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The Origins of Money, Considered from the Economic and Historical Point of View — 1897
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THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 67 eight silver rings weighing 301 tabnoiis (1). When the king of Assyria, Ashurnasirpal , invades the Syria, around 870 BCE, he receives successively vement, of the different princes of this country, see mines of silver, ten mines of silver, twenty talents of silver and gold, a hundred talents of copper and name- good metal utensils |2). The stories of conquests of the Pharaohs or Assyrian monarchs nothing in Syria are filled of enumerations of even kind. Among the Phoenicians, the greatest merchants from antiquity, precious metals circulated in abundance , mainly under the shape of bars and rings. The annals of Thutmes III, as well as the biblical account of the construction of Solomon's temple reveal to us the immense riches of the Phoenicians in gold and in silver (3) ; they were going to look for these metals on the ratings of A- Sia Minor, Africa, Thrace and mainly in Spain; also, at the Greeks, we said that the ships of Phoenicians had anchors money ('t). Most often, the industry transforms but in jewelry precious metals intended for exchanges, and in this form, the bracelet played the main role, as in Palestine and Egypt. (1) Fr. Lenormant, Mint in antiquity, t. I, p. 103. (2) Fr. Leiiorinant, Hist. anc. of the Orient, continued by E. Ba- beautiful, t. IV. p. 171 and next. (3)1 Kings, IX, 11, 14, 28; X, 11; — II Chron., viii, 18r — Zach., IX, 3 ; — É/cl., xxvn. (4)Ai'islot., From mirai), auscull., 147; —Diod. Sic, V, 35.
C8 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. On different points of File de Cypre, in Ciirium, in Paphos, to Idalium, at Amathonte, we found rings of different sizes which were used to tie and adorn the hair women (1). Both ends of these ringlets are not welded to each other, but free and, most time, decorated with a fleuron or a figurine; the sausage-shaped stem sometimes forms a little more than one turn and a half. Almost all of them are gold, electric trump or in silver; their shape, which recalls the /«ô;io?< Egyptian, their weight which seems to correspond dre to divisions of a weight system, finally the valuable marks engraved on several of them being them, assign them, without a doubt, a role monetary, although there are, in the number, which are stuffed, that is to say in copper coated with a simple film of gold. Let us not forget that at- today again, xlans everything the East, women se do an ornament of metallic species which constitute the family treasure (2). Their hairstyle of head, their necklaces, their bracelets are made such as gold coins and money, in number which varies with the fortune of each family. The poorer people sometimes make do with fake coins gilded copper, worthless, and such col- ties or hairstyles female are commonly purchased lies in all the bazaars oriental. Let's not be (1) Palma di Cesnola, Cijprus, p. 309-310 and ft. XXVllI. — See Reinœ arclieol., n. st. XXXI, 1876, p. 26 ; - J.-P. Six, in the Numlsmalirpoe blunder, 1883, p. 260. (2) F. Le Play, European workers, t. He, p. 264.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 69 so not surprised to encounter similar uses from the most remote antiquity. VI. AT THE POPULATIONS PRIMITIVES FROM THE GREECE. In the Homeric epic, which is the work of several centuries (1), and where ancient customs are brought closer to new uses, created under the action of social progress, we see functioning, alongside pure and simple barter and livestock money, employment of metals raw or manufactured, as a standard for the price of everything that is sold and is bought. Here as everywhere, the division of labor and the constitution of trade bodies made, most of the time impractical or inconvenient the use of cattle as money; the metals were, for the same function, more practical handling tick : we preferred them. Gold, money, the iron, the copper were widespread enough for everyone could obtain it, in the form of ingots, silver my or utensils. They were the Phoenicians who imported them from different regions, and their ships were not, so to speak, that the in- intermediaries of the metallurgists from whom they sold the products. (1)W. Helbig, l'L'popc;', Homeric. Irad. Trawinski, p. 1 and next. We place the last coiniùlation of ['Odyssey only in the second half of the seventh century; the final draft of the Iliad is much older.
70 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. The copper from Cyprus, Palestine, Spain gne, the tin of the Cassiterides (the Sorlingues Islands), gold and silver Spain, Thasos and the coast of Thrace, were monopolized by trade Phoenician (1). The workshops of Tire and of Sidon transformed these raw materials into weapons, vases, jewelry, utensils of all so, that the Greeks, less advanced, eagerly sought, because of their artistic beauty, and that Homer described with such admiring complacency (2). But in the Homeric society, we holds also to possess raw bars and unopened, for the use of indigenous industry. We we saw, already, under the walls of Troy, the Achaeans exchange wine for iron and copper (3). The besieged offer to their enemies, as a ransom for their life, of gold, copper and iron (4). Mentes, king of the Taphians, go in Temesos, Cyprus, for there swap iron against copper (5) ; the Phoeni- These people deliver food in exchange for gold bars (6). Far-sighted individuals amass the bronze, iron, gold and silver, as one increases his finds (1) Odyss., xv, 425; — Iliad, XI, 25 and 34; XVIII, 5()5. 574; XX; 271; XXIII, 503, 561 ; — Plia., Ncit. hist., VII, § 197; — Pausanias, VI, 19, 2; —Movers, PhOnizisclies Àlterthiihi, 2'= part., pp. 63, 66, 195; — H. d’Aibois de Jubain ville, The first first inhabitants of Europe, 1. 1, p. 195-196; — W. Helbig, the Homeric pope, p. 14. (2) W. Helbig, the Homeric Epic, p. 27 and siiiiv. (3) Iliad, VII, 473; cf. above, p. 24. (4) Ibid., VI, 48; X, 379. (5) Odyssey, I, 184. (6) Ibid., XX, 403.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 71 skins in less advanced tribes : witnesses, the father of Adreste and the father of Dolon, who have such treasures in large enough quantity to serve to the ransom of their son (1). Dolon, on the verge to be killed by Odysseus and Diomedes cries : “Take me alive and I will redeem myself. My home is farm of bronze , of Tor and of iron difficult to work : my father will give you immense present if he finds out that I breathe on the will- buckets of the Greeks » (2). Homer's Greeks weigh gold with care meticulous and evaluate him in terms of talents ; they are looking for this shiny metal, which is used in Tornenient and which, in all the forms that knows kii give industry , is distributed as a reward in games (3), as gifts and in generosity (4), in ra- captive cats ô), in salaries (6 . The talent golden Homeric was a very weak weight whose evaluation precise position seems impossible to fix : following a Mr. Ridgeway's hypothesis, it was equivalent to the price of an ox, and linked this way to Fancien state of things where the beef was the stallion. The money was used for the same uses as gold; we exchange it the most often in the form of ingots or cups of which (1) Dolon has the reputation of a rich man, “by its clusters golden and bronze ". 7;o),jyp'jc7o;, r.oli/'xiy.o-. [Iliad, 315). (2) Iliad, X, 378 et seq.; the same lyrics are put in the mouth of Adreste, Iliad, VI, 46 et seq. (3) Ibid., IX, 122, 246; XXIII, 269, 614, 751. (4) Odyssey, IV, 129; VIII, 393; IX, 202; XXIV, 274. (5) Iliad, VI, 48 ; X, 379. (6) Ibid., XVIII, 507.
72 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. the walls are decorated with decorative scenes. As for bronze, when it does not circulate in bars or ingots, it is generally in the form of tripods and cauldrons (Xé6-/)T£ç) that we have it served to exchanges (1). We commonly give away tripods and cauldrons as gifts or prizes in athletic competitions. There are cauldrons of different sizes : by example, of 4 measures, of 32 measures (2). The value of cauldrons and tripods varies according to before the dimensions of these objects and the work of ornamentation which makes them more or less pre- heavens. A cauldron is estimated as an ox (3), equal to valence which, by a singular chance, is equal- adopted among the Bahars of Flndo-China ('il. A tripod, probably large or very ornate, is valued twelve oxen (5). The memory of those primitive times when the mar- kitchen moth was thus one of the means of exchange the most common, is recorded in the frag- ments of laws Cretans discovered, he y has little years, by Mr. Halbhcrr, in Gortyn and Knossos. These inscriptions which, while dating from the fourth century only, reproduce of prices and of evaluations from a much earlier era, mention the payment of fines (1) Iliad, IX, 263, 2G3; XXIII, 259, 26i, 268,485. (2) Ib., XXIII, 264 and 218. (3) Ib., XXIII, 885. (4) See above, p. 43. - (5) Iliad, XXIII, 703, 885.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 73 drones and tripods (Xéc,-:;;, -p'-zli;), concurrem- lies with the currency verifiable in staters , drachmas and obols (1). We have already reported, about cattle-money, the uses of the same eenre in the legislation of Athens and Rome. The commentators were very surprised to note, in the evaluation of the fines issued tees by these ancient laws, that an individual pawn be sentenced to pay 25 or 50 and up to 100 cauldrons. How, it has been said, can we admit that a same person had a such a large number of these household utensils? xBut isn’t it natural real that we the have collected, in view of their monetary role? And then, for us, the cauldrons or cooking pots, such as the oxen and the sheep in others case, manifest the ri- chess : they attest to the great crowd of customers that we have at our service, the number of people we feeds his table or from which one can court. This is why rich individuals have a real arsenal table of these objects, the keep and the put in reserve as we the let's do our currency current. From a passage of V Iliad (2, we can infer (1) Comparetli, in the Kaliano Museum, t. If, p. 118; — R. Da- remains. in the JSouv. Review Jiist. under French and foreign law, t. X, 1886, p. 241 to 275; — J. Svoronos, in \& Cor- Bulletin Hellenic response, 1888, t. XII, p. 405 et seq. ; — Th. Rei- nacb, in the Review of Greek studies, t. I, 1888, p. 354 to .350; — Dareste, Haussoullier and Th. Reinach, Legal inscriptions Greek sayings, t. l, 3^ fascic. (2) Iliad, XXUI, 851 et seq. 5
74 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. that among the money utensils we use goes the more often, alongside tripods and cauldrons, represented axes of iron. Indeed, Achilles offers to archers, during the games celebrated in honor of funeral of Patroclus, two price, one composed of 10 bipinnae, and the other of ten simple axes (sÉy.a ;x£v -tLiv.zx: , civ.y. if r,\j.'-iKty,y.:x.). It's Cyprus, this time , who we provides, to the era history, remains of this custom which has, today, his analogies at the populations half wild rAsic and Africa (1). According to a gloss by Hesychius, he was circulating pri- mititively, in Paphos, metal bars, of weight and value of ten mines, which had the bipinnae shape ('2). We find the men- tion of these money axes in the famous decree in writing Cypriot, rendered by Stasicypros, king from Idalium to 'i-50 BC, in favor of the me- decin Onasilos and his family (3). A sum of money which must be the reward of the doctor cin, is thus expressed : III r.i'tÂv.ty.z II V?.zy.y\i.y. 'Hsi/aa, “four bipinnae and two didrachms (1) See above, p. 47. (2) 'Uixt-É/.î/.y.ov • TÔ Yàp ôîxâfAvo’Jv îri/sx-j v.oiXîÏTa'. -apà llaçtou;. Elsewhere, there were axes worth six minae, and who gives- born their name to the weight standard corresponding to this weight : Il£).r/."j;... (TTaO(i{ov £;a(xvaïov âp-/aiov (Hesychius, S. V"). (3^ This decree is engraved, as we the knows, about both sides a bronze tablet preserved in the Lu>nes collection, in the Cabinet of medals. (E, Babelon and J. .\. Blancbel, Cala- logue of ancient bronzes, p. 704, no. 2297.)
