The importance of Mande textiles in the African side of the Atlantic trade, ca. 1680-1710

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Periodical article

Title:	The importance of Mande textiles in the African side of the Atlantic trade, ca. 1680-1710
Author:	Kriger, Colleen
Year:	2009
Periodical:	Mande Studies
Volume:	11
Pages:	1-21
Language:	English
Geographic term:	West Africa
Subjects:	cotton textiles Manding mercantile history international trade 1600-1699
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/44035616
Abstract:	Production and trade of cotton textiles in West Africa go back at least a millennium, creating a 'cotton culture' that spawned centres producing cottons for export. This article focuses on a number of such centres that were located in the hinterlands of Senegambia and the Southern Rivers regions of the Upper Guinea Coast in the 17th century. Speakers of Mande languages were among the producers and traders of these textiles, which Europeans recognized as items that were essential in the coastal and trans-Atlantic trade. Archival sources documenting this trade reveal some of the names of the trade cloths, their prices, and their vital role as commodity currencies that paid for goods and services. Locally made cotton textiles were for the most part relatively lower in price than overseas imports and thus were able to successfully compete with them in the marketplace. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum. in English and French. [Journal abstract]