*%^:i»j 
 
VJ4^ 
 
 ajorttgll HtttuetBttg Sitbtarg 
 
 aitfiata, 5f Jtu fork 
 
 FROM THE 
 
 BENNO LOEWY LIBRARY 
 
 COLLECTED BY 
 
 BENNO LOEWY 
 
 1854-1919 
 BEQUEATHED TO CORNELL UNIVERSITY 
 
i ne aate snows when this volume was taken. 
 
 HOME USE RULES 
 
 prr- 
 
 AP^=^93 
 
 All books subject to recall 
 
 All borrowers must regis- 
 ter in the library to borrow 
 books for home use. 
 
 All books must be re- 
 turned at end of college 
 year for inspection and 
 repairs. 
 
 Limited books must be 
 returned within the four 
 week limit and not renewed. 
 
 Students must return all 
 books before leaving town. 
 Officers should arrange for 
 the return of books wanted 
 during their absence from 
 town. 
 
 Volumes of periodicals 
 and of pamphlets are held 
 in the library as much as 
 possible. For special pur- 
 poses they are given out for 
 a limited time. 
 
 Borrowers should not use 
 their library privileges for 
 the benefit of other persons. 
 
 Books of special value 
 and gift books, when the 
 giver wishes it, are not 
 allowed to circulate. 
 
 Readers are asked to re- 
 port all cases of books 
 marked or mutilated. 
 
 Do not deface books by marks and writing. 
 
 Cornell University Library 
 HG527 .W45 
 
 olin 
 
 "3"""l"924"032"521 993 
 
Cornell University 
 Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31 924032521 993 
 
' ' I SMILED AT MYSELF AT THE SIGHT OF ALL THIS JfONEY. ' OH, DKU6, ' SAID 
 I, ALOUD, 'what ART THOU GOOD FOR? THOU ART NOT WORTH TO MB, 
 NO, NOT THE TAKING OFF THE GROUND. ONE OF THESE KNIVES IS 
 WORTH ALL THIS HEAP. ' " — Paffe 9. 
 
ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY; 
 
 OR, THE 
 
 REMARKABLE FINANCIAL FORTUNES AND MISFORTUNES 
 OF A REMOTE ISLAND COMMUNITY. 
 
 By DAVID A. WELLS, 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY THOMAS NAST. 
 
 "It requires a great deal of philosophy to observe once what may he seen 
 every day."— Rousseau. 
 
 HARPER 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 
 
 FQANELZH BQUABB. 
 
 18 76. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1876, by 
 
 Hakpek & Brothers, 
 
 In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The origin of this little book is as follows : Some months 
 ago, the expediency was suggested to the author, by certain 
 prominent friends of hard money in this country, of preparing 
 for popular reading — and possibly for political campaign pur- 
 poses — a little tract, or essay, in which the elementary princi- 
 ples underlying the important subjects of money and currency 
 should be presented' and illustrated from the simplest ABC 
 stand-point. That such a work was desirable, and that none 
 of the very great number of speeches and essays already pub- 
 lished on these topics in all respects answered the existing re- 
 quirement, was admitted ; but how to invest subjects, so often 
 discussed, and so commonly regarded as dry and abstract, 
 with sufficient new interest to render them at once attractive 
 and intelligible to those whose tastes disincline them to close 
 reasoning and investigation, was a matter not easy to deter- 
 mine. 
 
 At last the old idea — recognized in fables, allegories, and 
 parables — of making a story the medium for communicating 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 instruction, suggested itself; and, in accordance with the sug- 
 gestion, a remote island community has been imagined, in 
 which, starting from conditions but one remove fi-om barba- 
 rism, but gradually rising to a high degree of civilization, the 
 progress, the use, and the abuse of the instrumentalities and 
 mechanism of exchange — through barter, money, and curren- 
 cy — have been traced consecutively; and the effect of the 
 application of not a few of the most popular fiscal recom- 
 mendations and theories of the day practically worked 'out 
 and recorded. And, in carrying out this scheme, the reader 
 will not fail to perceive, by reference to the marginal notes 
 accompanying the text, that hardly an absurdity in reference 
 to exchange, money, or currency can be imagined, which some- 
 where and at some time has not had its exact counterpart in 
 actual history or experience. 
 
 If any apology for the objects designed or the course pur- 
 sued is needed, the author thinks he finds it in the precedent 
 established by the illustrious Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., who, in 
 the introduction to his " Tales of a Traveler," thus happily sets 
 forth the special advantage which accrues from the proper em- 
 ployment of a story as a means of communicating informa- 
 tion. " I am not," he says, " for those barefaced tales which 
 carry their moral on their surface, staring one in the face ; on 
 the contrary, I have often hid my moral from sight, and dis- 
 guised it as much as possible by sweets' and spices ; so that 
 while the simple reader is listening with open mouth to a 
 ghost or love story, he may have a bolus of sound morality 
 popped down his throat, and be never the wiser for the 
 fraud." 
 
 Whether in " Eobinson Crusoe's Money " the author shall 
 succeed in inducing his fellow-countrymen — to whom the or- 
 dinary currency medicine is becoming distasteful — to swallow 
 without wry faces the same dose sugar-coated, remains to be 
 determined. 
 NOKWICH, Conn., January, 1876. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. PAGE 
 
 THE THREE GREAT BAGS OF MONEY 11 
 
 CHAPTEE II. 
 A NEW SOCIAL ORDER OF THINGS 13 
 
 CHAPTEE III. 
 
