Henry Mason Ghana Essay 10/16/20 20 A Brief History of Ghanaian Economics The story of this country is involved and complicated, and I cannot and will not go over all its economic antiquity; nonetheless, it is an interesting history. Ghana was, and still is, a prosperous developing nation that, at the time, had a complex and incredibly complicated society. Even though the British colonizers wanted to improve the economic standings of Ghana, they did not. Even now the economic position of Ghana is still not where it could have been, but if the Ashanti empire had remained intact, the many successful implements that the British introduced would not have been so utterly successful. In the pre-colonial Ghanaian economy, land was equally distributed among all citizens. The product of the land that a family-owned would belong solely to them. This distribution tactic may have been because there were low population density and access to land within the kingdom's borders. All land had an owner and the owner would severely protect their rights to that land. And because of this, the economy was mainly based on agricultural farming of spices and other grains. The country was very self-sustaining, so it had little need for outside trade. The main link between Ghana and the rest of the world was its abundance of gold. The export economy was also fueled by farmers. As a bonus, there were extremely large buildings for trade ports. Unfortunately, even though the governmental system of Ghana was thriving, the British settlers and colonizers started plundering the. As a result, there was such an abundance of resources and labor that the British colonizers stunted the growth of the economy. The first development "plan" was put into effect around 1900, and a report about the gold coast in 1890 said that 40 million pounds of gold would be extracted within a few years. Some of the main Henry Mason Ghana Essay 10/16/20 20 profits at the time were Gold, Cocoa, and Iron. Some of the most advanced mining technics were introduced by Ghana to most other mining colonies throughout African colonies. And to top this all off, if the Ashanti empire had remained intact, none of this advanced trade would have been possible. Now, in current and everyday Ghana most agricultural aspects of Ghana are based upon Bioenergy and other forms of biofuel. The top three main import partners are the following, China at 16.8%, the United States at 8%, and the United Kingdom at 6.2%. As of 2018, Ghana's current population stands around 29,767,108. During the great recession, in 2008, Ghana's economy was higher than before, at a soaring 9% increase in the annual GDP. The importance of this is because Biofuel is amazing for the environment, and almost no other economy in the world did well during the Great Depression. The history of Ghana is not yet complete, and with that brings hope for a brighter and more prominent future. The many provinces throughout Ghana and the Ashanti empire were devastated by colonialism, the many profit-hungry British merchants that wandered into Ghana manipulated and employed the people of Ghana forcing them to become slaves. Nonetheless, Ghana has nearly recovered from this diminishing state. It now has a prominent economy and a flourishing culture. If the devastations of colonialism had never happened, how much better would off would Ghana and the whole rest of Africa be? Bibliography: http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp79.pdf https://ase.tufts.edu/economics/documents/seminars/jedwabColonialInvestments.pdf http://www.econ.yale.edu/growth_pdf/cdp73.pdf
