Paper short abstract:

Drawing on ethnographic data collected in Equatorial Guinea during the hight of the oil-boom (2010-2012) this paper considers how prices are negotiated and set. It explores the relationship between the negotiation of the just price and political struggles in the marketplace.

Paper long abstract:

In the light of Janet Roitmans' investigation of the connection between price determination and relationships of dependency this paper looks at how the notion of the just price is articulated into political practice in a context of dictatorship and economic extraversion.In Equatorial Guinea commodities appear to be categorised according to fixed prices: 'there is tomato of one hundred, pineapple of five hundred and pineapple of one thousand, t-shirts of five thousand, but also t-shirts of ten thousand' etc. These fixed prices serve as scales to asses quality in a broad and complex sense (Guyer 2004). However, the price Guineans actually pay for the different imported goods varies and is set anew in each transaction. It is contingent on many factors, including: the availability of merchandise, the particular consumer (age, gender, ethnicity, status, income), the relationship between the latter and the seller (kinship, patronage, friendship, status), and the reason for the exchange (profit, hardship, celebrations) (Roitman 2005: 80). The negotiation for a just price not only takes place between sellers and buyers in the context of a market transaction. The moral principles that underlay it are also present in other spheres, that include other actors like State institutions, for instance the payment of rent for the market stalls. I show how the just price becomes an important device in the articulation of power relationships and political claims.