ABSTRACT
Price control and related commercial issues have been among the most controversial national political issues in Ghana. Debates and accusations concerning price control enforcement and the acceptable or actual role of traders have been used to justify the rise and fall of national governments. A long history of intervention in trade, including price formation, by colonial and pre-colonial rulers gave these efforts at food price control wide local acceptance. Ideological initiatives of the colonial power complemented price lists, arrests and requisitions. Price controls and currency regulations applied only to imported and manufactured commodities, but public distribution agencies like the Ghana Food Distribution Corporation tried to undermine traders’ control of local foodstuffs circulation as well. In Kumasi, price control enforcement also began with traders in imports and manufactures. The day after the coup, military officers in Kumasi entered the main Kumasi Central Market and sold off the stocks of traders in the provisions section at control prices.
