Money in Antiquity, vol. I: Origins and History of Coinage — 1878

in Constantinoph to see so many great statues men like mrs talismans

on the Latin poets in the first centuries of Borne of the means, 8i the one who offers in I one of the cave

i tin ma. 1861\. • i

PROLEGOMENA 59

the heads of the tyrant Nicocreon and the philosopher Anaxarchus (1) is truly ancient, which the scholar did not admit Hase and what one can strongly doubt, he does not counter- would not say the theory that I put forward on these portraits, well that Anaxarchus is nowhere represented as a magician. In fact, the word placed in the mouth of the philosopher sophe addressing the tyrant, who occupies the entire field of reverse, absolutely fits into the category of verba fausta, of these words that we liked to pronounce because that they were believed capable of averting misfortune, of conjure an enchantment: OTAEN EMOT 20T EITAI AKKIZOMENOT: “You will get nothing from me if you do nasty. »

6. The period of the Late Empire, in which we saw that it was necessary to bring back the contorniated medallions, was particularly marked by an enormous development of magical and talismanic superstitions, at the same time that the passion for circus races reached its highest degree of ardor. Dying paganism was turning into theurgy. Images of the gods, mythological representations were regarded as endowed with a mysterious power; they were made into talismans, which many Christians they themselves allowed themselves to be carried, despite the condemnations nations of the Fathers of the Church against these common practices pables. Magical superstition was mixed into all actions of life. In the circus struggles, each of the factions was convinced that the adversary was using spells to

(I) Sabatier, pi. XIV. a0 1

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

taii' mreurs, t'was the big accusation

411 - threw reciprocally to the fa

The contornia b nage material, the monu-

ment of beliefs - prejudices. Most of

their types were intended to bring good luck, like true- talismans, to the horses and charioteers of this or that such faction, in favor of which these

acclamations promoting victory and thwarting

the effect of curses or imprecations fun(

Cannegieter I, d'Orville 2, Cavcdoni 8 M. de B — i {'{) recognized the talismanic character of the vast majority of contorniates. Only the last ones seems to me to attribute too restricted a use to them, in admitting only that the runners are oocl had to carry them with them in ligatura* ma to attract her - but he does not

doesn't seem enough to me to explain the big name

templars that we meet with certain metals

daggers. It seems to me that at p

circus >u distribu ntornii

in honor of Tune and Autn's favorites. The

party-years of the u of the blue armed themselves with the

medal of their runner, like a talisman intended to foil the maneuvers and I leave.

There was something about fetishes that we were looking for

sing < on them the players - bettors

This ridiculous superstition is far from being

I riu.inn

I \tÙ it. MNI, t. I, p, 7 rt BU

(>i) Dtoi u high, p ,s I

PROLEGOMENA 61

dead, and it would be easy to cite today many examples, and the most bizarre. We know such a big bettor who only wants to go to the racetrack with a penny hole in his pocket; such another who believes that it is a old gaiter button which assures him good luck. The con- clusion at which we thus arrive at the destination of contorniates is also the one that Cannegieter developed lopped with the deepest erudition.

We know with what ardor the emperors themselves took sides with the blues or the greens, enlisting publicly in one of the factions of the circus and the support without its active protection. The contorniates where we see the portrait of the reigning emperor are obviously those of the faction for which he had declared himself. It is, on the contrary, the one who could not thus adorn herself with the effigy of the master in possession of power, who resorted to those emperors of yesteryear, protectors of the circus, like Augustus, Nero or Trajan. He had to look for bosses in the past to counterbalance the living boss of the opposing party.

g 7. — Theatrical tesserae.

1. The contorniated medallions were therefore not, at least less for the most part, whatever Pin said- kerton, theatrical tesserae, tickets giving entry at shows. They had a particular destination, in connection with the superstitions specific to the time when they been manufactured, as well as with the pre- fairies of that time. But, alongside these pieces, there are

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

a certain number of real theater series, performed bare means of the processes I mint it monetary.

ttt desj< copper, of an intermediate module

between those commonly referred to as e - names of

medium and small bronze, module which was not that of any

circulating currency. The most interesting, because they hold

them! . .lient of one of an em-

eur one of a character of >the family, of the other, at the middle of a crown, a large number going from l a xvi i. -: the number of the cellar where the technology laid down the law According to 1''- early< we can appear there and

according to the copper struck with

analog corners loutedans

same workshops, saw the light of day at two \m > difféi

ureas by a hiatus of several centuries, first from Au- gusl laude, then under the emperors of the 1 Julian, I, Bonorius. In the meantime, by a

reason 4111 "happe, we stopped this manufacturing, and we

gave an exclusive preference to: I of

lead, of which we n1 i speak *have

absolute numismatics

Sometimes, with\ ec!• 9 m fres on the re: all

lu f'yle allowing no idleness

more Im- than the of the chi era

vinities (fold replace BUT!<'

right li 2). Oni ins

of • Minerva, a Bacchante and the mask of

M du9e \u il-- face. On another subject of the same kind,

i Bokbel, /' A . i. wine. p ■ - . : ■ ' m, M l .

t. Mr.”

M. M I I M I 'iiv.

PROLEGOMENA 63

it is no longer a head or a bust, it is the entire figure of Silenus mounted on a donkey, which corresponds to the figure indicated cation of the place.

We encounter, in fact, a whole group of tesserae from same kind, which, always marked with numbers on the reverse, present to the law a small subject, lively and witty- traced, executed with great finesse in style of art from the best imperial era (1). Most often, as expected, the subject is borrowed from the shows themselves for which these tesserae served as entry tickets; he is a victorious coachman holding the palm, in his chai- galloping, or another, triumphant of the circus, parading in a chariot drawn by mules, or even a camel that walks hurriedly carrying on the back a turret where there are two figures. More rarely this are not theatrical performances, but entertainment private individuals who provided the subjects of the tesserae: such is the one where we see two players of die sitting opposite one of the other, with above them the name of their game, MORA, which thus takes place in the Latin lexicon, despite the silence of the authors; this is also the one where four men throw a woman into a sort of basket.

•2. It is still necessary, despite what the subject has scabrous and repugnant at the same time, to speak here, for the classify in their true place and indicate at least briefly the destination, of the tesserae to which a inveterate habit generally makes one give the name everything completely inaccurate, and one might even say ridiculous, of spin-

(1) Cohen, M 1. t. Mr. p. .'iil and following.

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

“nei. (5th name was given there, in fact, by the antiquaries] autn by virtue of an application in one step-

of Suetonius (1), which has nothing to do with monuments in question. (are made of copper, of the same dimensions

sion, of the same manufacture ' \ same< lont

we just spoke. They have the bare kids on the back meros, but drank the other side varied jets, all beyond more * -

The so-called Spintrians are purely and simpl< - niiiiî theatrical tesserae dating from the period of Haut- Empire. Their best commentary is found in; by Martial S] celebrates the magnificence

given to the people, during the reign of Domitian, by L. Axruntius Stella, i Every day in Bes pn

kdent e ; the people read spoils im-

lense that is thrown to him. Sometimes it's a cloud of medals iix images the * goes numismatist who falls but

- him; sometimes distributed ircimony

go to animal shows. We can, in all security, fill Good lap with this beneficial rain, Well-guarded wool waits, Bans losing a feather master than give it to him. We

would not be well known. The one we take care of

pons in the Martial: there is no

i

î) 1 D N9 1. wine. p, :i mbreu

• the i jiutnnr !un, (]iii is interposed

the copies the im compb P Ut due if OH

id and I.' blond. The trti; é

llMIl of

wii >nl they el

VIIIII

PROLEGOMENA 65

more exact definition to designate them. But we must note that the poet does not seem in any way to speak of a exceptional circumstance in the games he sings; everything indicates that it refers to ordinary use. His witness- gnage even shows that the use of these strange notes entrance was not exclusively reserved, as it was some supported it for the honor of beautiful antiquity, at certain festivals where we put more than at others all kept aside, for example at the Floralia. Civilization pagan saw in obscenities of this kind simple pranks; his amusements were no more moral than the Karagheuz of Constantinople. Yet, like the making of self- saying Spintrian does not seem to have gone beyond time of Domitian, we are entitled to assume that the impediments gentlemen like Nerva and Trajaïi, honest and eager to see at least a certain regulation reign in morals external rity, no longer tolerated the exhibition of images also wanton on the tesserae of public games.

Nobody believes anymore today, as we used to before Spanheim, that in the tesserae in question we have medals with which Tiberius wanted to immortalize and divulge the memory of his secret debaucheries Caprea. But it is at least curious that, following a remark due to Mr. Cohen (1), on one of the alleged Spintrians the man lying on a bed, while a woman is sitting nearby on a stool, certainly Tiberius; the local engraver clarified his features with a clarity which does not allow us to maintain any doubt on this subject. Which makes this circumstance even more worthy of re-

(1) Med. imp. introduction, p. xxm.

I.S

CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

mark, is that precisely the attitude of the tomme and of Tiberius are here those "pie Parrhasius had lent Atalanta and Meleager in an infamous painting that Tiberius had had it placed in the bedroom, after having

accepted the legacy preferentially to that enormous crime summoned money 1). Suetonius, who however is not Bévèn little indignant, reports this trait as having caused a

table scandal. The people seized, it is said, for the underline, in a word from an Atellane, an allusion to the

It8 Depraved Old Emperor 2. who were also in bod affection for this painting; he is a gift

• mnanl to find a representation dictated by a satirical feeling (8). Only the simple good e Enough to understand that it is not during his lifetime (we could 08 allow such a pleasant-

n regard. It was after his death, in the early days of Caligula's reign, which did not show much tenderness for the memory of the prince he had made • . (m allowed himself, moreover, many other libs

»the memory of Claudius, at the beginning of the reign of Nero. While < v was flowing its lpocolokyntoi9 we represent-

felt behind the head<4 of the emperor who had just died

'by means of which he had just become god, SUT

an aure < S.

I B tel n. /;-t. U.

! i -' il>lo (]uo. |v>ur nnire the more direct allosiofi,

n of the leeeère has

the.trrli.i-

I Ch. Lee ren/wi \m$t p. SS, p). XIII,

*• î

PROLEGOMENA 67

8. — Miscellaneous tokens.

1. In general, among the ancients they were simple pieces of lead which was used for all infinite uses varied to which the tokens and symbols were applied. mereaux in the Middle Ages and modern times. I I will limit myself here to referring the reader to the works of Mr. Al- bert Dumont on the lead of Greece (1), by Fico- roni (2) and K. P. Garrucci (3) on the Romans, for this which concerns this particular branch of numismatics, far too neglected and still imperfectly known. However, next to the leads, — which generally have been melted, or whose reliefs were produced by means of a pressure of the piece of metal in a mold in the shape of pliers., — we come across some antique samples of tokens of various kinds, struck in copper of the same way as currencies. Everyone we know so far, except for one, are of Roman manufacture and first century of the empire.

Most often, it is impossible to determine nere the destination in a precise way, because these tokens are anepigvaphes, and the types which decorate them do not have a meaning clear enough to suggest something other than very uncertain conjectures. This is the case of those who is generally wrong to move into the Imperial class

(1) Deplumbeis apud Graecos tesseris, Paris, 1870.

(2) I Piombi antichi, Rome, 1740.

