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The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the nineteenth century: African innovation and market responsiveness1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Raymond Dumett
Raymond Dumett
Affiliation:
Purdue University
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Extract

The export trade in wild rubber occupies an important place in the nineteenth-century economic history of the Gold Coast and Asante, and the impetus which it gave to the future economic development of the country was greater than is commonly recognized. The timely development of this new product by African entrepreneurs and up-country producers in the 1880s enabled the colony to diversify its export bill at a time when flagging prices for palm products and dwindling supplies of ivory, monkey skins, and surface gold threatened economic stagnation. Between 1884 and 1898 Gold Coast rubber exports registered a twenty-five fold increase in volume, thereby placing the country among the top five rubber producers of the world.

An analysis of the Gold Coast rubber trade contributes to the demolition of certain myths concerning the economically passive role of West Africans in the development of their own hinterlands. European agencies—whether mercantile or governmental—contributed only indirectly to the development of the local rubber trade. No doubt the general protection and opportunity for exercise of individual initiative which the British colonial government provided enabled the Gold Coast to escape the excesses of forced labour and expropriation which marred European concessionaire rubber operations in other parts of Africa. But it was chiefly the myriads of African merchants, middlemen and producers who supplied the driving force of the local trade during the nineteenth century.

The rubber trade accelerated the pace of economic change in Asante and other interior states where the pull exerted by the sea-borne export sector previously had been minimal. It is clear that the number of people involved in trading generally—whether as middlemen or producers—increased greatly as a result of the lucrative returns to be gained from rubber tapping. With rubber trade expansion came a growing demand by producers for a wider range of European merchandise imports, plus the acceptance of a uniform metallic currency which facilitated market transactions throughout the interior. Finally, the profits saved from rubber tapping became an important source for indigenous capital investment in cocoa-farming, particularly in Asante.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 12 , Issue 1 , January 1971 , pp. 79 - 101
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

2 In 1900 the five leading rubber exporters were Brazil, Congo Free State, Angola, Gold Coast, and French Guinea.

3 None of the earlier historical surveys of British West African commerce in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries dealt with the rubber trade. Only the briefest references are to be found, for example, in McPhee, A., The Economic Revolution in British West Africa (London, 1926),Google Scholar and Hancock, W. K., Survey of Commonwealth Affairs, ii, pt. 2 (London, 1942).Google Scholar More frequent references are contained in Szereszewski, Robert, Structural Changes in the Economy of Ghana 1891–1911 (London, 1965).Google Scholar

4 Sketch of the Forestry of West Africa (London, 1887).Google Scholar

5 Encl. 1 in Moloney to Kimberley, 7 June 1882; C.O. Afr. 249, no. 6, pp. 20–2; M. Rumsey, Rept. on the Volta River District, 27 June 1882, Encl. 1 in Moloney to Kimberley, 25 June 1882; C.O. Afr. 249, no. 11, 31–3.

6 Summarized in Rept. by C. D. Turton, 18 Apr. 1885, Encl. 3 in Griffith (155) to Derby, 12 May 1885; C.O. 96/165.

7 See, for example, Kew Gardens to C.O., 30 Mar. 1891; C.O. 96/221. Also, article on testimonial banquet at Liverpool in honour of Governor Moloney, , The African Times, 3 06 1889.Google Scholar

8 See footnote on opposite page.

9 Gold Coast Rubber Exports, 1880–5*

Source: Table in Griffith (117) to Ripon, 12 June 1893; C.O. 96/234: Gold Coast Blue Books.

* Colonial trade statistics for the 1880s are to be viewed as general indicators owing to unsystematic tabulation.

* This trend was associated, of course, with the rapid spread and improvement of the vulcanization process between 1830 and 1875.

10 See ‘Fluctuations in Rubber Prices’, The India Rubber World, ii, no. 1 (N.Y., 15 04. 1890), 144.Google Scholar

11 Rubber prices maintained their upward trend until the end of the century, despite the generally falling prices for most other commodities during the period 1874–96. Woodruff, William, The Rise of the British Rubber Industry during the Nineteenth Century (Liverpool, 1958), 63–6,Google Scholar also Appendix ii, 199.

