Palmerston and Africa

Lord Palmerston investigated the apparently minor affair of two British traders whose enterprise on the Rio Nunez in West Africa had been attacked by Belgian trading rivals. Research and new material detail his personal handling of this in the midst of affairs of state. This work is based in a time when the British Empire was at its most powerful and self-confident, and Lord Palmerston was at his prime, robust and energetic enough to investigate affairs as apparently minor as that of Rio Nunez. The problem concerned two British traders - Braithwaite and Martin - whose enterprise on the Rio Nunez in West Africa had been attacked by Belgian trading rivals. Palmerston's personal handling of their complaints - in the midst of high affairs of state - is detailed in this account, based on extensive research and new material. It is a portrait of imperial power at its height.