19th-century currency areas in East Africa: new insights from traveller accounts

This paper challenges conventional views of beads in precolonial Africa by demonstrating their significant role as currency through systematic analysis of historical traveller accounts. Using a novel dataset compiled from approximately 700,000 pages of historical texts (1200-1900), we analyze over 10,000 observations of bead usage, coded across 14 variables including price, color, location, and function. Our findings reveal distinct regional patterns in bead currency usage, with particularly high prevalence in Central Africa (65.3%) and East Africa (55.5%). Through analysis of bead colors, types, and exchange relationships, we identify previously undocumented currency areas and trading networks. The study combines computational text analysis with expert regional knowledge to demonstrate stronger economic integration and more complex monetary systems in precolonial Africa than previously recognized. These findings significantly revise our understanding of precolonial African economic systems.