 THE PERIOD OP BARTER 15 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 HOW THEY INVENTED MONEY 20 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 HOW THE PEOPLE ON THE ISLAND AND ELSEWHERE LEARNED WIS- 
 DOM 26 
 
 CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 GOLD, AND HOW THEY CAME TO USE IT 38 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 HOW THE ISLANDERS DETERMINED TO BE AN HONEST AND FREE PEO- 
 PLE 50 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 HOW THE PEOPLE ON THE ISLAND CAME TO USE CURRENCY EST THE 
 PLACE OF MONEY 55 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 WAR WITH THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT 60 
 
8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. PAGE 
 
 AFTER THE WAK 72 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 THE NEW MILLENNIUM 83 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GETTING SOBER 108 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 "l SMILED AT MYSELF AT THE SIGHT OF ALL THIS MONET. ' OH, DRUG,' 
 SAID I, ALOUD, ' WHAT AET THOU GOOD FOR ? THOU ART NOT WORTH 
 TO ME, NO, NOT THE TAKING OFF THE GROUND. ONE OF THESE KNIVES 
 
 IS WORTH ALL THIS HEAP ' ". Frontispiece 
 
 THE REPRESENTATIVES OP LABOR AND THE REPRESENTATIVES OF CAPITAL 
 
 PROPOSING TO HAVE A DIFFERENCE 18 
 
 THEN THE BUBBLE BURST; STOCK COMPANIES ALL FAILED 29 
 
 THE SURVIVAL OP THE FITTEST 52 
 
 A SHADOW IS NOT A SUBSTANCE 58 
 
 ONE WAT OF ELOVrlNO A DISSATISFIED PARTY OUT OF EXISTENCE 70 
 
 THIS SCHEME ACCORDINGLT FOUND MANT OPPONENTS, WHO ALLEGED THAT, 
 
 IP IT WERE CARRIED OUT, IT WOULD DEPRIVE THEM OF MONEY, AND 
 
 CONSEQUENTLY OP INSTRUMENTALITIES FOR MAKING THEIR EXCHANGES 75 
 
 "an INSTRUMENT OF JIILITART NECESSITT, ONCE CREATED, REBLAINS SUCH 
 
 AN INSTRUMENTALITT FOR CONTINUED USE FOR ALL TIME ; NO MATTER 
 
 WHO IT MAT HIT, OR WHAT PROPERTT IT MAT DESTROT " 81 
 
 THE DOCTORS PRESCRIBE CONTINUED LOW (fiSCAl) DIET 85 
 
 THE ARAB AND THE CAMEL 92 
 
 MILK-TICKETS FOR BABIES, IN PLACE OP MILK 97 
 
 AN INFLATION LOOK AHEAD 102 
 
 INCREASING THE VOLUME OF THE CURKENCT 106 
 
 THE HUNGRT DOG AND THE SHADOW 115 
 
EOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTEE I. 
 
 THE THREE GREAT BAGS OF MONEY. 
 
 All who have read " Eobinson Crusoe " (and who has not ?) 
 will remember the circumstance of his opening, some time 
 after he had become domiciled on his desolate island, one 
 of the chests that had come to him from the ship. In it he 
 found pins, needles and thread, a pair of large scissors, " ten 
 or a dozen good knives," some cloth, about a dozen and a half 
 of white linen handkerchiefs concerning which he remai'ks, 
 "They were exceedingly refreshing to wipe my face on a 
 warm day ;" and, finally, hidden away in the till of the chest, 
 " three great hags of money — gold as well as silver." 
 
 The finding of all these articles — the money excepted — it 
 will be further remembered, greatly delighted the heart of 
 Crusoe ; inasmuch as they increased his store of useful things, 
 and therefore increased his comfort and happiness. But in 
 respect to the money the case was entirely different. It was 
 a thing to him, under the circumstances, absolutely worthless, 
 and over its presence and finding he soliloquized as follows : 
 "I smiled at myself at the sight of all this money. 'Oh, 
 drug !' said I, aloud, ' what art thou good for ? Thou art not 
 worth to me, no, not the taking off the ground. One of these 
 
12 MOBINSON CRVSOE'S MONET. 
 
 knives is worth all this heap. ■ Nay, I would give it all for a 
 gross of tobacco-pipes ; for sixpenny- worth of turnip and car- 
 rot seed from England ; or for a handful of pease and beans, 
 and a bottle of ink.' " 
 
 In introducing this episode in the life of his hero, noth- 
 ing was probably further from the thought of the author, De 
 Foe, than the intent to give his readers a lesson in political 
 economy. And yet it would be difficult to find an illustra- 
 tion which conveys in so simple a manner to him who re- 
 flects upon it so much of information in respect to the nature 
 of that which is popularly termed '^wealth;'''' or so good a 
 basis for reasoning correctly in respect to the origin and 
 function of that which we call " inoneyr And in such rea- 
 soning, the truth of the following propositions is too evident 
 to require demonstration : 
 
 1st. The pins and needles, the scissors, knives, and cloth 
 were of great utility to Eobinson Crusoe, because their posses- 
 sion satisfied a great desire on his part to have them, and 
 greatly increased his comfort and happiness. 
 
 2d. Possessing utility, they nevertheless possessed no ex- 
 changeable value., because they could not be bought or sold, 
 or, what is the same thing, exchanged with any body for any 
 thing. 
 
 3d. They had, moreover, no price, for they had no purchas- 
 ing power which could be expressed as money. 
 
 4th. The money, which is popularly regarded as the symbol 
 and the concentration of all wealth, had, under the circum- 
 stances, neither utility, value, nor price. It could not be eaten, 
 drunk, worn, used as a tool, or exchanged with any body for 
 any thing, and fully merited the appellation which Crusoe in 
 another place gives it, of " sorry, worthless sttiff^ 
 
 Finally, the pins, needles, knives, cloth, and scissors were 
 
TBE NEW FAMILY. 13 
 
 all capital to Kobinson Crusoe, because they were all iustru- 
 mentalities capable of being used to produce something addi- 
 tional, to him useful or desirable. The money was not capi- 
 tal, under the circumstances, because it could not be used to 
 produce any thing. 
 
 Starting, then, with a condition of things on the island in 
 which money had clearly neither utility nor value, let us next 
 consider under what change of domestic circumstances it 
 could become useful, acquire value, become an object of ex- 
 change, and constitute a standard for establishing prices. 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 A NEW SOCIAL ORDER OF THINGS. 
 
 The first pei'son that came to join Robinson Crusoe on his 
 island was Friday, and next, Friday's father. But even with 
 this increase of numbers there was still no use for the money, 
 inasmuch as the three constituted but one family, the mem- 
 bers of which labored and shared all useful things they ac- 
 quired in common, and made no exchanges. But when Will 
 Atkins and the English sailors came, and the population of 
 the island, we may suppose, was largely and permanently in- 
 creased, a new social order of things became inevitable. In- 
 compatibility of taste and temper, and a natural desire for 
 personal independence, soon made it impossible for all to live 
 and share in common as one family. And self-interest also 
 soon taught, that, in order that the quantity of useful things 
 available for the new community as a whole might be in- 
 creased, and their quality perfected, it was desirable, that, in- 
 stead of each man endeavoring to supply all his own wants. 
 
