Manille (currency)
A Manila ( manɪljə ), also Manilla , is a bracelet made of bronze or copper , in rare cases, of gold , which forms a not quite closed circle. Manillas were used as a premonetic means of payment ( premonitarian ) or an object of exchange and occasionally as jewelry among various peoples of West Africa, in particular the Gold Coast , the Kingdom of Calabar and other parts of Nigeria . They also came to be known as the "slave trade currency" after the Europeans began using them to acquire slaves for the transatlantic slave trade with America . Manillas were the first generally exchangeable currency known in West Africa. In contrast to cowboy money , for example , it was used for trading in the markets as well as a bride price, to pay fortune tellers or as a grave gift for the next world.
Origin of the designation
The name "Manille" or "Manilla" should be derived from the Spanish word manella for bracelet, from the Portuguese word for finger ring or from the Latin manus (hand) or from monilia (plural of monile ) for necklace. Manillas are usually horseshoe-shaped with approximately diamond-shaped ends pointing towards one another.
Types of manilla
Africans had different regional names for manillas, gave them different values and were picky about which variant of manillas they accepted. Manillas were also distinguished by the sound they made when they hit each other.
A report by Fernando Póo's British consul from 1856 gives an impression of this sophistication. He lists five different forms of manilla that were common in Nigeria. The Antony Manillas were accepted in all inland markets, the Congo Simgolos or "bottle necks ", however, only in the Opungo market, the Onadoo was particularly popular in the Kingdom of Calabar , among the Igbo between Bonny and New Kalabari . The Finniman Fawfinna was common in Juju Town and the Qua market, but was only worth half as much as the Antony.
The spread of other African names can be traced back to regional customs rather than actual differences in manufacture or material. The Mkporo is likely a Dutch or British manille , the Popo a French manilla, but the rest of the items are made in Birmingham .
history
origin
Some sources attribute the spread of the manillas to the Phoenicians , who are said to have already traded on the coast of West Africa in antiquity , or to traders or explorers from ancient Carthage . The Egyptians were also accepted as a source because they also used diamond-shaped money. According to one theory, fishermen from what is now Nigeria got these copper items from European shipwrecks in the Bay of Benin . Other theories are based on an African origin and assume that the manillas a metal copy traditional bracelets made of raffia are or that the Mondua the Yoruba were the model of manillas.
The manillas are also reminiscent of the torques worn by the Celts in Central Europe, for example .
In any case, before the arrival of the first Europeans, there was already a tradition of copper bracelets worn by women as a symbol of prosperity on this coast. Duarte Pacheco Pereira , who traded here in the 1490s, already mentions that he paid 12 to 15 manillas made of brass for a slave. In 1522 a slave in Benin cost 50 manillas, and the Portuguese king limited the price to 40 manillas per slave to stop inflation .
With the decline of the slave trade in the 19th century, manilla production also declined. In the 1890s they were still of some importance in the palm oil trade . Many manillas were melted down by African artisans to make art objects. Manillas were also often placed on a grave to demonstrate the deceased's prosperity, and in some areas of Benin women at funerals still wear large manillas around their necks, which later return to the family shrine . Gold manillas are said to have been made for very important people like King Jaja of Opobo in 1891.
Between 1504 and 1507 the Portuguese alone imported 287,813 manillas from Portugal via their trading post at San Jorge da Mina in Elmina in what is now Ghana. Later they also used the Dutch and British as a means of payment here, especially in the slave trade. Originally copper was the preferred material, later brass at the end of the 15th century and finally bronze from 1630 . In the early 18th century, Bristol and then Birmingham were the main factories for their manufacture.
Manillas were also made in Africa itself, but little is known about it.
Abolition of the manillas as currency
With the Native Currency Proclamation , the British colonial rulers banned the import of manillas into Nigeria in 1902, unless this was approved by the High Commissioner. The intention was to encourage the use of minted British coins. However, they continued to be in use until the 1940s, which was viewed as an administrative problem.
Through the operation manilla , the British tried to finally exchange the manillas for British currency. The campaign was quite successful, and 32 million pieces were bought up and disposed of as scrap. On April 1, 1949, the history of manillas as legal tender in British West Africa ended after a six-month exchange period. A maximum of 200 per person was still allowed for ceremonial purposes at funerals and weddings. Only the varieties Okpoho , Okombo and Abi were still officially recognized and were bought at a fixed rate. 32.5 million Okpoho , 250,000 Okombo and 50,000 Abi were handed over in this way. A metal trader in Europe received 2,460 tons of manillas, yet the company cost the area's taxpayers £ 284,000 .
Nowadays, manillas are still made for tourists.
literature
- Manilla . In: Walter Hirschberg (ed.): New dictionary of ethnology . Reimer, Berlin 1988, ISBN 3-496-00875-X , p. 295 .
- Stefanie Lux: Kissipenny and Manilla. Money and Commerce in Ancient Africa . Duisburg 1995, ISBN 3-8927-515-6 ( defective ) .
- Otto Werner: West African manillas from German metal works. Recycling of copper scrap in the 15th and 16th centuries . In: Erzmetall . tape 29 , no. 10 , 1976, ISSN 0044-2658 , pp. 447-453 .
Web links
- Manilla Currency, West Africa. Hamill Gallery of Tribal Art, accessed November 1, 2018 .
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Christopher Churchill Chamberlain: The Teach Yourself Guide To Numismatics . London 1963, p. 92 .
- ^ "Slave Trade" bracelets. Calgary Coin Gallery, accessed November 1, 2018 .
- ↑ a b c d e f g h Alun Rees: Manillas . In: Coin News . April 2000, ISSN 0958-1391 , p. 46-47 .
- ↑ a b c d Scott Semans: Manilla: Money Of The Slave Trade. Scott Semans World Coins, accessed November 1, 2018 .
- ^ A b c d Paul Einzig: Primitive Money in its ethnological, historical and economic aspects . Eyre & Spottiswoode, London 1949, p. 150-155 .