Oba of Benin institutes separate markets for male and female slaves

By 1516 the Oba had established separate "markets" for male and female slaves, requiring merchants to negotiate separate terms for each category. In practice it was far more difficult to obtain permission to buy males than females. The restriction on the export of male slaves, introduced perhaps to conserve Benin manpower during incessant warfare, developed within a few years into a total embargo that persisted until the close of the seventeenth century. The Sāo Miguel voyage of 1522 confirms this: of 83 slaves purchased, only two were males despite a month of vain attempts to open a market for them.