ABSTRACT
Geography plays a large part in influencing and determining native currencies, but the human factors are at least of equal importance, so in making a general survey the choice lies between a physical or an ethnological map for the foundation. In many parts of Africa iron is money, that is, it represents a standard of value, it is a recognized medium of exchange, and a symbol of wealth. The salt trade in interior Africa often seems more like blackmail than barter. In the Congo region and to the south of it cowries met a serious rival in their distant relative oliva nana, the little olivella shell called by the trading Bayaka nzimbu mbudi, corrupted into jimbu, simbu, simbo, &c in trading jargon. The Bambala have special purses for carrying the shells, among them being the baskets plaited in a ring, like miniature lifebelts, with a neck for inserting or extracting the shell.