14 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 and for this purpose following irregularly the business of a 
 carpenter, baker, tailor, mason, and the like, it was best for 
 each man to pursue but one occupation, and, making himself 
 skilled in it, procure the things which he himself did not pro- 
 duce, and which he might need, by exchanging his own prod- 
 ucts or services for the products or services of some other 
 man. They saw instinctively that Kobinson Crusoe, although 
 originally civilized, would, if he had remained alone on the 
 island, have inevitably become a pure savage, and simply 
 because he was alone, and could make no exchanges. For 
 a time, the things which he obtained from the wreck raised 
 him above this condition ; for what the ship brought him — the 
 knives, axes, guns, cloth, etc. — were capital, or the accumulated 
 labor of other men. But if the ship had given him nothing, 
 he would have had to make every thing for himself — " his 
 hat, his garments, his feet-covering, his bread, his meat with 
 bow and arrows, his house by blows of his hatchet, his hatchet 
 by blows of his hammer, his hammer heaven knows how " — 
 and become a barbarian in spite of himself, because all his 
 effort would have been required, and would have only sufficed, 
 to insure him a bare subsistence. 
 
 Systematic division of labor and the exchange of products 
 and services thus, for the first time on the island, came in, and 
 constituted a part of the perfected machinery of production, 
 or the means of getting a living. And it is also to be here 
 noted, that, because commodities and services now for the first 
 time became exchangeable, they also for the first time acquired 
 the attribute which we call value. 
 
TEE PERIOD OF BABTEB. 15 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE PERIOD OF BARTER. 
 
 All exchanges must, however, in the first instance, have 
 been made directly, or, as we term it, by 'barter; so much of 
 one commodity or service being given for so much of some 
 other commodity or service — corn for cloth, furs and skins for 
 knives or tobacco, so much labor in building a house for so 
 much skill in constructing a canoe. But in all this method 
 of exchanging, which, while it is the most ancient, is also one 
 which still extensively prevails in even the most civilized so- 
 cieties, there was no place for the use or intervention of mon- 
 ey ; and consequently, also, there was no such thing as price ; 
 for price, as before stated, is the purchasing power of any 
 commodity or service expressed in money. 
 
 But the people on Robinson Crusoe Island soon found out 
 by experience that there was an obstacle in the way of carry- 
 ing on all exchanges according to the principle of direct bar- 
 ter, so serious in its nature as to constitute, unless removed, a 
 complete bar to any further considerable progress in civiliza- 
 tion and social development. And the discovery happened 
 somewhat in this wise : 
 
 Twist, who was a tailor, and had made a coat, discovered 
 all at once that he was out of bread ; and being hungry, sus- 
 pended work, and went in search of Needum, the baker, to 
 effect an exchange. He foimd him without difSculty, just 
 heating his oven, and with plenty of bread to dispose of ; but 
 as the baker had all the coats he wanted, he declined to trade. 
 
16 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 Needum, however, kindly informed Twist that if any fellow 
 should call with any surplus grain or flour, he (Needum) would 
 be most happy to supply him with all the bread he needed 
 in exchange; but as the tailor was neither a farmer nor a 
 miller, and had neither of these articles, he (Twist) set off for 
 the other end of the island, where there was another baker, to 
 see how the latter was situated in respect to garments. On 
 his way, Twist was overtaken by Pecks, the mason, who had 
 no coat, and, wanting the very garment which Twist had been 
 making, had stopped work on a stone wall and gone in search 
 of the tailor, to whom he proposed to exchange the coat for a 
 new chimney. But as Twist had already two chimneys to his 
 house, and nothing to cook, and didn't want another chimney, 
 the mason was as unsuccessful in his effort to trade with the 
 tailor as the tailor had been just before with the baker. At 
 last, after much vexatious traveling about, involving great 
 waste of time and labor, Twist found a baker who wanted to 
 exchange bread for the coat, and Pecks a tailor who would 
 give a coat for a chimney ; ISTeedum having, in the mean time, 
 shut up his bakery and gone in search of Diggs, the farmer, 
 who was willing to supply grain for bread. But when all 
 these different persons, each desirous of exchanging his special 
 products or services, had been found, and had come together, 
 a new perplexity at once made its appearance, and one so em- 
 barrassing as to cause each man seriously to consider whether 
 it were not better to return home and endeavor to produce ev- 
 ei-y thing for himself, rather than attempt to exchange any 
 thing. " For how," said they all, " is the comparative value 
 of our different commodities and services which we propose to 
 exchange to be ascertained ?" " How can I know," said Twist, 
 " how many loaves I ought to receive for my coat ?" " Or I," 
 said Pecks, " find out how high and broad a chimney I ought 
 
ISE PERIOD OF BARTER. 17 
 
 to make for my garment ?" Diggs, fm'thermore, got up a lit- 
 tle private dispute of his own with Needum, growing out of 
 the circumstance that the latter wanted to make his entire 
 payment in bread to the former at once ; while Diggs, who 
 did not relish the idea of living on stale and possibly moldy 
 bread for an indefinite length of time, wanted pay for his 
 grain, from the baker, at the rate of one fresh loaf per day. 
 As for poor Twist, he had become by this time so humble 
 through hunger that he had not the heart to object to the 
 proposition to take a cart-load of bread at once in exchange 
 for his coat, although his house was so small that he knew he 
 would have to store part of his "pay" on the roof, where it 
 would be certain to be eaten by others than his own family. 
 
 There was another incident which happened about this 
 time which made much talk among the island community. 
 A man who had nothing to sell but his labor had been em- 
 ployed to load a vessel with coal — a vein of which had been 
 discovered ; and, after working faithfully all day, had received 
 in pay for his services a ton of coal. But as it was meat, 
 drink, and lodging, and not coal (although the latter was great- 
 ly needed for some purposes), which the laborer wanted, there 
 was nothing left for the laborer to do but to attempt to ex- 
 change his coal, and that, too, as soon as possible, in order to 
 satisfy his immediate necessities. Being too poor to hire a 
 horse and cart, he therefore borrowed a wheelbarrow, and, fill- 
 ing it with coal, went in search of persons who had a surplus 
 of meat, drink, and lodgings to dispose of. But all of them 
 happened to have all the coal they wanted; and morning 
 found the laborer still trundling through the streets his most 
 useful commodity unexchanged, and ready to sink with hunger 
 and exposure. A like experience befell also the journeyman 
 butcher, blacksmith, carpenter, and dry - goods clerk, who re- 
 
 2 
 
18 
 
 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 ceived for their day's labor respectively a sheep-skin, a dozen 
 horse-shoes, a piece of pine timber, and two yards of red flan- 
 nel. All were in no condition, through bodily exhaustion, to 
 resume work on the next day; and all also clearly saw that 
 their condition would not have been much improved, if each 
 had received an entire payment in either meat, drink, or lodg 
 ing, in place of coal, skin, lumber, horseshoes, or cloth. 
 
