The Origins of Money, Considered from the Economic and Historical Point of View — 1897

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 307 which we call monometallism;\iw^enï, currency extra, minted in limited quantities, does not have the power liberating and it can be refused by everything creditor above two pounds sterling; the law decided that the sovereign of gold would be worth days '20 shillings. Currently, mono- gold metalists, like England and Germany, feel good about this diet, because of the value of this metal. But, what this state of things comes to change, let the money start again the des- sus, and the depreciation of gold could be very pre- judicial to these same countries. On the other hand, if the the whole world passed, as a few pro- pose, to gold monometallism, he would be afraid- dre cjue this metal did not become too rare and do not meet cherish in proportion extraordinary : he there would no longer be enough to supply the circulation commercial tion. It should be replaced, in of enormous proportions, by bill money long degraded or of the currency trustee : hence could result in the most serious dangers. Good other disadvantages, which were complied with to do come out certain authors (1), are inherent pensions English and German, and don't fe- would only get worse if it were universally adopted. In short, in the system of monometallism gold, we suppose fixed and invarial the value of gold; in the system of bimetallism, we assume fixed (1) See especially the various writings of H. Cernuschi, and E. of Laveleye, the currency and international bimetallism. (Paris, 1891, in-So.)

308 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. and unchanging the ratio of the two monetized metals silence. In Fun and the other case, the principle is necessarily an error, since the value of the metals is variable by sound very essence. From then, any of the systems is open to criticism and in- train inevitably with self of disadvantages. Before everything, in this order ideas, the more beautiful designs must be practical and adaptable tees to conditions social of a country or of an era : whatever the proposed solution see, we must be careful not to lose sight of this principle fundamental. Like has it good said Mr. L. Point- sard : “ The monetary system of each country must be related direct with condition social and economical , he y has of nations who have advantage to practice the unique standard gold, while others must prefer the uniform standard than money, or even combine both sys- temes for have a mixed gold and silver standard gent » (1). IT — LKS KAI'l OKTS DE LOK A LAIUiKNT, EN EGYPT, ASSYRIA, ASIA MINOR AND PERSIA. The value ratio of metals precious has varied in antiquity as well than to the era modern, and the Ancients found themselves grappling (1) L. Poinsard, the Question monetary, p. 222-22 3. — See of the same author, the Monetary Crisis, in Social Science, t. XVII, p. 197 (delivery of March, 1894).

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 309 with the difficulties that besiege us. But, in same time and as now, these variations, — thanks to qualities inherent to the nature monetary metals, — have not manifested themselves only slowly and they have not had, except for certain eras of crises passengers, that one enough weak development. For the great empires of Egypt and of the .Mesopotamia, the data that we we own on this point are more unconquered. You pa- hieroglyphic pyrus which contains this equation : “ five money do three golden ", has done believe to Chabas, to Fr. Lenormant and to others sa- vants (1), that, in ancient Egypt, the report from one to the other metal was like 3 :5 or like 1 : 1 -/d. However improbable that either this proportion, she seemed explainable by the ex- extreme abundance of For and the scarcity of money in the empire of the Pharaohs (2). She handed over in memory the legendary story of Strabo con- surrounding some populations of Arabia , at which gold would have been worth only three times copper and two times the money (3) . But he is probable, next opinion of (1) Marietta, Papyrus of Boulaq, t. II, pi, III, col. 1, lisneS ; Chabas, Research on the weight and measurements of the old Egypt, p. 27 and 37; Fr. Lenormant, the currency in the anti- fairness, t. I, p. 98. (2) Lepsius, Metals, p. 17-18. (3) Strabo, XVI, p. 662 (Didot). Fr. Lenormant quote a case exceptional analog for India, recorded in the laws of Manu (Fr. Lenormant, Money in Antiquity, t. I, p. 98, footnote i).

310 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. Mr. Michel Soutzo, that, in the aforementioned text, he should not be understood as the proportional relationship between the respective values of both metals, but the relationship between the weights of certain ingots golden and money; “ this papyrus we learn only that he existed in Egypt of ingots of gold and silver cut so that three lini/ots of gold worth cint/ ingots of arf/ent (1). » We could not be fixed on the relationship of value that if we knowledge the weight of ingots thus weighed in balance. Another text epigrabic provides donations born more precise and completely made acceptable : it is the inscription of Gebel-Barkal (Napata), in the- what 5.1-20 pels in rings are represented as weighing 40 labnous (2). Mr. Bortololti de- shown that the pek, weight of gr. 75 approximately, was no not, as well as we admitted it for a long time, a special weight unit at the high Egypt, but in reality, the weight of gold is equivalent to a kite silver (3). As the kite was the tenth part of the Idhnou and that the weight of the latter! evaluated from 90 grams to 97 gr. 50, we will get the rap- (1) Michel Soutzo, Pondôraua stallions: jifimitives, p. 5 (Bucharest, 188'i, in-4''). (2) Marietta, in the Review archaeological, new series, t. XII (1865), p. 176 ; Lepsius, Metals, p. 11 ; Fr. Lenorniant, Currency in antiquity, t. I, p. 100, Mr. Soutzo, Stallions original weights, p. 5. (3) Bortololi, Il chito eijizio primilivo, t. I, p. 118 et seq. ; Hultscli, Grieffi. and romische Metrology, "p. 379, note 1.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 311 port of value of For the money by the simple following calculation : X 97.50 ,„ ,. X 90 7 : : 17^^ = 13, or - : : -—^ = 12. 1 O./o 1 O./o Thus, according to the Gebel-Barkal inscription, the report of gold to silver was, in the old Egypt, like 1 is at 12 or 13. Although we can specify further and above all it should be mother of shoot of a text single conclusion general vision applicable to fifteen or twenty centuries of duration, However, it is rational to assume that the value ratio of the two noble metals hardly happened deviated from this proportion and that it had to will limit itself to oscillating around of her, since we will still find it in force in Egypt under the domination of the Lagides. In Asia Semitic , the proportion was a little more high. The documents Assyrians of ninth to seventh century allow state blir that, during this period, the report of gold to the money was like l : 13 i/a- The money had therefore less than value than in Egypt, what is quite natural since it was more common there. Any- times , like the gap is relatively weak, we must in induce that commercial relations between Egypt and Asia have a trend to operate a sort of leveling in the report of value of metals valuable for both country. This are the Chaldeans or the Assyrians who

312 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. appear to have, the first, as practical merchants ticks and a\dses, imagined prune the unit golden and the unit of money so that the first value read a number exact second. This com- bination, based on the report of value of metals, facilitates their use as a vehicle exchanges and simplifies calculations in transactions daily operations. It's to obey the same concern, that, for example, in the system French, we made 5 franc coins in silver, in such a way that the 20 franc napoleon worth exactly four of these parts. At the Chal- deo-Assyrians , the proportion the most general- ment admitted being 1 : 13 '/y, we see that the unit weight for gold was the stater of 8 gr. 40 , and the weight unit for money, the stater of 11 gr. 20 : the ingot gold of 8 gr. 40 had the same value that 10 ingots money of 11 gr. 20, and could be exchanged against them. Let's try on this base to take advantage of the weight silver and gold plates found by Victor Place, in the foundations of the palace of Sargon to Khorsabad, and preserved today at the museum of the Louvre. The plate gold weighs 167 grams, that is to say almost exactly 8 staters of 8 gr. 40 ; the plate of silver weighs 438 gr. 62, that is to say almost the weight of 40 staters money (1). If we admit that the plate golden (1) Vasquez Quoipo, Essay on metric systems, t. I, p. 292; Fr. Hultscb, Griechische undromische Métrologie,]». ^ùk.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 313 worth 5 times more than the silver plate, we find- vera that the value ratio of the two metals was like 1 at approximately 13.10. A certain number of con- trats Assyrians of interest private, in which the relationship 13 '/s is clearly specified. On a twenty documents of this kind, published by George Smith (1) , and in which different sums expressed in money must, upon maturity of the contract, to be paid in gold, there are eleven who designate a gold mine as being the equivalent of ten 7nin('s of silver. The mine of the pontoon system special deral for gold weighed about 505 grams (stater of 8 gr. VO) ; the special mine for ar- gent, which is in question here , was 672 grams (stater of 11 gr. 20). In the given equation, 6,720 grams of silver equals 505 grams of gold, from which results almost exactly the ratio 13 '/s between the two metals. On a other of these cuneiform tablets, 2 gold mines are equivalent to 10 mines money; but it is clear that it is, in this case, of the double mine silver (672x2) of 1.314 grams, often used in trade and of which he us has reached several samples in the form of bronze lions (2). Here again, the (1) G. Sniitli, in the Zeitsclirift fiir xegyptische Sprachc , 1872, p. 111 and following. ; Fr. Hultsch, Griech. and rom. Metrology, p. 102, note. Compare J. Opiiert and J. Menant, Legal Documents sayings of Assyria and Chaldea, p. 2i(j. (2) See the general table of Assyrian weights preserved in 18

314 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. ratio 13 '/s is respected between the two rate. But we must add that other texts appear to move away quite significantly from this relationship, without us being able to untangle its tif. A contract tells us that 5 gold mines equal 1 talent of silver; gold 5 gold mines weigh (505x5) 2,525 grams ; the talent of silver to which bears this account, could hardly be that the ta- slow of 30,300 grams; this results in the report 1 to 12, between the two metals, as in Egypt. Finally, a last document says : « 10 gold mines rr: 1 silver talent ", which would imply the use of a weight system for the gold which would be alone half of the previous one. We don't know not fully enough sound the local uses of such region, such city, or such market, different eras of the history of Chaldea and of Assyria, to be able to clarify the differences ficities of detail that the study of systems presents to us weight of these countries. Whatever either, the report of value 1 to 13 7', for gold and silver, in Nineveh and in Babylon, seems well established, and we will see it shine on all of anterior Asia : it will be adopted by the Ly- say and by the Persians, in the constitution of their monetary systems. We saw above (1) that the Lydians, witness- the museums Michel Soutzo, Primitive weight standards and flax- monetary tastes, p. 6 (Bucharest, 1884, in-4'*). (l) See above, p. 21G and following.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 315 swimming formal by Herodotus and of monuments, were the first to strike simultaneously pure gold coins and pure silver, cut as follows before a fixed and regular scale. By creating his bimetallic system, all of which are made of gold and in silver are of the same type, Croesus proceeded like we the made in the year XI (J803) to establish foundation of French bimetallism. He took as a basis of its reform the ratio of value of metals to the market, that is to say considered in the state of linen- gots, for the sole purpose of giving its currency a relationship legal in accordance with the commercial and real relationship, and of facilitate the adoption of new species in daily transactions. According to all plausibility, this report com- mercial was 1 to 13 7., as in semi-Asia tick (1). In effect, the first cn'scides com- take a stater golden 8 gr. 17, and a silver stater of 10 gr. 89, with divisions parallelly staggered in the two metals. Four gold staters (8.17 k ^=. 32, G8) weigh as much as three silver staters (10.89 x 3 = 32.67); so that any individual could easily ment to check the weight of the coins which were circulating hand in hand. From a weight point of view, all divisions of the series of silver were thus the ^/^ corresponding gold series divisions : the silver talent was the ^/j of the gold talent ; the mine, (1) G. Radet, the Lydia an time Mermnades, p. 232; Barclay V. Head, The coinage of Lydia and Peisia,]). 20;HiiItsch, Griech. and rom. Melroloyie, p. 177 and following.

316 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. the stater, the silver mite were the ^/:j of the mine, stater, gold obolus; following the same calculation, riiemi-stater of silver, which weighs 5 gr. kk, was the -^ of the golden stater. Furthermore, in report 13 '/i' ^^ talent, the mine, the statere or the gold obol were worth respect- definitely ten talents, ten mines, ten staters or obols money. This admirable coordination , responding with such simplicity to all needs, these round numbers, so easy to engrave in the metal moire and to introduce into the calculations currents of any commercial transaction, authorize us to be considered certain ratio 13 '/j (pii them product. It is, in fact, a principle which cannot be ignored. rait evade any monetary system under it's hard not to be Vialde : the species size of the two metals must be calculated from such a way that the equivalence between silver coins and gold coins can always be established in numbers whole and without supplement. The Assyrians, we wash saw, recognized this law of convenience and fa- city (Temployment; the Greek and Roman systems, also although modern systems will take it as fundamental basis. But it was not enough for Croesus, a renowned reformer bile, to bring into harmony the various parts of its monetary system between them. So that the new currency was admitted and preferred in commercial transactions of the Lydians with the Greeks, it was important that it was cut in such a way as to that its divisions were in a simple relationship

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 317 with the currencies of electrum of cities Greek- qiies (1\ But natural Felectrum that provided the rivers and the mountains of the Lydia was of great irregularity alloy. We have given that, in the period of private coinage, he is parts of electrum which do not have 5% golden out of 95% money, while others are almost pure gold. As long as the alloy varied, the report of value of currencies had to be also very mobile, random and left at the appre- amicable settlement of the contracting parties. Some staters of electrum taken out of such pharmacy, carrying the mark of a merchant or banker ho- well known, benefited, in their report port with gold and silver, of good reputation traditional, accepted on the market. It was only- ment when the public authorities of Greek cities what about the coast of Asia Minor seized the right of coinage and that it took on a ca- character public and official, that we live the currencies of electrum, in each city, take a drink their fairly uniform, that is to say that the propor- tions of their alloy became more regular : it seems that we took on the task of rectifying the nature ture, or to use in coinage only the lectrum which presented itself in conditions almost normal. But he still remains and despite quite a large inequality of alloy and it im- requires, from this point of view, to carefully distinguish (1) Hullsch, Griecli. und rôni. Metrology, p. 180 et seq. 18.

