BOOK I. EVOLUTION OF MONEY. CHAPTER I. MONEY A COMMODITY. EXCHANGE is the indispensable condition of civilized life. The vital principle of exchange is equality of value in the things exchanged. In order that there may be equality of value there must be a measure of value. Life. Money is anything that serves as a common Money Indispen- medium of exchange and measure of value. sable to Civilized It need not be a good measure; it is only necessary that it should be the agreed measure of any time, place, or people. We are now speaking of real money, not of its representatives or substitutes. The earliest money of the Greeks and Romans consisted of cattle (pecus), whence came the Latin word pecunia and the English words pecuniary, peculation (cattle lifting), and peculiar (one's own). The first metallic money of the First Money in the Historical Period. Romans was copper (aes), whence came the Latin word aestimatio and the English words esteem, estimation, estimable, all having reference to the mental operation of valuing or appraiseThe word specie is the same as species, with the final s omitted. Payment in specie was originally payment in kind. Silver was used as money in the time of Abraham, when it passed by weight. ment. Among the things used as money by various people within the historical period, are cattle, cacao beans, salt, silk, furs, tobacco, dried fish, wheat, rice, olive oil, cocoanut oil, cotton cloth, cowry shells, iron, copper, platinum, nickel, silver, and gold. It would be difficult to say what had not been used as money at some time or place. Our own history furnishes an abundance of curious examples, the most instructive being the tobacco currency of the colonial period. It may be said that Virginia grew her own money for nearly two centuries and Maryland for a century and a half. Hardly any form of currency could have been worse, the fluctuations in its value being extreme and incessant, and the social disorders produced by it enormous. Various Kinds of Money. The first law passed by the first General Assembly of Virginia, July 31, 1619,1 was in reference to tobacco. It fixed the price of that staple "at three shillings the beste and the second sorte at 18d. the pounde," and required Mr. Abraham Tobacco Money in Virginia. Persey, "Cape Marchant," to take notice thereof. The Cape Marchant was the keeper of the Virginia Company's "Magazin" or storehouse. He dealt out the supplies and received the tobacco. This was really fixing the price of the company's 1 This was the absolute beginning of representative government in America. The organization was effected in the following manner: "The most convenient place we could find to sitt in was the Quire of the Churche where Sir George Yeardly, the Governor, being sette downe in his accustomed place those of the Counsel of Estate sate nexte him on both handes, excepte onely the Secretary then appointed Speaker who sate right before him." After prayers" all the Burgesses were intreatted to retire themselves into the body of the Churche, w'ch being done, before they were fully admitted they were called to order & by name & so every man (none staggering at it) took the oath of supremacy & then entered the Assembly." First Representative Government in America. |