CocoaExplainer5 min read
Thirteen Firms, One Agreement
Who controlled Gold Coast cocoa in 1937, according to the commission sent to investigate it, and why its two headline numbers, 98% and 94%, are so often confused.
Based on the Nowell Commission’s report, Cmd. 5845 (1938), paragraphs 28–31. Where the report is silent, this piece says so.
In the 1936/37 season almost the whole cocoa crop of the Gold Coast, today’s Ghana, left the country through thirteen European firms. In 1937 twelve of them signed a Buying Agreement that fixed the prices they would pay farmers and shared out the crop between them in quotas. Farmers answered with a hold-up that ran from October 1937 to April 1938, and London sent a commission of inquiry, chaired by William Nowell, to find out what had gone wrong.
The Commission’s report, published in September 1938 as Command Paper 5845, is still the best source for who those firms were. Ghana’s cocoa board descends from its main recommendation. This explainer sets out what the report says, and what it doesn’t.
Two numbers that are easily confused
The report gives two shares, and they measure different things.
| Statement | What the report says |
|---|---|
| Thirteen European firms shipped about 98% of Gold Coast cocoa exports in 1936/37 | Correct |
| Twelve of the thirteen signed the Buying Agreement | Correct |
| The one firm that did not sign shipped “slightly under 4 per cent” | Correct |
| So the signatories held about 94% of exports | Correct, by subtraction |
| “Thirteen firms controlled 94%” | Wrong. Thirteen firms held 98%; the twelve signatories held 94% |
The slip is small in size and large in meaning. Ninety-four per cent is the share of the crop inside the cartel. Ninety-eight per cent is the share held by the concentrated tier of buyers as a whole. The first number is about collusion; the second is about concentration. Both are worth keeping, because they support different arguments.
The thirteen firms
Merchant firms: all ten signed
| Firm | Nationality or group | Note |
|---|---|---|
| United Africa Company | British (Unilever) | The report calls it “by far the most important shipper”, but gives no percentage |
| G. B. Ollivant | British | Listed as a separate signatory; see below on its ownership |
| John Holt & Co. (Liverpool) | British | |
| Paterson, Zochonis & Co. | British (Manchester) | Later PZ Cussons |
| Compagnie Française de l’Afrique Occidentale (CFAO) | French | |
| Société Commerciale de l’Ouest Africain (SCOA) | French | |
| Union Trading Company (UTC) | Swiss | Descended from the Basel Mission’s trading arm |
| Swiss African Trading Company | Swiss | Gold Coast only; not in the Nigerian trade |
| Busi & Stephenson | British | Gold Coast only |
| W. Bartholomew & Co. | British | Gold Coast only |
Chocolate and food manufacturers: two of three signed
| Firm | Signed? | Note |
|---|---|---|
| Cadbury Brothers | Yes | Bought “in association with Messrs. J. S. Fry and Sons”: one buying operation under two names |
| J. Lyons & Co. | Yes | |
| English & Scottish Joint Co-operative Wholesale Society | No | The only firm that stayed out, with slightly under 4% of exports |
Ten merchants plus three manufacturers makes thirteen firms, and twelve signatories.
The hold-up, and what came of it
The farmers’ response was collective and long. From October 1937 to April 1938 farmers, brokers, chiefs, market women and transport workers refused to sell cocoa and boycotted European goods. It was a Gold Coast event: the Agreement also covered Nigeria, but the report records no serious agitation against it there.
The Commission recommended taking the buying of the crop out of the firms’ hands and giving it to what it called a “monopsonistic farmer’s co-operative”. The idea arrived by an indirect route. During the Second World War the West African Produce Control Board bought the crop, from 1940 to 1946. In 1947 the Gold Coast Cocoa Marketing Board replaced it, and today’s Ghana Cocoa Board (COCOBOD) descends from that board. The single state buyer exists because a handful of private buyers once controlled the crop.
Nigeria
The Nigerian trade was in the hands of the same merchant firms, except Swiss African Trading, Busi & Stephenson and W. Bartholomew, plus:
- G. L. Gaiser (Hamburg)
- Witt & Busch
- C. Zard
- Cocoa Manufacturers Ltd
- English & Scottish Joint Co-operative Wholesale Society
The report gives no firm count or percentage shares for Nigeria. The Gold Coast figures should not be assumed to carry over.
Why “thirteen firms” understates the concentration
The list was short partly because the trade had already been consolidated. The United Africa Company was itself formed in 1929 by merging the Niger Company, which Lever Brothers had bought in 1920, with the African and Eastern Trade Corporation, which had absorbed older Gold Coast trading houses such as Miller Brothers and F. & A. Swanzy. Counting companies in 1937 counts fewer independent buying decisions than it seems to.
Then and now
The parallel with today is close in one respect and different in another. In 2026 about 20 of Ghana’s 62 registered licensed buying companies are active, and five backed by international traders account for roughly 60% of the cocoa bought inside the country. That is concentration again.
The mechanism is not the same. In 1937 the firms set the price. Today the state sets the farmgate price and buyers take it; their leverage comes from having money to finance the crop when the state and local banks don’t. The Arithmetic Doesn’t Close sets out why that matters this season.
What the report does not tell us
- Each firm’s share. The report names the United Africa Company as by far the largest shipper but publishes no table of shares by firm. Any claim that it held “40%” or a similar figure does not come from this source and needs its own.
- Who owned G. B. Ollivant in 1937. A secondary source says the United Africa Company bought Ollivant in 1933. If that is right, two of the thirteen “firms” were one group, and Unilever’s share of the 98% was larger than the list suggests. The report lists them separately without comment. I have not found a company-history source that settles it.
Sources
- Report of the Commission on the Marketing of West African Cocoa, Cmd. 5845, HMSO, September 1938, full text (University of Ghana repository): paras. 28–31 for the firms, who signed, and export shares
- Hansard, House of Commons, “Gold Coast and Nigeria (Cocoa, Commission of Inquiry)”, 14 February 1938: the Commission’s terms of reference
- Transnational Architecture Group, “Niger Company and G B Ollivant”, 22 January 2024: the 1933 Ollivant acquisition claim (secondary, unconfirmed)
- 2026 buyer figures: The Arithmetic Doesn’t Close, section VI
Suggested citation for the two shares: Thirteen European firms shipped approximately 98% of Gold Coast cocoa exports in 1936/37; twelve of them, holding roughly 94% of exports, signed the 1937 Buying Agreement (Nowell Commission, Report of the Commission on the Marketing of West African Cocoa, Cmd. 5845, 1938, paras. 28–31).