Precious Metal List
A viewset for viewing and editing Precious Metals.
GET /api/sc/precious-metals/?format=api&page=6
{ "count": 398, "next": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/precious-metals/?format=api&page=7", "previous": "https://seshat-db.com/api/sc/precious-metals/?format=api&page=5", "results": [ { "id": 251, "polity": { "id": 171, "name": "tr_rum_sultanate", "long_name": "Rum Sultanate", "start_year": 1077, "end_year": 1307 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Silver and gold. §REF§Cahen, Claude. The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sultanate of Rūm: Eleventh to Fourteenth Century. Translated by P. M. Holt. A History of the Near East. Harlow, England: Longman, 2001, Pp.95-96.§REF§ When they were a tribal people the Turks and the Seljuks would have accumulated coins through tribute and booty. As they settled down they began to mint their own coins under Sultan Masud I. These early coins were of copper and used in commerce. Silver began to be used under Kilic Arslan II, followed by gold in the 1200s. §REF§Cahen, Claude. The Formation of Turkey: The Seljukid Sultanate of Rūm: Eleventh to Fourteenth Century. Translated by P. M. Holt. A History of the Near East. Harlow, England: Longman, 2001, p.97§REF§" }, { "id": 252, "polity": { "id": 32, "name": "us_cahokia_1", "long_name": "Cahokia - Lohman-Stirling", "start_year": 1050, "end_year": 1199 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 253, "polity": { "id": 33, "name": "us_cahokia_2", "long_name": "Cahokia - Moorehead", "start_year": 1200, "end_year": 1275 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 254, "polity": { "id": 101, "name": "us_haudenosaunee_1", "long_name": "Haudenosaunee Confederacy - Early", "start_year": 1566, "end_year": 1713 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 255, "polity": { "id": 102, "name": "us_haudenosaunee_2", "long_name": "Haudenosaunee Confederacy - Late", "start_year": 1714, "end_year": 1848 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 256, "polity": { "id": 20, "name": "us_kamehameha_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of Hawaii - Kamehameha Period", "start_year": 1778, "end_year": 1819 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"Taxes were not paid in money, but in the produce of the soil and in the various articles manufactured by the people, there being no native coinage and but very little foreign money in circulation.\" §REF§(Kuykendall 1938, 54)§REF§" }, { "id": 257, "polity": { "id": 34, "name": "us_emergent_mississippian_2", "long_name": "Cahokia - Emergent Mississippian II", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1049 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 258, "polity": { "id": 28, "name": "us_cahokia_3", "long_name": "Cahokia - Sand Prairie", "start_year": 1275, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 259, "polity": { "id": 296, "name": "uz_chagatai_khanate", "long_name": "Chagatai Khanate", "start_year": 1227, "end_year": 1402 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 260, "polity": { "id": 469, "name": "uz_janid_dyn", "long_name": "Khanate of Bukhara", "start_year": 1599, "end_year": 1747 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 261, "polity": { "id": 287, "name": "uz_samanid_emp", "long_name": "Samanid Empire", "start_year": 819, "end_year": 999 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Great trading location." }, { "id": 262, "polity": { "id": 468, "name": "uz_sogdiana_city_states", "long_name": "Sogdiana - City-States Period", "start_year": 604, "end_year": 711 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " \"On the whole, Sogdian great commerce did extremely well without any coinage of its own. A large-scale barter economy operated from one end of Asia to the other, composed of a few deluxe products in universal demand—precious metals, silk, spices, perfumes. Yet it must be noted that what appears to be barter from a western perspective is actually a monetary exchange from the perspective of the Chinese: Sogdian products were paid for in rolls of silk in China, where silk was in fact a money.\" §REF§(De la Vaissière 2005, 174)§REF§" }, { "id": 263, "polity": { "id": 370, "name": "uz_timurid_emp", "long_name": "Timurid Empire", "start_year": 1370, "end_year": 1526 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 264, "polity": { "id": 541, "name": "ye_qasimid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Qasimid Dynasty", "start_year": 1637, "end_year": 1805 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": null }, { "id": 265, "polity": { "id": 368, "name": "ye_rasulid_dyn", "long_name": "Rasulid Dynasty", "start_year": 1229, "end_year": 1453 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Aden was an exceptionally busy international port where all sorts of exchanges likely took place." }, { "id": 266, "polity": { "id": 372, "name": "ye_tahirid_dyn", "long_name": "Yemen - Tahirid Dynasty", "start_year": 1454, "end_year": 1517 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " This is based on the