1.
Cape Verde
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Located 570 kilometres off the coast of West Africa, the islands cover a combined area of slightly over 4,000 square kilometres. The Cape Verde archipelago was uninhabited until the 15th century, when Portuguese explorers discovered and colonized the islands, ideally located for the Atlantic slave trade, the islands grew prosperous throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, attracting merchants, privateers, and pirates. The end of slavery in the 19th century led to economic decline, Cape Verde gradually recovered as an important commercial center and stopover for shipping routes. Incorporated as a department of Portugal in 1951, the islands continued to agitate for independence. Since the early 1990s, Cape Verde has been a representative democracy. Lacking natural resources, its economy is mostly service-oriented, with a growing focus on tourism. Its population of around 512,000 is mostly of mixed European and sub-Saharan African heritage, a sizeable diaspora community exists across the world, slightly outnumbering inhabitants on the islands. Historically, the name Cape Verde has been used in English for the archipelago and, since independence in 1975, for the country. In 2013, the Cape Verdean government determined that the Portuguese designation Cabo Verde would henceforth be used for official purposes, such as at the United Nations, Cape Verde is a member of the African Union. The name of the stems from the nearby Cap-Vert, on the Senegalese coast. In 1444 Portuguese explorers had named that landmark as Cabo Verde, on 24 October 2013, the countrys delegation announced at the United Nations that the official name should no longer be translated into other languages. Instead of Cape Verde, the designation Republic of Cabo Verde is to be used, before the arrival of Europeans, the Cape Verde Islands were uninhabited. The islands of the Cape Verde archipelago were discovered by Genoese and Portuguese navigators around 1456, according to Portuguese official records, the first discoveries were made by Genoa-born António de Noli, who was afterwards appointed governor of Cape Verde by Portuguese King Afonso V. Other navigators mentioned as contributing to discoveries in the Cape Verde archipelago are Diogo Gomes, Diogo Dias, Diogo Afonso, in 1462, Portuguese settlers arrived at Santiago and founded a settlement they called Ribeira Grande. Ribeira Grande was the first permanent European settlement in the tropics, in the 16th century, the archipelago prospered from the Atlantic slave trade. Pirates occasionally attacked the Portuguese settlements, sir Francis Drake, an English corsair privateering under a letter of marque granted by the English crown, twice sacked the capital Ribeira Grande in 1585 when it was a part of the Iberian Union. After a French attack in 1712, the town declined in relative to nearby Praia. Decline in the trade in the 19th century resulted in an economic crisis
2.
Central bank
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A central bank, reserve bank, or monetary authority is an institution that manages a states currency, money supply, and interest rates. Central banks also usually oversee the commercial banking system of their respective countries, Central banks in most developed nations are institutionally designed to be independent from political interference. Still, limited control by the executive and legislative bodies usually exists, prior to the 17th century most money was commodity money, typically gold or silver. However, promises to pay were widely circulated and accepted as value at least five hundred years earlier in both Europe and Asia. The Song dynasty was the first to issue generally circulating paper currency, in 1455, in an effort to control inflation, the succeeding Ming Dynasty ended the use of paper money and closed much of Chinese trade. The Bank of Amsterdam, established in the Dutch Republic in 1609, is considered to be the forerunner to modern central banks. The Wisselbanks innovations helped lay the foundations for the birth and development of the banking system that now plays a vital role in the worlds economy. Along with a number of local banks, it performed many functions of a central banking system. Lucien Gillard calls it the European guilder, and Adam Smith devotes many pages to explaining how the bank guilder works, the model of the Wisselbank as a state bank was adapted throughout Europe, including the Bank of Sweden and the Bank of England. Established by Dutch-Latvian Johan Palmstruch in 1668, Sveriges Riksbank is often considered by many as the worlds oldest central bank, the lenders would give the government cash and also issue notes against the government bonds, which could be lent again. A Royal Charter was granted on 27 July through the passage of the Tonnage Act 1694, the bank was given exclusive possession of the governments balances, and was the only limited-liability corporation allowed to issue banknotes. The £1. 2M was raised in 12 days, half of this was used to rebuild the Navy and these modern central banking functions evolved slowly through the 18th and 19th centuries. The currency crisis of 1797, caused by panicked depositors withdrawing from the Bank led to the government suspending convertibility of notes into specie payment. The bank was accused by the bullionists of causing the exchange rate to fall from over issuing banknotes. Nevertheless, it was clear that the Bank was being treated as an organ of the state, henry Thornton, a merchant banker and monetary theorist has been described as the father of the modern central bank. An opponent of the real bills doctrine, he was a defender of the bullionist position, thorntons process of monetary expansion anticipated the theories of Knut Wicksell regarding the cumulative process which restates the Quantity Theory in a theoretically coherent form. Until the mid-nineteenth century, commercial banks were able to issue their own banknotes, many consider the origins of the central bank to lie with the passage of the Bank Charter Act of 1844. Under this law, authorisation to issue new banknotes was restricted to the Bank of England, at the same time, the Bank of England was restricted to issue new banknotes only if they were 100% backed by gold or up to £14 million in government debt
3.
