The 1914 Cocoa Crash That Changed West African Trade

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The 1914 Cocoa Crash That Changed West African Trade

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In 1914, as World War I erupted in Europe, global cocoa prices collapsed by nearly 70 percent in a matter of weeks. The British colony of the Gold Coast — today's Ghana — had just enjoyed a decade-long cocoa boom that made it the world's largest producer. Small farmers who had invested everything in cocoa trees suddenly faced ruin. This episode traces how a single commodity crash reshaped West African agriculture, forced the colonial government to invent a new system of price controls and marketing boards, and planted the seeds for Ghana's post-independence economic structure. We focus on one specific moment: the founding of the Gold Coast Cocoa Association in 1916, a farmer-led cooperative that became a template for agricultural policy across the British Empire. #CocoaCrash1914 #GoldCoast #Ghana #WorldWarI #AgriculturalHistory #CommodityMarkets #PriceCollapse #CocoaFarmers #ColonialEconomics #MarketingBoards #Cooperatives #BritishEmpire #WestAfrica #EconomicHistory #CommodityBust #FexingoBusiness #BusinessPodcast #Economy Keep every episode free: buymeacoffee.com/fexingo

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