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Paper short abstract:

Retracing the monetary history of the Italian colonies in East Africa, the paper shows that, despite colonial attempts at reducing monetary multiplicity by regulating the modalities of monetary transactions, smuggling was often a critical factor in keeping colonial economy alive.

Paper long abstract:

Multiplicity is one of the defining features of African monetary history. When the Italians occupied Massawa, on the western shore of the Red Sea, in 1885, it was a crossroads of maritime and caravan trade routes, where different monetary devices were employed according to the commodities exchanged, or the direction these commodities were coming from or going to. In the Italian colony of Eritrea, as it happened in other African colonies, military occupation was followed by attempts at reducing the multiplicity through the introduction of territorial currencies, following the trend established in Europe since the emergence of nation-states. However, multiplicity did not disappear. Different currencies continued to be employed in commercial transactions in the port towns and through the porous borders of the colony, keeping trade and labour networks alive. In the Italian East African empire, as well as elsewhere in Africa where boundaries started to be traced on the maps, the label of smuggling was applied to many kinds of monetary transaction occurring despite these boundaries. This paper represents an attempt at retracing the monetary history of the Red Sea through the lens of smuggling, as it was defined by colonial administrators and practiced by both European and non-European actors. The paper shows that the construction of a colonial monetary system passed through the power of the authority to regulate the modalities in which a particular monetary transaction was allowed. At the same time, it provides evidence that money smuggling was a critical factor in keeping colonial economy alive.