Labour and Living Standards in Pre-Colonial West Africa: The Case of the Gold Coast PDF
Preview Labour and Living Standards in Pre-Colonial West Africa: The Case of the Gold Coast
Labour and Living Standards in Pre-Colonial West Africa Sub-Saharan Africa is presently the poorest region in the world, but has this always been the case? This book explores this question through the study of the material living standards of the population in pre-colonial West Africa, focusing on the Gold Coast. Labour and Living Standards in Pre-Colonial West Africa employs a variety of sources, ranging from travel accounts to economic accounts of European companies established in the region. From these sources, this book gathers evidence on the conditions that common Africans worked under and the economic living standards that could be achieved by the money earned from their labour. Using records from the English Royal African Company, alongside contemporary published accounts, Rönnbäck is able to reconstruct the material wealth and living standards of the population at a time when the Atlantic slave trade brought money and men into the area. He explores the racial bias that permeated the colonists’ accounts and how the ‘lazy African’ stereotype was used to justify slavery. This volume will enrich the understanding of long-term West African economic development and the issues that still exist today. It is suitable for those who study development economics, economic history and African history. Klas Rönnbäck is an Associate Professor of Economic History at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden. Perspectives in Economic and Social History Series Editors: Andrew August Jari Eloranta For a complete list of titles in this series, please visit www.routledge.com Titles in this series 1 Migrants and Urban Change Newcomers to Antwerp, 1760–1860 Anne Winter 2 Female Entrepreneurs in Nineteenth-Century Russia Galina Ulianova 3 Barriers to Competition The evolution of the debate Ana Rosado Cubero 4 Rural Unwed Mothers An American experience, 1870–1950 Mazie Hough 5 English Catholics and the Education of the Poor, 1847–1902 Eric G. Tenbus 6 The World of Carolus Clusius Natural history in the making, 1550–1610 Florike Egmond 7 The Determinants of Entrepreneurship Leadership, culture, institutions José L. García-Ruiz and Pier Angelo Toninelli (eds) 8 London Clerical Workers, 1880–1914 Development of the labour market Michael Heller 9 The Decline of Jute Managing industrial change Jim Tomlinson, Carlo Morelli and Valerie Wright 10 Mining and the state in Brazilian development Gail D. Triner 11 Global Trade and Commercial Networks Eighteenth-century diamond merchants Tijl Vanneste 12 The Clothing Trade in Provincial England, 1800–1850 Alison Toplis 13 Sex in Japan’s Globalization, 1870–1930 Prostitutes, emigration and nation building Bill Mihalopoulos 14 Financing India’s Imperial Railways, 1875–1914 Stuart Sweeney 15 Energy, Trade and Finance in Asia A political and economic analysis Justin Dargin and Tai Wei Lim 16 Violence and Racism in Football Politics and cultural conflict in British society, 1968–1998 Brett Bebber 17 The Economies of Latin America New cliometric data César Yáñez and Albert Carreras (eds) 18 Meat, Commerce and the City The London food market, 1800–1855 Robyn S. Metcalfe 19 Merchant Colonies in the Early Modern Period Victor N. Zakharov, Gelina Harlaftis and Olga Katsiardi-Hering (eds) 20 Markets and Growth in Early Modern Europe Victoria N. Bateman 21 Welfare and Old Age in Europe and North America The development of social insurance Bernard Harris (ed.) 22 Female Economic Strategies in the Modern World Beatrice Moring (ed.) 23 Crime and Community in Reformation Scotland Negotiating power in a burgh society J. R. D. Falconer 24 Policing Prostitution, 1856–1886 Deviance, surveillance and morality Catherine Lee 25 Narratives of Drunkenness Belgium, 1830–1914 An Vleugels 26 Respectability and the London Poor, 1780–1870 The value of virtue Lynn MacKay 27 Residential Institutions in Britain, 1725–1970 Inmates and environments Jane Hamlett, Lesley Hoskins and Rebecca Preston (eds) 28 Conflict, Commerce and Franco-Scottish Relations, 1560–1713 Siobhan Talbott 29 Drink in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries Susanne Schmid and Barbara Schmidt-Haberkamp (eds) 30 Merchants and Profit in the Age of Commerce, 1680–1830 Pierre Gervais, Yannick Lemarchand and Dominique Margairaz (eds) 31 Jewish Immigrants in London, 1880–1939 Susan L. Tananbaum 32 Commercial Networks and European Cities, 1400–1800 Andrea Caracausi and Christof Jeggle (eds) 33 A Global Conceptual History of Asia, 1860–1940 Hagen Schulz-Forberg (ed.) 34 Consuls and the Institutions of Global Capitalism, 1783–1914 Ferry de Goey 35 Merchant Communities in Asia, 1600–1980 Lin Yu-ju and Madeleine Zelin 36 Insanity and the Lunatic Asylum in the Nineteenth Century Thomas Knowles and Serena Trowbridge (eds) 37 Philanthropy and the Funding of the Church of England, 1856–1914 Sarah Flew 38 Merchants and Trading in the Sixteenth Century The Golden Age of Antwerp Jeroen Puttevils 39 Early Modern Trading Networks in Europe Cooperation and the Case of Simon Ruiz Ana Sofia Ribeiro 40 Prostitution and Social Control in Eighteenth-Century Ports Marion Pluskota 41 Labour and Living Standards in Pre-Colonial West Africa The Case of the Gold Coast Klas Rönnbäck Forthcoming titles Development Economics in the Twenty-First Century Davide Gualerzi and Claudia Sunna (eds) Sanitation in Urban Britain, 1560–1700 Leona Jayne Skelton A History of Drink and the English, 1500–2000 Paul Jennings Franco Modigliani and Keynesian Economics Theory, facts and policy Antonella Rancan Rural–Urban Relationships in the Nineteenth Century Uneasy neighbours? Mary Hammond and Barry Sloan (eds) Merchants and Trade Networks in the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, 1550–1800 Connectors of commercial maritime systems Manuel Herrero Sánchez and Klemens Kaps (eds) Workers, Unions and Payment in Kind The fight for real wages in Britain, 1820–1986 Christopher Frank Labour and Living Standards in Pre- Colonial West Africa The case of the Gold Coast Klas Rönnbäck First published 2016 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN and by Routledge 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business © 2016 Klas Rönnbäck The right of Klas Rönnbäck to be identified as author of this work has been asserted by him in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patent Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN: 978-1-84893-578-5 (hbk) ISBN: 978-1-315-62215-6 (ebk) Typeset in Times New Roman by Florence Production Ltd, Stoodleigh, Devon, UK Contents List of figures List of tables List of graphs Acknowledgements List of abbreviations 1 Introduction: theory and method 2 Previous research: the Gold Coast in African economic history 3 Sources and source criticism 4 Work ethic and the division of labour 5 Work and wages at the Cape Coast Castle 6 Domestic markets for goods 7 Housing and material wealth 8 Living standards in a comparative perspective 9 Concluding discussion References Index A note on Anti-Slavery International
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