318 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. the delectrum currencies of a city determined, of those of another city. The law as well as the varying weight system workshop in workshop, Croesus had only one choice to make : put the divisions of the new currency, what do we recommend already shows its metallic purity, in harmony di- straight and perfect only with coinage of electrum from the cities which maintained with Sardis the most followed commercial relationships. Among these cities, the some, like Pliocea and Cyzicus, had their species cut according to a stallion weight that calls the Phocaï(]ue system and whose unit is a stater of 16 gr. 84; the others, like Miletus and Ephesus, had at opposite the system milesieii (pii rest on a stater of weight of ii gr. 52. However, from the moment that a side there had two systems for reelectruni, it became essential for Croesus to create also two systems ])our his coins pure gold, so that the new parts could be exchanged without fractions with a number determined by pieces of electrum, as well as Pho- cee and in Cyzicus, as well as in Ephesus and Miletus. The gold creseid system actually includes vely a double series of divisions whose base is, on the one hand, the pure gold stater 8 gr. 17, and on the other hand, a pure gold stater of 10 gr. 89. The value report fixed between gold and electrum was like 3 :4 or like 1 is at 1 Ys- So that the pure gold statere of 10 gr. 89 was the equi- worth exact of stater of electrum Milesian of

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 319 li gr, 52 (1). Pure gold lestatere of 8 gr. 17 was, for its part, the equivalent of a piece of electrum 10 gr. 89; the latter being the Y., from the stater Phocaic of 16 gr. 34, he had to consé- 3 staters of pure gold weighing 8 grams, 17 for the equivalent 2-stater electrum dormouse of 16 gr. 3i (2). As for the report of silver electrum, he was like 1 is to 10, relationship without doubt somewhat approximate and arbitrary, but which had the advantage of simplifying the calculations (3). The stater golden of 10 gr. 89 was the equivalent of 10 silver staters 10g, 89; two cre- gold minions of 8 gr. 17 equaled 15 creseids silver of 10 gr. 89, Thus, in the mo- netaire of Croesus, gold is like silver 1 : 13 '/s; gold is to electrum like 1 ; 1 '/if the elect- trum is to money like 1 : 10 (4). The Creseid Strike golden and money stopped (1) B.Head. Ilistoria numorum. p. 546. (2) Fr. Lenormant, the currency in Vanquity, t. I, p. 188 and following. (3) Hullsch, Metrology, p. 182; G. Radet, Lydia .au time (the Mermnacles, p. 231 et seq.; Ridgeway, The orirjin of met- lallic currency, p. 29i; B. Head, Catalog of lonia (British Museum), p. xxv et seq. (4) We see from what we have just explained that, for explain- quer the two series of golden creseids, one at the stater of 8 gr. 17, the other at stater of 10 '^r. 89, he there is no need to resort to the singular hypothesis, next which the pieces of a series au- would have been intended for trade with the Greeks, they parts of the other series in coincommerce with Phrygia and the countries of the interior laughing at Asia Minor. (Fr. Lenormant, in the Annuaire de la Numismatic Society, 1874, p. 195; G. Radet, Lydia an time of the Mermnades, p. 234.)

320 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. with the fall of the empire of Croesus, in the year 548 (1). Later, Darius (5-21-4.85), created the golden darique and the silver darique, the latter called more commonly century medicine. These two pieces, hit in huge quantities, were the mon- nay of the Great King during all the duration of the empire of the Acliemenides. The golden darique weighs normally 8 gr. 40; the century medical or drachma Persian, unit of the currency money, weighs 5 gr. GO (2). The daric was worth twenty shekels, of the same way, we we saw it, that the stater golden Croesus , of 8 gr. 17 , worth twenty hemi-staters silver of 5 gr. Vi-. The weights are changed, but the ratio remains the same, that is to say 1 to 13 '/^. We could object that this result is not all at fact consistent with testimony dllerodote who says that , in the empire of Darius , the report from gold to silver was like 1 to 13 (xb oï ypuîjtcv Tpisy.a-Gîy.a c7Tâ7i:v KoyiZbiJ.viz^f) (3). But he is pos- (1) E. Babolon, the Acliemenid Persians, Inlrod., p. ii. It is wrong that Fr. Lcnorinaul (in the Yearbook, for 1874, p. 198) assumed that the Creeid minting continued after Croesus, under the Per- his Cyrus and Canibyse. (2) Mominsen, Hisl. Roman coinage, t. 1, p. 14; E. Ba- beautiful, the Persians B.C. liemenides, [ntrod., p. ix. Talent for gold weighed 25,200 grams, and contained 60 mines or 3,000 dariques ; the talent for the money weighed 33,600 grams and contained (j.OOO Persian centuries or Persian drachmas. - (3) Herodotus, I, 95; cf. Vasquez Queipo, Essay on the systems mixed-use themes, t. I, p. 300, and t. II, p. 304 ; Hultsch, Griecli. und romische Metrology, p. 176 ; G. Radet, Lydia at the time of Mermnades, p. 232.

THE ORK.INES OF THE CURRENCY. 321 possible that the Greek historian was misinformed about this point, or that he just wanted to give a general indication, without aiming for precision. In support of our calculations, we will invoke the te- moignage of Xenophon, who states, of sound side, with mathematical rigor, the relationship 13 '/;,, in the story of the soothsayer's anecdote Sila- Nudes of Ambracia. Arrived on the edges of Eu- phrate without having comljattu, Cyrus the Young, said Xenophon, “ then done come the soothsayer Silanus from Ambracia and he gives him three thousand dariques, because, eleven days ago, the soothsayer him had announced, while he was sacrificing, that the king would not fight in the next ten days. However, Cyrus then replied to him : “ There will not be of all combat, if none occurs in the space of these ten days ; so if you say the truth, I promise 10 talents. » It was this gold that Cyrus wanted to count to the soothsayer, the ten days being ex- pirés (1). Following this story, 3,000 gold darics (one talent) represented the value of 10 talents money. The darique weighing 8 gr. 40 , and the shekel medicine 5 gr. GO, 3,000 dariques or 25,200 gram- my gold corresponded to 10 talents of silver, or 60,000 medic shekels, or 336,000 gram- meas. Hence it follows that the daric was worth 20 if- keys, and that the ratio of gold to silver was like 536,000 : 25,200, i.e. 13 1/3 (2). (1) Xenophon, Anabasis, VH, 18. (2) Vasquez Queipo, Metric and monetary systems of the my people, t. I, p. 298 and following. ; Th. Moinmsen, Hist. of the

322 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. Thus, the Persians, as well as the Lydians, have searched, as the brings out Fr. Lenor- mant, “ to establish a report simple and exact between gold coin and silver coin, cutting the two metals so that the stater or gold didrachm was worth 20 silver drachmas, the hemistatère or gold drachma, 10; but, specified- To achieve this, we gave a different weight relating to the gold and silver drachma, for redeem the difference between the monetary ratio (:: 1 : 10) and the effective value ratio. The da- ric or golden stater of the Persians was thus worth 20 of their silver drachmas or Median shekels; it's what says Xenophon (1), and nothing pkis, and the difference of weight between the unit golden and unity of money, in this system, insisted that the rapporteur port of value metals was :: 1 : 13 Vi au place of :: 1 : 10 (2). » Darique and the Median century have preserved the same metallic purity and weight up to the fall of the empire Achaemenid , and the value proportional proportion of the two metals still remained without change throughout Asia during the con- Rouian currency, t. I, p. 14; Brandis, Das Munz-Mass-und Gewichlswesen, p. 67; Fr. Lenormant, Coinage in the Anli- quit, t. I.p. 150; b. Ilead, tiie Coinarje of Lydia and Persia, p. 29; Th. Reiiiach, in the Numismatic Review, 1893, p. 7. (1) Xenoplion, Anal/ase, I, 7, 18; the true meaning of this passage summer established for )a first times by Mr. Vasquez Queipo, t. I, p. 300. (2) Fr. Lenormant, Currency in antiquity, t. I, p. 149- 150.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 323 Alexander's quest. This is what we infer, in fact, of the story that made Arrien of taking the strong- resse of the Sogdicns, in 3-28. For excite his sol- dates to be mounted in Tassant, Alexandre “has published by a herald that the first of all who climbed will the rock will receive a reward of twelve talents; the second, the third and all those who their will succeed, of rewards proportion- nelles, until last, who will receive three hundred daric (1) ". He spring of this graduation that three hundred equivalent darics to a talent art; in a talent of silver, 6,000 ago medicic shekels : therefore a Darique is worth 20 shekels. It's the proportion that had already given us Xeno- phone (2). Thus, the ratio 13 '/g, in possession of the market of rEast under the Assyrians, then among the Ly- say, was transmitted by the latter to the Persians (1) Arrian, Exped. Alex., IV, chap. vii; cf. Quinte-Curce, VII, 11, 12. (2) Nicholas of Damascus (C. Miiller, Fragm. hislor. graec, t. III, p. 406) said, probably according to Ctesias, that the daric equivalent milk to 20 Atlantic drachmas; but it is very probable that this equation is the result of a confusion, and that instead of 20 drach- my unique ones, we must understand 20 drachmas Persians, that is to say say 20 medic centuries, which, in fact, is correct (Fr. Le- norming, Currency in antiquity, t. I, p. 147, note 3). The the same confusion was made by Harpocration and by Suidas (F. Le- normant, op. cit., p. 150). These authors yes assimilated the darique staters of Philip and Alexander, and they transported in the past the value relationship between gold and the money that was true only after Alexander. (Th; Reinach, Rev, numism.^ 1893, p. 142.)

324 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. Achaemenids who kept it without the least- dre change. She survived, in Asia, even to the conquest of Alexander, and such immo- can only be explained by respect for tradition. tion, respect which has always been the basis of the character .terry of the Orientals and which makes them rebellious to everything change and progress. Egypt itself kept almost intact his old mistakes. We saw above that under the Pharaohs, the value relationship between two metals was like 1 to 13 or 1 to 12. Despite the upheaval of all things, caused by the Macedonian conquest and the Hellenization of the O- laugh, we note that, under the Ptolemies, the proportional value of gold to money was again like 1 : 12 '/o. In fact, we know the large and beautiful medallions gold of the Lagides and also from king of Syria Antiochus III, a moment possessor of lower Egypt, who are from the mo- dule tetradraclimes of silver and weigh 3i gr. 'i 0, that is to say double the attic tetradrachmc. These gold coins are called i/vaia-sv, because that they were worth a mina or 100 Attic drachmas of ar- gent (1). Consequently, we calculate : 100 drachmas or a mine weigh 430 gr. ; the report of value of gold to money is obtained by : 430 -——rr-= 12.50. “The coinage of Lagides (1) Lenormant, the currency, t. I, p. 7 ; E. Bahelon, the Kings of Syria, Inlrod., p. lxxx. The drachma no longer weighs, after Alexander, only 4gr. 20 approximately.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 325 from Egypt, rightly said Fr. Lenormant, the only one among the monarchies issues of the empire of A- lexandre who, for some time, struck gold in abundance, cut For on the same footing that money, admitting between both re- lation of value 1 : 12 '/.,; this is one does ab- firmly certain (1) and that we can notice from the advent of Ptolemy Soter (2) ". The sta- golden era of the Ptolemies worth 100 drachmas or a mine money : o where ypujcj;; a-atY;p [j.vàv fio-hx-z, formally known as Pollux (3), and this pro- portion corresponds to ratio 1 : 12 '/.>. The sta- terry of gold, weighing just two drachmas of silver, worth 25. Some cities on the west coast of Asia iMi- neure, who were already minting electric currencies trump of the time of Croesus continued to show nayer in this metal during the fifth and fourth centuries. The expansion of their business and the abundance of their coinage spread electrum coins throughout the Greek world, and we often find them mentioned among authors contemporary or in epigraphic texts. But the diversity of alloy in each workshop of issue requires those interested to specify if (1) Letronne^ Reward promised to the one who discovers two slaves, announcement contained in a Greek papyrus, p. 11 and 13; Momiasen, Roman coinage, t. I, p. oh ; Brandis, p. 251 61254. (2) Fr. Lenormant, the currency in the anliguile, t. I, p. 150- 151 ; see also j>. 181. (3) Pollux, IX, 57, 19