(3) / Piombi antichi raccolti dalï Eminent. principle cardinal Altieri, Rome, 1847.

r. 5.

68 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

uncertain of small bronze, although i letters

iristic S C should not allow them to be oon- melt with the currencies [i). Would, in fact, use prudent to try to guess what Vu-jpé- could have been cial of a token which shows on one side the helmeted bust of the ase Borne and on the other the name ROMA occupying the unp; "another where we see a carpentum dragged by two mules, pendant to a crown of lUlier;

of a third where 1- »nt on the one hand a saddled mule

on the other a pickaxe; finally a fourth where . on the reverse of a modius accompanied by t; t for us enigmatic d< are very numerous in the series of jobs -. i « »ut at j»in- could we place in a group of /' i mi- lita, . sayer de pr davanl eui- where a standard appears on an I that The other is occupied by a figure of Pallas, “the Y -u of May- Gradivus carrying a trophy on his shoulder.

2. Fortunately what tones of yes vi uuspar

monetary minting | who we

• their destination! May- he> But n little

numerous, that you can so dine here all those

that we know so far.

First of all, a game token - We know one ass a good number of people in Italy, Gaul,

i in Africa, which shows that IV o was at

fashion almost everywhere in the Latin West. 11 presents

lets, the following iûf ription,

h t uhen. )l l. t. VI, |

PROLEGOMENA 69

arranged on several lines: QVI LVDIT ARRAM DET QVOD SATIS SIT: “May he who takes part in the game give sufficient deposit to respond (1). »

Next to it I place those who served merchants or industrialists to give their addresses. We have some a Latin, from the seaside LORVS, where he was represented in office, massaging one of his clients (2), and a Greek, from the imperial era, where a pharmacopolis of Ephesus, copying the monetary types of the city, inscribes its name with the in- dication of a medicine for which he was a specialty (3).

Four different copper tokens, with varying types- laughed, bear the name of the same character, who takes the title of magister juventutis, C MITREIVS L F MAG IV WIND (4). Ficoroni (5) published an analogous token, but in lead, from another magister juventutis.

Athens, probably at the time when it retained its ancient constitution under the supremacy of the Komains, we offers a copper magistrate's tessera, of modern appearance. netaire, which was to serve as an attendance token for the Thes- mothètes in their common meetings or rather in the judicial sessions which they presided over, or even be used, as Mr. Framkel thinks, in the drawing of lots which distributed them between the different courts (6). She shows on one side four owls arranged with their

(1) Eckhel, DN, t. VIII, p. 316; Cohen, MI, t. VI, pi. XX, Tesseres games, 5.

(2) Cohen, M I, t. VI, p. 542, no. 9.

(3) Eckhel, DN, t. VIII, p. 317.

(4) Eckhel, DN, t. VIII, p. 314; Cohen, Ml, t. VI, p. 53, n°* 12-15.

(5) PI. IX, No. 1.

(6) Hair. VIII, 88; see. Schoemann, Opusc. acad. t. I, p. 200 et seq.

70 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

rera a common center, and around the legend GEIM03ETON, on the other a big El. knows that the heliastic courts, | helped by the Thesmothèl

were d& m by one of the first:

the alphabet.

Some monuments of the Ion t us] :ét;

made in Fo

>ntaking part in botches, hi ies,

s banquets. We p, for example, a copper jel

on which we read the woolly cry of the Saturnalia 10 SATurna- lia 10 2 ; but the tokens i Saturnalia, indicated by their

encountered more often in lead I Another, in copper, offers views of one of - two will ride on horseback in the middle of a finished armilla. .. i g two ends by - the snake (4), while BUT the

we see an olive branch with the 1 10 10

TRiVMPAe 5). (it is obviously a triumph of the circus that he -':i_laughs here,

I 3 indications, the Beules that we could in

■ it current science, are reduced, as we see, to d little thing. The category of monuments which

speaks here is, in the entire field of numismatics,

i Blessed, Oi M m /. mm S

M lai Wém, I; . i\ / .;•. /'.

Nvm, t. 01, p. 38: • i i-v,

.' Bckhel, D.V. t. Vile!, p. 316.

nor. ft. VII. n 10, and pi. Mr. nI.

(I i.r l\|)p ist a strong steward elt-inenl » in the question

'"i corn remire dee horses, d'antaal plaa que la trafail

I • pn-inlc «him! so that we could

match ia Dan link.

■ Bckhel, />v. t. \m. \i/. L\

PROLEGOMENA 71

the one to which we have so far given the least attention attention and study. Amateurs and public offices do not have even took no care to collect the samples. He There would, however, be no doubt, discoveries interesting to make and at least useful observations to be gleaned from this neglected field of workers. Also, for for my part, I'm a little surprised that he hasn't tried yet some numismatist or some collector. And, as always happens, careful and continued research monuments of this nature would soon reveal riches that we do not even suspect, in a series whose poverty seems singular today.

CHAPTER II

GENERIC NAMES OF CURRENCY AMONG THE ANCIENTS

1. (the names are . among the I rrecs,

among the Romans, aes, pectmûi, tnoneta, numn nomisma, philippû The study of their origins and their jobs can give rise to some observations which do not no lack of interest.

\prj »pio\ derives i rgent», like

yflOouov, special designations of gold coins and copper, from y t y -/*/ /.-,_-. Mus, like the reman

I rtathe [1), “we even say when it comes to

gold coins.” Indeed, this name B'esl applied correctly hour *2 to any i of currency, whoever reads it

ball, because the main mass of traffic metallic in 1«l ts consisted of silver; it was for them 1<4 metal standard see, book 11, chap, i. g "2 . From mime, among the Romans, we continue to “read our in a

(i) h DM. p. He

(2) we already find the word a?eo this a. ••'option eba Thucydides,

V-m pb ni i j’hano.

PROLEGOMENA 73

general meaning for all kinds of coined species (1), while gold was minted; silver and copper, memory of the time when the Republic only knew the copper coinage (see book VII, chap. n, § 1 and 3). Hence the use of the word aes instead of slipendium for designate a salary, a pay, the expression aes alienum to say a debt, and the epigraphic formula /ERE CONLATO when speaking of a monument erected by subscribing tion. Aes is also the root to!aestimare. “In terms of law, says Ulpian (2), aes even applies to currencies gold. »

% Xcv^aTa indicates currency as representation of the value of things, like wealth par excellence. It is in this sense that we read in Pinclare (3): “Money, money, cries the one who is lacking at the same time his property and his friends: »

Xpr'uaxa, •/_pr'aax\ àv^p

JOq epa xTEavtov 6' aaa XeicpOstç *a\ cptXwv.

Horace (û) expressed a similar idea:

Scilicet uxorem cttm dote, fidemque et amicos,

Et genus, et formam regina pecunia donat,

And bene nummatum decorated Suadela Venusque.

(1) Terent. Phorm. III, 2, 26: Ancilla aère sin empta. — Virg. Ed. I, 36: Gravis aère domum mihi dexlra redibat. — Horat. Epist. I, 7, 23: Nec tamen ignorât quid distant aéra îupinis. — Horat. Art. poet. 345: Hic meret aéra liber.

(2) Etiam aureos nummos aes dicimus: Digest. L. 16, 159,

(3) Islhm. II, 17.

(4) Epist. I, 6, 36-38.

74 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

“We call apurai,” said A I), “all the

a whose value can be measured in money. • ( hence the word is; ■ currency

itself, which serves as a rule for this value. Pollux v2 done a remark to be recorded regarding the use of grammar tical of this word: cllesl d add it to what we said

currencies as Attica. if they want them

r, use the mut /yrj.y-x in the plural, reserving the singular /;,-“to say a thing or a good, while

[onians B'en Bervent also to say the currency ( that he reports here from the Ionian usage is confirmed by a

mple in Herodotus S).

3. Latin pecunia originally had a sense of

ae gnii. I same pecu/sum, it derives from />en/s, h cattle.

a 11 is not strange, says very exactly F< l), that

e so common derive from livestock; among the

formerly in livestock mainly which were the

wealth and heritage, in such a way that - let's say

re ptcunia and pecu/sum. »

I hez; >U£ primitive peoples, before the adoption of

Big metal, cattle served as a standard of value

things, • t oc i is particularly positive among nations

of Aryan race (5)t Evaluated them! the value of objects

lElkk. IV. I. I:v 57,

(3)III,

\u DMM 1 ijreijarc.

ijkj, i. 11. p. 17-i'

PROLEGOMENA 75

are made of oxen or cows in the Rig-Veda, the Zend-Avesta (1) and the Homeric poems (2), as in Irish laws from the beginning of the Middle Ages. The same state of affairs is revealed in the oldest tra- Roman editions. It continued even very late, because the laws Aternia-Tarpeia and Menenia-Sestia, voted in 300 and 302 of Rome (45i and 452 BC), still fixed in cattle the price of fines (3). The scale of values they accepted for this kind of payments made of an ox the equivalent of ten sheep, like the ancient laws Scandinavians established the equivalence of an ox with fifteen sheep (4). This is how the word pecunia became the general designation of the instrument of exchange, of sign of value, and applied quite naturally to the metallic currency when it became this sign. From the same way, the old Germanic name for cattle, which we offers the Gothic faihu (etymologically the same word quepecusj, enters the fader-fio expression of the law of Lombards, foedering-feoh of Anglo-Saxon laws, to say the “paternal dowry”, and is found in the English fee, “salary”, maiden~fee, “dowry”. The Gothic Skalts, Anglo- Saxon sceat, Scandinavian skattr, old German scaz, “currency, treasure”, is originally a name for cattle, which we recognize with this last meaning in Ecclesian Slavonic- siastic skotû and Irish scath. At the other end

(i) Evaluation of doctors’ salaries: VendiJad-Sadé, farg. VII and IX.

(2) lliad. Z, 230.

(3) On the Aternia-Tarpeia law: Cic. From Republ. II, 35; Dion. Ualic. X, 50. — Menenia-Sestia Law: Fest. v. peculatus.

(i) See. Mommsen, Hist. rom. t. I, p. 181.

76 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

of the domains of the Aryan race, the Sanskrit rûpya% “mon- naie d'or ou d'argent", from which the name of rupee-, derives from rûpat “cattle”.

I'm a memory of the old state of things, of employment of the livestock for which the metal had been substituted, and of the origin from the name of peamia, which was placed by the Romans (i Les [taliotes the figure of an ox on quadrilati ingots of copper weighing several pounds, which constituted the first first form of the peeunia indicated see “book VII, chap. n, \ I ). Later, the tradition of -Eût, by -'altering, gave birth of a legend; it was said that Servius Tullius had been the first to score bronze (primas tignavil aes) by representing an ox, a sheep or a • I: others even went so far as to attribute this coin h Janus (2). In reality, beef bullion has no made before the 5th century BC Christ.

En< ■ DOU8 Let's also see An analogous table come into being

of the same origin. There were, particularly in Athens, a proverb which said an ox has

passed on his langi. spoke of a man whose silence

had been purchased (3); he remained in the lang:: mie

a remnant of the time when B€ payments were made in livestock. Later, the tradition of this ancient custom being

i i' ■ il<^'. ' ■ XXXI i. ::. ] ib. <1. nm.

