Evening star., 1898-06-11
WEST AFRICAN CURRENCY.
only Cowrfe Shells and slaves Used
In business transactions.

From the Contemporary Review.
The only recognized currency In Kano
ana throughout the greater part OF the
West African hinterland consists of cowrio
shells and slaves Near.the coast 800 cow
rle shells represent the value of an English
penny. In the far interior the value of a
shell is doubled. Even here 10 shilIings'
worth CT money weighs 100 pounds Cowrie
shells are. indeed. a perfect caricature of
what currency should be- lacking as they
DO the three characteristics which. accord
ing to political economists a medium OF ex-
change should possess - namely. intrinsic
Natue' scarcity and rtability. VIII ere any
larger amount is concerned than can easily
ise paid in shells. slaves are used as the me-
dium OF exchange. A sort OF feudaI system
prevails throughout the greater part of
west Africa, the smaller towns paying an
iual tribute to the larger. Thus Kano has
upward OF 40 towns which pay tribute to
It's king, while il in turn pays tribute TO
Sokoto. Nearly the whole of this tribute is
paid IN slaves. Were slavery suddenly
aDollshed, the whole system of government
would be disorganized, and II would he i'm
possible for most of the towns to find any
ether currency iii which to pay. What OBJ
Viously needs to be doEe is 10 introduce a
regular coinage. This can only be done by
the presence in largely increased numbers
OIL Europeans in the country, by whose
means any coin which might be thought de-
slrable would soon obtain circulation.
The only coin which is at present recog-
niZed in the interior is the Maria Theresa
dollar. This coin, which is made in Vienna,
and bears date 1850, is manufactured eX-
clusively for export to Central Africa. 1t
contains about = shillings' worth Of silver,
ard its purchasing value in the Soudan va
ries from IS. TO Is. Cd. 1t will pass in any
of the larger towns. but not, as a rule, in
the country districts. The wholesale intro
auction of this or of any similar coin which
can, however, only be effected pari passu
with the general extension of European in
huence, would greatly decrease the difficult
ties connected with the abolition of the
slave trade. AS the case is now, when
well-to-do native sets out a journey of
any length. he calculates beforehand the
probable expense ard takes a corresponding
number of slaves. These he turns into
cowrie shells at the various markets which
he passes on his route. The value of a
slave varies from 100000 to :bEl,0ou shells
or from f3 to IL. These are the average
market prices; slaves sold by private ar
rangement, and whose character il known,
Otter fetch much higher prices. The En-
giIsh traveller who objects on principle to
accepting slaves in payment Of a debt is
often subjected to serious inconvenience IN
consequence. One native king 10 whom /
had sold some rolls of silk became il.debt-
cd TO me to the extent of 7Jo,UO0 cowries.
AS l refused TO receive payment in slaves L
had to wait altogether two months in order
to extract what was due to me, and finally
left the ncighborhood In despair when
many thousands of shells were still owing.
The only advantage, as far as l could see,
which the native derives from the use of
the cowrie shells money Is the unlimited
opportunities which it affords him for
cheating the white man. The latter. who
has seldom either time patience TO count
his money, is compelled to accept from 10
to % per cent less than what the native
processes to pay.