OLD CALABAR TRADE, 1678.
“The most current goods of Europe for the trade of Old Calabar to purchase slaves and elephants’ teeth are iron bars, in quality and chiefly, copper bars, blue rags, cloth and striped Guinea clouts of many colours, horse bells, hawks’ bells, rangoes, pewter basons of 1, 2, 3 and 4 lbs. weight, tankards of ditto of 1, 2, and 3 lbs. weight, beads very small and glazed yellow, green, purple and blue, purple copper armlets or arm rings of Angola make, but this last sort of goods is peculiar to the Portuguese.”
The blacks there reckon by copper bars, reducing all sorts of goods to such bars; for example, 1 bar of iron, 4 copper bars; a man slave for 38 and a woman slave for 37 or 36 copper bars.