Another History of Money Viewed from Africa and Asia

The exchanges made between peasants in marketplaces are predominantly one-time, on-the-spot transactions. That is why, all across the world, a large quantity of currency whose value is divisible enough to accommodate such transactions, which are significantly seasonal, is necessary to meet demand. If money is not provided exogenously, locals create money themselves. Importantly, however, creating an endogenous currency does not exclude materials for that currency, such as cowries, being brought in from outside. Local transactions in Africa were open enough to attract a variety of items from outside to serve as a means of exchange. Increases in the prices of peasant products such as palm oil in Africa and seed oils in Asia under the international gold standard regime gave colonial authorities a good chance to introduce colonial currencies that were convertible with currencies in the home countries and, in the process, demonetize pre-existing currencies in Africa and Asia. The substantial fall in the price of peasant products during the Great Depression diverted peasants both in Africa and Asia from market transactions for export. It was difficult for existing colonial currencies in Africa to accommodate rural transactions in lower denominations, and this caused commodity currencies such as cowries to survive or partly revive at the ground level. Free from a state-oriented teleology justifying top-down reformation, the transformation of monetary usage in Africa and Asia reveals that endogenous means substantially determined how money was made for locals.