| # | Polity | Coded Value | Tags | Year(s) | Edit | Desc |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
“Thus, in spite of the radiocarbon dates, one is tempted to take the presence at Igbo-Ukwu of the manilla as a terminus post quem. Unfortunately, the origin and age of the manilla cannot yet be stated with any certainty. According to one legend, before the arrival of the Portuguese on the Guinea Coast, some Delta fishermen hauled up in their nets "one or two bronze torques" from an ancient wreck. They liked the look of these "torques", and when the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century, the "torques" were shown to them with the request that copies be made. A certain number were thus introduced and, owing to the avidity with which these were accepted, smaller ones of much the same shape were imported in ever increasing numbers, until they formed the currency of the coastal regions, and gradually extended inward till they became the main medium of barter from the Niger to the Cross River.”
[1]
“In West Africa, the most common form of copper (or copper-alloy) currency was the manilla, a circular or oval cross-section metal bar with flaring ends that was bent into a bracelet-like ring (Fig. 2.9). These were extremely common as a traditional currency well into the twentieth century in the Niger delta (Johansson 1967) and their use extended southward into the lower Congo (Johnston 1908). The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from the western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century (Herbert 1984), and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries (Shaw 1970; Connah 1975).”
[2]
“Writing on the purchase of yams, sheep and slaves by a Portuguese ship at Bonny about 1500, Duarte Pacheco Pereira remarked: our ships buy these things for copper bracelets, which are here greatly prized; for eight or ten bracelets you can obtain one slave.”
[3]
“Amogu has, however, suggested that the manilla was introduced to the Guinea Coast only after the fifteenth century when "the increasing trade between the Africans and the Europeans created a new demand for a standard currency". P. A. Talbot, on the other hand, is inclined to think "that this currency came down from a remote era and may even have originally been introduced from Egypt, as a penannular ring money was used there to a certain extent, or by Phoenician and Carthaginian traders". Whatever the exact origin of this currency, all the evidence so far at our disposal suggest that it was a coastal phenomenon, and that it rose into prominence both as a medium of exchange and ornament only after the fifteenth century A.D. In other words, before being quantified by the European traders, the manilla would seem to have been a rare commodity which was, to all intents and purposes, confined to the Guinea Coast.”
[3]
“More than by the inflationary import of manilla rings, cowries and iron during the 19th century, the Igbo economy was affected by an increasing import of cheap industrial goods from Europe. Hardwares fabricated in the growing British steel industry competed successfully with the craft products of local smiths. Cheap cotton from Manchester started to replace the various kinds of African cloth, while the missionary activities promoted European standards of prudery and an increasing consumption of textile. The salt formerly produced in the Niger delta was now imported almost as ballast from Liverpool (Jones fthcg.: 623). The European traders developed a monopoly in the salt trade by encouraging their partners, the African coastal chiefs, to prohibit salt production on the coast (Northrup 1978: 213).”
[4]
“It would appear that by the eighteenth century much of the commercial transactions in Igboland were done in money. Using information gathered in the nineteenth century and early this century, one would discover that many currencies were used in pre-colonial Igboland. These included salt, umumu, cowries, manillas, brass rods and copper wires. […] information available to the present writer would tend to show that as much as one or two currencies might be dominant in one part, there was no area of Igboland where any of them would not have been recognized and used as money.”
[5]
[1]: Lawal, B. (1972). The Igbo-Ukwu ’Bronzes’: a Search for the Economic Evidence. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 6(3), 313–321: 315. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HKIT5IE5/collection [2]: Bisson, M. S., Childs, T. S., De Barros, P., & Holl, A. F. C. (2000). Ancient African Metallurgy The Sociocultural Context (J. O. Vogel, Ed.). AltaMira Press: 114. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NPWPXZQ6/collection [3]: Lawal, B. (1972). The Igbo-Ukwu ’Bronzes’: a Search for the Economic Evidence. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 6(3), 313–321: 316. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HKIT5IE5/collection [4]: Müller, B. (1985). Commodities as Currencies: The Integration of Overseas Trade into the Internal Trading Structure of the Igbo of South-East Nigeria (Les marchandises comme monnaies: l’intégration de la traite d’outremer dans la structure commerciale interne des Igbo du Sud-Est-Nigeria). Cahiers d’Études Africaines, 25(97), 57–77: 71. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/4SWQS6N5/collection [5]: Afigbo, A. E. (1981). Economic Foundations of Pre-Colonial Igbo Society. In Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture (pp. 124–144). University Press in association with Oxford University Press; 139. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5I5XITDA/collection |
||||||
|
No mention of articles in the sources consulted thus far.
|
||||||
|
No mention of the use of Articles in the sources consulted thus far.
|
||||||
|
Textiles and salt. “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.”
[1]
[1]: (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 |
||||||
|
There is no mention in the sources that articles were used as a form of currency, and by this period the English currency system was well established.
|
||||||
|
No mention of articles in the sources consulted thus far.
|
||||||
|
No mention of articles in the sources consulted thus far.
|
||||||
|
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."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30) |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
No mention of articles in the sources consulted thus far.
|
||||||
|
No mention of Articles used in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
Articles have not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Sources consulted thus far have not mentioned the use of articles.
|
||||||
|
"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)."
[1]
[1]: (Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection. |
||||||
|
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."
[1]
[1]: (Ogundiran 2020: 107-108) |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
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."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 30) |
||||||
|
"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)."
[1]
[1]: (Mew 2016: 199( Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/U3D2FQIH/collection. |
||||||
|
Coins were used as currency and there are no mentions of articles in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
"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."
[1]
[1]: (Iliffe 1979: 68) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB2AJMVC/collection. |
||||||
|
It seems that cloth became currency in the decades or perhaps years immediately preceding colonialism. "Cloth became increasingly accessible, and the old restrictions increasingly inoperative, particularly after the upheavals of the late 1880s. To some extent it represented a new currency. [...] 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."
[1]
[1]: (Reid 2010: 122, 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection. |
||||||
|
Although exchange of goods will have taken place, sources do not suggest that specific monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Monetary items have not been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
It seems that cloth became currency in the decades or perhaps years immediately preceding colonialism. "Cloth became increasingly accessible, and the old restrictions increasingly inoperative, particularly after the upheavals of the late 1880s. To some extent it represented a new currency. [...] 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."
[1]
[1]: (Reid 2010: 122, 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection. |
||||||
|
No reference made to Articles in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
’In Japan, prices had previously been calculated in amounts of cloth, but in 1226[CE] the Kamakura bakufu abolished the cloth equivalence and ordered the use of copper coins.’
[1]
[1]: Yamamura, Kozo (ed). 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 3. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press [sixth edition].p.408 |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
Inferred from the fact that these are not mentioned in Van Dongen’s detailed lists of all the types of "money" circulating in Thailand in the Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin periods.
|
||||||
|
Inferred from the fact that these are not mentioned in Van Dongen’s detailed lists of all the types of "money" circulating in Thailand in the Ayutthaya and Rattanakosin periods.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
No mention of Articles used in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
“Even after the advent of coin money, commodity currency consisting mainly of gems and jewels and gold and silver would not be worth special mention, for gold ores, for example, would well be considered to be commodity currency. But, special mention may be warranted of the fact that even cereals and cloths were classed as commodity currency, and, as such, this should be listed as one of the outstanding features of Chinese money. […] In the era of Emperor Wen of Wei dynasty during the turbulent period of Three Kingdoms, it was decreed that the ‘masses should cease to handle money and instead barter in cereals and cloth’.”
[1]
[1]: (Hozumi 1954: 21) Hozumi, F. 1954. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HISTORY OF CHINESE MONEY. Kyoto University Economic Review 24(2): 18-38. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BGDN5V7V/library |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
“Even after the advent of coin money, commodity currency consisting mainly of gems and jewels and gold and silver would not be worth special mention, for gold ores, for example, would well be considered to be commodity currency. But, special mention may be warranted of the fact that even cereals and cloths were classed as commodity currency, and, as such, this should be listed as one of the outstanding features of Chinese money. […] In the era of Emperor Wen of Wei dynasty during the turbulent period of Three Kingdoms, it was decreed that the ‘masses should cease to handle money and instead barter in cereals and cloth’.”
[1]
[1]: (Hozumi 1954: 21) Hozumi, F. 1954. THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE HISTORY OF CHINESE MONEY. Kyoto University Economic Review 24(2): 18-38. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/BGDN5V7V/library |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
“The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from Western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century, and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa, include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.”
[2]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library [2]: (Bisson 2000, 114) Bisson, Michael S. et al. 2000. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DKFA9J3I/collection |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Coded as present in preceding Late Shang polity.
|
||||||
|
As Northern Song.
|
||||||
|
“Thus, in spite of the radiocarbon dates, one is tempted to take the presence at Igbo-Ukwu of the manilla as a terminus post quem. Unfortunately, the origin and age of the manilla cannot yet be stated with any certainty. According to one legend, before the arrival of the Portuguese on the Guinea Coast, some Delta fishermen hauled up in their nets "one or two bronze torques" from an ancient wreck. They liked the look of these "torques", and when the Portuguese arrived in the fifteenth century, the "torques" were shown to them with the request that copies be made. A certain number were thus introduced and, owing to the avidity with which these were accepted, smaller ones of much the same shape were imported in ever increasing numbers, until they formed the currency of the coastal regions, and gradually extended inward till they became the main medium of barter from the Niger to the Cross River.”
[1]
“In West Africa, the most common form of copper (or copper-alloy) currency was the manilla, a circular or oval cross-section metal bar with flaring ends that was bent into a bracelet-like ring (Fig. 2.9). These were extremely common as a traditional currency well into the twentieth century in the Niger delta (Johansson 1967) and their use extended southward into the lower Congo (Johnston 1908). The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from the western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century (Herbert 1984), and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries (Shaw 1970; Connah 1975).”
[2]
“Writing on the purchase of yams, sheep and slaves by a Portuguese ship at Bonny about 1500, Duarte Pacheco Pereira remarked: our ships buy these things for copper bracelets, which are here greatly prized; for eight or ten bracelets you can obtain one slave.”
[3]
“Amogu has, however, suggested that the manilla was introduced to the Guinea Coast only after the fifteenth century when "the increasing trade between the Africans and the Europeans created a new demand for a standard currency". P. A. Talbot, on the other hand, is inclined to think "that this currency came down from a remote era and may even have originally been introduced from Egypt, as a penannular ring money was used there to a certain extent, or by Phoenician and Carthaginian traders". Whatever the exact origin of this currency, all the evidence so far at our disposal suggest that it was a coastal phenomenon, and that it rose into prominence both as a medium of exchange and ornament only after the fifteenth century A.D. In other words, before being quantified by the European traders, the manilla would seem to have been a rare commodity which was, to all intents and purposes, confined to the Guinea Coast.”
[3]
“More than by the inflationary import of manilla rings, cowries and iron during the 19th century, the Igbo economy was affected by an increasing import of cheap industrial goods from Europe. Hardwares fabricated in the growing British steel industry competed successfully with the craft products of local smiths. Cheap cotton from Manchester started to replace the various kinds of African cloth, while the missionary activities promoted European standards of prudery and an increasing consumption of textile. The salt formerly produced in the Niger delta was now imported almost as ballast from Liverpool (Jones fthcg.: 623). The European traders developed a monopoly in the salt trade by encouraging their partners, the African coastal chiefs, to prohibit salt production on the coast (Northrup 1978: 213).”
[4]
“It would appear that by the eighteenth century much of the commercial transactions in Igboland were done in money. Using information gathered in the nineteenth century and early this century, one would discover that many currencies were used in pre-colonial Igboland. These included salt, umumu, cowries, manillas, brass rods and copper wires. […] information available to the present writer would tend to show that as much as one or two currencies might be dominant in one part, there was no area of Igboland where any of them would not have been recognized and used as money.”
[5]
[1]: Lawal, B. (1972). The Igbo-Ukwu ’Bronzes’: a Search for the Economic Evidence. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 6(3), 313–321: 315. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HKIT5IE5/collection [2]: Bisson, M. S., Childs, T. S., De Barros, P., & Holl, A. F. C. (2000). Ancient African Metallurgy The Sociocultural Context (J. O. Vogel, Ed.). AltaMira Press: 114. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/NPWPXZQ6/collection [3]: Lawal, B. (1972). The Igbo-Ukwu ’Bronzes’: a Search for the Economic Evidence. Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, 6(3), 313–321: 316. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/HKIT5IE5/collection [4]: Müller, B. (1985). Commodities as Currencies: The Integration of Overseas Trade into the Internal Trading Structure of the Igbo of South-East Nigeria (Les marchandises comme monnaies: l’intégration de la traite d’outremer dans la structure commerciale interne des Igbo du Sud-Est-Nigeria). Cahiers d’Études Africaines, 25(97), 57–77: 71. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/4SWQS6N5/collection [5]: Afigbo, A. E. (1981). Economic Foundations of Pre-Colonial Igbo Society. In Ropes of Sand: Studies in Igbo History and Culture (pp. 124–144). University Press in association with Oxford University Press; 139. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5I5XITDA/collection |
||||||
|
“Cacao was so precious that the beans were used as a kind of money by the Maya. Offering it as a drink was an impressive way of showing off Tikal’s wealth.”
[1]
[1]: (Mann 2002: 25) Mann, Elizabeth. 2002. Tikal: The Centre of the Mayan World. New York: Mikaya Press. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VM7Q67Q8 |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ‘1’ or ’No media of exchange or money’ was present, not ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Foreign coinage or paper coinage’, or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. The shuar engaged in barter trade with other Amerindian and settler populations: ’In all the tambos I found Winchester rifles which they had obtained from the rubber collectors by barter for rubber. But since the Indians most of the time do not have any [72] shot to go with it, these rifles are for the most part ornamental pieces. As a matter of fact, the Indians are not too fond of rifles since, they maintain, their report chases the game off.’
[1]
’Spears with iron points were generally in use when I visited the Indians. The point (see Figure 7) has a socket at the bottom. The shaft is fastened into the socket with the help of resin. The spear or lance has a length of 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 meters. They are said to obtain the iron points by way of barter from the Indians along the upper Senepa. The points are said to come from Ecuador. The spear with the iron point is called nánki by the Indians. Formerly spears were used shaped out of the wood of the chonta palm, and they still occur in isolated instances. The shape of their point is the same as the iron one, but its cross-section shows a somewhat concave outline. Shaft and point are made out of one piece. These chonta lances are called angös.’
[2]
’In former years the Indians came as far as Bella Vista and later even to Bagua Chica in order to exchange parrots and other animals for articles of everyday use. Raimondi tells us that in 1845 the Aguarunas destroyed at the same time the mestizo-settlements [47] Puyaya and Copallín, the one situated on the right bank of the Marañón River, somewhat below the Rentema, the other on the left bank.’
[3]
When dealing with white intermediaries or patrones, exchange rates between different types of goods were informal but somewhat regular. [Shuar parties would occasionally travel to colono settlements to trade , and even travel up to Andean cities to trade gold powder against metal tools. There are records of such incursions in last quarter of 18th century and again between 1850 and 1880.] ’In order to get articles that were valuable to them the Indians started to collect the products of their forests. In exchange for rubber, various resins, canoes, Maní, yucca, bananas, tamed animals and parrots the Indians ask for Winchester repeating arms, rifles and the necessary ammunition, axes, knives, scissors, needles, fishhooks, mirrors, cotton wares, sewing thread, etc. At that time the rate of exchange was the following: For a small canoe for six people they would receive an ordinary single-barrelled rifle (European value perhaps 10 Marks). For a hen or a large bunch of bananas they would receive one vara (84 cm.) of Tocuyo (thin, unbleached cotton, muslin?). In exchange for a basket (15 liter) of ground-nuts (maní) they could barter 4 vara (336 cm.) of Tocuyo. I have witnessed it several times in Nazaret that the Indians were terribly cheated with regard to weight when they made their rubber deliveries to the white men, and I could see it from the expression on their faces that they were aware of the fraud.’
[4]
[1]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 71p [2]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 71 [3]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 46p [4]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 48 |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ‘1’ or ’No media of exchange or money’ was present, not ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Foreign coinage or paper coinage’, or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. The shuar engaged in barter trade with other Amerindian and settler populations: ’In all the tambos I found Winchester rifles which they had obtained from the rubber collectors by barter for rubber. But since the Indians most of the time do not have any [72] shot to go with it, these rifles are for the most part ornamental pieces. As a matter of fact, the Indians are not too fond of rifles since, they maintain, their report chases the game off.’
