The Financing of the Ashanti Expansion (1700–1820)

Kwame Arhin

doi:10.2307/1158151

The Financing of the Ashanti Expansion (1700–1820)

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 23 January 2012

Kwame Arhin

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The arrival of Europeans, and the introduction of guns, first in the coastal areas JL and then into the interior of West Africa, altered the nature of warfare. Already in the seventeenth century, the Akan-Fanti, Akim, Akwamu, and other peoples on the Gold Coast no longer relied entirely on bows and arrows, spears, and javelins which were the traditional weapons but used guns and even a few cannon. Besides the change in weapons, wars were undertaken on a larger scale than ever before—a situation which was aggravated by participation in the slave trade. Among the peoples of the Gold Coast, now Ghana, none excelled the Ashanti in either the scale or intensity of their fighting. From the turn of the seventeenth and the eighteenth centuries, they fought major wars of conquest and minor ones of consolidation throughout the area of present-day Ghana, and after 1820 they were involved in four major clashes with the British until the latter dissolved their kingdom in 1900.

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LE FINANCEMENT DE L'EXPANSION ASHANTI

Les fusils furent introduits pour la première fois chez les Ashanti au 17e siècle et la plus grande part du commerce Ashanti se faisait avec les ports de la côte: l'or, les esclaves et l'ivoire étaient échangés contre des fusils et des munitions. Les guerres étaient financées par des droits de succession et des redevances de cour, ainsi que par un impôt sur la vente des fusils. Des sources extérieures de revenus provenaient du tribut, des ‘Notes’, des présents et des amendes. On exigeait un tribut des territoires conquis, en or et en espèces, sous forme d'esclaves, de bétail, de cotonnades et des soieries; les ‘Notes’ constituaient une sorte de tribut ou d'amende imposé sur les forts et les châteaux des commerçants européens des régions côtières conquises, qui, parfois, permettaient au roi Ashanti de se procurer fusils et munitions; les présents et les amendes étaient collectés sur les territories conquis, et au 19e siècle, des agents semi-permanents furent mis en place dans ces régions. Cependant aucune estimation ne permet de comparer les revenus internes et externes; il semble que les ressources externes aient constitué la base de l'économie de guerre Ashanti. Mais cela ne justifie nullement l'hypothèse que le commerce des esclaves fût la source principale de cette économic Les moyens d'expansion des Ashanti furent à la mesure de leur ingéniosité et, dans l'ensemble, les Ashanti firent en sorte que leur politique d'expansion fût rentable.

Type: Research Article
Information: Africa , Volume 37 , Issue 3 , July 1967 , pp. 283 - 291

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/1158151 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © International African Institute 1967

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References

^{page 283 note 1} Bosman, William, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea, English Translation, London, 1705, p. 187Google Scholar. Bosman, a Dutch factor, stationed at Elmina in the second half of the seventeenth century, describes the weapons of the coastal kingdoms, and adds: ‘Some of them also are possessed of a few cannon: ʼtis indeed true but they use them in a very slovenly manner. The King of Saboe has a very small number, with which he has been in the field, but he never made use of them.’

^{page 283 note 2} Reindorf, C. C., History of the Gold Coast and Asante, Basel, 1885, 2nd edit., p. 50.Google Scholar

^{page 283 note 3} Ibid., p. 53. Osei Tutu, the first King of United Ashanti, died in either 1712 or 1717.

^{page 283 note 4} Dupuis, Joseph, Journal of A Residence in Ashantee, London, 1824, p. 225CrossRef Google Scholar. Dupuis, a visitor to Ashanti as British Consul in 1820 writes (Appendix XXXVIII): ‘Of the eighty thousand men [potential fighting force], the King can put muskets and blunder busses in the hands of from forty to fifty thousand.’

^{page 284 note 1} Bowdich, T. E., Mission from Cape Coast to Ashantee, London, 1819, p. 319Google Scholar. Bowdich was an emissary for the Committee of African merchants to Kumasi in 1817. He was the first to record Ashanti traditions which were published in the Mission to Ashantee.

^{page 284 note 2} Rattray, R. S., Ashanti Law and Constitution, Oxford, 1929, p. 107.Google Scholar

^{page 284 note 3} Bowdich, op. cit., p. 257.

^{page 284 note 4} Ibid., p. 320.

^{page 284 note 5} Ibid.

^{page 284 note 6} Ibid.

^{page 284 note 7} Ibid.

^{page 284 note 8} The value in sterling of the peredwane fluctuated in the nineteenth century but it was always equal to two ounces.

^{page 284 note 9} Rattray, op. cit., p. 111; also pp. 114–15.

^{page 284 note 10} Ibid., 112. Other extraordinary taxes were, Ayituo, ‘levy to cover the expenses of a Chief's funeral’. Fotobo, ‘a levy on enstoolment of a chief’.

^{page 285 note 1} For an early account of Ashanti funeral celebrations, the Adai and Odwira festivals and an idea of the expenditure involved, see Bowdich, op. cit., ch. v, pp. 274–304.

