Brass Wire

“Besides that, they had given them every week three pieces of brass wire, each about nine inches long; and the theory was they were to buy their provisions with that currency in river-side villages.” (Conrad 60). Brass wire strips, called mitako, were sometimes used in part of the Congo for a type of currency; however, in this scene described by Marlow, this currency is not useful to the natives in the part of Africa depicted. This is yet another example of the Europeans being ignorant and ineffective.

(http://books.google.com/books?id=TykUAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA296&lpg=PA296&dq=brass+wire+currency+congo&source=web&ots=HUE5uTcw1l&sig=iC70W7JqQHbKgDgCVdbAhgY3SCQ&hl=en&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=5&ct=result)