The British Imperial Institute - Notes on Colonial Piracy, Plunder, and the Appropriation of Indigenous Knowledges

Introduction

This article briefly reflects on the origins, research objectives and activity of the British Imperial Institute, in the early 20th century. Attention is focused on the types of raw materials and products analyzed, imperial mineral surveillance, and activities of specific importance to British industrial development. The article concludes that the Institute was one of the important arms of imperialism, and intellectual piracy, in the period in question. Information for this work is based on archival research conducted at the Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna (N.N.A.K), Nigeria, and the Public Record Office (P.R.O), London, UK.

Origins and Objectives of the Institute

The British Imperial Institute was founded in 1889 by Royal Charter, with funds collected from private and official sources throughout the Empire. It is recorded that more than £100,000 came from India. Later the Cowdray Trust provided an annual payment of £4,000 for five years, beginning from 1930.1 The British government assumed responsibility for the construction of the Institute. Administratively, the Institute oscillated between the Board of Trade, the Secretary of State for the Colonies, the Department of Overseas Trade, and finally, as of 1948, the Colonial Office and the Ministry of Education.

The fundamental objective of the British Imperial Institute was acquisition of information with respect to both natural and manufactured products, with a view to "the creation of new openings in trade and promotion of industrial development." 3The Institute was to be a clearing house for investigation and exhibition of the natural resources of the Empire in order to promote 'inter-imperial commerce and industry.'4 This was to be done by special enquiries and by experimental research, technical trials, and commercial valuations, with respect to products procurable from new sources as well as locally manufactured ones. It was hoped that the work of the Institute would involve laboratory and workshop research into the uses of raw materials, the collection and dissemination of information about the latter, and finally exhibition galleries. Information concerning varied types of raw materials, and in some cases manufactured goods, was to be acquired. 5The Institute consisted of a series of well-equipped research laboratories and a supporting staff of trained scientists and researchers. 6 A majority of the staff were analysts engaged in research on dyestuff, tanning materials, seeds, oils, gum, fibers, timbers and medicinal plants. In addition to chemists the institution had access to other trained scientists. There were also supporting staff who were not necessarily natural scientists, but who were useful in accessing the potential value of products for commercial and industrial sectors.

An up-to-date display of the varied resources was kept in the Galleries of the British Imperial Institute, and was of particular benefit to those merchants and industrialists who were on the lookout for new products, whether natural or processed. Details of such were available on application, and by special request to the Commercial Information Office of the Institute, or other specified and authorized officers. In some cases, samples were supplied to interested parties.7The Institute embarked on the analysis of a wide range of products from colonial dependencies, not only in Africa, but also from other regions within the vast colonial domain, from regions as far apart as India, Canada, Trinidad, New Zealand, Hong Kong and Fiji. Researchers examined iron ores from New Zealand; coal from India; sand, volcanic rock and limestone from Madras; and sample of cotton, “groo-groo” fiber and sisal fiber from Trinidad, Grenada and St. Vincent, in the Caribbean. Medicinal plants such as Lotus arabicus, Indian hemp, opium, a variety of aconites, and Podophyllum emodi were targeted for special research and investigation, in the case of India. There was particular emphasis on African minerals. In a minute addressed to the Comptroller General, Department of Overseas Trade, the Director of the Institute, W. Furse, pointed out that :
The Imperial Institute is in a specially favorable position to answer enquiries on mineral occurrences in Nigeria as the Minerals Surveys of Northern and Southern Nigeria were conducted under its auspices from about 1904.8
He further observed that the Imperial Institute had a reference collection of several thousand mineral specimens from Nigeria. In another reference we are told that the samples of iron ores collected from Lokoja revealed too much silica and too little iron. The ore was considered potentially useful should there be a price rise for iron on the world market. In the case of Nyasaland and British Central Africa, samples of volcanic rock, limestone and coal were also subjected to analysis and technical examination. From Somaliland, samples of mica were taken for the same purpose. The London Geological Society, founded in 1807, encouraged enthusiasts to collect data for metropolitan analysis and to simulate the development of a global network "for gathering mineral intelligence.” Several surveys were carried out in earlier decades by the latter, aimed at providing new sources of mineral supply, and information to guide their exploitation.9

