Glass Beads
In parts of Africa and the Americas, glass beads were once a valuable form of currency, especially during early European trade. Europeans mass-produced them and used them to buy land, slaves, and resources. Native populations considered them beautiful and hard to replicate locally.
Though eventually devalued by over-supply, glass beads were once so prized that they functioned like shiny coins. Unfortunately, their use is often tied to exploitative colonial histories—beautiful objects exchanged in deeply unequal transactions.
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