326 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. payments, of contributions, fines do- wind be released in Cyzi- electruni staters that, of Lesvos, Lampsacus, Chios or mowing other city. The same value legal is not not recognized to all indiscriminately, even to equal weight , and we never lack distinct- war the cyzicenes (cr-aTvjpîç Kuay.-/;vo(, 7pjc7Îov KuÇi/.y;vôv), staters or liecties of Lesbos or of Phocaea [iv-xi or c-y.-f,p=: om-aolIoz: , y^puGic'/ çor/.aiy.iv) which had, like aloi , a if you hate reputation table (1), or pentadrachmia of Chios (2), or ypucrc'j c-oc-f,pzç AaiJ.'I^ay.-^vc( (3), or others series on which the 'px-t'Here and the apY'jpafjLciSot had to speculate like the agio- tors these days. The most popular coins of electrum, on the fourth century, were the cyzicenes. According to modern analyses, the proportion of gold and silver people who enter the metal of these parts varies at least since GO parties golden on VO parts money up to 30 gold parts out of 70 parts silver (4). The Cyzicus staterc weighs 10 gr. 20. (1) Ilésycliius says : 'Pwxai;- to xây.KTxov -/puiriov. (2) Xenoplion, Ilellen., I, G, 12; Six, in the Awnismatic Chronicle, 18Î)0, p. 215 and following. (3) Lampsucines were generally pure gold and weighed approximately 8 gr. 45, that is to say a little more than the daric gold. (Moninisen, Hisl. of the coinage of the omaine, trans. Blacas, t. I, p. 10.) (4) Greenwell, Elecrum cornering of Cyzicus, p. 15-10; Mommsen, Ilist. of the Roman coin, Irad. Blacas, t. I, p. 5, note 5; Fr. Lenormant, Currency in aniiqiiilc, t. T, p. 192 and following.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 327 Despite the differences in the alloy, usage had prevailed, in the time of Xenoplion, to receive en bloc, in the traffic commercial, the cyzicenes of 16 gi\ 20 for a gold darique of 8 gr. iO (1). This equivalence arises from the rapprochement of various passages from VAnabasis where he is spoken of the pay that the army of Ten Thousand received. Cyrus the Younger usually gives to each soldier Greek one darique per month : it's only for calm a sedition that he carries momentarily this pay is one and a half daric (2). The same soldiers later receive from Timasion , from Dar- danus, one cyzicene per month place of a da- risk (3). Finally the Thracian king Seuthès, wanting commit to his service the remains of the army Ten A thousand, their done likewise offer a cyzicene per month (4-). There is therefore a very high probability enabled so that the golden daric and the cyzicene of electrum were considered to have little almost the same value, despite the diversity of the quality of this last piece. If cyzicene was received, at least in Mid-Asia neure, for a darique, it was also equivalent, by therefore, at 20 medic shekels. Now, Xenophon tells us that the Persian shekel was exchanged against 7 '/^ Attic obols (5), this who agrees (1) Ridgeway, Tlie orujia of mctallic currency, p. 343. (2) Xenophon, Anabose, I, 3.2t. (3) Ibid, V, 6, 23. (4) Ibid., saw, 3, 10. (5) Xenophon, Anabasc, I, 5, 7; Vasquez Queipo, Test on

328 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. with the weight of both parts, the century weighing 5 gr. 60 and Fobole attic still having little near its original weight of gr. 74. Darique golden was therefore worth 151 obols penthouses or 25 i/o drachmas, which would at the same time be the value Cyzicene in Athens (1). According to the advocacy of Demosthenes against Phormion, cyzicene had a value one little higher in the Black Sea trading posts and in particular to Panticapaea : the cyzicene was side there, he said, 28 drachmas atti([ues : c y.ja- y.r^vs^ "/;o'JvaTO kv.zl eïv.zai 7.7}. iv-lo opy.y[ixç à--v/,i^ (2). Phormion claimed have paid to the shipowner Lampis, on the Panticapée market, the sum of 120 cyzicens to pay off a debt of 2,600 drachmas. Demosthenes demonstrates the falsity of this assertion by its very absurdity : in indeed, Phormion, at the price of 28 drachmas, would have actually paid 3,360 drachmas, while he paid none owed only 2,600, by his own admission (3). An inscription from Olbia, from the beginning of the fourth century BCE, official fix- the metric systems, t. I, p. 291; E. Babclon, the Persians Achaemenids, Introd., p. x. (1) Fr. Lcnorinant, Currency in antiquity, t.. I, p. 195- 190. (2) Deniostliène, Against Phormion, chap. 23. (3) See, regarding this passage from the plea of Deinoslliene, Vasquez Queipo, Essay, t. I, p. 305 et seq., t. H, p. 320 and. next; Moinnisi'ii, Monn. Roman, t. I, p. 8; llultsch, Metrology, p. 185; Percy Gardner, in the Numismatic Cirronicle, 1887, p. 185, and Th. Reinach, in the Revue numismatique, 1893, p. 156.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 329 ment for this city the legal tender of the stater of Cyzicus; unfortunately for us, the number evaluation is mutilated and we don't can, of this text, nothing specific (1). We acquire all time, through these trials and these legislative measures, the certainty that the commercial value of currencies of electrum, with the variety of their alloy and their evil character defined equivalent real, was a source incessant of difficulties and of malen- tense. He don't could be otherwise, because all currency made of two metals leaves the one who s in serves in uncertainty on the sincerity of the alloy of which it is composed; in addition, she encourages fraud, because a counterfeiter has great ease to launch into circulation a currency whose the alloy is lower than that set by the law. It's why electrum does not have done that one appearance sporadic and exceptional in the history of currency among the Ancients. Comhattu on the market ched by the creseide of pure gold, the daric of pure gold (1) Diltenberger, Sijlloge inscript, thanks, p. 492, n» 354; The- tyschew, Register orx septenlrionalis Euxini, I, no. 11; Th. Rei- Jiach, in the Revue numismatique, 1893, p. 157-159. Here is the passage of this registration with the restitutions offered by Mr. Diltenberger : to Se -/puaiov TtwXsïv xal wv£Î(j9[ai to]v (jiev oiaT^oa TÔv KyÇixYivciv [évoExâjTO or [&a)Ô£xâ]TO r,\L<,ax7.xr,ço xal (jir,T£ to?iwTepo[v (/.ïijte Ti[xiwT£pov. According to this restitution, the cjzi- supper would have been exchanged legally against 11 1/2 or 12 1/2 (?) silver staters from Olbia. Like the stater silver from Olbia weighs approximately 12 gr. 50, the value relationship between both metals would have been in Olbia like 1 : 9 approximately.

330 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. and the staters of Philip of Macedon, the cyzi- electrum supper ends up disappearing altogether in front of the enormous and universal diffusion of beautiful Alexander staters. mr. IN GREECE “EUROPE Before the reform of Phidon, For was much rarer in Greece from Europe that in the Asian countries that we have just visited. There must also be more cber. Indeed, it seems certain that at the time of the creation of the mon- born from Ef^iue to the type of the turtle, the report of gold to silver was like 1 is at 15 (1). Guided by the search for convenience and on the practical side tick that inspired Croesus, Phidon took care also to establish its monetary system in such a way that ten coins were the equivalent of a gold stater or of an ingot the weight of a stater. It is likely, moreover, that this equivalence of value existed already, in done, in the commercial traffic before Phidon, and that the Argive reformer fit than apply it to the size of its new currency. Anyway, suppose that the relationship of gold to Aeginetic silver coinage be like 1 is to 15, we end up with the following combination- boasts : The Asian gold stater, coined or not, from 8 gr. VO, which is of Chaldeo-Assyrian origin and (1) Ridgway, Tlic orifjin ofmelallic cunenoj, [>. 307. i

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 331 that the East knew of all antiquity, worth in Aegina, in our hypothesis, 15 times its weight of fine silver, or 126 grams. The weight of the stater of phidonian silver being 12 gr. 60, we see that the golden stater of Sgr. iO was equivalent to 10 staters of money: this account, in round figures, brings us to believe that the relationship from 1 to 15 is hicn the one which existed in Greece at the time of Phidon. This rate high gold does not surprise us in a country where silver and iron had until then been the intermediary ordinary exchanges and where gold was imported from abroad. Soon, from the seventh century, the extension of movement colonial of the Greeks and their relationships commercial operations more and more more active with the Asian regions, brought to the Occupied cidentals of the Aegean Sea, gold and electrum great abundance. If the cities of this country, like Aegina, Athens, Chalcis, Eretria and others important traffic centers, did not hit any gold or electrum currency, it is no less certain that these two metals entered as foreign currency, accepted by all, in the cir- current culture of these cities; that they had legal tender for many centuries, and that they powered large commercial operations as much if not more than money; all the witness- gnages bear witness to this : historians, the speakers, the poets, the registrations, the finds. The golden creseids, golden darics, lampsacenes, the cyzicenes, the Phocaean hectes were also

332 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. popular in Attica and throughout Peloponnese nesis, that the y;/i///))yj6'i^ of Macedonia, the oxen of Euboea, the owls [-fkyXi7,-.z) from Athens, the turtles (-/cXwvai) from Aegina, foals (ttwaci) of Corinth, the shields of Boétic. The constant type dariques of gold to them had given to the Greeks, who were so fond of it reux, the nickname for archers (-cçoTat, sagittarii), and we know well the cruel play on words that said Agé- silas returning from Asia against his will, recalled by the (irecs that the gold of the great King had corrupted : the king of Sparta spiritually told his friends that he had been driven out of Asia by thirty thousand archers (1). The broadcast of Asian gold in the Greece clean, the discovery of new mines, the dation, by the Milesians, of Panticapée which, from the end of the sixth century, became the Greek capital of everything the basin northern Euxine Bridge, thanks to the wealth of the gold mines that it exploits was : these are the main reasons which made lower the price of gold on the Euboea markets, from Aegina, Athens or of Cprinthe. Xenophon, we have seen, in remarks before the end of the fifth century (2). Also, the ratio 1 at 15 between gold and silver gradually softens, to go down in proportion from 1 to 14 as we hole- let's go full possession of the Athens market in the time of Pheidias and Pericles. (1) Plutarch, Artaxerxè's, 20; Xenophon, Ilellen., IV, 2; cf. E. Babeloii, the Acliemenid Persians, Introd., p. SEEN. (2) Xenophon, Revenues, IV, 10; cf. above, p. 2 he.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 333 Fragments of the construction accounts or of the beautification of the Parthenon are going, in indeed, allow us to observe this slow evolution economic solution, so well justified by the events ments that we have just recall summary- ment. The oldest, which dates from Fan 438 BC. AD approximately, is the account epistals responsible for provide the materials of which Phidias was to understand pose her chryselephantine Minerva (1). The passage, unfortunately mutilated, which interests us is thus designed : “ Gold purchased : weight, 6 talents 1609 (?) drach- mes and 5 obols. — Price of this gold, 87 talents 4652 drachmas. » There are, on the number 1609, notice the com- liars, a slight uncertainty arising from the mutilation of the stone, but ex-readings tremes can only vary between 1508 and 1709, and this hesitation is not likely to alter noticeably our calculations. The weight of gold was of approximately 37,600 gold drachmas estimated at 526,652 silver drachmas, hence he results that around the year- born i38, the report of gold to money, on the Athens market, was like 1 to li. {\)Corp. register ai., IV, l, 3 (supplement of t. I), no. 298 bis, p. 146; P. Foucart, in the Bulletin correspondence gall- léni(/tie, t. XIII (1889), p. 171-173; Th. Reinacli, in the Review numismatics, 1893, p. 13. In the calculations which follow, we let us count the Attic talent at 25,800 gr., the slater or didrachm 8 gr. 60, the drachma at 4 gr. 30, the mite to gr, 72. 19.

33 i LKS ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. This ratio^ 1 to IV, is confirmed by a another fragment of accounts, dated the archonlat of Crates ('t3'i.-433 av. AD), which contains the state of precious materials resold after Phi- dias had completed his work (1). We bed in a mutilated passage : “ Gold sold : weight, [98J drachmas; price, 1,372 drachmas. » The chillVe des drachmas gold that we have restored in square brackets is incomplete on the marble, due to erosion; but, according to the elements that remain, we cannot hesitate, to the re- establish, that between a number included from 80 to than to 09. However, had aj)[)licant to this small problem epig-raphic the report 1 to 14, we see that it is necessary restore the clnifer 97. The report 13 '/ri, who had then runs throughout the Orient, cannot be suitable here, because he we would do exceed the number of 100 drachmas, result materially imposed sible [i). {{)Corp. iiiscr. atlic, l. I, p. 1.58, n" 300-301 b; Th. Rcinacli. in the Heine numismaticne, 1893.1). l-'*» Hullscb, Criech. und rvni. Metrology, p. 238. (2) A verse from the comic poet Craies (inorl around 430 BC), taken from his comedy of Lainia, and preserved by Pollux, was the subject of various interpretations from the point of view of rai)port of gold to money. Here it is : 'IIiaiextôv luzi yw^oO, (j.av8âv£t;, oxtÔ) ô6o)oî. Mommsen {Monn. rom., I, 78) pro|iose of consider V r^uJ.zv.io'i like a r;atooôXtov; but such a golden ice cream has never been struck in .Vlliénes. I"r. Lenormant (the Mint in Vanliquilé, 1, 152) believes he should be understood by this /ijj.îcxtov of gold a currency of eiectrum, Cyxicus or Pliocea, who would have been a mysltc- mi/iecton. Meineke (ed. de l'oUux, /'/•«i///<.lV, 3), to which he joins

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 335 The Peloponnesian War (131 to 40i) appears having caused an economic crisis in Greece the favor of which the value of gold fell rapidly dement , to such that the ratio oriental 1 to 13 1/3 was reached and even exceeded on the Athens market. During this long war, the Persians were led to interfere more closely even more than before in internal affairs interiors of Greece. The great King bought at a price golden and without counting the alliance of Sparta or such another city ; he lavished his darics to general Greeks; the mercenaries Greeks who for- but the majority of his armies were returning at home loaded with Achaemenid gold. Became of more and more common, the yellow metal found itself by there even depreciated, for the benefit of its con- current. A most serious political event occurred, in in addition, contribute to making money more expensive; it was the long siege of Athens, during which the com- communications from the \ille with the mines of Lau- rium se found intercepted. Source of M. Th. Reinacli (flet'HC numism., 1893, p. 142 to 145), look at the ri- jj.{£y.Tov known as a measure of capacity, a meaning which does not appear to me applicable to the verse of Crates. Note that the weight of 8 obols gold, in the daric system, was from (0.70 X 8) 5 gr. 60, that is to say the exact weight of the silver shekel. He pa- It is therefore likely that Crates simply wanted to make a comment. weight parison; he calls r|ij.îîXTov the Median century which is, in reality, a hemi-slater money, and he said that this room has the same weight as 8 gold obols, which is the truth. Therefore, this weight comparison cannot be of no help to the determination of the proportional value of the two metals.

