1. Law, Robin, The Slave Coast of West Africa, 1550-1750: The impact of the Attontic Slave Trade on an African society (Oxford, 1991).Google Scholar

2. Robin Law, “Posthumous Questions for Karl Polanyi: Price Inflation in Pre-Colonial Dahomey,” paper presented to the 33rd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Baltimore, November 1990. A revised version of this paper is being prepared for publication; it should be noted that some of the computations of prices in the version originally presented at Baltimore are wrong.

3. Polanyi, Karl, Dahomey and the Slave Trade: An Analysis of an Archaic Economy (Seattle, 1966), 49–50.Google Scholar

4. Burton, Richard, A Mission to Gelele, King of Dahome (2 vols.: London, 1864), 2: 242.Google Scholar In another passage, somewhat contradictorily. Burton stated that prices had doubled within the preceding ten years (1854-1864): ibid., 1:77.

5. Johnson, Marion, “The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa, II,” JAH, 11 (1970), 339–40Google Scholar; cf. Hogendom, Jan and Johnson, Marion, The Shell Money of the Slave Trade (Cambridge, 1986), 139.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

6. Polanyi, , Dahomey, 85.Google Scholar

7. Johnson, , “Cowrie currencies II,” 332Google Scholar; cf. Hogendorn, /Johnson, , Shell Money, 133–34Google Scholar; for fuller discussion see Law, Robin, “The Gold Trade of Whydah in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries” in Henige, David and McCaskie, T. C., eds., West African Economic and Social History: Studies in Memory of Marion Johnson (Madison, 1990), 113–15.Google Scholar Polanyi supported his claim by citing valuations of cowries at 200 (given as the price of a chicken) for 6d and 1,000 for 2s. 6d allegedly given by Barbot and Bosman in the 1680s and 1690s respectively. Johnson argued that these figures referred to the European cost rather than the African exchange value of cowries, but in fact they are merely errors. The first, although cited by Polanyi from Barbot, John, Description of the Coasts of North and South Guinea (London, 1732), 330Google Scholar, was in fact copied by Barbot from Bosman, William, A New and Accurate Description of the Coast of Guinea (London, 1705), 390Google Scholar; but Bosman merely gave the price of chicken as 6d (or rather, in the original Dutch version of the text, 6 stuivers, actually worth rather more than 7 English pence) and did not mention the number of cowries this represented, Polanyi's assumption that this was 200 being merely a mistaken inference from the use of the term “galina” (Portuguese for ‘hen’) for the unit of 200 cowries. The second figure is a misattribution, since it in fact occurs nowhere in Bosnian's work.

8. Johnson, , “Cowrie currencies,” 347–48Google Scholar; Hogendorn, /Johnson, , Shell Money, 145.Google Scholar

9. Jones, Adam, “Prostitution, Polyandrie oder Vergewaltigung? Zur Mehrdeutigkeit europäischer Quellen über die Küste Westafrikas zwischen 1660 und 1860” in Jones, , ed., Aussereuropäische Frauengeschichte: Probleme der Forschung (Pfaffenweller, 1990), 149.Google Scholar

10. “Beschryvinge van den handel tot Arder,” in “Aenwysingde van diversche Beschryvingen van de Noort-Cust van Africa” (University of Leiden: Bibliotheca Publica, ms. 927), ff. 12-13; Leers, Arnout, Pertinente Beschryvinge van Afrika (Rotterdam, 1665), 308-–11Google Scholar; Dapper, Olfert, Naukeurige Beschrijvinge der Afrikanensche Gewesten (2nd ed: Amsterdam, 1676), 2nd pagination, 119–20Google Scholar; Barbot, , Description, 349, 352.Google Scholar

11. The price of a box of salt, given as three brass bracelets in the original manuscript, thus increased to four in Barbot's version (352); and the cost of hiring a hammock, originally given as 10 brass bracelets plus four daily for the bearers' subsistence, appears in Barbot (349) as four bracelets daily per bearer, plus then-subsistence.