Banco Nacional Ultramarino
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Banco Nacional Ultramarino was a Portuguese bank with operations throughout the world, especially in Portugals former overseas provinces. It ceased existence as an independent legal entity in Portugal following its merger with Caixa Geral de Depósitos, the Chinese names meaning is literally Great West Ocean Bank or Atlantic Bank. Banco Nacional Ultramarino was established in Lisbon, Portugal, in 1864 as a bank of issue for Portuguese overseas territories, the next year it opened branches in Luanda, Angola and Praia, Cabo Verde. Three years after that, in 1868, BNU opened branches in São Tomé and Príncipe, Goa, in 1901 BNU lost its banking monopoly, but retained its note-issuing monopoly in the countries in which BNU operated. The next year, BNU opened branches in Macau and in Bolama, just before World War 1, in 1912, BNU opened branches in Dili, East Timor (present-day Timor Leste, and in Brazil. 1919 - BNU established an office in Stanleyville and a branch in Paris. 1920 - BNU established an office in Bombay. 1926 - BNU lost its monopoly in Angola with creation of Banco de Angola. BNU transferred its branch in Stanleyville to Banco de Angola,1929 - BNU established Anglo-Portuguese Colonial and Overseas Bank, its subsidiary in London, and converted its branch in Paris to a subsidiary, Banque Franco-Portugaise d’Outre-Mer. In 1952 BNU closed its branches in India, in 1965 BNU, Banco Português do Atlântico, Banco de Angola, and the South African company, General Mining and Finance, founded Bank of Lisbon and South Africa. This was later renamed Mercantile Lisbon Bank, in the 1970s, BNU bought a stake in Banque Interatlantique in Luxembourg, and established a representative office in London. In 1974 the Portuguese government nationalized BNU, following the Carnation Revolution, in 1993, the government split National Bank into a central bank, Central Bank of São Tomé and Príncipe, and a commercial bank, Banco Internacional de Sao Tome e Principe. In Cape Verde, BNUs interests became Bank of Cape Verde, in 1993, the government spun off the commercial banking operations into a new bank, Banco Comercial do Atlantico. 1988 - Portuguese Government-owned Caixa Geral de Depósitos became the majority shareholder of BNU,1991 - BNU opened a branch in London. 1993 - BNU opened a branch in Zhuhai, a Special Economic Zone of China,1993 - Caixa Geral de Depósitos became the majority shareholder in Banque Franco-Portugaise d’Outre-Mer. In 2002, CGD closed the bank by merging its operations into CGDs branch in Paris,1995 - The Chinese government confirmed that BNU would remain a note issuer in Macao until at least 2010. 1999 - BNU opened representative offices in Mumbai and Panjim,2000 - BNU reached an agreement with the Administration of Macau Special Administrative Region of the Peoples Republic of China, under which BNU remains an Agent of the Treasury. A. But remained wholly owned subsidiary of Caixa Geral de Depósitos, retaining until 2010 its functions as a note issuer and Agent of the Treasury
4.