codes for the Rasulids as 'Sultan 'Amir also appears to have been emulating the high period of Rasulid power a hundred years earlier'§REF§Porter, Venetia Ann (1992) The history and monuments of the Tahirid dynasty of the Yemen 858-923/1454-1517, Durham theses, Durham University, p. 4 Available at Durham E-Theses Online: <a class=\"external free\" href=\"http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/\" rel=\"nofollow\">http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/</a>§REF§. Aden was an exceptionally busy international port where all sorts of exchanges likely too place." }, { "id": 267, "polity": { "id": 649, "name": "et_funj_sultanate", "long_name": "Funj Sultanate", "start_year": 1504, "end_year": 1820 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Gold dust and bracelets. “While Funj still knew no (official) coins or currencies in the early seventeenth century beyond the market of Sinnar and the harbour of Suakin, with the exception of gold in form of gold dust or braclets, (Spanish) silver coins (from American mines) increasingly entered the empire in the seventeenth century. This led to an accelerated export of gold and the establishment of silver coins in regional and even local markets in the eighteenth century, when silver replaced textiles and salt as currencies of exchange. This led to an even stronger import of small silver coins and the development of an imperial mint. In the late eighteenth century, the Spanish silver peso had become the major currency.” §REF§ (Loimeier 2013, 148) Loimeier, Roman. 2013. Muslim Societies in Africa: A Historical Anthropology. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HJTAUHA9/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 268, "polity": { "id": 669, "name": "ni_hausa_k", "long_name": "Hausa bakwai", "start_year": 900, "end_year": 1808 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “Purchases of land, slaves, and major commodities were made using a single or combination of currencies such as kola nuts, stamped gold coins (mithqal), and cowry shells. The mithqal was made from gold imported from Bonduku (in present-day Ivory Coast) and minted. It was used extensively along trade routes between central Nigerian kingdoms and the Hausa Kingdoms.” §REF§Falola, Toyin, and Ann Genova. Historical Dictionary of Nigeria. The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2009: 90. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/search/dictionary/titleCreatorYear/items/SJAIVKDW/item-list§REF§" }, { "id": 269, "polity": { "id": 683, "name": "ug_buganda_k_2", "long_name": "Buganda II", "start_year": 1717, "end_year": 1894 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. One disc was apparently worth one hundred shells. Ivory played a dual role insofar as it was on the one hand a commodity valued for its own sake, and on the other a standard medium of exchange. The former role gradually took precedence over the latter, as demand for ivory from the coast increased, so that as the nineteenth century progressed, ivory as money all but disappeared. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 270, "polity": { "id": 684, "name": "ug_toro_k", "long_name": "Toro", "start_year": 1830, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 271, "polity": { "id": 685, "name": "ug_buganda_k_1", "long_name": "Buganda I", "start_year": 1408, "end_year": 1716 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. One disc was apparently worth one hundred shells. Ivory played a dual role insofar as it was on the one hand a commodity valued for its own sake, and on the other a standard medium of exchange. The former role gradually took precedence over the latter, as demand for ivory from the coast increased, so that as the nineteenth century progressed, ivory as money all but disappeared. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 272, "polity": { "id": 687, "name": "Early Niynginya", "long_name": "Kingdom of Nyinginya", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 273, "polity": { "id": 689, "name": "rw_ndorwa_k", "long_name": "Ndorwa", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1800 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 274, "polity": { "id": 690, "name": "bu_burundi_k", "long_name": "Burundi", "start_year": 1680, "end_year": 1903 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 275, "polity": { "id": 691, "name": "rw_mubari_k", "long_name": "Mubari", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 276, "polity": { "id": 692, "name": "rw_gisaka_k", "long_name": "Gisaka", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1867 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 277, "polity": { "id": 694, "name": "rw_bugesera_k", "long_name": "Bugesera", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1799 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 278, "polity": { "id": 695, "name": "ug_nkore_k_2", "long_name": "Nkore", "start_year": 1750, "end_year": 1901 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"As we have seen, to secure their essential ties, the ancient states, lacking writing and money, relied on kinship, trust, and personal relationships, which were periodically rekindled by direct contact and exchanged words.