Introduction: Why to Study “The Portuguese Escudo Monetary Zone and its Impact in Colonial and Post-Colonial Africa”

Reorganizing the Escudo Zone: Portuguese Monetary Policy and Empire-Union in Africa in the 1960s

“…Such policies were implemented according to legislation issued in 1967. 24 But more fundamental problems were difficult to solve. An important share of imports consisted of equipment for infrastructural development and industrialization.…”

“…The reform of 1971 (approved by decree-law 478/71) also authorized the issue of a 3 billion escudos domestic loan to increase the capital of the EZMU Fund to “address all orders of payments that were in arrears” (Mata 2020: 94). Meanwhile, colonial movements fighting for independence advanced due to improved military equipment, which posed increasing problems for Portugal.…”

“…The new monetary units celebrated political independence, national identity, and self-reliant African statehood. Immediately following independence, the old colonial banknotes were stamped to exhibit the respective names of the new national currencies; they were gradually replaced by new notes showing the images of national heroes (Mata 2020). The national banks of the newly independent countries have since that time been assuming central banking functions for regulation and supervision in a more sophisticated financial system that has involved relationships between insurance companies, commercial banks, and national monetary policy 32…”

“…However, historical research assessing policies in currency zones has mainly focused on the sterling area (Schenk 2010). Currency relations in the escudo zone have only recently been more fully investigated (Mata 2020). The escudo zone was one of a number of colonial currency systems that marked the extension of European power in Africa during the first half of the twentieth century (Guyer & Pallaver 2016).…”

Money for Africa and Money in Africa: Colonial Currencies and the Making of Economies and States, 1860s–1960s

“…The Rhodesian settler state in the 1950s and 1960s followed its own conceptions of relations with the pound sterling and the dollar (Nyamunda 2023; Mseba 2016). Portugal formalized the escudo zone at a time when other European countries were decolonizing (Mata 2020). And Sudanese independence saw a rupture with the Egyptian economy while relations with the sterling area continued (Young 2018a, 2018b).…”