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John Sarbah, the elder, and African mercantile entrepreneurship in the Gold Coast in the late nineteenth Century1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2009

Raymond E. Dumett
Raymond E. Dumett
Affiliation:
Purdue University
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Extract

The trading career of John Sarbah of Ghana is illustrative of the activities of a distinguished group of independent African coastal merchants in the late nineteenth century, and an analysis of his business methods helps to cast light on the general problems and operations of mercantile entrepreneurship in West Africa. The rise of the African merchants was the result of an interaction between indigenous and external factors. It would be a mistake to exaggerate the importance of the coastal trading sector in the development of the total economy of the country in the late nineteenth century; but it would appear that the major African merchants, led by John Sarbah, F. C. Grant, J. W. Sey and others, played a larger part in commercial development, 1865 to about 1895, than is commonly recognized in historical accounts. Sarbah's entrepreneurship was mainfested in his ability to manage with competence a network of stores and trading stations, to extend the market for manufactured merchandise, to open up new sources for cash export, and to assess risks and invest capital in his firm's expanision. Of particular importance were Sarbah's efforts to stimulate the collection and processing of palm kernels, to help lay a groundwork for the development of the rubber trade in Asin and Lower Denkyera in the early 1880s, and to extend the orbit of his trading operations to the southeastern Ivory Coast.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Journal of African History , Volume 14 , Issue 4 , October 1973 , pp. 653 - 679
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1973

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References

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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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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

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