The African Company of Merchants was a Chartered Company in the Gold Coast area of modern Ghana, in the coastal area where the Fante people lived. It was founded in 1752 and replaced the Royal African Company which was dissoved in that year.

In 1817 the Company had signed a treaty of friendship that recognized Asante claims to sovereignty over large areas of the coast, including areas claimed by the Fante. The Company was abolished in 1821, as the slave trade had not been suppressed in these privately held areas. Authority over the area was given to Governor Charles MacCarthy, the governor of Sierra Leone, who was subsequently killed in the First Anglo-Asante War.

See also

• Gold Coast (British Colony)
• Ashanti-Akim-Akwapim War
• Thomas Edward Bowdich

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