ABSTRACT
The common knowledge of price-conditions is limited by existing communications and forms of economic contact. The description of Nupe production has clearly established the nature of Nupe economy as a highly complex exchange-economy based on money. Before the adoption of British money cowrie-shells constituted the currency of the country. Prices in Bida are always higher. In a wider sense Nupe country itself is one big market. For Nupe is a country which exports and imports, and represents, besides, an important station on the route of transit-trade across Nigeria. Markets in the wider sense of the word, places for exchange and trade, grow spontaneously with the needs of the country. The majority of professional traders in Nupe are Bida men and women. The whole country, and indeed the whole of Nigeria, is their field of activity. Trade, business, is independent of the boundaries of a community, a tribe, or language.
