Sesel Sa! January - March 2015 Jan - March 2015 | Page 31

he declined to resist when armed enemy warships
arrived. He instead successfully negotiated the status
of capitulation to Britain and it came with the added
bonus of settlers obtaining the privileged position of
neutrality. Even though Britain eventually assumed full
control upon the surrender of Mauritius in 1810 it took
four years for it to be formalised at the Treaty of Paris.
And that is when paper currency first appeared in
the form of Mauritian dollars, rupees or pounds
according to the Central Bank however the coins
from the French period such as the Piastre Decaen
were still in circulation. The Central Bank also states
that on 1 January 1826 the sterling monetary system
with its unit of the “shilling” was introduced in unity
with the other British colonies of the East Africa
region. Interestingly, when the Mauritius Commercial
Bank was opened in 1838 because Seychelles was
administered from Mauritius, both countries had the
same currency.

THE WORLD WAR 2 EFFECT

The Central Bank of Seychelles tells us that during the
Second World War there were no less than twenty nine
foreign currencies in circulation in the colony as there
was a local currency shortage because