EDWARD REYNOLDS The Rise and Fall of an African Merchant Class on the Gold Coast 1830-1874 It has been assumed that indigenous merchants on the Gold Coast1 enjoyed period of prosperity from the to the s.2 The reasons for this affluency were related to the expansion of the export trade the provision of steamship services and the supply of finance from European manufacturers While it is generally true that West African traders achieved economic success between the 1850 and iS detailed study of indigenous Gold Coast merchants reveals that although they had thrived between 1830 and 1850 their prosperity declined in the rose again briefly between 1870 and 1890 only to fall in the s.3 These vicissitudes coincide with periods of intense political activities in the country like those of the Fanti Confederation and the Gold Coast Aborigines Rights Protection Society The present article seeks to examine the rise and fall of the Gold Coast African merchant class and possible relationships with the political activism in the country in the late The abolition of the slave trade early in the nineteenth century brought about strong need to find substitutes for the slave trade and to encourage the export of old staples like gold and ivory as well as the production of agricultural goods for the overseas trade Despite efforts to foster the exports of natural produce of the country the disruption caused by local wars the lack of enthusiastic response from local people the half-hearted efforts of Europeans on the coast to establish and to cultivate plantations and the duties imposed on African produce made economic change difficult Nevertheless in spite of these impediments after 1830 progress was being made towards an economy based not on the sale of slaves but one based on the export of natural produce new era of trade and economic change in which indigenous African merchants were destined to play an important role began in 1830 under

Cahiers tudes Africaines 54 XI V-2 pp 213-264