12 Expanding profits and capital accumulation during the middle decades of the century eased credit terms generally in the United Kingdom. For a reference to the local impact of easier mercantile credit, see Draft Rept. on the Census of the Gold Coast Colony for the year 1891, by Dr J. F. Easmon, Encl. in Griffith (306) to Ripon, 11 Nov. 1892; C.O. 96/226.

13 The value of Gold Coast palm produce exports declined steadily between 1880 (£408,720) and 1882 (£228, 825).

14 A detailed discussion of the operations and expanding power of European trading firms lies outside the scope of the present article. Major British houses with either main stores or agents in the Cape Coast area were the F. and A. Swanzy firm, Alexander Miller Brothers, Charles McIver and Co., G. T. H. Lyall and Co., Lintott Brothers and Selby, J. A. Hutton, Pickering and Berthoud, J. J. Fischer, Taylor and Laughland, Fletcher and Hope and H. B. W. Russell.

15 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, George Blankson, Robert Cann, A. D. Ellis, J. E. Ellis, F. C. Grant, R. A. Harrison, A. T. Hughes Halm, George Hughes, W. F. Hutchinson, John Inchiful, T. F. E. Jones, Josiah A. Mills, Samuel D. Pappoe, A. F. Parker, W. E. Pietersen, R. A. Quansah, James E., John B., Amos J. and Simon Quashie, John Sarbah, W. E. Sam, Jacob W. Sey, James Eggay Taylor, Henry Vanheim, A. Q. Yarquah. This information was obtained from a wide variety of documentary sources, substantiated in oral interview with W. S. Kwasi Johnson, retired merchant of Freetown and Cape Coast, August 1969.

16 Francis Chapman Grant (born 1823; died 1894) was the head of a well-known Gold Coast family. A member of the royal lineage of the Ekumfi state, he was educated in the United Kingdom and the United States. In addition to his trading enterprises and newspaper, Grant was a promoter of the country's first mining concessions syndicate owned entirely by Africans—the Gold Coast Native Concessions Purchasing Co., Ltd. His grandson relates that two ships in which Grant had a large interest were lost at sea in the 1890s. The downturn in Grant's fortunes apparently began then, since there was no substantial business left for the family to inherit. Conversation with the Reverend Ferguson Grant, retired Methodist minister of Accra, July 1969; and a variety of written sources.

17 John Sarbah (died 3892), father of John Mensah Sarbah, belonged to the older generation of educated Africans who through their stature and enterprise provided a foundation for the political action of the twentieth century. On numerous occasions he joined with Grant and other Cape Coasters in petitioning the colonial governor for a broadening of African representation, and was appointed in 1887 to fill one of three unofficial posts on the Legislative Council. Sarbah's business records reveal great precision in accounting and strictness in collecting unpaid bills. He had branch stores and agents at Anomabo, Saltpond, Elmina, Winneba, Beyin, Dixcove, Axim and at Assini in the French Ivory Coast. For further information, see Kimble, David, A Political History of Ghana (Oxford, 1963).Google Scholar

18 Hutchinson, W. F., Report on the Economic Agriculture on the Gold Coast: Accts. and Papers (1890), [C. 5897–40], p. 23, xlviii.Google Scholar

19 See, for example, “Market Report of African Produce', by Thomas Morgan and Sons, London, 3 Feb. 1882; The Gold Coast Times, 25 feb. 1882.

20 The Gold Coast Times, 27 Mar. 1883.

21 Letter from John Sarbah to David Ghartey, 11 Sept. 1883; Sarbah to Saul Green (Ekutuase), 24 Sept. 1883; Sarbah Papers, Letterbook, Sc. 6–4, Ghana National Archives.

22 Sarbah to Ghartey, 25 sept. 1883; Sarbah Papers, Letterbook, Sc. 6/4, G.N.A.

23 ‘Mr Green is instructed that if the people hesitate parting with their milk juice for 6d. then all my labourers are to be employed in filching the milk themselves til they come to themselves and [are] willing to sell at 6d. a measure.…’ Sarbah to Welsing, 8 Oct. 1883; ibid.

24 Letters from Sarbah to W. T. Yankiah (Anomabo) 22 Jan. 1884; to Chief J. B. Ashou (Dixcove), 10 Apr. 1884; and to Robert Bruce (Assini), 3 Aug. 1884; ibid.

