Chapter 2 offers a brief exposition of two sets of ideas that generate issues and hypotheses which will be drawn upon in subsequent chapters: the debate about the historical development of capitalist institutions south of the Sahara, and the evolutionary theory of property rights and of rent-seeking. Chapter 3 sets out the general economic, ecological and political contexts for the chapters that follow. It offers the first overview of the history of Asante economic resources and activities over the extended period covered by this book. Chapter 4 examines the relationships between output and factor inputs (the production function) over the period. The analysis suggests that we need to revise existing understandings of choice of technique in West African economic history: for the precolonial period, for the transition to cash-cropping, and for the established cash-crop economy of the middle and later colonial period.