ABSTRACT
This chapter summarises and theorises the discussions and discoveries presented in this book. It confirms that cowrie money was the first global money in human history, which provides an opportunity to reflect on what makes or prevents certain goods being used as money. Local cases of cowrie money have indicated the crucial role of supply in the process of making or failing certain monetary candidates, which in turn demonstrates how the roles of market and state were intimately intertwined. Moreover, the global nature of the cowrie trade and cowrie money that linked Asia, Africa, Europe and the New World sheds some light on Asian interactions and one hot issue in world history, namely, the rise of the west. Theoretical reflections are here shared on the significance of cowrie shells for the European appropriation of the Afro-Eurasian network and the making of the modern European world system, especially in a comparative context with other precious materials and metals such as spices, silver, tea, porcelain, cotton and opium. Furthermore, this chapter outlines the wax and wane of cowrie money in Afro-Eurasia, and thus proposes the term “the cowrie money world” that may serve not only as a historical space and thus a research subject, but also as a paradigm being tested for world history.