\" §REF§(Chrétien 2006: 178) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 279, "polity": { "id": 696, "name": "tz_buhayo_k", "long_name": "Buhaya", "start_year": 1700, "end_year": 1890 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"No single currency was in general use. Buhaya used cowrie shells, Ujiji employed special beads, and Pare utilised maize cobs, but none had a fixed value elsewhere.\"§REF§(Iliffe 1979: 68) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 280, "polity": { "id": 701, "name": "in_carnatic_sul", "long_name": "Carnatic Sultanate", "start_year": 1710, "end_year": 1801 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “In the last decade of his life [Mohammed Ali], the records say, the Nawab began to lose faith in the British. He foresaw the time when his descendants would be reduced to small Jaghirdars. He frequently protested to the King against the high-handedness of the Governors, and to the Governors against the bad behaviour of British soldiers. His protests to the King against the British demand that all payments be made in gold and silver, which affected gold currency in India, were ignored.” §REF§ (Ramaswami 1984, 333) Ramaswami, N.S. 1984. Political History of Carnatic Under the Nawabs. New Delhi: Abhinav Publications. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/PTIS9MB4/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 281, "polity": { "id": 705, "name": "in_madurai_nayaks", "long_name": "Nayaks of Madurai", "start_year": 1529, "end_year": 1736 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Silver bullion and gold kobans. “Imported precious metals could either be traded for fanams from professional money changers or shroffs (cirappu, carappu) known as taksal shroffs (Hindi ‘mint’) specialised in buying bullion or foreign coins from the public or melted and converted directly at the local mint. A contemporary list of these merchants, active in 1680s, include names such as Vasanappa Nayaka (trading gold kobans and silver bullion for a total of 4, 200 fanams); Ponni Chitti (trading gold kobans for 6, 808 fanams) […]” §REF§ (Vink 2015, 182) Vink, Markus. 2015. Encounters on the Opposite Coast: The Dutch East India Company and the Nayaka State of Madurai in the Seventeenth Century. Leiden: Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/9U7MCK4E/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 282, "polity": { "id": 698, "name": "in_cholas_1", "long_name": "Early Cholas", "start_year": -300, "end_year": 300 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " The following quote suggests that precious metals were likely present. “Kanam was a measure of gold (coin?), very small in size. Pons referred to perhaps the same measure as kanam. Kasu was a kind of coin of the size of a margosa fruit and the shape of a lotus bud. In later age kasu generally meant a small copper coin. Silver was called velli and rarely ven pon. Iron was also known as pon. §REF§ (Agnihotri 1988, 355) Agnihotri, V.K. 1988. Indian History. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Pvt. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/PNX9XBJQ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 283, "polity": { "id": 700, "name": "in_pandya_emp_1", "long_name": "Early Pandyas", "start_year": -300, "end_year": 300 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " The following quote discusses weight measurements of gold coins during the Sangam period in Tamil Nadu. “Kanam was a measure of gold (coin?), very small in size. Pons referred to perhaps the same measure as kanam.” §REF§ (Agnihotri 1988, 355) Agnihotri, V.K. 1988. Indian History. New Delhi: Allied Publishers Pvt. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/PNX9XBJQ/collection §REF§" }, { "id": 284, "polity": { "id": 607, "name": "si_early_modern_interior", "long_name": "Early Modern Sierra Leone", "start_year": 1650, "end_year": 1896 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following quotes suggests that the main forms of \"money\" consisted of articles such as cloth, tokens such as iron bars, and foreign coins. \"Indigenous currency systems emerged as well among groups such as the Kissi and Mende, in the form of locally made cloth, for example.\"§REF§(Fyle and Foray 2006: xxxii) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM.§REF§ \"[F]rom the turn of the century, to the ‘mosaic of currencies’, which included the Sierra Leone Company coinage and the iron bars system, could be added silver Spanish dollars, Mexican dollars, French five-franc pieces and Maria Theresa thalers as well as gold Spanish American doubloons (or ‘pieces of eight’), American five-dollar and French twenty-franc pieces. By the 1820s, however relatively small in amounts, the Spanish dollar had become the principal foreign currency across the coastal region.