12. Law, Robin, Correspondence from the Royal African Company's Factories at Offra and Whydah on the Slave Coast of West Africa in the Public Record Office, London, 1678–93Google Scholar (Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Occasional Paper, 24, 1990), no. 5: Invoyce of Goods most in demand at Arda Factory, 15 Jan. 1681; Van Dantzig, Albert, The Dutch and the Guinea Coast, 1674-1742: A Collection of Documents From the General State Archive at The Hague (Accra, 1978), no. 15Google Scholar: Instruction for Willem De la Palma, 8 Dec. 1685; no. 17: Isaac Van Hoolwerff, Offra, 8 Dec. 1686.

13. Bosman, , Description, 215Google Scholar (prostitutes), 343 (porters' wages), 364a (slaves' subsistence), 389-90 (livestock); Phillips, Thomas, “A Journal of a Voyage made in the Hannibal of London,” in Churchill, Awnsham and Churchill, John, eds., Collection of Voyages and Travels (London, 1732), 221Google Scholar; Atkins, John, A Voyage to Guinea, Brasil and the West Indies (London, 1735), 112Google Scholar; Barbot, Description, 329-30. This misattribution of Bosnian's material to Barbot is repeated by Marion Johnson.

14. Berbain, Simone, Le Comptoir Français de Juda (Ouidah) au XVIle siècle (Paris, 1942), 63Google Scholar, citing Archives Nationales, Paris (hereafter AN): C.6/:25, Conseil de Direction, Whydah, 12 Dec. 1752.

15. Labat, Jean-Baptiste, Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais en Guinée, Isles Voisines, et à Cayenne (2nd ed.: 4 vols., Amsterdam, 1731), 2:95–96Google Scholar; Pruneau, Joseph, ed. Becker, Charles, Mémoire sur le Commerce de la Concession du Senegal (1752), (Kaolack, 1983), 100–01Google Scholar, reproducing material from AN: C.6/25, Pruneau and Guestard, Whydah, 18 March 1750; Donnait, Elizabeth, Documents Illustrative of the History of the Slave Trade to America (4 vols.: Washington, 1930–1935) 2: no. 252Google Scholar: Customs imposed at Whydah, 1767; Berbain, , Comptoir, 124–25Google Scholar (accounts of the ship Le Dahomet, 1773).

16. Forbes, Frederick E., Dahomey and the Dahomans (2 vols.: London, 1851), 1:58CrossRefGoogle Scholar (prices at Allada), 110 (prices at Whydah), 122 (wages and subsistence rates); Burton, , Mission, 2: 221Google Scholar (prostitutes), 243-44 (prices).

17. Public Record Office, London (hereafter, PRO): T.70/1243, Accounts, Whydah Factory, 1698-1700; T.70/592-93, Journals of Accounts, William's Fort, Whydah, 1718-27; T.70/1158-63, Day Books, William's Fort, Whydah, 1752-1812.

18. AN:C.6/25, Etat de la dépense du Comptoir de Juda, 1714; Mémoire concernant la colonie de Juda, 1722; Dayrie, Jakin, 12 Aug. 1728; Levet, Whydah, 25 Feb. 1744.

19. Phillips, , “Journal,” 221Google Scholar, giving a price of seven iron bars, half the current price of a slave, well above prices recorded a few years earlier and later; cf. Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 15; Instruction for Willem De La Palma, 8 Dec. 1685 (10 pigs per slave), and no. 17; Isaac Van Hoolwerff, Offra, 8 Dec. 1686 (seven pigs per slave); PRO: T.70/1243, Whydah Accounts, 1698-1700 (three iron bars per pig).