Portuguese escudo
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The escudo was the currency of Portugal prior to the introduction of the euro on 1 January 1999 and its removal from circulation on 28 February 2002. The escudo was subdivided into 100 centavos, amounts in escudos were written as escudos $ centavos with the cifrão as the decimal separator. Because of the rate of 1000 réis = $1, three decimal places were initially used. Escudo gold coinage was introduced in 1722 with denominations including 1⁄2 escudo,2,4, and 8 escudos. The escudo was introduced on 22 May 1911, after the 1910 Republican revolution. The term mil réis remained a colloquial synonym of escudo up to the 1990s, one million réis was called one conto de réis, or simply one conto. This expression passed on to the escudo, meaning 1, 000$, the escudos value was initially set at 675$00 =1 kg of gold. After 1914, the value of the fell, being fixed in 1928 at 108$25 to the Pound Sterling. This was altered to 110$00 to the Pound Sterling in 1931, a new rate of 27$50 escudos to the U. S. dollar was established in 1940, changing to 25$00 in 1940 and 28$75 in 1949. During World War II, escudos were heavily sought after by Nazi Germany, through Swiss banks, as currency to make purchases to Portugal. Inflation throughout the 20th century made centavos essentially worthless by its end, with the entry of Portugal in the Eurozone, the conversion rate to the euro was set at 200$482 to €1. The escudo was used in the Portuguese mainland, the Azores and Madeira, for more details, see the escudos of Angola, Cape Verde, Mozambique, Portuguese Guinea and São Tomé and Príncipe. Only Cape Verde continues to use the escudo, in Macau, the currency during the colonial period was, as it is today, the pataca. Timor-Leste adopted the escudo whilst still a Portuguese colony, having used the pataca. Portuguese India adopted the escudo before it was annexed by India, the gold escudo mintage period for each denomination was different, 1⁄2 escudo through 1821,2 escudos through 1789, and 4 escudos through 1799. The 8 escudo coin was struck between 1722–30. Between 1912 and 1916, silver 10,20 and 50 centavos, bronze 1 and 2 centavos and cupro-nickel 4 centavos were issued between 1917 and 1922. In 1920, bronze 5 centavos and cupro-nickel 10 and 20 centavos were introduced, followed, in 1924, by bronze 10 and 20 centavos, aluminium bronze was replaced with cupro-nickel in 1927
5.
Dollar sign
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The dollar sign is a symbol primarily used to indicate the various units of currency around the world. The symbol can interchangeably have one or two vertical strokes, note that the two-stroked version is not the same symbol as the cifrão. In common usage, the sign appears to the left of the amount specified, the best documented explanation holds that the sign evolved out of the Spanish and Spanish American scribal abbreviation pˢ for pesos. A study of late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century manuscripts shows that the s gradually came to be written over the p, a variation, though less plausible, of this hypothesis derives the sign from a combination of the Greek character psi and S. There are a number of hypotheses about the origin of the symbol, some with a measure of academic acceptance. Kingdom of Sicily Denaro minted in the Kingdom in Sicily at least by 1258–1266 had what could be construed as a dollar symbol. These coins were widely circulated due to the Crusades – and specifically the Crusade that targeted Tunis, several alternative hypotheses relate specifically to the dollar sign drawn with two vertical lines. A common hypothesis holds that the sign derives from the Spanish coat of arms, in 1492, Ferdinand II of Aragon adopted the symbol of the Pillars of Hercules and added the Latin warning Non plus ultra meaning nothing further beyond, indicating this is the end of the world. But when Christopher Columbus came to America, the legend was changed to Plus ultra, the Pillars of Hercules wrapped in a banner thus became a symbol of the New World. In this example the right-hand pillar clearly resembles the dollar sign, the symbol was adopted by Charles V and was part of his coat of arms representing Spains American possessions. The symbol was later stamped on coins minted in gold and silver, the coin, also known as Spanish dollar, was the first global currency used in the entire world since the Spanish Empire was the first global Empire. These coins, depicting the pillars over two hemispheres and a small S-shaped ribbon around each, were spread throughout America, Europe and Asia. According to this, traders wrote signs that, instead of saying Spanish dollar, had this made by hand. When the US got independence from the UK, they created the American dollar, a dollar sign with two vertical lines could have started off as a monogram of USA, used on money bags issued by the United States Mint. The letters U and S superimposed resemble the historical double-stroke dollar sign, robert Morris was such a zealous patriot – known as the Financier of the Revolution in the West – that conjecture does not overstep its bounds in purporting this hypothesis as viable. A similar idea claims that the letters U and S would stand for unit of silver, referencing pieces of eight again, another hypothesis is that it derives from the symbol used on a German Thaler. This refers to the Bible, Numbers, Chapter 21, a similar symbol, constructed by superposition of S and I or J, was used to denote German Joachimsthaler. It was known in the English-speaking world by the 17th century, robert Morris was the first to use that symbol in official documents and in official communications with Oliver Pollock
6.
