Making Money
Africa in World History
SERIES EDITORS: DAVID ROBINSON, JOSEPH C. MILLER, AND TODD CLEVELAND
James C. McCann
Stirring the Pot: A History of African Cuisine
Peter Alegi
African Soccerscapes: How a Continent Changed the World’s Game
Todd Cleveland
Stones of Contention: A History of Africa’s Diamonds
Laura Lee P. Huttenbach
The Boy Is Gone: Conversations with a Mau Mau General
John M. Mugane
The Story of Swahili
Colleen E. Kriger
Making Money: Life, Death, and Early Modern Trade on Africa’s Guinea Coast
Making Money
Life, Death, and Early Modern Trade on Africa’s Guinea Coast
Colleen E. Kriger
OHIO UNIVERSITY PRESS
ATHENS
Ohio University Press, Athens, Ohio 45701
© 2017 by Ohio University Press
All rights reserved
To obtain permission to quote, reprint, or otherwise reproduce or distribute material from Ohio University Press publications, please contact our rights and permissions department at (740) 593-1154 or (740) 593-4536 (fax).
Printed in the United States of America
Ohio University Press books are printed on acid-free paper
27 26 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 18 17 5 4 3 2 1
COVER: King of Sestos Receives Jean Barbot.
The National Archives of the UK, Jean Barbot ms, ADM 7/830A.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Kriger, Colleen E., author.
Title: Making money : life, death, and early modern trade on Africa's Guinea Coast / Colleen E. Kriger.
Other titles: Africa in world history.
Description: Athens, Ohio : Ohio University Press, 2017. | Series: Africa in world history
Identifiers: LCCN 2017036292| ISBN 9780896803152 (hc : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780896802964 (pb : alk. paper) | ISBN 9780896805002 (pdf)
Subjects: LCSH: Guinea (Region)--Commerce--Great Britain--History--17th century. | Great Britain--Commerce--Guinea (Region)--History--17th century. | Royal African Company--History--17th century. | Slave trade--Guinea (Region) | Guinea (Region)--History--17th century.
Classification: LCC HF3920.Z7 G924 2017 | DDC 382.0966041--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017036292
To My Students—Past, Present, and Future
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION: Atlantic Lives: Anglo-African Trade in Northern Guinea
ONE: Buyers and Sellers in Cross-Cultural Trade
TWO: “Artificers” and Merchants: Making and Moving Goods
THREE: West Africans Profiting in Atlantic Trade
FOUR: Company Property: Captives, Rebels, and Grometos
FIVE: Free Agents and Local Hires: Managing Men in Northern Guinea
CONCLUSION: Anglo-African Relations
Suggested Further Readings, by Chapter and Topic
ILLUSTRATIONS
Figures
1.1. Cotton tunic, eleventh or twelfth c. CE, Mali
1.2. Upper Guinea Coast and Cape Verde Islands
1.3. King of Sestos receives Jean Barbot
2.1. European floor loom and weaver
2.3. Port Loko Creek and Rokelle River, Sierra Leone Estuary
2.4. Trade in captives, Senegambia region
3.1. Mouth of the Gambia River and James Island
3.2. A Creole ivory horn
3.3. Fort and harbor at Cacheu
3.4. RAC debt note to Bento Sanchy
4.1. Corporal punishment of slave runaways, Brazil and Caribbean
4.2. Plan of James Island and the fort
5.1. Plants and trees, seventeenth c. Guinea Coast
Maps
1.1. Places mentioned in chapter 1
1.2. Production and circulation of commodity currencies, West Africa ca. 1500
2.1. Major Afro-Eurasian exports in Anglo-African North Atlantic trade, seventeenth c.