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The rubber trade of gold coast and asante
A History of Africa, 1830-1980 (The University of Warwick)
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The Journal of African History
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History:
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The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante
in the nineteenth century: African innovation
and market responsiveness
Raymond Dumett
The Journal of African History / Volume 12 / Issue 01 / January 1971, pp 79 - 101
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700000086, Published online: 22 January 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/
abstract_S0021853700000086
How to cite this article:
Raymond Dumett (1971). The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the
nineteenth century: African innovation and market responsiveness. The Journal
of African History, 12, pp 79-101 doi:10.1017/S0021853700000086
Request Permissions : Click here
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Journal of African History, XII, i (1971), pp. 79-101
Printed in Great Britain
THE RUBBER TRADE OF THE GOLD COAST AND
ASANTE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
AFRICAN INNOVATION AND MARKET
RESPONSIVENESS1
BY RAYMOND DUMETT
M E N T I O N of the nineteenth-century African rubber trade is apt to evoke
images of the dank forests of the Congo, where the notorious abuses of the
European concessionaire system and the use of forced labour led to
spoliation and untold human suffering. Although the Congo and Angola
became the largest exporters of raw rubber from Africa, the conditions which
prevailed there were by no means representative of all rubber-producing
countries on the continent. A sharply contrasting picture emerges from a
study of Ghana, where the rubber trade came into its own largely as a
result of indigenous entrepreneurship and where European influence
was peripheral. Although the trade in wild rubber was comparatively short-
lived, it nonetheless occupies an important place in the economic history
of West Africa, primarily as a bridge between the lean decades of the mid-
nineteenth century, when sea-borne exports were limited largely to palm
products, and the expansive years of the early twentieth century, when
enterprise centred on the cocoa and mining industries. It is worth recalling
that for about fifteen years, from 1890 to 1905, the Gold Coast Colony
was the largest exporter of rubber in the British Empire and ranked among
the five leading producers of wild rubber in the world.2 For all this, very
little research has been done on the details of the trade3—the factors
involved in its sudden rise, methods of production and marketing, the
pattern of trade flows, and the causes of its ultimate decline. The present
article attempts to fill this void by drawing upon new evidence from oral
interviews and the private papers of African trading firms, along with field
reports of nineteenth-century district and travelling commissioners.
1
An earlier version of this paper benefited from comments by members of the history,
geography and economics faculties, University of Ghana, in a History Department
seminar held at Legon in Dec. 1967.
8
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 nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries dealt with the rubber trade. Only the briefest references
are to be found, for example, in A. McPhee, The Economic Revolution in British West
Africa (London, 1926), and W. K. Hancock, Survey of Commonwealth Affairs, n, pt. 2
(London, 1942). More frequent references are contained in Robert Szereszewski, Struc-
tural Changes in the Economy of Ghana r8gi-igu (London, 1965).
Downloaded by olinder seth ()
The rubber trade of gold coast and asante
A History of Africa, 1830-1980 (The University of Warwick)
Scan to open on Studocu
Studocu is not sponsored or endorsed by any college or university
Downloaded by olinder seth ()
, lOMoARcPSD|59658805
The Journal of African History
http://journals.cambridge.org/AFH
Additional services for The Journal of African
History:
Email alerts: Click here
Subscriptions: Click here
Commercial reprints: Click here
Terms of use : Click here
The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante
in the nineteenth century: African innovation
and market responsiveness
Raymond Dumett
The Journal of African History / Volume 12 / Issue 01 / January 1971, pp 79 - 101
DOI: 10.1017/S0021853700000086, Published online: 22 January 2009
Link to this article: http://journals.cambridge.org/
abstract_S0021853700000086
How to cite this article:
Raymond Dumett (1971). The rubber trade of the Gold Coast and Asante in the
nineteenth century: African innovation and market responsiveness. The Journal
of African History, 12, pp 79-101 doi:10.1017/S0021853700000086
Request Permissions : Click here
Downloaded from http://journals.cambridge.org/AFH, IP address: 134.176.129.147 on 05 May 2015
Downloaded by olinder seth ()
, lOMoARcPSD|59658805
Journal of African History, XII, i (1971), pp. 79-101
Printed in Great Britain
THE RUBBER TRADE OF THE GOLD COAST AND
ASANTE IN THE NINETEENTH CENTURY:
AFRICAN INNOVATION AND MARKET
RESPONSIVENESS1
BY RAYMOND DUMETT
M E N T I O N of the nineteenth-century African rubber trade is apt to evoke
images of the dank forests of the Congo, where the notorious abuses of the
European concessionaire system and the use of forced labour led to
spoliation and untold human suffering. Although the Congo and Angola
became the largest exporters of raw rubber from Africa, the conditions which
prevailed there were by no means representative of all rubber-producing
countries on the continent. A sharply contrasting picture emerges from a
study of Ghana, where the rubber trade came into its own largely as a
result of indigenous entrepreneurship and where European influence
was peripheral. Although the trade in wild rubber was comparatively short-
lived, it nonetheless occupies an important place in the economic history
of West Africa, primarily as a bridge between the lean decades of the mid-
nineteenth century, when sea-borne exports were limited largely to palm
products, and the expansive years of the early twentieth century, when
enterprise centred on the cocoa and mining industries. It is worth recalling
that for about fifteen years, from 1890 to 1905, the Gold Coast Colony
was the largest exporter of rubber in the British Empire and ranked among
the five leading producers of wild rubber in the world.2 For all this, very
little research has been done on the details of the trade3—the factors
involved in its sudden rise, methods of production and marketing, the
pattern of trade flows, and the causes of its ultimate decline. The present
article attempts to fill this void by drawing upon new evidence from oral
interviews and the private papers of African trading firms, along with field
reports of nineteenth-century district and travelling commissioners.
1
An earlier version of this paper benefited from comments by members of the history,
geography and economics faculties, University of Ghana, in a History Department
seminar held at Legon in Dec. 1967.
8
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 nine-
teenth and twentieth centuries dealt with the rubber trade. Only the briefest references
are to be found, for example, in A. McPhee, The Economic Revolution in British West
Africa (London, 1926), and W. K. Hancock, Survey of Commonwealth Affairs, n, pt. 2
(London, 1942). More frequent references are contained in Robert Szereszewski, Struc-
tural Changes in the Economy of Ghana r8gi-igu (London, 1965).
Downloaded by olinder seth ()