20. Phillips, , “Journal,” 221Google Scholar; cf. also AN: C.6/25, Etat de la dépense du Comptoir de Juda, 1714, which similarly refers to “fowls [poules] as large as hens [poulets].” The price given in 1714, 200 cowries, does appear aberrant, since in 1721 chickens were selling at Whydah at only Is. each, equivalent (as is shown later in this article) to 160 cowries: Atkins, , Voyage, 112.Google Scholar

21. In the nineteenth century it was noted that some of the fowls in Whydah were “very large, owing to the breed being crossed by the large Portuguese fowl, which is brought over from Brazil by the Portuguese slave-dealers:” Duncan, John, Travels in Western Africa in 1854 and 1846 (2 vols.: London, 1847), 1:137.Google Scholar It seems likely that similar attempts to introduce new breeds had been made earlier.

22. Robertson, G. A., Notes on Africa (London, 1819), 285Google Scholar; cf. de Chenevert and Abbé Bullet, “Réfléxions sur Juda” (ms. of 1776, in Archives d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence: Dépôt des Fortifications des Colonies, Côtes d'Afrique, ms. 111), 41.

23. E.g., AN: C.6/25, Etat de la dépense du Comptoir de Juda, 1714. The price given here of 1,200 cowries is in fact significantly lower than those recorded a few years both earlier and later, perhaps reflecting the lower estimation of Oyo mutton: cf. Bosman, , Description, 389Google Scholar (2 rijksdalers, equivalent to 1,600 cowries); Atkins, , Voyage, 112Google Scholar (1,600 cowries).

24. “Beschryvinge van den handel tot Arder,” f. 13; Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 15: Instruction for Willem De la Palma, 8 Dec. 1685.

25. Phillips, , “Journal,” 208Google Scholar; Barbot, Jean, “Description des Côtes d'Affrique” (ms. of 1688, in PRO: ADM/830), II, 2nd pagination, 38Google Scholar; cf. Barbot, , Description, 184.Google Scholar

26. The ‘pot’ seems to have had a capacity of about five gallons: this equivalence may be inferred from prices recorded in 1724 when palm oil was valued at 10 tackies of gold per gallon, or 4 ackies 3 tackies (51 tackies) per pot (PRO: T.70/593, Journal of Accounts, William's Fort, Whydah, Sept. & Oct. 1724), while on another occasion 57 pots of oil were poured off into 10 casks of 32 gallons each (ibid., Jan. 1723). References to gallons in early accounts, it should be noted, are to “old wine” gallons, identical with modern U. S. gallons (3.785 liters), rather than to “imperial” gallons (4.546 liters).

27. Johnson, Marion, “The Cowrie Currencies of West Africa, I,” JAH, 11 (1970), 42–45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Hogendorn, /Johnson, , Shell Money, 120–22.Google Scholar

28. See, e.g., Law, Correspondence, no. 5: Invoyce of Goods most in demand at Arda factory, 15 Jan. 1681; Barbot, , “Description,” III, 138Google Scholar; Phillips, , “Journal,” 227–28Google Scholar (where “foggy” is a misprint for “toggy”); Labat, , Voyage du Chevalier des Marchais, 2: 92Google Scholar; Atkins, , Voyage, 113Google Scholar; Smith, William, A New Voyage to Guinea (London, 1744), 178n.Google Scholar The term “tocky” seems to be a variant of the indigenous word ki, meaning string made from plaited palm fiber. The suggestion of Johnson (“Cowrie currencies, II,” 333; Hogendorn, /Johnson, , Shell Money, 134Google Scholar) that it derives from “tacky,” the West African name of a small gold weight (together with the consequential speculations about gold/cowry exchange rates) is unwarranted.

29. E.g., Dalzel, Archibald, The History of Dahomy (London, 1793), 135nGoogle Scholar; Robertson, Notes, 274-75. For the “ounce trade” see esp. Johnson, Marion, “The Ounce in Eighteenth-Century West African trade,” JAH, 7 (1966), 197–202CrossRefGoogle Scholar; cf. Law, “Gold trade,” 112-13.

