² Daaku, Kwame Y., Trade and Politics on the Gold Coast, 1600–1720 (Oxford, 1970).Google ScholarPriestley, Margaret, West African Trade and Coast Society, A Family Study (Oxford, 1969).Google Scholar Other recent studies of major African merchants include Amenumey, D. E., ‘Geraldo de Lima: A Reappraisal’, Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, IX (Legon, 1968), 65–78;Google ScholarIkime, Obaro, Merchant Prince of ihe Niger Delta(New York, 1969). With the exception of Daaku's, these studies concentrate on political and social rather than on commercial or entrepreneurial history.Google Scholar

³ The Sarbah Papers, which include a sizeable number of personal and family letters, are housed in the Special Collection of private papers at the Ghana National Archives, Accra. The business records and correspondence of the Sarbah trading firm are far from complete. The sources used in this study are: (I) John Sarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4, which contains copies of many outgoing and some incoming letters to business associates, agents and customers (covering some 545 pages), between1874 and the late 1880s; (2) Sarbah Trade Journal, 1869–1876, Sc. 6/1; (3) Sarbah Account Book, 1874–1875, Sc. 6/3; (4) Cape Coast Cash Book, 1870–7, Sc. 6/2; (5) Ledger, 1882, Sc. 6/12; (6) Journal of Accounts, 1875–8, Sc. 6/6; (7) Ledger, 1877–1879, Sc. 6/7; (8) Station Cash Books, Sc. 6/10–11; Retail Store Account Book, 1882–1884, Sc. 6/12. The writer is grateful to the staff of the Ghana National Archives for courtesies extended during research in the Special Collection.Google Scholar

⁴ McPhee, Allan, The Economic Revolution in British West Africa (London, 1926),71–2, 95–100.Google ScholarSir Hancock, Keith, Survey of Commonwealth Affairs, II, 2 (London, 1940, 5964), 196.Google Scholar

⁵ Priestley, West African Trade and Coastal Society, 146–7.Google Scholar Also, Akita, J. M., ‘George Blankson of Anamabo’, Transactions of the Gold Coast Historical Society, I, pt. V (1955), 215–22.Google Scholar

⁶ Select Committee on Western Coast of Africa: Reports of Committees (1865), [412], 196–7, V.Google Scholar

⁷ In 1863 the exports of the British finn of F. and A. Swanzy came close to making up the total of the export bill for the entire Gold Coast Colony. See Swanzy, Henry, ‘A Trading Family in the Nineteenth Century Gold Coast’, Transactions of the Gold Coast and Togoland Historwal Society, II, 2 (1956), 113–14.Google Scholar

⁸ Davies, P. N., ‘The African Steamship Company’, in Harris, J. R. (ed.), Liverpool and Merseyside (London, 1969), 218–19.Google Scholar

⁹ See, for example, Phillips, Thomas, Journal of a Voyage made in the Hannibal of London (London, 1693, 1694),Google Scholar quoted in Wolfson, Freda, Pageant of Ghana (London, 1958), 76–7.Google ScholarCaptain Adams, John, Remarks on the Country extending from Cape Palmas to the River Congo (London, 1823), 15–23.Google Scholar

¹⁰ A notable example is Hill, Polly, e.g. The Migrant Cocoa-Farmers of Southern Ghana (Cambridge, 1963);Google ScholarStudies in Rural Capitalism in West Africa (Cambridge, 1970).Google Scholar See also, Lawson, Rowena M., ‘The Transition of Ghana's Fishing from a Primitive to a Mechanized Industry’, Trans. Hist. Soc. of Ghana, IX (1968), 90–104.Google Scholar

¹¹ Cruickshank, Brodie, Eighteen Years on the Gold Coast of Africa, I (1853, 1966), 242–5, 294. There are a number of examples of ex-slaves who rose to positions of wealth in Fanti society.Google Scholar

¹² The various sides of this issue are discussed in Garlick, P. C., African Traders and Economic Development in Ghana (Oxford, 1971), 99–102.Google Scholar

