Trade Beads in Historical Archaeology

Introduction

During the last five centuries, European trade beads markedly influenced political economies at multiple scales. Columbus introduced glass trade beads to the New World, and the Portuguese introduced later European beads to much of sub-Saharan Africa, beginning with coastal regions in West Africa. Indo-Pacific, or Trade Wind, beads already dominated the market for trade beads in the Indian Ocean region (Wood 2011) and, in Asia, as far north as Japan (Francis 2002). Bead production in Amsterdam, in Venice, and at locations in Bohemia gained momentum in the seventeenth century. The Dutch, Spanish, English, and French widely distributed European glass trade beads and exchanged them for desired items, needed services, and slaves in the lands bordering the Atlantic and Indian oceans. The Spanish mission period in Florida (1633–1704) and the late seventeenth-century to eighteenth-century fur trade of northwestern North America are notable examples. Explorers, such as Richard...