The Negro Slave-Merchants, As I Have Observed In The Former Chapter,
Are Called Slatees, Who, Besides Slaves, And The
Merchandise which
they bring for sale to the whites, supply the inhabitants of the
maritime districts with native iron, sweet-
Smelling gums and
frankincense, and a commodity called shea-toulou, which, literally
translated, signifies tree-butter.
In payment of these articles, the maritime states supply the
interior countries with salt, a scarce and valuable commodity, as I
frequently and painfully experienced in the course of my journey.
Considerable quantities of this article, however, are also supplied
to the inland natives by the Moors, who obtain it from the salt pits
in the Great Desert, and receive in return corn, cotton cloth, and
slaves.
In their early intercourse with Europeans the article that attracted
most notice was iron. Its utility, in forming the instruments of
war and husbandry, make it preferable to all others, and iron soon
became the measure by which the value of all other commodities was
ascertained. Thus, a certain quantity of goods, of whatever
denomination, appearing to be equal in value to a bar of iron,
constituted, in the traders' phraseology, a bar of that particular
merchandise. Twenty leaves of tobacco, for instance, were
considered as a bar of tobacco; and a gallon of spirits (or rather
half spirits and half water) as a bar of rum, a bar of one commodity
being reckoned equal in value to a bar of another commodity.
As, however, it must unavoidably happen that, according to the
plenty or scarcity of goods at market in proportion to the demand,
the relative value would be subject to continual fluctuation,
greater precision has been found necessary; and at this time the
current value of a single bar of any kind is fixed by the whites at
two shillings sterling.
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