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The Genesis of the New Currency Units and Banking Systems in the Portuguese-Speaking African Countries. The Co-operation with Portugal

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The Portuguese Escudo Monetary Zone

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Abstract

Decolonisation brought different geopolitical positions for coloniser and ex-colonised countries. Following independence, many African countries created Currency Boards as credit organizations with government sponsorship. The newly-independent Portuguese-speaking countries in Africa occupied and transformed the local agencies of the colonial issuing banks into their National Banks, which later would issue new currencies and assume central banking functions. The national currencies were named escudo in Cabo Verde, peso in Guiné-Bissau, dobra in São Tomé e Príncipe, kwanza in Angola, and metical in Moçambique, which are symbols of political sovereignty. Following independence, in spite of the implementation of socialist-communist political blueprints in the newly independent countries, many co-operation agreements were implemented for trade and international movements of capital, thanks to Portuguese commercial bank credit lines for these purposes.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Local law nr. 5/2011 created the Banking and Payments Central Authority, Banco Central de Timor Leste (BCTL) on 13 September 2011.

  2. 2.

    For comparisons with other African countries Newlyn and Rowan 1954.

  3. 3.

    Pateguana 1997, pp. 31–54; Narsey 2016. For the role of anthropologists in this context Flandreau 2016.

  4. 4.

    Schenk 2010.

  5. 5.

    Banque de France 2012, pp. 11–13.

  6. 6.

    Informação, Atrazados do Ultramar, Banco de Portugal DSOC, 14.1.76. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Operações e Crédito. Descolonisação. IARN. Pagamentos Atrasados Angola e Moçambique. 1975–1976.

  7. 7.

    Bordo and Jonung 1999.

  8. 8.

    Informação, DSOC, 14.1.76. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Operações de Crédito. Descolonisação. IARN. Pasta n° 16. Pagamentos atrazados de Angola de Moçambique. 1975–1976.

  9. 9.

    Portuguese Resolução do Conselho de Ministros of 19 December 1975, and Resolução do Conselho de Ministros of 10 February 1976.

  10. 10.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. Correspondência oficial sobre pagamentos atrasados de Angola e Moçambique. 1975–1976.

  11. 11.

    Relatório do Agente Relativo Aos Meses de Abril a Junho de 1974. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Fundo Monetário da Zona do Escudo. Direção. Processos de Atas n°s 124 a 130. 1968–1975. FMZE/Dir/002.

  12. 12.

    Banco de Moçambique 2012. According to an authorisation of 3 September 1975 from the Portuguese Ministry of Finance, to IARN, the Institute created for the Return of Nationals (Instituto de Apoio ao Retorno de Nacionais), the cost for trips from Angola amounted to 1.2 billion escudos. Documentação Diversa, Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Angola 1975–1990.

  13. 13.

    Pateguana 2016, p. 37; Hopkins 1970; Mwangi 2001.

  14. 14.

    Chandarvarkar 1996, p. 18; Helleiner 2003.

  15. 15.

    As it happened with Companhia dos Caminhos-de-Ferro de Benguela. Documentação Diversa. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Angola 1975–1990.

  16. 16.

    Translated into Decree-law nr. 23/75 of 22 January 1975, Diário do Governo, I Série, n° 18, of 22 January 1975. Despacho normativo n° 305/79, Portuguese Diário da República of 2 October 1979, also addressed Portuguese workers who stayed in Angolan banking institutions, and wanted to move to the Portuguese banking sector, (in the context of the Angolan civil war).

  17. 17.

    Law 26 June 1976 in Cabo Verde. Estevão 2015, p. 210, 211. Decree nr. 13/75 in Moçambique with a signature on 24 June 1975, for example.

  18. 18.

    Carvalho 2014.

  19. 19.

    Feiertag and Minoglou 2009, p. 32.

  20. 20.

    Verhoef 2017.

  21. 21.

    Black 1976, p. 37.

  22. 22.

    Feiertag 2016.

  23. 23.

    Feiertag and Minoglou 2009, p. 20.

  24. 24.

    On 14 October for Banco Nacional de S. Tomé e Príncipe , 9 May 1977 for Banco de Moçambique . Guinésigned with Caixa Geral dos Depósitos. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Responsabilidades c/Bancos Portugueses. Acordos de Agência, 1977–1980.

    For the Moçambican case, agreement and details are available at Documentos Diversos. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Moçambique. 1975–1990.

  25. 25.

    BNU could not have activity in Timor. Relatório, Balanço e Contas, BNU, 1976.