M’crih. m, _>. ;

(-, M s ;tiirn . I, T.

N the use of (V proverb: TheOgB* 815;

i l \memn. :r.. — < >one can join the ex| from Sopl

i" 'i Yes nu l.i Language of whom ;< p;i-v> a» ci.-f

PROLEGOMENA 77

completely obliterated, the existence of a primitive currency called pouç, after the figure of an ox with which she would have been marked. Some claimed that a such currency had been in use in Athens (1); the others did not know precisely whether it had been in Athens or Delos (2). Plutarch (3) is more affirmative; for him, It was Theseus himself who had the “ox” struck monetary. This is all just a pure fable. Theseus did not never made money, and it was only a long time ago after him that we started to make them, if however he- never even existed. As for the currency called (3o0; and deserving this name after its type, it has never had of existence neither in Athens nor in any other part of Greece. The only reality is that the proverb was born from the use livestock as an instrument of exchange, a use which continued in Attica later perhaps than everywhere elsewhere. Indeed, it was Solon, author of the first metallic currency of Athens (see book YI, chap. in, g 3), which converts the fines set into monetary values in cattle by the ancient laws of Dracon (4); he did it in pricing at one drachma and five drachmas what was previously attached to a sheep and an ox; hence re- results from the existence of an ancient proportional scale of values, where one ox was equivalent to five sheep.

In the 3rd century of the Christian era, the word pecunia saw res-

(1) Hesych. v. povç ï-\ yXwaa^.

(2) Pollux. IX, GO, Gl.

(3) Teas. 25.

(4) Pollux, IX, 61; Plutarch. Ground. 23; cf. Bœckh, Metrol. Uniertuch. p. 122.

78 DAMS CURRENCY ANTIQUITY

embrace his job & a very special meaning and became the denomination of certain types of currencies. (you don't rt pins only to designate cash of copper, as opposed to that of gold and silver* I as well as Lampride 1 “bed of Alexander Severus: Nunquam aurum, nunquam argentum, vim peeuniam donavit. In the Notice of the Empire 2) and in the I l< of Justinian (3), we see the serinia listed as imperial coffers aureae mastae (gold in ingots), serinia ami ad responsum coined gold. serinium ab argento silver in ban rinium a miliarensibus (money coined

and finally terinium a pecuniis (copper money). from the monetary reform of Diocletian (see book Vil, chap. iv. \ 3), the largest copper coin B'appela unia major or wajortna(5 .

!\. N iu. “just passed away legally”. Aris-

tote 6 develops typology: It is the same as

money has become an object of exchange: also called it- Is there no existence that is not the product of

nature, but the work of the law makes it

at the expense of us modifying or decrying it. *

The mol ia bc shows for the first » i them

[i)Sev. Alex. 33.

[i!. I'.

\, 14, 7.

(4) ■■• I I • 0 1. IX I '•, I) and con/htoro

I 1\ he . I.

v:ii!i)M'n. M R t. mr. p, 105.

(G) / ; .; \:..

PROLEGOMENA 79

tragic. The simple vop;, with the same meaning (1), appears an older form; it originally meant a regular share of metal. Instead of vopç, the Dorians, from minus those of Italy and Sicily, said voup.jjt.oc (2). It is this term which, transmitted to the Latins by the Greek cities which, with the very use of money (3), produced at them the expression nummus or numus.

Noû(jl;j!.o; had, moreover, become among the Greeks of Sicily the special designation of a specific monetary size, of the small silver coin weighing 1/10 of the stater of ar- gent of Corinth and originally equivalent to one pound or litra of copper (see book VII, chap. i, g 1). The word nummus first passed to Rome with an analogous meaning and also restricted; he pointed to the piece of silver approximately cor- respondent, the sestertius, nummus sestertius or simply nummus (see book VII, chap. ni, §2), as we continued always to be said in statements of sums (4). When he took on a more general meaning, he began to learn apply to all kinds of gold and silver coinage, but not copper. Thus, Plautus uses an indifferent nummus- ment when speaking of a Greek obol (5) or a sta- tere (6); the inscription of the column of Duilius, which, if it dates from the imperial era, was at least made on ancient documents, separately mentions Yaes and the numei

(1) Antiatt. after Bekker, Anecd. p. 109; Suid. s. v.

(2) Pollux, IX, 79, 80 and 87, who cites an example from Epicharmus in his Xutpai comedy.

(3) Varr. From Ling. lat. V, 173; Fest. s. v.

(4) Mommsen, M R, 1. 1, p. 238.

(5) Mottell. II, 1, 10.

(6) Trucul. II, 7, 11; Rud. V, 2, 40.

CURRENCY IN /ANTIQUITY

gold and silver. It was only a little later that Fac- tion of the word Expanding further, ptummui became the name the most ordinary and generic of common currency rant.

The poets of the century of Augustus borrowed from the gi nomisma, as a doublet of nummti*, puailes I the quantity:

//■ '.' tma philippos (l).

But, in 1"; the prose, nomisma ni . opted that

to designate old currencies out of currency i

for the purpose of curiosity, the medals of donations (2. We have already seen above (chap. I, i)

a jurisconsult mention the nomismal ra of gold and

(1) Horat. Epùt. he. l, -2',\. — V y, d . . a little year later, Mar- tial, l. I-*.

2 Nothing inliMU"' qnr the taste for collections among the I Ignorance of Hellenic writers Bur lea ancient mo-

monetary numenU of their peoples seems Lively

the opposite. But among the Romans there are lovers of m

material and selection of medals. S I _ onte

that, among the presents of valuable objects that Augustus distributed among friends

. he gave them a< iennes

rtim i would be enough for him BOUl for ] •

ver that the old medals were - <\ Home «K-> the

beginning of the empire, Ulpian's text recalled by more

it holds a m c irtaiae for the use of i

-, by a ii'u. tif(Plin.£f .V.WXlil.'' 132)that

Home enthusiasts were particularly looking for, as a euro-

that we ap| , delivers it. i hap. u,

:it also did. al - entiique

has history .le- data foun

the writers

;\,t l.i reality of Herodian events. D, i • i imprid. IHadume- nim. t;\ | - Ffaaa. -' •

PROLEGOMENA 81

of silver that was embedded in jewelry. Ulpian says (1): “In cases of bequests of gold or coined silver, one must comply with the express designation of the testator, by example when he said if they were philippi or nomismata that he intended to bequeath (2). »

The expression philippi here designates current currency, opposed to collection medals; it is a term which the use, with this meaning, became general after the 2nd century the Christian era (3). In a rescript by Valérien, preserved by Trébellius Pollion (4), the emperor uses the words philippei nostri vullus talking about gold coins to his effigy. For Vopiscus, the smallest silver coins are argentei philippei minululi (o) and copper coins aerei philippei (6). We must see in the adoption of this expression the influence of a literary term affected on the language; it is in comics that the writers of the cadence had been to draw the word from philippi or philippei to make it, through pretentious research, a desire gnation of currency (7). Because the comics, carrying in Latin the plays of the new comedy of Athens, by slow often from philippes. In the comedies of Menander

(1) Dig. VII, 1.28.

(2) Si aurvm vel argentum legatum est, id paterfamilias videtur testa- mento legasse quod ejus aliqua forma est expressum, veluti quae philippi sunt, itemque nomismata et similia: Dig. XXXIV, 2, 27.

(3) Mommsen, M R, t. III, p. 68, note 4. (i) Claud. 14; cf. Vopisc. Bonos. 15.

(5) Aurelian. 9 and 12.

(6) Prob. 4.

(7) This is how later Ausonius (Epist. V, 18) no longer uses element of the word philippi, but of darii, by a greater affectation again, speaking of the gold solidi of his time.

i. (i

82 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

and Philemon, these were true truths of Philemon.

lippe I Macedonia (see. book VI, chap. \ .; 1. the prin- main gold currency circulating in the Greek world in time when they were writing. But, on the theater of Romef tarnished': had already lost ii8 precise; he was no longer for

the spectators that The vague indication of one of

currency, the nature of which he understands more clearly.

While the word nomitma, passed into Latin, took on Rome the meaning of ancient medal, coin i. of course, iff(ia,engr<, ntinuail igner the currency

irante. The aurets of the imperial age and, after Constantine,

\olidi) who replaced them (see book Vil, chap. \ i, \ 1, were called in Greek XP°** vo\d

7/ î). But, in the 19th century, usage changed on this point, and the Bimple vdpjfta, taking a tight Bens Bpéoial,

became the name of tolidui {•V): this lasted until A century, where Yht/perpijron, of weight and value i inferior, replaced the totidus in Byzanoe. But behind-

second currency, belonging to the middle rotter more

as part of nOS etudo.

5, The word moneta comes from the fact that, in K -me, the first first regular coin minting workshop, at the same time time when the coinage of silver was introduced (4), established goal the Capital, in the dependencies of the temple of Juno Moneta (5), Juno o the Warner, raised on

(i) Uenandr. //m. p. 3! I. of Bonn.

(2) Theophylact. Aim. \B>nn.

(3) VOJ. P»| ' *i H ' tirchcol. new ler. t. \\\I1. p. 18I.

(4) MnmiiiMii, M H. i. II. p.

(5) You. Liv. \l

PROLEGOMENA 83

replacement of the house of Manlius, at the place from which he had heard the Gauls attack the fort ress. The Senate, following a wish (1), thus placed the manufacture of monetary species under the patronage of the goddess of good advice. A famous silver denarius of Titus Carisius (2) offers on one side the head of this goddess with the inscription of his name, MONETA, on the other the instructions ments of coinage. The workshop located in this ma- nière ad Monetam, the magistrates who supervised him and led very naturally received the name of triumvir i monetales or monetarii (see book III, chap. ni, §2), and the workshop itself was called by the abbreviation moneta. It's here again the most ordinary meaning of the word in Cicero (3). However, from the time of the great orator, we note that the word had already passed from the manufacturing workshop to its products, that with the meaning of “money” it began to be admitted and in common use at the end of the Képublique. In his Treatise on Laws, Cicero says, speaking of the old goddess Natio, who presided over birth and childbirth: “If she is truly a goddess, Hope rancid, the Currency and all things are equal to it ment (i). » Indeed, Moneta, no longer as a form of Juno, but like personified currency, becomes a allegorical character that we frequently see representing felt on the reverse of imperial coins (o); we even admit

(1) Suid. v. Movfjra.

(2) Cohen, M C, pi. X, Carisia, n° 7.

(3) Philip. VII, 1; ad Attic. VIII, 7.

(4) Ea si dea est, ergo etiam Spes et Moneta omniaque: Cic. From leg. VI, 20.

(5) See. Rasche, Lex. r. num., to this word.

i. 0.

M CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

three Monetae, which were depicted together; - ' - ~kings metals in which circulating currency was minted (see book II, chap. I, g 1, 1).

The Latin word passed under the tone. -y. in the Greek of

low weather; but we do not encounter an example before h - Byzantines. Si nne piece of Alexandria with the effigy of Com- mode (1) lets read monhta, it's like the name of the person

allegorical unification of currency, of which this legend accompanies the image. We also find the word fcttraiQ in the Talmud, where it must not have come directly from Latin, but introduced through Greek.

Modern times also offer us some examples

has names of coins, deriving from places of manufacture, and then taking on a very general meaning. The story is

completely parallel to the word moneta.

