Myth and Metrology: The Early Trans-Saharan Gold Trade
Myth and Metrology: The Early Trans-Saharan Gold Trade
复制标题
神话与计量：早期跨撒哈拉黄金贸易
DOI：
--
复制
发表时间：
1982
期刊：
影响因子：
--
通讯作者：
T. Garrard
中科院分区：
文献类型：
--
作者：
T. Garrard
硬币和砝码提供的证据可以揭示跨撒哈拉黄金贸易的起源。这种贸易在公元3世纪末之前似乎还不存在，但从296年到311年，迦太基发行了一种不规则的黄金铸币，到世纪末，北非的税收制度发生了重大变化，使更多的黄金能够被征收。公元312年首次发行的硬币“solidus”，是跨撒哈拉贸易中衡量金粉的标准，而铜是跨撒哈拉贸易中的一种主要商品，到公元400年，铜被进口到詹尼-杰诺。这有力地表明，黄金贸易在世纪首次具有重要意义。在阿拉伯人征服前，这一贸易显然非常繁荣，因为迦太基的拜占庭铸币厂在534年至695年间生产了大量黄金。阿拉伯人一直沿用以罗马盎司和固体为基础的衡量金粉的标准，直到世纪才在苏丹西部消失。它也被加纳和象牙海岸的阿坎人所采用，他们在1400年至1900年期间将其作为体重系统的基础。
Coins and weights provide evidence which can throw light on the origins of the trans-Saharan gold trade. Such a trade does not seem to have existed before the end of the third century a.d., but from 296 to 311 an irregular gold coinage was issued at Carthage, and by the end of the fourth century there were significant changes in the North African tax system to enable more gold to be collected. The solidus, a coin first issued in 312, provided the standard used for weighing gold-dust in the trans-Saharan trade, while copper, a major item of merchandise in that trade, was being imported to Jenne-Jeno by a.d. 400. This strongly suggests that the gold trade first assumed significance in the fourth century. The trade was evidently flourishing before the Arab conquest, for the Byzantine mint of Carthage produced a copious output of gold between 534 and 695. For weighing gold-dust, the standard based on the Roman ounce and the solidus was retained by the Arabs, and survived until the nineteenth century in the Western Sudan. It was also adopted by the Akan of Ghana and Ivory Coast, who made it the basis of their weight-system from about 1400 to 1900.