Read on Twitter
A Thread about money and slaves. Abridged version of @Breedlove22's Medium article.In ancient western Africa, aggry beads or âtrade beadsâ were small, decorative glass beads.
Used as money for centuries. A means of wealth transfer across generations as dowries or heirlooms.
2. When European explorers appeared in Africa in the 16th century, aggry beads were highly valued by African locals.
Since glass-making technology in Africa was primitive, aggry beads were difficult to produce and reliably scarce.
Since glass-making technology in Africa was primitive, aggry beads were difficult to produce and reliably scarce.
3. Back in Europe, glass-making technology was sophisticated; counterfeit beads virtually identical to aggry beads could be mass produced at a low cost.
4. Seizing the economic opportunity, Europeans began expeditions to western Africa, shipping in huge quantities of counterfeits made in European glass-making facilities.
This was one of the first known large-scale money counterfeiting operations in the world.
This was one of the first known large-scale money counterfeiting operations in the world.
5. What followed this seemingly innocuous exportation of glass beads was a multi-decade plundering of African wealth, natural resources, and time.
6. As European ships arrived on African shores with hulls packed full of glass beads, locals readily traded their hard-earned assets for what they believed were precious aggry beads.
7. Spanning the course of decades, this trading of real assets for counterfeits transferred African wealth to Europeans.
Aggry beads later became known as âslave beadsâ and were instrumental in the multi-century trans-Atlantic slave trade.
Aggry beads later became known as âslave beadsâ and were instrumental in the multi-century trans-Atlantic slave trade.
8. Ships landing in Africa loaded with aggry beads later departed for European and American shores with payloads of human cargo.
Like the counterfeit aggry beads used to purchase them, African slaves were packed inside the hulls of ships for transit to Europe and the Americas.
Like the counterfeit aggry beads used to purchase them, African slaves were packed inside the hulls of ships for transit to Europe and the Americas.
9. Unfortunately, this pillaging of wealth was not an isolated episode.
Cloth strips were another form of money used in ancient Africa, which became a well-established transactional medium over many centuries of dealing with Muslim traders from the north.
Cloth strips were another form of money used in ancient Africa, which became a well-established transactional medium over many centuries of dealing with Muslim traders from the north.
10. Local African tribes soon began producing these cloth strips known colloquially as panos but were outcompeted by the more efficient production methods employed by the Portuguese.
11. A perversely profitable economic arrangement ensued, in which the Portuguese used panos to purchase African slaves who were then put to work producing the very cloth strips with which their freedom was stolen.
12. Some of the slaves were weavers by profession, and wove the cotton into country cloths as they had done on the mainland.
New patterns of North African type were introduced, and from the 16th century Cape Verde panos were exported to Guiné to be exchanged for slaves.
New patterns of North African type were introduced, and from the 16th century Cape Verde panos were exported to Guiné to be exchanged for slaves.
13. Lured by a virtually limitless profit potential, Portuguese panos producers established a state-sponsored monopoly called the GrĂŁo ParĂĄ and MaranhĂŁo Company, which mandated the use of its warehousing and trading-post operations for all financial flows denominated in panos.
14. This company enforced the use of panos for tax payments, to forcibly denominate slave trade contracts, and to hire soldiers.
15. A similar, non-coincidental example: the US government enforces the use of dollars for tax collections, as legal tender, as the nominal currency for contracts on oil (the energy slave of modernity), and as the international reserve currency.
16. Events strikingly similar to aggry beads and panos are playing out today throughout the global economy: the US dollar in your pocket, the one you sacrificed so much to obtain, was recently mass-produced by the US government with a (near-effortless) keystroke.
17. Europeans had access to superior glass-making technology that gave them the ability to counterfeit money.
The Portuguese had panos production.
Central banks have an exclusive privilege to make money at near-zero cost, enabling them to confiscate wealth from all users of $.
The Portuguese had panos production.
Central banks have an exclusive privilege to make money at near-zero cost, enabling them to confiscate wealth from all users of $.
18. Although less visible and overtly violent, central banks today carry out operations using the same weaponized methods of theft as those wielded by Europeans against unsuspecting Africans.
19. Histories of human action related to aggry beads and panos hold important lessons for societies suffering under central banking.
Those who monopolize money production become currency counterfeiting operations that steal human labor in perpetuity.
https://twitter.com/KomodoPlatform/status/1313537099736416256.
Those who monopolize money production become currency counterfeiting operations that steal human labor in perpetuity.
https://twitter.com/KomodoPlatform/status/1313537099736416256.
20. END. Full article from @Breedlove22 https://medium.com/@breedlove22/masters-and-slaves-of-money-255ecc93404f.