[1]
’Spears with iron points were generally in use when I visited the Indians. The point (see Figure 7) has a socket at the bottom. The shaft is fastened into the socket with the help of resin. The spear or lance has a length of 2 1/2 - 3 1/2 meters. They are said to obtain the iron points by way of barter from the Indians along the upper Senepa. The points are said to come from Ecuador. The spear with the iron point is called nánki by the Indians. Formerly spears were used shaped out of the wood of the chonta palm, and they still occur in isolated instances. The shape of their point is the same as the iron one, but its cross-section shows a somewhat concave outline. Shaft and point are made out of one piece. These chonta lances are called angös.’
[2]
’In former years the Indians came as far as Bella Vista and later even to Bagua Chica in order to exchange parrots and other animals for articles of everyday use. Raimondi tells us that in 1845 the Aguarunas destroyed at the same time the mestizo-settlements [47] Puyaya and Copallín, the one situated on the right bank of the Marañón River, somewhat below the Rentema, the other on the left bank.’
[3]
When dealing with white intermediaries or patrones, exchange rates between different types of goods were informal but somewhat regular. [Shuar parties would occasionally travel to colono settlements to trade , and even travel up to Andean cities to trade gold powder against metal tools. There are records of such incursions in last quarter of 18th century and again between 1850 and 1880.] ’In order to get articles that were valuable to them the Indians started to collect the products of their forests. In exchange for rubber, various resins, canoes, Maní, yucca, bananas, tamed animals and parrots the Indians ask for Winchester repeating arms, rifles and the necessary ammunition, axes, knives, scissors, needles, fishhooks, mirrors, cotton wares, sewing thread, etc. At that time the rate of exchange was the following: For a small canoe for six people they would receive an ordinary single-barrelled rifle (European value perhaps 10 Marks). For a hen or a large bunch of bananas they would receive one vara (84 cm.) of Tocuyo (thin, unbleached cotton, muslin?). In exchange for a basket (15 liter) of ground-nuts (maní) they could barter 4 vara (336 cm.) of Tocuyo. I have witnessed it several times in Nazaret that the Indians were terribly cheated with regard to weight when they made their rubber deliveries to the white men, and I could see it from the expression on their faces that they were aware of the fraud.’
[4]
The region was hit economically by the crash of the rubber market: ’However, with the crash of the rubber market, the commercial pressure on Indian populations-more attenuated here than elsewhere (Harner 1972:30)-was diminished. The cauchero whom Karsten encountered on the Pastaza working with inland Achuarä in 1917, was gone on Karsten’s return trip in 1929 (Karsten 1935:41, 43, 78). Furthermore, numbers of Peruvian military outposts that had served to oversee commercial activity were withdrawn (Karsten 1935:43, 78; Zanabria Zamudio 1969:157, 159, 195), and access to the entire Pastaza region was gradually curtailed. A Catholic missionary reported in 1928 that “the steamships of Iquitos which periodically make the service to the Alto Marañon, do not enter [the Pastaza], since it is almost completely lacking in civilized people and all exploitation of goma [latex] has been suspended because of the depreciation” (Misiones Pasionistas 1943:264).’
[5]
’Many sources of Western goods did vanish when the sudden depreciation in the value of wild Amazonian latex resulted in a major cutback in foreign investment and in the cessation of steamship transport to the region gradually coming to be occupied by Achuarä in Peru. However, commercial contact with the area was not wholly terminated. Some rubber extractors and colonists chose to remain after the crash as frontier agriculturalists or patrones of the Indians in the exploitation of other natural products. Furthermore, neither Peru nor Ecuador was fully willing to relinquish a tenuous hold over the northern tributaries of the Marañon and the as yet untapped resources to be found there.’
[6]
[1]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 71p [2]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 71 [3]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 46p [4]: Brüning, Hans H. 1928. “Travelling In The Aguaruna Region”, 48 [5]: Bennett Ross, Jane 1984. “Effects Of Contact On Revenge Hostilities Among The Achuará Jívaro”, 94 [6]: Bennett Ross, Jane 1984. “Effects Of Contact On Revenge Hostilities Among The Achuará Jívaro”, 95 |
||||||
|
Agricultural economy.
|
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ’4’ Foreign coinage or paper currency was present, not ‘1’ ’No media of exchange or money’, ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. Islanders traditionally engaged in trading expeditions and barter trade: ’At the present time, sailing canoes suitable for long trips remain in use only in the small islands of the Caroline group scattered widely over the ocean from Truk westward. The language and culture found on these islands relate them clearly to Truk, whereas most of them fell historically under the hegemony of Yap to the west—a tie which Lessa (1956) has demonstrated is by no means completely extinct. Both Truk and Yap possess volcanic soils which can support crops impossible of cultivation on the sandy coral islets which lie between. Trade therefore provided the impetus for travel to and from the high islands, and there was in addition considerable social visiting back and forth between all the islands. Some voyages, apparently of exploration, have also been recorded extending over hundreds of miles to Guam and even remoter islands. Trips of up to 200 miles or so are still made, although with reduced frequency. Canoes are also used on a few islands other than those mentioned above for interisland, but essentially local, travel to Truk and Ponape.’
[1]
’The acquisition of property on Truk is usually done by means of barter. Lands, houses, and canoes are bartered. Smaller units of exchange are sebi (wooden bowls), deig (curcuma), faupar (red shell disks), hip mats, modesty bands, fishing nets, aromatic oils, coconut cord, home-grown tobacco, and sleeping mats. These products of native industry are not present in like quantity or in like quality on all the islands. Thus, Sapesis on Fefan is famous for its fine bowls, Pol for curcuma and oils, Iluk for its fine hip mats.’
[2]
’Weaving generally takes place at certain times, especially when the canoes from the low islands are expected, the inhabitants of which barter for things. In former times not very nice [Page 186] customs were associated with weaving. When the women had completed their work, they put on the new mats and gathered on the shore.’
[3]
[1]: Gladwin, Thomas 1958. “Canoe Travel In The Truk Area: Technology And Its Psychological Correlates”, 893 [2]: Bollig, Laurentius 1927. “Inhabitants Of The Truk Islands: Religion, Life And A Short Grammar Of A Micronesian People”, 135 [3]: Bollig, Laurentius 1927. “Inhabitants Of The Truk Islands: Religion, Life And A Short Grammar Of A Micronesian People”, 185 |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ’4’ Foreign coinage or paper currency was present, not ‘1’ ’No media of exchange or money’, ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. Islanders traditionally engaged in trading expeditions and barter trade: ’At the present time, sailing canoes suitable for long trips remain in use only in the small islands of the Caroline group scattered widely over the ocean from Truk westward. The language and culture found on these islands relate them clearly to Truk, whereas most of them fell historically under the hegemony of Yap to the west—a tie which Lessa (1956) has demonstrated is by no means completely extinct. Both Truk and Yap possess volcanic soils which can support crops impossible of cultivation on the sandy coral islets which lie between. Trade therefore provided the impetus for travel to and from the high islands, and there was in addition considerable social visiting back and forth between all the islands. Some voyages, apparently of exploration, have also been recorded extending over hundreds of miles to Guam and even remoter islands. Trips of up to 200 miles or so are still made, although with reduced frequency. Canoes are also used on a few islands other than those mentioned above for interisland, but essentially local, travel to Truk and Ponape.’
[1]
’The acquisition of property on Truk is usually done by means of barter. Lands, houses, and canoes are bartered. Smaller units of exchange are sebi (wooden bowls), deig (curcuma), faupar (red shell disks), hip mats, modesty bands, fishing nets, aromatic oils, coconut cord, home-grown tobacco, and sleeping mats. These products of native industry are not present in like quantity or in like quality on all the islands. Thus, Sapesis on Fefan is famous for its fine bowls, Pol for curcuma and oils, Iluk for its fine hip mats.’
[2]
’Weaving generally takes place at certain times, especially when the canoes from the low islands are expected, the inhabitants of which barter for things. In former times not very nice [Page 186] customs were associated with weaving. When the women had completed their work, they put on the new mats and gathered on the shore.’
[3]
Money was introduced by the colonial administration, but barter continued into the colonial period: ’As a result of the German, Japanese, and American administrations, the natives have become thoroughly aware of the value of money in relation to specific situations. It is needed to pay taxes and is required for the purchase of goods from local retail outlets. Money is in fairly wide use in native transactions, though barter continues as the more practical form of exchange. Two informants, for example, had no trouble in estimating the cash price of a coconut tree (if not old) at $2.00 and that of a breadfruit tree at $5.00, a big one fetching perhaps as much as $10.00. Sales of trees are, however, fairly rare. If they should become more common, one might predict that the price would rise to accord with their economic importance. As the present prices suggest, money plays no part in the domestic food economy. It is needed to purchase food by only a handful of natives. Except for them, money is treated simply as an important sort of movable property ( pisek). One may make a niffag of money, trade it for goods or for labor, and have it appropriated by one’s wife’s brothers as a kiis.’
[4]
[1]: Gladwin, Thomas 1958. “Canoe Travel In The Truk Area: Technology And Its Psychological Correlates”, 893 [2]: Bollig, Laurentius 1927. “Inhabitants Of The Truk Islands: Religion, Life And A Short Grammar Of A Micronesian People”, 135 [3]: Bollig, Laurentius 1927. “Inhabitants Of The Truk Islands: Religion, Life And A Short Grammar Of A Micronesian People”, 185 [4]: Goodenough, Ward Hunt 1951. “Property, Kin, And Community On Truk”, 57 |
||||||
|
Payment in kind likely widespread among commoners.
|
||||||
|
Taxes were paid in kind and most people also traded in kind.
|
||||||
|
Interpolating between the previous and succeeding periods
|
||||||
|
Colonial trade was mostly carried out through barter: ’The sole reason for the presence of Europeans in West Africa was, and is even now, principally Trade, and for the purposes of trade only were forts built and settlements founded, and the power and jurisdiction of the local rulers subsequently undermined. * The trade consisted mostly in barter or exchange, nor was the sale of slaves inconsiderable.’
[1]
’The government of the sea-coast communities is a variation of the general system which has been described. This variation has been caused by frequent intercourse with European traders and the accumulation of wealth by means of lucrative trade. Ancient travellers who wrote described only what they saw in the coast towns. From these men one learns that, over two centuries ago, at seedtime farmers marked out for farming their plots of land, situate usually on rising grounds near the towns and villages. The next step was to obtain the permission of the Ohene or his officers in charge of the land, after permission had been granted, to pay the usual rent. The head of the family, assisted by his wives, children, and any slaves he might possess, prepared the ground for sowing. When the day of sowing arrived, the farm belonging to the village, or town chief, was first sown by all the people, and the others followed in due course. † This custom has continued to modern times with slight modifications. A few years ago the sum of half a crown was paid to landowners on asking for a plot of land to farm on for one season, but within the last two years this sum has been raised to ten shillings; in some instances, such as for land near the large towns, as much as a pound has been paid.’
[2]
The same is true of exchanges within Akan communities: ’The manner in which the ruler of a town four centuries ago derived revenue by means of tithes from his people is thus quaintly described by Artus. “When they have used the land and their harvest done, then they sell part of their corn to other men, who are not able to sow it, and by that means get a good quantity of gold; they give some to their king for rent of his land, and carry it home to his house, every one as much as he thinketh good. For there is no certain sum appointed for them to pay, but every one giveth according to his ability, and the quantity of ground that he hath used, and bringeth it unto the king, so that he hath at least five or six bendas of gold of them at one time; which they carry altogether to their [Page 29] king, who welcometh them for this Dache, * or gift; and for their labours giveth them their bellies full of meat and drink, and that they pay to the king for the farm of his lands and no more.”’
[3]
’In all the sea-coast towns the head ruler collected or received one-fourth part of the fish caught by fishermen. Tolls were collected on traders passing through the district; he was also entitled to receive tribute of a third, and in some cases of a fourth, of gold recovered by mining, rubber, and other products. Finders of large nuggets were bound to send the same to the head ruler on penalty of capital punishment. Three hundred years ago persons who recovered gold by mining or otherwise could not retain for their own use more than a half. The Ohene is also entitled to receive the tail of every elephant slain in his district, and he alone can use it. One-fourth part of game killed on his family land has to be sent to him.’
[4]
[1]: Sarbah, John Mensah 1968. “Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise On The Constitution And Government Of The Fanti, Asanti, And Other Akan Tribes Of West Africa Together With A Brief Account Of The Discovery Of The Gold Coast By Portuguese Navigators, A Short Narration Of Early English Voyages, And A Study Of The Rise Of British Gold Coast Jurisdiction, Etc., Etc.”, 74 [2]: Sarbah, John Mensah 1968. “Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise On The Constitution And Government Of The Fanti, Asanti, And Other Akan Tribes Of West Africa Together With A Brief Account Of The Discovery Of The Gold Coast By Portuguese Navigators, A Short Narration Of Early English Voyages, And A Study Of The Rise Of British Gold Coast Jurisdiction, Etc., Etc.”, 24 [3]: Sarbah, John Mensah 1968. “Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise On The Constitution And Government Of The Fanti, Asanti, And Other Akan Tribes Of West Africa Together With A Brief Account Of The Discovery Of The Gold Coast By Portuguese Navigators, A Short Narration Of Early English Voyages, And A Study Of The Rise Of British Gold Coast Jurisdiction, Etc., Etc.”, 28p [4]: Sarbah, John Mensah 1968. “Fanti National Constitution: A Short Treatise On The Constitution And Government Of The Fanti, Asanti, And Other Akan Tribes Of West Africa Together With A Brief Account Of The Discovery Of The Gold Coast By Portuguese Navigators, A Short Narration Of Early English Voyages, And A Study Of The Rise Of British Gold Coast Jurisdiction, Etc., Etc.”, 29 |
||||||
|
It has been generally argued that economic transactions were also based on fruitful barter.
[1]
[2]
[1]: e.g. Seaford, R. 2004. Money and the Eraly Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy, Cambridge, 125-46 [2]: Tejado, R. and Guerra, G. 2012. "From barter to coins: shifting cognitive frames in Classical Greek economy," in Herrero-Soler, H. and White, A.(eds), Metaphore and Milles. Figurative Language in Business and Economics, Berlin/Boston, 27-48. |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ’No media of exchange or money’ or ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Foreign coinage or paper coinage’, or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. The trade economy was monetized during the Brooke Raj and colonial periods only, with the associated introduction of cash crops: ‘Another factor that appears to have been favourably regarded by the Iban, as well as other indigenous groups, was the opportunities that trade offered in acquiring a reserve capital and various prestige items. Trade, which was part of the rationale for pacification, was concerned in Iban areas with jungle produce like rattan and wild rubber which were shipped down-river in return for a counter-stream of items like salt, steel, iron, brass wire and gongs, crockery ware and the highly valued sacred jars of Chinese origin. After this trade had reached some bulk in the 1870’s and until the introduction of cultivated rubber it provided around thirty per cent of the state’s total exports. Rubber, which started to be grown in considerable quantities in the first decade of this century, became the most important of the small-holder cash-crops for the indigenous peoples. To begin with it was planted by many Iban communities in both the Second and the Third Division, but around the middle or late 1920’s non-Christian communities began cutting down their rubber trees. […] Prior to rubber, another cash-crop, coffee, had been grown with some success in the Second Division, notably amongst the Saribas Iban. The overproduction that completely upset the world market in 1897 and the drastic fall in prices, however, put an abrupt end to this endeavour.’
[1]
But articles were used in small-scale exchanges even then: ’The Dayaks paid for these items with padi. One pelaga bead cost them a pasu of padi. At this time the Chinese did not yet want to buy resins or other jungle produce. They remained in their boats. Chinese traders would not risk building houses in the Saribas river for another two generations, until after the arrival of James Brooke.’
