What Europeans did control was an early trade in human beings to the Gold Coast, which satisfied a large demand for labour generated by gold mining activities. The Portuguese brought enslaved Africans from the kingdom of Benin and central Africa to work as porters in trade caravans that transported gold from the interior of the Gold Coast and laboured on Elmina and other forts and lodges (Daaku, 1973, p. 24; Vogt, 1973, pp. 453-67). It is notable that enslaved work would remain a key feature of labour relations in coastal trading hubs even after the arrival of other European nations in the mid-seventeenth century. Like the Portuguese, the British and the Dutch took enslaved Africans from Allada and Benin to work on the Gold Coast (Reese, 2010; Shumway, 2013; Rönnbäck, 2015).  
The Portuguese initially relied on various goods to engage in trade with Africans, but by the 1650s, English traders had introduced large quantities of weapons to the Gold Coast (Kea, 1971, pp. 187-9; Thornton, 1999, chapter III; Daaku, 1973, pp. 149-52). A military revolution was then set in motion that significantly impacted social and political dynamics among the African kingdoms. European firearms spread to forest kingdoms and became pivotal  
to the prosecution of warfare. New military techniques were first adopted by Akwamu, but Denkyira took the process to a new level by importing large quantities of weapons (McCaskie, 2007, p. 10). African polities relied on Europeans not only to acquire gunpowder and firearms but also to obtain military support in the form of mercenaries to fight local wars (Dantzig, 1980a, p. 199; Law, 2008; Law, 2012, pp. 45-6, 74).