The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2001-07.
Goldie, Sir George
(George Goldie Taubman), 1846–1925, British colonial administrator, b. Isle of Man. Goldie entered the Niger River trade in the 1870s, and his company soon dominated trade on the lower river. In 1886 the British government chartered his Royal Niger Company, giving it political and economic control over the hinterland of Nigeria. It was Goldie’s objective, in which he was largely successful, to extend British control over the Niger and Benue rivers as far as they were navigable. He defeated French and German attempts to establish posts in Nigeria and conquered several of the Fulani emirates.