THE ORIGINS OF MONEY. 73 cVlclalium” (1). It is clear from this that the bipinne, by the middle of the fifth century, had become sim- ply currency worth ten minae. Another gloss of Hesychius teaches us that Cyprus, we gave the name at anchor with trioboles : "A-'v-jp^z" K'j-pi:', lï -p'MÎzko-K Like none Cypriot currency is not the type of the anchor, he de- comes almost certain that the currency division- nary called “ triobole » received the name of anchor, because at the time primitive, this instrument, reduced to minimal proportions, served as a sign of exchange and was worth three obols. We knows that a bipinna forms the ordinary type of reverse of coins of Tenedos (Tsvs;'.:; -éXsv.jç), and Pausanias (2) tells that he has seen. to Delphi, bipennae offered, next the tradi- tion, by Periclytos, king of Tenedos, at the time of the Trojan War. We will come back elsewhere on the explanation of the types of Tenedian currencies; for the moment, it is only important to note quer that the offering of Periclytos, whatever the true time of this character's existence, is similar to that which we will soon see done by Phidon, in the temple of Hera, in Argos. The bipennes originally served as a standard of valor their : when, with social progress helping, they fu- rent replaced by an instrument of exchange more convenient, less particular to the heroic age, de- (1) Lines 15 and 26. Cf. Hultsch, Gricch. nnd romische Métro- logy, 2nd ed., p. 560. (2) Pausiin., 14, I.
76 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. monetized, for thus speak, the king Periclytos deposited in the temple of Delphi these venerable monuments from another age, to which was attached a superstitious respect, and their image alone was engraved as a souvenir on the first mon- nay that the island of Ténédos was knocked. As in the East, the rings, the braces lets, the rings and jewelry of all kinds, gold and in money, played, next to the ingots and of utensils, the role of intermediaries for exchanges, in the primitive civilization that re- mainly present the excavations of Hissarlik, of Tyrinth and Mycenae. In what he calls “the big one treasure » from Hissarlik, Schliemann re- picked up a number of objects of interest at the highest point the history of mechanical circulation tally before the invention of money. They were, besides vessels of gold, electrum, money and of copper : 1° six silver ingots in the shape of blades rounded at one of their ends, and cut crescent at the other end; the largest have 215 millimeters long, 50 millimeters wide, and weigh 190 to 183 grams; the smallest have 180 millimeters of long;, 30 wide and p- feels 172 grams; 2° eight thousand seven hundred small gold rings, perforated prisms, dice, buttercups, small perforated gold bars, small rings for hair or for ears, etc. (1). So beautiful- (1) Schliemann, Ilios, pp. 570, 579, 591, 592. etc., 623. Com- adorn other rings found at Mycenae and to Aegina. {Newspaper
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 77 shot of these jewelry are, without a doubt, of objects of toilet, he seems no less obvious that they had to serve also of sign exchange. Schliemann has even noticed that one certain number of small bars of gold are pierced each one of about twenty holes which were perhaps be indications of weight and value, such as dots or streaks on primitive ingots of central Italy which we will talk about later. The small rings golden rolled up into three or four spirals, their ends remaining free, perhaps correspond to -;'rj.\j--xt i/.'.v.y.; that He- phsestos manufactured for Thétis (1); whatever either, the enormous number of these little jewels toilet that Schliemann discovered, leaves one wondering çonner that they had to play the role of rings- currency, especially since their free ends allowed to easily trim them in case of necessity. There was, in the same treasure, a gold ingot, raw, weighing 97 gr. 30; other ingots of the same metal, melted in the shape of bells, or in bars breakthroughs of small holes; sixteen bars of electrum with 52 or 60 horizontal tooth incisions saw, each 108 long mill. and containing 6ô.10 gold and 33.12 silver (see fig. 3) ; a of Iiclenic Studies, t. XIII. p. 225; Mitllieiliingen der tooth. arch.Inslit.,Atheti. Ahtheiliuuj, t. Vil, p. i.) (1) Iliad, XVIII, 401. Mr Helbig [the Epic, Homeric, p. .354 and siiiiiv.) seeks to identify the Homeric helikes with the (ibules to four frequent turns especially in the archeology of Western Europe.
78 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. another bar of electrum, slightly cylindrical, long of 1G2 mill. , weighs 87 gr. 50. Centers grains or pellets gold, having the form, some of small spindle whorls, the others of leaves, accompanied these minted ingots keep quiet and themselves served as coins divisional (1). But this is not not everything; Schlic- raann says he found, to My- cenes, in the vicinity of the sanctum tuary of Hera, “fifty-six heads of cows in gold, one silver with golden horns, etc. (-2) ". He is obvious that it is an ex-voto to Hera ii:ojru, to the head and in the eyes cow. However, as the bipennes of Tcnùdos and the coins bronze primitives from central Italy trale, these fifty-six heads of cows in gold are maybe, in at the same time, modern specimens netaries; they could have served as a price before becoming ex-votos reli- gieux. Their cow's head shape I iK. 3. recalls the exchanges in which the Ijoeuf and the cow served as heel : she also remembers the name of, Sojç (1) Schlieinann, Ilios, pp. 568,"613-G]4, 621, 623, 625-626,628, of. (2) Ibkl., p. 374.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 79 given more late to the currencies primitives of A- tiiènos or Euboea. Long time after that the use of the currency had been spread everywhere in the Hellenistic world that, Sparta continued, by tradition, to use of iron ingots as intermediates of the exchanges ges. These ingots were known under the name of -ÏLx-izz (1) ; They each weighed an ginormous mine. tick, and to transport some if.v only, it is- to say approximately i.536 kilogr., he needed a cha- riot yoked by two oxen (2). This information, that Xenophon provides us and Plutarch, is consistent with what was happening in central Italy where the bulky bronze ingots were trans- carried on carts : his serious plaustris which- dam convehent , said Livy (3). He was circulating all kinds of fables about the famous jjelanor of Sparta, which appears to have remained in use until the era Persian wars : we said, by example, that the iron intended to make this mon- nay was unfit for any other use, and returned (1) The word iTs).avo; (Tis),avop) literally means, “pastry cake” weaving ". The invention of this currency is attributed, by the au- ancient tors, to the legislator Lycurgus, who seems never to have existed. (2) Xenoph., Respubl. laud., 7.5; — rolyl).,6, 49; — Rather,!?/- cm'(/., 9 ; Lijsand., 20; Apoplith. Lake, p. 902 f.; — Pollux, VII, 105; IX, 79; — Plato, Eryxias, p. 400, B. — See 0. MuUer. Dorier, t. II, p. 201 et seq.; — Schoemann, Greek Antiquities. transl. Galuski, t. I, p. 316; — Fr. Lenormant, Coinage in antiquity, t. I, p. 217; — F. Hultsch, Griech. und romisdie Metrology, p. 534 to 530. (3) Tit.-Liv., IV, 60, 0.
80 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. breaking by an operation which consisted of making it blush at fire and to soak it then in the vinegar (1). Everything we need to remember here, it is only the iron ingots, TÉXavsp, sosa-t-/.:;, cior,pz~jv vz[nz[jrj., which circulated in Sparta, were heavy bars, the weight of an Aegean mine that , that is to say the outdated witnesses of the circulation metal lation before the invention of money properly said. In the rig-ide capital of the Laconia, the use of these ingots of iron was, pa- he would laugh, exclusive, and defense, under penalty of death, was made to every citizen to possess another mon- nay. But in the rest of the Hellenic world, we continued for a long time , as in Rome, moreover, to see circulating, alongside real currencies, old monetary bars. They were called ^;«6- tilles, oôcTç, çOoïssç, or bi'oches^ salmon, o6sXiç, c6£AiV/.cç (2). The -^O:-;, or the pellet metallic, is still mentioned in the treasury accounts laughter of the temple of Minerva, in Athens, cin- fifth century (3). When Epaminondas died, he was so poor that was not found in his house, for all reason (1) Plut., Lysand., 20; Lycurguc, 9; — Lice, I.\, 79. (2) We find ôês/ic-icoç in Plutarch , Lysand. 20 ; èéeXô; in Pollux, VII, 105; IX, 77; nila-iop in Hesychius; iréXavo; in Nicander, Alcxiph., 488, with the scolia of Photius and of Suidas. Concerning the pellet, 9601;, Hesychius says :
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 81 tune, that one old Vi€u\z-/.zz in iron (1). In Thcbes, the homeland of Epaminondas, where the currency was known and hit of good time, \ïi{ilz-/.zz found in the residence of hero don't could have only a superstitious character. This sur- will take all the less since the seventh century. Phidon, king of Argos, when he had the first best coins money from Aegina, and that he in- introduced into the Peloponnese a regular system of weight and measures, removed from circulation the old iron pins which had served as mounts born until then, and devoted a certain number copies as ex-votos in the sanctuary of Hera, to Argos. At the time of Aristotle, we saw still in the temple, with the inscription dedicated tory of Phidon, these elders zzziJ.z'kzk who had taken on a character religious and were, like the Tenedian bipennae at Delphi, the object of the veneration as much as curiosity of all (-2). VII. IN CENTRAL ITALY AND THE REST FROM LEIROPE. Historical testimonies as well as excavations which all the countries of Europe have been subject to jet, allow us to affirm that everywhere, as well that in Greece, and for the same social reasons, (1) Rather, Fah. 27 : whereôàv yàp oîxôt T£),suir((7ivTo; (Épaminondas) î'jpîOrjva'. t:),?;-/ ôSeXi'itxov ciorifuv ).£Y0'J(7i. (2) .\rist., fr. 481, ed. Pink; Etymol. magnum, s. v.'OêùJ.G/.o^.
8? THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. the use metals has spread and has long summer time in force in commercial exchanges before the invention of the currency. In the necro- prehistoric poles of the Caucasus and Armenia Russian, in parts of the Urals and along of course of the Volga, we has collected rings of bronze of which employment, as currency, has was rightly noticed : their weights are regular linked and are staggered according to the system divisions weight counts; there are some which seem to be related dear to the Assyrian system (1 . For a long time, in Russia, the original ruble cir- cula by weight, in the form of a silver ingot lying down. “Before the rulers of Russia and the Russian cities would have had their pro- near metal coins, and while the fur coins and foreign currencies were current in trade and use daily, a other currency y was also in use for large payments which were to be make in money. This currency consisted of flax gots money from weight of a half a pound, of a quarter and of a eighth of book approx. Her- berstein, ambassador of the emperors of germany Maximilian P', Charles V and Ferdinand V, au- close of the grand dukes of Russia , Ivan Vassilie- vitch and Vasily Ivanovich, mentions these ingots, saying that when money was brought to Russia, we the melted and we the flowed into small ingots (1) J. by Morgan, in the Archaeological Review, t. II from 1889, [). 177 to 187 and 291.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 83 oblone, without none stamp, without registration, and the price of a ruble (1). » 11 exists in collections, especially in Russia, a large number of these silver ingots, of different annuities shapes, rounds, cylindrical, rectangular res, flattened, conical, which is generally called ingots of Kiew or Novogorod, because that they remained in traffic on the market of these cities longer than elsewhere. A few carry countermarks of bankers between hands of which they have past : that is, we the see, the same use that in China, next this adage philosophical that everywhere the same causes produce the same effects. Among the Sarmatians of the banks of the Hypanis and of Horysthenes, the Milesians had installed, almost close towards the time when the Phocaeans were melting Marseille, a colony who became quickly rich and powerful, Olbia, on the seaside, at the confluence of the two rivers. She began to (1) Boiler, Overview on usses coins , t. I, p. 85-86.
