Gondolas waiting Venice

 

Goree Island House of Slaves

 

Goree Island House of Slaves

Goree Island was used as a slave trading post by the Portuguese from as early as 1536. The island is tiny and lies three kilometers south of the Senegalese coast. Its tiny size of about eighteen hectares and deep costal water made it easy for merchants to control their captured slaves. There are many estimates as to the amount of slaves that passed through Goree, probably twenty six thousand, even more than a million. The Africans passed through a single door to board slave ships destined for the Caribbean and the Americas.

The French called the island Goree which meant “good harbor” but the name was a far cry from what took place on this tiny island, between the sixteenth and nineteenth century. Many wooden ships sailed from this island with a cargo of human beings chained in their holds. This was the House of Slaves as Goree Island was also called.

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Fiat Money

Connect Pan American Highway across Darien Gap: Fiat Money:   Fiat Money Building the Cash Economy Chartalism is a theory of  money  which argues that money originated with a state’s attempt to di...

Fiat Money

 

Fiat Money

Building the Cash Economy

Chartalism is a theory of money which argues that money originated with a state’s attempt to direct economic activity. Money is not intended to be a solution to the problems with barter or as a means with which to monetize debt. Fiat currency or money has value in exchange because it empowers the sovereign state to levy taxes on economic activity.  The taxes are payable in the currency they issue. Fiat money is a currency without intrinsic value.

Fiat money has value because a government maintains its value or because parties engaging in exchange agree on its value. Fiat is a binding edict issued by a person in authority. It was introduced as an alternative to commodity money and representative money. Commodity money is created from a good, often a precious metal such as gold or silver, which has uses other than as a medium of exchange. Representative money is similar to fiat money but it represents a claim on a commodity which can be redeemed to a greater or lesser extent in value.