Our French mesh and Italian medagliat absolutely originally synonymous (vov. above, chap. i. \ 1. 1) and designating the obole or half-denier, both derive from, each following the laws of formation of the language to which it belongs to the low Latin word medallia* The etymo- generally accepted logic, that recorded in < Mr. Littré, connects this last word to metallum; mattes is not metallic than the smallest

silver coinage of the Middle Ages was thus designated. From ("angel (2) established that medallia, which belongs exclusively- ment to the language of the Middle Ages and is not encountered before the Carlovingian times, came from denier- and ob

silver from Melle en PoitOU, struck BOUS lefl BUCCeSSeUTI

l) Uiouet, t. vi. p. 344, no. 1407.

(2) Glostar. m/". Int. s. n,

PROLEGOMENA 85

of Charlemagne and bearing, as designation of their place of issue, the inscription METALLVM or METALLO. These parts were manufactured in huge quantities, by following the importance of the silver mines exploited at Melle for several centuries (1); they constituted the main cash circulating in the West during the first part of the Middle Ages. So much so that their legend indicates cative of locality was copied in many places where it no longer had any meaning, so that the public would always see parts the word he was used to, which turned to become in his habits a name of this currency. It's in the same way that we copied in the most common places various the TVRONVS CIVIS of the last tournaments, which, for their part, also, owe their name to their first manufacturing site, the city of Tours. The origin that we indicate for the The word medallia alone gives an exact account beyond presence of d instead of a t. Indeed, Mr. Lecointre-Dupont proved (2), by the publication of a golden triens, that at the Merovingian era Melle bore the name of Medolus or Medolum, instead of Melallum, in Latin “the mine”, allusive form, and resulting from a false explanation of the name, which can be attributed to the scholars of the time of Charlemagne. The d of Medolus has remained in tradition popular tion and reappears in the form, also popular laire, medallia, and using this form instead of metallia, to designate Melle's obole, the unfamiliar language knowledge of the people, as sometimes happens in such

(1) Rev. num. 1841, p. 230.

(2) Essay on the coins of Poitou, p. S5; cf. d'Amécourt, Directory of the Numismatic Society, t. III, p. 312.

86 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

-, was more consistent with the etymological truth than

the half-scholars' correction essay.

Bthat in the 16th century mines were put into operation silver from Joaehimsthal, in B>hem, the most gf imperial coinage struck with metal received the name of thaler, properly “currency of the val- 1 '•<> i (I). The notion of the origin of the name b' quickly obliterating The use of it became widespread throughout Germany, and thaler became the universal designation of a size - determined net, that of these strong pieces, in some way where they were struck and the metal came of this or that origin. The very name spread far and wide, by the - of commerce, with the currency he desires was born, and, by naturalizing himself in other languages, he ended up- by designating parts that have nothing in common with the German thaler only an approximation of value. It's as well as thaler, losing all tara unification

primitive etymological, became: riental, which

designates the Spanish piastre or oolonnate 2. Even, at beyond the Atlantic, it gave birth to the name of the dollar American, which is no longer a silver coin, but a size

r d

pivmi

Germany itself in jvchoilhalcr, became

(I) J. ti. WftChti r. '. ■ ;n. p. 1 1

I ^)d m'] we \ «^ut designate the old German tbalen which cirenlenl dtDI I'' Levant conceived rirnimont awr!.i I drown, we sjout the epi-

while l<

I OU 'lu Mi \iquc.

PROLEGOMENA 87

French jocondale (1), expression used in the 16th century for designate any kind of large silver coin from Germany magne, Hungary or Holland (2). The last example where it is found is the Royal Ordinance of 1o77 snr le

w

foreign currency rates; but the French Dictionary English-speaking by Randle Cotgrave (printed in London in 1660) still records it. He has been missing for a long time of use.

(1) Corruption took place here under the influence of Flemish, as those of Reichsthaler in Rixdale and Lœwenthaler in Léondale.

(2) Longpérier, Rev. num. 1874. p. 110 et seq.

CHAPTER III

ORIGIN AND SPREAD OF THE USE OF CURRENCY IN THE ANCIENT WORLD

| 1. — METAL CIRCULATION BEFORE THE INVENTION

OF CURRENCY.

1. When exchange relations are a little Buivies

began to settle between the different peoples of which the human family had covered the territories of the world ancient, the specific qualities of precious metals, their density and their solidity Pull them, in a short time, adopt as the common instrument of transactions, as the most convenient means of exchange and the pin sure. This use of metals is one of the characteristics

parts of the great civilization.

But we lived by it for many centuries purely

and simply like any other commodity, it is- i.e. by weighing them each time and keeping them either in more or less regular ingots, Drinks by the ton jewelry or utensils. Large and flourishing un- worst-, like those of Egypt, Chaldea and As-

Syria, have gone through thousands of years of e\i>tenee in- wealth and prosperity, with commercial relations cial networks as extensive as those of others have ever been

PROLEGOMENA 89

a people of antiquity, constantly using precious metals in trading business, but in absolutely ignorant of the use of money. The inhabitants of these empires used ingots in their trade of metal of variable shapes, without any mark to assure on behalf of a public authority the accuracy of weight and purity of title, and these ingots were weighed at each transfer saction. In fact, a certain quantity of metal represents felt a fixed value, and this quantity of metal was adjusted according to the weight scale in use among the different rents peoples. For example, in Semitic Asia, the century was not yet a currency, but a weight, and the esteem mation of things was done by a quantity of gold or of raw silver of a certain number of shekels in weight.

Obviously, as soon as there had been progress in civili- sation, and as commercial exchanges had took on greater development, we had stopped letting ser the metal in the first form in which it was used first, in a state of still great barbarism, under the shape of irregular pieces like figure and like weight. The necessity of things, the need for more great convenience in transactions, had led to give exact and fixed weights to the ingots used in exchanges. It was already something quite embarrassing- only to be obliged to resort to the scale when each transaction, however small it may be, to ensure the accuracy of the weight of these ingots. If he had each time it was necessary to cut them, trim them, add to them or subtract a small amount to perfect a weight exact, such a gross imperfection of the instrument material of the mechanics of exchange would have constituted the most annoying obstacle to carrying out operations

90 I.A CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

commercial. Development would have been hampered and stopped there in the most sensitive manner. Also, link that we had not yet had the idea, which seems to us to be so simple, to apply to pieces of metal by public authorities an inspiring imprint ai of confidence to make them accept os at their val

nominal, wherever there was real and developing civilization development of exchange b, l< - metal ingots< to circulation were already manufactured according to of an exact weight scale.

In addition, by giving them precise weights 1 1 regular, Practical utility had led to a preference for bringing them back to small sizes to represent mid-range values

nim< s. (was, in fact, the only way to keep them from serving efficiently in daily transactions. 11 was easy to make large sums, counted by talents or by miiics, .c<>it by accumulating in number lin. of low weight, or by using in payments l( - ban-.- of gold and silver, such as they arrived from mining districts to be implemented by ' which was essential for everyday life and for ordinary transactions was to have everything ready

small 1 î t i ;_r « • t - lower divisional weights, for used for the most impious offences, the low-paid ments* So we got bored, a long time before there had its own currency, particular forms, exact and fairly low weight sizes, special data to gold, silver and even copper, to serve in exchanges* Small ingots of fixed weight, prepared as we have just said, constituted in all oriental civilizations - from ancient times,

prior to the invention of real money

PROLEGOMENA 91

complete, a form of cash created for the purpose of special for commercial circulation and realization exchanges.

Fruitful innovation, the true invention of genius who transformed this still so imperfect cash into currency. done, was the creation of the official imprint affixed to the pieces of metal of regular weight, placed in the hands of the public as signs of values and instruments of exchanges. We were thus, as Aristotle (1) says, this deli- free from the embarrassment of continual measurements; » the ga- guarantee that the State gave by this imprint to the weight and in respect of metallic species introduced the share of fiduciary character, which is of the very essence of all currency, even of the best, of that whose value intrinsic coincides most exactly with the value nominal. Because it is the faith inspired by the government which intervenes by marking the currency with its imprint or type, it is this faith which makes one receive species without control and at par with their emission value. At the same time, the service thus rendered to transactions allowed the public authority to assign legal tender to currency, which could not belong to unsecured bullion

(1) “We agreed to give and receive, in exchanges, a material which, useful in itself, was easily manageable in uses habits of life; it was iron, for example, silver or some other similar substance, the size and weight of which were first determined, and that finally, to free ourselves from the embarrassment of continual measurements, we marked with a particular imprint, a sign of its value. With the mon- naie, born from the first essential exchanges, was also born the sale, another form of acquisition, excessively simple in origin, but per- soon perfected by experience, which revealed, in the circulation of objects, sources and means of considerable profits”: Aristot. Politics. I, 6, 14-16; t. I, p. 53, translated. by Mr. Barthélémy Saint-Ililaire.

92 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

from the earlier era; otherwise "bed, he gave him the legitimate right to prohibit under the sanction of penalii B, wherever his power extended, to refuse B8 currency, the right to force one to receive it, a right which is not really legitimate only on the condition that the currency is good and loyal, and which is only effective under this condition. Because no provision of law, however Bevere it may be, can go against the irresistible force of the chi- by preventing the rapid depreciation of a currency of bad quality, whose nominal value deviates too much from

effective value.

This is what the invention of pro-money consisted of. previously said and the progress it made on the state of things precede. This invention was late, because it did not was realized only towards the beginning of the 7th century before the Christian era, and honor, like all antiquity classical recognized it, can only be disputed between the Greeks or the Lydians, that is to say between two peoples< - see- Bins of each other, almost brothers by blood or apparently relating to the Greco-Pelasgic world. Before them, we finds the trace nowhere, and in everyone an- tick, from the Pillars of Hercules to beyond the Ganges, the use of currency was spread by the influence of Hellenism, on dates and by means that can be determine historically.

What we say here is not a hypothesis. but positive milk. The oldest - numis monuments - matics, those which certainly represent the beginnings same of monetary manufacture -<>\\t Greeks and Lydians, and none of them can be considered as dating back beyond <> the end of wine" Biècle. At the same time, the decipher- frement of Egyptian bieroglyphs and eu-writing

PROLEGOMENA 93

neiform of the banks of the Euphrates and the Tigris, both greatest conquests of our century in the field historical and philological sciences, reveal from present a fairly considerable mass of facts, to per- aim to reestablish at least the main essential features from the table of metal circulation in civilizations oriental tions of great antiquity. That's what I'm going to try to do in a summary and as brief manner as possible ly possible.

2. I will start with Egypt, whose civilization is perhaps the eldest of all the others, and at least found to be the only one, in the current state of knowledge, where we can refer with certainty to a certain distance over the course of ages (1). We know down to its details Egypt from the time of the Pyramids, the one who lived 4000 years BC In Chaldea and in Assyria, beyond 1100 years BC, everything is in- core darkness and confusion; it is impossible to determine ner in a solid manner, even by approximation, the intervals that separate one from another in time the debris reached us. Such monumental king re- rises according to some to approximately 3000 or 4000 BC; for the others, it must have gone down to 2000. We are just

(1) I followed the indications of an important work on this matter by M. E. Von Bergmann, Die An fange des Geldes in &egypten, published in the Numismatische Zeitschrift of Vienna, 1872, p. 101-180, and those from a very recent memoir by Mr. Chabas, Research on weights, measurements and coins of the ancient Egyptians, Paris, 187G. But above all I must here much to the friendly communications of Mr. Maspério, of which I am happy happy to proclaim myself obligated.

