Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XI.djvu/754

Thorold Rogers has said: “Just as the development of language is essential to the intellectual growth of a people, so is a medium of exchange to civilization.” Aristotle says of it, “that it exists not by nature, but by law.” How true is this doctrine, or at least how potent is the law under a civilized government in imparting the quality of acceptability for the payment of debts and the purchase of commodities to that which it recognizes as money, is clearly proved by the operations of the bank of Venice during several centuries, throughout which time its deposits, which were never payable, but only transferable on the books of the bank, were at a premium over coins, because they were the standard of payment furnished by the state and used for all large transactions. Indeed, this bank money was that which established the money of account and in which the value of all coins was expressed. Further, on the testimony of Thomas Baring, we are assured that it was found impossible during the crisis of 1847 in London to raise any money whatever on a sum of £60,000 of silver. During a similar crisis in Calcutta in 1864 it was equally impossible to raise even a single rupee on £20,000 of gold. The former was not a legal tender above 40 shillings, while the latter was not so for any sum whatever. About 1855 Holland adopted silver as the only legal tender at a fixed value, but attempted to coin gold coins having no such value, this only being regulated by the market price from day to day. After 200,000 florins (about $80,000) had been coined, the demand entirely ceased.—Very dissimilar substances have been made to serve as money. The Jews, in addition to their ordinary money of shekels, talents, and drachms of silver, had “jewel money.” Cattle were used as money in ancient Greece and in Rome; and hence the word pecuniary, from pecunia, and this from pecus, cattle. Before the introduction of coined money into Greece there was a currency of “spits” or “skewers,” of which six were a drachm (δραχμή, originally δραγμή, a handful); they were probably nails of iron or copper. The Lacedæmonians and Byzantines and the people of Clazomenæ used iron money. Among the most ancient existing specimens of coin are those of electrum, an alloy of gold with one fifth silver. Gold, silver, and copper were coined by the Greeks and Romans. Tin was coined by Dionysius I., tyrant of Syracuse, and Roman and British tin coins are known to exist. Early leaden money is mentioned; a leaden stater is preserved in the British museum, and leaden money is now current in the Burman empire. Platinum was coined in Russia from 1828 to 1845. Numa Pompilius, king of Rome about 700 B. C., made money both of wood and of leather. Under the Cæsars lands were made money. The Carthaginians had a kind of leather money. The emperor Frederick Barbarossa during his contest with Milan (1158-'62), and John the Good, king of France (1360), also issued leather money. Under William I. of Sicily (1154-'66), the Sicilians were compelled to give gold and silver in exchange for leather money. In 1574, when the city of Leyden was besieged by the Spaniards, leather money was issued. The British museum has a specimen of a sequin in leather of Francesco Cornaro (1656). In the 13th century Nicolo and Matteo Polo found a money in use in China which was made of the middle bark of the mulberry tree, cut into round pieces and stamped with the mark of the sovereign; this money it was death to counterfeit or refuse to take in any part of the empire. In Britain, at as late a date as the Norman conquest, two kinds of money were in use, known as “living money” and “dead money.” The former consisted of slaves and cattle, which were usually transferred with the soil, and the latter of metal. Montesquieu notices the existence among the inhabitants of the coast of Africa in the 18th century of an “ideal money,” “a sign of value without money,” the unit being the macoute, which was subdivided into tenths called pieces. This money of account had its origin, as appears from later testimony, in the macoute, a piece of stuff, a fabric; and Mungo Park says that in the early intercourse of the Mandingos with the Europeans, the article which attracted most attention was iron, on account of its high utility in making implements of war, &c. Iron soon became a standard of payment, and gave rise to a money of account; and any commodity which was supposed to be of the value of a bar of iron was called a bar, as a bar of tobacco, &c. When the South sea islands were discovered the natives first exchanged their products with the Europeans for beads or anything gaudy which was offered to them; but they soon discovered the value of iron utensils, and they now freely exchanged anything they had for axes, hammers, nails, &c. Axes were eventually held in such estimation that they became a standard of payment and the basis of a money of account, the value of other articles being stated at so many axes. Cowry shells (cypræa moneta) are used in India, the Indian islands, and Africa, in the place of small coin. In 1851 more than 1,000 tons were brought from India to Liverpool to be exported to the coast of Africa in exchange for palm oil. In Bengal a century ago 2,500 cowries were worth a rupee (46 cts.), and at the present time 3,200 are worth this sum. According to Dr. Barth, in Borneo, central Africa, the ancient standard of the country was the pound of copper; but it has long since fallen into disuse, although the name rotl still remains. The prices of commodities are still reckoned in the rotl, although cotton strips and shirts, cowries, and Austrian and Spanish dollars have become the mediums of exchange, their value being expressed in rotls. In India cakes of tea, and in China pieces of silk, pass as money. Salt is the current money of Abyssinia, codfish of Iceland and Newfoundland. At the great fair