84 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. issue currencies middle of the fourth century. Isn't it curious to note that these bronze coins have the same shape as the fish who was the element essential to the trade of the colony? On the two specimens that we give no here, at example title [ûg. i), we read instructions scriptions no less significant that the shape even of these curious pieces : (-)V, initials of word Ojvvc;, tuna, and APIXO, barbaric form of Txpiyz:, salted fish (1\ Let us remember price of Icelanders valuing all things in fish dried, and we will conclude that an analogous use must have originally existed Olbia; then, that at fish in nature we substituted a ingot who had its form and represented its value. The money in spade irons, fish hooks, linen gots having the shape of cowries, didn't have not other meaning. In the Scandinavian countries and central Europe rope, we used, at the time of the Bronze Age, iron bracelets, copper, silver and gold, as standards of values, when we did not practice not simple barter. We has, in fact, found in these regions, as well as in Egypt and in the Greek tress, gold rings, smooth, shaped of spirals, of various sizes, bearing wind the trace of intentional breaks, to one of their ends or even at two Jjouts. Obviously, these rings served as means (1) A. von Sallet, in the Zeitschrift fur yumismalili, t. X, p. 145.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 85 of exchanges (1). Similar custom has persisted in the Aiiglo-Saxons. the Danes and other peoples from northern Europe until the beginning of the middle ages (2). The oldest legal documents of the Ir- land contain the mention of executory payments cut in colhers, in bracelets, in rings, in vases of gold, silver, copper and iron, equally although in heads of cattle. In the history of the con- sales contract, according to the texts of the old lit- Irish literature, M. d’Arbois de Jubainville (2) distinguishes three periods : “In the first pe- period, he said, the price is not stipulated in pre-metals heavens, it usually consists of livestock. In the second period, the price consists of a weight determined of precious metal. The third pe- period is the one where legal coinage triumphs and where the buyer agrees to deliver to the seller a determined number copies of a certain currency. » Even before the ninth century, we see substitute the uses of the second period at (1) 0. Montelius, the Prehistoric times in Sweden, trans. S. Reiuach, p. 204. (2) Uoach Smith, in Arcàaeoloyia, t. XXXI, pp. 398 et seq. (London, 1846) ; — Holmboe, De prisca re monetaria Norvegiae, p. G and next. (Christiania, 1841); —Numism. chronicle,l. XVI, 1853, p. 150; t. XVII, 1854, p. 62 ; t. XX, 1858, p. 149; —Donop and Grotefend, Dus alteste Gcld, in the BUHters filr Miinz- hinulates of Grote, t. IV, p. 37 and pi. X-XI Leipzig, 1838j; — A. Morel-Fatio, Lake Annelets, in the Bull, of the Soc. Switzerland of numismatics, t. V, 1886, p. 54; — J.-A. Blanchet, in the /?evMe Belgian numismatics, 1890, p. 129 to 135; the same, Studies numismatics, 1. 1, p. 85.
.se, THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. those of the first; of more, particularity cu- laughing, we apply to ingots metallic the expressions which previously designated the needs tial money or slave money. The terms of woman slave hereimnl^^ beast to horn f^'^V), represent a certain quantity of metal pre- heavens, gold or silver, weighed on a scale. In the Book of Armagh, beginning of the ninth century, a nun, named Cummen, sold a horse for a female slave icumal) of silver. The price which is called set^ in the plural seuit, is- i.e., “horned beasts ”, consists of : three ounces money, a cup of silver, a necklace or tor- what weighing three ounces, a wheel gold, co- chons, of sheep and a clothing (1). We already know that the word Latin pecunia applied to the currency metallic has a origin simi- laire. Again at time of Strabo (2), some populations of Spain used ingots metallic instead of coins : “The little ones ples, he said, who are pushed back inland, tra- made by way of exchange place of se serve coined money, or they have blades of this metal which they cut into pieces as it have some need to pay this that they buy. » According to Caesar's testimony, the Bretons used, (1; D'Arbois de Jubainvilîe, dansia /ferî/e arclicoIof/ique,3' st- laugh, t. XII, 1888, p. 129. {2] Strabo, III, 28; — Eckhel, J). HAS'. T'., t. I, Introduction, p. v.
THE ORIGINS OF AIOiNNAIE. 87 as currency, rings: iron and copper vre, estimated using the scale (1). From week to What customs must have existed among the Gauls and at all the peoples who passed by the same development social. We will not insist, for complete this arid nomenclature, that on the peoples of the peninsula italics, because that there, the historical texts are explicit, and the results provided by the archaeological excavations we allow of observations also subscribe more than precise and instructive. In central Italy and among the Etruscans, if ha- metallurgical biles, gold and Farg-ent were im- carrying foreign, like among the Greeks. The copper was, at contrary, very abundant, and we extracted it in the mines of the country. It was therefore naturally copper which. originally, next to cattle, was chosen as a commercial standard. In its monetary application, historians la- they call it rough (*2) or aes infectum (3), i.e. raw copper. If tradition is to be believed preserved by Pliny, its use, as a type of values, persisted until the time of Servius Tul- lius (i). These copper ingots, shapeless [raudera, (1) Utuntur autaere, autannulis ferrels, ad crtum pondus cxaminatis, pro nummo. (Cses., Bell. galL. V, 12. Cf. Fr. Leiior- mant, Coinage in Antiquity, 1. 1, p. 219. (2) Pliny, Nat. hist., XXXIII, 13 el 'i3. (.3) Isid. Hispal., Orirj., XVJ, 18, 13. (4) Fr. Hillsch, Griech. und romiscJie Metrology, 2 edit., p. 254 et seq.
88 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. raucluscida^ rudcra) (1) were, clans use, divided into more or less considerable blocks, next the need the commercial operations, and the value of each ingot could not be estimated mée (from aes) only by its weight, determined using of the scale. Many of these blocks metal have reached us; we has them re- mainly found at middle of ex-voto offered to some deities, and we have observed that their weight scale next the divi- tions of the weighting systems in use in Italy central dregs. “Out of two hundred and twenty-seven fragments (the harsh things that it was given to me to examine, said the baron d'Ailly (2), each from them descends, from one way enough gradual and regular, weight the more strong at more weak. The maximum to me known is of TOT gr. 20; the minimum of 2 gr. 21 » (3). Ingots that reach approximately 700 grams are two pound ro- ingots maines idiipondhis). A these piecesK copper raw have succeeded, (1) Vano, De ling. lat.. V, 163; — Festus, p. 265; — Tit.-Liv., XXVI, 11.9; — Cic. ad Atlic, VII, 2, 7. (2) Baron d'Ailly, Research on Roman currency, t. !,• p. 10. (3) The collection bequeathed by the Baron d'Ailly at Cabinet of Medals contains a number of deceslingol specimens of aes rude. The Roman College museum contains some the series the more considerable. In addition to the work of Baron d'Ailly, we can con- See above all: Mommsen, Hist. beyond monn. rom., transl. Blacas, t. I, p. 174; — E. Babelon, Coins of the republic. Roman, t. I, Introduction, p. ii-iii; — the P. Garrucci, the Monete dell'llalia an- tica, p. 1 and pi. I to VI.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 89 in commercial circulation, as standards of value, elongated rods or bars, carrying in protrusion, on the moon of their faces, of lines pa- rally, regularly spaced, separated by- times by points or globules; other times, these copper salmon are decorated with a line which travels the entire length and to which come weld, as to a central axis, lines trans- versal and smaller : all of this decoration ration looks pretty good like a pea bone- sound (fig. 5) (1). These crude and crude emblems ments provided, in most cases, of resort to the scale : we se happy of count the points or lines in protrusion on the surface of ingots. Isn't it not interesting of notice that Schliemann, in his excavations of Troy, has collected of ingots on which of crossbars are incised in advance to also allow the evaluation of an ingot without that we have to weigh it? (1) L. Sainbon, Ilecherclws on the currencies of the peninsula italics (Naples, 1870, in-4"), p. 25 et seq.; —Garrucci, the Mo- nde (leir Italia aniica, pi. VII to IX.
90 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. These brands, so rudimentary that they be, already testify to new progress, because they give a feeling that we won't be long to the reg- larize more rigorously and to generalize the application. We will thus reach, by there, the period of Vacs signatiim that we can already consider go crazy like a true currency. On the regularly marked blocks, of this period , we will find these same points, these same fishbone lines, so that if, in a museum or in special works, you examine mine the gradual series of ingots, from mid- will not to barely released from its matrix until the real currency , you will almost be forced to possible to say where the period of the raw ingot begins and where does it start that of Vacs sigiiatiim ; where ends Where is the sign and where does real money begin? There is close connection and rigorous penetration in this continuous progress : it is a chain of which ' all the rings are firmly welded together to others, without being able to separate them. But we we will return to this point, and let's not anticipate the plan of this historical and social study.
III THE FIRST MONETARY TESTS PRIVATE MONEY PERIOD. Suppose that metallic money such as we design it, with the exclusive guarantee of the State does not exist, and that, following the example of the ancients Egyptians, Assyrians, Phoenicians, or like the peoples of the extreme East in the times modern, we let us be reduced to using metals by weight, for equivalents and inter- diaries of any market : it will be open to everyone to print any mark on the linen- gots become his property. Everyone can stamp them : that goes without saying. But in practice tick , those only will take the pain to affix a mark, who will find something advantage , assuming that their hallmark is susceptible to inspire trust at public by relation to weight and at title of the bars. It's there the individual guarantee and private, a precursor sign
92 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. lover of the State guarantee, and who preceded her everywhere, in historical development and natural of monetary invention. This is what a contemporary jurist has, so say, guessed, in a sentence we have to quote here because she is like the synthesis of facts that we are going to present : “Banks have created the sign, the punch, the corner. The State took over then adorned with the idea of the brand, he has it gen(''- realized, consecrated. There is no would have no naivety to divide currencies into private currencies and mon- public births” (1). The stamp aims, as we have already said, to make easier and faster the commercial transactions, by dispensing with re- run to the scale or to the stone of button. But if, in the social state which was that of all peoples, before the appearance of state currency, no measure legislation does not prevent anyone that this either to have its monetary stamp, the law does not intervene not more to give the forced course to these ingots thus marked. Mar- chands, bankers, goldsmiths, simple individuals, can have their mark, just as well as a provincial governor, head of state. It's the good reputation of a rich merchant who gave there will be no credit on the market for ingots bearing its name or emblem. Because of the social role (1) G. Cruchon, Banks in anliquity, p. 12 (Paris, 1879, in 8").
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 93 that must play the prince or the representative of public authority as interprets and dispenses sater of justice and equity, the decorated ingots of his weapons will be, undoubtedly, wanted from preferably in commercial traffic, but there will be no monopoly or forced price for them. It's as well as, quite naturally, alongside the principle of convenience and of ease employment, the only one we have seen, so far, applied in the search for the standard of values, he introduces himself into it produced another, thanks to the development of the circulation metal ass : it's the confidence that must inspire any monetary ingot in its role of universal equivalent, and this confidence, this is the essence stamp which tends to guarantee it to the public. 1. — AT THE PEOPLES MODERN. We have observed that even today, the indigenous traders from the Far East con- tremarquent the ingots golden and money and just- cju'to foreign currencies which pass between their handsand which thus become a real currency private. But they are, in this way, only conforming traditionally a custom, much more formerly widespread in these regions. In China, in effect, the old currencies having the shape utensils, the Pi-tc/i year, or coin spades, the P«-currency, the coin knives , were
94 THE ORIGINS OF L.V. CURRENCY. manufactured and released into circulation non-point only by the government, but also at name and under the merchants warranty or of merchant corporations. Speaking of currencies of this type issued at the time of the Chu dynasty, before the fourth century AD, Mr. Terrien de La Couperie makes the following observation: boasts : “The currency, he said, was not yet a prerogative of the government. The individuals also although the king and princes could issue metallic currency, and they did. A great impetus was given to this currency by merchants, either individually or in corporations ration, by families and by of associations of one or of several cities. The relationships of e- , change being generally limited to the region frequented by those who emitted similar coins, they printed there, for dis- tinctives, names of countries, cities, families, of people or things (1). H just go- run the catalog of M. Terrien de La Couperie to raise, on the coin spades and the necks- currency rates , of registrations mentioning. (1) “Money goes iot yet has governinental prerogative. Private people as well as the kings and the princes, could, and in fact did, issue metallic money. A great impetus was givento they circulate lation by merchants, single or in partnership, private families, and guilds ofone orseveral towns. The exchange he generally limited led to the region of the issuers, they used on their currency to put as their marks nannies of regions, places, families, individuals, or things. » (Terrien de La Couperie, Catalog ofChinese Coins in the British Museum, Introd., p. i.)
