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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
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.
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References
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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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![](https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20160321053233719-0713:S0021853700013104_eqnU1.gif?pub-status=live)
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
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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
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![](https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20160321053233719-0713:S0021853700013104_eqnU2.gif?pub-status=live)
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.
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![](https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20160321053233719-0713:S0021853700013104_eqnU3.gif?pub-status=live)
Source: Gold Coast Blue Books for the years.
![](https://static.cambridge.org/binary/version/id/urn:cambridge.org:id:binary:20160321053233719-0713:S0021853700013104_eqnU4.gif?pub-status=live)
Source: Gold Coast Blue Books for the years.
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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
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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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