336 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. metal white where the Athenians were used to to draw on, as and when they needed it, suddenly closed. So, to meet the necessities headquarters sites and pay the troops, it was necessary to do money of everything, and when the metallic reserve of the opisthodoma of the Parthenon, amassed by Pericles, had summer exhausted, in 408-'i.07, under the archonship of Antigen, we went so far as to melt, for convert to coins, eight of the ten statues of Golden victories which adorned the entrance to the temple of Minerva. I demonstrated in another work that this was the only circumstance in which Athens minted gold, before his alliance with Mithridates ( 1). No longer able to strike of silver owls, and reduced to obtaining an obsidional currency, the Athenians emitted, with the product of the smelting Victories and other treasures, golden staters of a mediocre style, of which we received a certain number of copies. They gave to this golden stater, not the weight of the daric {8 gr. VO), but the weight of their own drachma of silver, that is to say 8 gr. GO. The report adopted for the size of this gold currency compared to silver currency, who continued to circulate, had to be in compliance with commercial report admitted to the Athens market at that time. “We had to arrange so that not only the stater but still all the (1) E. Babelon in the Review of Greek Studies, t. II. M p. 124 to 148 and numismaUc mixtures, t. H, p. 177 to 201,

lf:s origins of money. 337 subdivisions could exchange, without none balance, against a round number of silver coins of the old system. If now Ion notices that the Attic gold statere weighs 2 drachmas and that it se subdivided into half staters, quarters, sixths and twelfths, we will quite naturally be led to admit that the value of the stater had been fixed to 2V silver drachmas, which put the coins divisional ù 12, 8, 6 and 4 drachmas each. The ratio cjui results from these equivalences is 13 to 1 (1). » So, at twenty years distance, we are far away from the ratio 1 to li and even from the ratio 1 to 13 13 who continued to reign throughout the East. The money shortage had done increase the white money; gold was not that a metal de- aforementioned. In this crisis, Athens lives, to its detriment lies, the effects of the theorem by Gresham : the silver money, that is to say good money, became rare in the traffic, while the mon- made from the debased metal, gold, became more widespread. Aristophanes points out this phenomenon of which he certainly did not fully understand the cause or the economic scope, when he says in the Gre- noodles (c. 718) : “In our republic, the bad citizens are favorites at^ good, of even though bad money circulates, while the maid is hiding. » Of texts literary works of the first half of the fourth century provide us with proof that (1) Tli. Reiiiach, &Am the Numismatic Review, 1893, p. 116.

338 THE ORIGINS OF THE M0?«NA1E. the depreciation of gold still persisted after the crisis which had caused it, the stock of yellow metal which was circulating in Greece making that increase every day more, with the expansion of the commerce and the exploitation of new mines. In the Hipparchus dialogue, attriljué to Pla- your (1), the ratio 1 to 12 between gold and the money is formally indicated as being the one which re- was born in Athens in the first quarter of the qua- third century (-2), On bed in effect the dialogue follow- before : “ SocRATK. — If someone gives a certain weight of gold for double weight of silver, does he do a good deal or a bad deal? “ HiPi'AH(jUK. — A bad deal, Socrates, because, instead of twelve times the weight of one's gold, one does not returns him only double (3). » In a plea from Lysias (4), written around 389, we find the list of goods left by Co- no, died in Cyprus shortly before; she is like this presented : “ He bequeathed to Athena and Apollo Delphi, in form of ex-voto, a sum of 5,000 staters; to his nephew who administered his (1) This dialogue is more likely the work of Simon de Mé- station. [Th. Reinach, in the numismatic lie, 1893, p. 17.) (2) Vasqucz Queipo, op. cit., t. I, p. 171, and t. II, p. 303; Fr. Lc- nonnant, Currency in antiquity, 1. 1, p. 147. (3) 'A -ni omcv/.7.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 339 goods in Cyprus, about 10,000 drachmas; to his brother, three talents; the rest, i.e. 17 talents, he has it left to his tils. The total of these amounts amounts to about 40 talents. » Several scholars have endeavored forced in vain, according to us, to take advantage of this passage to establish the proportional value gold and silver in Athens, around 389 (1). A great uncertainty reigns in the figures provided by Lysias, because of the words wç and r.tç,\, approximately, who, on two occasions, come assert that he For the speaker, this is only a rough assessment. mative (2). Secondly, we must not forget that Conon died in Cyprus where there was a part of his property. Does the speaker count by weight Attic or Cypriot weight, i.e. Persian as evidenced by the coins of the island of celtic era? As long as the speech is delivered to Athens, we must assume rather that he account according to the Athenian system, since it does not don't tell us the opposite. In this cases, the 5,000 Attic gold staters weigh (5,000 x 8 gr. 60) 43,000 grams; the total of fortune rises thus, at approximately (40 x "25,000) 1,032,000 grams. 10,000 drachmas aUics = 43,000 grams, 3 talents attics. . . . = '77,400 — 17 Attic talents ^ 438.(300 Total 559,000 — ;)) lirandis, p. 85; Fr. Leiioiinant, the currency in the anii- quile, l. i, !>. 147; Iliiltscb, .Metrology, [>. 237; Th. Reinacb, in the Numismatic Review, 18'.)3, p. 16-17. (2) ...sowy.Ev w; (Auptaç opa^IJ-â; ... toûtwv Oh XcYaÀaiov Yti-vitai Ttcpi T£TTapàxovTXxâ),avTa. (L)sias, loc. eyelash.)

340 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. By subtracting 559,000 from 1,032,000 we obtain- let's hold 173,000 grams of silver which represents the proportional value of the 5,000 gold staters, T > 473,000 ,,,,.. 1 , ., d where we have ————-= 11. But I repeat, 43,000 -^ ^ this result should be considered approximate and probably below the reality. We would not know, for reasons of the same order, take great advantage, in the question which we occupies, epigraphic texts in which we wanted to find precise clarifications that they do not include anything. He is, firstly, of an inventory of the treasurers of the Parthenon, including the date is fixed at the year 398-397, and which contains ex-voto oflerts to the goddess. One of these offerings consists of “a crown of olive gold, con- sacred by the city, in honor of the victory of the zithered : weight 85 drachmas (1)”. We know, by numerous decrees which have reached us, that crowns of this kind offered by the people Athenian were worth by weight, most often approximately 500 or 1,000 silver drachmas. But we don't don't know the price of labor for the making of these crowns. In the hypothesis where the crown of which our inscription speaks would have been worth 1,000 drachmas of net silver, its weight of gold being 85 drachmas, the value ratio between y.tÔapwSo'j, cTaOïxôv TouTouPAAiP. {Corp. register atic, II, 2, u'' 652, line 36; Th. Reinach, in the Review numismatics, 1893, p. 165.)

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 341 •X '^- 1 1000 _ „ the two metals would have summer of ^ 11, 70. This result should not be very far from the reality, because according to another inscription, the ora- Lycurgus, during the twelve years of his financial administration (338 to 3-26 BC), bought on behalf of the city, gold at the rate of 22 drachmas 5 Y,, obols the golden stater of Attic weight. As the gold stater weighed 8 gr. 60 and the silver drachma 4 gr. 30, the calculations we lead to the report 1 to \\.\h enters both metals (J). A third document is a fragment of accounts of the administration of Lycurgus which con- holds remuneration of similar gold crowns to those we talked about earlier : “Crown voted by the Athenian people in... Weight, i8 staters. “Two crowns voted to Alexander. Weight, 97 '/z staters. “Crowns voted at Tisamenes of Paeania . Weight, iOYi staters. “Crown voted at Nausicles. Weight, 100 sta- teres (-2). » By showing us that the weight of crowns ofTertes by the Athenian people was not rigor- (1) Corp. register rjrxc, n" 157; Fr. Lcnorinant, the currency in antiquity, t. I, p. 147; Hultscli, Griech. und rom. Metro- logy, p. 238-239. (2) Corp. insiv. ally, \l, 2, n-' 7-he, fragin. /g.; Th. Rciiiiach in the numismatic annuity, 1893, p. 20.

3i2 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. reusemeiït fixed at 50 and 100 staters, this fragment prohibited from ctaJ)lir the value at 500 and 1,000 drachmas money, and of conclude, by consé- quent, to the report 1 to 10, which it seems to indicate, but which would be in formal contradiction with the other contemporary Athenian testimonies, which we have listed. However, as we Heels soon to see, the 7ntio 1 to 10 does not won't be long to be the general rule for the All of Greece. At Panticapaea, on the Cimmerian Bosphorus, which was the big market for gold from the mines of the Urals, the ratio of the two metals seems to have ele like 1 to 11.70. In indeed, we hits in this city, in the middle of the fourth century, sta- gold terers of rare beauty, weighing 9 gr. 05, silver tetradrachms of 15 gr. 13 and drachmas of 3 gr. 18. With the ratio \ at 11.70, he needed exactly 7 tetradrachms or 28 drachmas of money to equal one stater golden (1). It was, according to Diodorus, in 35G, that Philip of iMacedonia, founding the city of Philippi for the ex-. exploitation of the gold mines of Pangea, inaugurated the strikes with its beautiful staters. From this mo- ment, the monetary system of Philippe understood, for main parts, a gold stater weighing two Attic drachmas, that is to say 8 gr. 62 approximately, a silver drachma of the so-called Phoenician weight, of (1] Fr. Lenoiinanl claims than at Panticapaea, because of the subscription dance of gold, the ratio was 1 to 10 approx. (Fr. Lenormant, the Currency in antiquity, t.I, p. 151-152.)

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 313 3 gr. 62, and a silver telradrachm of the same system, weighing li gr. -'t.8. What was the relationship of these parts? It is generally accepted that the mon- nayage of Philip of Macedon is based on the proportion 1 at 1272(1); but nothing is not less proven. Also have we, recently, tried to de- show that the ratio of Philippe's bimetallism is like 1 to 10 (2). This hypothesis is still less likely than the first, because of the relationship accepted on the Athens market at the contemporary era. 3It's better to search, then- before us, to get closer to the market rate of the orc paid the Athenians. If we admit, by example, that, in the coinage of Phi- lippe, gold was to silver as 1 esta 11.75, we will recognize that 28 drachmas of 3 gr were needed. 62 or 7 tetradrachms of li gr. 48 to equal at a stater of 8 gr. 62. This concordance by whole numbers and no fractions is an important argument in favor of our hypothesis. The gold mines of Thrace and Macedonia were far from exhausted and they continued to pour out their abundant wealth on Greece, when the rapid conquests of Alexan- dre. We we saw it higher, the conqueror found enormous metallic treasures in the Orient ; he put hand on the reserves in gold accumulated (1) Brandis, p. 251 ; Fr. Lciiorinating, the Currency in the anti- fairness, t. I, p. 1'18. (2) Th. Reinach, in the Numisinalic Review, 1893, p. 146 el next. ,

344 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. in the palaces of Darius, notably at Susa and Persepolis. This gold, in coined form or in ingots, took the way to Greece where he came joust with the metal of Bermion and Pangea. He resulted for For a depreciation almost sub- doe, which modified its proportional value by relation to money and the made to fall at a very high rate lower than that which she had in xVsie'. Alexander's coins are cut according to the report metallic 1 to 10. The stater golden weighs 8 gr. 60; the drachma money in is the half, that is to say approximately \gr. 30; the tetra- (h'achme is from 17 gr. 20 : it's the system at- tick as it existed in Athens itself, at the time lies where appeared Alexander. He needed 20 drach- my or 5 tetradrachms to equal to a stater gold, the kid way that, in the em- worst person, it took 20 medic shekels to cor- respond to the golden darique. We note this report 1 : 10, in Athens, from the year 30G-305, under the archonship of Corœbos, in an account finan- steel where we read : “Alexander’s Money : 80 talents of good quality; plus 18,000 gold staters. — Total: IVO talents (1). » According to these data, the 18,000 staters golden are worth 60 talents of silver (the iO — 80), that is to say 360,000 drachmas; by therefore, a stater golden worth 20 drachmas money and the report (1) Corp. Iiiscr. (illic, 11, n'^ 237; addendum, p. 508; Tli. King- nach, in the Revue numismatique. 1893, p. 22.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 345 of value of the two metals is like 1 to 10. This report 1 to 10 persisted after Alexander in Greece and Asia Minor : he se still found in force in these countries at the time of the shore of the Romans (1). We have proof numerous. The comic poet Menander (h- 292), in his Depot comedy, made a father say who complained of his son's extravagance : “Bad- happy, you have me spent a talent's worth gold that I had in reserve. » And further, do- not referring to the same amount : “This pretty boy did not eat less than ten talents of silver (2). » So, one talent of gold is the equivalent of ten talents money. An Alexandrian lexicographer, Polemarchus, cited by Ilesychius, written by me : “The -/p'jcrou^ among Athenian authors designates a weight of gold of 2 drachmas; the gold drachma is worth 10 drachmas money, five -/purccT equivalent to a mine (3). » In the seventh of ?«///ze.s of Hérondas discovers greens he few years ago and which date from time of Ptolemy Evergetes (2i7-222 BC), the cor- Donnier Cerdon asks for a turn tower, for a pair of sandals, a mine of silver and five sta- (1) Fr. Lenorniant, Currency in antiquity, t. I, p. 148. (2) Pollux, IX, Tfi; Fr. Lenorniant, the currency in the anti- fairness,, t. I, ji. 148; Tli. Uoinacli, in the nu7nism line. , 1893, 1). 23. (3) Hésychius, V. -/putrùç ; Fr. Lenormanl . your currency in the year tiquity, 1. 1, p. 148 and p. 149, note 2.