25 In fact, contemporary accounts mention at least nine major roads, all of which were probably used to some extent in the rubber trade. Hodgson (347) to Knutsford, 12 Nov. 1891; CO. 96/219. Also, Encl. 1 in Griffith to Ripon, 12 June 1893: Accts. and Papers (1893), [C. 7225], pp. 7–8, LX.Google Scholar

26 The importance of this route was confirmed in oral interviews. A branch from Elmina joined this road at Effutu.

27 See, for example, Griffith to Ripon, 12 June 1893, above; and Grifith to C.O., 15 July 1893; C.O. 96/241.

28 Information in this section has been drawn from a number of oral and written sources; in each instance, however, only the most important informant will be mentioned. I should like to express appreciation to Stephen Marfoh, student at the Institute of African Studies, University of Ghana, for his assistance in translation.

29 Oral interviews with Opanin Kwaku Adu of Mampong-Akurofoso, age 93, Mampong, Ashanti, July 1969; and Opanin Kofi Kyei, age 100, Jukwa, Lower Denkyera, Aug. 1969. See also, Rept. by Travelling Commissioner C. H. Armitage, encl. in Hodgson (Conf.) to C.O., 31 Aug. 1898; C.O. 96/320.

30 Oral interviews with Kwaku Adu, age 81, and Osei Akwase, age 69, Esumeja, Ashanti, July 1969; also, Field Rept. by H. M. Hull, 1 May 1897, encl. in Maxwell (212) to C.O., 21 May 1897; C.O. 96/293.

31 Oral interviews with Opanin Kofi Boadi of Ayirebi, Akim-Kotoku; Opanin Kofi Kyei of Jukwa, above; and others.

32 Irvine, F. R., Woody Plants of Ghana (London, 1961), 314–16, 640–2.Google Scholar

33 Demand continued for most grades of West African rubber, despite the presence of impurities. Company scientists pointed out that it was only necessary to increase the proportion of sulphur used in the vulcanization process to turn out a satisfactory industrial product from this rubber.

34 Price ranges for various grades of African and South American wild rubber on the British market (about 1890–1910)*

* Listings do not reflect the most extreme fluctuations. Sources: Regular produce reports in The Gold Coast Times; The India Rubber World; quotations on the London rubber exchange by J. M. Hecht, referred to in Rept. by W. H. Johnson, encl. in Kew Gardens to C.O., 19, May 1904; C.O. 96/421; Rept. enclosed in Rodger (401) to Elgin, 23 Sept. 1907; ADM 1/2/68; G.N.A.

35 Griffith, to Knutsford, , 10 11. 1890 in ‘Further Reports relative to Economic Agriculture on the Gold Coast’: Accts. and Papers (1890–1891), (C. 6270), p. 100, lv.Google Scholar

36 Annual Review of the Rubber Market for 1901, enclosed in Messrs Kramisch & Co. to C.O., 8 Jan. 1902; C.O. Afr. (W) 661, no. 25, p. 23. In later rubber reports there is no mention of Accra biscuits. See Rubber Report from the West African Mail of 12 July 1907, Encl. in Rodger (400) to Elgin, 23 Sept. 1907; A.D.M. 1/2/68, G.N.A.

37 See, for example, letter from J. D. Gallie (agent for Pickering & Berthoud, Manchester) to J. H. Caesar and Sons Trading Co. (Ada), 10 May 1888; Caesar Trading Papers, Sc. 13/11, G.N.A.

38 In 1899 the British Governor in a letter to the Konor of Manya-Krobo deplored the fact that Landolphia vines could no longer be found growing plentifully in states bordering the Volta river. Hodgson to King Mate Kole, 27 July, Encl, in Hodgson to Chamberlain, 4 Aug. 1898; C.O. Afr. 635, no. 124, p. 118. Also, oral interviews at Somanya in Yilo Krobo, August 1969.

39 See W. F. Hutchinson, Rept. on Economic Agriculture, above. Testimony of Alexander Miller and William Cleaver, taken before the Committee on the Currency of the West African Colonies, sub-encl. to Encl. 1 in Sir D. Barbour to C.O., 25 Mar. 1900; C.O. 96/371.

40 This information can be obtained from a variety of contemporary sources. See, for example, Irvine, James, ‘Our Commercial Relations with East Africa and their Effects upon Civilization’, Journal of the Royal Society of Arts (16 05. 1877), 382.Google Scholar Also, itemized store accounts from various coastal merchants, G.N.A.

