Monetary Transitions: Currencies, Colonialism and African Societies

Contents
Notes on Contributors
List of Figures
List of Tables
1 Introduction: Money, Colonialism and African Societies
	A Renaissance of African Monetary History
	Multifaceted Monetary Transitions: Concepts, Themes and Perspectives
	Conclusion and Paths Forward
	References
Part I Early Colonial Transitions: Commodity, International and Colonial Currencies
2 “Here There Is No Gold Standard. Cows Are the Standard”. Multiple Currencies, Colonial Taxation and Monetary Transition in Upper Ghana (1896–1936)
	Introduction
	Interregional Commercial Networks, Livestock and Multiple Currencies in North-Eastern Ghana
	Collecting Taxes and Introducing Coins: The Flaws in the Execution of Colonial Policies
	Coins for Commerce: Colonial Currency in the African Markets
	The “Commensuration” of Colonial Coinage and the Value of Money
	Conclusion
	References
3 Spheres of Money, Payments, and Credit Systems in the Colony of Senegal in the Long Nineteenth Century
	The Establishment of the Colony of Senegal and the Shift in Export Commodities
	Commodity Monies Exported to Senegal: Iron Bars and Guinée Cloth
	A Credit System Developed with Commodity Money: The Case of Guinée Cloth
	Silver Coins: Commodity or “Modern” Money?
	The Modern Financial System Developed by Colonizers
	The Development of a Credit System Without the Intermediation of Money
	Coexistence of Multiple Spheres of Money, Payment, and Credit Systems as an Outcome of the Rational Behaviors of Economic Agents
	Conclusion
	References
4 The Maria Theresa Thaler in Italian Eritrea: The Impact of Colonial Monetary Policies During the First World War
	Italian Monetary Policies During the First World War and Their Consequences
	The Maria Theresa Thaler in a Regional Perspective
	Conclusion
	References
Part II Money Forms, Politics and Banking in the Transition
5 Gold, Currency and Stamps: The Rejected Plans for a State and Public Bank in Early Colonial Zimbabwe (1896–1907)
	Introduction: Colonisation, Monetary Transitions and Economic Encounters, 1890–1896
	Currency, Colonial State and Economy Formation: Settler Experiences to 1898
	Monetary Challenges, Colonial Legislation and the Plans for the State and Public Bank
	Conclusion
	References
6 Beyond Imperial Interests: Settler Regimes, Capital and Africans in Colonial Southern Africa’s Currency Politics to 1920
	White Settlement and Colonial Currency Questions in Southern Africa’s Coastal Enclaves to the Mid-Nineteenth Century
	European Colonial Expansion, Migrant Labour and Currency Questions
	The Union of South Africa, the Shift from the Gold Standard and the Problems of Specie
	Conclusion
	References
7 Poverty and the Transition to Instability: The Italian Lira in Eritrean History
	The Lira as a Failed State Institution
	The Role of the Private Sector
	The Emergence of a Lira Economy
	Conclusion
	References
8 “We Had to Feed the People”: The Italian Lira and the Political Economy of Currency in British Eritrea, 1941–1950
	Introduction
	A Monetary Policy for British Eritrea
	Orthodoxy Against Flexibility: The Debate on the Lira
	The Hornsby Committee
	The 1942 Monetary Proclamation and Its Implementation
	Conclusions
	References
Part III Global and Transnational Dimensions of African Monetary Transitions
9 How and Why Did the Rupee Become the Currency of Zanzibar and East Africa?
	Introduction
	Multiple Currencies and Fluctuating Values
	Fixing the Value of Coins in Circulation
	Overvaluation and Undervaluation
	Conclusion
	References
10 Colonial Money in Africa and National Economy-Building in Britain and Germany: Examining Relations of Agency, 1890s–1930s
	Colonial Currency Policy and Economic Visions in British Africa
	Approaches to Currency Reform in German East Africa
	Colonial Currency, National Economies and Transnational Economic Steering
	Conclusion
	References
11 Another History of Money Viewed from Africa and Asia
	Revisiting Inconvertible Currencies from the Ground
	Peasants, Marketplace, and Atomic Currencies
	Exporting Peasant Products Circulated New Currencies
	Global Depression Revitalized Monetary Locality
	Conclusion
	References
Index