# Victoria's Growing Commerce (1879)

URL: https://allhistories.com/seychelles/timeline/1879-victoria-s-growing-commerce
Location: Victoria, Mahé
Themes: main-event

After the post-emancipation slump of the 1840s, Seychelles slowly recovered in the 1860s and 1870s thanks to coconut and copra exports, the labour of liberated Africans and the colony's growing administrative autonomy under the Board of Civil Commissioners. Victoria, renamed in 1841, became the hub of this revival. The business licences granted in Victoria in 1879 give a snapshot of the town's economy. They list a druggist, two auctioneers, five retailers, four liquor stores, a notary, an attorney, a jeweller and a watchmaker. Alongside them were warehouses for copra and coconut oil, government offices, churches and the market, and the harbour was visited by steamers and sailing vessels linking the islands with Mauritius, Zanzibar, Aden and India. Victoria's growth continued through the vanilla boom of the 1880s and 1890s, attracting Chinese and Indian merchants who opened shops and trading houses. By the end of the century the town had acquired paved streets, imposing public buildings and a cosmopolitan population, setting the stage for its role as capital of a separate Crown colony from 1903. At this point in the timeline (1879), the Queen of the United Kingdom was Victoria (20 June 1837 – 22 January 1901). Local administration and government: the Chief Civil Commissioner of the Seychelles was Arthur Havelock (1879 – 1880).

## Why it matters
It documents Victoria's emergence as a genuine commercial town in the late nineteenth century.

Ruler at the Time: [Victoria](https://allhistories.com/seychelles/rulers/queen-victoria)

Chief Civil Commissioner of the Seychelles: Arthur Havelock

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Victoria, Seychelles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victoria,_Seychelles)
- [Wikipedia — History of Seychelles](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Seychelles)
- [Encyclopaedia Britannica — Victoria Seychelles](https://www.britannica.com/search?query=Victoria+Seychelles)