Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money: a Global History by Bin Yang

H-World Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money: A Global History by Bin Yang

Discussion published by Eric Martin on Thursday, November 8, 2018

H-World subscribers my be interested in the following book by Bin Yang, Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money: A Global History, forthcoming by Routledge in December 2018

(https://www.routledge.com/Cowrie-Shells-and-Cowrie-Money-A-Global-History/Yang/p/book/9781138 593213).

With a foreword by Prof Patrick Manning, former president of the American Historical Association and Andrew W Mellon Professor of World History, Emeritus at the University of Pittsburgh, Prof Yang’s book traces cowrie shells and cowrie money (found in India, Southeast Asia, early China, West Africa, the Pacific islands, and North America) from the Neolithic period to the mid-twentieth century. This book seeks to transcend both geographical and disciplinary boundaries, and to engage with many interesting questions, such as the origin of money. Yang argues that cowrie money was the first global money that shaped Afro-Eurasian societies both individually and collectively.

The book is genersouly sponsored by the publciaiton Grant from the Harvard-Yenching Institute.

The Contents of the book are as follows.

Contents

Foreword Acknowledgements (Patrik Manning) Chapter One Global Phenomenon, Local Varieties Chapter Two The Maldives: Procurement and Export Chapter Three India: In the Beginning

Chapter Four Southeast Asia: Intra-Asian Interactions

Chapter Five Yunnan: An Indian Influence in the Southeast Asian-Chinese World Chapter Six Why Not in Early China? Chapter Seven Cowrie Money in West Africa: Connecting the Worlds, Old and New Chapter Eight The Pacific Islands and North America: Out of the Bengali System

Citation: Eric Martin. Cowrie Shells and Cowrie Money: A Global History by Bin Yang. H-World. 11-08-2018. https://networks.h-net.org/node/20292/discussions/3064242/cowrie-shells-and-cowrie-money-global-history-bin-yang Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License. 1 H-World

Chapter Nine More Than Just Money

Chapter Ten The Cowrie Money World