[2]
’What does an Iban family do when it finds itself in such a situation? If there is only a small deficit, a family may elect to part with one or more of its gongs (or some other kind of property) in exchange for padi . Brass gongs ( tawak, bebendai, etc.) are the principal form of property in which the Iban invest their savings. These gongs have the great advantage of being untouched by the Borneo climate and are virtually indestructible; further they have marked prestige value, and can be displayed and used on ceremonial occasions. In good years, when a surplus of padi has been gained, it is exchanged for gongs, which are then available in years of shortage. Each season, some families succeed in producing a surplus, while others find themselves with a deficit; and so, year by year in an area like the Baleh, scores of different families exchange gongs for padi, or padi for gongs. Jars ( tajau ), though to a much lesser extent, are used in the same way. Again, money--obtained from the marketing of jungle produce--is often used to purchase padi; and of recent years, cash crops--particularly rubber--have become increasingly important.’
[3]
We have therefore assumed that most exchanges took the form of barter prior to Brooke Raj rule.
[1]: Wagner, Ulla 1972. “Colonialism And Iban Warfare”, 41 [2]: Sandin, Benedict 1967. “Sea Dayaks Of Borneo: Before White Rajah Rule”, 64 [3]: Freeman, Derek 1955. “Iban Agriculture: A Report On The Shifting Cultivation Of Hill Rice By The Iban Of Sarawak", 104 |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ’No media of exchange or money’ or ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Foreign coinage or paper coinage’, or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. The trade economy was monetized during the Brooke Raj and colonial periods, with the associated introduction of cash crops: ‘Another factor that appears to have been favourably regarded by the Iban, as well as other indigenous groups, was the opportunities that trade offered in acquiring a reserve capital and various prestige items. Trade, which was part of the rationale for pacification, was concerned in Iban areas with jungle produce like rattan and wild rubber which were shipped down-river in return for a counter-stream of items like salt, steel, iron, brass wire and gongs, crockery ware and the highly valued sacred jars of Chinese origin. After this trade had reached some bulk in the 1870’s and until the introduction of cultivated rubber it provided around thirty per cent of the state’s total exports. Rubber, which started to be grown in considerable quantities in the first decade of this century, became the most important of the small-holder cash-crops for the indigenous peoples. To begin with it was planted by many Iban communities in both the Second and the Third Division, but around the middle or late 1920’s non-Christian communities began cutting down their rubber trees. […] Prior to rubber, another cash-crop, coffee, had been grown with some success in the Second Division, notably amongst the Saribas Iban. The overproduction that completely upset the world market in 1897 and the drastic fall in prices, however, put an abrupt end to this endeavour.’
[1]
But articles were still used in small-scale exchanges: ’The Dayaks paid for these items with padi. One pelaga bead cost them a pasu of padi. At this time the Chinese did not yet want to buy resins or other jungle produce. They remained in their boats. Chinese traders would not risk building houses in the Saribas river for another two generations, until after the arrival of James Brooke.’
[2]
’What does an Iban family do when it finds itself in such a situation? If there is only a small deficit, a family may elect to part with one or more of its gongs (or some other kind of property) in exchange for padi . Brass gongs ( tawak, bebendai, etc.) are the principal form of property in which the Iban invest their savings. These gongs have the great advantage of being untouched by the Borneo climate and are virtually indestructible; further they have marked prestige value, and can be displayed and used on ceremonial occasions. In good years, when a surplus of padi has been gained, it is exchanged for gongs, which are then available in years of shortage. Each season, some families succeed in producing a surplus, while others find themselves with a deficit; and so, year by year in an area like the Baleh, scores of different families exchange gongs for padi, or padi for gongs. Jars ( tajau ), though to a much lesser extent, are used in the same way. Again, money--obtained from the marketing of jungle produce--is often used to purchase padi; and of recent years, cash crops--particularly rubber--have become increasingly important.’
[3]
[1]: Wagner, Ulla 1972. “Colonialism And Iban Warfare”, 41 [2]: Sandin, Benedict 1967. “Sea Dayaks Of Borneo: Before White Rajah Rule”, 64 [3]: Freeman, Derek 1955. “Iban Agriculture: A Report On The Shifting Cultivation Of Hill Rice By The Iban Of Sarawak", 104 |
||||||
|
“The alliance with the Türk states was unstable, with the Turkic nobles frequently looting or seizing Sogdian territories; as early as the end of the seventh century the principality of Panjikent had a Türk ruler, Chikin Chur Bilge."
[1]
Considering the Turks had an article-based economy we can infer that this system of exchange was also recognised in regions under their control.
[1]: (Marshak 1996, 243) |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Baghdad was a metropolis and a trade center.
|
||||||
|
livestock, silk and probably other prestige goods
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier and later periods
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier periods
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier periods
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier and later periods in this region
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier and later periods
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier and later periods
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier and later periods
|
||||||
|
inferred continuity with earlier and later periods
|
||||||
|
In local villages.
|
||||||
|
’Any valuable could be regarded as ‘money’ but some more than others. Cattle and sheep were often used; the term ‘fé’ means money or valuable but evolved to mean livestock and especially sheep in Icelandic (this semantic development began long before the Icelandic settlement). Ells of vaðmál/wadmal (a kind of woollen cloth) became a standard. Originally this was a special standardized cloth but later on (after the end of the Commonwealth) this cloth became obsolete but the unit was still used as a standard unit of value although it no longer referred to a real commodity. These ells (álnir) were the most used units of value in Iceland and formed the basis of the land value system that was probably introduced around 1100 (with the introduction of tithe). Land was valued in so many ‘hundreds’ (actually 120) ells of wadmal.’
[1]
Icelanders traded with Europeans and Scandinavians, bartering cloth and animal products for grain and metal tools: ’The early Icelanders maintained commercial contacts with Europe and obtained goods from Scandinavia, England, the Norse Orkneys, and the Netherlands. The majority of trade, however, was with Norway, both for Norwegian goods and for foreign goods obtained by Norwegian merchants. The limited resources, especially in terms of raw materials for manufactured goods, made Iceland highly dependent on imported goods. Even before the decline and cessation of grain production in Iceland it is unlikely that Iceland ever produced enough cereals to meet its own needs. Of special significance in a feasting economy, grain and malt were essential to ale production. After Christianization imported wine also become essential for the celebration of communion. Many higher quality iron products, for example weapons and armor, could not be produced from local sources and were imported, mostly in finished forms. Other metals - brass, tin, lead, gold, silver, and bronze - were unavailable locally as well as steatite for utensils and stone suitable for making whetstones. Iceland had a limited number of exportable resources and goods. Homespun woolen cloth was the principal export and was a common standard of value in local exchanges. Sulfur, unavailable from any continental source, was a valuable commodity. Falcons and various animal skins - sheep, fox, and cat - were marketable as were cheese and possibly butter. Fish, the current mainstay of the Icelandic economy was not a significant export item in early Iceland.’
[2]
’There were no formal markets and most exchanges and payments, such as rents, were made in kind. Regular assemblies provided a venue for traders and specialized producers who also traveled among farmsteads. Despite the rarity of monetary exchanges, the Icelanders maintained a complex system of value equivalencies based on a silver ounce standard that encompassed most exchangeable goods.’
[2]
[1]: Árni Daniel Júlíusson and Axel Kristissen 2017, pers. comm. to E. Brandl and D. Mullins [2]: Bolender, Douglas James and Beierle, John: eHRAF Cultural Summary for Early Icelanders |
||||||
|
This is possible if there was a primitive economy.
|
||||||
|
This is possible if there was a primitive economy.
|
||||||
|
Salt was used as payment to soldiers from 406 BCE and was an essential commodity with the "Salt Road" being in existence from the start of the Roman Kingdom period.
|
||||||
|
fish, rice, iron, bronze
|
||||||
|
fish, rice, iron, bronze
|
||||||
|
fish, rice, iron, bronze
|
||||||
|
fish, rice, iron, bronze
|
||||||
|
Great trading region.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Fur Trade: Significant fur trading activities in Siberia and the Ural regions, where hunting was a major source of livelihood. Trading centers for skins were regular features, with Yakutsk in eastern Siberia being a notable market. An annual fair in Irbit in the Urals was dedicated entirely to bartering in animal skins, such as sables and ermines, hunted by various indigenous groups like the Ostiaks, Tatars, and Soiols.
[1]
[1]: Reynolds, E. K. “The Economic Resources of the Russian Empire.” Geographical Review 1, no. 4 (1916): 249–265. Accessed December 19, 2023. https://www.jstor.org/stable/207297. Zotero link: TGHSB93W |
||||||
|
Inferred from continuity between immediate predecessor (late Roman Empire) and successor (Ostrogothic Kingdom). "The laws of Theoderic’s Italy preserved the basic principles of Roman criminal law and penal policy. [...] Financial penalties varied widely, from confiscations and fines (to the benefit of the fisc) to compensation in money or kind, and established according to a fixed amount (usually fourfold the amount originally taken)."
[1]
[1]: (Lafferty 2016: 158) Lafferty, S. The Law. In Arnold, Bjornlie and Sessa (eds) A Companion to Ostrogothic Italy. Brill. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/VQ8MC72F/item-list |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
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.
[1]
[1]: (Green 2009: 103) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/V2GTBN8A/collection. |
||||||
|
Salt. "Situated between the Bambara states and the coast, Futa Jallon both participated in raids and bought slaves for its domestic production while also selling the surplus at the coast to buy European goods and the salt needed for its pastoral economy."
[1]
[1]: (Barry 1999: 293) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/SU25S5BX/items/24W2293H/item-list |
||||||
|
The use of cattle as primary form of wealth, in addition to symbolic power, in Toutswe society is highly probable. “The transition from a society organized around chiefdoms to one that can be characterized as a state was probably achieved through the accrual of wealth in cattle…. The power of Toutswemogala developed firstly out of the accumulation of wealth in cattle. The ability to control the breeding and distribution of cattle gave the elite of the emergent state access to stores of wealth. These… could be used to barter for more wealth or to secure the allegiance of outer lying groups…. Cattle would have held both symbolic and literal wealth.”
[1]
[1]: (Erlank 2005; 701-702) Natasha Erlank, “Iron Age (Later): Southern Africa: Toutswemogala, Cattle, and Political Power,” in Encyclopedia of African History Vol. 2, ed. Kevin Shillington (Fitzroy Dearborn, 2005): 701-702. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/AWA9ZT5B/collection |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
“The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from Western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century, and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa, include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.”
[2]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library [2]: (Bisson 2000, 114) Bisson, Michael S. et al. 2000. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DKFA9J3I/collection |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
Cattle. Noted to have been present as a major article of the economy well into the Rozvi period, and presumably in the earlier Torwa period as well. This at least implies their presence as a valuable commodity in the community in this period. “Mudenge… argued that cattle, not trade, formed the core of the Rozvi economy.”
[1]
. “Besides cattle, agricultural produce, salt, iron, ivory, copper, tin and grain were local products that were used in a variety of exchange and consumption contexts…. Grain was also an item of trade but study in the archaeological record is limited by its perishable nature…//… Historians of the… Torwa–Changamire… emphasise that power and ‘wealth’ related to support in followers. In particular it was the number of dependants, followers, and wives that was the real measure of wealth. In some cases, followers could migrate and establish home under a successful ruler without force orcoercion (Kopytoff 1987). The conversion of cattle into political allegiances in the Mutapa and Torwa–Changamire states is comparable to a transfer of wealth-in-things to wealth-inpeople….”
[2]
.
[1]: (Schoeman 2017) Maria Schoeman, “Political Complexity North and South of the Zambezi River,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedias Online (2017). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/IXQJ656P/item-details [2]: (Chirikure & Moffett 2018, 24-25) Abigail Moffett & Shadreck Chirikure, “Exotica in Context: Reconfiguring Prestige, Power and Wealth in the Southern African Iron Age,” in Journal of World Prehistory Vol. 29 No. 3 (2016). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/Z29GV5VQ/item-list |
||||||
|
Grain. “At the base of the structure were the village authorities —possibly village headmen—who were entrusted with the collection of taxes due to the king from each village; these were delivered to the king’s officials during their annual tours. The fact that these taxes were paid partly at least in grain and other agricultural produce —which, being more or less persishable, could not be stored indefinitely by the officials who collected them—may have been a guarantee against extortionate levies on the peasantry.”
[1]
[1]: (De Silva 1981, 69-70) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection |
||||||
|
Grain. “Trade, as it touched the mass of the people, was of a humbler kind: the exchange by barter, or by a limited use of currency (kahavaṇu and purāṇas or eldlings), of the surplus grains at their disposal, and of manufactured goods and services. This internal trade in the early Anurādhapura period was well-organised. Among the donors of caves in the early inscriptions are guilds (pugiyana) and members (jete and anujete) of such guilds. There are occasional reference in the Mahāvaṁsa to caravan traffic to and from central highlands in search of spices and articles such as ginger. Such caravans consisted of wagons and pack animals. Apart from these there must have been some limited local trade in cloth and a few luxury articles.”
[1]
“By the end of the fifth century the economic activity of these indigenous traders was so far advanced that there was a system of commerce in grain, in particular seed grain which came to be deposited as capital on which interest was charged. The grant of some of this grain for religious purposes—the performance of the Āryavaṁsa festival—was recorded in inscriptions which show that at the gates of Anurādhapura and some of the other towns was an importance business centre, the niyamatana. These merchants received grain to be deposited as capital (gahe) to be lent—not sold—to cultivators, who had to return the capital with interest (vedha) added. The interest, which was taken periodically by the depositor or the person to whom the donation had been made, was usually specified, and varied with the type of grain. The people who engaged in this activity—namely the merchants, who stored and lent grain—were bankers of a sort, evidence no doubt increasing sophistication in economic activity, but of peripheral significance nonetheless in the economy as a whole.”
[2]
[1]: (De Silva, 1981, 43-44) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection [2]: (De Silva, 1981, 44) De Silva, K.M. 1981. A History of Sri Lanka. London: C. Hurst & Company, Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/4R6DQVHZ/collection |
||||||
|
Iron bars used in West Africa. "In the long term, the slave trade began to dominate trade relations with Africa. Until 1730 the slave trade was officially in the hands of the WIC. [...] To be successful in the slave trade, it was essential to have the right goods for the exchange cargo. Without a good mix of textiles, rifles, gunpowder, iron bars, alcohol, utensils and sometimes cowrie shells – which came from the Maldives in the Indian Ocean – there would have been no hope of becoming an attractive trading partner for the African slave traders."
[1]
[1]: (Emmer and Gommans 2020: 228) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/7F5SEVNA/items/AI9PPN7Q/collection. |
||||||
|
Iron. “Its inhabitants used iron as a primitive form of currency.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 200) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
||||||
|
“The material culture is generally crude if we compare it to that of other African Islamic sites: the ceramic does not present traces of glaze; few pieces of adornment were found, with the exception of cowries and a few imported pearls; metal objects were collected, including a few bundles of iron rods evoking the hakuna mentioned by al-‘Umari as the currency unit in force in the Ethiopian Islamic ‘Kingdoms.’”
[1]
[1]: (Fauvelle et al. 2017, 239-295) Fauvelle, François-Xavier et al. 2007. “The Sultanate of Awfāt, its Capital and the Necropolis of the Walasma”, Annales Islamologiques. Vol. 51. Pp 239-295. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/HJCMAMX7/library |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
“The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from Western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century, and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa, include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.”
[2]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library [2]: (Bisson 2000, 114) Bisson, Michael S. et al. 2000. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DKFA9J3I/collection |
||||||
|
Textiles, beads, iron bars, etc: “Exports from the Slave Coast amounted to 5,000 captives per year in the 1680s, and peaked at 10,000 per year from the 1690s through the 1710s. Goods received in exchange for captives were predominantly textiles and cowry shells (Cypraea moneta), which originated in the Indian Ocean and were the principle currency in the region. However, other goods such as iron and brass bars, beads, guns and spirits are also mentioned in period texts. Additionally, beads, clay tobacco pipes, ceramic vessels, alcohol bottles and various other trinkets are documented at contemporary archaeological sites. The introduction of European and Asian manufactured goods had a significant impact on communities on the Slave Coast.”
[1]
“Given these distorting factors, it seems better to look at slave prices in terms of their local value on the Slave Coast -that is, their price in cowry shells, the local currency; and in iron bars, which appear also to have served as a standard for the valuation of other goods.125 Prices in cowries and iron bars also present some difficulties of interpretation, since they sometimes moved in opposite directions, and over the seventeenth century iron bars tended to depreciate in relative value against cowries.”
