Currency Research: Wampum
0 Comments Published by Mark Mcleod on Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 5:58 PM.
In my research about the beginnings of trade and currency I came across this article on wampum. These systems of trade have had drastic impacts on the people and their culture.
"In 1609, Henry Hudson received wampum as a gift from upriver Indians. The first European credited with discovering the significance of wampum was Jacob Eelkes, a Dutch fur trader in the New Netherland colony. In early 1622, Eelkes seized a sachem of the Pequot on Long Island and threatened to cut off his head unless he received a large ransom. The sachem gave Eelkes wampum of over 840 feet in length, which Eelkes discovered would command many more pelts in trade among the Indians than European-made goods.
As a result, the two-trade system for the purchase of pelts quickly supplanted direct barter methods. The Dutch began both accepting and distributing wampum as a currency at their trading stations. They began an aggressive campaign of buying as much wampum as possible from coastal Algonquians and transporting it up the Hudson Valley, where it is scarcer, to trade for pelts among the Mahicans.
The sudden growth of wealth of Mahicans, who are considered a peaceful people by the Europeans, soon brought them into conflict with the Iroquois tribes of present-day upstate New York, resulting in the Mohawk-Mahican War.
Word of the value of wampum was spread to English settlers in Massachusetts by Isaak de Rasieres, the chief commercial agent of the Dutch West India Company, who informed Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony of the significance of the belts.
The system of wampum trading did not survive long after the arrival of Europeans. The Europeans introduced metal tools, specifically rasps and steel drills, that greatly reduced the labor needed to manufacture wampum. Additionally, the English in the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to manufacture wampum on their own.
In 1746, John Campbell established a wampum factory in what is now Park Ridge, New Jersey. The manufacture of wampum was a seasonal occupation which arose out of the need for establishing closer trading ties to remaining Native American tribes in the Pascack Valley region."
http://dictionary.sensagent.com/wampum/en-en/
"In 1609, Henry Hudson received wampum as a gift from upriver Indians. The first European credited with discovering the significance of wampum was Jacob Eelkes, a Dutch fur trader in the New Netherland colony. In early 1622, Eelkes seized a sachem of the Pequot on Long Island and threatened to cut off his head unless he received a large ransom. The sachem gave Eelkes wampum of over 840 feet in length, which Eelkes discovered would command many more pelts in trade among the Indians than European-made goods.
As a result, the two-trade system for the purchase of pelts quickly supplanted direct barter methods. The Dutch began both accepting and distributing wampum as a currency at their trading stations. They began an aggressive campaign of buying as much wampum as possible from coastal Algonquians and transporting it up the Hudson Valley, where it is scarcer, to trade for pelts among the Mahicans.
The sudden growth of wealth of Mahicans, who are considered a peaceful people by the Europeans, soon brought them into conflict with the Iroquois tribes of present-day upstate New York, resulting in the Mohawk-Mahican War.
Word of the value of wampum was spread to English settlers in Massachusetts by Isaak de Rasieres, the chief commercial agent of the Dutch West India Company, who informed Governor William Bradford of the Plymouth Colony of the significance of the belts.
The system of wampum trading did not survive long after the arrival of Europeans. The Europeans introduced metal tools, specifically rasps and steel drills, that greatly reduced the labor needed to manufacture wampum. Additionally, the English in the Massachusetts Bay Colony began to manufacture wampum on their own.
In 1746, John Campbell established a wampum factory in what is now Park Ridge, New Jersey. The manufacture of wampum was a seasonal occupation which arose out of the need for establishing closer trading ties to remaining Native American tribes in the Pascack Valley region."
http://dictionary.sensagent.com/wampum/en-en/
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