30. E.g., Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 36, 122.Google Scholar

31. Skertchly, J. A., Dahomey As It Is (London, 1874), 28.Google Scholar

32. Leers, , Pertinente Beschryvinge, 308Google Scholar; Dapper, , Naukeurige Beschrijvinge, 2/188Google Scholar; Johnson, “Cowrie currencies, I,” 43n156; “Cowrie Currencies, II,” 347. For the original version of the text see “Beschryvinge van den handel tot Arder,” f. 12.

33. Polanyi, , Dahomey, 50Google Scholar; Johnson, , “Cowrie currencies, I,” 347.Google Scholar This suggestion originated with Burton, , Mission, 1:162n.Google Scholar

34. The indigenous term is given, in the form “fore” (i.e., afode, “One foot”) in the Whydah vocabulary collected by Barbot in the 1680s; “Description,” III, 2/138, 193; cf. Description, 339. The Portuguese may, however, themselves have borrowed the usage from Benin to the east, where the name “galina” was already applied to a unit in the cowry currency (though of 40 rather than 200 units) in the sixteenth century: cf. Ryder, A. F. C., Benin and the Europeans, 1485-1897 (London, 1969), 60Google Scholar; Hogendorn, /Johnson, , Shell Money, 120.Google Scholar

35. For this equivalence see, e.g., Law, Correspondence, no. 5: Invoyce of goods most in demand at Arda factory, 15 Jan. 1681; “Relation du Royaume de Judas” (ms. in Archives d'Outre-Mer, Aix-en-Provence: Dépôt des Fortifications des Colonies, Côtes d'Afrique, ms. 104), 72; cf. also Hogendorn, /Johnson, , Shell Money, 114.Google Scholar

36. PRO: T.70/1158, Day Book, William's Fort, Whydah, Nov.-Dec. 1752.

37. Atkins, Voyage, 112.

38. See esp. Polanyi, , Dahomey, 156–59.Google Scholar

39. Bosman, , Description, 390Google Scholar, with amended translation in Van Dantzig, Albert, “English Bosman and Dutch Bosman: a Comparison of Texts,” HA, 9 (1982), 290.Google Scholar

40. Atkins, , Voyage, 112.Google Scholar

41. PRO: T.70/1158-63, Day Books, William's Fort, Whydah, 1752-1812.

42. Smith, , New Voyage, 178n.Google Scholar

43. E.g., Dalzel, , History of Dahomy, 135n.Google Scholar; Robertson, , Notes on Africa, 274–75.Google Scholar

44. See esp. Johnson, , “Ounce,” 202–05Google Scholar; Law, “Gold trade,” 113.

45. E.g., Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 36, 50.Google Scholar

46. Cf. Dalzel, , History of Dahomy, 135n.Google Scholar

47. Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 122Google Scholar; 2: 81. Cf. also Duncan, , Travels, 1: 176.Google Scholar

48. Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 36.Google Scholar At Badagry, on the coast east of Dahomian territory, it was likewise reported in 1850 that although it was “usual” to value 2,000 cowries at one dollar, they had recently been “cheaper:” Bowen, T. J., Central Africa: Adventures and Missionary Labours (Charleston, 1857), 98.Google Scholar

49. Burton, , Mission, 1: 143n.Google Scholar; 2: 4n., 222-23.

50. This is inferred from a comparison of two prices given for water, ranging alternatively from one string or 1/2 d. per gallon upwards; ibid., 1: 136n.; 2:244.

51. Skertchly, , Dahomey As It Is, 28.Google Scholar

52. As in the calculations by Forbes, , Dahomey, 1: 122.Google Scholar

53. A mark of gold (8 ounces, worth £32 sterling) was valued at 320 Dutch florins: Postma, Johannes Menne, The Dutch in the Atlantic Slave Trade, 1600-1815 (Cambridge, 1990), 265.CrossRefGoogle ScholarBosman, , Description, 85Google Scholar, gives a slightly different rate, of three marks to 1,000 florins.

