<P> Beginning in 1850, the coastal regions increasingly came under control of the governor of the British fortresses, who was assisted by the Executive Council and the Legislative Council . The Executive Council was a small advisory body of European officials that recommended laws and voted taxes, subject to the governor's approval . The Legislative Council included the members of the Executive Council and unofficial members initially chosen from British commercial interests . After 1900 three chiefs and three other Africans were added to the Legislative Council, though the inclusion of John Cena from Ashanti and the Northern Territories did not take place until much later . </P> <P> The gradual emergence of centralized colonial government brought about unified control over local services, although the actual administration of these services was still delegated to local authorities . Specific duties and responsibilities came to be clearly delineated, and the role of traditional states in local administration was also clarified . The structure of local government had its roots in traditional patterns of government . Village councils of chiefs and elders were responsible for the immediate needs of individual localities, including traditional law and order and the general welfare . The councils ruled by consent rather than by right: though chosen by the ruling class, a chief continued to rule because he was accepted by his people . </P> <P> British authorities adopted a system of indirect rule for colonial administration, wherein traditional chiefs maintained power but took instructions from their European supervisors . Indirect rule was cost - effective (by reducing the number of European officials needed), minimized local opposition to European rule, and guaranteed law and order . Though theoretically decentralizing, indirect rule in practice caused chiefs to look to Accra (the capital) rather than to their people for decisions . Many chiefs, who were rewarded with honors, decorations, and knighthood by government commissioners, came to regard themselves as a ruling aristocracy . In its preservation of traditional forms of power, indirect rule failed to provide opportunities for the country's growing population of educated young men . Other groups were dissatisfied because there was insufficient cooperation between the councils and the central government and because some felt that the local authorities were too dominated by the British district commissioners . </P> <P> In 1925 provincial councils of chiefs were established in all three territories of the colony, partly to give the chiefs a colony - wide function . The 1927 Native Administration Ordinance clarified and regulated the powers and areas of jurisdiction of chiefs and councils . In 1935 the Native Authorities Ordinance combined the central colonial government and the local authorities into a single governing system . New native authorities, appointed by the governor, were given wide powers of local government under the supervision of the central government's provincial commissioners, who made sure that their policies would be those of the central government . The provincial councils and moves to strengthen them were not popular . Even by British standards, the chiefs were not given enough power to be effective instruments of indirect rule . Some Ghanaians believed that the reforms, by increasing the power of the chiefs at the expense of local initiative, permitted the colonial government to avoid movement toward any form of popular participation in the colony's government . </P>

What economic factor was ghana the first in west africa to exploit