slave trade, commercial enterprise would never have established itself on the Gold Coast; that there would probably have been no British West African settlements at all; and still less would the Crown have implicated itself in (questions of Government or Protection* In a general view of the early history of these Coast Colonies, therefore, the slave trade is the main and almost the only consideration. In their origin the Gold Coast and Gambia consisted of successive companies, formed in the former case in 1667 (after the Dutch War), and given charters to hold and govern forts, without acquisition of territory, for the purpose of prosecuting the trade in slaves and in gold. For these purposes the British Government subsidized them in sums varying up to £20,000 per annum.
In 1727 the early agitators for the suppression of the slave trade obtained a charter, and formed a company for the settlement of liberated slaves, obtaining for the purpose the cession of the present site of Freetown (Sierra Leone) from the native chiefs.
In 1807 the oversea slave trade was abolished, and a 'languid commerce' took its place on the Gambia, while the Crown took over the administration in Sierra Leone.
On the Gold Coast the merchants were ruined, and could no longer maintain themselves, and, some twenty years later (in 1821), the Crown took over the government, and both the Gambia and Gold Coast were placed under a central administration at Sierra Leone. On the Gold Coast there were but four forts retained, the cost of which was £17,000; but, in the following year, the British Government, disgusted at the expense of the Ashanti War, handed them back to the merchants with a subsidy of £4,000 per annum, and they were successfully administered by Governor Maclean.
Twenty years later (in 1842) the Home Government again took stock of its West African Settlements, and a Committee recommended that the Gambia and Gold Coast should once more become separate Governments