346 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. terers (1). This is exactly the equivalence assertive by Polémarque and which is based on the proportion from value 1 to 10. By the treaty that the Romans, in 189 BC. AD, impose on the defeated Aetolians, the latter go away pledge to pay, either in Attic currency or in equivalent currency, a war contribution of 200 Attic talents (2). They will have the ability to deliver a third of the sum in parts gold, in counting a mine golden like equivalent to 10 silver mines (tûv of/.a [j.vwv àpY'jp-'cj, yj^'^^iy^ [j.v5v o'.covTs;) (3). It's still the ratio 1 to 10, finally, that Dion Cas- sius points out among the Greeks, saying that the piece gold was exchanged in Greece for 20 drachmas (^i^) : the didrachm attica, we have it seen, weighed same weight as the gold stater, IV. E\ SICILY AND EX ITALY For long centuries, in Italy and in Sicily, (1) Th. Roinacli, in the Revue mimismalique, 1893, p. 23-24; cf. p. 141, drowns. (21 Polybius, XXII, 15.8; Momnisen, IJist. of the currency ro- maine, t. He, p. 113; Vasquez Queipo, Essay, t. II, p, 332; The- norming, the currency in ran(equity,l. I, p. 148-149 and 1G6; Th. Ileinach, in the Numismatic Review, 1893, p. 25-2G. (3) Polybius, loc. cit.; here. Livy, XXXVIII, 11 : pro argento if aurum lasts malent, darent convcnit, dum pro argenteis decem innis aiireus valeret. Vargenteus is the didrachm of ar- people, including the weight is the same as that of the gold stater. (4) Dion Cassius, cited by Zonaras, Annal., p. 540 (ed. of Bonn) ; see also Hesychius, v" ôpa/(jiyi xp'^'C'y ; Suidas, V 6f.a-/[j.r;,

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 347 the copper or bronze remained the exclusive basis of operations commercial , riniermediate obliged to exchange and of all reviews of price. We have witnessed the development and to the successive transformations of the ingots of this metal which, calibrated according to the graduations of indigenous weight systems, came to pressure that insensitively to the monetary form (1). Gold and money were only goods re- sought after for their rarity and their qualities, and driven by commerce exterior in the form ingots, jewelry or foreign currencies : we weighed them with the weights used for bronze and we evaluated by taking this last metal as a standard (2). The basis of these weighings was the pound (XÎTpa , libra^ as), who, in Uome, exceeded a little 327 gram- mes; the pound or litra was divided by twelfths and the fraction the most infinite was Vuncia (c'JYxfa, ounce), the twelfth part of the litra. The litra of ar- gent was the weight of this metal whose market value candle corresponded to that of a liter of bronze. The arrival of Greek settlers in Itahe and Sicily could not fail to modify this primitive state of things, in bringing on the market gold and money in quantity : the current price of these rate suffers the direct counter-cost of this affluence unusual. (1) See above, p. 87 et seq. (2) INlicIial Soiitzo, Inlrodxiclion to Volndedcs coins of I Ancient Vllnlie, V part., p, 27. (Paris, 1887, in-S".)

348 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. Ciimes, founded well before the eighth century, on the bay of Naples, by Euboeans who him gave the name of one of the towns on their island originally, had remained for a long time the only counter Greek in Italy. But, towards the end of the eighth century, other Euboeans, those of the city of Chalcis, set in motion to the western regions tales and came to found the sister cities of Zancle and Rhegium, tune on the rating of the Sicily, the other on the coast of Italy. Naxos, Catania, Syracuse, Leontini at the foot of Etna, Ilimera, on the coast northern the Sicily, complete with others less important factories, the area of Corinthian and Chalcidian colonies of which the big one bind se found wrapped as soon as seventh century. At the same time, Greater Greece was populated especially from Achaean colonies and Dorian. It’s- were, among others, Sybaris, founded in 720, and its happy rival, Crotone, built ten years later, both on the great gulf that would soon command the Dorian city of Ta rente, whose Parthenians of Lacedaemon threw the found- ments in 707. All these cities quickly spread dement in turn, while of Ionians, Samians and Phocaeans created trading posts rivals in their neighborhood. The Etruscans received range from two sides the commercial influx of the Greece, on the Tyrrhenian Sea, at Populonia, and on the Adriatic Sea, in Ilatria. In short, there was no a gulf, not one cove of the coasts of Sicily or

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 349 from Italy, where a ship could land, which was not the siege of a Greek colony; opulence of these cities from the beginning of the sixth century, and the extraordinary development of their business exterior are attested by the abundance of their coinage as much as by literary traditions. But this my- nayage is part Greek and part italic or siceliot : he makes us touch the proof that, everywhere, the immigrants transported with them the habits and customs of the motherland, and, in particular- lies, to restrict us tightly in ob- jet of our research, the weight system and the size of their species. This is where the multiple monetary standards res of Greece and Asia Minor were introduced duced in Sicily and Italy, where they came to rub shoulders with the systems indigenous, then to amalgamate with them. We counted in talents, staters, drachmas and obols at the same time as litro and in ounces. In the cities Greek even, by one sort of action in return, indigenous systems are in- were translated, and next to the Greek obol we showed naya la italic litra or siceliot. In the size gold and silver, in valuable marks sometimes included in the field of parts gold, money, bronze from Etruria, of the Great Greece, from Sicily, we now see the connection port to the native litra as a standard, sometimes the relation to a gift of Greek origin. From there obscurities and of difficulties almost inextricable in the study of the monetary systems of Sicily 20

350 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. and of ritalia before Roman domination (1). This diversity of weight and of measurements is not not likely to facilitate research on the value their respective monetary metals: far from it, it constitutes a obstacle almost insurmountable wheat, if one judges by the vanity of the efforts which, so far, have been tempted by the the most spirits eminent. All we can assume is that the relationships commercial, incessant, cjuoti- diennes, Greeks from Sicily and from Italy with those of Corcyra, of Corinth, from Athens, from Phocaea, of Miletus, of Cyrene, had to equalize and level the value of gold and money on the market of all the major Mediterranean ports. Some literary information, unfortunately Irop rare, confirm this induction. According to Aristotle (2), the silver stater corin- thien who weighed the same as the didrachm primitive attic, that is to say 8 gr. 70, was called, had Sicily where he circulated extensively, of the name of oc/.âXiTpcç 7TaTï;p, because that he had exact- ment the weight of 10 litrx; hence it appears that the Sicilian litra of silver weighed gr. 87. This in- saying is confirmed by the presence, in the coinage of Sicilian towns, many small parts money, that we don't must not con- melt with the obols, and who weigh normal- lies gr. 87 : these are liter. (1) Micliel Soutzo, op. cit., l™part., p. 33 et seq. (2) Arislofe,/>flr/Hî. 470 pI 510, in rolliix, IV, 174, ef IX, 18S : cf. Hultsch, op. eyelash. p. GGO.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 351 The silver liter happened to correspond to the fifth part of the Attic drachma of 4 gr. 35, while the obolus is naturally the sixth part. To distinguish one from the other these two small parts, which could have been confused in the handling daily, we had care of give them different types. It's as well as in the series Syracuse, by example, while that the litra corresponds to this description : Ï!YPA. Head of woman profd. ï^ Octopus. The contemporary obolus is the next : Head of a woman, r:. IlYPA. Wheel. In Taranto, we will cite the lili-oe who have, at right, one marine shell, while the reverse represents a sheet metal of Heracles or Taras on the dolphin; the obols of the same city, have, at contrary, for types, a head of woman, a cantharus, a bucrane. Sometimes, the liter, at least in Syracuse, door the number XII, who indicates that it is worth 12 ounces. He is hardly needed from a- add that there are, in large quantities, pieces which are multiples or divisions of the litra. Among these multiples, the most considerable are the great decadrachms of Syracuse, the chefs of work of the numismatics Greek, signed of genius artists, like Cimon and Evenetus, and which weigh 43 gr. 50. Diodorus of Sicily means these admirable name medals of 7:svTrf/.cv- TaAiTpa (50 liters) (1), which completes our de- (1) Diod. Sic, XI, 26 : “This currency, said Diodorus, was worth

352 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. show that the normal weight of the silver liter was good gr. 87 or gr. 86. The Greeks qualified generally relied on the silver litra named after there you go, you[j.;x;ç, hence the L;\tins have does mimmus, by applying, in turn, this term to their pro- pre unit monetary. The litra of gold weighed the same weight than the litra money. We rarely coined it; there are some yet of samples in Taranto where she se distinguished by its types of the obolus gold. Here are some description : Head of Heracles, i^. TAPAI!. Taras on the dau- [)hin. Gold; weight, gr. 87. The golden obol has the following types : Head of a goddess surrounded by a diadem, û. TA- PA\(tiv(.)v). Canthare. Gold; weight, gr. 75. The golden state of 8 g'r. 70 was worth 10 litrae of gold, of the same way that the silver stater or di- drachnia Corinthian of 8 gr. 70 was worth 10 liters money. How much was it necessary so of litro, of staters, of talents of silver to be equivalent, in value, to a litra, to a stater, to a talent of gold from the kid weight? Some authors admit, without proof positive, only on the fourth century BC, gold was to silver, in Etruria and Sicily, as 1 to 15 (1). This proportion is the same as that atlifjiie drachmas, and the Sicilians, because of its weight, the name- mothered pentecontalitron. •» (1) Mommsen, Hisl. of the currency Roman, t. I, p. 131; Barclay V. Head, History of the coins of Syracuse, p. 17; Fr.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 353 we recognized in the Greece clean, time of Phidon; according to she, the tetradrachm silver of Attic weight (17 gr. 1-6) was represented felt like gold by a coin 1 gr. ICp, and the di- silver drachma per small coin gr. 582 ; this result, notes Mr. Mommsen, corresponds exactly by weight real of parts that we we own. The same scholar strives to justify this theory by applying it to gold coins of Sicily and southern Italy. “The pieces of Syracuse having for type the head by Diane Sotira, Hercules or the lyre, worth 120 in silver, 100 or 32 strong lifrge, those of Agathocles, 100 li- l/'cV. The didraclimes golden of Pyrrhus, the gold drachmas of the same prince, of Hicetas, and of Bruttium, as well as the golden trioboles of Bruttium must be considered as documents worth 150 litro, half and a quarter of this value. )) For his part, Mr. Michel Soutzo would be inclined to believe that the value ratio of gold to money, Italy, was like 1 to 16, because “ it's the relationship that lends itself best for interpretation italic coins ". Another theory has was recently proposed by Mr. Th. Beinach (1), at less in this who Lenormant, Coinage from antiquity, t. I, p, 162; Hultscb, Metrology, p. 667; W. Deecke, Etrushische Forschnngen, t. II, p. 71 ; Ottfriod Muller, Die Etrusker, new edit. by W. Deecke, t. I, p. 393; Michel Soutzo, Introduction to the study of currencies of ancient Italy, V" part, p. 26. (1) Numismatic Review, 1895, p. W? and 300. 20.

