Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Marginal Gains: Monetary Transactions in Atlantic Africa

Marginal Gains: Monetary Transactions in Atlantic Africa

Guyer, Jane I.

Paperback

Series: Lewis Henry Morgan Lecture

Investing & FinanceAfrican HistoryAnthropology

ISBN10: 0226311163
ISBN13: 9780226311166
Publisher: Univ Of Chicago Pr
Published: Mar 1 2004
Pages: 232
Weight: 0.70
Height: 0.60 Width: 6.10 Depth: 9.00
Language: English
In America, almost all the money in circulation passes through financial institutions every day. But in Nigeria's cash and carry system, 90 percent of the currency never comes back to a bank after it's issued. What happens when two such radically different economies meet and mingle, as they have for centuries in Atlantic Africa?

The answer is a rich diversity of economic practices responsive to both local and global circumstances. In Marginal Gains, Jane I. Guyer explores and explains these often bewildering practices, including trade with coastal capitalism and across indigenous currency zones, and within the modern popular economy. Drawing on a wide range of evidence, Guyer demonstrates that the region shares a coherent, if loosely knit, commercial culture. She shows how that culture actually works in daily practice, addressing both its differing scales of value and the many settings in which it operates, from crisis conditions to ordinary household budgets. The result is a landmark study that reveals not just how popular economic systems work in Africa, but possibly elsewhere in the Third World.

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