On 18th and 19th September, our research group met for its final workshop. Throughout two full days, an international group of specialists of the economic history of Africa convened in Bologna to expose the latest fruits of their research, while all the members of our team discussed their results with them. The workshop was structured along the three main axes of the project, arms, beads, and cloth, and was concluded by some final remarks by Gareth Austin from the University of Cambridge, a leading expert on the field of African economic history.

These were the titles of our own presentations:

• Mariella Terzoli and John Kegel, “Dutch Traders in the Lower Congo. A History of Failures and Successes in the Late Precolonial Period”
• Alessandro De Cola, “Production, Logistics, and Demand of Venetian Glass Beads in the 19th Century: A Focus on Northeast Africa”
• Sara Zanotta, “Encountering Local Markets: Italian Expeditions and Afro-Asian Trade Networks in the Horn of Africa and Yemen in the 1870s”
• Massimo Zaccaria, “Italian Textiles in Eritrea: Meeting the Demands of a Challenging Market (19th–20th Centuries)”
• Giorgio Tosco, “Italy and the Textile Market of the Horn of Africa, 1880s–1920s”

The event also featured talks by Anne Ruderman (London School of Economics), Pierre-Niccolò Sofia (University of Padua), Kazuo Kobayashi (Waseda University, Tokyo), Jan-Bart Gewald (University of Leiden), Jeremy Prestholdt (University of California at San Diego), Felix Brahm (University of Münster), and Patrick Otim (Bates College, Lewiston, Maine).

Our aim is to publish the proceedings of the workshop as an edited volume.