354 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. concerns Sicily : she concludes relationship 1 : 12, and is based on a Syracuse gold currency from the time of Timoleon (344 av. AD), who re- pond that the following description : ZEYS EAEY0EPIO3:. Head of Zeus Eleutlie- rios, laurea, in profile to the left, r*. ^YPAKO-IQN. Pegasus galloping, right; in the field, three globules arranged in a triangle. Weight, 2 gr. 12 to 2 gr. 15. After pointing out that all examples pleasers known to this room are made of gold, and no in electrum, like we had it raw general- ment, Mr. Th. Reinach thinks that c the three glo- Bubbles arranged in a triangle are a mark of va- their which was correctly interpreted by Mr. Head like meaning tf'ois statvres of Corinth ". This room precious we would therefore give sound evaluation in relation to silver coins who were the most commonly used in the trade of Sicily. A this time, the sta- mother of Corinth, who had lost a louse of his original weight, weighed about 8 gr. 60. If the piece golden .2 gr. 15 is worth 25 grams. 80 money (3 8, GO), we will have the relationship of gold to money in Syracuse in the middle of the fourth century key, spoke simple following operation : ",^' =12. There is a certain part in this reasoning hypothesis who rest on appreciation of metal and above all on the meaning attributed to three globules. However, which gives it great

THE ORIGINS OF MONEY. 355 plausibility, it's that the ratio of 1 to 12 is the very one that existed between the two metals in Athens at the same time. The duodecimal relationship agrees enough good with the size of gold coins and money. The gold coin of Syracuse, which weighs 2 gr. 85 to 2 gr. 90, is the equivalent of two letradrachms or of four Corinthian didrachms to Pegasus (-wXci). The gold coin of 3 gr. 80 is worth eight Pegasi of ar- gent or four tetradrachms ; that of 4 gr. 60 worth G Pegasi or three tetradrachms. The stater gold of 8 gr. 70, that we hit at Syracuse under the reign of Agathocles and under the hegemony of Pyrrhus, in Taranto and in Bruttium, is equivalent to 12 Pe- gases (1). We see as well as the twelfth relationship remained after Alexander in the Occupied Basin city of the Mediterranean as in Egypt and and in Carthage, while in Greece proper and in Asia Minor the ratio 1 to 10 was adopted. It's towards the year from Rome 4-86 (268 av. AD), four years after the capture of Taranto and four years before the first Punic war, that were struck, in Rome, the first silver denarii of the Republic (2). A the same era we (1) Vasqiicz Qiieipo {op. cit., t. II, p. 327 et seq.) tried to establish that in Syracuse, under Agalliocles and his successors, the report wearing gold to silver was like 1 : 13. (2) Pliny, llist. night.. XXXill, 3, 4i; cf. lUiltscIi, Griecli. uncle rom. Metrology, p. 277 ; E. Babelon, the Coins of the Bépubl. Roman, t. I, p. wiii.

356 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. inaugurated the remission of bronze coins including the standard piece is an ace Irienlal^ that is to say pe- healthy no more: a pound, but only the third party of the Roman pound, approximately 109 grams. He read banned at the same time, in all the countries of Italy subject to Roman authority, to manufacture of the currency money : it was the course forced for products from the Capitole workshop. The types, the style and the weight of the oldest deniers of the Roman Republic betrays , at first shot eye, a Greek imitation, and he is manifest that the Romans searched, for purely mercantile purposes, to imitate the drachmas of Greater Greece, of Attic weight, who fed trade of Italy cen- trale. The denier of the Roman Republic, of which the value mark is X (10 as\^ weighs V gr. 55, and he is 1 72 do the pound, link was like this until after the disasters suffered by the Romans to Trebie and at Lake Trasimeno, when Hannibal having crossed the Apennines, marched on Rome. At that time, that is to say in 217 or 216 BC, to make face the needs of the moment by reducing tively the pay of the troops, while retaining nominally the same number, the Fla law- minia instituted the ace uncial, that is to say that the bronze coin was now carved on the foot of an ace weighing only one ounce (27 gram- mesl, and the silver denarius was henceforth 1/8'i-" of the pound and no more 1/72'^; instead of 4 gr. 55,

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 357 he no now weighs only 3 gr. 90. This weight was respected until under Nero (1^. Gold was rarer in central Italy that in Greece, in the Orient and in Sicily or even in the south of Italy, However, from the third century BC, gold, in the form of bars or parts foreign, was circulating in Rome in great enough abundance so that we could establish on freeing of slaves, nn tax of 5 0/0 who se paid in gold [aunun vicescina- riuni) (*2). 3Despite everything, the rarity of gold among Romans is attested to us by gold coins same as the Roman generals struck in the south of Italy, mainly in Capua, before the year 211, under the Flaminia law. These parts well known, weight of 1 , 2 and 3 scruples (1 gr. 13.2 gr. 26.3 gr. 39), have marks of corresponding value to 20, 40 and 60 sesterces : so they were carved on the foot of a rap port 1 : 17.13 (3). The relationship 1 to 17, noted by these calculations, is further confirmed by a passage from Pliny relating to the year 217, which attests that a scru- (1) Mommsen, Hist. of the monn. Roman, t. II, p. 22 et seq. (2) Livy, VII, 16, 7; XXXVII, 10, 11; Fr. The enormousness, the Currency in antiquity, t. I, \i. IQl. (3) Mommsen, t. II, p. 113; Lenormant, op. cit., 1. 1, p. 165; E. Babelon, Monn. of the Republic. Roman, 1. 1, p. '25. Mr. Soutzo think that the value marks of these gold coins relate not to silver sesterces, but at units of bronze, like the value marks on Etruscan gold coins and on the Roman silver denarius. (Michel Soutzo, Introduction to Vctude coins from ancient Italy, 1'" part., p. 41.)

.Î5S THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. I pule gold (1 gr. IV) worth 20 silver sesterces (19 gr. 45) : this equation also leads to the ratio port 1 to 17 approximately (1). Around 150 BCE, the discovery of gold mines of Noricum, we already know, threw on the market such a mass of this metal, that its price Suddenly left a third (2). It is, in fact, from of this time that we see will be established Rome report 1 : 11.91 between gold and silver : according to this proportion attested by Livy (3), the pound of silver was worth V. 000 sesterces or 1,000 denarii (4). At the time of the dictatorship of Sulla, a time when the first gold coins were minted in the workshop of Capitol, the ratio 1:11 was in- core the rule official on the Rome market (5); but under Julius Caesar, the amount of gold reported of the (iaule after the conquest of this province was such, that the book golden worth more what 3,000 sesterces : hence it resulted that the proportion value of the two metals fell to 1 : 8.93 : widc faclxm, says Suetonius, itl aiiro abiindai^and tarnished milibiis nummum in libras 'promercalc pcr lla- liam prov'incia^quc divcndcret (G). (1) M. Soutzo, op. eyelashes, p. 2fj. (2) Strabo, lV, 6, 12, after rolybc; cf. Ridgcway, Theorhjin ofmetallic currency, p. 338; Fr. Lenonnanl, the currency, l. 1, p. 166; see also above, i'. 21.1. (3) Tile-Live, XXXVIII, 55. (4) Momuisen, t. He, p. 111'; Fr. Leiormant, l. I, p. I6.i-166. (5) Mommsen, t. II, p. 118. (6) Suetonius, Cxsar, 54; Mommsen, t. II, ji. 112-113; Fr. The- norman, t. 1, p. 166. I

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 359 At the end of the Republic, dmarius aurrus legally weighed, according to Pliny, l/U)*^ of the pound Roman, or 8 gr. 185 (1); but the awei of Au- taste and his immediate successors do not exceed hardly 7 gr. 90. Under Nero, the weight legal was reduced to 1/45^ pound or 7 gr. 28 (2). From 11.91 the monetary report was lowered to 10.31, then under Trajan at 9.375 (3). At the same time, the silver denarius of 3 gr, 90 was reduced to 3 gr. it, or 1/96" of the pound, and the aloi was noticeably altered ; upon arriving at Septimius Severe, we notes that the silver coin is not than log, which contains more than half of its weight copper. The denarius remained until the end of the empire, except for short intervals of rehabilitation bilitation, everything to done depreciated and discredited; he became a currency trustee and additional, and we will talk about it further at this new point of view. It's gold who, in Roman coinage, to from the third century AD, takes the essential and exclusive place : he is the only mon- nay real. After have altered from more and more the law of the silver coin, to such an extent that it does not did not hold even 5 ^ of fine metal, the Roman State had recourse to a bold bankruptcy : he refused to admit this currency depreciated in (1) Pliny, Hisl. nat., XXXIII, 3, 47; Mornmsen, Hist. of the monn. Roman^ t. III, p. 19 and siiiiv. (•>) Pliny, Hisl. iial., XXXIII, 3, 47. (3) Moninisen, t. III, p. 42 et seq.

360 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. the public coffers, and a decree, which is reported in the time of Elagabalus, ordered that all im- pots were paid in gold (1). It's little by little close as if, today, the French government refused to admit his crates all our currency money, under pretext that its value real value is no longer related to its nominal value nale. For this reason, we did not stop counting in denarii and in sesterces, as we continue to count in francs, and as in England we always counts in pounds and shillings of silver : but this was stating a purely nominal value. nale, and the word denier meant less the piece of silver of this name, that 1/2,° of aircus (2). Gold, on the contrary, always remained in a pu- reté metallic absolute; what we modified, this which was altered arbitrarily, it was not the title of Yaiirens, but its weight, which became extremely variable ; the weights that we can verify proud today we dive in surprises him- ment by their irregularity and they would be enough to lack of literary testimonies, to demonstrate sure that any payment that is a little large re- ice using the scale. Under Caracalla, the official weight of Yaurcus was reduced to G gr. 55 or to \/:,u^ of the book, but the weights and assets are sometimes below, sometimes above above the legality. We therefore added to the (1) Mommsen, op. cit., t. III, p. 142. (2) Ibid., p. 43.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 361 demonetization virtual For : “The currency golden stopped to be considered as currency ; the parts were not more watched than as fragments of stamped ingots to the effigy imperial and could not be accepted in the trade with the balance in hand (1). » Constantine the Great wanted to remedy this problem order; in 312, he published an edict fixing the size of Vaureus at 7:2^ of the pound or i gr. 55, and this weight remained the normal weight of the main gold coin pale until the fall of the Byzantine Empire i2). But, in spite of these administrative measures, irregularity in the size of the currency golden per- sista until the end; the aurei were hardly more than fragments of rounded ingots, stamped with the imperial effigy which guaranteed its aloi, but no more the weight : no one was obliged to accept them for their nominal value, and we were almost there returned to the primitive system where the ingots which circulate culled in the trade were marked with a stamp or punch. “We know positive- only under the reign of Constantine, all gold payments were done by weight, and other share, which we accepted in payment and by weight gold bars regularly checked. The govern- had manufactured and deposited in the principal pale cities, particular standards, to facilitate controlling the weight of gold coins [exagia sol/'di), (1) Monimsen, op. cit., t. III, p. 61 et seq.; Fr. Lenormant, t. I, p. 185. (2);Mommsen, op. cit., t. III, p. Gi-65. 21

362 LKS ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. and special employees had to carry out this control over the demand of individuals i. » On reflection, this is nothing that matters much amaze us; big business today again, easily accommodates payment in ingots, and, in all the bancpie houses or the crates of the State, we put the currency into rou- the water that we weigh at each operation. This fashion is more expeditious than that which consists of listing mother the parts. The small transactions alone [)0 could find themselves inconvenienced by the obligation to resort to the scale. Metallic alteration silver denarius made that there had more pro- portion fixed between the value of gold coins and money : there was therefore hardly any disadvantage- deny not conforming to the official weight for the strike of Yain^cus. When, under Dioctetian and Constantine, we started again to emit of coins money of a fairly pure metal, the m/io of the two metals was fixed as 1 : 13.88 (2), probably in conformity with the proportion then accepted on the market ; the denier was '/;/ of the pound of silver and weighed normally ï gr. 55; we gave him the name of miliarense because it was worth a thousandth of the guest book; the golden penny (sol/dus tiurfus) or the ^j-^ part of the pound of gold was the equivalent of 13 '^ .. miUarensia (3). (1) Mommsen, t. III. i”. 157. (2) Ibid.. p. 154. (3) IbicL, p. 81-82.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 3G3 The political upheavals of the last century the empire threw again the trouble in the value proportional metals nobles; under Julian the Apostate, she was like 1 to the i.7:;(l)- Exceptionally, we find it fixed as 1 to 18 in one written by Theodosius the Younger, the year i2-2 here . The code of Justinian returns to the ratio 1 : li,iO which seems to have been the ordinary rule nary in the Byzantine Empire. (1) Animien Marcellin. XX, 4, 18. (2) Code Theodos. VIII, 4, 27; cf. Mommsen, t. III. p. 155; Fr. Lenormanl, t. I, p. 107; Fr. Hultscli.G/i'ec//. and rom. Metro- logy, p. 173.

1

VIII AUXILIARY CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY I. THE BRONZE MOXXAIE, REAL EQUIVALENT Let's transport ourselves again nne times, by the thought, at the time primitive where metal raw, then utensils of all kinds were used regulators and trade intermediaries (1) : it is quite obvious, as we have demonstrated, that ingots and objects manufactured, copper or bronze (*2), iron, lead or any other base metal, constituted equivalents, to the same title that those gold, of electrum or money. The individual who se freed from a debt with of ingots or copper instruments, delivered the equivalent to this that he had received, and his creditor (1) See above, p. 33 and siiiiv. (2) We used indifferently and for each other the ex- copper and bronze pressures. We knows that bronze is just copper to which we have added a little tin which makes it, at the same time, more fuse and more hard as the pure copper. It is at cause of this double property that the currencies have generally been fabri- made of bronze rather than copper itself.

