North-South relations the slave-trade, and Fuuta Jaloo at the end of the 18th century. Fuuta Jaloo (Republic of Guinea), a state which constituted itself in West Africa during the first half of the l8th century, developped by building an economic system based both on slavery and on the slave-trade. The present study analyses the relations between the African state and the Atlantic slave-trade : relations which can be considered as the original form of North-South relations. In this context what margin of influence did the African societies possess. On what bases was commerce established between societies European on the one hand African on the other who were mutually ignorant of the cost of production of the goods they were receiving. In ...