Cape Verdean Creole
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Cape Verdean Creole is a Portuguese-based creole language spoken on the islands of Cape Verde. It is the language of virtually all Cape Verdeans and is used as a second language by the Cape Verdean diaspora. The language has particular importance for studies since it is the oldest creole. It is the most widely spoken Portuguese-based creole language, the current designation of this language is Cape Verdean Creole. However, in everyday usage the language is simply called Creole by its speakers, the names Cape Verdean and Cape Verdean language have been proposed for whenever the language will be standardized. The history of Cape Verdean Creole is hard to trace due to a lack of written documentation, There are presently three theories about the formation of Creole. The monogenetic theory claims that the creole was formed by the Portuguese by simplifying the Portuguese language in order to make it accessible to African slaves and that is the point of view of authors like Prudent, Waldman, Chaudenson, Lopes da Silva. Authors like Adam and Quint argue that Creole was formed by African slaves using the grammar of Western African languages, according to A. Carreira, Cape Verdean Creole was formed from a Portuguese pidgin, on the island of Santiago, starting from the 15th century. That pidgin was then transported to the west coast of Africa by the lançados, from there, that pidgin diverged into two proto-Creoles, one that was the base of all Cape Verdean Creoles, and another that was the base of the Guinea-Bissau Creole. Cross referencing information regarding the settlement of each island with the linguistic comparisons, the spreading of Cape Verdean Creole within the islands was done in three phases, In a first phase, the island of Santiago was occupied, followed by Fogo. In a second phase, the island of São Nicolau was occupied, followed by Santo Antão, in spite of Creole being the first language of nearly all the population in Cape Verde, Portuguese is still the official language. As Portuguese is used in life, Portuguese and Cape Verdean Creole live in a state of diglossia. Due to this presence of Portuguese, a decreolization process occurs for all the different Cape Verdean Creole variants. Check in this text, Santiago variant, Quêl mudjêr cú quêm m’ encôntra ónti stába priocupáda púrqui êl sqêci dí sês minínus nâ scóla. Alguêm lembrâ-’l quí sês minínus sâ tâ pricisába dí material pâ úm pesquisa, pâ gradêci â túdu quêm djudâ-’l, êl cumêça tâ fála, tâ flâ cômu êl stába contênti di fúndu di curaçãu. São Vicente variant, Quêl m’djêr c’ quêm m’ encontrá ônt’ táva priocupáda púrq’ êl sq’cê d’ sês m’nín’s nâ scóla, alguêm lembrá-’l qu’ sês m’nín’s táva tâ pr’cisá d’ material pâ úm pesquisa, entõ êl bâi encontrá-’s nâ biblioteca tâ procurá úq’ ês cría. Pâ gradecê â túd’ quêm j’dá-’l, êl c’meçá tâ fála, translation to Portuguese, Aquela mulher com quem eu encontrei-me ontem estava preocupada porque ela esqueceu-se das suas crianças na escola, e quando ela foi procurá-las ela não as viu. Alguém lembrou-lhe que as suas crianças estavam a precisar de material para uma pesquisa, para agradecer a todos os que ajudaram-na, ela começou a falar, dizendo como ela estava contente do fundo do coração
7.