366 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. se found satisfied just as well as if he would have was paid in ingots of metal precious. Also, when we analyzed the uses of large oriental societies where the system of weighed ingots always prevailed (1), we noticed that copper was melted and cast into plates or cubes of a fixed weight and determined in advance, the same way as if it had been gold or silver. Finally, when the populations residents of the Aegean Sea, driven by the commercial instinct which the conveyed gradually towards the invention monetary strictly speaking, had the idea of stamping plunder the raw metal pins, they mark- rent a stamp or with a punch les saunions bronze and of lead, with as much of ground- licitude than those of rarer metals and more expensive. In pharaonic Egypt, said M, Lepsius, the molten copper was, like gold and silver, cast “in forms which, when filled exactly, closed, in numbers round, 20 ten [tabnou) each = 1,818 grams. He was rare that we fills the shapes exactly, for avoid the loss of liquid metal : the brick remained a little below its normal weight. It had little of importance, because bricks, who were never but exactly similar, needed to be weighed again after being cooled (2). » (1) See above, p. 49 et seq. (2) Lepsius , Metals in Egyptian inscriptions, by W. Berend, p. 48.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 367 Egyptian paintings, those of the tomb of Fiamses III at Medinet-Abou, for example, re- present copper and lead in large tiles regularly calibrated and symmetrically amon- sealed one on the others. That he is about the copper in its gangue, i.e. native and not still free of its slag, or of the pu- copper rified (1), we weigh the tob, that is to say the bricks; most often, each tob, of shape parallelepi- pedic or pyramidal, weighs on average 20 tab- us (approximately 1900 grams). But we find blocks of 2 tob, 40 tob, from 76 tob, from 80 tob (approximately 1,500 kilograms) (2). The Egyptians got some of their copper of mines that they operated in the peninsula from Sinai ; but they obtained it mainly through trade with the Island of Cyprus or with Syria; the tributes paid to Ramesses III, Thutmes III, the Syrian populations of the Tahi, the Rotennou, Asi, consist largely of copper in weighed bricks or manufactured objects (3). The Assyrian conquerors list with such complacency, the plates and utensils of bronze, fruit of their plunder in Syria and as far as Asia Minor : here, there are one hundred and four- twenty plates and five vases of copper, that Teglath-pal-Asar 1" (c. 1120 BC) (1) See above, p. 40 and 04. (2) Lepsius, op. cit., p. 47. (3) Ibid. p. 51.

368 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. is delivered by the vanquished of Commagene (1) ; there, these are “ 100 talents tin, 100 talents of iron, 300 bronze talents >>, that Assur-nazir-pal (882-857 before Jesus Christ) receives, with of gold and silver bars, of dependent on Ar- menia (2). Salmanasar III (857-822) (3), Teglath- pal-Asar II (745-726) (4) and, in general, all Ninevite conquerors who direct their weapons from next to the sources of the Tigris, Phoenicia or the Northern Syria, list iron salmon, lead and copper weighed, among the riches the most precious that conquest provides them. The Greeks of Homer consider no less that the Orientals these lower metals which, to the opposite precious or luxury metals, directly satisfy lies to so much essential needs of existence of civilized man. They are, in ho- America, the object of a great and permanent com- merce (5), and to side of their applications in- us the we saw invested in role monetary equivalent , as in all the companies freed from the simple barter regime in nature (6). By affixing private brands or official (1) Lenorniant and Babelon, Hist. anc. from the East, t. IV, p. 144. (2) Ibkl., t. IV, p. 174. (H; Ibid., l.IV, p. 193. (4) Ibid., t. IV, p. 224 and following. (5) E. Cuitius. Greek history, transl. Bouché-Leclercq, t. I, p. 175 and 542; J.-P. Rossignol, Metals in antiquity, passini; W. Helbig, The Homeric Epic, trans. Trawinsky, p. 14 et passim. (6 See above, p. 70 and following.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 369 on salmon copper, iron or lead, to certify the weight and dispense with contin- nual measurements, following the expression of Wristotle, it goes without saying that we did not strip these metals of character of equivalent real that we had, at contrary, for the purpose of affirming and guaranteeing. The Sparta's monetary ingot, made of iron, was an equi- are real and complete, just as the ingots bronze from Etruria and central Italy which constitute the series of ïa^s i^ude and ïœs signals- tum. We have also, for a time less remote, coins of Olbia, Carthage and Egypt under the Lagides, to whom their weight and their volume do not allow us to deny the ca- character of real equivalents and complete. If the literary tradition has retained a clear come from the T.zK-hzp of Sparta, it is not for us came no specimen, no more than brooches, boiKzi or c6sAi7/.:{ removed of the circulation by Phidon of Argos. Far from being surprised, we say- we even know that the opposite would be surprising , if we think of the rapidity with which iron oxidizes in the bowels of the earth ; in the practice of the life social and individual, the iron was, since that humanity exists, used at least as much than copper, and yet you will notice that in our museums, the monuments of copper or of bronze overabundant under the most common forms varied, while those of iron are, on the contrary, extremely rare and always in a state of conservation of the most defective. 21.

370 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. Fortunately, the disappearance of any sample primitive ingots from the Peloponnese is, in what that sort, compensated by historical information torics that we have regarding them. Each of them weighed a mine eglnetic, that is to say approximately G28 grams (1). We know that by creating his system of silver coins, Phidon gave the name of obol (èSoXoç) at small weight money whose value corresponded to that of the ingot of iron called c6ca6ç and which weighed a mine. Like the silver mite phidonian weighs 1 gr. 03, the ratio of silver to iron was therefore like 628 : 1.03, that is to say like 1 : 609 (2). This gap enormous is the palpable proof, both of the dance of iron and the extreme scarcity of silver in the Peloponnese, before the end of the seventh century which precedes our era. iBut we don't we own (1) Hultsch evaluate the Egyptian mine at 672 giainines [Metro- logy, p. 545); we adopted the weight resulting from the weighings of the oldest staters of Aegina. See above, p. 151. (2) More later, we see the Greek authors assigning to the TisXavop the weight of a mine the value of 4 /cùy.rA only, or of a half-obol money. Ilesychius said : Trs/avop, tô TeTpayà/.y.ov . Aây.wvî;. Plulaniue, to his turn : (tô dioYipùv v6|Ai(j|j,a) sctti [j.va ô),xr;.\lYivata, Suvâ[j.£t ôè y/xlv.oX i:irsaa.ç,Eç [Apop/itfi . Lacan., \). 903). But this evaluation must be considered as a late cal- ass of late-period metrologists, because it would give a tion of value of money to iron, like 1 to 1,200, what is everything to improbable fact. Besides, Photius and Suidas identi- make the TiÉ/.apop with rôêo)6ç, which is to the once conforms to the good meaning and etymology. See on this subject, Fr. Lenormant, the Mon- born in antiquity, t. I,"p. 217; Fr. Hultsch, Griechisclie und rômische Metrology, p. 191 and 535; Barclay v. Head. Catalonia of Greek corners. Attica, Megaris, ^Egina, Introduction, p. LXVI.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 371 none data on the report of money at copper at the same time. In Aegina as in Athe- nes, bronze coinage does not make its appearance that in the last quarter of the fifth century : it is an auxiliary currency and has a purely nominal and conventional. The great bronzes of Olbia, although not dating back hardly beyond the fourth century, are, at contrary, real equivalents, and we must considered as the direct continuation of the cu- funny fish-shaped pieces of which we have reproduced highest two specimens (1). Their types are the Gorgon mask and the wheel, copied on those of the oldest silver staters on the Island of Euboea, or the seagull carrying in his greenhouses the fish sterlet, subject borrowed to drachmas of Sinope, so widespread in everything the basin of the Black Sea. The heaviest of these lenticular pieces normally weigh 115 gram- my surroundings (2) ; had considering them as equi- are worth the Attic mite of gr. 72, — conjecture plausible, given the great popularity of mon- naies of Athens in the vicinity of the Black Sea, — we see that the ratio of silver to copper was in Olbia as 1 : IGO. The Yâes serious broadcast Olbiopolitan whose (1) See above, p. 83. (2) B. de Kœhne, Kolclioubeij Museum, t. I, p. 33-34. Fr. Le- normanl {the Mint, t. I, p. 158) talks about coins that would weigh 228 graniins; these coins would then be equivalent to the silver diobole, of weight attica.

372 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. course was, moreover, purely local, does not seem not to have prolonged lower than the era of A- Alexander; these big and heavy pieces were replaced by coins of Jjronze, of weight arbitrarily reduced and at conventional value, as existed all over the world Hellenic. The monetary history of Italy and of the Sicily is dominated by existence, prior to the ar- rivet of the Greek colonists in these regions, of a system theme native weight to which se attached directly the ingots of bronze filling the currency office. The Ijase of this primitive system was the pound, '/J.-py., which, with its duode- divisions cimals , presents the following table : Book, Xt'-pa, Ub7'a (as). ^/, 2 r);i.(X'.Tpov, seedling. 5/12 rsvxoYxtov, quincunx. ''read ~^"?*?î triens. 3/d d xptàç, quadrans or teruncius. 2/, , l;âç, sextans. '/12 wherey/.ta, uncia (ounce) (1). Our embarrassment begins that he is about determine the weight of the pound who, no alone- must have changed from century to century, but which was not the same in Etruria, in Rome, in Sicily and in Greater Greece. The single weight system that we know well is the Roman system. The Roman pound, which never varied, weighed a little over 327 grams- (1d Hillsch, Griech. xind romische Metrology^ {i. 660.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 373 mes; bramble was 27 gr. 25, and the scruple, of 1 gT. 13 {^i^J of the ounce). The Roman talent, of 32^, 700 grams, was divided into 60 mines of 545 grams; like he corresponded exact- lies at 100 pounds, we usually refers to it under the name centiipondium. This is the basis on which the ingots of bronze of the œs signatum were carved and launched in commercial circulation in Rome, in the Lazio and surrounding countries. The heaviest

374 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. di'cins (9 ounces), the bcs (8 ounces), \e seedlings (G ounces), the quincunx (5 ounces), the triens (1 ounces), the qua- drans (3 ounces), sextans (2 ounces), Dark and the semuncia (1/2 ounce). The indication of the value ligure still on these currencies : the great unity or Heap is marked with a vertical line; the little one unit or the ounce is marked with a g-lobule. The multiples of the ace are expressed by the repetition of the line I; the multiples of the ounce by the repetition of the globule ; there are only exceptions for sowing which is marked with its initial letter S. (1). All these currencies, provided with a recommendation dation legal, were circulating for their value in- trinsic and weighty. It was the only cash official; gold and the money were, in the form of foreign currencies, bullion or jewelry, commerce matters; it is good for us difficult to know, even approximately, for these ages retreated, what was their value, otherwise said, in what relationships they found themselves trading ment vis-à-vis lironze. Many scientists have dedicated their watch out for the study of this problem whose data essential do default. We we will simply report here the opinion of Mr. Mommsen : <( He is likely, he said, that the legal proportion existing in Sicily, between the va- theirs is silver and theirs is copper, 1 : 250, was also admitted in Lazio and in the countries where the copper coin was the currency le- (1) E. fiabelon, Coins of the Roman Republic, l. f, p. 33 et seq.

THE ORIGINS OF THE AIONNAIE. 375 scabies » (1). Following this hypothetical calculation, the ace li- Roman bral of 327 grams would have been worth between 7 or 8 Attic drachmas. In any case, the bronze currency of the system- theme lil)ral, the real equivalent, was demonetized during of the strike of the first silver coin in the Tatelier du Capitole, a few years before the beginning of the Punic Wars (2). From //- bral, the monetary system of ])ronze became trien- tal, that is to say, instead of a pound, Tas weighed now only four ounces (109 grams), and all the pieces in the series underwent a reduction proportional weight reduction. The silver coin gent was carved on the foot of ^j-,.,^ of the pound and weighed normally i gr. 55; he is marked with number X which indicates its value in relation to the ace of 109 grams, from which it follows that the proportion legally established value between money and bronze was like 1 : 2i0. Although this report is a little lower that in the preceding period, bronze continued to not known to be a real equivalent : but it was not not for long time. The development of the silver coin, so handy and, therefore, if po- popular, the affluence of white metal in Rome, (1) Momrnsen, Hist. Roman coinage, 1. 1, p. 236. Mr. Mi- chel Soulzo challenges Mr. Momrnsen's opinion, in his Intro- introduction to the study of the coins of ancient Italy, V"- part, p. 20 et seq. (2) See the citations in Uommsen, Hist. ro-currency maine, t. II, p. He; E. Baljeloii, Descr.des monn. of the republic. Roman, t. I, Inlrod., p. XIII.

