Research on Africa’s monetary history has tended to focus on the imposition of colonial currencies while neglecting the monetary upheavals which faced the colonial powers after the collapse of the gold standard during World War I. Gardner profiles three crises—in The Gambia, Kenya, and Liberia—resulting from shifting exchange rates between European currencies during the 1920s and 1930s. These three cases illustrate the degree to which colonial policies struggled to keep up with the economic turmoil affecting metropolitan states and bring Africa into the story of global monetary instability during the interwar period, which is often told only from a European perspective.

对非洲货币史的研究往往侧重于殖民货币的强加，而忽视了第一次世界大战期间金本位崩溃后殖民列强所面临的货币动荡。加德纳描述了冈比亚、肯尼亚和利比里亚的三场危机——20 世纪 20 年代和 1930 年代欧洲货币之间汇率变化的结果。这三个案例说明了殖民政策在多大程度上难以跟上影响宗主国的经济动荡，并将非洲带入两次世界大战期间全球货币不稳定的故事中，而这通常只是从欧洲的角度来讲述。