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 95 on the one hand, the value of the coin, and on the other hand, either the name of a banker, merchant, or of a corporation, either the name of the city or cities in which the piece was intended to circulate culer. For example, on a coin knife, we bed : “Town of Ynsi-ling (today Chang-loh) and town of Tso-yh in the Tsi (today AYen-hi, in Kiang-chou) » (1), which means that the currency was issued by merchants, to circulate fuck in these two localities. 11 happens often that, by following the private nature of these curious pieces, the inscriptions are cursive, traced with negligence or in abbreviated, by workers in- skilled or ignorant, which makes deciphering most difficult for sinologists (2). India, like China, went through the period coinage free and individual. The ingots gold and silver which, alongside the stock exchanges, are men- mentioned in the Vedas and in the laws of Manou, were not only calibrated according to weights fixed and determined in advance, but they wore, most of the time, countermarks applied by merchants (3). It exists in the collection- tions one quite a large number of these coins private of India cjui affect the forms the most various : simple pieces of metal with con- shapeless towers, rounded or angular, ovoid, (1) Earthling from La Couperie, op. cit., [>. 223. (2) Ibid., Introd., p. XXXIII (3) Edward Thomas, Ancient Indian Weicjhts, p. 33 and next. and p. 52.
96 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. flattened, lying down, rectangular, cut to size workpiece holder; pellets or buttons of molten metal, always adjusted to a regular weight. What is, in our eyes, the main interest of these crude ingots, these are the multiple countermarks of which their surface is covered : we give some some specimens borrowed from the work of Mr. Ed- Ward Thomas (fig. 6). These pieces constituted the currency common of India, even a long time after some regions of this huge country would have been conquered by more advanced peoples and already in possession of official cash guaranteed by the state. The countermarks that they carry have were sometimes affixed successively by many generations of merchants; also they are very varied ; letters or mono- grams in writing devanagari, sun, star, crescent moon, elephant, wheel, dog, snake, fish, cow, panther, vase, floret, palm tree, globule, swastika, etc. It was in vain that we searched- difficult to explain by the story or mythology, these symbols which recall our different, moné- silence. The merchants who have them chosen for emblems did not give us the reasons for their preferences. On the other hand, it is possible for us to cite some testimonials historical who se relate to this coinage. ^\. Edward Thomas invokes a pas- sage of Ferishtah where it is formally said that at fourteenth century, the goldsmiths and the merchants of metals mint coins like they slow-
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 97 tooth, without the slightest supervision or control of the share of power regular (1). This custom persisted until the era contemporary, in some southern regions and the center of IIin- doustan, where J. Malcolm the notes again in Fisr- 6. 1832 i2). Only, this right to coin money for the individuals, and without no control, had to then be granted by the government (1) Edw. Thomas, The chronicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi (London, 1871, in-8°), p. 344; the kid, A ncient Indian Wcifjhts. p. 57, note 4. (2) Sir John Malcolm, Mcmoir of central India (1832, in-8o), t. II, p. 80. 6
98 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. central. In Java, the same uses are also kept for a long time : the indigenous currencies of this country bears the stamps of merchants : this are, most ordinarily, characters that must nagaris, florets, vases, or symbols various whose meaning escapes us (1). The variety and the multiplicity of these emblems, as well as irregularity of ingots, would be enough, need, to certify that we are in the presence of mon- nays thrown into traffic by private linked, with their personal brands or weapons of cities where they traded : their only aspect eloquently demonstrates that no rules, no public power came to hinder, re- gtdarize or monitor the broadcast. The primitive ingots of Russia, the weight of a ruble, its multiples or its divisions, that we reported as the main intermediary trade diary in Kiev, Novogorod and other cities, in the Middle Ages, were issued by handlers of precious metals, merchants, bankers quiers or goldsmiths. In their rudimentary form, they are already a real currency, but one private currency. The public authority did not intervene neither in their manufacture nor in the cuts that everyone could do as they pleased. The footprints of which they are coated give either the names of merchants, either a simple symbol, or finally the (1) H. C. Millies, Research on the coins of the uidhjèncs of the Indian archipelago of the Malay Peninsula (The Hague, 1871, in-40), pp. 8 and 11 to 13.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 90 emblems of cities in which they had to circulate. ;< We has found, tells Boiler, to ten versts from Yilkomierz, in Lithuania, several of these ingots; they were stamped, the one to weapons of the Lithuania and others in the name of different families, in ordinary characters” (1). The history of the organization of the first colo- European families in America or in the extreme Orient offers many other examples of coins or ingots stamped by individuals or of associations of any kind, outside of sovereign authority. At the beginning of the colonization English of the United States, we see the immigrants of Massachusetts Bay (former Plymouth), broadcasts be, in 1606, coins outside the self- rity of king from England and despite protested tions of the motherland (2). The first pieces minted in Maryland, after 163'2, were to the effigy of Galvert, Earl of Baltimore (3). In 169V, due to the shortage of divided currencies Zionaries, individuals mint coins of a penny composed of a copper alloy and tin (i). Later, when the Americans had shaken the yoke of England, this were no only provinces like the Connecticut, the Vermont, the 3rd Iassachusetts, New Jersey and (1) Chaudoir^ Overview of Russian coins, t. I, p. 99. (2) Alex. Vatteniare, CoUeciion of coins and medals of North America, p. 17-18; — Sylvester Crosby, Tlieearlij coins of America (Boston, 1873, in-4o). (3) Alex. Vattcmare, op. quote.. p. 19. (4) Ibid.
100 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. New York, who, using their privilege of independent states , began to beat my- nay ; but individuals did also my- naye urs. A goldsmith from Annapolis, Maryland, called Chal- seas, struck in 1783 silver coins which are known under the name of Chalmcrs shillings,1). From 183i. at ISVl. many industrialists and specula- tors began to mint coins, as also to make paper money which later received the contemptuous name of shin plaslcr (plaster for the legs); the currencies of these individuals are known to collectors under the name of parts taractic [-y.zxy.-A'/Jzç, globose); a button factory, Waterbourg (Connec- ticut), in made a huge quantity. But we must cite especially those which were issued in California when we had discovered the mines gold of this country. “Barely the mines of the California did they begin to be exploited, that he was hit in the land of gold coins so engraved the cliilî're representative of their value, circulating freely and accepted without objection. These parts, true currency, since they ser- used for commercial transactions, did not affect not always the form we are in accustomed to see hit the currencies. They were often small cylinders punched in the name of the coin mechanism, bearing a stamp which indicates (1) Alex. Vallemare, op. cit., p. 21-22.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 101 quait the weight, and therefore the value (1) ". At nonil)re of currencies thus issued, by individuals or companies, in California, we cites the gold pieces of Betchler, whose workshop, located in Rutherford ton (North Carolina) struck again in 1851; in a period of ten years (from 1831 to 18V01, Betchler not made for less of 11,209,200 francs of gold coins, bearing as legend the name and residence of the banker, as well that indication of weight and value (2). He there was also the currencies of the Company of money changers from Oregon, to the beaver type; those of Moifat and It's% of San Francisco; those of the Miners Bank of San Francisco ; those of Mormons; those of Auguste Humbert, in San Fran- cisco, issued in 1857; those of the Company of mining Cincinnati (Ohio), companies of the Pacific, Massachusetts and California; of Baldwin and O' ; by Dubosq and C'" ; by Schultz and C'^ ; of Dumbar and C'% etc. Most of these parts, besides the trademark which is an emJileme next variable the everyone's fancy, wear the name of the characters or companies that have them issued, and the mention more or less justified, but significant link, from Native Gold or Pure Gold. This is because, for an industrialist or a trader, it is not enough to mint money, it is still necessary ft above all, that this currency have a customers, that is to say that it is accepted in the circulation (1) Vattemare, op. cit., p. 29. (2) IbUL, p. 30.
102 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. tion. To any currency whatsoever, it is necessary to con- public confidence. In Canada, some times, we live from even circulate coins issued by indus- trials, for the purpose of pure speculation. In 1813, for example, a merchant of novelties sie, named llaliburton, imported to Halifax, without that the puljlic authority intervened, documents including the legend is this one : Pure copper preferable to paper (1). It is likely that Haliburton, who besides bed bankruptcy, wanted with these tokens copper speculate on the circulation of paper-my- nae, then very abundant in Canada. Everything the world knows the thalers bearing the image of Marie-Thérèse that Euro-bankers or goldsmiths pagans of Tripoli and Egypt still continue to do hit currently to the Currency of Vienna, with the date 1780, real currencies private vehicles circulating in Tripolitania, Ethiopia and in Sudan where they replaced the piastres Spanish. Their invariable type for more than a century and their good character enjoy by tradition the confidence of native traffickers. That we have- aims to alter its weight, the title or the date, or to modify the type, and this confidence vanishes without return. We will not further multiply these examples. ples, chosen in modern societies, little advanced created or in training, and still accessible to ob- (1) P.-N. Breton, History Ulustrcc of currencies and tokens of Canada (Montreal, 1887}, p. 203.