Euro
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Outside of Europe, a number of overseas territories of EU members also use the euro as their currency. Additionally,210 million people worldwide as of 2013 use currencies pegged to the euro, the euro is the second largest reserve currency as well as the second most traded currency in the world after the United States dollar. The name euro was adopted on 16 December 1995 in Madrid. The euro was introduced to world markets as an accounting currency on 1 January 1999. While the euro dropped subsequently to US$0.8252 within two years, it has traded above the U. S. dollar since the end of 2002, peaking at US$1.6038 on 18 July 2008. In July 2012, the euro fell below US$1.21 for the first time in two years, following concerns raised over Greek debt and Spains troubled banking sector, as of 26 March 2017, the euro–dollar exchange rate stands at ~ US$1.07. The euro is managed and administered by the Frankfurt-based European Central Bank, as an independent central bank, the ECB has sole authority to set monetary policy. The Eurosystem participates in the printing, minting and distribution of notes and coins in all states. The 1992 Maastricht Treaty obliges most EU member states to adopt the euro upon meeting certain monetary and budgetary convergence criteria, all nations that have joined the EU since 1993 have pledged to adopt the euro in due course. Since 5 January 2002, the central banks and the ECB have issued euro banknotes on a joint basis. Euro banknotes do not show which central bank issued them, Eurosystem NCBs are required to accept euro banknotes put into circulation by other Eurosystem members and these banknotes are not repatriated. The ECB issues 8% of the value of banknotes issued by the Eurosystem. In practice, the ECBs banknotes are put into circulation by the NCBs and these liabilities carry interest at the main refinancing rate of the ECB. The euro is divided into 100 cents, in Community legislative acts the plural forms of euro and cent are spelled without the s, notwithstanding normal English usage. Otherwise, normal English plurals are used, with many local variations such as centime in France. All circulating coins have a side showing the denomination or value. Due to the plurality in the European Union, the Latin alphabet version of euro is used. For the denominations except the 1-, 2- and 5-cent coins, beginning in 2007 or 2008 the old map is being replaced by a map of Europe also showing countries outside the Union like Norway
8.
Heptagon
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In geometry, a heptagon is a seven-sided polygon or 7-gon. The heptagon is also referred to as the septagon, using sept- together with the Greek suffix -agon meaning angle. A regular heptagon, in all sides and all angles are equal, has internal angles of 5π/7 radians. The area of a regular heptagon of side length a is given by, the apothem is half the cotangent of π /7, and the area of each of the 14 small triangles is one-fourth of the apothem. This expression cannot be rewritten without complex components, since the indicated cubic function is casus irreducibilis. As 7 is a Pierpont prime but not a Fermat prime and this type of construction is called a neusis construction. It is also constructible with compass, straightedge and angle trisector, the impossibility of straightedge and compass construction follows from the observation that 2 cos 2 π7 ≈1.247 is a zero of the irreducible cubic x3 + x2 − 2x −1. Consequently, this polynomial is the polynomial of 2cos, whereas the degree of the minimal polynomial for a constructible number must be a power of 2. An approximation for practical use with an error of about 0. 2% is shown in the drawing and it is attributed to Albrecht Dürer. Let A lie on the circumference of the circumcircle, then B D =12 B C gives an approximation for the edge of the heptagon. Example to illustrate the error, At a circumscribed circle radius r =1 m, since 7 is a prime number there is one subgroup with dihedral symmetry, Dih1, and 2 cyclic group symmetries, Z7, and Z1. These 4 symmetries can be seen in 4 distinct symmetries on the heptagon, john Conway labels these by a letter and group order. Full symmetry of the form is r14 and no symmetry is labeled a1. The dihedral symmetries are divided depending on whether they pass through vertices or edges, cyclic symmetries in the middle column are labeled as g for their central gyration orders. Each subgroup symmetry allows one or more degrees of freedom for irregular forms, only the g7 subgroup has no degrees of freedom but can seen as directed edges. However, no algebraic expressions with purely real terms exist for the solutions of this equation, because it is an example of casus irreducibilis. A heptagonal triangle has vertices coinciding with the first, second, and fourth vertices of a regular heptagon and angles π /7,2 π /7, thus its sides coincide with one side and two particular diagonals of the regular heptagon. Two kinds of star heptagons can be constructed from regular heptagons, labeled by Schläfli symbols, blue, and green star heptagons inside a red heptagon
9.