SI B IN ANTIQUITY

what then -, in the appreciation of these primitive eras- tives, right in the realm of hypothesis. Avri is it From the 11th century, from the moment when the series monumental becomes for:. ES SOÎTie and without that I will use here the information provided by the -. For the older state of I Moments hk gry] hiqnes of Egypt that I will ask for information. But milking it

3 keep quiet about Egypt itself. One the XIX

of a bonus of copper tension distributed to the

the city". Pa-Rams ï, in the 1

aix men the m gift of the visit of: I renphtah (2). L'on/en or ten (because there is some uncertainty about the k - ture of the word), divided into 10 h was at 1 .eus

the unit weighs.. BU| :ieure. Mr. Chabas (3) believed he could

s, The API i an original weight of the Barris; May - many moans that the

Museum of Boulaq ii, and who kent is Yov.

siih i -multiples. BOltse divisions by I '2. 1

1 6: 1 LO, seem soon to indicate that it has varied, following . Vi\ certain number of documents of a private nature, who Bont parrenus a'I us in original and go back in pharaonic times b, show

I Papyrus Anastasi, a* III, pL VI.

'pistolary among the ancient Egyptians, p.

ptien in II place archaeology. Metric determination of two Egyptian measures of capacity

various uuments, pi. 1*7-100.

PROLEGOMENA 95

Purchasing and item reviews always exclusive- ment made of copper outens. Sometimes, as in the ostraca n°* o633 and 5636 from the British Museum (1), we Let us see the movable objects of inheritance valued in this way; sometimes, as in the Mallet papyrus (2) and in several sirs ostraca, we indicate the value of objects given to a service man; sometimes finally, as in the ostracon No. 5649 from the British Museum (3), it is a question of- payments made to various people in copper outens, then we indicate according to the same standard the value of a series of objects given in exchange for an ox, which determines at the same time undermines the price of beef itself.

Here, according to these different documents, are some prices of various things in weight of copper:

One beef 119 outens (4) (Mkil. 186 gr. or llkil. 484 gr.).

A kid 2 outens (188 gr. or 192 gr.).

A pair of 1/4 outen geese (23 gr. oO or 24 gr.).

A 3 outtens knife (282 gr. or 288 gr.).

A 10 outens razor (940 gr. or 960 gr.).

(1) Inscriptions in the hieratic and demotic character of the British Mu- seum, pi. XVI; Birch, Zeitschr. f. IEgypt. Spr. and Allerih. 1868, p. 37; Coabas, Research on weights, etc. p. 17 et seq.

(2) Collection of works relating to Egypt and Assyria, vol. I, p. 57 et seq.

(3) Register in the hierat. tank. ft. XV; see. Chabas, Egyptian blends logics, 3rd ser. p. 217.

(4) This price is not entirely certain; but uncertainty only concerns on a few outens. Indeed, we read on the reverse of the ostracon: a Total, 1 19 outeDS", and this total is very likely to be that of the values of the objects given in exchange for beef, since these rise to 106 or- tens, no longer a deleted article. Yet it could also be the total of sums paid whose statement comes after, since this statement gives 109 outens, plus two deleted articles.

96 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

end i pieces 'the stuff. . . 25 outens (8 kilo. 350 gr, or -2 Iril. 100 gl Five honeymoons. 4 gr outens,

Eleven hins (5) of oil. 10 outens (940 gr. or 960 gr.).

A tanned skin 2 outens (188 gr. or I92gr.

A cane with inlay tations i ovteas 176 gr. oa 384 gr.).

A simple cane

• i 1 outen (94 gr. or <>»; gr.).

A pickaxe 2 outen- 188 gr. we 191 gr.

Unepatf nze. 5 outens 170 gr. we 480 gr.).

In one place, a bronze vase weighing 20 or- tens is rated 50; he was obviously of great wealth of work, and in its evaluation the price of labor force far outweighs that of material.

A measure of wheat of superior quality is found i negated at 7 outens (658 or 07w2 gr. of copper) in a papy- rus(S); but unfortunately the nature of the measure doubtful, it may be a question of that which Mr. Cha- low (4) calls to a great extent)) and which, according to Ba de- termination, was 73 lit. G0.

Finally the salary of workers at the BOlde of the temples l l\

port'- to 5 copper outens per month ES; may . a in the usaj pte ptolemaiqui minimal

(1) About S liters I i.t.\ iron •'» titled l

Pleyte and &OSSi Hieratic Papyrus of Turin, pi. \\\l\

• i 9. I lleeherrhes. p, '.”.

Pleyk al H Ml Pnj ■ A fWta, pi. xu. L. 1

PROLEGOMENA 97

paid in cash was accompanied by the provision of grain rations in kind (1).

From these facts it clearly follows that ancient Egypt, in the mechanism of its internal exchanges, had become very early raised above simple barter; that she knew about selling and buying, as well as measuring the value of things by means of a common standard; then that this common standard of values was circulating copper by weight, without monetary form, and measured with the scale with each transaction. Because precisely in the mentions purchases, payments and estimates in addition to copper that the Egyptian documents present, we do not finds no trace of anything resembling currency strictly speaking, of a currency coated with a guarantee public, having legal tender and exempting from recourse at every moment on the scale. It was a diet of harsh, similar to that which we will find in pri- mitive (book VII, chap. n, § 1).

The existence of such a regime constituting the entire eco- nomy of internal circulation of pharaoh Egypt nique has nothing that should surprise us. Egypt, to all eras and since the most ancient times, has always been the country of copper par excellence; not that she has this metal in its own soil, but because of the proximity to the rich mines of the Sinai Peninsula, or- green and exploited on behalf of the Egyptians from the time of the 4th dynasty. Even in the time of the Lagides, who were nevertheless masters of the island's silver mines of Cyprus, copper formed the major part of the currency circulating in the country, the copper drachma the currency

(1) Chabas, Research, p. 40.

i. 7

98 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

account universally adopted (see book VI. chap. vi). A fortiori was it the same;iu time of the Pharaohs, As established by Mr. Le; lans

his beautiful memoir on Metals among the Egyptians (I), they then had an abundance of CUÎVP and even

Pelectrum.; but the money, which came exclusively from Asia (2)j was a rare metal for them, so much so that if the value was very close to that of Y: the

relationship of one metal to the other was, in tapering :: 3: .r> or :: 1: 1 2 f3 (1). So it's not the money that they could have chosen as their usual instrument exchanges and fixing of values. Gold, despite numerous quantities which came to the region from the North and

(!) In the Memoirs of the Berlin Academy for 1871,

j Lepsias, Mem. cit. p. 50 if H6.

(3) Lepsias, Mem. cit. p. 51.

I Mariette! Baulaq Papyrus^ t. he. ft. III. col. 1, 1.5: “five of ar- i. which rails three of gold > ; cf. Chabas, H 3 '•'.

We can compare here the data «l*1 Strafa • wi, p. 778. by aj • 1 gold would have been worth at es S: roil

.ut. He came out laughing for a while; q b where

flee i you beautiful oap me old that we don't ivent

raw) gold was only worth approximately . i.

Eugène Burnouf, dani Dureaa from If Malle,! i\'ta H mutai, i. I.p. 54). But this 1 ml there are exceptional rails, gone countries where gold was abundant and silver was rare. ! who,

Me Dureau de la Malle, believed they could conclude that, dam - primitives, the difference between the two metals is almost zero, - nt

toml ronr complete, Nousi >na today in a way

positive than he ever has in VA later, from Tigre to the

Mediterranean, I i»aa i ntrary, Is value of gold was 13 i I port

the money represented by a; as high as - re-

my) the .mi find the gap of the

rate greater than it was in Greece api Landre V

ro] . book n on j l).

PROLEGOMENA 99

from the South, Asia and Ethiopia, was too valuable, in a time when the effective power of metals was (the prices quoted earlier clearly show this) of course superior to what it is in our civilizations, to serve instrument and convenient price standard in pe- small transactions of daily life. So we had been quite naturally leads to adopting, despite what it was bulky, copper, the most abundant metal and the one with which we could represent the most half- nimes values.

3. It is also the Egyptian monuments which alone, until now, inform us about the form that had unworked metals in Egyptian trade and in that of neighboring countries in ancient times where the 18th century and the 19th dynasty reigned on the banks of the Nile. The historical inscriptions are filled on this subject of donations born the most precious, confirmed by the bas-reliefs which sometimes accompany them and by the paintings of certain some tombs, like that of Kekh-ma-Ka in Thebes (1); These data are mostly found in the statements tributes paid to the Pharaohs by foreign nations managed.

Copper, iron and lead were constantly in bars or more precisely in ingots of a fairly heavy weight, square and flattened, having, in a word, the shape of bricks. As for gold, the Egyptians received it in different

(1) In addition to the cited memoir of Mr. Lepsius, it is necessary to consult on this subject J. Brandis, Das Miinz- Mais- und Gewichtswesen in Vordtrasien bis auf Alexander den Grossen, p. 75-83 and 91-93.

I.7.

versifas

100 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

shapes. The one from Ethiopia arrived in lil u powder.

In this region, it was counted by pefc, special weight- Ethiopian ment of which we can restore the rate

according to an inscription from Napata which says that a [[0 uiitens

make 51-20 pekfl (1)”. The pek was done by Ogr. 75 approx. ron, which leads us to recognize the primitive type of

weight of 0 gr. 764, on which the rings are cut

of gold which still constitute the circulation today i tallic in central Africa (9 . 1/ c i brought from Asia were sometimes, when it -air

of considerable weight intended to be implemented by industry, in the form of “bricks” is the expression even Egyptian texts, parallel to that of -' ^pocaî km y.ytj:y.:. iateres argentei atque aurei da Classical languages. More often this gold e1 jent

were in rings (3), of a fairly mediocre weight, it (

that is to say in the form usually adopted, in the absence

of money itself, for precious metals

Loving the exchanges among the ancient Celts of the Bre-

l) and Ireland (5), among the Icelanders until

(I) Rev. êrekéoi. name. i6r, t. XII. p, it. I pains, méav cit.

I. he.

_' Num. chron. t. VI. p 13 Bt s.; t. VIII. p. M 3.

P >ur Im gold rings. LepSittS, innn. cit. p. 33 Bt 115; FOR THEM

. money, p. 30 el 116, -In an example I Dente.

leaves, he, pi. LXXVII), instead of jroni ring

put two round plates of this metal, | : an irou in the center, dana

K» plateau d n vi lei , ranl de p en

ement,

(4i Xum. chron. t. XIV, p, »',(. i i. chron. t. XVII. p. 71

PROLEGOMENA 101

13th century (1), in the form that we still find today commonly used in the interior of Africa (2) and in several several parts of India (3). The Hebrew name of the unit overweight, talent, -|pD, kikkar, meaning originally "a circle", is obviously linked to the habit of giving this shape to metals in the circulation commercial culture.