THE ORIGINS OF LV MONNAIE. 103 direct servatioii; we are, from now on, authorized, by virtue of these relationships noted cause to effect, and of principles, determined by observation, which presides over transformations social, we are, I say, authorized to presume sea that classical antiquity should not, did not could even escape from this natural and logical law that of the slow and progressive evolution of re(ju- value of all goods. So let's look for to demonstrate it in done, to the help of traditions literary and monuments which are to us by- came. II. CUE THE GREEKS. We have already witnessed tests, so say unconscious, of private currency, in Tan- tiquity. The Egyptian tabnus regularly established lonés, the shekels of Israel, not only weighed, but counted individually, the Assyrian ingots having the shape of Istar heads or stamped with the effigy of this goddess; the bars gold, money, of bronze, among the Greeks they Italian populations, marked incisions regular or of g'iobules spaced with calculation : doesn't all this tend to make ingots thus adjusted a real mon- nay? Here also, we don't would know the deny, this were the merchants who, between them, by a somewhat tacit agreement and pushed instinctively tively by the search for some convenience
104 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. new, admire these brands as a guarantee of weight and authority, without any authority whatsoever anyone thought of imposing its control on them and to claim the application of a regular right. We know that the Greek bankers (Tpx7:£^;Tal) were at the same time money changers; all the big ones money business se were treated by their intermediary diary (1). Their counters were the meeting place business people, the stock market ; they held both maritime trade and caravan trade nes, especially in xVsie Minor. The exploitation of mining was often in their hands. These ma- deniers gold received deposits of pre-metal skies belonging to rentiers or merchants, held cash registers open for their customers, took wasted enormous sums; they hoarded; they lent to princes as well as to individuals bind. Listen instead to this story from Nicholas of Damascus, more eloquent than any comments : “Wanting carry the war in Caria, the king of Lydia Alyatte (610 to 561 BC AD) gave the order to his lieutenants nants to bring him, on a fixed day, their contingents in Sardis. Among the generals was the son groin of king, Croesus, then governor of Adra- myttium and the Tliébé plain. Negligent and prodigal, frowned upon by his father, because of his dissipations pations, very eager to return to favor with of him and of confuse his slanderers, but not having the wherewithal to raise and bribe mercenaries (1) Sdwmsinn, Greek AntiquUcs, trans. Galuski, l. Lp.601; — G. Cruchon, Your Banks in Antiquity, p. 12 et seq.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 105 naires, the young prince, to get out of trouble, decided to take out a loan. For this purpose, he went to find Sadyatte, the richest merchant in Lydia. This one, busy his ablutions, left first Croesus moping at his door. Then, he consented to the receive, but this was for him Refuse it of money : “ If he had to lend to all the sons of Alyatte, he cried, I i\\ could suffice ". Rebuffed, Croesus went to Ephesus. There, Ionian linen of his friends, Paraphaes (1), learner the reason for his visit, obtained from his father Théocha- LÛdès, of which the fortune was considerable, a sum of a thousand staters of gold, which he hastened to to obey the needy prince. Thanks to these subsidies, Croesus equipped troops, was the first of all he met and won back his father's favor I joined him in this expedition -2). » Croesus, later, se avenged of Sadyatte who had rejected, in confiscating his treasures at profit of temple of Artemis from Ephesus : the de- Puglia of unhappy banker were enough unconscionable for that we could make of ;golden columns and golden heifers which adorned the example of the goddess (3). Later we see a banker from Cœlenœ, *ythès, of Lydian origin, give a gift to king (1) According to Elien {Hist. varicose veins, IV, 27), Pampliars was on'si- Priene area. (2) Nicholas of Damascus, in the Fragins. histor. (jrxcor. by Didot, . III, p. 397, frag. G5. Cf. Georges Radet, Lydia at the time of lermanades, p. 19G. (3) G. Radet, op. cit., p. 207.
106 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. Darius of a golden plane tree and a golden vine. What- that time later, in fear, no doubt, that his immense fortune did not come to excite the desire for tise of the prince, Pythes took the party from do the part of the fire : he spontaneously offered Xerxes subsidies for war ; like the big King inquired, as a benevolent curiosity, of the extent of his rict^esses, the banker confessed, no without worry, that he owned in his chests two a thousand talents money and that he does not he missed him that seven thousand pieces of gold so that he had four million darics (1). Sadyatte, Theocharides, Pamphaes, Pythes, voibi the opulent gold handlers, in possession of the trust of public, who, also good that the princes, envious of their riches, stamp monetary ingots get out of their crates. The first Greek coins in gold, in electrum and silver, which the numismatists make appear in the medalists, are nothing else only small punched ingots. They remind, by their shapes, the metal pellets {obdztç) that we talked about and to which he doesn't miss quait the stamp for constitute a mon-- nay. These globular, ovoid pieces were pro- taken by the fusion process, then we has them; countermarked at hammer. He in is whose lesJ two faces do not present, in the field of their stamps in hollow or in relief, that a sort already (1) Herodotus, VII, 27 to 29.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 107 crude hammering of the metal, without being able to ;tinger, on the punch, the slightest intention engraving. In this first category, take ice one series of parts golden barbarians, as- globular side, weighing since 7 gr. 12 until ^T. 30 (1) ; they oli'rent, on one side, a square in ief, with an irregular surface, and on the other a square ;ux; coarse, of the same dimension as the square relief. That of these currencies primitives that we reproduce to specimen title (fig. 7) Fisr. 7. are going to the Medals Cabinet, and I have it ivent held between my fingers, seeking to him hide the secret of sound origin. She weighs §T. 12. Let us reproduce the description that in has data Fr. Lenormant : She is of a extraordinarily big job- r ; it presents to the right a square in relief, of which surface offers like prints irregular res and certainly fortuitous, having a cer- does not appear cuneiform features; we would say s chisel strokes given at random to settle confirm that the part is not stuffed. On the reverse, we 1) Fr. Lenormant, in the Annitaire of the French Society of mismutic, t. IV, 187'", p. 203-204,
108 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. sees a hollow square of the same dimension, in the bottom of which we can guess a sort of pentagon irregular » (1). All these gold coins - it's the same scholar which provides us with this important information, — have summer found in the Thraco-Macedonian region nienne who extends since Salonika until Cavala. This are therefore, we don't would know doubt, the coins originally struck by the pro- prayers of famous and rich mines golden this country, which Philip of Macedonia exploited will later be for his benefit. It is, therefore, in no way rash to say that the extraction of gold, in the mining the Thrace, gave place at a my- private swimming, similar to that of the California when the mines of the latter country were discovered. In Asia Minor, where of mining of electruni were exploited in the Tmolus gorges and of Sipylus, and where we sifted through the sands Pactole gold mines, we started the same to mint electrum coins, both of which faces do not present, hollow or in relief, that indefinable roughness (fig. 8) (2). come then pieces on which we see large lines which intersect, often separated by globules, X, of squares, of triangles, by- times with points in the interval of the lines (3). (1) Fr. Lenorniant, loc.cit., p. 202. (2) Compare b. Head, Catalog of the (jreek corners of lonia, ft. I, fig. 3 and 4. (3) B. Head, op. cit., ft. I, fig. 5 and 7.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 109 On others, the face main is simply furrowed of streaks parallel little deep, while the opposite side is marked with footprints wide and vigorous, affecting shapes will- laughed. Finally, while the reverse still continues to receive footprints hollow, multiple, the right is ornate of a picture in relief : it's the ti/pe monetary. The ingots cease to be of simple stamped o^zlozz, like those of India; they become real currencies. This pro- sandstone, at the Greeks of the edges of the Aegean Sea, Fis. 8. in the seventh century before our era, — at these men so industrious and so active and who swarmed on all sides, - manifested itself quite quickly. Due to the commercial role of money and fiduciary character conferred on it by the imprint, They were not long without realizing ((that there was a major interest in this brand the most importance possible, at the de- expand it to make it more apparent, so that no one could misunderstand it. This is how we found ourselves led to replace by a veri- table type, occupant a whole faces of the piece, the hallmark initially very limited (1)... (1) Fr. Lenormant, Coins and medals, p. 16 (Quanfm coll.).
110 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. This type monetary variable is, nevertheless, always very simple : a fleuron, a head of Uon or a lion whole, one baaif, one horse head, a ram, a fish, a wild boar, a deer, a bird, a wheel. These are there, at least for the most, the emblems of the various cities in the- what parts were issued and had to cir- culer. There are even some that are talking weapons, like the seal on the firsts coins minted at Phocaea. 3But the hollow imprints of the reverse, so many and so varied, are the mar- as bankers and merchants, and nothing they do not denote the intervention of authority pu- blique. (Let us cite some examples : 1. — Surlace streaked, without imprint of corner monetary, i^. Hollow imprint formed by three punches, including one rectangular and elongated, placed between both others of shape square and more small; in the imprint central lying down, we sees in relief, at the bottom of the hollow, a fox rant; in the small square at the top, a hair’s head val or deer; in that of low, one flower to four petals view from high. — Ingot oval and globular. Electrum Stater ; weight : IV gr. 19 (see our fig. 9) (1). 2. — Type obscure in relief, in which we (1) Fr. Lenormant, in VAnmiaii-e de la Société de numis- matic, t. IV, 1874, p. 171, no. 1; — E. Babelon, in the Review numismatics, 1895, p. .300;-— the same, Mélanf/es numisviaii- what, t. 111, p. 96.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 111 can distinguish, it seems, a muzzle of lion, of ace, the jaws discarded, fi. Two rec- tangles creu.v, rating to coast, of which the field is decorated with small figures in relief. In one we see a sea eel, swimming, right; below, a small dolphin; around, three globules or marine shells. In the other, one heron, neck sinuous and lying down in before, walking to left ; under the beak of the bird , a turtle ; around, globules or shells. — Ingot oval and globular. Stater electrum; weight : 17 gr. 32 (1). 3. — Lying lion, to left, and diverting the head in roaring. Around, a framing square, checkerboard. ^. Footprint formed by three hallmarks, one rectangular and lying down, placed between the other two squares and more small; in the central hallmark, uncertain symbols among which we can, this seems, recognize a (1) See E. Bahelon, clans the Numismatic Review, 1894, p. 150, n" 1 ; — the same, HJcIanges manismaiiques, t. III, p. 2, and pi. I, Hg. 1.
112 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. hare (?), leaves and a globule. In one square punches, the sign |\J in the anlre. a sort star with four rays, ^. bulbous and lying down. Stater of electrum 14 gr. 07 (1). i. — Variety of which we let's give here the picture (fig. 10). In the hollow prints on the reverse, we can see a horse's head, a fox and two globules, a sort of star with balled branches. Flan glo- weight ; Fis:. 10. — Hemi-stater of electrum, G gr. 93 (British Museum tannic^. Oh. — Bitch (doggy style) lying down, to right, and raising a paw of in front; we him sees a triple row of udders. Behind her, a tree stem griin])antc and sinuous like ivy, shape symmetrical windings above the ani- bad, h!. Footprint hollow trained by three, punches in each of which we see in relief di- to symbols. In the middle punch, rectan- gular, this are lines who se cross in forming a sort star, a diamond and a head antelope; in the squares lateral, of (1) E. Babeloii, Numismatic magazine, 1895, p. 304, and Mé- diapers, t. m, p. 100.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 113 snake heads. — Globular and elongated flank. Statèrc cVelectrum ; weight: 13 gr. 91 (1). 6. — Tuna decorated with two strips, i^. Two hollow squares of unequal dimensions and decorated with aspe- irregular rites; in the smallest, we distinguish filing of a scorpion in relief. — Globular flan and lying down. Electrum Stater ; weight : 16 gr. 32 (2). On others parts, including the weights scales- follow various regular weight systems, that we will study elsewhere, we see : on one side. a lion's head from the front, and of the other, two pressures hollow, one rectangular, the other triangular, and in the latter, the image of a crab (3). Or else, it is, on the one hand, a rosette, and of the other, one, two, three or even four squares hollow in which we only distinguish lines that cross paths (4) ; — on the one hand, has- beautiful of Ephesus and of the other two squares hollow, parallel (5) ; — of a city. the emblem designated under the name of swastika or swastika (6), and on the other, a shapeless hollow square, etc. It does not enter into our plan to list here all varieties, not even just most of them. It was appropriate to point out, however, (1) E. Babelon, Numismatic Review, 1895, p. 334, no. 47, and Numismatic mixtures, t. III, p. 130. (2) E. Babelon, Revue mimisin., 1895, p. 31, No. 37; — the same, Mixtures, t. III, p. 79. (3) B. Head, lonia, pi. III, fig. 20. (4) lùid., ft. III, fig. 12, 13, 14. (5) Ihid., ft. III, fig. 9 and 10. (fi) lùid., ft. I, (Fig. 13.
