Editing Kpengla (section)

==Slave trade policy==
Kpengla became king at a particularly difficult period of history for the kingdom.  The slave trade was the major economic resource for the kingdom and the king's personal finances, but Oyo and other inland traders had begun raising rates and playing port cities against one another.<ref name=Law-1989 />  Kpengla had the opportunity to either improve the kingdom's position as middleman or to start slave raiding which would cause anger by Oyo and others.  At Kpengla's coronation, he vowed to free Dahomey from the Oyo Empire in terms of both ending the tributary status of Dahomey to Oyo and breaking their control over the slave trade.<ref name=Law-1989 />

Kpengla initially attempted to negotiate a situation with the Oyo Empire that would cement the position of Dahomey as middleman between Oyo and the Europeans.  The proposal was that Dahomey would destroy eastern slave ports which were taking trade away from Dahomey and Oyo ports, forcing the Europeans to trade with their ports.  Kpengla believed that this situation would result in the Oyo moving their trade from rival ports like [[Porto-Novo]] into the Dahomey port of Whydah.  As a result, Kpengla destroyed [[Epe, Nigeria|Epe]] in 1782 and [[Badagry]] in 1784.  Having fulfilled his part of the agreement, Kpengla grew angry when Oyo and [[Porto-Novo]] continued to trade actively as a rival port to Whydah.<ref name=Law-1989 />

As a result, Kpengla reformed trade policy to ban all trade in slaves with Oyo in 1786.  The next year, he created a royal monopoly over trade at Whydah, controlling all English and French imports (except for Brazilian [[tobacco]]).  In addition, he set price controls significantly decreasing the price of slaves into the kingdom.  Traders who attempted to work around the price controls were executed or sold as slaves themselves.  Traders resisted this and decided not to sell slaves at all.  Kpengla responded by forcing sale by the traders.  These policies resulted in significant movement of trade away from Dahomey and to other ports and so in 1788, he began slave raiding once again.<ref name=Law-1989 />