41 Oral interviews. The data on prices is corroborated in Field Repts. by H. M. Hull, 4 Jan. 1897, Encl. 2 in Maxwell (164) to C.O., 23 Apr. 1897; C.O. 96/292.

42 Rept. by Hendrik Vroom, 6 sept. 1893, encl. in Hodgson (Conf.) to Ripon, 30 Oct. 1893; C.O. 96/237. Field Rept. by C. H. Armitage on Mission to Sefwi, 4 Aug. 1898, encl. in Hodgson (Conf.) to C.O., 31 Aug. 1898; C.O. 96/320. Gold Coast Annual Report for 1898, 9.

43 Insight into these relationships can be obtained from the papers of nineteenth-century African trading firms of the Gold Coast collected at the Ghana National Archives, including John Sarbah, J. H. Caesar and Sons, the Williams firm, W. N. Ocansey and Sons and others.

44 Here one discerns substantial disagreement between British documents and oral evidence. Ghanaians make a distinction between the borrowing of cash from a local moneylender and obtaining a money advance from merchants' agents or middlemen on future produce. Former rubber producers interviewed deny that the direct borrowing of cash from middlemen at high rates of interest was as common as the British reports suggest.

45 Rept. by C. H. Armitage on Mission to Sefwi, 4 Aug. 1898, Encl. 1 in Hodgson (Conf.) to C.O., 21 Aug. 1898; C.O. 96/320.

46 See Reports by Hull, 14 May 1897, and Armitage, 4 Aug. 1898; above.

47 Ord. no. 2 of 1880, ‘An Ordinance for the Demonetization of certain coins, gold dust and nuggets’: Griffith, W. B. Jr., Ordinances of the Gold Coast Colony, i (London,1903), 390–1.Google Scholar

48 Shipment of coins from the Royal Mint was facilitated by the establishment of telegraphic cable communication between West Africa and the United Kingdom in 1886. But the coastal merchants complained that they still could not get shipments of sufficient amounts fast enough to meet the demands of petty traders and producers. Letters from Pickering and Berthoud (Manchester) to J. H. Caesar and Sons (Ada), 24 Aug. 1888 and 9 Feb. 1889; Sc. 13/11, G. N. A. Griffith (108) to Knutsford, 12 May 1892; C.O. 96/223. Griffith (113) to Ripon, 20 Apr. 1893; C.O. 96/233.

49 Oral interviews. See also, Minutes of Evidence taken before the Committee on the Currency of the West African Colonies, sub-encl. to Encl. 1 in Sir D. Barbour to C.O., 25 Mar. 1900; C.O. 96/371.

50 ‘Rubber Interests of West Africa’, The India Rubber World, ii, no. 5 (N.Y., 15 08. 1890), 256.Google Scholar Also, ‘The Shortage in the Rubber Crop’, ibid. 241.

51 It was against this background that the first productive experiments with plantation rubber in Malaya were initiated; but a heavy demand for the second and third grade African rubber was maintained for another two decades.

52 Qtly. District Rept. for Cape Coast, Encl. 4 in Griffith (191) to Knutsford, 6 June 1891; C.O. 96/217.

53 Qtly. District Rept. for Eastern Wassa, Encl. 10 in Griffith (191) to Knutsford; ibid.

54 Rubber Exports from the Gold Coast, 1886–95:

Source: Gold Coast Blue Books.

55 Throughout most of the nineteenth century Ahafo was a buffer region claimed but only partially occupied by the rival powers of Sefwi, Gyaman and Asante. During the period of the rubber trade the Asantes regarded the region as suitable for their own commercial expansion and settlement. See Meyerowitz, E. L. R.: Alma Traditions of Origin (London, 1952), 40–8, 120–3.Google Scholar

56 C. H. Armitage (reporting on rubber tapping in the early 1890s) in ‘Rubber Trees and Vines to be found in the Forests of the Gold Coast Colony’, Encl. in Hodgson (459) to C.O., 1 Nov. 1898; C.O. 96/323.

57 Rept. of Capt. J. I. Lang, Encl. in Lang to U. Sec., C.O., 17 Nov. 1892; C.O. 96/229.

58 Previously Gyamans had carried on a considerable export trade to the south in slaves and gold dust, but their main contacts had been with the trading factories of Nzima and the Ivory Coast.