[2]
[1]: Monroe, J. Cameron. “Urbanism on West Africa’s Slave Coast: Archaeology Sheds New Light on Cities in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade.” American Scientist, vol. 99, no. 5, 2011, pp. 400–09: 403. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/E5WA63Z2/collection [2]: Law, R. (1994). The Slave Trade in Seventeenth-Century Allada: A Revision. African Economic History, 22, 59–92: 80. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/T78WCTGJ/collection |
||||||
|
“It is impossible to estimate what proportion of the Alafin’s imperial revenues came from these trade taxes as opposed to the fixed tributes. But even these fixed tributes did not, as Ajayi appears to suppose, represent taxes on agricultural production as opposed to trade. A considerable proportion of the tributes was paid in cash-for example, Dahomey paid 400 bags of cowries (about $4,000) annually. And part was paid in the form of imported European goods for example, the tribute of Dahomey included coral, European cloth, muskets, and gunpowder and that of Porto Novo consisted of ’the richest European commodities’, while within the Oyo kingdom Ilase paid gunpowder, flints, and tobacco and Ifonyin ’cloths and other articles of European manufacture’.”
[1]
“Oyo rule over the towns of the kingdom involved, first, the payment of an annual tribute (in Yoruba, asingba or isin). The oba and bale of the subordinate towns were required to bring their tribute to Oyo in person at the annual Bere festival, at which they followed the chiefs of the capital in paying their homage and tribute to the Alafin. […] The basic element in the tribute paid by the provincial towns was the bere grass used for the thatching of the palace roofs, the giving of which was symbolic of subordination to the recipient. In some cases, the tribute may have consisted solely of this bere grass. This is claimed, for example, at Iwo. But usually the towns paid additional tributes in money (i.e. cowry shells) and kind. The town of Saki is said to have paid two rams and ten bags of cowries (i.e. 200,000 cowries, or about 100 dollars).”
[2]
[1]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 231. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection [2]: Law, R. (1977). The Oyo Empire c. 1600 – c. 1836: A West African Imperialism in the Era of the Atlantic Slave Trade. Oxford University Press: 98–99. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SB32ZPCF/collection |
||||||
|
Iron bars: “Pre-colonial Dahomey (and Allada and Whydah before it) had a money economy, employing a currency of cowrie shells (called locally àkué). Many commercial transactions, most taxes, and to some extent social payments such as bride wealth were monetized. In particular, exchange in local markets was fully monetized, all transactions being normally for cash. This applied not only to local people but also to Europeans who wanted to purchase in the market. The European factories, for example, found that if they ran out of cowries they could not procure provisions by bartering other commodities, but had to sell goods such as iron bars or even slaves to obtain cowries for use in purchasing food.”
[1]
[1]: Austin, Gareth, et al. “Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective.” The International Journal of African Historical Studies, vol. 34, no. 1, 2001, p. 144: 21-22. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/SPXH2IUW/collection |
||||||
|
“New supplies were regularly available and reasonably controllable as part of the Caliphate’s slave acquisitions. (When there was reluctance to sell household slaves considered part of the family, such slaves would be far less liable to transfer.) Most households capable of dealing in large sums of money owned slaves, sometimes many, and there were at least a million people in bondange, perhaps as many as two-and-a-half million. So accomodating payments in slaves would not pose special difficulties or require any unusual arrangements.”
[1]
[1]: Stiansen, Endre, and Jane I. Guyer, editors. Credit, Currencies, and Culture: African Financial Institutions in Historical Perspective. Nordiska Afrikainstitutet, 1999: 68. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/A9F557EW/collection |
||||||
|
“One important trade item in this regional trade which was peddled over long distances was salt. Some of the salt imported into Igboland from the Delta area was transported further north into Igala country. Another important source of salt for the Igbo and the Igala was the salt-lake at Uburu in the north-eastern part of Igboland, a situation which ensured its prominence as a trade centre in Northern Igboland. The Igala also procured salt from the Jukun Kingdom to the north-east through the river Benue. This valuable salt trade was monopolised by the Ewo clan of the Igala kingdom. Beads constituted important luxury items in the regional trade, and it is significant that some of the beads unearthed at Igbo-Ukwu were of local origin. In more recent times, the Igala country has been a major source of the supply of a variety of beads to the Igbo people, and it is probable that this trade had existed for a long time.”
[1]
[1]: OGUAGHA, P. A. “THE IMPACT OF EUROPEAN TRADE ON IGBO-IGALA COMMERCIAL RELATIONS IN THE LOWER NIGER C. 1650-1850 A.D.” Journal of the Historical Society of Nigeria, vol. 11, no. 3/4, 1982, 11–27: 12. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/38SQNCRA/collection |
||||||
|
Cattle, perhaps. "The combination of spatial clustering, social differentiation in mortuary practices from birth, economic control over iron production, and possible wealth in cattle suggest the emergence of political centralization and elites at Mound 4 by the start of second millennium A.D. (Red II), and perhaps much earlier."
[1]
[1]: (Dueppen 2012: 29) |
||||||
|
Cattle. While their use as a form of money per-se in Great Zimbabwe is not known, a substantial amount of cattle remains have been recovered from the site, and given the likely importance of cattle as a form of wealth, in line with other societies within the local area as noted by Chirikure, it seems likely that cattle remained an important form of intrinsic wealth within the Great Zimbabwean society, as Pikirayi suggests. “The walled and unwalled areas… yielded a significant amount of faunal remains… both domestic and wild animals…. cattle… feature in abundance…. The abundance of cattle bones shows that their raising was an important productive pursuit… // …The manner in which exotics were used, and what they symbolised, was neither static nor fixed making their use time- and space-bound. The whole point of sourcing things – from near and far – was to navigate daily life and its demands across all sectors of society. This is why glass beads, cowries, and cloth could also be used as gifts in marriage transactions, in ritual, and divination to affirm and express ideas of personhood, community-hood, and so on. As such, it does not mean that if exotics were used… that they were more important than cattle or hoes, which were pivoted on production and subsistence. Always, during marriage negotiations – cattle (mombe) and hoes (mapadza) had no substitutes.”
[1]
“[Great Zimbabwe]’s rulers accumulated considerable wealth and power from the large cattle herds they managed and from gold and ivory traded with the east African coast…. Great Zimbabwe, like Mapungubwe, derived some of its wealth from taxing traders and rewarding gold miners with cattle… // …the expansion of the Zimbabwe Culture settlements westwards towards the salt deposits in the Makgadikgadi Pans underlines the importance of this commodity, perhaps for domestic consumption in an economy dominated by cattle.”
[2]
“Possession of local resources such as land and cattle… was a source of prestige in the historical Luba state of central Africa (Vansina 1999), the Mutapa state (AD 1450-1900) in northern Zimbabwe (Mudenge 1988), and 19th-century Buganda in Uganda (Kodesh 2010), where their liquidation created social obligations (wealth-in-people) that sometimes made them more valuable than exotics (Mudenge 1988)… // …Raising cattle was universally recognized as a vital subsistence and economic practice [in Central and West Africa] that provided a source of food, wealth, and social power…. Individual households, kings, and chiefs all owned cattle, whose numbers gave them various levels of social status…. An evaluation of the social and economic role of cattle shows that they were storable and reproducible wealth used to gain social, economic, and political clients, or to acquire wives through the payment of bride wealth (Beach 1974; Iliffe 1995; Kuper 1982; Tsodzo 1976). Cattle ownership, however, was not restricted to class: households at various levels of sociopolitical organization from the capital to villages could own them, quantities of which denoted wealth and status in society (Tsodzo 1976).”
[3]
[1]: (Chirikure 2021, 185-215) Shadreck Chirikure, Great Zimbabwe: Reclaiming a ‘Confiscated’ Past (Routledge, 2021). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/MWWKAGSJ/collection [2]: (Pikirayi 2006; 31-40) Innocent Pikirayi, “The Demise of Great Zimbabwe, AD 1420-1550: An Environmental Re-Appraisal,” in Cities in the World, 1500-2000 (Routledge, 2006): 31-47. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/MWWKAGSJ/collection [3]: (Chirikure 2020, 150-164) Shadreck Chirikure, “New Perspectives on the Political Economy of Great Zimbabwe,” in Journal of Archaeological Research Vol. 28 (2020): 139-186. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/BSPEQDIG/collection |
||||||
|
The following quote suggests that bartering with articles was a common practice within Ethiopia. “Articles of clothing, food, agricultural implements, decorative ornaments, cotton cloth, small iron bars, cartridges, and bars of salt or amole, as it was called, replaced coins for many years.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 109) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
||||||
|
“The new settlement soon became attractive to both settlers and passing traders, and thus brought more power and wealth to its ruler. Little by little, the surrounding chiefs came to pay him tributes in the form of iron bars, and this was the beginning of haraji or poll-tax in Katsina.”
[1]
“Little information is available about the currency used in these commercial activities and it can be surmised that, in the period in question, barter predominated in regional exchanges. The principal currencies were bands of cotton cloth (known as sawaye in Hausa), salt and slaves.”
[2]
“Slaves were primarily imported from the regions to the south of Hausaland and were either victims of raids or paid as tribute from neighbouring countries. They fulfilled various roles, being used as currency and goods”.
[3]
[1]: Niane, D. T., & Unesco (Eds.). (1984). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. Heinemann; University of California Press: 273. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ERZKPETN/collection [2]: Niane, D. T., & Unesco (Eds.). (1984). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. Heinemann; University of California Press: 298. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ERZKPETN/collection [3]: Niane, D. T., & Unesco (Eds.). (1984). Africa from the Twelfth to the Sixteenth Century. Heinemann; University of California Press: 299. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/ERZKPETN/collection |
||||||
|
‘’’ “The objects displayed in these parades were articles of commerce - cloth, cowries, gold, and silver”
[1]
“According to the classic ethnographic study of Le Herisse, the skulls of sacrificed human victims, preserved in the compound of the Migan (the senior non-royal chief of Dahomey), constituted ’one of the treasures of the Dahomian king ... equal to the greatest riches’. In this connection Le Herisse cites a Dahomian story relating the alleged diplomatic preliminaries to the Dahomey-Whydah war of 1727, when King Huffon of Whydah sent to Agaja a gift comprising 40 each of cloths, barrels of gunpowder, muskets, bottles of rum, and 40 loads of 4,000 cowry shells, asking if Agaja could afford to make so rich a gift without receiving anything in exchange; Agaja in response treated Huffon’s messengers to a display of two lines of skulls of enemies killed in war or sacrificed, declaring that ’his only wealth consisted in enemy spoils, and that he would not be slow to teach their master so’.”
[2]
[1]: Yoder, J. C. (1974). Fly and Elephant Parties: Political Polarization in Dahomey, 1840-1870. The Journal of African History, 15(3), 417–432: 421. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/KNUC3TGF/collection [2]: Law, R. (1989). ‘My Head Belongs to the King’: On the Political and Ritual Significance of Decapitation in Pre-Colonial Dahomey. The Journal of African History, 30(3), 399–415: 404. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/5335RH4I/collection |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
“The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from Western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century, and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa, include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.”
[2]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library [2]: (Bisson 2000, 114) Bisson, Michael S. et al. 2000. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DKFA9J3I/collection |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
“The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from Western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century, and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa, include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.”
[2]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library [2]: (Bisson 2000, 114) Bisson, Michael S. et al. 2000. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DKFA9J3I/collection |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
“The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from Western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century, and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa, include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.”
[2]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library [2]: (Bisson 2000, 114) Bisson, Michael S. et al. 2000. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DKFA9J3I/collection |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library |
||||||
|
“The anklet, bangle, or torque money of the West African equatorial coast, the manilla applied iron, brass, or copper to a common form of personal adornment that doubled as currency facilitating the slave trade. From prehistoric times, natives of Zaire north to Senegal collected portable wealth in heavy anklets, bracelets, and collars that served as highly visible savings accounts rather than everyday shopping cash.”
[1]
“The origin of manillas is not well documented. Historical accounts from Western Sudan mention rings as a medium of exchange as early as the eleventh century, and some archaeological discoveries from tropical West Africa, include a few copper rings dating between the ninth and thirteenth centuries.”
[2]
[1]: (Snodgrass 2019, 198) Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Coins and Currency: An Historical Encyclopedia. Second Edition. Jefferson: McFarland Publishers. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/F5SC74DA/library [2]: (Bisson 2000, 114) Bisson, Michael S. et al. 2000. Ancient African Metallurgy: The Sociocultural Context. Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DKFA9J3I/collection |
||||||
|
Given the importance of cattle in regional traditions as a form of wealth, and their presence in the archaeological record of Mutapa, it seems a reasonable inference to include them as a form of monetary article. Pwiti agrees with this assessment, suggesting that cattle may have been of great importance in the state. “The economy in the Mutapa region appears to have been… similar to that of Great Zimbabwe, with cattle, agriculture, gold and trade continuing being key components.”
[1]
“… if the founders of the Mutapa state were expanding from Great Zimbabwe, they were familiar with the potential of two of the state’s several branches of production and how they could be used as sources of power. These are external trade and large-scale cattle herding. If they had possessed large herds of cattle during their expansion, or alternatively had built up herds in the north, then it may have been possible for them to use these as a useful power base among the locals…. Indeed for the Mutapa state, the Portuguese refer to their importance in this regard….cattle rich immigrant communities settled among a people who were not so rich, but who were very keen to use cattle products or own more cattle herds.”
[2]
[1]: (Schoeman 2017) Maria Schoeman, “Political Complexity North and South of the Zambezi River,” in Oxford Research Encyclopedias Online (2017). Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/4UBRHU5H/item-details [2]: (Pwiti 1996, 46) Gilbert Pwiti, “Peasants, Chiefs and Kings: A Model of the Development of Cultural Complexity in Northern Zimbabwe,” in Zambezia Vol. 23, No. 1 (1996): 31-52. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/I4AA8N73/item-details |
||||||
|
The following quote suggests that bartering with articles was a common practice within Ethiopia. “Articles of clothing, food, agricultural implements, decorative ornaments, cotton cloth, small iron bars, cartridges, and bars of salt or amole, as it was called, replaced coins for many years.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 109) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
||||||
|
The following quote suggests that bartering with articles was a common practice within Ethiopia. “Articles of clothing, food, agricultural implements, decorative ornaments, cotton cloth, small iron bars, cartridges, and bars of salt or amole, as it was called, replaced coins for many years.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 109) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
||||||
|
The following quote suggests that bartering with articles was a common practice within Ethiopia. “Articles of clothing, food, agricultural implements, decorative ornaments, cotton cloth, small iron bars, cartridges, and bars of salt or amole, as it was called, replaced coins for many years.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 109) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
The following quotes suggests use of cattle as currency from before the 19th century. "By the 19th century, both Milansi and Karagwe kingdoms were major players in a lucrative trade that involved the coast and the interior. [...] Before we move along to specific cases, it is imperative to note that before these kingdoms got into long-distance trade they must have started with short-distance trade which often appears naturally as a result of unequal distribution of natural resources and specialization. For example, not everyone in the community kept cattle though it played a central role in dowry payment. Thus, a farmer would barter cereals for cattle when a need for the latter arose and vice versa."
[1]
"In the southern Sudan and some parts of East Africa - for example, in Karagwe - ivory was valued in terms of cattle, and this was one of the causes of the cattle raids carried out by ivory dealers. With the cattle they looted, they could trade for more ivory."
[2]
[1]: (Mapunda 2009: 99) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/9GV5C5NF/collection. [2]: (Beachy 1977: 221-222) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/DUSE2PPU/collection. |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
"The following quote, which refers to the late 19th century across the Great Lakes region in general, suggests that, before the late introduction of cowrie shells, salt bundles, goats and hoes functioned as currency: "The fundamentals of this long-distance commerce were ivory, slaves, and, in exchange, firearms (piston rifles). The ancient networks were grafted onto this new axis, which itself created growing demand for local products, notably foodstuffs. New monetary tools also came into use: rows of cowries and beads replaced the hoe, the goat, and the salt bundle."
[1]
[1]: (Chrétien 2006: 196) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/FXCVWDRI/collection. |
||||||
|
Textiles and salt. “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.”
