Title: Money matters : instability, values, and social payments in the modern history of West African communities /
Authors: Guyer, Jane I.
Publisher: Heinemann ; J. Currey,
Year: 1995
Subjects: Money Africa, West Congresses.; Money Africa, West.; Africa, West Economic conditions Congresses.; Africa, West Social conditions Congresses.; Africa, West Economic conditions.; Africa, West Social conditions.
Abstract: As currency bills are issued in denominations of thousands or hundreds of thousands, as economies return to barter, and as soldiers riot over their paychecks, people throughout the world are becoming painfully aware of currency instability. But West Africa has been subject to changes and instabilities in currency systems for centuries, and West Africans have long been skilled at negotiating multiple-currency economies at the interface with Europe. Many indigenous African currencies were created at least partly in response to international trade. Some widely circulated African currency items were originally introduced from overseas to finance the slave trade. All colonial money was a European invention.