The report revealed information about other types of raw material analyzed in Nigeria. Microscopic examination of samples of Boko silk from Bauchi province, Nigeria, showed that the silk had not been perfectly degummed, and that there were a number of double strands. There was general agreement, however, that there was a market for Nigerian produced silk. The 75 lbs. of Nigerian palm nuts examined by the Institute were considered to be of similar quality to those of Sudan, and potentially useful in the production of buttons. The samples of gum from Borno were valued at 20s per cwt, and considered suitable for industrial purposes because of its high viscosity and adhesive power. In the case of other African colonies such as Uganda, the Gold Coast, and Nyasaland, there are direct entries with respect to rubber, cotton, kola nuts, hibiscus fibers, timber, gutta yielding plants, and oilseeds.10.There was a great deal of concern about the comparative quality of similar products from different areas. For example, in 1901, in the case of iron ore, the major question was whether or not the iron ore of India (Madras) was of comparable quality to that of Nyasaland, and the overall economic viability of large scale production of the former. The sand samples were analyzed with the glass industry in the mind, and the rock crystal viewed as a potential component in optical instruments.

Special attention was placed on medicinal plants, and it was explicitly stated as follows:
It is most important that the numerous plants abundant in India and held there in high repute as medicinal agents should be completely investigated both as regards their principal constituents and their medicinal value. 11 It was discovered that the opium grown in Jeypore had much less morphine and far more nicotine than the opium then used in Britain. Similarly, during the chemical analysis of the Indian Podophyllum emodi, a genus of herbs, it was discovered that this plant contained not only medicinally active constituents but also a yellow dye which might be profitably employed in other ways. The constituents of purgative plants and oils such as Kekuna oil, and Hong Kong’s Tung oil as well as Pterocarpus marsupium (Indian Kino) were also examined, with a view to determining their commercial applicability. Khaya senegalensis (African Mahogany) and a variety of guinea corn were identified as having medicinal value, in the case of Nigeria. There is ample evidence of a systematic borrowing of ideas and Indigenous knowledge about local therapeutic agents held "in high repute,” and the systematic deployment of "traditional" medicinal knowledge from the various localities within the empire.12 The records of the Institute point to the significance of colonized peoples, their intellect, knowledge and understanding of the natural world, for pharmaceutical development in particular, and Western scientific laboratories, in general.

Conclusion

The British Imperial Institute in the early 20th century provides a clear case of espionage, and the unauthorized, illegal appropriation of Indigenous Knowledges, whereby the colonial dependencies were made to contribute to the development of the productive forces of Britain - a contribution that included not only natural resources but the intellectual property of the Indigenous inhabitants in the colonies. At the start of the twentieth century, Britain was not the dominant industrial power in the global arena, but it is significant to note that institutions such as the British Imperial Institute enabled it to maintain competitive power in the global economic system.

References/Primary Sources

1. Public Records Office (P.R.O). London, File ED 26/68 84513
2. P.R.O. London, File ED 25, Ministry of Education, External Relations. 
3. Ibid.
4. Nigerian National Archives, Kaduna, Northern Nigeria (N.N.A.K) Gazette (Gaz) Oct. 31st, 1901. See also the advertisement of the Bulletin of the Imperial Institute in N.N.A.K Gaz 1/1. Sept. 14.1912.
5. See P.R.O, London. File ED 26/68 84513. 
6. N. N. A. K. Gaz 1/1/1901. The Director of the Institute in 1901 was Professor Wyndham R. Dunstan.
7. P.R.O London, File ED 26/88.
8. P. R. O. London, File ED 26/88
9. See Journal of Imperial and Commonwealth History. May 1984. Vol XII.no. 3. Pp. 5-32.
10. N. N. A. K. Gaz 1/1 Jan 31, 1910; N. N. A. K. Gaz 1/1 March 31, 1910; N.N.A.K Gaz 1/1/ June 31 1910; and Gaz 1/1 Sept. 14. 1912.
11. Gaz 1/1 1901.
12. N. N. A. K. Gaz 1/1 April 30, 1910.