The hieroglyphic inscriptions express in outens and fractions of outens the quantities of metals received in tribute from Asia. But it is easy to see, as J. Brandis You made the first, that these statements are not anything other than translations into Egyptian weights of are much more exact and more regular in the normal scale of the weight systems then in use in the Asian provinces, between the Euphrates and the Nile (on these weight systems, see book VI, chap. n, § 1 and 2). As simple common sense should assume ser, the people of Syria gave metal ingots regular weights according to their own indigenous system of measurement and delivered to the Pharaohs a certain number of these ingots; but the Egyptian scribes, to record to pay the tribute, converted the Asian weights into weights Egyptians. We can also see, when Ton divides several of the total amounts composed of bullion copper, iron or lead by the number of ingots, that the quotient always remains the same for each metal. There was therefore a fixed weight type adopted, in the por-

(1) No. chron. t. VIII, p. 208 et seq.

(2) In addition to the references indicated above, see. again Num. chron. t. XVI, p. 168.

(3) Num. chron. t. VIII, p. 217.

102 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

tion of Asia in relations with the Egyptians, for the manufacture of copper, iron or lead ingots in commerce.

On the contrary, gold and silver rings had heavy weights lower and very diverse. They were cut by hand able to represent all degi of a scale of weight divisions, conforming to the Asian System descending to completely minimal weights b. Use was therefore to use two different weights, all two of Babylonian origin, for measuring gold and silver gent, in order to obtain between the values of the quantities of same name in- the two metals a proportion expressed in whole numbers, while the value ratio between two identical weights of gold and silver would have included in its expression the use of complicated fractions (see. book VI, chap. n, § 2}; it was the practice we had adopted to simplify the accounts (1). The golden rings and silver mentioned in Egyptian texts avaii their weights adjusted according to the unit adopted for each me- tal, and offered multiples or, even more often, divisions, down to the smallest ones that could be made quer BOUS this form. Thus (we said it more binding.

this subdivision of sizes until extremely small was what made them fit for their role in the war. mechanism of exchange. Moreover, here the testimony of Assyrian monuments are confirmed by those of the Bible, many of whose passages attest to the use of small gold or silver bars of exact weight, representing

very minimal values, in acquittions and payments

(li SorletpratH ode this practice in Syria and Mi'

top u time when Thuthmes ni reigned, see. Brandit, p. have and have,

PROLEGOMENA 103

ments (1); in one place (2), it is a question of a of these ingots, weighing only a quarter of a century, that an individual carries with him, as later we would have made of a currency.

Thuthniès III, in the large inscription of the sanctum tuary of Karnak, reports that in Tan 23 of his reign he received from the Khetas 301 silver outens (28 kil. 896 gr.) in 8 rings. Each one therefore weighed 37 outens 62 kites and 5 tenths or 361 2 gr. It was just 5 minas or 250 shekels of weight adopted for silver in Syria, Phenicia and Pales- tine, the shekel being 14 gr. 53. At least there is no than an inaccuracy of 10 gr. 50 (because 5 mines would be strictly 3632 gr. 50), which is really nothing on the total sum, especially taking into account what our determination of the weight of the outn is only ap- approximate and does not yet have mathematical rigor tick (3).

The Leiden Museum has originals from from the same discovery, a certain number of rings gold of very small size which could only have been used as instruments of exchange and not as jewels (4). The weights are perfectly regular and give six

(J) See. Movers, Die Phœnizier, t. III, first part. p. 33; Soetbeer, Das Gold, in the Gegenwart, no. 14i, p. 53o; Brandis, p. 78.

(2) I Sam. ix, 8.

(3) We counted the outen in this calculation as 96 gr. ; but we saw above that at certain times he seemed to have been a a little weaker, 9i gr. and something; if it had to be counted like this time of Thuthmes III, the silver rings given by the KIietas would have summer of 4 1/2 minae or 225 shekels.

(4) Leemans, /EgyptUche Monumental van het Xederl. Museum, 2nd part, ft. XLI, No. 29G; Brandis, p. 82.

104 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

different size? which are not set to the type tien of Touten and the kite, nor on the Ethiopian type of :, although these rings were found pte.

These are normal and very exact divisions of the century. chaldeo-baby Ionian, adopted for the measurement of gold in all of Anterior Asia, at its earliest rate of s gr. 18, divisions which follow the scale of 1 6, 2 15, 1/10, 1/T2, 1 15, 1 20 or. in the Gracti system - sexagesimals of- B 10 60, 8/60, 0 60,

'i 60, S/60 (n.

These facts establish in a very positive way, my opinion, that the gold and silver rings that existed in Egypt in metal circulation were manufactured in Asia, based on Asian weight data only outside the Nile valley they Killed the usual and fundamental type of the number exchanges, while the land of Alitzraim had its "es serious national. The form of it < high

by the hieroglyphic sign designating outen, ç — ) t — 7, a metal blade folded on itself. He although of foreign origin, the gold and silver rings Asians constituted, i of the native culture, a

part of some importance in the mast of the nu- money circulating in Egypt, it was used for considerable payments where the copper would have been too much bulky and difficult to transport; but it was always

1) If we wanted to relate the - rings, no longer to the -

bobyl oieo lai itself, but at - dm Débitai, who was the

double (roy. delivered vi, chip, n, B -\ leadhrisi ail i if. i p.,

1/20, 1 li, 1/30 il I i". B que a .1: - Bl I [il: 100 qui me

seems less? \ riitembll] ii visions would then no longer be all

back name!

PROLEGOMENA 105

then as representative, according to the course of the moment, sums counted in copper outens. This is how that a certain number of paintings of hypogeums (1) show the large purchases of wheat settled by means of an- rings of gold, which we pile up to weigh in one of the pans of a balance. -It is obvious that when the an- The Egyptians were thus in number, the Egyptians among them. were the total weight in their own way, i.e. in outens (2) and not in talents, in mines or in Asian shekels- ticks; and from this point of view, it is certainly not a fortuitous coincidence which means that the sums of 600 shekels of silver for a chariot and 150 for a horse, which Solomon paid to Egyptian producers (3), constitute precisely weighs 90 and 22 1/2 outens. A stele of the 22nd dynasty, studied by M. Brugsch (ft), speaks of 10 silver outtens (940 or 960 gr.) given for the price of 100 satas of cultivated soil, and 5 (170 or 480 gr.) given for 50 satas. The eminent Egyptologist assimilates the ancient sala to the current feddan. If this identification was exact, 94 or 96 grams of silver would have been what You would have provided as payment an area of land of 59,290 cubic meters; but, however rare it may be money in Egypt, this data seems unacceptable to me, and Mr. Chabas (5) was right to think that the sala should

(1) Lepsius, Denkm. aus sEgypt. leaves. III, p\ 29, d, and 39, a.

(2) Lepsius, Memoirs of the Berlin Academy for 1871, p. 35, 39, 40 et seq.

(3) I Reg. x, 29.

(4) Zeitschr. IEgypt. Spr. united Alterth. 1871, p. 85.

(5) Research, p. 4i.

106 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

to be an internal agrarian measure to what had been believed Mr. Brugsch.

When it came to little things: . payable

with one or a few rings only, 1< [«hold

counted by sieles of silver including exchange. This is how that a hieratic papyrus from the Louvre (1) mentions receipts in silver sieles, to which are added i for the changes 3/4 copper outen by . This is obviously-

here lies the shekel of 14 gr. 53, the one which was used in Syria for the money; or, estimating the outen a96gramm we find that 3/4 of an outen makes a weight of copper equal to ,r> of these sieles. The stated change would therefore be 3. 1055 0 0

>i The silver had been worth one hundred and sixty-one times its weight copper in Pharaonic Egypt, as in that of the Lagides (see book II, chap. \, g 1, and book VI, ohap. n, § 1); and it must have been even less, because everything indicates that a much greater gap then existed between the two metals. Ed assuming that this gap reached the figure :: l: 250, as we see in the oldest periods in Sicily and Italy (see book II. chap. [, §1; book 711, chap. [, § 1; Eliap. it, £2 and 3), WE would no longer find (pie -2 0 0 for change; but

It is important here to refrain from any hypothesis with the help of

data enough p. a to provide a starting point

sufficient* A | apyi u- (h- Boulaq 2), from the time of the 18th dynasty- . which was translated by M. C'hahas 5), contains a

fragment of accounting for the daily sale, made to

(1) De?ém, CëUlopa à - ni du L»uvrc, l\, n*10.

I Mark lie, P«fpmi I B da

R searches, y. -

PROLEGOMENA 107

merchants, meats from the sacrifices of a temple, which could not have been consumed by the priests and sanctuary staff. All revenues are received in gold. It would be very important to arrive at a certain reading of the name of the weight according to which gold is measured there and to a determination of this weight, obviously very low. Is he Egyptian or Asian? This is what we cannot say at present about a positive way. It is not, at least, one of the divisions known and normal of the outen. Giru reading would not be not implausible for the name, as it is traced in hieratic characters. In this case, it would be necessary to recognize birth of the gerah of the Hebrews, 20th part of the century in the data from mosaic books (1). The gerah of the golden century of 8 gr. 1 8 would be 0 gr. 405, size which is precisely that of one of the gold rings from the Leiden Museum, found in Egypt, size as well as three of the rings of the same series multiply by 11/2 (2), one by 2 and another by 2 1 /*2. It should be noted that in the same papyrus the weight of the meat sold is indicated once and there is no is not expressed by outens, in the Egyptian style, but by mines, Asian style.

What is at least certain is that the golden rings and money, serving as instruments of exchange in anterior Asia and even entering part into the metal circulation of Egypt in the times of the 18th century and the 19th dynasty, offered a weight scale quite

(1) Exod. xxx, 13; Levit. xxvn, 23; Num. m, 47; xvm, 1G; cf. Ezech. xlv, 12.

(2) In the papyrus, many payments are mentioned as made with 1 1/2 of the weights of gold that we propose to assimilate to the gerah.

108 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

made regular and descending to f>rt minimal sizes. This is because Ton facilitated the material side of transactions, by making rings of this kind which represented all normal* values - resulting from the application of weight systems generally accepted between the Tigri the Nile for the measurement of metals serving as a common standard of the value of things. Parla, this form of circulation was already getting very close to the currency.

Genesis makes us witness the entire implementation of its mechanism. When Abraham buys from the Letheans the ground of his family grave, he delivers by weighing them

>n seller 400 shekels of silver “as they are current between merchants” (I). The same book depicts ti exactly the international circulation of money, in regular weight ingots, between Palestine and Egypt*

I with money that Joseph's sisters bought there wheat in Egypt at the time of the lamina (2), and this money

in a form that allows them to carry it into scholarships 6 rmées, TTTS 8). As the Ingots are of one regular weight and conforms to certain sizes of use general] and usual, we sometimes count them by piece

both in Egypt and in Palestine. Unsi do Abimelech, king of Gerar, when he offers a gift of ai. Abra-

ham (1), the Midianite merchants, when they buy

eph to his brothers 5), and Joseph, who became minister of

(l) Genet, plain, 1”;.

I Genet, one, 17.

: i h n< B, m ||

(i) Genet, w. 16,

B From»i, wwu. H

PROLEGOMENA 109

pharaoh, when he gives a gift to Benjamin, sending him search for his father (I).

