2 Bese – Italian Somaliland

In 1909, the currency situation in Italian Somaliland reflected both the colony's economic underdevelopment and Italy's limited administrative investment in the territory. The Italian lira was the official currency, but its circulation was largely confined to the coastal administrative centers, such as Mogadishu, and the few Italian-run plantations and enterprises. For the vast majority of the Somali population in the interior, the lira was an abstract concept; the subsistence pastoral and agricultural economy operated primarily through barter, with livestock (especially camels and goats) serving as the principal store of value and medium for major transactions.

Alongside the limited lira and prevalent barter, a complex mosaic of older, trusted foreign silver coins dominated commercial trade, particularly in the coastal ports. The most important of these was the Maria Theresa thaler (MT$), an Austrian silver coin minted with the 1780 date, which was a universally accepted trade currency throughout the Red Sea region and the Horn of Africa. Additionally, the Indian rupee and British East African shillings circulated widely due to the colony's deep-seated trade links across the Indian Ocean. This created a de facto multi-currency system where merchants and traders had to navigate exchange rates between these metallic currencies.

The Italian colonial administration, burdened by budgetary constraints, made no serious effort to displace this established monetary ecosystem. Attempts to introduce paper money or strictly enforce the lira had failed, as the population distrusted fiduciary notes and preferred the intrinsic value of silver. Consequently, the currency picture in 1909 was one of fragmentation: a weak official currency imposed by Rome coexisting with, and often being overshadowed by, a resilient network of historic trade coins and traditional barter, underscoring the limited penetration of the colonial state into the Somali economic sphere.