376 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. quickly led to neglect and depreciation. tion of the bronze currency of which each citizen felt the inconvenience more and more keenly. This trend is manifested by the weighted alteration role of these parts which are systematically neglected how to give the legal weight, and this let- go, favored by the indifference of everyone, go without continues to get worse with each new broadcast. From weight of four ounces, the ace descends, by degradation successive tions, to the weight of three ounces, two ounces, hence the quadrantal system and the system sextantairc, and finally to weight of one ounce. This last reduction is that of the uncial ace which is worth a sixteenth of a denarius : it was decreed in the year 217 before Jesus Christ, the same year of the battle from Lake Trasimeno, by the Flaminia law, which de- cida at the same time as the silver denarius, everything while maintaining the same weight, would now be worth 16 aces instead of 10. Thus reducing the rate of all the currencies, we hoped find a way to meet the expenses necessitated by the pre- Hannibal's death at the gates of Rome (1). But this legislative measure had the immediate effect diat to remove from the bronze piece the character of effective currency and real that she had, despite everything, kept until then; its nominal value ceased to be correlated with its intrinsic value or metallic : in short, bronze coinage, in Rome , stopped to be this that we calls today a (1) Fr. Lenormant, Currency in antiquity, 1. 1, p. 169.

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 377 straight currency, to fall to the ransde currency additional, and we will soon follow the transformations mations under this new aspect. The liberal ace of the Etruscans, the Umbrians, the Sam- nites, if we judge by the coins of Ijronze who represent him, weighed the same as Fas Roman, that is to say 327 grams. We agree to say that “before the fifth seat- cle, silver seems to have been worth, among the Etruscans, 288 times its weight in copper” (1). What is certain- tain, what are the great Etruscan bronzes, when we classify them chronologically, allow to observe weight changes similar to those of the Roman aces (2). Value brands engraved in the field of the coins are not always clear days for us, and they are linked to various systems; nevertheless, he is evident that the oldest parts are the heaviest, so good that by constituting for each city of series decreasing, we is insured to achieve the chronological ordering of broadcasts. The ace three- tal, succeeding the ace li])ral, introduced into Etruria as in Rome in the middle of the third century before our era. The parallelism of the reform, here and there, is too striking not to have been generated by the same economic causes and comme- (1) Fr. Lenorrnant, ia Currency in ranii(/ui(é,t. I, p. 168; W. Deecke, Etrusk. Forschungen, t. II, p. 81; OR. Muller, Etrnsker, ed. Deecke, l. I, p. 388. (2) Michel Souizo, Introduction to the study of I-coins ancient talia, p. 43.

378 THE ORIGINS OF MONiXAIE. ciales, both on the banks of the Tiber and on those of the Arno. At the time of the Roman conquest and of the cessation of all coinage in Etruria , towards 200 BCE, the bronze coins of this country had, for a long time now, been nothing but extra currencies and valuable brands, often engraved on both sides, attribute to them, by law, a huge added value on the price marciiand of raw metal. Southern Italy and Sicily passed through similar vicissitudes, and their systems indigenous derals were established following the same original principles. There too, in the pri- mititives and until the seventh century BCE, copper or bronze presided over exchanges; of bars of this metal, cut according to fixed weights, served as a standard of value and, undoubtedly, were marked with streaks or globules which dispensed to always use the scale. He is re- notable, however, that it does not exist, nor for Magna Graecia nor for Sicily, of these large and heavy coins of Voes f/rave libral which , in the remainder of Italy, form the first series numismatics. The reason for this absence can be explained than by the arrival of Greek settlers in these countries from the seventh century, that is to say before the developments progressive of the instrument of écbanges, among the natives, had arrived at the monetary form. When establishing co- Greek lonies, the bronze was not yet exchanged than to the state of tiles or bars without types; THE

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 379 Greeks, bringing with them silver coinage perfected, suddenly stopped the development normal ment of bronze ingots, so that Sicily and Magna Graecia passed without transit. tion, from raw metal to silver coinage. Alone, File of Lipara, protected by its isolation, does not su- bit that later the influence of Greek currency that ; also does she have big parts lenticular in bronze carved on the same foot as the trien- Roman tal : the sowing or hemil'itron lipariote weighs 51 grams. By providing Western countries with the benefit of their beautiful invention, the Greeks could not support take precedence over pre-existing indigenous weight systems so much. Eager, above all, to build relationships commercial with indigenous populations, the surest way to achieve this was to adopt their way of counting and weighing, in transactions tions that they were daily brought to con- close with them. This is why the weight of bronze, although not coined, remained in these country a currency of account; we evaluated the mon- nay money by sound equivalent in weight of bronze, in the same way that, sometimes, he shows us still have to count in pounds and in ecus. The Greeks went further : thus that we have it shown already, they pushed the desire to please the natives, to the point of carving out part of their own silver coins in the system weight of these populations; and often, they placed- fall within the scope of their species of brands

380 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. of value se reporting to this weight system which they wanted not to suppress but to sit down miler. It happened, in a word, in Greater Greece and in Sicily, what we see accomplished before our eyes in the European colonies of Asia or America. Our traffickers export well, in these countries distant, the currency of the motherland, but side of her, England, the France and the other nations of Europe strike per, for the exclusive use of their co-establishments lonials, currencies cut according to the system indigenous and bearing inscriptions and marks questions of value in language and in accordance to the habits of each country. The monetary imitator, in the English Indies, is neither the shilling nor the sovereign, it is the rupee for money and money hur for gold ; likewise, if the currencies, weight and measures of France are legally in use in our colonies, we continue to make manufacture, for the natives or for our relations with them, weights and currencies according to their systems national (1); besides the indication of their value native, these pieces bear the mark of their evaluation in French currency ; the legends are bilingual. Thus, observing the monetary regime of our colonies is likely to one day throw away all new calf on the monetary regime of the Greek colonies ques in the western Mediterranean basin. (1) See many examples in E. Zay, Monetary History silence of the French colonies {Vâxl?,, 1892, in-80).

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 381 It is a mixed or composite system, in which the colonists are making efforts, by adopting common customs thanks from the natives, make them fit with their own habits. Although unknown to Greeks, the bronze litra thus becomes the basis of their coinage in Sicily and Greater Greece. We already said it : the liter of silver that weighs gr. 87, was a weight of this metal whose value corresponded to the copper Uti'a; but this last nier was not coined and we can only do hypotheses on its weight evaluation. He is likely that she does not didn't go far away of the weight of the Roman pound. 31. Hultsch estimates the Sicilian litra to half of the Attic mine of 436 grams; the litra would therefore have been only of 218 grams, which sets the ratio of silver in bronze like 1 : 250. These conclusions are also those of xMommsen, Brandis and Fr. Lenormant; but despite the authority of these scholars, we can only give them the value of a probable or plausible conjecture. c( In Sicily, written Fr. Lenormant, until the time of Dionysius the Elder, in Syracuse, the copper was circulating like money for its real value ; the report of the two metals was then:: 1 : 250 (1), the same than in all of Italy at the same time, and in- core some time later (2). » We know, by the famous Tauro tables- (1) Aristotle, in PoUux, IV, 174; IX, 37; Momnisen, Hist. of the monn. rom., t. I, p. 106. (2) Fr. Lenormant, Coinage in Antiquity, i. I, p. 160.

382 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. meniiim (1), so often commented on, that the ta- slow Sicilian copper was worth 120 litrge; if we admits between the two metals the proportion 1 : 250, the liter of silver being gr. 87, we would find that the Sicilian talent posed 26,000 grams. This there is nothing unrealistic about it. although a such talent either far from the Roman talent or crnlupon

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 383 the same value everywhere or at all times : this value undergoes reductions parallel to those currency effective in Rome and Etruria. A Syracuse had in particular, under Dionysius the Tyrant, a law attributed to the silver drachma the value of two old drachmas; the unit, of bronze, in therefore now contained two times more than before ravant (1). As for bronze coins etfec- tives, they were never, in Sicily and in the (Ireland-Greece, that extra pieces and their appearance is much later than that of the mon- silver plate (2). He is certain that the satraps of king of Persia who ruled Egypt before Alexander, hit in this land of silver coins follow- before the Persian system (3). But these pieces appear (1) Ps. Aristotle, Œconom., II, 2, '20; Pollux, IX, 79 : èHsôwxs Triv ôpa-/[xY)v ôûo 6-Jva[Aiv/;v opaytiâ;. Lice says TÉiTapa; at place of 200. (2) The ancient texts which give the eva- reading of the famous golden tripod that Gélon de Syracuse offered in ex-voto at the temple of Apollo at Delphi, the aftermath of his victory on the Carthaginians, at Himera in 480. “Gelon, said Diodorus of Sicily, consecrated in the sacred precincts of Delphi a golden tripod, of the weight of sixteen talents, in honor of Apollo. » (Diod. Sic, XI, 26.) Other authors say that this tripod weighed oh talents 100 liters. (Simonides (?), fragni. 141, in VAntJiolocjie palat., VI, 214; cf. Preger, Inscriptiones graecae metricae, no83;Th. Reinach, in the Numismatic Review, 1895, p. 491; Hultsch, From Demareteo (Dresden, 1862); the same, Griech. and rom. Mé- trology, p. 129, 433 and G65). We can only make conjectures vain efforts to bring these two weight evaluations into agreement, since we do not know the basis neither of one nor of the other. (3) E. BabeloU; the Achaemenid Persians, Introduction, p. LXIV and next.

384 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. feels like summer destinies to pay the fleet and the foreign mercenaries rather than feeding indigenous trade : they are only found on the coasts of eastern basin of the Mediterranean, and never far inland or going back the valley of Nile. By their use as well as by their types, these are not, at properly speak, of Egyptian coins, but Persian coins minted in Egypt by the representatives of the great King. It is therefore fair to say that Egypt did not have its own currency name before the establishment of the dynasty of Lagides. Until this moment, the merchants of this country preferred, out of respect for a tradition century-old tradition, using metals weight in their daily transactions. Also, when the Ptolemies had installed a monetary workshop in Alexandria, we notice that under the influence of this same tradition, we coins are minted a lot stronger and heavier than in any other Greek country or Hellenized. We have Egyptian gold coins, r- res, he is true, which weigh up to i3 grams, silver coins that reach 51 grams 00, finally, enormous bronze medallions protruding 47 millimeters in diameter, which weighs 90 to 100 grams, that is to say from 20 to 22 drachmas atti- what (1). Isn't it not the habit of manipulating (1) On the weight of all these pieces, see E. Babelon, Mî-

THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. 385 huge ingots which explains the vogue in Egypt such pieces, while everything the rest of Hellenic world commonly used mon- lighter weight and, therefore, less in- dressers? Notice that the weight of more large is exactly that of the old tabnou pharaonic : these pieces were, like the old ones calibrated ingots, real equivalents and not extra currencies. Private contracts, in demotic writing, strong name of them for this period, establish that the ar- gent was at copper like 1 : 120 : of some specify the ability, for a debtor, to se li- be in money, or in a weight of copper 120 times greater than the weight of silver (1). From there he results, as well as Mr. Eug. Révilout oversubscribed it well demonstrated, that large rooms of bronze weighing 20 to 22 drachmas were the equivalent in value to an obol of Attic weight. This is why they are often referred to, in texts, by the expression, strange at first glance, to'argeiiteus of copper, a term which well characterizes mimismatic diapers, t. II, p. 1 et seq.; a bronze coin weighs exceptionally 108 grams. (1) Eug. Révilout, in the Review archaeological, 3° series, t. III, January-June 1884, p. 67-68; the same, Letters on the mon- Egyptian naes, p. 108 and next. I don't think that he y have place of edit the conclusions of Mr. Révilout and believe, as has been proposed recently, that in Egypt the value ratio between the money and copper was like 1 : 00. See about this, Fr. Lenormant, the Mint, t. I, p. 154; Mahaffy, in YAlhe- neum of Dec 10 1892, p. 818, and Th. Reinach, in the Review numismatics, 1893, p. 26, footnote. 22

386 THE ORIGINS OF CURRENCY. their equivalent role real. Legally, the tetra- drachma silver of 17 gr. 20 was equivalent to 21. bronze argentei from 90 to 100 grams : it is what demotic contracts express by formula yaXv.iç 7:ps; àpy^piiv OR yy'kv.b- \zb')z\xz- \ but the variation in the value of copper in bars, on the market, often made, in practice, deviate from the principle enshrined in law (1). The recent discoveries made by the P, De- lattrc in the Punic necropolises of Carthage established that the great African capital had long suffered the influence of Egypt and preserved active trade relations with the latter country cials. This is why we find in Carthage large bronze coins similar to those Ptolemies; they weigh 120 to 130 grams meas. According to the hypothetical calculations of Fr. Le- normant^ the report money to bronze, to Carthage, would have been like 1 : 107 (2). The same scholar, after having recognized how much he is diffi- easy to fix the effective ratio of these two me- rate between them, for antiquity everything whole, adds in way of conclusion : “ If he fal- milk, he said, determine approximately a (1) Eug. Revillout, Letters on the coins Egyptian, l>. 112 et seq.; these questions complex and delicate come (to be taken up by Mr. B.-P. Grenfell, in his recent book on the tax laws of Egypt, according to Dernotic papyri (Grenfell, Revenue laws of Ptolemy Philadelplius, Oxford, 1896, in-4o ; see Appendix, p. 193 and following.). (2) Fr. Lenormant, item Chalcus, in the Diciionn. of Antiquities (Recque and Roman from Daremberg and Saglio, p. 109 i.