^{page 285 note 2} Bowdich, p. 292.

^{page 285 note 3} Dupuis, op. cit., Appendix XI, writes: ‘The talismanic charms fabricated by the Moslems, it is well known, are esteemed efficacious, according to the various powers they are supposed to possess; and here is a source of great emolument, as the article is in public demand from the palace to the hut.’

^{page 285 note 4} Bowdich, p. 287.

^{page 285 note 5} Bowdich, p. 293.

^{page 285 note 6} Rattray, op. cit., p. 116.

^{page 285 note 7} Bowdich, op. cit., p. 246.

^{page 285 note 8} Ramseyer, and Kuhne, , Four Years in Ashantee, London, 1878, p. 268CrossRef Google Scholar. The authors were kept in Kumasi as prisoners of war for four years (1871–4).

^{page 286 note 1} Bowdich, op. cit., p. 296, Rattray, op. cit., p. 114.

^{page 286 note 2} Dupuis, op. cit., p. 231.

^{page 286 note 3} Bowdich, op. cit., p. 234.

^{page 286 note 4} Daendels, H. W., Journal and Correspondence, part i, November 1815 to January 1817, translated and mimeographed by the Institute of African Studies, Legon, 1964, p. 222.Google Scholar

^{page 287 note 1} Bowdich, op. cit., pp. 320–1.

^{page 287 note 2} Coombs, D., ‘The Place of the Certificate of Apologie in Ghanaian History’ in Transactions of the Historical Society of Ghana, vol. iii, part 3, Achimota, 1958, pp. 180–91.Google Scholar

^{page 287 note 3} F = Dutch Florin.

^{page 287 note 4} Daendels, op. cit., p. 272.

^{page 287 note 5} Coombs, op. cit.

^{page 287 note 6} Bowdich, op. cit., pp. 77–79.

^{page 287 note 7} Ibid.

^{page 287 note 8} Letter from Hutchison, British resident at Kumasi in 1817 to Hope Smith, governor of Cape Coast Castle, PRO/T. 70–41/195.

^{page 287 note 9} Letter from Tusker-Williams, Secretary to Hope Smith, to Hutchison, PRO/T. 70–41/196.

^{page 288 note 1} Daendels, op. cit., p. 295.

^{page 288 note 2} Bowdich, op. cit., p. 399.

^{page 288 note 3} Dupuis, op. cit., Introduction.

^{page 288 note 4} Ibid. The refusal of Cape Coast and Kommenda to rejoice with the king and make the appropriate contributions in 1820 led to the imposition of a fine of 1,000 ounces of gold on each.

^{page 288 note 5} In 1817, the King wrote through the British resident in Kumasi to the governor of Cape Coast asking him to exact a total fine of 210 ounces from a certain Abropoo for swearing and then breaking the King's Oath—Letter from Ashanti King Osei Tutu Kwame (1801–24) to Hope Smith, PRO/T. 70–41/185.

^{page 288 note 6} Hope Smith to Hutchison, PRO/T. 70–41/183.

^{page 288 note 7} Reindorf, op. cit., p. 162.

^{page 288 note 8} Reindorf, p. 187.

^{page 288 note 9} Meredith, W., An Account of the Gold Coast of Africa, London, 1812, pp. 168–9.Google Scholar

^{page 288 note 10} Dupuis, op. cit., p. xi.

^{page 288 note 11} Daendels, op. cit., p. 101.

^{page 288 note 12} Reindorf, op. cit., p. 162.

^{page 288 note 13} Cardinall, A. W., The Natives of the Northern Territories of the Gold Coast, London, 1920, p. 9.Google Scholar

^{page 289 note 1} Hope Smith to Hutchison, PRO/T. 70–41/176.

^{page 289 note 2} Reindorf, op. cit., p. 163.

^{page 289 note 3} Dupuis, op. cit., passim.

^{page 289 note 4} Robertson, G. W., Notes on Africa, London, 1818, pp. 123, 173.Google Scholar

^{page 289 note 5} Bowdich, p. 178.

^{page 289 note 6} ‘Province’ is used here for those States like Akim over which Ashanti attempted to impose political control; ‘tributary’ for those with whom Ashanti maintained mainly economic relations.

^{page 289 note 7} Rattray, op. cit., p. 125.

^{page 290 note 1} Ramseyer and Kuhne, pp. 81–82.

^{page 290 note 2} Bosman (op. cit., p. 67), estimated Ashanti loot in a Denkyera war (1699–1700) at several thousand marks of gold. Ashanti believed they took 5,000 war prisoners in the 1818 war with Gyaman in the northwest. Dupuis, op. cit., p. 263.

^{page 290 note 3} Bowdich, op. cit., p. 320.

^{page 290 note 4} Dupuis, op. cit., p. 62.

^{page 290 note 5} Information from the Chiefs of Mim Kukuom and Kenyasi in Ahafo.

^{page 290 note 6} Daendels, op. cit., p. 188.

^{page 290 note 7} Bowdich, p. 73.

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