¹³ Gold Coast Blue Book Report for 1849. Letter from the Rev. Fletcher (Wesleyan Society), end, in Ussher (91) to C.O.28 Mar. 1880; C.O. 96/130.Google Scholar

¹⁴ Kimble, David, A Political History of Ghana (Oxford, 1963), 130.Google Scholar

¹⁵ Bartels, F. L., The Roots of Ghana Methodism (Cambridge, 1963), 18, 25, 35, 88, 145 and passim.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Kimble, A Political History of Ghana, 161–7.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Marris, Peter and Somerset, Anthony, African Businessmen, A Study of Entrepreneurship and Development in Kenya (London, 1971), 77–92.Google Scholar

¹⁸ Copy of letter from John Sarbah to King Kofi Amonu III of Anomabu, 21 May 1874; Sarbah Letterbook, Special Collection 6/4; Ghana National Archives.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Gold Coast Chronicle, 11 July 1892, p. 3.Google Scholar

²⁰ Sampson, Magnus, Gold Coast Men of Affairs (London, 1937), 97. Unfortunately, no sketch of John Sarbah's life was included in this interesting collection of brief biographies.Google Scholar

²¹ DrEasmon, James F., Draft Report on the Census of the Gold Coast Colony for 1895, end. in Griffith (306) to Ripon, II November 1892; C.O. 96/226.Google Scholar

²² Some of the leading African merchants of the central region in the late nineteenth century were J. Addoquay, John O. Ansah, J. W. Abraham, James F. Amissah, Quassie Anbrah, Albert Biney, George Blankson, Samuel Brew, Robert Cann, A. D. Ellis, F. C. Grant, R. A. Harrison, A. T. Hughes Hahn, George Hughes, W. F. Hutchinson, John Inchiful, T. F. E. Jones, Josiah A. Mills, A. F. Parker, W. E. Pietersen, William Plange, R. A. Quansah, James E., John B., Amos J. and Simon Quashie, W. E. Sam, T. H. Sam, John Sarbah, Jacob W. Sey, Joseph Sey, James Eggay Taylor, Henry Vanhein, A. Q. Yarquah. This information was obtained from a wide variety of documentary and oral sources, substantiated in interviews with W. S. Kwasi Johnson, Cape Coast, Aug. 1969 and Dec. 1972.Google Scholar

²³ Oral interview with W. S. Kwasi Johnson, August 1969. Several secondary sources suggest that Sarbah and J. W. Sey were the two most prosperous merchants in Cape Coast society. See, for example, Sampson, Gold Coast Men of Affairs, 101–2.Google Scholar

²⁴ Some of Sarbah's branch agents included the following: Francis Acquasi (Ajua), Edward Blewett (Elmina), T. T. Jeffrey (Ajua and Axim), Josiah Mills (Winneba and Apam), J. B. Micah (Winneba), James B. Clement (Cape Coast and Winneba), David Ghartey (Winneba), John Graham (Saltpond), John Alloo (Anamabu), John Ogoe (Anamabu), Chief Kofi Dontho (Chama), James B. Gordon (Saltpond). Information derived from Sarbah Papers; Special Collection; Sc. 6/-series, Ghana National Archives.Google Scholar

²⁵ Ocansey Papers; Special Collection, Sc. 8/-series; Ghana National Archives. Oral interviews conducted at Ada, eastern Ghana, January 1972.Google Scholar

²⁶ A few of the better known African firms of the Accra area at this time were James Bannerman, J. H. Cheathani, George Cleland, Alfred O. Cole, A. Lincoln Cudjoe, Labrech Hesse, David Laryea, the Ofori brothers, the Owoo brothers, Emmanuel Quartey-Papafilo, Samuel D. Pappoe, J. W. LeGrande Sawyer, J. A. Vanderpuje, J. M.Vanderpuje.Google Scholar

