NEW Standing Section for GNCS: Shapes of Money

Shapes of Money

Alessandro De Cola, University of Bologna

alessandro.decola11[@]gmail.com

Money and financial institutions were among the most powerful drivers of global integration during the long nineteenth century. As Benjamin J. Cohen argues, while the Westphalian model of the nation-state emerged in seventeenth-century Europe, the myth of One Nation/One Money—embodied in the territorialization of national currencies—materialized in the nineteenth century. Yet, alongside the consolidation of national currencies, “international money” continued to circulate across political and geographical boundaries, and new transnational monetary unions emerged.

The growing prominence of central banks in the “West” paralleled the rise of the idea of an International Monetary System. However, the European model of financial integration was just one facet of a much broader global financial landscape. The nineteenth-century transportation and communication revolution facilitated unprecedented flows of capital across borders, sustained by the activities of bankers, traders, shroffs, qianzhuang, and other intermediaries. While the quest for financial stability led parts of the world to adopt gold as a standard of value, the silver economy remained dominant in regions such as the Indian Ocean. Simultaneously, regional and local exchange systems, often characterized by the complementary circulation of diverse means of exchange, sustained vibrant local markets despite efforts by political authorities to impose uniform currency areas.

This section of Global Nineteenth-Century Studies seeks to explore the dynamics of adaptation and hybridization within the global financial system, with a focus on the material diversity of financial instruments. We invite long or short essays (minimum 5,000 words) that center on the visual and material analysis of financial objects, including coins, banknotes, bills of exchange, and postal orders, as well as other widely employed mediums of exchange such as shells, salt bars, manillas, and cloth.

By engaging with the materiality of these objects, this section aims to transcend their financial functions and illuminate the sociocultural roles and meanings embedded within them.