 THE KEPKESENIATIVES OF LABOR AND THE KEPRESENTATIVES OP CAPITAL 
 PKOPOSING to HAVE A DIFFERENCE. 
 
THE PERIOD OF BARTER. 19 
 
 The laborers, therefore, held a meeting, and at once resolved : 
 " That whereas it was evident that the system of paying for 
 labor with a portion of the commodity which each laborer pro- 
 duced would necessitate as much time and labor to make their 
 wages serviceable to their wants as was required in the first 
 instance to earn said wages ; therefore, it was but right and 
 proper that the employers should allow the laborers to use half 
 of the whole time for which they were paid, for the purpose 
 of rendering their wages wholly available for their immediate 
 necessities." But to this the employers rejoined that such an 
 agreement would be equivalent not only to doubling the pro- 
 portion of wages to direct production, but also to impairing, to 
 the extent of one-half, the effectiveness of all labor engaged in 
 production, thereby increasing scarcity, diminishing abundance, 
 and rendering further advance in material development ex- 
 ceedingly slow, if not altogether impossible. For a time, 
 therefore, there was a prospect of a very serious diiBculty be- 
 tween the representatives of labor and the representatives of 
 capital ; resulting, as is always the case, in immense losses, 
 not only to those directly concerned, but to the whole com- 
 munity. 
 
20 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTEE IV. 
 
 HOW THEY INVENTED MONEY. 
 
 The people on the island — both laborers and employers — 
 were, however, fully agreed that life was too short to waste 
 a good part of it in a game of " blindman's-buff " on a large 
 scale — for such this attempt to conduct exchanges on a basis 
 of direct barter substantially was ;* but they nevertheless also 
 clearly perceived that the game would continue to be played, 
 to the interruption of all material progress, unless some other 
 method of exchanging could be devised and adopted. Under 
 the guidance, therefore, as it were, of instinct (Eobinson Cru- 
 soe encouraging), and without any enactment of law, Twist, 
 Needum, Pecks, Diggs, Friday, Friday's father, Will Atkins, 
 and every body else, by common consent, agreed to select and 
 
 * That the inconveniences experienced by a community attempting to 
 conduct its exchanges exclusively by pure and direct barter as here depict- 
 ed, are not only not imaginary, but have their exact counterpart in the 
 present every-day experiences of countries of great geographical area and 
 population, is proved by the testimony of Barth, Burton, and other recent 
 travelers in Eastern Africa. Thus Barth, for example, says (see " Travels," 
 vol. i., p. 568 ; vol. iii., p. 203) that he was repeatedly prevented from buying 
 what he absolutely needed — com, rice, etc. — because he did not have, and 
 could not get, what the people wanted in exchange ; and, again (vol. ii., p. 
 51), he states that so great was the difficulty of getting things in some of 
 the African towns which he visited, in consequence of the people having 
 no general medium of exchange, that his servants would often return from 
 their purchasing expeditions in a state of the utmost exhaustion. 
 
HOW THEY INVENTED MONEY. 21 
 
 adopt some single commodity which all should agree to take 
 in exchange for whatever of products or services they might 
 have to dispose of; so that whenever any one had any thing 
 to exchange, he might first exchange it for this commodity, 
 whatever it might be, and then with such intermediate object 
 purchase at such times and places, and in such proportions as 
 he might desire, whatever he might need. And the moment 
 this was done, civilization on the island took a long step for- 
 ward, and the first great embarrassment growing out of the 
 attempt to exchange exclusively by direct barter was removed. 
 The tailor was no longer in danger of starving; the mason 
 had no longer any anxiety about procuring clothing, and the 
 laborer received as pay for Jhis labor something which gave 
 him an equivalent in meat, drink, lodging, and other necessi- 
 ties which he might need, without trouble ; every man giving 
 freely of his goods or services for the intermediate object, 
 because he knew that every other person desirous of exchang- 
 ing would be willing to do the same. 
 
 Again: the selection of some commodity or article, and 
 the investing it by common consent with a universal and 
 comparatively unvarying purchasing power, also solved the sec- 
 ond perplexity, inasmuch as it provided a measure or stand- 
 ard, for ascertaining the comparative value or purchasing pow- 
 er of every other exchangeable commodity or service ; and in 
 precisely the same manner as the length or weight of any 
 thing is ascertained, i. e., by comparing it with some other 
 thing which the community have universally agreed to recog- 
 nize as a standard of length or weight — as, for example, the 
 rod of wood which we call a yard-stick, or a piece of metal 
 which is termed a pound. "My loaves are each worth ten 
 pieces of the intermediate commodity," said ISTeedum, the 
 baker! "My coat," rejoined Twist, the tailor, "is worth a 
 
22 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 thousand pieces !" The terms of fair exchange between the 
 baker and the tailor would therefore have been one hundred 
 loaves for one coat. 
 
 The general name given to the commodities or articles 
 which the people of different countries universally accept in 
 exchange, as the equivalent for all other commodities or serv- 
 ices, and as the measure of values, is money. 
 
 The commodities or articles which have been selected by 
 men at various times and places to serve as this universal 
 equivalent, intermediate agent, or medium for facilitating ex- 
 changes, have been exceedingly various. Among the North 
 American Indians, and the early settlers who came among 
 them, wampum and beaver-skins were used as money; among 
 the natives of West Africa, money consists of small shells call- 
 ed " cowries ;" in Abyssinia, tlie common money of to-day is 
 salt ; in Chinese Tartary, it is cubes of pressed tea ; and within 
 a comparatively recent period small cakes of soap have been 
 used as money on the west coast of Mexico. Among pastoral 
 people of antiquity, cattle and sheep were so extensively used 
 for money that our common English word jpecwniary has its 
 derivation from the old word pecus, signifying a flock. And 
 while we read in Homer that the price of the armor of Glau- 
 cus was one hundred head of cattle, we also know that the 
 Zulus of South Africa pay their debts to-day in cattle, and 
 reckon their wealth by the same standard. 
 