[1]
[1]: (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 |
||||||
|
It seems that cloth became currency in the decades or perhaps years immediately preceding colonialism. "Cloth became increasingly accessible, and the old restrictions increasingly inoperative, particularly after the upheavals of the late 1880s. To some extent it represented a new currency. [...] 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."
[1]
[1]: (Reid 2010: 122, 126-127) Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/GWWIKDDM/items/2H64W34U/collection. |
||||||
|
Amber beads (and lesser used glass beads) are likely to have been used as a form of exchange as evidenced by those found in their thousands in some elite burials.
[1]
[1]: (Hamerow 2005: 285) Hamerow, Helena. 2005. “The Earliest Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms.” Chapter. In The New Cambridge Medieval History, edited by Paul Fouracre, 1:263–88. The New Cambridge Medieval History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. doi:10.1017/CHOL9780521362917.012. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/5JNINHPQ |
||||||
|
Fur Trade: Significant fur trading activities in Siberia and the Ural regions, where hunting was a major source of livelihood. Trading centers for skins were regular features, with Yakutsk in eastern Siberia being a notable market. An annual fair in Irbit in the Urals was dedicated entirely to bartering in animal skins, such as sables and ermines, hunted by various indigenous groups like the Ostiaks, Tatars, and Soiols.
[1]
[1]: Reynolds, E. K. “The Economic Resources of the Russian Empire.” Geographical Review 1, no. 4 (1916): 249–265. Accessed December 19, 2023. https://www.jstor.org/stable/207297. Zotero link: TGHSB93W |
||||||
|
The following broadly refers to pre-Islamic Arabia. "The majority of the inhabitants of Arabia would not have been involved in the incense or international transit trade, but all would have participated to some degree in the local trade, that is, in the exchange of commodities of Arabian origin and destined for consumption in Arabia itself or on its fringes. Pastoralists bartered their surplus of animals and animal products (milk, clarified butter, wool, hides, skins, etc.) for the goods of agricultural communities (grain, oil, clothing, wine, arms, etc.)."
[1]
[1]: (Hoyland 2001, 110) Hoyland, R. 2001. Arabia and the Arabs: From the Bronze Age to the Coming of Islam. Routledge. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/search/hoylan/titleCreatorYear/items/AUHRSTGG/item-list |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
barter economy and no professional merchants. "The non-essential items and foreign durables found at sites remote from their point of origin were traded from village to village, in relays, as part of what was certainly a vigorous trade in essential goods between local centres."
[1]
[1]: (Reader 1998, 261) |
||||||
|
Karlsson’s description suggests that barter continued to be a relevant form of exchange: ’All Icelanders lived on farms. No towns developed in Iceland in the Middle Ages. Fishing was carried out from coastal farms, and also from seasonal fishing stations when fish, especially cod, came ashore. Cereal crops were grown in Iceland in the Middle Ages, mainly in the south, but animal husbandry (cattle and sheep) was the mainstay. Both provided meat, and milk for cheese and skyr (milk curd), and the sheep’s wool was woven into cloth which was Iceland’s principal export commodity until the 14th century [...]. The Icelandic way of life is well illustrated by the units of value used: alin vadmáls (an ell, about 50cm, of woollen cloth), kúgildi (the value of a cow), equivalent to 120 ells, and subsequently fiskur (fish), equivalent to half an ell.’
[1]
Both ecclesiastical and secular authorities collected taxes from commoners, but the relevant units (articles versus currency) is unclear from the descriptions: ’With like energy he preached the crusade to the Holy Land which had been urged at the Council of Bergen. People were prevailed upon to pay an extra tax of one öln vadmál year for the period of six years to defray the expenses of the undertaking. Bishop Jörund of Hólar was also encouraged by Arni’s example to collect all sorts of dues for the church, and to enforce the provision of the church laws.’
[2]
’This was made especially manifest by the new procedure introduced at this time of summoning people to Norway for trial. [...] The king’s officers also travelled about collecting the royal revenues with greater severity that had hitherto been customary. They reproved the people for appealing to the bishop, and in some cases forbade them to pay as large church dues as the bishop had demanded.’
[3]
[1]: Karlsson, Gunnar 2000. "A Brief History of Iceland", 12p [2]: Gjerset, Knut [1924]. "History of Iceland", 219 [3]: Gjerset, Knut [1924]. "History of Iceland", 220 |
||||||
|
The Sakha actively participated in barter trade with Russians: ’Yakut also engaged in the fur trade; by the twentieth century hunters for luxury furs had depleted the ermines, sables, and foxes, and they were relying on squirrels. Yakut merchants and transporters spread throughout the entire northeast, easing communications and trade for natives and Russians. They sold luxuries like silver and gold jewelry and carved bone, ivory, and wood crafts in addition to staples such as butter, meat, and hay. Barter, Russian money, and furs formed the media of exchange. Guns were imported, as was iron for local blacksmiths.’
[1]
Fox and ermine skins doubled as units of exchange: ’The Yakuts hunt foxes only in autumn and winter by setting up traps and self-released bows. Sometimes foxes get caught in the nooses set up to hares, but rarely perish in the noose trap, since the beam is not sufficiently quick to lift their weight. The fox eats everything: fish, meat, berries, roots, even the carrions of other foxes that got caught in the trap. The fox is far from being a rare animal in the north of the region: I saw one on several occasions near people’s houses and once witnessed a fox running across the yard of the yurta. A fox, especially the darker varieties which are larger, can be easily mistaken for a Yakut dog. The skin of the red fox serves in the north as a unit of exchange. It is priced between 2 and 5 rubles; sivodushka-between 6 & 15 rubles; and the black-brown variety between 25 and 50 rubles. I was shown very beautiful, perfectly black skins with a slight grizzle, for which 120 rubles was paid on the spot.’
[2]
’ERMINE (mustela erminea), kyrnas, belelyakh, is the animal most hunted for the purposes of trade. It is found in all parts of the country, on the tableland and in the tundra. Increase and decrease in the numbers of this animal depend probably on the amount of available food. In winter it comes near human dwellings, gets into the granaries, and eats and carriesaway meat and fish. It is caught by special traps called hlopushi (chirkan - a mouse trap). The ermine is a predatory, bold, and curious animal. When irritated it will attack even human beings. Cases are known of the ermine inflicting serious wounds on people, for it attempts to cut through the blood vessels on the neck, where it ascends with exceptional speed and agility. The ermine skin is priced between 2 and 5 cents and is used as the smallest exchange unit.’
[3]
The same was true for butter: ’Butter naturally acquired particular value with the coming of the Russians. Butter began to go into circulation only when the Russians came and built a city, and particularly when they began to buy it for the mines, maintained the Namsk Yakut (1891). The Yakut monetary unit ary, which means one bezem of heated butter of two and one-half funts testifies to the trading significance of butter. In remote corners the Yakut often convert the price of goods from a monetary basis to a butter basis, and express hiring prices and selling prices of objects offered in terms of butter. The majority of women are only familiar with this system, and get confused in trying to count with money. Butter comprises one of the most important food products of the Yakut. The poorest Yakut tries to have it on his table on feast days, and even the stingiest master must feed his workers butter at least once a week. The Yakut consume butter in various ways: they eat it in hard pieces, they drink it crumbled with kumiss, they drink it in tea, and they drink warm heated butter in its pure form. In their climate this beverage is far from distasteful, and when coming back chilled from hunting, or frozen through during a long winter journey I would willingly drink a full dish of it myself. It warms one quickly, and restore’s one’s strength and vigor, just like grape wine. A Yakut is able to drink not more than one-half a funt at a gulp, but can drink up to two and one-half funts over a certain period of time, stopping to rest. Sturdy fellows who are able to drink five to ten funts at one time are known in every section , but I do not think that there are more than two or three in the oblast capable of drink one-half a pood; I do not know a their ability to drink a large quantity of melted butter just as Russians boast of their ability to drink large quantities of vodka.’
[4]
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut [2]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 275 [3]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 280 [4]: Sieroszewski, Wacław 1993. “Yakut: An Experiment In Ethnographic Research”, 545 |
||||||
|
e.g. tribute may have been paid in kind.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
[1]
The Durrani empire produced coins at a number of mints in territories conquered during the initial expansion. Coins made of copper, gold, and silver were issued in Kandahar, Kabul, Peshawar, Attock, Dera Ghazi Khan, Multan, Sind, Lahore, and other regions in the local mints, leading to a wide dispersal of coinage. Multan served as a regional trade centre, with trade links between Afghanistan and the North, and links to access Chinese silk and caravans of indigo.
[1]
[1]: Hanifi, Shah. Connecting Histories in Afghanistan: Market Relations and State Formation on a Colonial Frontier. Stanford University Press, 2011. pp. 44-54 |
||||||
|
The currency of the Bactrian Greeks is one of the only means of providing a chronological history of the polity. Although initially issuing coinage under the auspices of the authority of the Seleucid King, rulers in Bactria quickly issued their own gold coins from the mint in Ai Khanoum. The Bactrian Kings also minted silver, bronze and nickel coins. There have also been limited discoveries of in the northern steppes that have been used to establish the boundaries of the polity by some scholars.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Yarshater, CHI Ehasan. The Cambridge History of Iran, vol. 3 (1, 2) the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Cambridge (University Press), 1983. pp. 240-241 [2]: Sidky, H. The Greek Kingdom of Bactria: From Alexander to Eucratides the Great. Lanham, Md.: University Press of America, 2000., pp.191-199. |
||||||
|
The Hepthalites used their own coinage and also received a huge number of tribute from the Sasasian empire in the form of specially minted coins specifically used for this purpose.
[1]
[1]: Mitchiner, Michael. "Some Late Kushano-Sassanian and Early Hephthalite Silver Coins." East and West (1975): 157-165. |
||||||
|
The Kidarite monetary system "created favourable conditions for maintaining the established traditions in local trades. ... flourishing international trade networks and wide trading links between various regions of the Kidarite state."
[1]
[1]: (Zeimal 1996, 136) Zeimal, E. V. The Kidarite Kingdom In Central Asia. in Litvinsky, B. A. ed. and Iskender-Mochiri, I. ed. 1996. History of Civilizations of Central Asia. Volume III. The crossroads of civilizations: A.D. 250 to 750. pp.123-137. unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0010/001046/104612e.pdf |
||||||
|
"The clear functional division of labor between the different workshop areas at Zhengzhou means that efficiency in production was a priority. The presence of workshops specializing in the production of particular kinds of goods indicates that there must have been considerable trade of goods during the early Shang period."
[1]
[1]: (Yuan 2013, 336-337) |
||||||
|
The Hmong bartered where money was not accessible: ’Trade. - The Miao people do not know how to trade. Formerly, the Chinese brought salt and cloth into the Miao villages to exchange for their local products, but there were many dishonest traders, who cheated the Miao, giving rise to much confusion at times. Later the Chinese were officially prohibited from entering Miao villages to trade, but certain places were designated for sitting up markets, to be used once every five days, six times a month. The best-known markets among the Miao are the Te-sheng-ying, Kan-tzu-p’ing, Ya-pao-chai, Ya-la-ying, and Hsin-chai (Illus. 40) of Feng-huang; the Ta-hsin-chai of Kan-ch’eng; and the Wei-ch’eng, Lung-t’an, and Ma-li-ch’ang of Yung-sui. The important articles of trade are salt, cloth, animals, /Illus. 39, p. 73/ /Illus. 40 appears here/ and grains. Formerly, in trade between the Chinese and the Miao four small bowls were equal to one sheng. For cloth one measure between two hands was considered four ch’ih. The price of cattle and horses are set by the number of fists, regardless of age. The method of measurement by fist is like this. They take a bamboo splint and wind it around the fore ribs of the cow to set its girth, and then they measure the bamboo splint with their fists. A water buffalo which measures 16 fists is big, and a common yellow cow which measures 13 fists is large. The operation is called “fisting a cow.” In the case of horses age does come into consideration. They measure a horse from the ground to the saddle place by comparing it with a wooden rod. A 13-fist high one is big. A horse with few teeth but of many fists fetches a higher price, and the reverse fetches a lower price. This operation is called “comparing horses.” In recent times, in the sale of rice, cloth, and other articles, they have adopted the Chinese standards of weight and measurement, but “fisting cows” and “comparing horses” are sometimes still done.’
[1]
’There are localities where the Ch’uan Miao barter a great deal because of the shortage of money, the differences being paid in cash. This is more common in northern Yunnan than in Szechwan where market-places and towns are more accessible. The Ch’uan Miao sell cattle, goats, sheep, horses, pigs, chickens, corn, rice, eggs and vegetables and purchase salt. cloth, silver ornaments, pottery and implements and tools made of iron.’
[2]
[1]: Ling, Shun-sheng, Yifu Ruey, and Lien-en Tsao 1947. “Report On An Investigation Of The Miao Of Western Hunan”, 103 [2]: Graham, David Crockett 1937. “Customs Of The Ch’Uan Miao", 24 |
||||||
|
’The ornaments can also be used as token of love promise and mascot for children to ward off evil forces, or even tradable or stored directly as money. Therefore, the silver ornaments of Miao are not only decorations, but also a cultural carrier rooted in the social life of the Miao.’
[1]
[1]: http://www.arjumandsworld.com/blog/Miao-people-arjumand/ |
||||||
|
Aden was an exceptionally busy international port where all sorts of exchanges likely took place.
|
||||||
|
Grain as tax payment. "The third device was the relative freedom with which local magistrates set the exchange rates between nominal assessments in grain or silver and the number of copper cash per picul of grain or tael of silver which they would accept in full payment of the tax due."
[1]
[1]: (Feuerwerker 1980, 61) Albert Feuerwerker. 1980. "Economic Trends in the Late Ch’ing Empire, 1870-1911." In The Cambridge History of China, vol. 2, Late Ch’ing, 1800-1911, pt. 2, edited by John K. Fairbank and Kwang-Ching Liu, 1-69. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. |
||||||
|
Silk.
[1]
"Until late in the Spring and Autumn, cash was little used and taxes were in the form of rice, grain, or corvee labor. Marketplace transactions were by barter, and salaries of officials were paid in grain."
[2]
[1]: (Roberts 2003, 14) [2]: (Redmond and Hon 2014, 44) Redmond, Geoffrey. Hon, Tze-Ki. 2014. Teaching the I Ching (Book of Changes). Oxford University Press. |
||||||
|
The Indians of Pocigueica exchanged gold and cloth for salt and fish with the coastal groups. "Los indios de Pocigueica cambiaban oro y mantas por sal y pescado con los grupos de la costa (32, II, 18; 18, V, 282)"
[1]
Fish or salt could be traded for goods with high symbolic value which took a quasi-monetary position in a large area of circulation; among them textiles, coca leaves, volcanic stone beads, and gold objects. "Los bienes de este intercambio podían ser objetos como el pescado o la sal, a cambio de bienes de alto valor simbólico que tomaban una posi- ción cuasi-monetaria en una amplia área de circulación; entre éstos los textiles, hojas de coca, cuentas de rocas volcánicas (usadas en tiempos de la conquista para ofrendas, curación, intercambio, collares) (Reichel, 1951:85)) y objetos de oro."
[2]
[1]: (Reichel-Dolmatoff 1951, 90) [2]: (Oyuela-Caycedo 1990, 65) |
||||||
|
"Demotic ostraca discovered in a temple attest to the villages’ existence from the late 26th to early 30th dynasties. The texts - still unpublished - often record transactions with water. Farmers bought the right to have water flow into their fields for a number of days and promised part of their yields in return. The contracts are dated in the traditional Egyptian way according to the regnal years of kings. They include both Persians and those who ruled when Egypt was independent from the empire. The changes in government did not affect how the records were kept."
[1]
Yields used to buy the right to have access to water.
[1]: (Van de Mieroop 2011, 307) |
||||||
|
External trade: "From the fourteenth century on, Mamluk coins were minted in gold brought all the way from Bambuk and Bouré around the sources of the Niger and the Senegal. It was paid for mostly in Egyptian textiles which were greatly sought after in the western Sudan."
[1]
[1]: (Oliver and Atmore 2001, 19) Oliver R and Atmore A. 2001. Medieval Africa 1250-1800. Cambridge University Press. Cambridge. |
||||||
|
List of items tax paid in for New Kingdom: Gold, rainment, chest of linen, "large bolts", silver, oxen, calves, necklace bead, "1 two-year-old" and "two-year-olds" (two-year-old what?), garments, grain, yearlings, pigeons, firstlings of the year, honey.