²⁷ The concept of entrepreneurship defies exact definition and can best be thought of in terms of a cluster of qualities or attributes. For Jean Baptiste Say the vital element was the centralized coordination of a number of basic factors of production—land, labour and capital—in the development of a new enterprise. This is not to say that use of the term ‘entrepreneurship’ in the broad sense must necessarily imply control over machine technology and large-scale corporate enterprise or management of vast supplies of labour as in the model of western industrial capitalism. Nor is it to say that the particular route followed by John Sarbah was the only path open for the exercise of entrepreneurial talent in West Africa. Today, most economists stress entrepreneurship as a crucial factor in development in Africa and Asia but put it in the widest possible context to include both large and small-scale enterprise. P. Marris and A. Somerset in their recent work on Kenya a here closely to Say's classic definition when they stress that the entrepreneur is one with a ‘talent for combining assets in a form which has not been attempted before’. In a classification which may be useful for Africanists, M. Katzin distinguishes between ‘traditional entrepreneurs’, ‘innovating entrepreneurs’, and ‘imitating entrepreneurs’.Google Scholar For relevant works, see Say, J. B., A Treatise on Political Economy, I, (London, 1821), 104;Google ScholarHagen, Everett, The Economics of Development (Homewood, Illinois, 1968), 217–32;Google ScholarHart, Keith, ‘Small-scale Entrepreneurs in Ghana and Development Planning’, Journal of Development Studies, VI (07 1970), no. 4, 104–20;CrossRefGoogle ScholarMarris and Somerset, African Businessmen, a Study of Entrepreneurship and Development in Kenya, 2.Google Scholar

²⁸ See, for example,Cole, Arthur H. ‘An Approach to the Study of Entrepreneurship’, in Lane, F. C. and Riemersma, J. C. (eds.), Enterprise and Secular Change (Homewood, Illinois, 1953), 185.Google Scholar

²⁹ Margaret Pricstley has stressed the muddled state of Richard Brew's records at the time of his death. (West African Trade and Coast Society, 83.) Other examples of lapses in record keeping can be found in the later years of such firms as that of G. B. Williams, Sc. 12/-series, and J. H. Caesar, Sc. 53/-series (G.N.A.), as well as John Sarbah.Google Scholar

³⁰ Pollard, Sidney, The Genesis of Modern Management (London, 1965), 270–1 and passim.Google Scholar

³¹ Sarbah, John to Mills, J. A., 12 1875;Google ScholarSarbah to Gordon, J. B., 23 Nov. 1878; Sarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

³² See, for example, Sarbah to John Ogoe (no date) Sarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

³³ Sarbah to Addoo, 28 May 1879; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

³⁴ Sarbah Journal of accounts (1875–1878); Sc. 6/7. Sarbah Station Cash Books, Sc. 6/10–6/II. Ocansey Trading Firm, Station Cash Books, Sc. 8/17–8/19.Google Scholar

³⁵ Sarbah to Gordon, J. B., 23 Nov. 1878; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

³⁶ Sarbah to Chief Kofi Dontho Chama, no date, 1875; Sarbah to Mills, J., 12 Nov. 1785; Sarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

³⁷ Sarbah to Mills, Josiah, 21 April 1877;Google ScholarSarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

³⁸ The proportion of British palm oil imports supplied by Gold Coast ports rose from 6 per cent in the 1850s to 20 per cent in the late 1870s. Annual Statements of the Trade and Navigation of the United Kingdom with Foreign Countries and British Possessions for the years: Accts. and Papers (1856), [2139], LVI, 279, 316; (1876), [c.1571], LXXII, II, 14, 53, 194, 230–1.Google Scholar

³⁹ Copy of letter from Mills to Sarbah (Winneba), 9 Nov. 1875; Sc. 6/4. See also, regular price reports in the African Times, Gold Coast Times and Liverpool Journal of Commerce.Google Scholar

Source for Quantity and Value: Gold Coast Blue Books for the years. Rept. on the Economic Agriculture on the Gold Coast: Accts. and Papers (1890), [C. 5897–40], LXVIII.