 Money, therefore, existed before statutes, and exists and is 
 used to-day among nations who have no written or acknowl- 
 edged code of laws. 
 
HOW THET INVENTED MONEY. 23 
 
 It is also of importance to a clear understanding of this 
 subject to recognize at this point another fundamental fact, 
 namely, that there is no evidence that any nation or people 
 has ever adopted, in the first instance, any article or commodi- 
 ty to use as money which did not possess, by reason of some 
 inherent or intrinsic desirable qualities, a natural purchasing 
 power or value. And a little reiiection will make it obvious 
 that this must have been so from necessity. For in the ab- 
 sence of all law defining what money should be, and regula- 
 ting exchanges, the adoption of any article to serve as money 
 which represented little or no effort for its production or accu- 
 mulation would enable the shrewd, the idle, or unscrupulous, 
 easily, and without fear of punishment or restraint, to take 
 from the rest of the comnaunity products which represented 
 the expenditure of time and labor, without giving in return 
 any equivalent. Thus, for example, if dried leaves, or pieces 
 of paper with such marks as any might choose to stamp or 
 scrawl upon them, had been invested with a universal pur- 
 chasing power, the primary practical result of the use of such 
 money would have been to enable somebody to obtain some- 
 thing for nothing, or to permit those who would not work 
 or save, to rob those who did. The people on the island, be- 
 ing uneducated, never did any such foolish thing ; but when 
 they came to study history, they found out, to their great sur- 
 prise, that the people of other countries had repeatedly used 
 things worthless in themselves as money; and many years 
 afterward a man who aspired to be a great teacher even came 
 to the island from the United States, and endeavored to con- 
 vince the people that it was a great defect to use any thing as 
 money which had any intrinsic value as a commodity.* The 
 
 * " The precious metals have many qualities -which fit them for use as 
 
24 SOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 children of the first school he attempted to talk to soon made 
 his position embarrassing by reading from their histories that 
 the people of every country, especially the poor and ill-in- 
 formed, who had ever attempted to facilitate their exchanges 
 by using something as money which had no intrinsic value, 
 had in every case been so swindled and robbed, as a conse- 
 quence, that sooner or later they were always compelled, as a 
 measure of simple self-protection, to abandon its use, and in 
 its place adopt something as money which had a generally ac- 
 knowledged and comparatively permanent inherent value or 
 purchasing power as a commodity. 
 
 The following were some of the narrations which the chil- 
 dren found and read out of their histories : 
 
 " In Decemtier, 1861, a poor soldier's widow put into the saviugs-liank 
 two hundred dollars in specie, and then removed with four young children 
 to California. In July, 1864, when gold stood at two hundred and eighty, 
 she sent for her money. In return, she received a gold draft for eighty- 
 three, accrued interest at six per cent, included." — Heney Beonson, Nat- 
 ure and Office of Money. 
 
 " The morals of the people were corrupted (by the Continental irredeem- 
 able money) beyond any thing that could have been believed prior to the 
 event. All ties of honor, blood, gratitude, humanity, and justice were dis- 
 solved. Old debts were paid when the paper money was worth no more 
 than seventy for one. Brothers defrauded brothers, children parents, and 
 
 coin money. Their defects are their weight, their intrinsic value as com- 
 modities." — Social Science and National Economy, hy M. E. Thompson, Phila- 
 delphia, 1875. 
 
 "The moment it is perceived that money is nothing but a token, it be- 
 comes evident that any token currently accepted in exchange of useful 
 services and products of labor will perform the proper functions of money 
 without regard to the material of which it is made ; and that the less cost- 
 ly the material out of which money is made, the better for the community 
 that uses it." — Money, Currency, and BanJcing, hy Charles Moran, New York, 
 1875, p. 42. 
 
HOW THET INVENTED MONEY. 25 
 
 parents children. Widows, orphans, and others were paid for money lent 
 in specie with depreciated paper." — Bebck, Sketch of Continental Money. 
 
 " The assignats gradually dwindled down to nothing, involving the whole 
 land in ruin — excepting a few lucky speculators — and resulted eventually 
 in national bankruptcy. When thousands of wretches, even before the 
 final collapse of the assignats, were committing suicide to escape starvation, 
 war was a blessing ; and Napoleon was the instrument by means of which 
 all Europe was made to feel the results of worthless money, either directly 
 or by inoculation, from its maddened victims." — Notes on the French As- 
 signats, and their Influence. 
 
 " He had to pay four hundred dollars for a hat ; for a pair of boots the 
 same. He wanted a good horse, but was asked a price equivalent to ten 
 years' pay." " My six months' earnings will scarce defray the most in- 
 dispensable outlay of a single day. * * * For a bed, supper, and grog for 
 myself, my three companions, and their servants, I was charged, on going 
 off without a breakfast next day, the sum of eight hundred and fifty dol- 
 lars." — Life of General De Kalb. 
 
 "In all, from first to last (1835 to 1841), the amount of notes, bills, 
 drafts, bonds, etc., issued by the Treasury of the Republic of Texas, and 
 serving to a greater or less extent as a 'circulating medium,' amounted 
 to 113,318,145, or at the rate of more than two hundred and sixty dollars 
 per head of the entire population. If paper issues serving as money could 
 have made a people rich, the Texans ought to have been the richest people 
 in the universe. In January, 1839, Texas treasury-notes were worth no 
 more than forty cents on the dollar; in the spring of 1839, they were worth 
 thirty-seven and a half cents ; in 1841, from twelve to fifteen cents ; and 
 in 1842 it required, in the characteristic language of the times, 'fifteen 
 dollars in treasury-notes to buy three glasses of brandy-aud- water vrith- 
 out sugar.' ' By this time there was little circulating medium of any kind 
 in Texas ; but this was no great calamity, as the people had but little left 
 to circulate.' The evils the system did were immense, and such as for 
 which, even were it so disposed, the Government could afford no compen- 
 sation to the sufferers."— Gouge's Fiscal History of Texas. 
 