All this is very close to the use of money; but it is not yet really and completely. There missing what the Roman jurisconsults called in money, law and form. Neither the weight nor the title were guaranteed by public authorities. The fiduciary side which is of the essence of all money, even the best, of that whose real value is most exactly in con- agreement with the nominal value, and which makes it receives without verification in daily transactions, because of its legal nature and the confidence that inspires the government imprint that it received, this fiduciary side ciaire was absolutely lacking.

In this circulation, while already constituting the common measure of value, metals were still in the state of pure and simple merchandise. For the realization more convenient for exchanges, we prepared this trade said in exact quantities, from the smallest to the stronger, so as to always have on hand a piece of gold or silver of the desired weight, without being obliged to cut it into a larger ingot. But like the rings had no imprint and warranty from the au- public authority, they were not legal tender either. Each time it was necessary to check the accuracy on the scale of their weight and try their title on the touchstone. And the merchant remained free, even in the country where they had been manufactured, to refuse them or to discuss them on course.

Even today, China presents us with a state of

(1) Genes, xlv, 22.

110 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

completely analogous things, that it is interesting to

compare.

Copper in sapeques is the only currency marked with an official imprint, legal tender. She doesn't represents only infinitely small values, but of Temploî of this currency, there is a great circulation tion of gold and silver, especially silver, in bed of merchant] do not operate rabbit-

share of commercial transactions, as soon as they have any that importance, and not by means of the currency of copper, much too bulky and difficult to transport wear. For the convenience of commerce, for which they serve usual instrument of exchange, we give to these ling exact weights and following a regular scale, from I -2 to iOtaels in gold, from 1/2 to 100 taels in silver. But their

circulation and their acceptance have no character h and obligatory. 1, the public authority does not have to intervene come and gives them no guarantee. These ingot bear no imprint, IF this is not in certain cases a

individual hallmarking, simple mark of origin and manufactures, which sometimes inspires confidence in exempt -h' from verifying the title of the metal, when that of a fairly honorably known merchant. 1. ease with which we accept the ingot at such or such a point therefore depends entirely on the personal credit of the one who marqui

'i. If we now turn to cunei- forms to search for information on the conditions tions of metallic circulation, serving for (-char in Assyri< and Babylonia, from \n to seen before

PROLEGOMENA 111

Christian father, and mainly from the 9th century, where the texts begin to multiply in a pro- considerable portion, we note the continuation of The state of affairs is that, for an older period, the Egyptian monuments of the 18th and 19th dynasty showed us in Egypt and in earlier Asia.

The three metals which will later be the monetized metals keep quiet, or? silver and copper, serve as a common standard of the value of things; they circulate in uncoined ingots, given and accepted by weight, with verification on the scale, like any other commodity. And this way of proceed leaves its mark in language, because a same verb, saqal (Spt?), means both “to weigh” and “pay”. “For payment in money,” says a text “grammatical (1), we use the verb saqal, to weigh, and “for a payment in grains the verb madad, to measure. » The main mass of circulation consists of money; this metal is the true regulator of the value of things (2).

The Chaldeo-Assyrian weight system had the unit lower a shekel of 8 gr. 415, of which 60 were mine, 60 mines in turn forming a talent (see book VI, chap. it, § 1). It is according to this system that invariable- gold was measured, and according to the century standard of 8 gr. 415, of its multiples or its divisions that we cut the ingots of this metal intended to be used for exchanges. Money was frequently measured by the kid

(1) Cuneif.reg. of West. As. t. II, pi. 13, 1. 44 and 45, d.

(2) In all sales contracts, when setting the figure of the very heavy fine intended to punish any attempt to evict the acquirer eur, part of this fine must be paid in a weight of silver, and another part in a weight of gold.

IIS CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

weight than gold, especially when it is gray

quantities, counted by mines or by talents. But more often, for small amounts, we measured the money a weight different from that of gold (i), with a partial ricle culier, of l 1 gr, --, so as to have had r and read silver shekel a printable report in felt numbers facilitating these calculations, while

book VI, chap. U, S -■• (The 1 1 _:•. 22 . of

remainder, l 16 compared to the ordinal weight mine applied in many cases, as we have just shown say it, by the measure of money as well as by that gold; while ((binds the weight of commerce, identical in the Gold Market, there were 1 60 2). Furthermore, a part silver bars existing in circulation of 1* \

Babylon, those who came from there

were cut on the foot of the Syrian silver Bicle of l i gr. 53, of which 15 were equivalent to 2 Chald Gold Bicles Babylonians; 50 of these Bicles formed the Syrian mine (book VI, chap. u, S 2, that the Assyrian documents call i dwarf of Karkémisch i.

11 it seems not that the little golden lii and ent, made for trade in Assyi i i Babylonia9eus-

1 Self V -

the m Im - the tern] S read, p. 9

(2 Brail ilf nature to lead to a very-sim solution] i

.i result would remain inextricable from diversity statements of somi Branl V inéi-

, •. Ofl always measured money by would have neck. pu'- of two i oefl wrinkled in number, sometimes by 18,

0*eel«that is to say by ordinary min M, the monks that we

bent for I or, sometimes by ifceVdin ai employing a ■

•nor. mpérieore ne i •') i the weighty mine.

PROLEGOMENA 113

feels the shape of rings that we saw adopted in the countries of Syria at the time of military preponderance Egyptian silence. Indeed, we never see using to designate them an expression which awakens the notions of circle or ring. The ideographic sign which designates the century in cuneiform writing, TTTE=T, has the meaning

original that of “mass, globe”; this gives the idea something analogous to ovoid-shaped ingots slightly flattened that we encounter at the origin of the coinage of Lydia (see § 2 of this chapter, and book VI, chap. m, § 1).

5. However, it must be noted, from the point of view of mechanism of trade and commercial circulation, in the civilization that the assyrian documents reveal to us nothing from the 9th to the 7th century, considerable progress on the previous state of affairs. But it does not consist of The use of real currency; it rests in the development development of means of fiduciary representation of metallic values based on the credit of traders, in use of the resources provided in this regard by loan and exchange contracts, in a word in a system already very advanced in commercial paper, if it is permitted to use this expression here. It's the only one that four- nite our language and the analogy of modern uses; but at the same time it is completely improper when these are bonds or commercial checks Assyrian, many of whom have crossed the centuries to reach us. Indeed, it is not about a species of any paper on which these documents are drawn. Con- training in the particular habits of civilization i. *

111 CURRENCY IN AXTIQUITi:

euphratic regarding writing it its exci- piously, they were written on small quadrilateral cakes ters of clay, whose shape and dimensions recall enough our toilet soap bars. The text has been there inscribed on the soft earth, then the clay cake was put in the oven so as to become unalterable and indestructible. tible (1).

The documents to which I refer boil down to five main types for each of which I will produce an example:

A. — Simple obligation:

l Four silver mines to the weight of Kaikemish

“(claim) of Nergalsurussur

“on Nàbuz Oririddih, son of Nabuiramnapisti,

a from Dur-Sarkin,

“has 8 Bides of money of monthly interest (8 .

“The 26th air, eponym of Gabbar (667 BC),

The names of the witnesses follow (“

Such was the son, which was given in A chiro-

(1) Lm texta of published “d

facsimile in law dm if. iridescent, of West. As. t. III. p, M el i7; but he

. n exists on i>ien plm gran 1 number of still in leotions

public and private, mainly British, Mr. Opperl i

UD very remarkable work at this special class of lei The commercial interests of Ussyrimnes, in the Eastern and American

-i on annual interest of -'• 0/0, such was the normal i.mx of

• from Rargeol in Assyria. Most of them “lu temp, in lea obligation*

• me of this one, where there is no deadline for payment, we say

• intérél nfi

it |».i- indicated it does for a year.

[3] Cuneif. insert. $fWest. As-, t. 111. ft. 17

PROLEGOMENA 115

graphum, written in front of witnesses, which constituted the title of the creditor to the debtor and whose delivery to this the latter noted his release. As in all con- Chaldeo-Assyrian trats, the dominus negotii, which is here the lender, the seller in the deeds of sale, the owner silent in rental contracts, is named first. It is an obligation of this kind that Tobias sends his son touch at Gabel (1).

B. — Obligation or mandate of the creditor on the debtor to short term, with penalty clause in the event of non-compliance payment:

“Two talents of copper,

this (credit) of Mannu-ki-Arbaïl

“on Samasakheisallim.

“This one will pay in the month of ab (2).

“In the event of non-payment

has a third

“(the debt) will increase.

“Le il si van, eponym of Banbâ (676 BC). »

The names of the witnesses follow (3). The deadline here is 79 days.

C. — Obligation guaranteed by a debt owed to a third party, on whom we will have recourse in the event of non-payment:

“Seven shekels of silver

“(claim) of Mardukabalussur, son of Mitia,

“on Mardukabalussur, son of Segua,

(1) Tom. iv, 21 and 22; cf. ix, 3 and 6.

(2) This form indicates a deadline on the last day of the month*

(3) Cuneif. registration ofWest. As. t. III, pi. 47, no.

i. 8.

116 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

((who owes his credit to Riniut-Xabu, son of Mitia, sons of Ila-

nitabnL

ftfardukabalussur (H) will pay monthly uz

((seven shekels of silver,

•< plus three days of work for interest 1). <( In the event of non-payment by him, d the creation to be asserted this on Nabuakhidin (2) and Rimut-Nabu, “who will have to pay jointly. in Orchoe, on ^2 Adar, this Tan 2 of Cyn of Babylon. »

The names of the witnesses follow (3).

The loan is made in this example for 128 days,

D. — Obligation delegating the right to a third party

to receive the debt:

“Three silver mines

“(credit of ll>banal>al, son of Pallai, son of Zupe-B( 1.

rar Samasakhiddin, son of Mitia.

a He will pay a mine of silver in the month of Tasrit,

Leuz silver mines in the month of kisiliv.

I He will pay the intellectuals to V I int,

I in the month of .-ivan.

u Mitiya, son of Beltabnirar, toucbi

“the8 trOÎ8 mines.

oc Orchoe, *22 Adar,

i < ' Yesterday i - i a little more 'one - \ è

the price (!i* the working day.

the intervene here as giving -.i guarantee. (3) [edit, British Museum; cited* by M. Opj i

PROLEGOMENA 117

this from the year of the accession of Xabonides, this king of Babylon. »

The names of the witnesses follow (1).

Interest must be paid in advance sixty-eight days after the date of the obligation, the first reimbursement, of a mine, after two hundred and ten eight days, and the second, two minae, after three one hundred and eight.

So far I have not cited anything outside of natural varieties of simple obligation, of those who have been admitted to all people, nothing that is enough to justify what I said highest of the progress made by the Assyrians and the Babylonians in matters of credit and exchange. He doesn't will be more the same with the fifth type, of which I still have to cite examples; here we will see the most positive way the practice of the cambium trajecti- tium.

E. — Payment order drawn from one place to another:

“Four mines and fifteen shekels of silver

this (credit) of Ardu-Nana, son of Yakin,

oc on Mardukabalussur, son of Mardukbalatirib,

oc in the town of Orchoe.

oc Mardukbalatirib will pay

“in the month of tebet

oc four minas fifteen shekels of silver

oc to Belabaliddin, son of Sinnaid.

oc Our, the Harakhsamna,

“Year 2 of Nabonidus,

oc king of Babylon. »

(1) Unpublished, British Museum; cited by Mr. Oppert.

