, p. 133 ; Wolf, 1956, p. 241) . Credit saturation is also 

 described from Puerto Eico : "Storekeepers feel that as long as they ex- 

 tend credit, people have an incentive to pay past debts. If credit is cut 

 off they shift their allegiance to another store" (Wolf, 1956, p. 240). 



In Africa, Malinowski (1945, p. 15) noted that, ". . . the missionaries 

 and the administrators, the settlers and the entrepreneurs, are indeed 

 the main agents of change." Nevertheless the entrepreneurs, in par- 

 ticular, have received little attention from anthropologists. It has 

 been noted here and there (e.g., Barnes, 1951, p. 244; Hunter, 1936, 

 p. 5; Wilson, 1951, p. 62) that they provide the stimulus as well as 

 some opportunities for wagework by creating a desire for European 

 goods. 



The social functions of the store persist here also. 



The trader's store is a social center to which young and old come to gossip 

 and flirt, beg tobacco, and inquire as to the whereabouts of beer. Often a youth 

 spends a whole morning at a store, talking to girls, chafBng with his contempo- 

 raries, and perhaps letting off steam in a stick-fight with a friend. Young 

 men just back from the mines with money to burn treat their girl friends to 

 sugar; parties of four or six squat on the verandah of the store, and quickly 

 dispose of pound packets. The men inspect every girl who comes in. . . . 

 [Hunter, 1936, p. 356.] 



It is apparent, however, that in many parts of Africa as in Latin 

 America a plantation economy has superseded the free trader (cf. 

 Hunter, 1936, p. 2 ; Malinowski, 1945, pp. 118-120) . 



Trade and trade relationships have long been the focus of anthro- 

 pological studies in Oceania, and only here has the European trader 

 received significant attention. Here, too, a plantation economy has 

 developed in many regions (see, e.g., Hogbin, 1951, pp. 183-203; 

 Reed, 1943, pp. 98-105) and particularly in Indonesia (Furnivall, 

 1944, passim). Nevertheless, according to Keesing (1941, pp. 68, 121- 

 122): 



A . . . figure of great importance to the modern experience of indigenous 

 peoples has been the trader. In many regions the earliest to arrive on the scene, 

 he brought the native into touch with the larger markets of the world and 

 gave him his primary education in the economics of civilization. History 

 shows the trader as quickly becoming indispensable to native communities, even 

 though under some circumstances he was judged a sinister influence. . . . 

 Now, after decades of trial and give-and-take, the results can be seen in the 

 trade store of today. Over the coimter pass baskets of copra, shell or other 

 products, and out come cloth goods, matches and kerosene, a variety of tools, 

 canned goods, soap, and quite a long list of other products that have become 

 either necessities or luxuries. 



The trader has not been particularly concerned about contrasts in economic 

 philosophy. Once he found out what goods suited the native needs and tastes, 

 he continued to supply these. 



All trade goods, indeed . . . tend to be fitted into the indigenous system of 

 life in this way. As some put it, they become nativized, taking on meanings and 

 f imctions of a local character. 