 Again, one of the principal objects for which money was 
 devised and brought into use was to serve as a measure, or 
 standard, for estimating the comparative value of other things. 
 
26 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 But it seems hardly possible to conceive of a person desir- 
 ous of using money for such purpose, selecting an article to 
 measure values which in itself possesses no value, or costs no 
 labor to produce, any more than he would select as a stand- 
 ard for measuring length something which had no length, or 
 as a standard for measuring weight something which had no 
 weight. The people of the island must have been unusually 
 stupid if they did not from the outset, therefore, clearly see 
 that nothing can be reliable and good money under all cir- 
 cumstances which does not of itself possess the full amount of 
 the value which it professes on its face to possess. 
 
 CHAPTEE V. 
 
 HOW THE PEOPLE ON THE ISLAND AND ELSEWHERE 
 LEARNED WISDOM. 
 
 But while any commodity possessed of acknowledged pur- 
 chasing power or value may be used as money, the experi- 
 ence of the islanders and every other people must have soon 
 taught them that some commodities are much better adapted 
 to this purpose than others ; or, rather, that the use of certain 
 commodities as money, while they may answer the purpose, 
 nevertheless entail very serious disadvantages. And the de- 
 tails of the manner in which this information has been ac- 
 quired by experience constitute one of the most interesting 
 chapters in the world's history. The experience of the island- 
 ers was somewhat as follows : 
 
 At the outset they agreed to use cowries — a pretty shell 
 picked up on the beach, and which the women all desired to 
 have and use as an ornament. These shells were not, howev- 
 
THE ISLANDERS AND OTHERS LEARN WISDOM. 27 
 
 er, plentiful ; and, in fact, it was found that it required about 
 as much time and labor for a man to collect a hundred of 
 them as it did to grow a bushel of wheat. Consequently, 
 wheat regularly exchanged for cowries (as money) at the rate 
 of one hundred cowries for one bushel, while the farmer with 
 two thousand cowries could readily buy a plow, which was 
 considered equivalent in value to twenty bushels. By-and-by, 
 some idle fellows that were in the habit of sailing made a 
 long excursion, and, for the first time, visited a little island on 
 the remote horizon. When they landed, they found, to their 
 surprise, that instead of cowries being very scarce on the 
 beach, they were very abundant. They winked at one anoth- 
 er, and said little ; but each man proceeded to gather all the 
 cowries he could, and, returning to the main island, kept their 
 discovery a profound secret. 
 
 The first thing of note that next happened among the Kob- 
 inson Crusoe people was a great and unexpected revival in 
 business. Money began to grow abundant. Societary circu- 
 lation was never so active. Every thing that was offered for 
 sale speedily found a purchaser, and, demand increasing, prices 
 rapidly increased also. It was also noticed that a few per- 
 sons who never did any regular work, but speculated and 
 gambled all the morning, and took pleasant sailing excursions 
 every afternoon, had, especially, plenty of money, which, as 
 patriotic citizens, desirous of making trade lively, they were 
 always most ready to part with for other commodities. The 
 shop-keepers, the farmers, and the mechanics, all also finding 
 that they had more money than usual, all also felt impelled to 
 buy something, and prices took a fresh start upward, so that a 
 bushel of wheat that could previously have been sold for one 
 hundred cowries easily brought one hundred and fifty, and 
 even two hundred. But, on the other hand, the farmer, in- 
 
28 BOSINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 stead of being able to buy, as before, a plow for two thou- 
 sand cowries, now found that he had to pay double, or four 
 thousand ; or, in other words, the cowries had only about one- 
 half the purchasing power they possessed before. 
 
 But for a time every body was jubilant. Was it not evi- 
 dent that the value of every man's possessions, measured in 
 cowry money, had greatly increased — and what could be more 
 natural than that the shrewd adventurers who had been the 
 authors of these golden days should be highly honored, invited 
 to speak before cowry clubs in all parts of the island, and be 
 even talked of for the chief offices, which still continued to be 
 filled by Eobinson Crusoe and his man Friday ? The contin- 
 ually augmenting prices — measured in cowry money — of all 
 commodities, or, what is the same thing, the continually di- 
 minishing purchasing power of the cowries, at last began to 
 attract attention, and this in turn induced distrust ; so that the 
 price of a bushel of wheat, which had been at first one hun- 
 dred cowries, and then two hundred, rose to three, four, and 
 even five hundred cowries. Another remarkable circiimstance 
 noticed was, that, as prices increased, the wants of trade for 
 cowry money also increased proportionably, which want the 
 adventurers who had been the means of giving the island its 
 increased volume of money took care to supply by bringing 
 additional quantities of cowries as they were needed. It was 
 also observed that, as distrust increased, there was also a re- 
 markable increase in societary activity ; for every body desired 
 to change off his cowry money for something else.* Per- 
 
 * " To my mind, the great and immediate need of the day is the issu- 
 ance of more legal-tender notes, in order to impair the confidence in 
 them to an extent as to cause the owners of them to desire to exchange 
 them for other kinds of property, or man's wants — not simply to loan 
 out on short or long date paper, with fire-proof security, at low or high 
 
THE ISLANDEBS AND OTSEES LEAMN WISDOM. 29 
 
 
 THEN THE BUBBLE BURST ; STOCK COMPANIES ALL FAILED. 
 
 sons who were in debt made haste to pay their debts, and ev- 
 ery body was ready to lend cowry money to start all sorts of 
 new enterprises. A company was organized, for example, 
 
 rates of interest, whicli can now be done to any extent required — but 
 absolutely part with them for other kinds of property." — Views of Enoch 
 Misley, of Memphis, Tennessee, on the National Finances, Memphis, September, 
 1875. 
 
30 BOBimON CBUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 with a capital of ten million cowries, to explore the wreck of 
 the original ship which brought Kobinson Crusoe to the isl- 
 and; and although nobody knew exactly where the wreck 
 was, or what was supposed to remain in it, it was advocated 
 as affording great opportunity for labor. Another project, for 
 which a company with fifty million cowries capital was start- 
 ed, was to build a system of canals across the island, although 
 the island had a width of only about ten miles, with a remark- 
 ably safe ocean navigation all around it. 
 
