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Economic Imperialism: The Case of the Gold Coast

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 May 2010

Edward Reynolds
Edward Reynolds
Affiliation:
University of California, San Diego
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Extract

In recent years economic imperialism in reference to Africa is being re-evaluated, and it is now sufficiently clear from the emerging literature on the subject that very few serious scholars would rigidly apply the classical interpretation or interpret the partition of Africa only in economic terms. One of the most significant recent contributions on the subject which has stimulated much useful discussion and is provoking further research is A. G. Hopkins' article “Economic Imperialism in West Africa: Lagos, 1880–1892.” He cites the case of Lagos in order to explore some neglected economic aspects of the partition of West Africa and deals with the economic aspects of the scramble for Africa. To Hopkins the critics of economic imperialism have tended to underrate all other economic motives.

Type
Papers Presented at the Thirty-fourth Annual Meeting of the Economic History Association
Information
The Journal of Economic History , Volume 35 , Issue 1 , March 1975 , pp. 94 - 116
Copyright
Copyright © The Economic History Association 1975

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References

1 Among the important works are Low, D. A., Lion Rampant: Essays in the Study of British Imperialism (London: Frank Cass, 1973)Google Scholar; Brett, E. A., Colonialism and Underdevelopment in East Africa: the Politics of Economic Change 1919–1939 (New York: Nok, 1973)Google Scholar; Uzoigwe, G. N., Britain and the Conquest of Africa: the Age of Salisbury (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1974)Google Scholar; Rodney, Walter, How Europe Underdeveloped Africa (Dar es Salam: Tanzania Publishing House, 1972)Google Scholar; Hopkins, A. G., An Economic History of West Africa (London: Longman, 1973)Google Scholar; Wolff, Richard, The Economics of Colonialism (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1974).Google Scholar

2 Hopkins, A. G., “Economic Imperialism in West Africa: Lagos, 1880–1892,” Economic History Review, XXI (1968), 580–606.Google Scholar

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4 G. N. Uzoigwe, Britain and the Conquest of Africa: the Age of Salisbury, Michigan, 22.

5 Ibid., 22–23.

6 Hopkins' up-to-date work is an inspiration for further work in this area.

7 T. 70/75: Torrane to African Committee, 21 Sept. 1807 and T. 70/73: S. Cock to E. Cooke, 26 Sept. 1808.

8 CO 267/24, Zachery Macaulay to Castlereagh, 8 May 1807.

9 Parl. Papers, 1816, VII, 135–6.

10 Parl. Papers, 1816, VII, 135–6, African Committee to Treasury, 104–8; also, T. 70/73: Liverpool Traders to Treasury, 26 April 1812.Google Scholar

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18 Parl. Papers, 1842, p. xii, Questions 3319–3320.

19 Ibid., Questions 3325–3327.

20 For a good short summary of the work of Maclean, see Fage, J. D., “The Administration of George Maclean on the Gold Coast, 1830–1844,” Transaction of the Gold Coast and Togoland Historical Society I, part 4, 104–20, 1955Google Scholar; and for an excellent biography, see Metcalfe, Maclean of the Gold Coast (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1962).Google Scholar

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26 Ibid.

27 Ibid. The following figures represent real values and are given to indicate trends rather than a precise quantification of trade at the time.

28 C.O. 267/117,131,136,144. The following figures represent real values and are given to indicate trends rather than a precise quantification of trade at the time.

* For a three month period.

** For a six month period.

29 Ibid., Evidence of J. G. Nicholls, Q. 262 and F. Swanzy, Q. 577 and A. 755.

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37 Ibid.

38 Philip Foster, Education and Social Change in Ghana (Chicago: University of Chicago Press).

39 C.O. 96/40: C. H. Gregory to the Secretary of State for the Colonies, 19 May 1856.

40 Parl. Papers, 1842: Q. 3346, Evidence of G. C. Redman.

41 Ibid., Q. 10705, Evidence of M. Forster.

42 A. Swanzy, “On Trade in Western Africa with and without British Protection,” 479.

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44 C.O. 96/21: 1 Dec. 1847, Statement of Brodie Cruickshank, Francis Swanzy, Thomas Hutton, Henry Smith and Andrew Swanzy, all European merchants concerned with the Gold Coast trade.

45 C.O. 96/66: 6 Nov. 1864, Swanzy to Secretary of State.

46 Parl. Papers, 1865, Q. 4673, Evidence of A. Swanzy.

47 Quoted in A. Swanzy, “On Trade in Western Africa with and without British Protection,” 480.

48 C.O. 96/85: Kennedy to Kimberly, 8 Oct. 1870.

49 C.O. 96/87: Letter of D. P. Chalmers, 30 Dec. 1870.

50 C.O. 96/58: Petition of Joseph Smith, 12 April 1862.

51 Guineisk Journaler (Copenhagen), 727, 1826; G. Norregard, Danish Settlements in West Africa, p. 196.

52 For the complete history of this organization, see Wanner, Von Gustaf Adolf, Basler Handels Gesellschaft 1859–1959 (Basel, 1959).Google Scholar This definitive history was published on the centenary of the company for private circulation and was not available for sale.

53 African Times, 22 Aug. 1868Google Scholar, Letter signed “An Old Accra,” 22.

54 C.O. 96/71: Blackall to Cardwell, 20 June 1866.

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59 Ibid. The second hold-up was the effective cocoa hold-up of 1930–1931 which is treated in an article by Rohdie, Sam, “The Gold Coast Cocoa Hold-up of 1930–1931,” Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, IX (1968), 105–18.Google Scholar

60 See Norregard, Danish Settlements in West Africa, 207; Metcalfe, Maclean, 198–200.

61 See Parl. Papers, 1865.

62 See D. Kimble, Political History of Ghana and Agbodaka, F., “The Fanti Confederacy, 1865–1869,” Transactions of the Ghanaian Historical Society, VII (1965), 82–123.Google Scholar

63 C.O. 96/94: Pope Hennessy to Kimberly, 20 Oct. 1872.

64 This can hardly be true since Hayford had recently been accepted as a candidate for the Methodist Ministry. Bartels, F. L., The Roots of Ghana Methodism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1965), pp. 87–88.Google Scholar

65 C.O. 96/94: Ussher to Pope Hennessy, 5 April 1872.

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