\" §REF§(Mew 2016: 199-201) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 285, "polity": { "id": 608, "name": "gm_kaabu_emp", "long_name": "Kaabu", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1867 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following suggests that the main items of currency were kola nuts, blue cloths, iron, wire, red coral, salt, glassware, wine, aguardiente. \"[T]wo documents can in fact shed a great deal of light on the history of Kaabu. Both date from towards the end of the 17th century[...]. The first document is a list of the trade of the Portuguese and the important ports of the region between the Casamance river and Sierra Leone. [...] The author, Governor Rodrigo de Oliveira da Fonseca, states: 'In the Geba river it is possible to navigate almost forty leagues upstream in small boats; halfway up is the settlement of whites which has three hundred Christians including men, women and children; in all this inland interior there are a great number of blacks of diverse nations, all of them have come across the whites and cultivate cotton and many other crops which they sell to the whites together with many slaves and much ivory and wax and some gold and white cloths which the blacks bring from a long way inland and they exchange it for kola nuts which there is the best currency for exchange [genero]… and other good currencies in this whole region are blue cloths and iron and wire and fine red coral and salt…and aguardente is also well received”. [...] According to Castanho, the main items of exchange were kola nuts, followed by salt, glassware, and then items such as wine and aguardente.§REF§(Green 2009: 103) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/V2GTBN8A/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 286, "polity": { "id": 609, "name": "si_freetown_1", "long_name": "Freetown", "start_year": 1787, "end_year": 1808 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following quotes suggests that the main forms of \"money\" consisted of articles such as cloth, tokens such as iron bars, and foreign coins. \"Indigenous currency systems emerged as well among groups such as the Kissi and Mende, in the form of locally made cloth, for example.\"§REF§(Fyle and Foray 2006: xxxii) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM.§REF§ \"[F]rom the turn of the century, to the ‘mosaic of currencies’, which included the Sierra Leone Company coinage and the iron bars system, could be added silver Spanish dollars, Mexican dollars, French five-franc pieces and Maria Theresa thalers as well as gold Spanish American doubloons (or ‘pieces of eight’), American five-dollar and French twenty-franc pieces. By the 1820s, however relatively small in amounts, the Spanish dollar had become the principal foreign currency across the coastal region.\" §REF§(Mew 2016: 199-201) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 287, "polity": { "id": 616, "name": "si_pre_sape", "long_name": "Pre-Sape Sierra Leone", "start_year": 600, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"First, prior to the arrival of the first wave of [colonial] settlers [to Freetown in 1787] there existed no centralised currency system that resembled, for example, the gold dust of the Asante Kingdom (where the use of cowries was forbidden). Cowries were not generally much in use in the coastal and hinterland regions of Sierra Leone, and this led to acute problems in introducing coins that were of small enough denominations for local market transactions (in turn leading to problems with cut dollars in 1818).\"§REF§(Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 288, "polity": { "id": 617, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_red_2", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Red II and III", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. \"By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies.\"§REF§(Dueppen 2012: 30)§REF§" }, { "id": 289, "polity": { "id": 618, "name": "bf_west_burkina_faso_red_4", "long_name": "West Burkina Faso Red IV", "start_year": 1401, "end_year": 1500 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following suggests not only that cattle were no longer used as articles of exchange, but also the existence of system of exchange based on labor rather than physical currency. \"By the middle of Red II this material symbol of inequality, cattle, ceased to be commonly kept, despite the emergence of a drier environment more suitable for animal husbandry in the second millennium A.D. Historically, cattle served as social capital in many non-centralized Voltaic societies, enabling marriages and funerary celebrations, and representing wealth. Consequently, the rejection of cattle, in addition to limiting the accumulation of wealth, may also indicate the beginning of matrimonial compensation in agricultural labor, typical of modern autonomous village societies.