International Money or Global Commodity? The Maria Theresa Thaler and Imperial Power in the Interwar Period

Open to the Public

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.

Date: Thu, Apr 28, 2011 Time: 12:15pm - 02:00pm Location: Littauer Building - Room 166

The famous silver thalers that were used as a main source of exchange in the Persian Gulf and North Africa in the 18th and 19th centuries.

International money of any sort is generally a poorly understood historical concept, but this significance is particularly obscure when it comes to the Maria Theresa Thaler or dollar (MTT), and its role in supporting regional and international commerce in the non-European world from the 18th to the 20th centuries. This seminar wishes to shed some light on the MTT’s commercial role in the Western Indian Ocean and also its integral position in either supporting or hindering European imperial rule by exploring two distinct case studies: Italy in Ethiopia and Great Britain in South Arabia. The speaker will argue that the use of the MTT (or not) is a powerful marker of a (tacit and often limited) acceptance of European hegemony. Furthermore, the speaker will maintain that neither Italy nor Great Britain understood its crucial place in their empires and that this ignorance led to some rash, uninformed, and ultimately debilitating decisions and policies in the 1930s and 1940s. By the time the inherent value and possibility for profits was discovered, both the MTT and the empires were in decline.

Please join us! Coffee and tea provided. Everyone is welcome, but admittance will be on a first come–first served basis.