54. My thanks to Albert Van Dantzig for clarification on this point.

55. Bosman, , Description, 215Google Scholar (translating two duits as “about a farthing”).

56. By 1752 chickens costs between 267 and 333 cowries (12 to 15 to the grand cabess): AN: C.6/25, Conseil de Direction, Whydah, 18 Dec. 1752. Thereafter, however, the price apparently did remain stable for about a century, being still reported in 1850 at 280 cowries: Forbes, , Dahomey, 1:110.Google Scholar

57. AN: F2A/11, “Commerce de Guinée,” 10 Nov. 1724.

58. “Relation du Royaume de Judas,” 72; AN: C.6/25, Levesque, Whydah, 6 July 1716.

59. AN: C.6/25, Etat de la dépense du Comptoir de Juda, 1714; Labat, , Voyage, 2: 174..Google Scholar

60. “Relation du Royaume de Judas,” 47.

61. Pruneau, Mémoire sur le commerce de la concession du Senegal, 111.

62. De Chenevert, /Bullet, , “Réfléxions sur Juda,” 48–49.Google Scholar

63. Ibid., 41.

64. Dr.Répin, , “Voyage au Dahomey,” Le Tour du Monde, 1 (1863), 73, 100.Google Scholar

65. PRO; T.70/592-98, Journals of Accounts, William's Fort, Whydah, 1718-27; cf. also T. 70/1254, Gold Book, Whydah, 1724-27.

66. For fuller discussion and documentation cf. Law, “Gold trade,” 114-15.

67. Bosman, Description, 364a. Phillips also noted that those bought with cowries were “dear slaves:” “Journal,” 227.

68. De Chenevert, /Bullet, , “Réflexions sur Juda,” 43.Google Scholar

69. PRO: T.70/1243, Accounts, Whydah Factory, 1698-1700; Bosman, , Description, 390.Google Scholar

70. “Beschryvinge van den handel tot Arder,” ff. 12, 13; cf. Leers, , Pertinente Beschryvinge, 308, 310–11.Google Scholar

71. Bosman, , Description, 343Google Scholar (porters), 390 (chickens). Bosnian's figure for porters' wages is probably an approximation for three strings, or 120 cowries, which remained the rate throughout the eighteenth century: cf. e.g., Labat, , Voyage, 2: 95Google Scholar; AN: C.6/25, Pruneau/Guestard, Whydah, 18 March 1750; Donnan, , Documents, 2: no. 252Google Scholar: Customs imposed at Whydah, 1767; Berbain, , Comptoir, 124Google Scholar (accounts of Le Dahomet, 1773).

72. A model cargo for the Allada trade separate from the “Beschryvinge,” but also included in “Aenwysingde van diversche Beschryvingen,” f. 13v, gives the price of a slave as 100 lbs. of cowries (i.e. 40,000) or 100 brass bracelets, implying a purchasing power for the bracelet equivalent to 400 cowries.

73. Ryder, , Benin, 57, 61.Google Scholar

74. “Journal du Voyage du Sieur Delbée” in de Clodoré, J., ed., Relation de ce qui c'est passé dans les Isles et Terre-ferme de l'Amérique (2 vols.: Paris, 1671), 2: 404.Google Scholar There is an ambiguity in this account, since it also observes that “this is called tauge,” which, if it refers to the sum paid, presumably alludes to the “tocky” or string, which was later reckoned at 40 cowries.

75. Phillips, , “Journal,” 221.Google Scholar

76. Ibid., PRO: T.70/1243, Accounts, Whydah Factory, 1698-1700.

77. Cf. note 19 above.

78. PRO: T.70/592, Journal of Accounts, William's Fort, Whydah, Jan. 1719; AN: C.6/25, Levet, Whydah, 25 Feb. 1744; Conseil de Direction, Whydah, 18 Dec. 1752.

