Abstract
A by-product of the Abyssinian War was to enable AB to make substantial profits out of deals in Maria Theresa dollars. These dollars or thalers, minted in Vienna, had for generations been the traditional currency of Ethiopia. But they were also in use in wide adjacent areas on either side of the Red Sea and the narrows where the natives were unwilling to accept paper money. An MT dollar, of about the size of an English five-shilling piece, had a silver content of slightly more than three-quarters of a fine ounce. Its value could thus be assessed in terms of the current price of silver. But its local value in terms of other currencies was apt to depend on supply and demand, and there were times when the margins gave opportunities for profitable trading. Thus if silver was high and the local MT dollar rate was low, it might pay to buy up the dollars available locally and ship them as bullion to London or other centres. If the rates were the other way, then it would pay to order new silver dollars from the Vienna Mint and dispose of them locally. There had for years been intermittent trading along these lines, in which AB had sometimes taken part. But it was the Abssinian War and its aftermath that made it big business.
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© 1986 Estate of David Footman and St Antony’s College, Oxford
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Footman, D. (1986). Maria Theresa Dollars. In: Antonin Besse of Aden. St Antony’s Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07731-1_19
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-07731-1_19
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-07733-5
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-07731-1
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