The Creation of a Colonial Monetary System: The Origins of the West African Currency Board

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Periodical article

Title:	The Creation of a Colonial Monetary System: The Origins of the West African Currency Board
Author:	Hopkins, A.G.
Year:	1970
Periodical:	African Historical Studies
Volume:	3
Issue:	1
Pages:	101-132
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	English-speaking Africa West Africa
Subjects:	central banks colonialism History and Exploration Economics and Trade
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/216483
Abstract:	The colonial monetary system in British West Africa was formally inaugurated in 1912 when the West African Currency Board (W.A.C.B.) was established. In the only one detailed study of; the origins of the W.A.C.B. by W.T. Newlyn and D.C. Rowan, in their pioneering work 'Money and Banking in British Colonial Africa' (1954), the origins of the W.A.C.B. were explained essentially in terms of one main problem: the dispute over the seignorage on sterling coins circulating in British West Africa. Suggested here is that three major issues led to the foundation of the W.A.C.B.: 1. the question of the supply of currency - 2. the difficulties which arose when the government began to consider a note issue for Southern Nigeria - 3. the problems which appeared as a result of the rapid expansion in the volume of sterling coins circulating in West Africa, notably problems of seignorage and of monetary stability. Notes.