⁴¹ J. H. Caesar complained to one London broker that the latter seemed to be charging 2½ per cent twice. The broker replied that this was correct: the first 2½ per cent was brokers discount for handling charges; the second 2½ per cent was commission for selling the goods. (Copy of letter from Davies, Whitworth and Pearce of London to J. H. Caesar and Sons, 17 June 1894; Caesar Papers, Shipment Record Book; Sc. 13/11.)Google Scholar

⁴² Letter from Mills and Sarbah to Jeffries, T. T., 30 Sept 1878; Sarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁴³ Letter from Gallie, G. D. to Caesar, J. H. and Sons (Ada), 10 may 1888; Caesar Papers, Sc. 13/11.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Sarbah to Mills, 28 Feb. 1877; Sarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4. Letter from Hickson, Sykes and Co. of Liverpool to W. N. Ocansey and Sons; Ocansey Trading Papers, Sc. 8/63.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Roads Report by Asst. Inspector Kirby, encl, in Rowe to Kimberley, 24 Jan. 1882; C.O. 96/137. Other references in reports of district commissioners for the years.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Cargo manifest quoted in Barry, F. to C.O., 18 July 1882; C.O. Afr (W) 451, No. II, p. 42). Rept. by Lang to Undersecretary, C.O., 17 Oct. 1894; C.O. 96/253.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Correspondence with Josiah Mills and others; Sarbah Letterbook; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ See, for example, copy of letter of grievances from Cape Coast merchants, including Grant, Gillet, Mclver, Christian, Sarbah and Clement, to Govr. Freeling, encl, in Freeling (14) to Carnarvon, 14 Jan. 1878; C.O. 96/123. Reply of Govr. to memorial of merchants, end, in Griffith (171) to Ripon, 12 June 1893; C.O. 96/234.Google Scholar

⁴⁹ Summary of comments by W. F. Hutchison in Griffith to Ripon, 8 July 1893; C.O. 96/235.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ Oral interviews with Opanin John William Kofi Asante, Ayirebi, Akim-Oda (1969); and Nana Akoda Kwadjo Ofor, Ayisam-Ajumako (1971).Google Scholar

⁵¹ Letter from Sarbah to Joseph Dawson, 24 Apr. 1881; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁵² Mills to Sarbah, 27 Feb. 1877; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁵³ Wilson, Charles, History of Unilever (London, 1954), 31.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ The complete story remains to be told. One source states that King Ghartey IV of Winneba was the first merchant to develop the palm kernel trade beginning in 1873. This view, if true, reinforces the generalizations made here concerning the basic role of African merchants. (Sampson, M., Gold Coast Men of Affairs, 118.)Google Scholar

⁵⁵ Sarbah to Jeffrey, Thomas, 25 May 1877;Google ScholarSc. 6/4. Other references to kernels in Sarbah to Acquasi, F., 15 Dec. 1876;Google Scholar Sc. 6/4; Sarbah to Jeffrey, 17 Jan. 1877; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ Sarbah to Jeffrey, 23 Apr. 1878; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Reference to Rept. by Hutchison, W. F. in Griffith to Ripon, 8 July 1893; C.O. 96/235.Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Sarbah to Jeffrey, 14 Aug. 1878; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ See Table of Palm Oil and Palm Kernel Exports, above, n. 40.Google Scholar

⁶⁰ The Gold Coast Times, 14 Oct. 1882, writing of oil and kernels, argued that it was ‘just as dangerous to lay Out money on either of them’.Google Scholar

⁶¹ See Dumett, R. E., ‘The Rubber Trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the Nineteenth Century: African Innovation and Market Responsiveness’, J. Afr. Hist., XII, I (1971), 79–101.Google Scholar

⁶² Hutchison, W. F., Report on the Economic Agriculture on the Gold Coast: Accts. and Papers (1890), [c. 5897–40], p. 23, XLVIII.Google Scholar

⁶³ See, for example, Neumark, S. D., Foreign Trade and Economic Development in Africa (Stanford 1964), 187–90.Google Scholar

Sources: Quantity and Value statistics for 1880 through 1884 taken from Griffith (117) to Ripon, 12 June 1893; C.O. 96/234; those for 1886–94 from Gold Coast Blue Books for the years.