114 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. a certain number to show how many they are abundant, various forms and appearance, while belonging to the same region, to the same time and the same civilization. Soon, in do- noting that the electrum which the constitutes is, sometimes almost pure gold, sometimes low-grade gold title, or even the money in which he enters something little gold, we let's try of return account of this anomaly, that it is possible to ex- stick in the coinage hypothesis private, but who would be incomprehensible the mon- swimming official and regularly guaranteed by the state. For us, the hollow imprints on the back of these primitive pieces, with these monograms and these multiple symbols borrowed especially at animal and plant kingdom, must be interpreted like of brands of manufactures, that is to say, in the species, as the emblems of the owners mine owners, merchants or bankers who have launched these metal species in the commercial traffic. It is in vain that we obsess over would tinkle, like have it done a few, to rap- bring these personal and private symbols closer to the mythology or the history of cities in the- which monetary issue took place. We cannot rait not more the consider as of brands workshops, such as personal symbols nels of officers or civil servants in charge, to various titles, remission and control of the fa- manufacturing of the currency official. In effect, when
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 115 when the state currency makes its appearance, these em- problems hollow squares cease, absolutely and everywhere, to appear on the coins. We do not find there nothing more than the type chosen by the authority, and a hollow square, without symbols, which, most often, stands still for a long time in a single form once agreed and adopted. For example, the creseids and the darics, which are currencies official, never have this variety of hollow squares and symbols that we have reported. It is the same with currencies from Aegina, from Lesbos, from Chios, from Cyzicus, some abundant that either the public coinage of these cities. We described above (under the number 6) the oldest known stater of Cyzicus born ; its attribution is certain because of the tuna which is the type and which remains, for several centuries, the monetary emblem of this city, like the seal is the emblem of Phocaea, the lion, the one of Miletus or Samos. But Isn't it interesting- healthy to note that the double hollow square of reverse of this stater has nothing in common with the one which was subsequently adopted for all other Cyzicenian coins? On the latter, the hollow square is unique and uniformly shared in four compartments arranged obliquely relative to each other, like wings of a mill wind ; he no has not exceptional during the space of two and a half centuries that lasts this coinage official. Here, at contrary, we we have two squares hollow, one bigger that
116 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. the other, affixed separately, as would be real modern countermarks. In the most little one, we very clearly distinguishes a scorpion. So what could this emblem be, if we don't recognize the hallmark of a merchant or a banker? The more old minted coin in Phocaea is the following : Pkoquc, swimming to right. Below, the letter 4), initial of name of the city, r!. Two squares hollow, of unequal dimensions, placed side by side. Globular and irregular skin. Electram Stater ; weight : GI gr. 50 (1). (>c stater is not known, so far, only in two copies, one in the Munich museum and the other in the British iMusec. By comparing these two pieces, we see that they were struck using same corners; their hollow squares as well as their types are identical. But we notice also that the smallest of these squares is not placed everything quite at the same place compared to the most big. On one of the staters it is noticeably more lower than on the other, and he is less close to his neighbor. What can we conclude from this? except that these squares hollows were affixed separately, independently lies about each other; these are printed marks stamped with two punches and not not only, as we usually say, rough edges ba- nals arranged on the monetary anvil to take (1)E. Babelon, Bevuc numismatU/ne, iS^j, p. 7, n» 1 ; the same. Numismatic mixtures, t. III, p. 55.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 117 fish the ingot to slide sounds the conp dn mar- water, at the time of the strike on the other side. Everything therefore combines to demonstrate that these mon- naies primitives of the coast from Asia Minor are due to the initiative of the gold handlers. But the cer-; attitude scientific completes being given to our theory by the exam of legends monetary themselves, as soon as they appear. The oldest currency who wears a ins- cription is a stater of electrum, found in Hali- carnasse, and preserved in the British Museum. In here is the description : Deer walking to the right, lowering the head for graze; above, the retrograde legend : AMBH IM3 50hhA
118 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. of this city. But we are certain that Plia- nes didn't belong not to the family of Melas, who exercised tyranny in Ephesus at the time when the stater could have been struck, that is to say in the seventh century ; the dynasty of Melides was reversed by Croesus in 561 (1). Else leaves, our Phanes has no common as the name with a citizen of Halicar- creel who was the auxiliary of Cambyses in Egypt. So I don't see what could prevent us to recognize in this character who does not have his place among the dynasts of the Greek cities of the coast of Asia, a banker or a merchant stamped pillaging his ingots, that is to say emitting the marked currency to his name. The legend that he engraved : “I am the corner of Phanès ". what is she not clearly explained by there, and the inter- pretation that we give does she come home not directly in the sense of other legends of the same genre, as, for example, ^fJix 7.i;x;j.a or Kô-jt:'/xpxy-r,p, “corner of Seuthès, coindeCotys”, which we read in the same way, on the king's silver coins Thracian Seuthes, contemporary of Xenophon, and on those of Cotys, in the century preceding our era (*2) ? If our stater, struck at Ephesus, had it been in the name of the public authority of this city, he would bear the name of one of the tyrants who reigned there, or else that of the community of inhabitants, what se presents always in the continued; or (1) G. Radet, Lydia and the Greek world, p. 134 and 210. (2) Fr. Lenormant, the currency in antiquity, t. II, p. 195; B. Head, Historia numorum, p. 240 and 243.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 119 again 'E^satov £'.;j.î sYjy.a, similarly «{u'on find Vzp-yKz '0 T.7.X[j.x on archaic coins of the town of Gortyn (1). The currency always carries the name of character or rautoritô who guarantees title and weight : Plianès, the signatory of our stater, not being a dynast of Ephesus, can only be a rich banker this city, who was well, in indeed, in the seventh century, a city of gold handlers, “a great city of com- [ mercantile, banking and credit », as well as M. G. Radetla qualifies (2). We we would find gladly again a con- firmation of our theory in Greek intaglio, the oldest known with an ins- scripture. This is a scarab from the seventh century, on the dish of which we bed, around a little dau- phin, in very archaic letters : Ospsbç zl[j.i GX[j.y/ 't).r,[J^t avcr;î, “I am the seal of Thersis, be careful not to break me.” The analogy of the mule of this personal seal with the legend of the coinage of Phanès seems to us an argument of more to complete the demonstration that the latter is good a particular minting currency for his account and in his name. It would be superfluous to dwell at length on the interpretation of the legends of some others primitive currencies, of which the reading material is not yet clearly established. For example, on a hectée of electrum to the type of the head of san- (1) J. Syoronos, NiDnismatics of ancient Crete, f. 158, (2) G. Radet, op. cit., p. 134.
120 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. glier, we sees letters in which some numismatists sought to recognize the name of the Lydian king Sadyatte : lAA...? while others claimed to read the name of the town of Clazomène : IAAl>1 (1). This is not probably nor one nor the other; I am led to believe that he is, here in- core, named after a merchant. It is the same from another room including the legend was the subject of lively controversies. Here is the description : Lion's head, left, gaping mouth; between eyes, a radiated globule that resembles a star; in front, legend 3^1A^.i^. Hollow square resulting from the printing of two square punches^ placed side by side ; the surface is decorated with pro- irregular tuberances, — Electrum. Third party desta- tere or trife, V gr. 71 (Munich Cabinet). We knows a few other copies with the same largely crude legend (2). A Dutch scholar, Mr. J.-P. Six, recently proposed to recognize on this piece the name of the king of bydie Alyatte, always starting from this preconceived idea that the currency don't can have ({u"an official character; therefore, the name that she bears could only be a name of memory rain or a city name. We now know that he is everything otherwise for the coins (r E. lîabelon, numismatic view, 1895, p. 342, no. 68; the same, Numismalic mixtures, t. III, p. 138. (2; J.-P. Six, in the Numismatic Clironicle, 1890, p. 202: E. Babelon, in the Jlevue numismatics, 1895, p. 317, no. 35 and next; the same, Numismalic mixtures, t. III, p. 113.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 121 primitives; as for the part of which it is in part particular, the reading proposed by Mr. Six sullies the larger difficulties paleographic and linen- g-uistics. And then, we don't would hardly understand why, alone of all the kings Lydians, Alyatte would have had his name engraved on his coins. The The Aeseiids never bear the name of Croesus. Neither this prince, nor Darius or his successors of the dy- Achaemenid nastie, nor any of the others kings or tyrants of Greek cities did not, before the fifth century, placed their names on the species they have made to hit. It is therefore very likely that the name hidden in the caption reproduced more top is that of some rich banker from Miletus; this piece like all the previous ones, fits in the coinage of gold handlers. We will explain later in what circumstances ances and for what reasons private money fit place, everywhere, for currency guaranteed by the self- public rity. Multiple causes led to this necessary progress; they are summed up in this proposal : Public trust had withdrawn of the currency of individuals. But this change- ment cannot be read anywhere in a day; bankers, merchants and goldsmiths continued for a long time again, by tradition or by interest, against- that r not only ingots, but coins of the state themselves, who were passing by their hands. This is how in China foreign bankers today, as we said above, appo- feel their countermarks on foreign currencies
122 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. manage that the trade brings to their counter. Among the Greeks of Asia Minor , these countermarks private are then easily distinguished from the types in relief and hollow square of the pieces. They are very small, so as not to risk altering the pictures official offices. But their form and their support location on the monetary blank, at random, where found a free place, quite reminiscent of the stamps on the coins of India, of which we we have reproduced some examples. Let us therefore quote here also specimens of coins Greek- what official, stamped in conditions analogs : 1"^. Head of lion, right, the gaping mouth; on the forehead, a globule written off which resembles to a star, r!. Imprint formed by two points lessons squares, placed coast to coast; the surface in is decorated with lines and irregular protuberances ties. — Electrum ; the weight of the copies varies of i gr. 73 to 4 gr. 65. (Third stater or trité.) Globular flank (1). The scope of this piece, mune and represented in all the major col- lections, is often covered, on the right and reverse, small countermarks. On a copy of the Luynes collection, at the Cabinet des Médailles, I noted up to seven bearing the following symbols: vants : bull's head; two leaning croissants; boar's head; the symbol (^; two globules (1)E. Babelon, in the Numismatic Review, ISdTj, p. 315; — the same, Me la iKj are niimismaliques, t. III, p. 111.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 12S OR ringlets; a bird; finally, the symbol ^. the n another copy from the same collection at six eon- tremarques : a small hairless head, with hair curly, of profile, left; the signs X^ 88- *^i ^ and [^. In third copy perhaps has a dozen; the most recognizable are the following : ^, o, \f, H. • •, JfcC, (^\ a tripod, etc. Finally , without leaving the Cabinet of Medals, we let's find another room with countermarks following : BB, ^, oo and ^. 2°. The king of Persia (Darius P'' or his successes sisters) represented as an archer, to half kneeling, in profile to the right ; he is wearing the cidaris and dressed candy. With the left hand, he holds his bow; and with the right hand, it carries transversely a javelin decorated with a pommel; the quiver is on his shoulder, r:. Square hollow in shape lying down, on the surface irregular. — Silver, thick flan and irregular contours. Weight : 5 grams 60 approximately. Such is the type of silver coinage, if com- mune, that the authors Greek call the sic le medigue: it was struck in the empire of the Achae- menides, from Darius Son of Hystaspes (521 to 485 BC) and circulated especially in Asia .Mi- neure, for the trade of the Persians with the co- Greek lonies. Isn't it curious to see that these centuries have often had their surface covered small countermarks similar to those that we reported earlier on the parts of electrum to the lion's head guy? These are symbols of all kinds, which we have scrupulously
