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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Silent Trade: Myth and Historical Evidence
Author:Moraes Farias, P.F. deISNI
Year:1974
Periodical:History in Africa
Volume:1
Pages:9-24
Language:English
Geographic terms:West Africa
Africa
Subjects:mercantile history
barter
History and Exploration
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3171758
Abstract:There have been several accounts of the practice known as 'silent trade' (two trading parties would transact business without the help of middlemen, but also without speaking to one another) in west Africa during the last thousand years. This paper, on the strength of a close rereading of the relevant texts, advances the hypothesis that the accounts of silent trade in west Africa are a misleading combination of a mythical stereotype with concrete evidence about the traditional African trade-through-broker pattern of exchange. It maintains that evidence for silent trade is weak in west Africa and that reiteration by various sources either distorted or masked the realities of African trade. Notes.
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