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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Pawns on the Gold Coast: the rise of Asante and shifts in security for debt, 1680-1750
Author:Spicksley, Judith
Year:2013
Periodical:The Journal of African History (ISSN 0021-8537)
Volume:54
Issue:2
Pages:147-175
Language:English
Geographic term:Ghana
Subjects:Europeans
trade
pledging
gold
slaves
External link:https://doi.org/10.1017/S0021853713000297
Abstract:In the seventeenth century, Europeans on the Gold Coast (present-day Ghana) took gold pawns as security for debt, but from the early eighteenth century, they turned increasingly toward the use of human pawns. This shift was the result of a transformation in levels of demand for gold amongst African sellers, most notably the Asante, who began to secure control over local gold sources from c. 1700. The change in demand for gold was accompanied by a rise in slave prices on the West African coast, but it was the indigenous system of debt recovery that proved crucial to the success of European trade. Notes, ref., sum. [Journal abstract]
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