Amole

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Amole

Amole ( Amharic አሞሌ) is the name of salt money, which was traditionally used in Ethiopia as an extra-monetary means of payment and at the same time was exchanged due to its use value . It had a double function as a commodity and a symbolic monetary value. Amoli are still a commodity in local markets. The salt bars, wrapped with vegetable fibers for protection, weigh between 700 and 950 grams and measure around 30 × 5 × 3 or 21 × 6 × 3.5 centimeters. The salt is broken in the deposits of the Afar lowlands in the traditional way and brought to the Ethiopian highlands in pack animals .

history

Like the Roman salt road Via Salaria , salt transport routes in Africa formed a basis for the old network of roads. Salt was used as a means of payment in the Congo , Nigeria (small Mangul salt bars in the Kingdom of Bornu ) and for over a thousand years, especially in Ethiopia.

The Greek traveler and trader Kosmas Indicopleustes visited the empire of Aksum around 525 AD . From the 3rd to the beginning of the 7th century, gold, silver, bronze and copper coins were minted here, based on the Roman model with the image of the ruler. These coins were preferred for international trade. Kosmas describes that amoles were also used as a means of payment. He provides the first written mention of this means of payment in Ethiopia.

Paying for services as a combination of coins, salt money and commodities such as animals, grain and cotton fabrics was common until the 18th century. The amoli were the most important means of payment in the markets.

At the end of the 18th century and until the end of the Second World War in 1945, the Austrian Maria Theresa Thaler, minted with the date 1780, was recognized means of payment in East Africa and the Arab world. In Ethiopia, this coin came into the country through the export of slaves. Amoli were too inconvenient for Arab traders to carry over long distances. In addition, Indian rupees came into circulation in the 19th century through Indian , Greek and Armenian traders, especially in Tigray and Harar . At the beginning of the 20th century there were the following currencies: Maria Theresa Taler (Talari), Indian silver rupees , Italian paper lire , amole and cotton fabric.

Around 1900, Ethiopian rulers calculated income and expenditure in gold, talari, salt, ivory and cotton. The tax money collected in 1903 totaled 2,421,000 thalers, 27 percent of which were amoli, which were converted to 907,000 Maria Theresa thalers.

Relative value

The value of an amole depended on the time of year, the route of transport and its nature. Compared to transport and intermediate trade, the amount of work involved in extracting the salt had the lowest share in the assessment of the value. The amoli had to be laboriously checked and weighed at the trade. Seasonal price fluctuations occurred because camel caravans could only move up into the highlands during the dry season from September to May. In the rainy season , the value of an amole could increase by 50 percent. The value varied the most with distance from the mining area. On the markets in remote regions, it was many times that, due to the poor transport routes and controlled by the range of products offered by dealers. According to Francisco Alvares , who visited Ethiopia in the 16th century, 120 to 130 bars of salt were exchanged for a certain amount of gold in the vicinity of the salt deposits, whereas in the capital of the Shewa province , only five bars. It was only with the introduction of the Maria Theresa thaler that it became firmly established compared to the Amole. This meant that between 8 and 100 amoli could be demanded for one thaler around 1880.

Careful storage was necessary to prevent loss of value due to damage, especially in the rainy season. For this purpose, amoli were hung on the roof over the fire or buried in the wood ash of the hearth.

Dismantling and transport

Salt deposits - arose from the grave breach penetrated and later evaporated seawater - are located in the Afar lowlands by the Lake Assal in Djibouti , north of the Ethiopian Afar region on Lake Afrera and the north of the volcano Erta Ale located Assalesee . Afar workers break up the salt on the ground with axes. Afterwards, several meter-sized panels are detached with wooden crowbars and cut to approximately square panel formats of seven kilograms each.

20 blocks of salt are loaded per camel. Caravans with several hundred animals travel from the salt deposits to the Mekele area in the highlands. There, traders saw the panels into the usual bar shape and wrapped them with ribbons. The Afar traditionally swap the salt for durra ( sorghum ) from the Ethiopian highland farmers .

Antoine Thomson d'Abbadie incorrectly wrote that Amole was the name of an Afar clan. In fact, the name is derived from an Afar word amolé for "that has a head".

literature

  • Akinobu Kurodaa: The Maria Theresa dollar in the early twentieth-century Red Sea region: a complementary interface between multiple markets. Financial History Review 14, Cambridge University Press, 2007, pp. 89-110

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d Richard Pankhurst: Amole , in: Siegbert Uhlig (Ed.): Encyclopaedia Aethiopica , Volume 1, 2003, ISBN 3-447-04746-1
  2. ^ Richard Pankhurst: A Brief History of Trade and Business in Ethiopia from Ancient to Modern Times . ( Memento of the original from December 28, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 1999 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / web.linkethiopia.org
  3. ^ NBE: History of Banking and Money in Ethiopia. ( Memento from September 22, 2007 in the Internet Archive )
  4. ^ Richard Pankhurst: "Primitive Money" in Ethiopia. Journal de la Societé des Africanistes, 32.2. 1962, pp. 213-247
  5. ↑ Akinobu Kuroda in: Financial History Review 14.1. 2007 pp. 89–110, table p. 99
  6. ↑ Photos of the Danakil desert ( memento from February 1, 2010 on WebCite ), u. a. of salt caravans and Lake Afrera
  7. ↑ Daoud Aboubaker Alwan, Yohanis Mibrathu: Amolle and Food , in: Historical Dictionary of Djibouti . Scarecrow Press 2000, ISBN 978-0810838734
  8. ↑ Didier Morin: Amolé . In: Dictionnaire historique afar (1288-1982) . France 2004, ISBN 2-84586-492-2 , pp. 53f