IMPERIAL AND COLONIAL CURRENCIES

MONETARY SUPPLY, POLICY, AND CIRCULATION,
16th-20th CENTURIES

6-7 June 2024

Sciences Po, Campus de Paris
1 place Saint-Thomas-d’Aquin

Conference

Organizers: Hugo Carlier (Sciences Po, CHSP) and Juliette Françoise (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne-Université de Genève)

With the support of: Centre for History at Sciences Po (CHSP), Center for History and Economics in Paris (CHEP), Collège doctoral de l’Université Paris I Panthéon-Sorbonne, Institut des Dynamiques Historiques et de la Société UMR 8533 (IDHE.S), Département Histoire, Économie et Société de l’Université de Genève et Institut Paul Bairoch d’histoire économique (IHEPB).

Day 1 - Thursday 6 June

14:00-14:30 | Welcome coffee
14:30-14:45 | Introduction

Panel 1 | Imperial Currencies and Imperial Space

Chair Panel : Anne Conchon (Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne)

14:45-16:45
- Arielle Alterwaite (University of Pennsylvania), “Political Economies of the Haitian Gourde, Counterfeit and Otherwise”.
- Gabriel Lietner (Université de Genève) and Gianandrea Nodari (Université de Genève), “London ‘33: Currency blocs and Imperial Monetary Policy”.
- Brecht Nijman (Huygens Institute, KNAW), “Counting out the Money: Cataloging currencies in the Dutch East India Company archive then and now”.

Panel 2 | Monetary Agency in Empires

Chair Panel : Patrice Baubeau (Université Paris-Nanterre)

17:15-18:45

- Alessandro De Cola (Università di Bologna), “African Agencies in the Making of Colonial Currencies: The Case of Hassan Mussa El Akkad in the Italian Colony of Eritrea (1885-1890)”.
- Robin Frisch (University of Bayreuth), “The Quest for Monetary Control in Interwar Togo: Unveiling Colonial Economic Ambiguities”.

Day 2 - Friday 7 June

08:30-09:00 | Welcome coffee

Panel 3 | Materiality of Money: Minting and Resources in Empires

Chair Panel : Jérôme Jambu (Université Le Havre-Normandie)

09:00-10:30

- Gustave Lester (Harvard University), “From Gold Standard to Gold Rush: Precious Metal Science and Money Politics Across Anglo-American Empires, 1750-1830”.
- Geoffrey Durham (University of Wisconsin-Madison), “A New Ruble for the Russian Empire: Mining and Minting Platinum in the 19th Century”.

10:30-11:00 | Coffee Break

Panel 4 | Imperial and Colonial currencies in Economic Development

Chair Panel : David Todd (Sciences Po, CHSP)

11:00-12:30
- Matteo Rossi (Fondazione Luigi Einaudi Torino), “Monetary Independence Henry Carey, the Greenbacks and the United States in the World Market”.
- Dorcas Djonkui (Université de Douala), “La création du Franc CFA et ses répercussions en Afrique Centrale : le cas du déficit de la balance commerciale sur les produits alimentaires”.

12:30-14:00 | Lunch at Sciences Po

Panel 5 | The Introduction of Imperial Currencies : Conquest, Law and Institutions

Chair Panel : Nicolas Delalande (Sciences Po, CHSP)

14:00-16:00
- Ludovic Desmedt (Université de Bourgogne), “To issue paper money in the New World: the contrasting cases of New France and New England (17th-18th centuries)”.
- Toyomu Masaki (Kanazawa University), “The French Invasion of the Haut Sénégal and payment issues: 1880-1900”.
- Mohammadreza Eghbalizarch (Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies, IHEID) and Soheil Ghasemi (IHEID), “The Sterling Capitulation: The Imperial Bank of Persia and the British Juridico-Monetary Intervention in Semi-Colonial Iran (1890-1919)”.

16:00-16:15 | Conclusion

16:30-18:00 | Visit of the Musée de la Monnaie (15 mins by foot from Sciences Po

To attend the conference in person or on zoom: imperial.colonial.currencies@gmail.com

▸ Programme (PDF, 815 Ko)

▸ Compulsory registration