\"§REF§(Dueppen 2012: 30)§REF§" }, { "id": 290, "polity": { "id": 621, "name": "si_sape", "long_name": "Sape", "start_year": 1400, "end_year": 1550 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " \"First, prior to the arrival of the first wave of [colonial] settlers [to Freetown in 1787] there existed no centralised currency system that resembled, for example, the gold dust of the Asante Kingdom (where the use of cowries was forbidden). Cowries were not generally much in use in the coastal and hinterland regions of Sierra Leone, and this led to acute problems in introducing coins that were of small enough denominations for local market transactions (in turn leading to problems with cut dollars in 1818).\"§REF§(Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 291, "polity": { "id": 656, "name": "ni_yoruba_classic", "long_name": "Classical Ife", "start_year": 1000, "end_year": 1400 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following suggests that strings, \"standard measurements of beads\" and possibly glass beads were used as \"money\". \"Given their quality as a high-value and low-bulk commodity, long-distance travelers likely carried Ifè glass beads across the Yorùbá world and the adjacent areas as a means of payment for provisions on their journeys. The durability and affective qualities of these dichroic beads, especially the most common sègi, and the guarantee of their supply and demand encouraged people to use them as a means of high-value exchange and for storing wealth. We are short of evidence on whether glass beads evolved to serve as a standard currency, especially as a means of pricing. However, strings and other standard measurements of beads were likely used for purchasing high-value products and services.\" §REF§(Ogundiran 2020: 107-108)§REF§" }, { "id": 292, "polity": { "id": 672, "name": "ni_benin_emp", "long_name": "Benin Empire", "start_year": 1140, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following quote suggests that the main form of currency was cowrie shells. “The reign of Oba Esigie witnessed the increasing monetisation of the enclave economy (cowries), and provided the opportunity for the development of \"institutionalized mechanisms of exploitation\" (Belasco 1980, 81-82). The palace control of cowries and the elite domination of commercial development in the administrative and economic enclaves provided the final element in the emergence of the dual economy. The capital and commercial centres had developed highly sophisticated and well-organised monetary exchange systems. However, the vassal villages in the empire remained relatively static, with little circulation of either commercial consumer goods or currency forms (cowries or manillas).” §REF§Sargent, R. A. (1986). From A Redistribution to an Imperial Social Formation: Benin c.1293-1536. Canadian Journal of African Studies / Revue Canadienne Des Études Africaines, 20(3), 402–427: 421. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/AUEZSTBR/collection§REF§" }, { "id": 293, "polity": { "id": 686, "name": "tz_karagwe_k", "long_name": "Karagwe", "start_year": 1500, "end_year": 1916 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "IFR", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The literature suggests that culturally related and geographically adjacent polities in the Great Lakes region did not use precious metals as currency: barter was a common form of exchange, as was the use of tokens (e.g. ivory discs, cowrie shells) and articles (e.g. iron objects). In the case of Rwanda: \"Neighbors exchanged goods by barter. Hunters, farmers, and herders exchanged game, leather goods, honey, sorghum, beans, milk, and butter, among other things. Iron objects and hoes above all were preferably exchanged for goats and if possible cattle, but sometimes also for the goods we have just enumerated. Indeed, the hoe was probably already the standard of value as it was in the nineteenth century.\"§REF§(Vansina 2004: 30) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5J4MRHUB/collection.§REF§ In the case of Buganda: \"As we have noted, pre-colonial Buganda never developed a purely monetary economy, and even during the later nineteenth century barter was an important method of exchange, existing alongside a cowry currency. Nevertheless, the information we have on nineteenth-century prices suggests that virtually everything had at least a nominal cowry value. Moreover, other currencies existed alongside cowries, and some undoubtedly pre-dated the latter. Roscoe mentions a \"small ivory disc\" which he terms 'sanga', ssanga being the Luganda term for either a tusk or ivory in general. This, Roscoe claimed, was one of the earliest forms of money in Buganda; although clearly indigenous and probably much older than the cowry shell, it also had a cowry value. [...] A third pre-cowry currency has already been mentioned, namely the blue bead, and as we have also already noted, examples of beads have been excavated at Ntusi. From such archaeological evidence, it is possible to suggest that beads may be the oldest currency in the region.