From Commodity to Colonial Currencies: A History of Money in the Former Sokoto Province of Nigeria during Pre-Colonial and Colonial Periods

Abstract

Prior to the British conquest of Northern Nigeria in 1903, to which the former Sokoto Province area of Nigeria belonged, the region had an organised economy consisting of an agricultural system that produced not only foodstuffs but also raw materials and supplies for industries and international trade. There were systems of markets, taxation, credit, as well as local and long distance trade. There were also many kinds of currencies used as medium of exchange. The currencies are being referred to differently by various scholars. Some of the names given to them include: ‘commodity’, ‘trade’, ‘traditional’ or ‘local’ currencies. They include slaves, cloths, cowries, manilla, iron rods, silver, gold, Maria Theresa dollars, etc. Some of them had very limited areas in which they were used as currency while others were used over a vast area. Moreover, some of them such as slaves and cloth were locally sourced and had other uses than serving as currency. Others like cowries and silver dollars were obtained from far places such as Maldives Island in the Indian Ocean and various European and American countries respectively. However, when colonial rule was imposed on Africans, the colonial powers regarded the pre-colonial currencies not only as inefficient but also pernicious and then replaced them with colonial currencies. The colonial currencies were actually more portable, easily convertible and universally acceptable compared to the pre-colonial currencies. Thus, the British considered the pre-colonial currencies of the Nigerian area as ‘cumbersome’, which would not allow for international trade and incorporation of the country’s economy into that of the British capitalist economy. Consequently, the British coins were introduced and gradually they replaced the pre-colonial currencies as the only medium of exchange. This paper, therefore, examines the history of transition from the use of commodity to colonial currencies as media of exchange in the former Sokoto Province of Nigeria during the pre-colonial and colonial periods. Historical research methodology, through the use of primary and secondary sources, were employed to write the paper.