100 trillion. Currency devaluation, Zimbabwe Reserve Bank bill consists of an actual 100 trillion Zimbabwean dollar banknote. It is a testament to the hyperinflation suffered in the country and the consequent devaluation of its currency, as well the links to food production and trade in the global economy.

In 1980, the Republic of Rhodesia (formerly a British colony) became the Republic of Zimbabwe. The new state created its own currency, the Zimbabwean dollar, which on its launch, was worth more than the US dollar at the official exchange rate. However, the real situation in the country was very different: the currency's actual purchasing power was much smaller, and it was subject to high rates of inflation, later leading to hyperinflation. This was to have a subsequent effect on the country's agricultural output, which had boomed during the early years of independence. Harsh economic measures introduced by President Robert Mugabe in the 1990s – including large-scale land reform ؘ– resulted in a sharp drop in food production, and reduced investment in agriculture and banking. Strong interdependence between the agricultural and financial sectors led to a decline in food production and manufacturing, alongside increased unemployment and a fall in life expectancy. The collapse of the Zimbabwean economy sparked unremitting and ever-greater devaluation of the Zimbabwean dollar. Inflation peaked in 2008 and 2009, with prices rising several times over the space of twenty-four hours. At one point, a loaf of bread cost 550 million Zimbabwean dollars and 100 trillion dollar notes were issued. In 2019, the Zimbabwean dollar ceased to be legal tender and a new local currency was introduced. As of 2023, extreme inflation continued to be a problem, aggravated by several consecutive years of drought caused by climate change and the Covid-19 pandemic.

As a historical document, this 100-trillion-dollar note is a direct testimonial to Zimbabwe's financial history and demonstrates its dependence on the US dollar, the currency used internationally on the global market. This piece forms part of Molinos Gordo's wider research into peasant thinking and its indispensable but underrated historical, cultural and social contribution. The banknote introduces other systems of interactions related to the close – but not always obvious – relationship between the agricultural world and financial decisions and interests. The fact that the world grain trade is denominated in US dollars, coupled with inflation and devaluation of local currencies, means that less food can be bought for the same amount of money, forcing the countries involved to buy produce in from the international market, due to stagnation in local production. The situation is further compounded by another discrepancy; not all the paper money printed ends up actually going into circulation, in a world where food shortage and overproduction exist side by side. This piece was exhibited at two solo shows of Molinos Gordo's work, Hambre, un objeto hecho por el hombre [Hunger, a Man-Made Object] (2014) and Accumulation by Dispossession (2019). The exhibitions showcased her investigations into the neoliberal system governing the food economy, for which the manufacture and consolidation of hunger has become both a strategy and a resource for producing, accumulating and circulating capital. Global food output is sufficient to feed the world’s population one and a half times over, but the capitalist system uses hunger as an instrument for its own benefit. This 'mythology of hunger' is exacerbated by the concentration of wealth and power in the hands of a small few, thus depriving millions of land, resources and capital. Here, Molinos Gordo includes studies by Marxist professor David Harvey, who calls this ambitious machinery of strategic inequality 'accumulation by dispossession'. Dispossessed of the food they themselves produce, farmers live in a constant state of food insecurity caused by the speculative mechanisms of the food trade, coupled with the devastating environmental effects of global warming.

Sonia Fernández Pan