FINANCIAL ADMINISTRATION OF ANCIENT ASHANTI EMPIRE

Ashanti was an empire which flourished in the forest region of presentday Ghana in the 16th and 17th centuries. Ashanti was a monarchy with a bureaucracy financed through taxes. The system of tax collection was one of apportionment among the levels of the social strata that were required to bear the tax burden. Accounting controls over funds which finally reached the coffers of the monarch involved boxes. The operations and uses of Adaka Kesie (the Big Box) and Apim Adaka (the Box of Thousand) could be likened to a current account and a petty cash account respectively.