124 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. ly noted in another work (1), but which hardly allow themselves to be defined literaryly. Their existence on royal coins including the date and the provenance are certain, allowing us to conclude that handlers of precious metals in Asia Minor continued, until the surroundings of Fan VOO before our era, to print their personal stamp on the ingots, minted or no, which passed through their hands. They had left of customers who, faithful to tradition, didn't have trust only in their guarantee. The right to swimming, which had become a royal privilege, was in- banned under penalty of death ; but they persisted to have their emblem monetary in some way furtively affixed next to the types of currency official. 111. IN MEROVINGIAN GAUL. No period of history provides, better that the Merovingian era, a dazzling ap- application of our theory of private coinage. After the fall of the Roman Empire, in the middle of the great upheaval caused in the West by the invasions of barbarians, the sovereign right to mint money, it was practiced in Gaul in three imperial workshops, trying to be respected. Anyone had gold in his possession assumed the right to (1) E. Babelon, the Achaemenid Persians. Introduction, p. XI, and 1)1. XXXIX.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 125 convert it to currency, imitating, to give credit to these new species, the types of the imperial currency, but substituting, as guarantee with respect to audience, sound own name that of the emperor. So, since the middle of sixth century approximately, until after the advent of Pepin the Short who restored for his benefit the right regalian, we find in Gaul three categories of , coins : the currencies royal, the currencies of churches, and finally the coins of the handlers of gold and goldsmiths who take the name of mone- tarii. These generally relate to a face, the name of the locality where they were hit swords, and, on the other side, the name of the currency. Such has was their abundance that we knows the names of twelve Merovingian monetary cents, striking in more than eight hundred localities differ- annuities. Royal coins or ecclesiastics are relatively rare. But all the pieces, to whatever category they belong, hardly distinguish except by these names of kings, of e- churches, individuals or places; the types and the as- pect are little varied throughout the extent of the Gaul ; he is the same as the size : everywhere we mint triens or thirds of a penny, rarely gold pennies. Despite the multiplicity of workshops, the coinage unit of Merovingian Gaul is therefore indisputable. Many scholars have sought to explain <( the strange phenomenon of dissemination of Merovingian monetary workshops » ; we de-
126 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. asked what these characters were, of whom the name comes thus, to the place of the one of the emperor Roman , attest to the public the excellence of the weight and the title of gold and silver coinage. To God forbid that I have the claim to resolve here this obscure question, after so many emigrant men projects which have not succeeded in definitively closing the debate (1). However, I will be allowed to say that in my opinion foreign currencies must, for the most part, fit into the world private swimming. Everyone can mint money, without con- role and personal initiative. The king has his workshops where it issues cash with income of taxes, like the prove the legends : racio fisci, racio doinini. The Limoges workshop is called, in the biography of Saint Eloi '. publica monetary tax pharmacy (2). The monetary king, who sign the currency with him, are therefore employees, of officers of his household, and the species that they strike keep, for remembrance of the currency imperial, a certain character public. In turn, the churches and the monasteries make of the currency with the products of (1) We will read excellent summaries of the question in Arthur Engel and R. Lock, Treatise on middle numismatics âr/e, t. I, p. 54 et seq., and especially in the Introduction that M. Maurice Prou placed at the top of its Catalog of Mérovin Coins - giens of the National Library : nothing better was not written on the material. ['>) Engel and Serrure, Treatise on numismatics of the middle ûtje, t. I, p. 87.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 127 their income and certain royalties : on these pieces, we bed the name of these establishments reli- gieux, sometimes with the name of the monetary which strikes pay for them. According to the same principle of li- absolute freedom of coinage, the cited, the here^ villages, any agglomeration or association which had metallic income, could con- return cash, and this is how you see that “ each city , each village, each farm agricultural or mining station has its mint (1). » From 1865, M. A. de Barthélémy wrote with all reason : “Don’t Would it not be permissible to think that the owners of large estates had tume of designate their coins among the goldsmiths who were among their men (2)? “ Everything individual who has his possession of gold and money and who, instead of exchanging it in the state ingot , finds it more convenient or more advantageous happy to exchange it in the form of currency, the door to the monetary forge the nearest, or of the one whose the name has the best reputation of honesty. We even see that there existed then of goldsmiths or monetary itinerants : they se transported to various localities to strike, with the gold that particular their con- were trusted, currencies which circulated under the ga- protection of their name within a geographic radius more or less extensive. He there are some who associate (1) Engel and Lock, op. quote.. p. 87. (2) A. de Barthélémy, in the Archaeological Review, n. st. \1, 1865, p. 9.
128 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. to hit, with common benefits , the gold that individuals bring to their pharmacy. And every am-i- fe.r, each argcntariiiis, while working thus for individuals, is master himself of enjoy of the freedom left to everything the world, that is to say, to convert into cash the gold he has won by his work : he sells the currency against ingots or against natural products. It's so, for us, that explains itself all the Merovingian coinage; those who wanted to re- search, for example, if the coins were the collectors of tax, of agents of tax; those who wanted to know what was the degree of addiction of these enigmatic characters towards royal power ; those who believed in it again know about'tax farmers “, “escapes” photos of the former imperial workshops ”, were wrong sorry, because they have been haunted by the preoccupation pation of preserve to the currency the character regal, that she had lost since the fall of the empire and which it will only recover by means of Pépin's legislative measures the Brief and of Charle- magne. Thus, in Merovingian Gaul, as in China and India, as in America and seventh century Greece, everything the world can mint money, from the sovereign and the bodies rations or associations of any kind, up to the prayer rural, at merchant, at banker and even down to the smallest "gold handler or goldsmith village. The stamp inspires confidence in some,
THE OLUGLES OF CURRENCY. 120 like it can cause the distrust of others very; there is no forced course. The goldsmith who money had to be attempted often to alter the stock of cash to increase its profits or to appear to be cheaper than its competitors rents. This is why reason that contemporary texts porains hold in so great honor probity goldsmiths : Saint Eloi became a minister because the king could see that he had not altered For which had been entrusted to him as a goldsmith. This is why also that we carefully stipulate in contracts of sale, that payments will be made in solidos pj'obos and pensives {l). Indeed, like the mon- naies primitives of Asia Minor, the title of Merovingian coins are most uncertain, and we can easily see that the monies keep quiet se are not done fault to abuse of the public trust : “the title of the thirds of a penny is very variable. If we could analyze gold, we would find alloys of all nature, since Pure For to White For ; he is currencies whose metal contains so little gold and such a quantity tity money, that we is very embarrassed of dice cider whether they are gold or silver. Others are in money, but preserve of traces of gilding (2). » The freedom of coinage explains these strange variations which accuse him and the con- damn : it was such abuses which caused the institution or reestablishment of sovereign law (1) Mr. Prou, Merovingian Coins, Introduction, p. lxv, (2) Ihid., p. Lxin.
130 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. of coinage, that is to say the exclusive control of Public authority over circulating cash. IV What if we want to characterize in a general way- neral the state social in which develops the practice of private coinage, we will see everything manifested itself among the peoples who had not yet completed their social training, either that this formation was the work slowly pro- progression of time, by exploiting the conditions local, such as in China or in India, either that it was, on the contrary, in some way accidental such and abrupt as that of the English colonies in America, the one of Greek colonies long along of the coast from Asia iMineurc, or that of Merovingian Franks. From big em- worst centralized countries, like Assyria and Egypt, do not did not know this individual coinage. China, at contrary, country where the action of the central power don't hardly felt in the provinces; India where, before the Muslim invasion and the arrival of Europeans, the public authorities had not been able to constitute; constitute; the regions Slavs, before the development building the power of the Grand Dukes of Moscow and the autocracy of Peter the Great : such are the country where the private coinage system flourishes naturally, spontaneously, and lasted a long time. The American colonies, in the period of their
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 131 installation and their organization, while they are far from the motherland and that the powers public are disputed or without effectiveness; the Peloponnesian Greeks before Phidon; the colonies Greeks of Asia Minor before Croesus, Gaul Merovingian, such is the other social type where action private is enough powerful to create she- even a means of exchange, convenient and practical, without the assistance of public authority. In both case, it's commercial activity which requires this means of exchange, imperfect, without doubt, but already good greater than system of testing the ingots on the trays of a ba- launches. However he had himself more serious imperfections. Everywhere he gave place at the most screaming abuses, especially from the point of view of title of species launched in traffic : the pu])lic was impudently deceived, without being, the more often, able to recognize or do punish fraud. Additionally, stamped coins by merchants, goldsmiths or bankers, could not necessarily be received, with their character fiduciary, that in a geographical area phique enough restricted : the one in which the The characters signing the documents were known. The guarantee of their name counted for nothing in countries where they were ignored; this is how- lies he fact that, on the parts dice this like, as well in China and in America, cjue at the Greeks of Asia Minor and at the French Franks Rovingians, we encounter, alongside the names or
132 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. emblems of coiners, the names or em- problems of cities in which these traders were trading and where they were honorable- known. Outside of this sphere, no one can will have confidence in their stamp , and their coins were not circulating or they were, as foreign currencies in modern societies nes, admitted only as ingots raw of which he had to assess the title and the weight. The development development of foreign trade was therefore a of causes which provoked the creation of a currency of which the guarantee had a scope more extent. From which it follows that private money responds to one state social less argued that the currency guaranteed by the State; it represents a phase of the lives of peoples where the functioning of all social workings are not yet well established. Without encroach on the issues dealt with in our chain chapter, we will however notice here, that this consideration alone would be enough to refute the opinion nion of certain ideological economists who pro- ask to return to coinage system free and individual. Yes, there are people who, under the epithet fallacious of progress and of freedom, dream without knowing it the resurrection of a state of things that are only suitable for a lower type of society. These deep thinkers, — too deep, — offer us a step back towards meridian times Vingians. And to show how much it is dangerous receptive, in terms of social economy, to engage
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 133 thus to abstract designs and do neglect the method rigoui'eiise of Tol^servation histori- that, I will only mention one name . because it is cekii of a illustrious school head : llerl)ert Spencer maintains, in its Social Slalics, that the coinage must be individual, and abandoned to free con- occurrence of trade. “Likewise,” he said subtly- tance, that we let’s trust Tépicier for us to provide tea, and to the l)oul;uiger to provide us of bread, we could trust to the house Heaton and sons, or memo to although other house enterprising company from Birmingham, which would provide us with sovereigns and shelliiigs at your own risk and pe- rils (1). » Thus, Herbert Spencer imagines that, just as each of us addresses our preferred ence to the supplier who sells him foodstuffs superior quality , we would go knock on the door of the coin changer who would have the reputation of being the more honest and to make the best money. Things, in fact, did not happen otherwise in the Merovingian era. We will soon grasp, by our presentation of the formation of the currency of state, for what multiple reasons for similar theoretical conceptions deserve to pain to be discussed. (1) Herbert Spencer, Social Static, abridged and revised (London, 1892, in-S"), p. 217 et seq. Cf. Mr. Stan’s rebuttal ley Jevons, the Mint, p. 53. Mr. Herbert Spencer tried to respond to Mr. Jevons' arguments in a memorandum the page 223 of his work.
