Trade and Its Origins on the Botletli River, Botswana

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Abstract
This paper discusses the causes of trade and evaluates the roles played by habitat diversity, mobility, and competition. Ethnographic and ethnohistorical evidence from the Botletli River, Botswana, is used to evaluate some general arguments. The Botletli trade is shown to be based on locational advantages, due to the habitat diversity of the region, and on other comparative advantages arising from differential access to important resources. These factors appear to have become important with increases in population density, which increased the effective habitat diversity of the region and created competition for a limited zone of valuable land.