This three-day seminar was held under the auspices of the University of Edinburgh's Department of Political Economy and Centre of African Studies. It was organised by Ian G. Stewart, Reader in Economics and Vice-Convener of the Centre of African Studies Committee, and was attended by some 40 African, American, and British economists concerned with trade and development prospects for African primary commodities. Included among the invited participants were academic and government economists from Ghana, Nigeria, the Sudan, and East Africa, as well as from the U.N. Economic Commission for Africa and research centres in Britain and the U.S.A.