118 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

The names of the witnesses follow (l).

The mandate is 7G days from date. He is unaware

testably an imperfect letter of chang in

its form, but fulfilling all the essential conditions tielles. Because, as Pothier reads (2), the letter of change is made by an act Boufl private signature in the form

of letter, by the drawer to the one on whom it is

drawn, by which the shooter orders him to pave such sum to such and such. t Here only the form is rather that of a mandate than of a letter, and there is no formality of acceptance. In this, our chaldé document of Berappro- would cost the check even more than the sale, if it

was not payable at term, instead of being payable on sight. Mr. Cail- Lemer has already established, according to a plea from Isocrates, that

the trade attack had known and put into practice a

A sort of bill of exchange or check (3. It had to

be very similar to that of which we note the existence in the Chald

Athenian no trace of the intervention of witnesses, who

intervene here at the creation of the act, Without doubt for certify the identity of the shooter. This special precaution was i. went to Assyria and Babylon, with a mode

writing which did not allow the requirement of autographs

of an individual and recognizable character; few people, Besides, Bhad write, and most of the time the shooter

(1) Unpublished, Music of Stinte-Irèpe i ConsUntinople,

; i. Bognet, t. iv, p. ;

' , | i /,. - iics. He L({lrc>

PROLEGOMENA 119

must have needed to resort to a scribe to make the wording fulfill his mandate.

The kind of act of which I have just given an example bears was in the Assyrian legal language the name of siparlu, properly < missive”, from the root “)SU, sapar, “en- see”, which essentially implies the notion of discount from one place to another. In a collection of very ancient for- legal mules in both Acadian and Assy languages nothing, we read: “His sipartu — unpaid, — which remains to be send, — for money he exchanged it (1).” We teach- no, as well as these mandates from one place to another were negotiable, by the very formula established for the act which noted this negotiation; it must, in fact, necessarily must be carried out by a special instrument, since a material impossibility prevented one from having the idea of done by an endorsement, nothing can be added to the mandate on clay after the cooking of the earth. We notice- will, moreover, that the negotiation of the mandate against money by the drawer here completes the exchange contract, even if confined within the rigorous terms of the definition of Pothier (2): “a contract by which I give or I oblige myself to give you a certain amount in a certain place, for and in exchange for a sum of money gent that you oblige yourself to make me count in a another place. »

This is undoubtedly to facilitate the negotiation of the effect to a third, that in some of those who reached Until now, we have not appointed a person responsible for touch in the city inhabited by the debtor. In this case,

(i) Cuneif. register of West. As. t. II, pi. 13.1.35-38.0-6.

(2) Exchange Contract Treaty, § 2; ed. Bugnet, t. IV, p. 173.

190 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

obviously any bearer had the right to claim lt- payment against delivery of the mandate. Here is an example. I borrow it from a new tablet that is part of a private collection, of which I owe a casting to friendship by Mr. Lleuzey.

t Twenty-five shekels of silver,

“(claim) of Belakheirib, son of Nabuasir,

on llukinya, son of Nabuakheiddin,

in the town of Borsippa.

“He will pay in the month of tasrit (I). I Cutha, on 1 1 ab, “Tan 10 of Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon,

The names of the witnesses follow.

It is easy to judge from these examples what

still imperfect the form of bill of exchange used by

Assyrians and Babylonians. Thus, we do not glimpse no guarantee against the undue presentation of an effect of lost, stolen away, by someone who would not have had

actually have the right to touch it. The lack of acceptance and endorsement was also a serious disadvantage; but we SAW that this was partly remedied by the

by means of a special act recording the detion of the effect

and giving, by BUite, to the taker of the bill of exchange,

a means of recourse against the drawer in the event of non-payment ment, an act which had to be automatically canceled by the

payment. 11 is probable 411th the third party bearer was obliged

to hand over the instrument, at the same time 411th the mandate

himself, to the one at whom it was fired.

I I • in.md.it Ml I 7'J days dr

PROLEGOMENA 121

Regardless, there is something unique about at first glance and completely unexpected in this observation tation of the existence of a form of bill of exchange before the invention of money, when the metals used instruments for trade and common measurement of value of things still circulated in the state of simple mar- commodity (1). However, if we think about the conditions particular areas in which the trade in Assyrians and Babylonians, we realize this phenomenon initially a strange phenomenon, we understand the causes which have had to lead these peoples, earlier than the others, to invent the exchange contract. Assyrian trade and Babylon was necessarily, as a result of the situation geography of these countries, a land trade, which was carried out by caravans and in almost all directions had to cross deserts infested with nomads looters. Under these conditions, one of the first concerns pations of traders must have been looking for ways to avoid distant transportation of money. Everything was doing a law, the cumbersome nature of metallic cash, the number of beasts of burden that became necessary

(1) The fact seems even more singular if we measure the distance from this point of view the uses of the Romans present, compared to those of the ancient civilization of the Euphrates and Tigris basins. Indeed, if a passage from the letters of Cicero (Epist. ad Atlic. XII, 2i, 1; cf. XV, lo, 5; Epist. ad fam. II, 17, 4) seems to imply knowledge of the contract of changes in Republican Rome, the Digest establishes that the use was at least very little widespread in imperial times. Law 2i of the title Naulico foenore shows the lenders to the big adventure sending their slaves at the port of arrival to receive, on the price of the sale of goods, reimbursement of sums lent to the shipowner. But it was also on the customs of Athenian commerce that similar practice constituted a considerable step backwards.

L39 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

to carry large quantities, as well as the ii safety of the roads. Also, as soon as there was a creditor and a debtor at both ends 'Ta line of caravai the first idea of the exchange contract must have germinated in the mind of the creditor, ('this is so true, that the renewal of the same conditions which made it re] Biultre after a long forgetting, at the beginning of the Middle Ages, when Jews and Italian scientists, in the presence of difficulties

problems of transporting cash and countless risks to whom he was ex]: he reinvented the letter

but in a more perfect form, that which is transmitted to Me up to us.

G. The living BÎ painting that Ezekiel, in BOS prophesied

against Tyre, we trace the trade of the Phoenicians, made See that he had two farms- and like two fao< B.

On one side, the opulent Rhineland cities enter! linked with all the civilized countries of anterior Asia a Extensive land trading, by caravan.-. This com- Merce obviously had to have the same habitat the same practices, b'- same fi 1er as

the one ([ne QOUfl have just studied with b - \--yriens preci- sement in the time of the prophets of Israel. I still know that he similarly employed, as instruments of exchange, the

metals, still in the form of ingots. And when we see the

Assyrians practicing the exchange contract, it is not

dblede BSupposing that it was unknown to greater

traders than them; the people that the desire to simplify

laies had led to the invention of

the alphabet must also have been formed from letters of exchange or check, dispensing with money transportation.

PROLEGOMENA 123

On the other hand, the Phoenicians maintained by sea a much larger trade. It was their big originality and the main source of their wealth. The role of sailors was the one to whom the nature and situation of their poysles were almost necessarily destined. Placed at the end of the Asian continent, on the shores of the great sea which put it in direct communication with Africa and Europe, Phoenicia found itself called by a provision providential function to serve as a warehouse between the East and the West. Also it was at first only by his fleets that, for many centuries, Asia, Europe and Africa communicated with each other.

The nature and processes of primitive commerce that Phoenicians maintained by sea can reconstruct in a certain way. The peoples with the- what they were going to tamper with were still completely safe farms, without any industry, in the state where the first European navigators found the natives of Oceania. On the other hand, the maritime Canaanites were industrial almost as many as traders; they had perfected to the highest degree the processes of certain arts. The products of their metallurgy are praised in Egyptian texts from the time of the 18th dynasty. Their fabrics were famous throughout the ancient world. Certain dyes, like that of purple, constituted in their hands an undivided monopoly. Their glassworks, of which we we have quite numerous samples, equal to those that Venice brought out of its workshops in the Middle Ages. They were therefore not only the brokers of the large civilized and industrial nations between which they found places, the Egyptians and the Assyrians. They made a lot of their own, and they had their

k>4 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

own products to sell for the outlets created ceaselessly their activity as sailors.

Under these conditions, their trade was entirely

by direct exchange. It was pure and simple barter, as it is still practiced on the coast of Africa. The Phoenicians

went, first to Greece, then to Spain, to Gaul, in Italy, in the Ldbj bar-

bars; later, in the British Isles, and for a

time in India. There, they received residents metals, wood, various natural raw materials that each of these countries could provide them. In return, they gave manufactured products, instructions elements of metal, fabrics, pottery, glass, including their contact had spread knowledge and made people feel the need populations, already disaccustomed by them to pr a and

too rudimentary customs of the Stone Age, but still incapable of manufacturing by themselves

This is how this phenomenon is explained (pie the Pheni- citizens, these great merchants in whose role the Venetians, The Dutch and the English themselves on time

modern can only be imperfectly compared,

after being led by the needs of their outfit

books and current accounts to simplify writing, which they had received from the Egyptians, and to invent the alphabet, failed to achieve the correlative invention, that of the mon- nay. Holding out many 'B's, they did not regret it necessity, which should not occur (pie in unoomux fie civilized to civilized and not from civilized to saved: they left to others the glory of this other great inwn-

tiOQj which should not have less iminei:: of

less fertile result

PROLEGOMENA 125

§2. — The inventors of money.

1. The lexicographer Pollux, whose information is in general of remarkable security, which drew on the best sources and who, from a host of authors today lost, was able to extract so much information by making a often a very judicious choice in its authorities, the lexico- Pollux graph, in the presence of contradictory data that he read among ancient historians, says that it is well difficult “to resolve the question of whether Phidon the Ar- gien was the first to mint money or if they are the Lydians (1). » We still experience today the same embarrassment.

Indeed, there exist in antiquity two diverse traditions- gentes on the invention of money, both having for them authorities of the greatest weight.

For some, the first currencies were those that Phidon, king of Argos, had the type of the turtle struck, in the island of Aegina, of which he was the master. This is the data which Ephorus adopted, followed by Strabo (2), who reproduced derive from other sources Elien (3), the Chro- nic of Paros (4) and a good number of more renowned writers

(1) Tov èiil t«T) vofi.(a|xaTi ).6yov èitiCi)TetV, eixs îiocov 7rpôiTo? 6 'Apyeïo; eypcc^s v6[iia[x.a, z:.~i Auôoi: Hair. IX, 83.

(2) VIII, p. 376.

(3) Var. hist. XII, 10. (i)Epoch. 31.

126 CURRENCY IN ANTIQUITY

hundred-1; this is the one that was most generally used in Greece. The historical reality of silver coinage of Phidon in Aegina and the fact that he had been the first in European Greece, was attested until a time that late by the preservation of an offering the aiî rilérieiiin by the famous king of ArgOS. It was a certain

quantity of silver ingot of elongated shape and without imprint, called èêeXioxoi, such as they held before him to exchanges among the Greeks; he had dedicated them in come from Good invention ('2).

But, on the other hand, Herodotus (3) says: “The first among men, to our knowledge, the Lydians * minted gold and silver coins. • Kénophane Colophon Island affirmed the same fact (4, and the | gold