Legitimate trade refers to the trade in commodities between Africans and European merchants immediately after the abolition of the slave trade. It replaced the illegal slave trade and was mainly along the Niger Delta coast. The main article of trade was palm produce, which was exchanged for manufactured goods such as mirrors, gin, gunpowder, etc. . The involvement of European merchants and African traders was based on a trust system, and intermediaries played a major role in trade negotiation. The transition to legitimate trade in general constituted an evolutionary, rather than revolutionary, process. The ending of the Atlantic slave trade and its replacement by what contemporaries called ‘legitimate’ (i.e. non-slave) trade – principally in agricultural produce, such as palm oil and groundnuts – during the nineteenth century has been one of the central themes in the historiography of western Africa since the beginnings of serious academic study of African history in the 1950s. The implication of legitimate trade was that Africans were encouraged to abandon the hunt for slaves and take up commercial farming to meet the industrial needs of Europe. The raw materials enterprise resulted in new wars and the rise of wealthy commodity merchants in Africa. Legitimate trade led to the rise of new men who engaged in the palm oil trade, such as Jaja of Opobo and Nana Olomu of Itsekiri land. The trust system that resulted from it became a source of conflict, and new cities became prominent trade centers, such as Opobo, Bonny, Calabar, etc. .