\"§REF§(Reid 2010: 122, 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 294, "polity": { "id": 570, "name": "es_spanish_emp_2", "long_name": "Spanish Empire II", "start_year": 1716, "end_year": 1814 }, "year_from": 1716, "year_to": 1814, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": "Gold; silver; copper. “The link between religion and economic or social forms struck Joseph Townsend, a Wiltshire rector and sharpeyed, though fair-minded, observer of Spain in the course of his perambulations through the country in 1786–7. The excessive ornamentation of the churches in Barcelona, he thought, was due to the gold and silver of the Indies, which ‘came upon them by surprise, and found them unprepared to make a proper use of the abundant treasure’.”<ref>(Casey 2002: 2) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT</ref> “The passing of the imperial age is surely symbolised by the transition from the peso—the ‘piece of eight’ (that is, eight reals, or ten after 1728) —to the little peseta of two reals, a silver coin which could pay a labourer’s wages for half a day. That is, silver no longer flowed abroad so much in payments to bankers and soldiers but could be used at home; so vellón could be partly phased out, and from 1680 its face value was reduced by three-quarters. This stabilisation of the currency no doubt fostered the revival of the Spanish economy in the eighteenth century, contributing to a spread of the internal market. Silver coins themselves, of course, were notoriously vulnerable to hoarding and theft, and the growth of the economy also depended on some extension of credit facilities.”<ref>(Casey 2002: 70) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT</ref> “A ban on imported iron and copperware in 1775 greatly strengthened the Basque metalworking industry, which soon found markets in Europe as well as in Spain and its colonies, and Basque shipbuilding revived as well.”<ref>(Maltby 2009: 83) Maltby, William S. 2009. The Rise and Fall of the Spanish Empire. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/SUSVXWVH</ref>" }, { "id": 295, "polity": { "id": 620, "name": "bf_mossi_k_1", "long_name": "Mossi", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": 1100, "year_to": 1750, "tag": "SSP", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "unknown", "comment": null, "description": "The following information strictly applies to the period immediately preceding colonisation. \"Cowries and cotton bands were used as currency.\"§REF§(Englebert 2018: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/52JWRCUI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 296, "polity": { "id": 620, "name": "bf_mossi_k_1", "long_name": "Mossi", "start_year": 1100, "end_year": 1897 }, "year_from": 1751, "year_to": 1897, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "absent", "comment": null, "description": " The following information strictly applies to the period immediately preceding colonisation. \"Cowries and cotton bands were used as currency.\"§REF§(Englebert 2018: 15) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/52JWRCUI/collection.§REF§" }, { "id": 297, "polity": { "id": 280, "name": "hu_hun_k", "long_name": "Kingdom of the Huns", "start_year": 376, "end_year": 469 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " “The Huns did not use spurs either but urged their horses on with whips; whip handles have been found in tombs. Gold and silver saddle ornaments discovered in tombs make it certain that some wealthy men rode on wooden saddles with wooden bows at front and rear to support the rider.”§REF§(Kennedy 2002: 30) Kennedy, Hugh. 2002. Mongols, Huns and Vikings: Nomads at War. London: Cassell. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZN9N624X§REF§ “In 435 a Roman embassy, led by a Gothic soldier and a Roman diplomat – a typical division of labour at that time - met Attila at Margus (on the Danube just east of modern Belgrade). The negotiations took place on horseback outside the city walls. For the Huns, it was natural to do business without dismounting; the Romans, however, would have much preferred to have got off their horses and relaxed their aching limbs, but to save face they too remained on horseback. Attila's demands were not for territory but for money payments. Eventually it was agreed that the Romans would pay him the vast sum of 700 pounds of gold per year.”§REF§(Kennedy 2002: 38) Kennedy, Hugh. 2002. Mongols, Huns and Vikings: Nomads at War. London: Cassell. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/ZN9N624X§REF§ “The Huns honored Attila in death as in life. His body, draped in rare oriental silks, glittered with magnificent jewelry, costly gifts from Roman emperors hoping to buy off an enemy whom they had repeatedly failed to defeat. On his shoulder gleamed a great golden brooch set with a single slice of onyx the size of a man’s palm… That night, far beyond the frontiers of the Roman empire, Attila was buried. His body was encased in three coffins: the innermost covered in gold, a second in silver, and a third in iron. The gold and silver symbolized the plunder that Attila had seized, while the harsh gray iron recalled his victories in war. The tomb was filled with the weapons of enemies defeated in battle, precious jewels, and other treasures. The servants responsible for preparing the burial were killed so that they could not reveal its location.”