59 Summary of Rept. by H. Vroom, in Hodgson (Conf.) to Ripon, 30 Oct. 1893; C.O. 96/237.

60 Letter from J. H. Batty, Encl. 2 in Nathan to Chamberlain, 13 Jan. 1902; C.O. Afr. (W) 645, no. 38, P. 46. Field Rept. of C. H. Armitage, 4 Aug. 1898; above.

61 Testimony of Alexander Miller, 28 Nov. 1899; Minutes of Evidence, West African Currency Committee; above.

62 Report by Asst. Inspector Lethbridge, 4 Mar. 1889; C.O. Afr. (W) 354, no. 42, pp. 80–3. During the 1880s the principal products of Asante were listed as kola nuts, gold, palm oil, cotton and gum copal.

63 In some instances, informants stated that there was a direct causal connexion between the two phenomena. Field interviews with Kwaku Adu of Esumeja Ashanti; Kwabena Ntiamoa of Mampong; and Kwasi Pong of Onwi, Ejisu; July 1969.

64 See, for example, report on interview with Mr Pappoe (a Fante trader) on conditions in Kumasi in the Gold Coast Chronicle, 10 Aug. 1891. Also, Qtly. District Rept. for Cape Coast for Jan.-Mar. 1897, encl. 8 in Maxwell (330) to C.O., 23 July 1897; C.O. 96/297.

65 Rept. by H. M. Hull, 4 Jan. 1897, encl. 2 in Maxwell (164) to C.O., 23 Apr. 1897; C.O. 96/292.

66 There is considerable evidence that the immediate effects of British hinterland ‘pacification’ expeditions were often disruptive of trade. For example, the Asante rising of 1900, sparked by Governor F. M. Hodgson's ill-advised policies, and the subsequent military expedition was given (together with declining prices) as one of the reasons for the rubber trade downturn of 1900–1. (See Gold Coast Annual Report for 1900, para. 73. Nathan (Conf.) to C.O., 19 Mar. 1901; C.O. 96/378. Nathan (69) to Lyttelton, 8 Feb. 1904; C.O. 96/416.)

67 Gold Coast Rubber Exports, 1895–1905:

Source: Gold Coast Blue Books.

68 Even kola nuts came to be transported in significant quantities from the Gold Coast to other West African countries by sea for the first time during the 1890's.

69 This subject needs further investigation. Rattray, R. S. (Ashanti Law and Constitution [London, 1929], 99 ff., 190–11, 148–9, 161 ff.)Google Scholar was responsible for pioneering field work on the role of the Gyaasewahene in regulating trade. Rattray was unclear, however, on the approximate dates or reasons for the breakdown of the Gyaasewahene's power. Undoubtedly the extension of British overrule and the decline of slave-dealing were important in this connexion. There seems to be little evidence that such mercantilistic controls continued during the life of the rubber trade. A good recent treatment of the Gyaasewahene's commercial powers in the mid-nineteenth century can be found in Ivor Wilks, ‘Ashanti Government’: Forde, D. and Kaberry, P. M. (eds.), West African Kingdoms in the Nineteenth Century (London, 1967), 215–17.Google Scholar

70 Reference in letter from Cape Coast merchants to Govr. Maxwell, Encl. 1 in Maxwell (Conf.) to Chamberlain, 15 Mar. 1897; C.O. 96/290.

71 Rept. encl. in Maxwell (212) to C.O., 27 May 1897; C.O. 96/293.

72 After being drawn into the cash economy as rubber carriers, men from Asante, Gyaman and Gurunshi frequently remained on the coast to gain additional employment on the government railway or in the mines. Encl. 17 in Nathan (130) to Chamberlain, 25 Mar. 1902; C.O. Afr. (W) 661, no. 38, p. 55.

73 Oral interview with Opanin Kwaku Adu, above.

74 Other informants generally agreed with this assessment, but some wanted to make it clear that there were other sources for investment in cocoa in addition to earnings from rubber.

