Global interaction leads to unequal development in communities

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The object that I will be discussing in this podcast is the 1606 -1612 gold Zecchino coin. It was

minted, a process that I will describe later, and it weighs 2.250/3.494 grams. It’s diameter is

around 22mm (“Coin | British Museum”). On the front side of the coin there is a depiction of St

Mark (on the left), presenting a staff with a pennant to the Doge kneeling at the right. The script,

in latin, says LEON·DONAT S·M·VENET· DVX, reminding us that the ruler at the time the coin was

made was Leonardo Donà, who was the 90th Doge of Venice. Infact, the Zecchino was issued

with the name of each new Doge. On the back of the coin we can see the figure of Christ, shown

in a beaded ellipse lined with stars, holding the gospel and raising his hand in benediction. The

lettering on this side says ·SIT·T·XPE·DAT·Q·TV·REGIS·ISTE·DVCAT· (“1 Zecchino - Leonardo

Donà, Venice”). This well kept, slightly rusted coin was minted in Venice, where it was

presumably found. (“Coin | British Museum”). It was used by the general population for trade,

and in everyday life.

The gold Zecchino, first coined in 1284, was the most prestigious and long-lasting coin in the

Venetian system. In fact, it maintained its weight until the fall of the Venetian Republic in 1797.
It circulated widely in the Venetian empire, and it was the basic high-denomination coin for large

transactions. Before the mid-sixteenth century this coin was called the Ducat, and after this date

it was replaced by Zecchino, or in English sequin (“Vincent”). However, there is still some

confusion about the name of this coin, as some continue to call the more recent version a

ducat.

The word Zecchino comes from the Arabic word sikka meaning coin or minting die, and

variations of sikka and zecchino were used in Europe and the Middle East (Spivack). The

commodity of this object is gold of a fineness very close to 100%. In the 1500s fractional gold

coins of the zecchino began to be produced, and in the 1600 coins of multiples, however the

single Zecchino piece remained the basic coin.

As the minting process needed a lot of equipment and technology, these coins were most likely

not fabricated at home, instead they were probably produced by the government in factories by

slaves. However, there is no proof of this.

The increase of mining in central Europe in the 1400s caused an improvement in the Early

Modern minting process. The dies, which were still made by punches, became more detailed as

can be seen by the portrait of the monarch hk h. The shape of the coin depended on the striking

process. First, metal, in ingot form, was passed several times between steel rollers powered by a

water mill or horse gin, a mechanism that transfers horsepower into rotational energy. This was

done to obtain the correct thickness. These blanks were then cut with shears from the rolled

fillet (metal strip) to adjust their weight. After that they were rounded in a rouleaux. In some

cases they were punched by a machine from a fillet to a fixed diameter. To protect against

clipping, a security edge was added (for example an inscription or a serrated or milled edge),
and in the final stage hand-operated screw presses were used for stamping the designs. (“Coin -

Early Modern Minting | Britannica”).

This coin was used by the general public, as its purpose was to facilitate day to day life, trade,

etc. As the value of the coin fluctuated, it’s difficult to determine how much it was worth

compared to today. However, we know that the venetian system based on the lira was

equivalent to 20 soldi and 240 denari. After 1517 the venetian ducat (or Zecchino) was

equivalent to 6 lire, 4 soldi, and 124 Venetian soldi.

The gold used in the fabrication if this coin was most likely taken from the Gold Coast in West

Africa, which was the main source of this commodity at the time, probably via the Spanish, as

they were the main traders with West (Peters). Another possibility is that it was brought over

from the so-called “new world”, from the US, Mexico, or Peru, via Portugal, however this is

unlikely as it was much farther than the Gold Coast, so the price of the commodity/raw material

would have gone up exponentially. (Chaudhuri)

Access to luxury goods (e.g. fabrics, spices, gold) is what motivated Europeans to attempt to

reach South Asia. This search, in fact, led the Portuguese to arrive at Sierra Leone in 1460. The

main African exports were gold, ivory, and pepper, however a total of 175,000 slaves were

brought to Europe. And when the Dutch and English got involved in the 1600s, the slave trade

grew exponentially (George). This is why it can be hypothesized that the coins were produced by

slaves imported from the Gold Coast.

This coin was used for interactions between different places and communities. Even the name

Zecchino exhibits a relationship with Islamic world. Thanks to the Venetian Senate, in 1587 the
first public bank of deposit was established there: the “Banco di Rialto”, also called “Banco della

Piazza”. This second denomination describes how it brought Venetians from different social

classes and communities together. (Dunbar).

Slave trade formed the basis of the Afro-European relationship and with the Gold Coast, as it

was abolished only after 3 centuries, in the early 1800s. It was under colonial rule of the

Portuguese, Dutch, and later the English. The Gold Coast’s economy most likely developed more

slowly than Venice’s because it had less labor and fewer raw materials, as these things were

being exported to Venice, and the trade wasn’t reciprocal.

We can see the results of what began in the Early Modern period reflected in today’s economy.

Because of the factors that I discussed above, the economic development of the Gold Coast

was at a slower pace compared to Venice in the 1600s, and this is so even today. We can see

that today Ghana’s GDP per capita is 2,445.29 USD. Italy’s is 14.5 times this, Portugal 9 times,

and the UK 19 (“Google finance”). However, there are multitudes of other factors that may have

contributed to this economic imbalance, so we cannot state this as a fact, nor be certain.

Nonetheless, the data that I found does confirm the statement that ‘global interaction leads to

unequal development in communities’.