Economic history of Nigeria  Colonialism is a major feature of the economic history of Nigeria. Britain eventually gained control of Nigerian administration. After independence, the Nigerian economy seemed very promising. Many saw Nigeria, with 15% of Africa's population, as an emerging economy. However, this potential never materialized. A series of unfortunate political and economic events have stalled Nigerian growth. The country still plays an important economic role in the world, especially as a producer of fossil fuels. Direct trade with Europe started from the fifteenth century. Portuguese had explored the coasts to avoid Saharan intermediaries in the trade of West African gold to Europe and that was a way to India. They built coastal bases and introduced the Atlantic slave trade when they bought captives from the kingdom of Benin (nowadays Nigeria) and sold them to African tradesmen on the coast (nowadays Ghana). The period from 1680-1800 was dominated by a boom of the Atlantic slave trade because of the growth of the Atlantic plantation system. The effects on peaceful production and trade were terrible since slave trade was a cause of conflicts. However, the Atlantic trade still brought advantages. Especially, the currencies that West African tradesmen adopted were more efficient than earlier commodity currencies. This helped to reduce the cost of doing business. The European struggle to establish communities and trading posts on the West African coast from about the mid-17th century to the mid-18th century was part of the wider competition for trade and empire in the Atlantic. The British, like other newcomers to the slave trade, found they could compete with the Dutch in West Africa only by forming national trading companies. The first such effective English enterprise was the Company of the Royal Adventurers, chartered in 1660 and succeeded in 1672 by the Royal African Company. Only a monopoly company could afford to build and maintain the forts considered essential to hold stocks of slaves and trade goods. In the early 18th century, Britain and France made inroads on the Dutch hold on West African trade; and by the end of the French Revolution and the subsequent Napoleonic Wars (1799–1815), Britain had become the dominant commercial power in West Africa. The slave trade was one of the major causes of the devastating internecine strife in southern Nigeria during the three centuries to the mid-19th century, when abolition occurred. In the 19th century, Britain was interested primarily in opening markets for its manufactured goods in West Africa and expanding commerce in palm oil. Securing the oil and ivory trade required that Britain usurp the power of coastal chiefs in what became Nigeria.