⁶⁵ Sarbah to Amissah, James, 17 Aug. 1883; Sarbah Letterbook, Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ Market Report and Letter from Gallie, J. D. to Caesar, J. H. and Sons Trading Co. (Ada), 10 May 1888; Caesar Firm Trading Papers, Sc. 13/11, G.N.A.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Sarbah to Ghartey, David, 11 Sept. 1883;Google Scholar and Sarbah to Saul Green (Ekutuasi), 24 Sep. 1883; Sarbah Letterbook; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Sarbah to Ghartey, David, 24 Sept. 1883;Google ScholarIbid.

⁶⁹ Sarbah to Welsing, 8 Oct 1883; Sc. 6/4. It is not clear from the records to what extent Sarbah engaged in this practice.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ See copy of letter from Sarbah to Robert Bruce (Assini), 3 Aug. 1884; Sarbah Letterbook; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁷¹ Report on Appolonia, Indenie, Aowin and Gyaman in Capt. R. Lang to Governor, end, in Griffith (238) to Ripon, 19 Sept. 1892; C.O. 96/225.Google Scholar

⁷² Report on conversation with Sarbah in Griffith (Conf.) to Knutsford, 13 Apr. 1889; C.O. Afr (W) 354, No. 29, p. 62.Google Scholar

⁷³ Griffith (Conf.) 13 Apr. 1889;Google ScholarIbid.

⁷⁴ For some time temperance crusaders in the local Methodist community agitated for a specific prohibition on drinking by members, but the rule was not formally invoked until the 1890s. (Kemp, Dennis, Nine Years on the Gold Coast (London, 1898), 187.)CrossRefGoogle Scholar

⁷⁵ See, for example, complaint about the encroachments of American rum dealers in Gold Coast Times, 19 Aug. 1882.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Oral interviews at Ada, Ghana, Jan. 1972. Station Cashbook, Denu factory; Ocansey Papers, S. 8/17, G.N.A. Considerable smuggling by merchants of the central coastal towns undoubtedly took place as well, which is another possible reason for the lack of documentary evidence about the trade.Google Scholar

Source: Gold Coast Blue Books for the years.

Source: Gold Coast Blue Books for the years.

⁷⁹ The following is a partial rendering of a single representative account with a middleman in a given year (John Sarbah Trade Journal, 1869–76, p. 166; Sc. 6/I).Google Scholar

⁸⁰ Advertisement in the Gold Coast News, 25 April 1885. Among the many items listed were toothpaste, hair tonic, epsom salts, throat lozenges, anti-moth papers, quinine powder, laudanum, castor oil, liver pills, washed sulphur, red iodine of mercury, infusion of purple fox glove, gum arabic, oil of caraway, and a variety of pain killers.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Comment in The Gold Coast Independent, 17 Oct 1896.Google Scholar

⁸² See, for example, Sir Hancock, K., Survey of British Commonwealth Affairs, II, Pt. 2, 209.Google Scholar

⁸³ Information derived from price quotations in newspapers, advertisements, customs records, Sarbah firm ledgers and other sources.Google Scholar

⁸⁴ Sarbah to Dawson, Charles (Accra), 24 Apr. 1881; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁸⁵ See, for example, Mills, J. A. (Winneba) to Sarbah, 10 Oct. 1876; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁸⁶ Oral interview with D. C. M. Nunoo, Ayirebi, Akim-Oda (1971).Google Scholar

⁸⁷ Examples of some juggling on import versus export prices are found in Sarbah to John Adu, Oct. 1878, and Sarbah to Mills, 4 Dec. 1875; Sc. 6/4.Google Scholar