§REF§(Kelly 2009: 6) Kelly, Christopher. 2009. The End of Empire: Attila the Hun and the Fall of Rome. London; New York: W. W. Norton & Company. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/NCDATP6U§REF§" }, { "id": 298, "polity": { "id": 569, "name": "mx_mexico_1", "long_name": "Early United Mexican States", "start_year": 1810, "end_year": 1920 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Gold; silver; copper. “The economy was closely organized around the extraction and exportation of precious metals, particularly silver, coming mostly from a few mining centers (reales mineros) in Pachuca (Real del Monte), Zacatecas, Guanajuato, and San Luis Potosí (Catorce). Production of gold and other minerals (excluding quarries) was much less relevant.” §REF§(Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 20) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV§REF§ “Indeed, after its drastic collapse during the years of the struggle for independence and its aftermath, many decades went by before mining activity gradually began to attract new investments. By the 1860s these investments, by local entrepreneurs, led to the discovery of new, rich deposits of precious metals and thus helped to boost mining activity once again. The recovery of silver mining, in particular, helped to put an end to the liquidity crisis and the credit crunch that had so adversely affected Mexican businesses for many years since independence.”§REF§(Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 38) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV§REF§ “From 1877 to 1911, exports multiplied more than sixfold (and imports grew by nearly 3.5 times) (Rosenzweig, 1965). During this time the export basket became more diversified, as shown by the decline in the share of minerals and metals in total exports and the corresponding rise of agricultural goods (see table 3.3). Moreover, though not shown in the table, the export of the minerals and metals now included, besides silver, metals such as copper, lead, and zinc, whose demand from the industrial centers of the world economy was expanding rapidly.”§REF§(Moreno-Brid and Ros 2009: 58) Moreno-Brid, Juan Carlos and Ros, Jaime. 2009. Development and Growth in the Mexican Economy: A Historical Perspective. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/PZXKGTTV§REF§" }, { "id": 299, "polity": { "id": 579, "name": "gb_england_plantagenet", "long_name": "Plantagenet England", "start_year": 1154, "end_year": 1485 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Gold, silver. In 1344 gold coins (florins) were first produced under Edward III.§REF§(Prestwich 2005: xxiii) Prestwich, Michael. 2005. Plantagenet England 1225-1360. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/XTBKFDCI§REF§" }, { "id": 300, "polity": { "id": 568, "name": "cz_bohemian_k_2", "long_name": "Kingdom of Bohemia - Luxembourgian and Jagiellonian Dynasty", "start_year": 1310, "end_year": 1526 }, "year_from": null, "year_to": null, "tag": "TRS", "is_disputed": false, "is_uncertain": false, "name": "Precious_metal", "precious_metal": "present", "comment": null, "description": " Gold; silver; copper. “Mining of and trade in precious and other metals played an important role in the economics of the Bohemian crown lands. While gold lodes and alluvial deposits of gold did not return especially large profits, the Bohemian lands became one of the greatest powers in the mining of silver... Since the profit from the mining of precious metals and minting of coins was one of the ruler’s rights, the coffers of the Luxemburgs were enriched, enabling them to finance their policies, both at home and abroad, as well as undertake new construction work and cultural enterprises. Although the value of the Czech groschen fell with the lower silver content throughout the 14th century (gradually half of what it originally was), this specie remained in demand in all neighbouring countries as late as the Hussite period. On the reverse of the Czech groschen a number of German towns impressed their mark as evidence of its high quality. However, the affluence of the Czech state was increased by the mining of other metals, and pewter, copper and lead – partly the by-products of silver mining – were exported to the German lands.”§REF§(Pánek and Oldřich 2009: 144-146) Pánek, Jaroslav and Oldřich, Tůma. 2009. A History of the Czech Lands. University of Chicago Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/4NAX9KBJ§REF§ “The ‘Black Death’ did not affect the Bohemian crownlands as it did the rest of Europe between 1347 and 1352, but this was because the Bohemian crownlands lay outside the main European trading routes… Bohemian artisan products had no demand abroad, so exports consisted of raw materials, Prague silver coins, or silver ingots.”§REF§(Agnew 2004: 37) Agnew, Hugh LeCaine. 2004. The Czechs and the Lands of the Bohemian Crown. California: Hoover Institution Press. http://archive.org/details/czechslandsofboh0000agne. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/6LBQ5ARI§REF§" } ] }