The Portuguese galleons, cutting out all the middlemen and able to carry much bigger cargoes, offered a totally new kind of trading opportunity. They and their Dutch and English competitors, who followed later in the sixteenth century, carried gold and ivory to Europe and in return brought commodities from all over the world that were greatly valued by the Oba’s court, including coral from the Mediterranean, cowry shells from the Indian Ocean to serve as money, cloth from the Far East and, from Europe itself, larger quantities of brass than had ever before reached West Africa. This was the raw material from which the Benin plaques were made. –A History of the World in 100 Objects,
Neil MacGregor

What conclusion can be drawn about the historical significance of the Benin plaques?

They symbolize the competitive trading practices of the Dutch during the sixteenth century.
They represent the sixteenth-century trade connections between West Africa and other countries.
They represent West Africa’s isolation from the rest of the world in the sixteenth century.