Trade centres · pre-1822
Currencies of the Grain Coast
Country cloth, iron bars, salt cones, kissi pennies and manillas — the plural money of a region without coin.
Biography
No single currency circulated across the region, and none needed to. Value was carried by goods that were durable, divisible and universally wanted: strips of country cloth counted by the piece, iron in bars or pennies, salt in standard cones, and imported manillas and cowries on the coast.
Exchange rates between them were known and quoted. A slave, a cow, a canoe or a bride-price could each be stated in several currencies at once, and traders converted routinely.
Historical significance
A plural monetary system with stable conversion — evidence of sophisticated commercial reckoning long before any bank existed on this coast.
Timeline
- pre-1500Cloth, salt and iron currencies in circulation
- 16th–18th c.European manillas and cowries enter the system
- 19th c.Silver dollars circulate alongside country money
Related entries
References
- Johnston, Harry (1906). Liberia.
- Rodney, Walter (1970). A History of the Upper Guinea Coast.
Suggested reading
- Rodney (1970), ch. 4.