  26. 26.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Moçambique. 1975–1990.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Angola. 1975–1990.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs,S. Tomé e Príncipe. 1975–1990.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Guiné-Bissau. 1975–1990.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Cabo Verde. 1975–1990.

  27. 27.

    Araújo 1983, pp. 107–116.

  28. 28.

    For example, Cabo Verde could have benefited from foreign aid coming from the Development European Fund (DEF), and the Investment European Bank over 100 USD per capita, per year, according to Araújo 1983.

  29. 29.

    Letter of 29 June 1977 from Banco Português do Atlântico to Banco de Portugal. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, S. Tomé e Príncipe. 1975–1990.

  30. 30.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs,Guiné-Bissau. 1975–1990.

  31. 31.

    Banco Pinto & Sotto Mayor, Banco Fonsecas & Burnay, Banco Espírito Santo, Sociedade Financeira Portuguesa, for exemple. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs,S. Tomé e Príncipe. 1975–1990.

  32. 32.

    Circular a todos os bancos, n° 89,/ORE/CFCE of 5 December 1977. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Guiné-Bissau. 1975–1990.

  33. 33.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Responsabilidades c/Bancos Portugueses. Acordos de Agência, 1977–1980.

  34. 34.

    At first Portuguese scholarships amounted to 300,000 escudos for a 3-month stay. After 15 June 1985 the amount became 111,500 escudos per month. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs, Guiné-Bissau. 1975–1990.

  35. 35.

    Comiche 2012, tells on the substitution of Portuguese for Moçambican employees.

  36. 36.

    Ratilal 2012, p. 91, 93.

  37. 37.

    Cullen 2017, p. 3.

  38. 38.

    Saramago and Martins 1998, p. 38.

  39. 39.

    Published in Diário do Governo, II Série, n° 262, of 13 November 1979.

  40. 40.

    “Regime de pagamentos com as ex-colónias”. Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs. S. Tomé e Príncipe. 1975–1990.

  41. 41.

    Portugal. Arquivo Histórico do Banco de Portugal. Departamento de Estrangeiro. PALOPs. Angola. 1975–1990.

  42. 42.

    Ferreira 2005, pp. 354–355.

  43. 43.

    Maes 2016. On the controversy related with explanations based on the “reversal of fortune” in Africa in the last 500 years, and the ideas on ethnic fragmentation, Hopkins, A.G., 2009. On the Kenyata elite’s own decision to work with the British in post-independence times, Cullen 2017.

  44. 44.

    Saramago 2014, pp. 6–12, p. 6.

  45. 45.

    Allen and Kenen 1980; McLenaghan et al. 1982; William 1986; Wickham 1986; Dornbusch et al. 1987; Pinto 1987; Quirk 1987.

  46. 46.

    Pinto and Van Wijnbergen 1986.

  47. 47.

    Fieszbein, Ariel “Uma análise entre o Arranjo Monetário entre a República da Portugal e a República da Guiné-Bissau”, Washington D.C., Aug 1989. Portugal. AHBP. Pasta ACORDO DE ARRANJO MONETÁRIO C/a Guiné-BISSAU, 1991 a 1996. (Documentação não tratada).

  48. 48.

    On the franco zone see Gérardin 1994.

  49. 49.

    Portugal. AHBP. Pasta ACORDO DE ARRANJO MONETÁRIO C/a Guiné-BISSAU, 1991 a 1996. Documentação não tratada): Ariel Fieszbein, “Uma análise entre o Arranjo Monetário entre a República da Portugal e a República da Guiné-Bissau”, Washington D.C., Aug 1989.

  50. 50.

    Johnson and Swoboda 1973; Bourgui 1979.

  51. 51.

    Portugal. Banco de Portugal. AHBP. Jorge Braga de Macedo. “Uniões Monetárias com micro-estados, A criação de uma Zona de Escudo com a República da Guiné-Bissau e a Republica de S. Tomé e Príncipe, Instituto de Cooperação Económica, Dez 1987 (p. 13). Pasta ACORDO DE ARRANJO MONETÁRIO C/a Guiné-BISSAU, 1991 a 1996. (Documentação não tratada).

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    Maria Eugénia Mata

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Mata, M.E. (2020). The Genesis of the New Currency Units and Banking Systems in the Portuguese-Speaking African Countries. The Co-operation with Portugal. In: The Portuguese Escudo Monetary Zone. Palgrave Studies in Economic History. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-33857-2_9

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