[1]
[1]: (Ezzamel 2002, 20) Ezzamel, Mahmoud. 2002. Accounting working for the state: Tax assessment and collection during the New Kingdom, ancient Egypt. Accounting and business research. Volume 32. Issue 1. pp 17-39. |
||||||
|
"by far the most common were units of grain, copper, and silver (also popular was linen...)"
[1]
List of items tax paid in for New Kingdom: Gold, rainment, chest of linen, "large bolts", silver, oxen, calves, necklace bead, "1 two-year-old" and "two-year-olds" (two-year-old what?), garments, grain, yearlings, pigeons, firstlings of the year, honey.
[2]
[1]: (Haring 2016) Haring, Ben. 2016. Economy. https://uee.cdh.ucla.edu/articles/economy/?x=56&y=16 [2]: (Ezzamel 2002, 20) Ezzamel, Mahmoud. 2002. Accounting working for the state: Tax assessment and collection during the New Kingdom, ancient Egypt. Accounting and business research. Volume 32. Issue 1. pp 17-39. |
||||||
|
Sugar, spice
[1]
[1]: (Casey 2002, 58) Casey, James. 2002. Early Modern Spain: A Social History. New York: Routledge. https://www.zotero.org/groups/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/2SNTRSWT |
||||||
|
"large quantities of cloth, fabric, brass, glass, copper and coinage and smller quantities of wine, olive oil and jewellery were imported ... It is generally accepted that Adulis exported tortoise shell, ivory, horn and obsidian ... whilst human trafficking in the form of slaves was substantial enough to be highlighted by Pliny ... Wild animals for the Roman area may also have attracted merchants to the region".
[1]
Acquired emeralds from Blemmyes in the Nubian desert and sold them in Northern India. Sent oxen, salt and iron to trade with Sasu (south-west Ethiopia) for gold.
[2]
Imported Syrian and Italian wine and olive-oil, cereals, grape-juice and wine from Egypt, wheat, rice, bosmor, seasame oil, sugar-cane from India. Foreign fabrics.
[3]
[1]: (Glazier and Peacock 2016) Darren Glazier. David Peacock. Historical background and previous investigations. David Peacock. Lucy Blue. eds. 2016. The Ancient Red Sea Port of Adulis, Eritrea: Results of the Eritro-British Expedition, 2004-5. Oxbow Books. Oxford. [2]: (Kobishanov 1981, 387) Y M. Kobishanov. Aksum: political system, economics and culture, first to fourth century. Muḥammad Jamal al-Din Mokhtar. ed. 1981. UNESCO General History of Africa. Volume II. Heinemann. UNESCO. California. [3]: (Kobishanov 1981, 387, 389) Y M. Kobishanov. Aksum: political system, economics and culture, first to fourth century. Muḥammad Jamal al-Din Mokhtar. ed. 1981. UNESCO General History of Africa. Volume II. Heinemann. UNESCO. California. |
||||||
|
"While trade in raw materials such as stone and shell had been in place for thousands of years before the Bronze Age, the bronze trade networks seem more substantial. Quarry sites are linked with sites producing raw bronze ingots (which often resemble torcs). Bronze ingots were traded to local artisans who worked them into objects, which were then traded to consumers."
[1]
[1]: (Peregrine 2001, 413) |
||||||
|
"From a functionalist point of view, it is suggested that the circulation networks changed and became wider because the elite demanded some goods of prestige, with a special preference for the exotic goods, to reinforce their status. So the Bell Beakers and their associated products can be understood as symbols of prestige. The goods of prestige may have been exchanged through social rituals such as weddings, initiation ceremonies, and funerals or may have been part of a more complex exchange system, which would have been essential to communicate with other elite. It is suggested that, together with these goods of prestige, through the same ways, circulated other goods (metals, salt, foods, and other essential raw materials) and that these goods were also reserved for the most powerful men, their families, and some proteges. Metallic objects were very important in these commercial networks."
[1]
[1]: (Clop Garcia 2001, 26) |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’ ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ were used, not ’No media of exchange or money’ or ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Foreign coinage or paper coinage’, or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. It seems unlikely that barter would have disappeared completely during the colonial period, despite of the economic importance of precious metals. We have therefore assumed that barter continued into the colonial period, at least on the local level.
|
||||||
|
Minting in Greece was introduced around 6th century BCE. Before that period economic transactions were based on a barter system of spits, precious artifacts and metals, animals, food, and services.
[1]
[2]
[1]: e.g. Seaford, R. 2004. Money and the Early Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy, Cambridge, 125-46 [2]: Tejado, R. and Guerra, G. 2012. "From barter to coins: shifting cognitive frames in Classical Greek economy," in Herrero-Soler, H. and White, A.(eds.), Metaphore and Milles. Figurative Language in Business and Economics, Berlin/Boston, 27-4. |
||||||
|
Economic transactions were also based on a barter system of precious artifacts and metals, animals, food, and services.
[1]
[2]
[1]: e.g. Seaford, R. 2004. Money and the Eraly Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy, Cambridge, 125-46 [2]: Tejado, R. and Guerra, G. 2012. "From barter to coins: shifting cognitive frames in Classical Greek economy," in Herrero-Soler, H. and White, A.(eds), Metaphore and Milles. Figurative Language in Business and Economics, Berlin/Boston, 27-48. |
||||||
|
It has been generally argued that all economic transactions were based on fruitful barter.
[1]
Recent research, however, suggest that market exchanges also existed in prehistory Aegean.
[2]
[3]
[1]: e.g. Chadwick, J. 1976. The Mycenaean World, Cambridge, 78. [2]: Christakis, K. S. 2008. The Politics of the Storage. Storage and Sociopolitical Complexity in Neopalatial Crete (Prehistory Monographs 25), Philadelphia, 138-39 [3]: Parkinson, W., Nakassis, D., and Galaty, M. L. 2013. "Crafts, Specialists, and Markets in Mycenaean Greece: Introduction," American Journal of Archaeology 117, 413-22. |
||||||
|
Minting in Greece was introduced around 6th century BCE. Before that period economic transactions were based on a barter system of spits, precious artifacts and metals, animals, food, and services.
[1]
[2]
[1]: e.g. Seaford, R. 2004. Money and the Eraly Greek Mind: Homer, Philosophy, Tragedy, Cambridge, 125-46 [2]: Tejado, R. and Guerra, G. 2012. "From barter to coins: shifting cognitive frames in Classical Greek economy," in Herrero-Soler, H. and White, A.(eds), Metaphore and Milles. Figurative Language in Business and Economics, Berlin/Boston, 27-48. |
||||||
|
By this point the economy of the Papal State was mostly monetized, as with most of Italy. However, the concept of articles as money and the practice of this was unlikely lost completely.
|
||||||
|
It has been generally argued that all economic transactions were based on fruitful barter.
[1]
Recent research, however, suggest that market exchanges also existed in prehistory Aegean
[2]
[3]
[1]: e.g. Chadwick, J. 1976. The Mycenaean World, Cambridge, 78. [2]: Christakis, K. S. 2008. The Politics of the Storage. Storage and Sociopolitical Complexity in Neopalatial Crete (Prehistory Monographs 25), Philadelphia, 138-39 [3]: Parkinson, W., Nakassis, D., and Galaty, M. L. 2013. "Crafts, Specialists, and Markets in Mycenaean Greece: Introduction," American Journal of Archaeology 117, 413-22. |
||||||
|
It has been generally argued that in ancient societies economic transactions were also based on fruitful barter.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Garrraty, C. P. 2010. "Investigating market exchange in ancient societies: a theoretical review," in Garraty, C. P. and Stark, B. L. (eds), Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, Colorado, 3-32 [2]: Chadwick, J. 1976. The Mycenaean World, Cambridge, 78. |
||||||
|
’The currency of trade in the Heian markets was a mixed affair, the trade relying at times on straight barter, at other times on values expressed in units of rice or fabrics, and at other times partly on cash, either Japanese or Chinese.’
[1]
[1]: Shively, Donald H. and McCullough, William H. 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan Volume 2: Heian Japan. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press.p.165 |
||||||
|
It has been generally argued that all economic transactions were based on fruitful barter.
[1]
Recent research, however, suggest that market exchanges also existed in prehistory Aegean.
[2]
[3]
[1]: e.g. Chadwick, J. 1976. The Mycenaean World, Cambridge, 78. [2]: Christakis, K. S. 2008. The Politics of the Storage. Storage and Sociopolitical Complexity in Neopalatial Crete (Prehistory Monographs 25), Philadelphia, 138-39 [3]: Parkinson, W., Nakassis, D., and Galaty, M. L. 2013. "Crafts, Specialists, and Markets in Mycenaean Greece: Introduction," American Journal of Archaeology 117, 413-22. |
||||||
|
It has been generally argued that in ancient societies economic transactions were also based on fruitful barter.
[1]
[2]
[1]: Garrraty, C. P. 2010. "Investigating market exchange in ancient societies: a theoretical review," in Garraty, C. P. and Stark, B. L. (eds), Archaeological Approaches to Market Exchange in Ancient Societies, Colorado, 3-32 [2]: Chadwick, J. 1976. The Mycenaean World, Cambridge, 78. |
||||||
|
This refers to Island Southeast Asia until 500 CE more generally. “It may be surmised that subsistence produce (e.g., rice for sandal- wood timber or resins) made up a large portion of the goods exchanged over the short distance, but at greater distances high-value produce increasingly monopolized the traders’ cargos. Manufactured goods from India and even Rome are quite common finds in the major Southeast Asian entrepots of the period, whereas the lack of archaeologically preserved Chinese wares suggests that silk was almost certainly the dominant import from China. The main exports from Island Southeast Asia would have included cloves, nutmeg, resins, and aromatic woods, in demand everywhere, tin and gold destined for India, and animal products (rhinoceros horn, tortoiseshell, and the feathers of kingfishers and other brightly coloured birds) for China."
[1]
[1]: (Bulbeck in Peregrine and Ember 2000, 86) |
||||||
|
Habib, "The numismatic evidence ... suggests a considerable increase in coined money." Even peasants were paying the land tax in cash, rather than in kind. Gold coins were in use, although pure silver was rare. Early coins came from plunder and hordes, but there was a state lead remoneterization in the mid-1220s. There was a fixed ratio [10:1] of gold to silver coins. "The coinage of the Delhi sultanate was more efficiently controlled than any Middle Eastern or European currency of the period." p.93
[1]
[1]: Irfan Habib, ‘The Currency System’, in Tapan Raychaudhuri and Irfan Habib (eds), The Cambridge Economic History of India Vol. 1, (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 93-101. |
||||||
|
After the introduction of foreign currency, barter was increasingly displaced by monetized exchange, but did not die out completely. Brass objects were particularly valuable. But this process did not predate colonization: ‘Perhaps the most important single characteristic of a nokma is the possession of titles to land. The land which surrounds a village is divided into numerous patches, and titles to these patches are typically distributed among a few of the richest households of the village, including those of the nokmas. A plot of land to which a man holds title is known as a’king, and a nokma who holds a title is known as an a’king nokma. Titles to a’king can be bought and sold among members of the village; however, at the present time sale is unusual, and land titles often stay in the same family for generations, always being inherited intact by the heir and heiress of the last title-holders. Prices in the past have varied from 25 to 75 rupees for the amount of land suitable for one family’s cultivation; on the other hand, titles even today are sometimes purchased with brass gongs instead of money.’
[1]
[1]: Burling, Robbins 1963. “Rengsanggri: Family And Kinship In A Garo Village”, 225 |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’ is coded as ’Foreign coinage or paper currency’ After the introduction of foreign currency, barter was increasingly displaced by monetized exchange, but did not die out completely. Brass objects were particularly valuable: ‘Perhaps the most important single characteristic of a nokma is the possession of titles to land. The land which surrounds a village is divided into numerous patches, and titles to these patches are typically distributed among a few of the richest households of the village, including those of the nokmas. A plot of land to which a man holds title is known as a’king, and a nokma who holds a title is known as an a’king nokma. Titles to a’king can be bought and sold among members of the village; however, at the present time sale is unusual, and land titles often stay in the same family for generations, always being inherited intact by the heir and heiress of the last title-holders. Prices in the past have varied from 25 to 75 rupees for the amount of land suitable for one family’s cultivation; on the other hand, titles even today are sometimes purchased with brass gongs instead of money.’
[1]
[1]: Burling, Robbins 1963. “Rengsanggri: Family And Kinship In A Garo Village”, 225 |
||||||
|
Vedic civilization was a barter-only economy. Although gold pieces are mentioned, there is no evidence of money or coins proper being used. Cows were considered a source of value and may have been used in exchange. Kings collected ’tribute’ in the form crops and cows. There was ritual gift-giving in the religious context.
[1]
[1]: Singh, Upinder, A History of Ancient and Early Medieval India: From the Stone Age to the 12th Century (New Delhi: Pearson Education, 2008), p.190-191. |
||||||
|
Kautilya in the Arthashastra wrote "The king who finds himself in a great financial trouble and needs money, may collect (revenue by demand). In such parts of his country as depend solely upon rain for water and are rich in grain, he may demand of his subjects one-third or one-fourth of their grain according to their capacity."
[1]
[1]: https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Arthashastra/ |
||||||
|
"The inscriptions revealed that the village officials were authorized to collect the taxes in the kinds. Some important objects of the revenue were cattle, flowers, milk, grass, hides as seat, charcoal, fermenting liquor, digging of salt, all kinds of forced labor, hidden treasure and deposits, along with other major and minor taxes called asklipta and upklipta."
[1]
Taxes paid in cash and partly in kind.
[2]
[1]: (Sawant 2009) Reshma Sawant. 2008. ‘State Formation Process In The Vidarbha During The Vakataka Period’. Bulletin of the Deccan College Post-Graduate and Research Institute 68-69: 137-162.< [2]: (Majumdar and Altekar 1986, 278) Anant Sadashiv Altekar. The Administrative Organisation. Ramesh Chandra Majumdar. Anant Sadashiv Altekar. 1986. Vakataka - Gupta Age Circa 200-550 A.D. Motilal Banarsidass. Delhi. |
||||||
|
"Babylonian textiles, horses and chariots were sent west to Egypt with transhipped luxury items such as lapis lazuli in exchange for gold and precious stones."
[1]
"The Mesopotamians did not use coinage (invented in Asia Minor in the seventh century B.C.E.) but employed various commodities as media of exchange and measures of value: occasionally gold, copper, and tin, but most commonly silver and grain. The value of goods entrusted to merchants was reckoned in weights of silver or volumes of barley, as was that of the commodities that the merchants brought back from their expeditions. Silver rings, coils of silver wire that could easily be cut into pieces, and other small units (often of 5 shekels weight) were regularly used in transactions, the requisite quantity of silver being weighed out to make a purchase or pay for a service."
[2]
[1]: Stein, D. L. 1997. Kassites. In Meyers, E. M. (ed.) The Oxford Encylopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. Volume 3. Oxford: Oxford University Press. p.273 [2]: (McIntosh 2005: 132) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
||||||
|
"The Mesopotamians did not use coinage (invented in Asia Minor in the seventh century B.C.E.) but employed various commodities as media of exchange and measures of value: occasionally gold, copper, and tin, but most commonly silver and grain. The value of goods entrusted to merchants was reckoned in weights of silver or volumes of barley, as was that of the commodities that the merchants brought back from their expeditions. Silver rings, coils of silver wire that could easily be cut into pieces, and other small units (often of 5 shekels weight) were regularly used in transactions, the requisite quantity of silver being weighed out to make a purchase or pay for a service."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 132) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
||||||
|
"The Mesopotamians did not use coinage (invented in Asia Minor in the seventh century B.C.E.) but employed various commodities as media of exchange and measures of value: occasionally gold, copper, and tin, but most commonly silver and grain. The value of goods entrusted to merchants was reckoned in weights of silver or volumes of barley, as was that of the commodities that the merchants brought back from their expeditions. Silver rings, coils of silver wire that could easily be cut into pieces, and other small units (often of 5 shekels weight) were regularly used in transactions, the requisite quantity of silver being weighed out to make a purchase or pay for a service."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 132) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
||||||
|
"The Mesopotamians did not use coinage (invented in Asia Minor in the seventh century B.C.E.) but employed various commodities as media of exchange and measures of value: occasionally gold, copper, and tin, but most commonly silver and grain. The value of goods entrusted to merchants was reckoned in weights of silver or volumes of barley, as was that of the commodities that the merchants brought back from their expeditions. Silver rings, coils of silver wire that could easily be cut into pieces, and other small units (often of 5 shekels weight) were regularly used in transactions, the requisite quantity of silver being weighed out to make a purchase or pay for a service."