79. For these slave prices see “Aenwysingde van diversche Beschryvingen,” f. 13v; Law, Correspondence, no. 5: Invoyce of goods most in demand at Arda factory, 15 Jan. 1681; Bodleian Library, Oxford: ms. Rawlinson C.746, Accounts of John Winder, Whydah, July-Oct. 1682; T.70/1222, Calculations of cargoes exported by the Royal African Company, 1663-99; Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 171; Isaac Van Hoolwerff, Offra, 8 Dec. 1686; Phillips, , “Journal” 227Google Scholar; PRO: T.70/1243, Accounts, William's Fort, Whydah, 1698-1700; T. 70/22, Richard Willis, Whydah, 13 Aug. 1705; Labat, , Voyage, 2: 91–92Google Scholar; AN: C.6/25, Pruneau/Guestard, 18 March 1750; Berbain, , Comptoir, 101–19Google Scholar (accounts of Le Dahomet, 1773). The iron bar price for the period 1698-1700 is inferred from a report in 1698 that a ship had paid twice the going rate, at 30 bars for a slave; Bodleian: Rawlinson C.747, Josiah Pearson, Whydah, 25 April 1698. Where cowry prices are given only by weight, they have been converted to numbers of cowries on the assumption that 1 Ib. = 400 cowries.

80. E.g., Dapper, , Beschrijvinge, 2/118Google Scholar; Law, Correspondence, no. 7: William Cross, Offra, 13 June 1681; Phillips, , “Journal,” 227Google Scholar; Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 234: Diary of P. Eytzen, Whydah, 2 May 1718.

81. “Relation du Royaume de Judas,” 72.

82. Bodleian: Rawlinson C.746, John Thorne, Offra, 28 Jan. 1683.

83. Barbot, , “Description,” III, 2/135Google Scholar; cf. idem., Description, 326, and, for discussion of the contradictions in this passage, Hogendorn/Johnson, Shell Money, 192n229. Barbot gives 60 lbs. of cowries or 15 iron bars as the currrent price of a slave, but other evidence shows (cf. Table II) that at this time a slave cost 90 lbs. of cowries or 15 bars.

84. Bosman, , Description, 398Google Scholar; PRO: T.70/1243, Accounts, Whydah Factory, 1698-1700.

85. Bosman, , Description, 382.Google Scholar

86. PRO: T.70/592, Journal of Accounts, William's Fort, Whydah, 10 and 26 Feb. 1719. In another transaction, in assessing a debt owed to the factory by an African trader, iron bars were valued at only 5 galinas (1,000 cowries) each: ibid., 30 April 1719.

87. AN: C.6/25, Levet, Whydah, 25 Feb. 1744; Conseil de Direction, Whydah, 18 Dec. 1752.

88. “Beschryvinge van den handel tot Arder,” 13; cf. Leers, , Pertinente Beschryvinge, 311Google Scholar; Law, Correspondence, no. 5: Invoyce of goods most in demand at Arda factory, 15 Jan. 1681; Van Dantzig, Dutch, no. 15: Instruction for Willem de la Palma, 8 Dec. 1685; no. 17: Isaac Van Hoolwerff, Offra, 8 Dec. 1686.

89. Labat, Voyage, 2: 91-92, 95-96.

90. AN: C.6/25, Pruneau/Guestard, Whydah, 18 March 1750; Donnan, Documents, 2: no. 252: Customs imposed at Whydah, 1767. The latter document is nevertheless customarily cited as evidence for the current market price of slaves: e.g., Bean, Richard Nelson, The British Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade, 1650-1775 (New York, 1975), 154Google Scholar; Hogendorn/Johnson, Shell Money, 112.

91. Law, Correspondence, no. 5: Invoyce of goods most in demand at Arda factory, 18 Jan. 1681.

92. For the price of com in 1721, see PRO: T.70/593, Journal of Accounts, William's Fort, Whydah, June 1721. Cf. especially the rise in chicken prices during this period, from 50 to 67 cowries in 1694, to Is. (160 cowries) in 1721: Phillips, , “Journal,” 221Google Scholar; Atkins, , Voyage, 112.Google Scholar