 Finally, the secret of the whole matter gradually leaked out. 
 Other people besides the original three shrewd fellows found 
 out where the supply of cowries came from, and made haste 
 to visit the remote island, provide themselves with money, and 
 put it in circulation. But the more money that was issued, 
 the more was needed to supply the wants of trade, until at 
 last it took a four -horse wagon -load of cowries to buy a 
 bushel of wheat. Then the biibble burst. Stock -companies 
 all failed. Trade became utterly stagnant. The man whom 
 Robinson Crusoe had made secretary of the island treasuiy 
 thought he coidd help matters by issuing a few more cowries, 
 but it was no use. Some very wise persons were certain that 
 every thing would be all right again if people would only have 
 confidence; but as long as the people who worked and saved 
 were uncertain what they were to receive for the products of 
 their labor — something or nothing— confidence didn't return. 
 Every body felt poor and swindled. Every body who thought 
 he had money in savings-banks woke up all at once to the 
 realization that his money was nothing but a lot of old shells. 
 Every body had his bags, his tills, and his money-boxes filled 
 with shells, which he had taken in exchange for commodi- 
 ties which had cost him valuable time and labor. Strictly 
 speaking, however, calamity did not overtake every body. 
 
TSE ISLANDERS AND OTBEBS LEABN WISDOM. 31 
 
 There were some exceptions, namely the shrewd and idle fel- 
 lows who had first found the cheap supply of cowries, and, 
 taking advantage of the ignorance of the community, had add- 
 ed them to the before-existing circulation to serve as money. 
 All these had taken very good care to keep the substantial 
 valuable things — houses, lots, plows, grain, etc. — which they 
 had received in exchange. They had, in fact, grown rich by 
 robbing the rest of the community.* The community, how- 
 ever, were too courteous to call them thieves, and in conversa- 
 tion they were usually refen-ed to as shrewd financiers, and as 
 men ahead of their time. The concluding act of this curious 
 island experience was, that the formerly so highly prized 
 money became depreciated to such an extent as to possess 
 value only as a material for making lime. The people ac- 
 cordingly, by burning, made lime out of it, and then, in order 
 to make things outwardly cheerful, used the lime as white- 
 wash. But upon one point they were all unanimous, and that 
 was, that the next commodity they might select to use as 
 money should be something whose permanency of value did 
 not depend on elements capable of being suddenly affected by 
 accidental circumstances, or arbitrarily and easily changed by 
 
 * " In the midst of the public distress, one class prospered greatly — the 
 bankers ; and, ataong the bankers, none could, in skill or in luck, bear a 
 comparison with Charles Dunconibe. He had been, not many years be- 
 fore, a goldsmith of very moderate wealth. He had probably, after the 
 fashion of his craft, plied for customers under the arcades of the Eoyal Ex- 
 change, had saluted merchants with profound bows, and had begged to be 
 allowed the honor of keeping their cash. But so dexterously did he now 
 avail himself of the opportunities of profit which the general coufasion of 
 prices gave to a money-changer, that, at the moment when the trade of the 
 kingdom was depressed to the lowest point, he laid down near ninety 
 thousand pounds for the estate of Helmsley, in the North Riding of York- 
 shire." — Macaulay'S History of England, State of the Ottrrency in 1694-'95. 
 
32 BOBINSON CBUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 the devices of those who desired to get their living without 
 working for it. 
 
 But this experience of the islanders in reference to the 
 originating and using of money, although curious, has not 
 been exceptional; for the records of history show that men 
 almost everywhere, in going through the process of civiliza- 
 tion, have had a greater or less measure of the same experi- 
 ence. One particularly noteworthy illustration of this is re- 
 corded in the " History of New York," by Diedrich Knicker- 
 bocker, and in the manuscript records of the New York His- 
 torical Society. It was in the days of Dutch rule — 1659 — in 
 New Amsterdam (afterward New York), when the common 
 money in use was the so-called Indian money, or " wampum ;" 
 which consisted "of strings of beads wrought of clams, peri- 
 winkles, and other shell-fish. These had formed a simple cur- 
 rency among the savages, who were content to take them of 
 the Dutch in exchange for peltries." 
 
 William Kieft was at that time governor, and being desirous 
 of increasing the wealth of New Amsterdam, and withal, as 
 the historian relates, somewhat emulous of Solomon (who made 
 gold and silver as plenty as stones in the streets of Jerusalem), 
 he (the governor) determined to accomplish his desire, and at 
 the same time rival Solomon by making this money of easy 
 production the current coin of the province. " It is true, it 
 had an intrinsic value among the Indians, who used it to orna- 
 ment their robes and moccasins ; but among the honest burgh- 
 ers it had no more intrinsic value " than bits of bone, rag, 
 paper, or any other worthless material. " This consideration, 
 however, had no weight with Governor Kieft. He began by 
 paying all the servants of the company, and all the debts of 
 the Government, in strings of wampum. He sent emissaries 
 to sweep the shores of Long Island, which was the Ophir of 
 
THE ISLANDEBS AND OTHERS LEAEN WISDOM. 33 
 
 this modern Solomon, and abounded in shell-fish. These were 
 transported in loads to New Amsterdam, coined into Indian 
 money, and launched into circulation." 
 
 "And now for a time affairs went on swimmingly. Money 
 became as plentiful as in the modern days of paper currency, 
 and, to use a popular phrase, ' a wonderful impulse was given 
 to public prosperity.' " 
 
 Unfortunately for the success of Governor Kieft's scheme, 
 the Yankees on Connecticut Kiver soon found that they coiild 
 make wampum in any quantity, with little labor and cost, out 
 of oyster-shells, and accordingly made haste to supply all the 
 wampum that the wants of trade in New Amsterdam re- 
 quired ; buying with it every thing that was offered, and pay- 
 ing the worthy Dutchmen their own price. Governor Kieft's 
 money, it is to be further noticed, had also in perfection that 
 most essential attribute of all good laonej," non-exportaMli- 
 ty." Accordingly, when the Dutchmen wanted any tin pans 
 or wooden bowls of Yankee manufacture, they had to pay for 
 them in substantial guilders, or other sound metallic currency ; 
 wampum being no more acceptable to the Yankees in ex- 
 change than addled eggs, rancid butter, rusty pork, rotten po- 
 tatoes, or any other non-exportable Dutch commodity.* 
 
 The result of all this was, that in a little time the Dutch- 
 
 * " Beyond the sea, in foreign lands, it (the greenback) fortunately is 
 not money; hnt, sir, when have we had such a long and unbroken career 
 of prosperity in business as since we adopted this non-exportable curren- 
 cy ?" — Speech of Hon. William D. Kelley, House of Bepreseniatives, 1870. 
 