⁸⁸ One uncorroborated source states that Jacob V. Sey left an estate of over £30,000 cash, plus £10,000 in credits, and real estate valued at £10,000. Another Cape Coast merchant, Robert Hutchison, estimated his wealth at £60,000 in the 1850s.Google Scholar (Hutchison, C. F., Pen Pictures of Modern Africans and African Celebrities [London, C. 1919], 176.Google ScholarKimble, D., Political History of Ghana, 5).Google Scholar

⁸⁹ Report on the Economic Agriculture on the Gold Coast: Accts. andPapers (1890) [c. 5897–40], LXVIII, 355 ff.Google Scholar

⁹⁰ Reference to lawsuit by Sey for recovery of rent, Gold Coast News, 20 June 1885. Reference to rents collected by Sarbah in Sarbah Trade Journal, Sc. 6/1.Google Scholar

⁹¹ For example, debit accounts of Abadoo, J. B. (Cape Coast) and Chief Kofi Kyei with John Sarbah, 1874–5, in Sarbah Trade Journal,Google ScholarIbid.

⁹² Announcement and Prospectus in the Gold Coast Tinzes, 22 Apr. 1882, pp. 2–3. Other shareholders were J. W. Sey and G. E. Eminsang.Google Scholar

⁹³ Records of the Tamsu (Wassa) Gold Mining Company and the Cinnamon Bippo Gold Mines, Ltd, in which T. B. F. Sam was a shareholder and manager. (Records of Association at Registrar of Joint Stock Companies, London.)Google Scholar

⁹⁴ For example, the Gold Coast Times discussed the collapse of a ‘Cape Coast Mercantile Association’ after one year in 1882.Google Scholar

⁹⁵ The first Cape Coast Chamber of Commerce was established in 1851 but lasted only a short time. (Kimble, Political History of Ghana, 406;Google ScholarThe Gold Coast Chronicle, 1 Oct. 1892, p. 2.)Google Scholar

⁹⁶ See, for example, copy of memorial from Merchants of Cape Coast to Griffith, encl. in Griffith to Stanhope, 26 Nov. 1886; C.O. Afr. Conf. Print 333, no. 23, pp. 25–6.Google Scholar

⁹⁷ Griffith (7) to C.O., 15 July 1893; C.O. 96/245. Rept. of visits in Gold Coast Times, 14 Oct. 1882 among others.Google Scholar

⁹⁸ See, for example, letter of grievance from Cape Coast merchants, signed by Sarbah and Grant, end, in Freeling (14) to Carnarvon, 14 Jan. 1877; C.O. 96/123.Google Scholar

⁹⁹ Kimble, Political History of Ghana, 417.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁰ See, for example, Minutes of the Gold Coast Legislative Council, 10 Aug. 1888; C.O. 96/6.Google Scholar

¹⁰¹ Minutes of Gold Coast Legislative Council, 27 Sept. 1890; C.O. 98/6.Google Scholar

¹⁰² Gold Coast Chronicle, 11 1892, p. 3.Google Scholar

¹⁰³ Conversation with the Rev. Ferguson Grant, Accra, 1969. The Rev. Mr Grant states that this meagre evidence concerning the fall of his grandfather's business was received from a family servant when he was a small boy.Google Scholar

¹⁰⁴ Summaries of Sarbah Sales and Retails Stores, 1917–19; Sc. 6/65. Sarbah Invoice Book, 1919–21; Sc. 6/66. It is interesting that one of the few pieces of evidence showing some continuity between the nineteenth- and twentieth-century Sarbah business is from a French source which observed that as late as 1898 the Sarbah firm was still doing business on the Ivory Coast. (Testimony of L. G. Binger at Niger Boundary Commission, Paris, 15 Mar. 1898, encl, in Monson to Salisbury, 18 Mar.; Copy in F.O. to C.O., 29 Mar. 1898; C.O. 96/327.)Google Scholar