Currency
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A currency in the most specific use of the word refers to money in any form when in actual use or circulation as a medium of exchange, especially circulating banknotes and coins. A more general definition is that a currency is a system of money in common use, under this definition, US dollars, British pounds, Australian dollars, and European euros are examples of currency. These various currencies are recognized stores of value and are traded between nations in exchange markets, which determine the relative values of the different currencies. Currencies in this sense are defined by governments, and each type has limited boundaries of acceptance, other definitions of the term currency are discussed in their respective synonymous articles banknote, coin, and money. The latter definition, pertaining to the systems of nations, is the topic of this article. Currencies can be classified into two systems, fiat money and commodity money, depending on what guarantees the value. Some currencies are legal tender in certain jurisdictions, which means they cannot be refused as payment for debt. Others are simply traded for their economic value, digital currency has arisen with the popularity of computers and the Internet. Currency evolved from two basic innovations, both of which had occurred by 2000 BC, originally money was a form of receipt, representing grain stored in temple granaries in Sumer in ancient Mesopotamia, then Ancient Egypt. In this first stage of currency, metals were used as symbols to represent value stored in the form of commodities and this formed the basis of trade in the Fertile Crescent for over 1500 years. Trade could only reach as far as the credibility of that military and it is not known what was used as a currency for these exchanges, but it is thought that ox-hide shaped ingots of copper, produced in Cyprus, may have functioned as a currency. It is thought that the increase in piracy and raiding associated with the Bronze Age collapse, possibly produced by the Peoples of the Sea, brought the trading system of oxhide ingots to an end. In Africa, many forms of value store have been used, including beads, ingots, ivory, various forms of weapons, livestock, the manilla currency, the manilla rings of West Africa were one of the currencies used from the 15th century onwards to sell slaves. African currency is still notable for its variety, and in many various forms of barter still apply. These factors led to the metal itself being the store of value, first silver, now we have copper coins and other non-precious metals as coins. Metals were mined, weighed, and stamped into coins and this was to assure the individual taking the coin that he was getting a certain known weight of precious metal. Coins could be counterfeited, but they created a new unit of account. Most major economies using coinage had several tiers of coins, using a mix of copper, silver, gold coins were used for large purchases, payment of the military and backing of state activities, they were more often used as measures of account than physical coins
10.
Economy of Cape Verde
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Cape Verde is a small archipelagic nation that lacks resources and has experienced severe droughts. Agriculture is made difficult by lack of rain and is restricted to four islands for most of the year. Most of the nations GDP comes from the service industry, Cape Verde has significant cooperation with Portugal at every level of the economy, which has led it to link its currency first to the Portuguese escudo and, in 1999, to the euro. About 75% of food is imported, Cape Verde annually runs a high trade deficit, financed by foreign aid and remittances from emigrants, remittances constitute a supplement to GDP of more than 20%. Economic reforms, launched by the new government in 1991, are aimed at developing the private sector. Since 1991, the policies the government has pursued include a welcome to foreign investors. Fish and shellfish are plentiful, and small quantities are exported, Cape Verde has cold storage and freezing facilities as well as fish processing plants in Mindelo, Praia, and on Sal. However, the potential, mostly lobster and tuna, is not fully exploited. The economy is service-oriented, with commerce, transport, and public accounting for almost 70% of the GDP. Although nearly 35% of the lives in rural areas, the share of agriculture in GDP in 2010 was only 9. 2%, of the 1998 total. In 1994-95 Cape Verde received a total of about U. S. $50 million in investments, of which 50% was in industry, 19% in tourism. Prospects for 2000 depend heavily on the maintenance of aid flows, remittances, mining is an insignificant contributor to the countrys economy. Most of the countrys mineral requirements are imported, Cape Verde was not a natural gas or petroleum producer as of 2007. Cape Verdes strategic location at the crossroads of air and sea lanes has been enhanced by significant improvements at Mindelos harbor. Ship repair facilities at Mindelo were opened in 1983, and the harbors at Mindelo, the major ports are Mindelo and Praia, but all other islands have small port facilities, some of which are to be expanded in the near future. The archipelago has 3,050 kilometers of roads, of which 1,010 kilometers are paved, the new Praia International Airport is currently operative. Cape Verde is considered a country, and is included on the list of the United Nations Small Island Developing States. In 2007 the United Nations graduated Cape Verde from the category of Least Developed Countries, on December 18,2007, the General Council of the World Trade Organization approved a package for the accession of Cape Verde to the WTO
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Cape Verde