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IV THE FIRST MONETARY TESTS THE CURRENCY GUARANTEED BY THE STATE. Arrivals at this point of our historical research whats, where stamped bars tend to be in- clothes of all the prerogatives of the currency among the people civilized, he is not useless to recall that, in its origins, the instrument of exchanges is essentially a equivalent, and that for this reason only, he was able to conquer con- public confidence. The individual who buys does not open it blions not. wants receive a value equal to that of the merchandise that he sells :do ut of, say the Roman jurisconsults. Later, when we will study the supplements to the currency, we will see that, in complicated societies, there exists currencies which are not. intrinsically, equivalents : they are only currencies
I3G THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. representative, extra currencies or of coins trustees. The creation and the legitimate operation of these auxiliaries are explained and are justified according to economic laws and com- commercials which will be exhibited in their place. For the moment, we don't have to worry about it, because they are only supplements or representations feeling. When, gradually, by the free develop- lopment of relationships commercial, the me- metal, raw, 2^wis under the shape of instruments and utensils various, is substituted as standard of the value of all things, to cattle, to wheat, fish, Mongolian tea breads, with cakes salt of Abyssinians, furs Muscovites, he was considered an equivalent slow. If ingots without stamp were ver- trusted in the touchstone and the scales , was- this not that the one who the received had place of fear that they were of equivalents insufficient health? When bankers or of goldsmiths ju- manage about stamp them with their weapons or to their names, wasn't it still for guarantee equivalence? And if public authority, finally, arrogates, in interest of all, the right to stamp the lingols alone, it's because she claims to be better than individuals, in particular sure to guarantee the weight and the aloi, that is to say the equivalence of ingots, intermediaries of all commercial operation. • Thus, in the historical origins of the invention
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 137 monetary tion, that metal either opened, the state raw or stamped, whether or not it is over any image, whether it has a more or less less regular, round, globular or flattened, he has a value equal to that of the object against which he is exchanged. Against the standards of others measurements, such as the meter, the liter, the gram, which are abstract measures, the standard of their is, intrinsically, a value itself : livestock, the wheat, furs, lower metals laughs have commercial value; he is from even from gold and money that have always been highly sought after, even among prehistoric populations toric or wild. It is therefore not the law which their gives arbitrarily a value dummy; this value, they have it for themselves; they have it always had before being coated with the stamp who makes coins out of them, and they will have it as long as humanity will live. In the chapter where we will deal with the four lities of monetary metals, we will see, in effect, that humanity cannot dispense with a mon- born by equivalence and that gold and silver are the products natural which fill the best this office. Let us only remember, from now on, this point essential, demonstrated by all we have exposed so far : metallic mojinaie, insti^u- meiit ordinary of exchanges, is only worth by the quantity of precious metal it contains. Lin- taste and money are all one; and in antiquity, until the end of the Roman Empire , we see
138 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. payments carried out with ingots that we weighs, just as good as with coins (1). Often even, ingots raw and currencies are placed together and peel-melc on the trays of the scale. The stamp or the monetary type, we don't would know too much repeat it, don't are that of convenient and practical expedients which dispense to resort to the scale or the touchstone to ensure if the metallic value of an ingot or a piece is adequate to its nominal value nale. The history of development natural and spon- tired of the standard of values therefore protests against the theory of Economists who would like to consider derate the currency only as the sig7ic re- presentation of the value of things exchanged, claiming that it's the legislator alone who de- crete the value of gold and of money. They com- make a historical error, which cannot be understood think the authority of Aristotle on which they like to lean on : “Necessity,” says Aristoto, “introduced the nay. We agreed to give and receive, in exchanges, a matter who. useful by she- even, was easily maneuverable in the uses habits of life; it was iron. for example, money or such other substance, from which we first finished the dimension it weight, and that in- end, to free oneself from the embarrassments of continual (1) Cernuschi. Anatomy of money, p. .5 and 13.
THE ORIGINS OF LA. CASH. 139 measurements, we marked with a footprint by- particular, sign of his value. But the currency is in itself only a frivolity, a futility; it only has value by law and not by na- ture since a change of convention among those who use it can completely depreciate it. ment and make it completely made unfit for satisfied- do none of our needs (1). » Inspired by this doctrine, Mr. Henry Cer- nuschi written : “ The reason why the le- legislators confer on gold and money can monetary security, this is not point that these metals contain within themselves, as it is claimed commonly, a large natural value or commercial. No; is that these are the only me- rate which, by the importance and fixity of their masses his, are suitable for serving as a pretiophore... This which we call the intrinsic value of gold and money is in reality only their legal value. If we remove the law , the so-called intrinsic value is vapore. By precious metals, you simply have to hear the metals with which prices are made. Precious is also the paper with which we done prices in paper money countries (2). » But, certainly, paper money is not precious that if it is the representative of a positive value, which could be carried out at a given time; he (1) Aristotle, Politics, I, vi. (2) H. Cernuschi, Anatomy of money, p. 30 to 32; see also E. de Laveleye, Money and bimetallism, p. 2, and Leon Poinsard, The question monetary, \>. 9 et seq.
140 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. is only one sign exchange like everything other object futile and common to which we would assign momentarily a conventional value and arbitrary; he must that he has, behind him, a d- serious of which he is only the substitute provisional. Like any fiat currency, what- whatever form it takes, he cannot have credit in the traffic commercial, than to the con- said to be considered as a simple commitment lies taken by the issuer to pay in cash or in nature, that is to say by a equivalent, to one given moment. With the currency trustee, who is not that one debt on the State, we have to fear that the State will fails to fulfill his commitments or becomes insolent valid : trust does not is not controlled by a law. A same risk is not to run with the currency golden and money : she door in she- even its own guarantee; she doesn't need any respondent; she is not that one ingot stamped. It's this what has so clearly expressed Isidore of Seville , to the end of time antiques , of which he summarizes the true doctrine when he says : In nu- mismate tria quaeruniur : metallwn, figured and 'laid; if ex iis aliquid defuerit, numisma no erit (1). If he was otherwise, how to explain the big concern of traffickers, civilized or wild, contemporary or from the most (1) Isid. Hispal., Orig., XVI, 17.
THE ORIGINS OF LA. CASH. 141 remote, to ensure the title of the ingots and weigh with a jealous care, so as not to deliver that fair and strict measure? Their value is therefore not only in the law ; she is real, and Testam- plunder, that she either public or private, that she comes from an individual or the state, don't fact that observe and affirm this value : she doesn't create it in no way. Under the influence of the ideas that we understand let's fight, M. E. de Laveleye wrote these lines : “As soon as the origin of barbarian societies, the law or the neck tum establishes tributes, fines, com- positions, benefits, and determines by means of what items we will pay for (1). » Eli well, following us. the State makes the tributes paid, the amen- of, in accordance with the usual payment methods in commercial relations : here, in cattle or in furs, there, in metals raw or stamped looted; he uses usage to his advantage, but he doesn't decrees it not. The laws that arise from the experi- nothing, — and this is indeed the case with regard to monetary invention, — sanction a state of things, regularize it, put a stop to abuse, but don't invent anything. At surplus, prominent men among the Economists have long been able to register in opposition to the thesis whose origin dates back to Aristotle. J.-B. Say, by the alone logic of reasoning, demonstrated that metal currency lique was not only, as we have defined (1) E. de Laveleye, the Mint and bimetallism, p. 4.
142 THE ORIGINS OF LA. MONNAIK. Sometimes. “ the sign representative of values ", but that she was at the same time and by she- even one merchandise precious, a value, a equivalent. “ What is a sign? he said; this is what which represents one thing ; but this is not not the thing itself. An object of no value could represent a value, be a sign, a brand that the bearer of the sign is pos- missing real value ; but the currency is not an absent value; its value is in she ; its value is independent of that of all other objects... There are signs representative currency, such as banknotes, bills of exchange, because these effects have no value that the one of coins that they give the right to receive; but as for the currency, she is not the sign : she is the thing signified. She doesn't does not represent a value, she is a value. He who sells the receives only in the belief that the value that is in it equals the value of the merchandise that it provides (1). » Michael Knight also insisted on assert the commodity character and of equivalent of the currency ; speaking of abuse to which the doc- trinity opposite has given place in the companies modern, causing the disproportionate extension fiat currency, he says : <(Once he was admitted that the currency stopped to be a equicalcnt, as well as men had known it (1) J.-B. Say, Complete course of political economy, t. I, p. 378- 379. Cf. t. I, p. 336-337 and 372-373.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 143 i^ue and instituted, to be nothing more than a sign, he had to happen that we went well beyond the song gement which had consisted to decrease the quantity metal fine contained in each piece of my- nay. We was on a slope who was to drive to substitute for gold and silver other metals less appreciated, and even other substances more devoid of intrinsic value, ultimately of simple inscriptions on paper. This is how, in indeed, that things happened : he is little country which did not have their paper money. The pa- coin is the extreme formula of this idea that money is a sign. The idea being given, the show of paper money in arises everything naturally. Under this shape news, the concept of the currency-sign, substituted to the one of the uionndiie-merchandise, attracted disasters on the nations, and particularly on France. This was notably the base of the scaffolding that Dressa Law and who, in collapsing, covered the France of ruins and shame (1). » Let us quote again the opinion of one of the most scholars contemporary English economists. “ There are people , said Stanley Jevon s , who waste their time and their fortune to try to prove at recalcitrant world that poverty can be eliminated vouched by the distribution of drawings engraved on pieces of paper. I know a man maintaining that banknotes are a pa- (1) Michel Chevalier, La Monnaie, p. 34 to 30; cf. p. 3, 21 and 23.
1Î4 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. naughty against all the evils that strike humanity nity. Others philanthropists would like to return everything the world rich in beating coin of pa- pier, either with the public debt, either with the lands of the country, either with anything (1). » It is by coining money “with anything”, that of peoples modern, driven by of imbued theorists of abstractions, were damaged in the most terrible financial disasters. We saw it clearly in France with the enormous quantity of tickets issued by the bank of law, under Louis XV, and more late, with the assignats. We could cite almost similar examples in all people, and despite this, he meets still men with a reputation for science and reflection who think <{that money does not need care to have value in itself I We con- let us conclude, on the contrary, — by relying on the observations historical that we have, more high, patiently collected, — that the currency metallic (except a limited quantity of currency extra) must be a real equivalent, and that the currency trustee cannot have a credit se- laughing and solid that if his show is limited, momentary, and if it is guaranteed to be equi- are worth real. In other words, any currency must to be at the same time the sign exchanges and an equivalent (1) Stanley Jevons, Currency, Preface, p. VI; see also Courcelle-Sencuil, Treatise on political economics, 3' edit. 1891, p. 244; Adolphe Houdard, First Principles of Economics, p. 280 and following.
THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 145 slow ; in gold and silver coinage, these two characters are united intrinsically by the very nature of metal ; in the currency represented sentimental or fiduciary, they are disjointed ; the sign only circulates from hand to hand, the equivalent is in deposit and in reserve. II If metallic money is, by its essence same and its origin, an equivalent, it results that its intrinsic value must be rigorous- equally to its nominal value. The one who the manufactures and which Témet has no right to alter it. When, by his stamp, a merchant, a banker, goldsmith attests that the ingot that he my book is worth a gold statere, a third of a gold penny if he decided to alter the title of this ingot and replace part of the gold with a base material necessary to represent commercial value of a true stater or a third of gold penny pure, he cheats on me and he throws into traffic counterfeit money. Let's transport ourselves to the Merovingian era : I am owner of ingots gold or old Roman gold coins including size and appearance correspond more to the type commonly used : instead of using them, for my payments, weight, to help of a balance, like he is me permissible to do, I find it more convenient or
CPU, THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. more advantageous have them transformed into third parties pennies, the usual currency. I run to the moné- silence the closest one or the one that seems to offer me no more guarantee. The latter melts my gold and he divides it into thirds penny; he engraves on these parts his name and address, as guarantee of the weight and title. If he altered the metal that I him have entrusted and if he delivers to me cash which, subsequently a mixture with silver, copper or tin, only have the external appearance of real third parties penny of pure gold, he abuses my trust and he brick of counterfeit money. It goes without saying that I can be his accomplice : I can ask him of saucrr ÏOT. so as to what he gives me back greater number of pieces than the behavior would be the weight of fine gold that I bring him. And it is what any customer has not missed do, so much that he could have presumed that the public would accept this counterfeited cash with the same confidence as if he it was in good faith. 11 in is likewise today. When I read the mention 20 FRANCS on a napoleon, with the name and the weapons of the state, this means that the State guarantees me that the piece really has a value of 20 francs. And this value is not conferred to the piece neither by its name nor by its type : she results of the intrinsic nature of the metal and its weight. The State has only noted this through its stamp (1). If I carry coins around, (1) One might object. the oscillations in the price of 1 gold raw in trade, in contradiction with the lixity of its value