by Bmblbzzz » 6:46 pm
The Venetian merchant and explorer of West Africa, Alvise Ca da Mosto, describes an interesting method of bartering salt for gold on the Niger in the 15th century. Salt was carried from the Sahara by people he describes as Negroes – probably slaves of the Tuaregs or Arabs – and then left in piles on the river bank. The salt-trading Tuareg or whoever they might exactly have been (shall we call them African Saxons? ;) ) then retreated "a half day's travel" while another tribe arrived on large boats from further south. These people left what they considered a fair amount of gold by each pile of salt, and then they too left. The salt traders returned and either took the pile of gold next to a particular pile of salt or left it. The gold traders returned, took the piles of salt for which the gold had been taken and either added more gold to the other piles, or took the gold and left the salt if they were not prepared to pay more. In this way neither party spoke to the other or even had to see each other.
