Here again the yearling is worth one-sixth of the cow. Gold was abundant among the ancient Irish, (almost certainly obtained in large quantities from the Wicklow mountains,) and passed from hand to hand in the form of rings, which were weighed on a system different from and probably far older than that employed for silver (see Appendix A).
Passing to the Teutonic peoples we find traces of the same ancient practice. For according to one system a mancus of silver (a mere unit of account) corresponded with the value of an ox. Similarly the pound (libra) was generally regarded as the silver equivalent of the worth of a man[1]. But the strongest proof is that Charlemagne in his dealings with the Saxons found it necessary to define the value of his solidus of 12 pence (denarii) by equating it to the value of an ox of a year old of either sex in the autumn season, just as it is sent to the stall. In the same law we find a list of regulation prices for other commodities, such as oats, honey, rye, similar to those already quoted from the Welsh laws[2]. The English word fee, which originally meant an ox, as is shown not only by the German Vieh, which still retains its original meaning, and by such expressions in Anglo-Saxon as gangende feoh, is in itself a proof that cattle served as the most generally recognized form of money. It might be expected that much the same state of things existed among the Scandinavian peoples. Their chief media of exchange were cows, and woollen cloths, slaves, and gold ornaments. By the laws of Hakon the Good penalties could be paid in cows, provided that they were not too old,
- ↑ Thorpe, Laws of the Anglo-Saxons, I. 357. Cunningham, History of English Commerce, I. 117.
- ↑ Illud notandum est quales debent solidi esse Saxonum: id est, bovem annoticum utriusque sexus, autumnali tempore, sicut in stabulum mittitur, pro uno solido: similiter et vernum tempus, quando de stabulo exiit; et deinceps, quantum aetatem auxerit, tantum in pretio crescat. De annona vero bortrinis pro solido uno scapilos quadraginta donant et de sigule viginti. Septemtrionales autem pro solidum scapilos triginta de avena et sigule quindecim. Mel vero pro solido bortrensi, sigla una et medio donant. Septemtrionales autem duos siclos de melle pro uno solido donent. Item ordeum mundum sicut et sigule pro uno solido donent. In argento duodecim denarios solidum faciant. Et in aliis speciebus ad istum pretium omnem aestimationem compositionis sunt. Capitulare Saxonicum, II. Migne, XCVII. 202.