[1]
[1]: (McIntosh 2005: 132) McIntosh, J. 2005. Ancient Mesopotamia: New Perspective. Santa Barbara: ABC Clio. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/itemKey/KK2E3KMD. |
||||||
|
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
"The village market was a center for the exchange of merchandise"
[1]
"the Ostrogothic kingdom in Italy provides the most detailed insights, with evidence for the continuing collection of traditional taxes in kind and in gold."
[2]
[1]: (Burns 1991, 117) [2]: (Lee 2013) Lee, A. D. 2013. From Rome to Byzantium AD 363 to 565: The Transformation of Ancient Rome. Edinburgh University Press. |
||||||
|
e.g. textiles, animals. Used in barter and tribute.
[1]
A variety of money was used in the Ilkhanate. Articles were used in barter. Coins existed alongside articles. These included gold and silver coins, coins minted by the Ilkhante and foreign coins acquired in commerce and through tribute from other rulers. Money leading associations show the existence of debt and credit among the population. The Ilkhanate was part of the Mongols extensive postal system [Yam system] that carried royal communications around the empire.
[1]: Fleet, Kate. “The Turkish Economy, 1071-1453.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey, edited by Kate Fleet, Suraiya Faroqhi, and Reşat Kasaba, 227-65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.p.244 |
||||||
|
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
Cattle were used in barter.
[1]
Taxes could be paid in kind, such as in wine.
[2]
[1]: Perikhanian, A., ‘Iranian Society and Law’, in The Cambridge history of Iran: the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Part 2, ed. by Ehsan Yar-Shater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), III,p.672. [2]: (Raschke 1976, 825) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. |
||||||
|
Cattle were used in barter.
[1]
Taxes could be paid in kind, such as in wine.
[2]
[1]: Perikhanian, A., ‘Iranian Society and Law’, in The Cambridge history of Iran: the Seleucid, Parthian and Sasanian periods. Part 2, ed. by Ehsan Yar-Shater (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1983), III,p.672. [2]: (Raschke 1976, 825) Raschke, Manfred G. in Haase, Wolfgang ed. 1976. Politische Geschichte (Provinzen und Randvölker: Mesopotamien, Armenien, Iran, Südarabien, Rom und der Ferne Osten). Walter de Gruyter. |
||||||
|
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
"At Uruk and other southern city-states, each institution controlled its own fields, produced foodstuffs, and kept them in associated storage areas (Sterba 1976). Tribute or taxes came into the central stores as well."
[1]
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[2]
[1]: (Sterba, R.A. 1974. The Organization and Management of the Temple Corporations in Ancient Mesopotamia. Academy of Management ReviewVol. 1, No. 3. https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/items/H35I8WZA/item-list) [2]: (Liverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
"There were two main units of value in Mesopotamia: barley and silver (and sometimes copper). Barley was readily available, of low value, and thus often present in exchanges. On the contrary, silver was a precious and rare metal, but also non-perishable (since it could not be consumed), allowing its accumulation. These were two very different materials, to be used as units on different occasions with different goods, and thus complementing each other."
[1]
[1]: (Leverani 2014, 71) Liverani, Mario. Tabatabai, Soraia trans. 2014. The Ancient Near East. History, society and economy. Routledge. London. |
||||||
|
Slaves were acquired by means of exchange: "we are told that some Gallic chiefs were so fond of Italian wine they would give a slave for a single jar, and there is literary evidence for Gallic slaves in Italy."
[1]
Salt was used as payment to soldiers from 406 BCE and was an essential commodity with the "Salt Road" being in existence from the start of the Roman Kingdom period.
[1]: (Rawson 2001, 59) |
||||||
|
Slaves were acquired by means of exchange: "we are told that some Gallic chiefs were so fond of Italian wine they would give a slave for a single jar, and there is literary evidence for Gallic slaves in Italy."
[1]
Salt was used as payment to soldiers from 406 BCE and was an essential commodity with the "Salt Road" being in existence from the start of the Roman Kingdom period.
[1]: (Rawson 2001, 59) |
||||||
|
Slaves were acquired by means of exchange: "we are told that some Gallic chiefs were so fond of Italian wine they would give a slave for a single jar, and there is literary evidence for Gallic slaves in Italy."
[1]
Salt was used as payment to soldiers from 406 BCE and was an essential commodity with the "Salt Road" being in existence from the start of the Roman Kingdom period.
[1]: (Rawson 2001, 59) |
||||||
|
’In Japan, prices had previously been calculated in amounts of cloth, but in 1226[CE] the Kamakura bakufu abolished the cloth equivalence and ordered the use of copper coins.’
[1]
[1]: Yamamura, Kozo (ed). 2008. The Cambridge History of Japan. Vol. 3. Cambridge Histories Online Cambridge University Press [sixth edition].p.408 |
||||||
|
"As the assessment of the land was expressed in cash terms it was first as hard cash that taxes were collected, until technical difficulties obliged the Hōjō to change the system. Being unable to mint sufficient coins within the domain, and being equally unable to control the entry of debased coinage into the domain, conversion standards were introduced to express the tax in terms of rice, lacquer or cotton."
[1]
[1]: (Turnbull 2008) |
||||||
|
’The Khmer empire never developed a standardized currency, instead using exchange equivalents in gold, silver, rice, cloth, cattle, butter and slaves (Sedov 1978:125), and remained a marginal player in the China-Southeast Asia trade network.’
[1]
’Revenue was usually in kind, being paid in grain, but some special districts paid in other commodities such as honey and wax.’
[2]
[1]: (Stark, Miriam 2010, p. 161) [2]: (Mabbett and Chandler 1995, pp.166-167) |
||||||
|
’The Khmer empire never developed a standardized currency, instead using exchange equivalents in gold, silver, rice, cloth, cattle, butter and slaves (Sedov 1978:125), and remained a marginal player in the China-Southeast Asia trade network.’
[1]
’Revenue was usually in kind, being paid in grain, but some special districts paid in other commodities such as honey and wax.’
[2]
[1]: (Stark, Miriam 2010, p. 161) [2]: (Mabbett and Chandler 1995, pp.166-167) |
||||||
|
’The Khmer empire never developed a standardized currency, instead using exchange equivalents in gold, silver, rice, cloth, cattle, butter and slaves (Sedov 1978:125), and remained a marginal player in the China-Southeast Asia trade network.’
[1]
’Revenue was usually in kind, being paid in grain, but some special districts paid in other commodities such as honey and wax.’
[2]
[1]: (Stark, Miriam 2010, p. 161) [2]: (Mabbett and Chandler 1995, pp.166-167) |
||||||
|
The earliest text records a transaction between a chief and his followers in which fruits and animals were given out of respect and adoration, trend that shifted soon to payment of taxes in luxury goods. Common exchange articles for payment were gold, silver, and scented woods.
[1]
Later inscriptions suggest the existence of a well developed barter system where cloth and silver were used as the main basis for trade. For example, "the exchange goods given for the land and other gifts is paddy but its value is expressed in terms of silver and cloth which thus appear to have almost monetary value. [...] ’A rice field near the tank of Devacila. The barter for it is paddy. The value of this is 5 ounces of silver and a yau of double cloth’.
[2]
. Other exchange rates are recorded as well: ’honey is given to buy oil, cloth to buy syrup, ... cotton to buy ginger conserve’.
[3]
Although this references are from the late Funanese period, it suggests that there was a developed exchange system.
[4]
[1]: (Wicks 1992, 186) [2]: (Jacob 1979, 415) [3]: (Jacob 1979, 414) [4]: pers. comm. Daniel Mullins |
||||||
|
"To give an idea of the amount of trade involved in one of these official trade missions, in 1750 the Junghars “brought goods worth 186,000 taels, the largest amount ever, which they exchanged for 167,300 taels’ worth of cloth and tea, with the balance in silver.”23 The Junghars certainly profited from the trade, as did the urban peoples and merchants involved."
[1]
[1]: (Beckwith 2009, 238-239) |
||||||
|
The earliest text records a transaction between a chief and his followers in which fruits and animals were given out of respect and adoration, trend that shifted soon to payment of taxes in luxury goods. Common exchange articles for payment were gold, silver, and scented woods.
[1]
Later inscriptions suggest the existence of a well developed barter system where cloth and silver were used as the main basis for trade. For example, "the exchange goods given for the land and other gifts is paddy but its value is expressed in terms of silver and cloth which thus appear to have almost monetary value. [...] ’A rice field near the tank of Devacila. The barter for it is paddy. The value of this is 5 ounces of silver and a yau of double cloth’.
[2]
. Other exchange rates are recorded as well: ’honey is given to buy oil, cloth to buy syrup, ... cotton to buy ginger conserve’.
[3]
Although this references are from the late Funanese period, it suggests that there was a developed exchange system.
[1]: (Wicks 1992, p. 186) [2]: (Jacob 1979, p. 415) [3]: (Jacob 1979, p. 414) |
||||||
|
The earliest text records a transaction between a chief and his followers in which fruits and animals were given out of respect and adoration, trend that shifted soon to payment of taxes in luxury goods. Common exchange articles for payment were gold, silver, and scented woods.
[1]
Later inscriptions suggest the existence of a well developed barter system where cloth and silver were used as the main basis for trade. For example, "the exchange goods given for the land and other gifts is paddy but its value is expressed in terms of silver and cloth which thus appear to have almost monetary value. [...] ’A rice field near the tank of Devacila. The barter for it is paddy. The value of this is 5 ounces of silver and a yau of double cloth’.
[2]
. Other exchange rates are recorded as well: ’honey is given to buy oil, cloth to buy syrup, ... cotton to buy ginger conserve’.
[3]
Although this references are from the late Funanese period, it suggests that there was a developed exchange system. (RA’s guess)
[1]: (Wicks 1992, p. 186) [2]: (Jacob 1979, p. 415) [3]: (Jacob 1979, p. 414) |
||||||
|
barter economy and no professional merchants. "The non-essential items and foreign durables found at sites remote from their point of origin were traded from village to village, in relays, as part of what was certainly a vigorous trade in essential goods between local centres."
[1]
[1]: (Reader 1998, 261) |
||||||
|
Barter "at the periphery of the African kingdoms, some backwards tribes, such as the Lem-Lem in Southwest Ghana, perhaps on the banks of the present-day Faleme River, had been carrying on barter trade since the Carthaginian period."
[1]
This was where, without any direct contact, Carthaginian and Arab traders exchanged their goods for gold dust. However, this simple form of economy was not characteristic of the economies of the polities of these times.
[2]
barter economy and no professional merchants. "The non-essential items and foreign durables found at sites remote from their point of origin were traded from village to village, in relays, as part of what was certainly a vigorous trade in essential goods between local centres."
[3]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 130) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 131) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [3]: (Reader 1998, 261) |
||||||
|
Barter "at the periphery of the African kingdoms, some backwards tribes, such as the Lem-Lem in Southwest Ghana, perhaps on the banks of the present-day Faleme River, had been carrying on barter trade since the Carthaginian period."
[1]
This was where, without any direct contact, Carthaginian and Arab traders exchanged their goods for gold dust. However, this simple form of economy was not characteristic of the economies of the polities of these times.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 130) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 131) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
||||||
|
Barter "at the periphery of the African kingdoms, some backwards tribes, such as the Lem-Lem in Southwest Ghana, perhaps on the banks of the present-day Faleme River, had been carrying on barter trade since the Carthaginian period."
[1]
This was where, without any direct contact, Carthaginian and Arab traders exchanged their goods for gold dust. However, this simple form of economy was not characteristic of the economies of the polities of these times.
[2]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 130) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 131) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. |
||||||
|
Used in the tribute paid to the Mongols by the Seljuks for example, who paid partly with items..
[1]
Articles were used when tribute was paid to the Mongols. As taxation increased within the empire there was a movement from payment in kind to payment to cash, encouraging expansion of the coinage. Gold and silver dinars were minted and used.
[2]
The Mongols also had a sophisticated postal network [the Yan system], including runners and postal stations around a days journey part from each other. This was used to send royal communications around the empire.
[3]
[1]: Fleet, Kate. “The Turkish Economy, 1071-1453.” In The Cambridge History of Turkey, edited by Kate Fleet, Suraiya Faroqhi, and Reşat Kasaba, 227-65. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009. P.244 [2]: Findley, Carter V., The Turks in World History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2005),p.83. [3]: David Morgan, The Mongols (Oxford: Blackwell, 2nd ed. 2007), p.90-91. |
||||||
|
"Earlier steppe people had exchanged some of their horses for Chinese silk, but the scale of the Sino- Uighur trade was unusually large. It reached impressive proportions about 760 and became one of the most important aspects of their mutual relations. A Chinese historian explains its development as follows: The Uighurs, taking advantage of their service to China [during the An Lu-shan rebellion], frequently used to send embassies with horses to trade at an agreed price for silken fabrics. Usually they came every year, trading one horse for forty pieces of silk. Every time they came they brought several tens of thousands of horses [. . .] The barbarians acquired silk insatiably and we were given useless horses. The court found it extremely galling.44 This was a forced trade, of far greater value to the Uighurs than to the Chinese, and continued throughout the period of the Uighur empire. Most of the vast quantity of silk involved could be re-exported to other countries or function as a form of currency. But some of it was possibly used among the urban rich, who were becoming accustomed to a softer life."
[1]
[1]: (Mackerras 1990, 338) |
||||||
|
Barter "at the periphery of the African kingdoms, some backwards tribes, such as the Lem-Lem in Southwest Ghana, perhaps on the banks of the present-day Faleme River, had been carrying on barter trade since the Carthaginian period."
[1]
This was where, without any direct contact, Carthaginian and Arab traders exchanged their goods for gold dust. However, this simple form of economy was not characteristic of the economies of the polities of these times.
[2]
barter economy and no professional merchants. "The non-essential items and foreign durables found at sites remote from their point of origin were traded from village to village, in relays, as part of what was certainly a vigorous trade in essential goods between local centres."
[3]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 130) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 131) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [3]: (Reader 1998, 261) |
||||||
|
Barter "at the periphery of the African kingdoms, some backwards tribes, such as the Lem-Lem in Southwest Ghana, perhaps on the banks of the present-day Faleme River, had been carrying on barter trade since the Carthaginian period."
[1]
This was where, without any direct contact, Carthaginian and Arab traders exchanged their goods for gold dust. However, this simple form of economy was not characteristic of the economies of the polities of these times.
[2]
barter economy and no professional merchants. "The non-essential items and foreign durables found at sites remote from their point of origin were traded from village to village, in relays, as part of what was certainly a vigorous trade in essential goods between local centres."
[3]
[1]: (Diop 1987, 130) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [2]: (Diop 1987, 131) Diop, Cheikh Anta. Salemson, Harold trans. 1987. Precolonial Black Africa. Lawrence Hill Books. Chicago. [3]: (Reader 1998, 261) |
||||||
|
Mortuary grave goods from c.1500 BC forward indicate that Early Formative BOM polities were ranked societies where raw or manufatured prestige goods -- ceramics, precious stone, feathers, textiles, jewelry, ornaments, etc. (both "articles" like jade and feathers, and "tokens" like shells) -- appear to have functioned as "primitive money" or "social currency."