75 An Akan people closely related to the Asante by language and custom, the Brongs had fallen under the sway of the Asante Union after about 1722, a relationship which the latter had difficulty in maintaining by force of arms during the late nineteenth century. For details on political history, see Goody, J. and Arhin, K. (eds.), Ashanti and the Northwest, Suppl. no. 1, Ashanti Research Project (Legon 1965).Google Scholar

76 Griffith (348) to Ripon, 13 Dec. 1893; C.O. 96/227.

77 Oral interview with Kwasi Pong, above. Also, personal communication from J. Y. Osei, formerly of Kokobra village near Ejisu, July 1969.

78 The growth in the exports of Accra and the eastern districts and the relative decline of Cape Coast after 1901 was the result of many factors, including the rise of the cocoa industry in Akwapim and Akim and the diversion of the gold trade to Sekondi-Takoradi by the newly constructed railway.

Source: Appendix, by George Attrill, Comptroller of Customs, 21 Apr. 1904, Encl. in Rodger (Conf.) to Lyttelton, 17 Sept. 1904; C.O. 96/419.

79 ‘There is only a small amount of rubber in Togoland, and it comes from Kotokli.’ Report by F. R. Parmenter to Col. Sec., Accra, 23 Mar. 1897, Encl. in Maxwell (Conf.) to Chamberlain, 4 May 1897; C.O. African (W) 529, no. 253.

80 It was estimated that two men could take between 20 to 25 loads of rubber in a large canoe from Kete-Krachi as far as Kpandu or Akuse. Hull to Col. Sec., 14 Feb. 1897; Encl. 3 in Maxwell (164) to C.O., 23 Apr. 1897; C.O. 96/292.

81 For a detailed discussion of the kola nut trade see Arhin, Kwame, ‘Market Settlements in Northwestern Ashanti: Kintampo’, in Arhin, and Goody, (eds.) Ashanti and the Northwest, 135 ff.Google Scholar

82 C. D. Turton to Col. Sec. (Accra) 18 Apr. 1885, Encl. 3 in Griffith (J-150) to Derby, 8 May 1885; C.O. 96/165. Quarterly Dist. Rept. for Kwahu, Encl. 4 in Maxwell (141) to C.O., 3 Apr. 1897; C.O. 96/291.

83 Garlick, P. C., ‘The Development of Kwahu Business Enterprise in Ghana since 1874—An Essay in Recent Oral Tradition’, J. Aft. Hist., viii (1967), 465–8.Google Scholar

84 Reference to trade of the Volta and Togoland by F. & A. Swanzy Co., in Maxwell (Conf.) to C.O., 28 Mar. 1896; C.O. 96/271. Also, Hodgson (Conf.) to Chamberlain, 11 Oct. 1899; C.O. 96/344.

85 Report on the Volta River route in Hodgson (347) to Knutsford, 12 Nov. 1890; C.O. 96/219. Hodgson to Chamberlain, 11 Oct. 1899; C.O. 96/344.

86 Qtly. Rept. for Ada, 11 Jan. 1898, Encl. 3 in Hodgson (190) to C.O., 7 May 1898; C.O. 96/315. Letter from F. & A. Swanzy to C.O., 13 Nov. 1899; C.O. 96/355.

87 Kiose, Heinrich, Togo unter deutscher Flagge—Reisebilder und Betrachtungen (Berlin, 1899), 392.Google Scholar

88 Qtly. Repts. for Cape Coast and Winneba Districts, Encl. 6 and 7 in Actg. Govr. Haddon Smith to C.O., 13 Apr. 1893; C.O. 96/339. Also, Rept. by H. M. Hull, 14 May 1897; above.

89 It is impossible in the space permitted here to summarize the history of attempted anti-adulteration and conservation legislation, which, in any event, focused primarily on the palm products and timber industries. See Kimble, , A Political History of Ghana, 363–71, passm.Google Scholar

90 Gold Coast Rubber Exports, 1900–14:

Sources: Gold Coast Agriculture and Forest Department Reports for 1909, 1910 and 1915.

* The suddenness of the downturn in 1914 reflected the impact of World War I, which interrupted trade and shipping throughout the world.

91 The 1900–1 downturn resulted from a combination of factors: a severe price decline on the European market; the Ashanti rising of 1900 and the British military expedition; and the diversion of rubber producers and carriers into employment on the railway and in the gold mines.

92 Hon-Chan, Chai, The Development of British Malaya, 1896–1909 (Kuala Lumpur, 1964), 156.Google Scholar