[1]
[2]
[3]
these have also been recovered from Middle Formative graves in the BOM,
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[1]: Paul Tolstoy. (1989) "Coapexco and Tlatilco: sites with Olmec material in the Basin of Mexico", In Regional Perspectives on the Olmec, Robert J. Sharer & David C. Grove (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pg. 87-121. [2]: Niederberger, Christine. (1996). "The Basin of Mexico: Multimillenial Development toward Cultural Complexity." In Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, edited by Emily P. Benson and Beatriz de la Fuente. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, pp. 83-93. [3]: Niederberger, Christine. (2000) "Ranked Societies, Iconographic Complexity, and Economic Wealth in the Basin of Mexico Toward 1200 BC." In Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica, edited by John E. Clark and Mary E. Pye. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 169-192. [4]: Piña Chan, Román. (1971). "Preclassic or Formative Pottery and Minor Arts of the Valley of Mexico." In The Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 10, ed. G. F. Ekholm, and I. Bernal. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp.157-178. [5]: Sanders, William T., Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley. (1979) The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York, pg. 331-3. [6]: Stoner, Wesley D., Deborah L. Nichols, Bridget A. Alex, and Destiny L. Crider. (2015)"The emergence of Early-Middle Formative exchange patterns in Mesoamerica: A view from Altica in the Teotihuacan Valley." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39: 19-35. [7]: Charlton, Thomas H. (1984). "Production and Exchange: Variables in the Evolution of a Civilization." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.17-42. [8]: Hirth, Kenneth G. (1984). "Early Exchange in Mesoamerica: An Introduction." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.1-16. |
||||||
|
Raw or manufatured prestige goods -- ceramics, precious stone, feathers, textiles, jewelry, ornaments, etc. (both "articles" like jade and feathers, and "tokens" like shells) -- likely functioned as "primitive money" or "social currency."
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[1]: Piña Chan, Román. (1971). "Preclassic or Formative Pottery and Minor Arts of the Valley of Mexico." In The Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 10, ed. G. F. Ekholm, and I. Bernal. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp.157-178. [2]: Sanders, William T., Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley. (1979) The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York, pg. 331-3. [3]: Stoner, Wesley D., Deborah L. Nichols, Bridget A. Alex, and Destiny L. Crider. (2015)"The emergence of Early-Middle Formative exchange patterns in Mesoamerica: A view from Altica in the Teotihuacan Valley." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39: 19-35. [4]: Charlton, Thomas H. (1984). "Production and Exchange: Variables in the Evolution of a Civilization." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.17-42. [5]: Hirth, Kenneth G. (1984). "Early Exchange in Mesoamerica: An Introduction." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.1-16. |
||||||
|
Mortuary grave goods from c.1500 BC forward indicate that Early Formative BOM polities were ranked societies where raw or manufatured prestige goods -- ceramics, precious stone, feathers, textiles, jewelry, ornaments, etc. (both "articles" like jade and feathers, and "tokens" like shells) -- appear to have functioned as "primitive money" or "social currency."
[1]
[2]
[3]
these have also been recovered from Middle Formative graves in the BOM,
[4]
[5]
[6]
[7]
[8]
[1]: Paul Tolstoy. (1989) "Coapexco and Tlatilco: sites with Olmec material in the Basin of Mexico", In Regional Perspectives on the Olmec, Robert J. Sharer & David C. Grove (eds.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pg. 87-121. [2]: Niederberger, Christine. (1996). "The Basin of Mexico: Multimillenial Development toward Cultural Complexity." In Olmec Art of Ancient Mexico, edited by Emily P. Benson and Beatriz de la Fuente. Washington, D.C.: National Gallery of Art, pp. 83-93. [3]: Niederberger, Christine. (2000) "Ranked Societies, Iconographic Complexity, and Economic Wealth in the Basin of Mexico Toward 1200 BC." In Olmec Art and Archaeology in Mesoamerica, edited by John E. Clark and Mary E. Pye. New Haven: Yale University Press, pp. 169-192. [4]: Piña Chan, Román. (1971). "Preclassic or Formative Pottery and Minor Arts of the Valley of Mexico." In The Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 10, ed. G. F. Ekholm, and I. Bernal. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp.157-178. [5]: Sanders, William T., Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley. (1979) The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York, pg. 331-3. [6]: Stoner, Wesley D., Deborah L. Nichols, Bridget A. Alex, and Destiny L. Crider. (2015)"The emergence of Early-Middle Formative exchange patterns in Mesoamerica: A view from Altica in the Teotihuacan Valley." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39: 19-35. [7]: Charlton, Thomas H. (1984). "Production and Exchange: Variables in the Evolution of a Civilization." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.17-42. [8]: Hirth, Kenneth G. (1984). "Early Exchange in Mesoamerica: An Introduction." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.1-16. |
||||||
|
The following quote suggests that bartering with articles was a common practice within Ethiopia. “Articles of clothing, food, agricultural implements, decorative ornaments, cotton cloth, small iron bars, cartridges, and bars of salt or amole, as it was called, replaced coins for many years.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 109) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
||||||
|
Raw or manufatured prestige goods -- ceramics, precious stone, feathers, textiles, jewelry, ornaments, etc. (both "articles" like jade and feathers, and "tokens" like shells) -- likely functioned as "primitive money" or "social currency."
[1]
[2]
[3]
[4]
[5]
[1]: Piña Chan, Román. (1971). "Preclassic or Formative Pottery and Minor Arts of the Valley of Mexico." In The Handbook of Middle American Indians, vol. 10, ed. G. F. Ekholm, and I. Bernal. Austin: University of Texas Press, pp.157-178. [2]: Sanders, William T., Jeffrey R. Parsons, and Robert S. Santley. (1979) The Basin of Mexico: Ecological Processes in the Evolution of a Civilization. Academic Press, New York, pg. 331-3. [3]: Stoner, Wesley D., Deborah L. Nichols, Bridget A. Alex, and Destiny L. Crider. (2015)"The emergence of Early-Middle Formative exchange patterns in Mesoamerica: A view from Altica in the Teotihuacan Valley." Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 39: 19-35. [4]: Charlton, Thomas H. (1984). "Production and Exchange: Variables in the Evolution of a Civilization." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.17-42. [5]: Hirth, Kenneth G. (1984). "Early Exchange in Mesoamerica: An Introduction." In Kenneth G. Hirth (Ed.) Trade and Exchange in Early Mesoamerica. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, pp.1-16. |
||||||
|
Coca: used as a medicine and in rituals, and also sometimes as a medium of exchange.
[1]
"Wari ceramics spread to many different places in the Andes during the Middle Horizon. While we do not know to what degree this spread reflects migrations, trade relations, or military conquest that forced an era of unification, all three circumstances were certainly involved. " [2] [1]: (Jennings and Bergh in Bergh 2012, 7) [2]: (Knobloch in Bergh 2012, 142) |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ‘1’ or ’No media of exchange or money’ was present, not ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Foreign coinage or paper coinage’, or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. Members of different tribes exchanged animal products and artifacts: ’Intertribal trade was mainly in animal products, betel-nut products, feathers, and certain artifacts known to be of high quality in particular districts. Although small in volume, trade was politically important in providing a motive for terminating warlike disputes.’
[1]
Salt was occasionally used as a form of payment: ’Salt. The native shows the usual craving for salt, so that among the inlanders it is useful pay for carriers. Visiting the coast, these inlanders will even take calabashes and bring them home full of sea-water. The only means of obtaining it locally is by burning certain leaves and the husks of coco-nut or Tauga nuts. Over a layer of dry wood are set a number of large pottery fragments, and over these again are piled the leaves and husks. Ignited, the pile smokes abundantly, and when it has burnt away leaves a residue of [Page 65] ash in the pottery fragments. For actual use the ash, which has a salty taste, is placed in a half coco-nut shell and watered; and the salty water percolates through the eyehole of the coco-nut into the cooking-pot.’
[2]
This may predate the colonial period, buth this remains in need of further confirmation.
[1]: Latham, Christopher S.: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Orokaiva [2]: Williams, F. E. (Francis Edgar), and Hubert Murray 1930. “Orokaiva Society”, 64 |
||||||
|
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’
[1]
. Aden was an exceptionally busy international port where all sorts of exchanges likely too place.
[1]: 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: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/5867/ |
||||||
|
According to SCCS variable 17 ’Money (Media of Exchange) and Credit’, ‘1’ or ’No media of exchange or money’ was present, not ’Domestically used articles as media of exchange’ or ’Tokens of conventional value as media of exchange’ or ’Foreign coinage or paper coinage’, or ’Indigenous coinage or paper currency’. Salt was occasionally used as a form of payment: ’Salt. The native shows the usual craving for salt, so that among the inlanders it is useful pay for carriers. Visiting the coast, these inlanders will even take calabashes and bring them home full of sea-water. The only means of obtaining it locally is by burning certain leaves and the husks of coco-nut or Tauga nuts. Over a layer of dry wood are set a number of large pottery fragments, and over these again are piled the leaves and husks. Ignited, the pile smokes abundantly, and when it has burnt away leaves a residue of [Page 65] ash in the pottery fragments. For actual use the ash, which has a salty taste, is placed in a half coco-nut shell and watered; and the salty water percolates through the eyehole of the coco-nut into the cooking-pot.’
[1]
[1]: Williams, F. E. (Francis Edgar), and Hubert Murray 1930. “Orokaiva Society”, 64 |
||||||
|
“Articles of clothing, food, agricultural implements, decorative ornaments, cotton cloth, small iron bars, cartridges, and bars of salt or amole, as it was called, replaced coins for many years.”
[1]
[1]: (Shinn and Ofcansky 2013, 109) Shinn, David and Thomas Ofcansky. 2013. Historical Dictionary of Ethiopia. Lanham, Maryland: Scarecrow Press. Seshat URL: https://www.zotero.org/groups/1051264/seshat_databank/collections/TWITJWK4/items/29MS79PA/collection |
||||||
|
"Based on Mesopotamian texts, the materials that did function in exchanges were "barley, lead, copper or bronze, tin, silver, gold... Barley, lead and copper or bronze...[were]...cheaper monies, tin was mid-range, silver and the much rarer gold were high-range monies" (Powell 1996: 227ff)... What distinguishes silver and barley from the materials listed, along with "cows, sheep, asses, slaves, household utensils" and other items, is that they possessed a common denominator for value based on systems of weighing, measuring, and possibly quality."
[1]
Monetary items were therefore present in the Indus area at this time, and presumed present at Nausharo in order to trade for foreign items, but there direct evidence for ’money’ at Nausharo is lacking.
[1]: Wright, R. P. (2010) The Ancient Indus: urbanism, economy and society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. p260 |
||||||
|
"Based on Mesopotamian texts, the materials that did function in exchanges were "barley, lead, copper or bronze, tin, silver, gold... Barley, lead and copper or bronze...[were]...cheaper monies, tin was mid-range, silver and the much rarer gold were high-range monies" (Powell 1996: 227ff)... What distinguishes silver and barley from the materials listed, along with "cows, sheep, asses, slaves, household utensils" and other items, is that they possessed a common denominator for value based on systems of weighing, measuring, and possibly quality."
[1]
Monetary items were therefore present in the Indus area at this time, and presumed present at Nausharo in order to trade for foreign items, but there direct evidence for ’money’ at Nausharo is lacking.
[1]: Wright, R. P. (2010) The Ancient Indus: urbanism, economy and society. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. p260 |
||||||
|
The Sakha actively participated in barter trade with Russians: ’Yakut also engaged in the fur trade; by the twentieth century hunters for luxury furs had depleted the ermines, sables, and foxes, and they were relying on squirrels. Yakut merchants and transporters spread throughout the entire northeast, easing communications and trade for natives and Russians. They sold luxuries like silver and gold jewelry and carved bone, ivory, and wood crafts in addition to staples such as butter, meat, and hay. Barter, Russian money, and furs formed the media of exchange. Guns were imported, as was iron for local blacksmiths.’
[1]
Fox and ermine skins doubled as units of exchange at that time. The same was true for butter (see next sheet on both). We have assumed here that barter was practiced prior to Russian rule as well.
[1]: Balzer, Marjorie Mandelstam and Skoggard, Ian: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Yakut |
||||||
|
"The Proto-urban Site of Sarazm had connections with the steppes of Central Asia, and in addition with the Turkmenian, proto-Elamite, Mesopotamian, and Indus worlds."
[1]
"The Proto-urban Site of Sarazm is one of the places that gave birth to and saw the development of the major trans-Eurasian trade routes."
[1]
[1]: http://whc.unesco.org/en/list/1141 |
||||||
|
Example of products traded at the Market of the Lamps included tortoise shell caskets, crystals and ivory.
[1]
State workshops called tiraz and private factories produced high-quality linen. Frantz-Murphy (1981) argued linen was used as a store of value and asset and that elites grew their own flax.
[2]
[1]: (Raymond 2000, 42) [2]: (Findlay and O’Rourke 2009, 56) Findlay, Ronald. O’Rourke, Kevin H. 2009. Power and Plenty: Trade, War, and the World Economy in the Second Millennium. Princeton University Press. |
||||||
|
gold, silver, tin, copper, bronze, electrum, iron, lead, hematite, carnelian, rock crystal, chalcedony, lapis lazuli, faience, textiles
[1]
[2]
[1]: Joukowsky M. S., "Early Turkey. An Introduction to the Archeology of Anatolia from Prehistory through the Lydian Period", USA 1996, pp. 166 - 173. [2]: Sagona A. and P. Zimansky, "Ancient Turkey", USA 2009, p. 214 |
||||||
|
Probably found shop for renting cooking ware: Within were once wooden shelves holding dozens of vessels of all shapes and sizes, including Omphalos bowls with dimples in the bottom, a staple Çadır pottery tradition. Outside these buildings were large, apparently private, courtyard areas."
[1]
[1]: http://www.cadirhoyuk.com/site-history.html |
||||||
|
Wheat and other agricultural products were often used as stores of wealth.
[1]
During the Roman Dominate due to debasement of the currency and high inflation there was a reversion to exchange-in-kind for many payments, e.g. to soldiers, and for some taxes.
[2]
.
[1]: (Gibbs 2012, 46) [2]: (Cameron 2013, 6) |
||||||
|
The fur trade was characterized by barter: ’Long before European contact the Iroquois were involved in an intricate trade network with other native groups (see cultural relations above). Clay pipes were an important trade item that reached other native groups all along the east coast of North America. The aggressive behavior the Iroquois exhibited towards their neighbors during the fur trade period has been interpreted by some as the result of their aim to protect and expand their middleman role. Others have suggested that the aggressive behavior of the Iroquois tribes was related to the scarcity of furs in their own territory and the resulting difficulty in obtaining European trade goods. According to this theory, the Iroquois warred primarily to obtain the trade goods of their neighbors in closer contact with Europeans. After the center of fur trading activities had moved farther west, the Iroquois continued to play an important role as voyageurs and trappers.’
[1]
[1]: Reid, Gerald: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Iroquois |
||||||
|
The fur trade was characterized by barter: ’Long before European contact the Iroquois were involved in an intricate trade network with other native groups (see cultural relations above). Clay pipes were an important trade item that reached other native groups all along the east coast of North America. The aggressive behavior the Iroquois exhibited towards their neighbors during the fur trade period has been interpreted by some as the result of their aim to protect and expand their middleman role. Others have suggested that the aggressive behavior of the Iroquois tribes was related to the scarcity of furs in their own territory and the resulting difficulty in obtaining European trade goods. According to this theory, the Iroquois warred primarily to obtain the trade goods of their neighbors in closer contact with Europeans. After the center of fur trading activities had moved farther west, the Iroquois continued to play an important role as voyageurs and trappers.’
[1]
[1]: Reid, Gerald: eHRAF Cultural Summary for the Iroquois |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Articles have not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
“仰韶墓随葬品上不存在悬殊的现象，不存在私有制.” Absence of personal articles in tombs shows that there was no concept of private ownership among the Yangshao.
[1]
-- might one group have exchanged items with another group? such as animal skins for weapons?
[1]: (Yang, 2012, 313) Yang, Yubin. 2012. 20世纪仰韶文化的重要发现与研究. 袁广阔主编出版社. |
||||||
|
No sources list prices in terms of e.g. cattle, but in a recently pastoral society it is not out of the question.
|
||||||
|
Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
Sources do not suggest that monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Although exchange of goods will have taken place, sources do not suggest that specific monetary items have been found dating to this period.
[1]
[1]: Marcus and Flannery (1996) Zapotec Civilization: How urban society evolved in Mexico’s Oaxaca Valley. Flannery and Marcus (1983) The Cloud People: divergent evolution of the Zapotec and Mixtec civilizations. Museum of Anthropology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Academic Press, New York. |
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
This has not been mentioned in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
Articles are not mentioned in the sources consulted.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
Salt was used as payment to soldiers from 406 BCE and was an essential commodity with the "Salt Road" being in existence from the start of the Roman Kingdom period.
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||
|
-
|
||||||