 " I desire the doUar to be made of such material, for the purpose, that it 
 shall never be exported or desirable to carry out of the country. Framing 
 an American system of finance, I do not propose to adapt it to the wants 
 of any other nation." — Speech of General B. F. Butler before the New Torlc 
 Board of Trade, October 14th, 1875. 
 
 3 
 
34 BOBINSON CBUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 men and the Indians got all the wampum, and the Yankees 
 all the beaver-skins, Dutch herrings, Dutch cheeses, and all 
 the silver and gold of the province. Then, as might naturally 
 have been expected, confidence became impaired. Trade also 
 came to a stand-still, and, to quote from the old manuscript 
 records, " the company is defrauded of her revenues, and the 
 merchants disappointed in making returns with which they 
 might wish to meet their engagements." It is safe to conclude 
 that, after this, the commodity made use of by the Dutchmen 
 as money was something less liable to have its value impaired 
 than wampum. 
 
 The early settlers in East Tennessee also came to a similar 
 conclusion, after a somewhat similar experience. Eaccoon- 
 skins were in demand for various purposes, and consequently 
 were valuable. They accordingly selected them for use as 
 money. Opossum- skins, on the other hand, were not in de- 
 mand, and therefore had little value. Those of the settlers 
 who desired to discharge their obligations without giving a 
 full equivalent paid their taxes in opossum -skins to which 
 coons' tails were attached. The counterfeits having once got 
 into the treasury, could not be exported out of the treasury 
 to meet the payments of the State, and the use of coon-skins 
 as currency came to an end. 
 
 But to return to the island. Although the first experience 
 of the islanders in selecting a commodity to be used as mon- 
 ey had been particularly unfortunate, the necessity of having 
 some agency to serve the purpose of money remained as great 
 as before, and consequently a new commodity had to be se- 
 lected. Various people proposed various things. Some pro- 
 posed to use bananas, which were always desirable, and, when 
 good and ripe, were always exchangeable at a very constant 
 value ; but their unfitness to be used as money was acknowl- 
 
THE ISLANDERS AND OTHERS LEARN WISDOM. 35 
 
 edged as soon as it was pointed out that bananas decayed very 
 quickly after they became most useful, and that therefore a 
 man who had plenty of money to-day might have none to- 
 morrow, and that through no fault of his own.* Wheat, cat- 
 tle, and pieces of stamped iron were also proposed, but all of 
 these were found to be unsuitable in some essential particu- 
 lar. Thus, for example, it was objected to wheat, that, though 
 it was almost always in demand, and represented a very con- 
 stant amount of labor for its production, it was too bulky to 
 carry about, and rarely had the same exact value one year 
 as another; to cattle, that it was impossible to divide up an 
 ox, cutting off the tail at one time and the ears at another, for 
 the purpose of making change, without destroying the value 
 of the animal as a whole ; and that if cows in general were 
 to be used as legal tender to pay debts, the very poorest cow 
 would very probably be selected from the money-pen for such 
 a purpose ;-|- while, if iron were adopted as money, and circu- 
 
 * " Some years since, Mademoiselle Z^lie, a singer of the Theatre Ly- , 
 rique at Paris, made a professional tour round the world, and gave a con- 
 cert in the Society Islands. • In exchange for an air from ' Norma,' and a 
 few other songs, she was to receive a third part of the receipts. When 
 counted, her share was found to consist of three pigs, twenty-three tur- 
 keys, forty-four chickens, five thousand cocoa-nuts, besides consideral)le 
 quantities of bananas, lemons, and oranges. At the Halle (market) in 
 Paris, the prima donna remarks, in her lively letter printed by M. Walow- 
 ski, this amount of live stock and vegetables might have brought four 
 thousand francs, which would have been good remuneration for five songs. 
 In the Society Islands, however, pieces of money were very scarce ; and as 
 mademoiselle could not consume any considerable portion of the receipts 
 herself, it became necessary in the mean time to feed the pigs and poultry 
 with the fruit." — Jbvons's Money and Mechanism of Exchange. 
 
 t In 1658, it was ordered by the General Court of Massachusetts that no 
 man should pay taxes " in lank cattle." — Felt's Massachusetts Currency. 
 
36 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 lated at its current value, it might be necessary to move about 
 a ton to pay a debt of twenty or thirty dollars. 
 
 A peculiar kind of beads, made of blue glass, had come into 
 use with the women on the island as ornaments, and being 
 greatly in demand, small in bulk, and of most durable mate- 
 rial, they were thought to be peculiarly well fitted to serve the 
 purpose of money. They were accordingly adopted, and for 
 a time fairly answered the purpose. But all at once the wom- 
 en declared their continued use to be unfashionable ; and all 
 use and demand for the beads at once ceasing, the merchants 
 and others who had accumulated a large stock of them, in ex- 
 change for other commodities, at the same moment found that 
 what they had regarded as money had no longer any pur- 
 chasing power or value, and in consequence experienced great 
 losses. Thereupon the community concluded not to use blue 
 glass beads any longer as money.* 
 
 How fast the people on the island, by reason of their va- 
 ried experience, educated themselves up to a knowledge of 
 what constitutes good money may be inferred from the fol- 
 lowing incident: 
 
 A portion of the inhabitants on the island were heathen, 
 and, to defray the expense of efforts to civilize and Christian- 
 ize them, it was the habit of certain good men to take ad- 
 vantage of the assembling of the people from, time to time 
 to solicit and receive contributions for such objects. It was 
 observed, however, on such occasions that some persons, ei- 
 ther through ignorance of what constitutes money, or by reason 
 of great poverty, were in the habit of depositing commodities 
 in the hat which were not money ; and the practice having 
 
 * This incident is related by Burton, in his " Explorations of the Lake 
 Regions of Central Africa" (1858-'59), as one witliin his knowledge of act- 
 ual occurrence. 
 
THE ISLANDERS AND OTHERS LEARN WISDOM. 37 
 
 been brought to the attention of Eobiuson Crusoe (who gen- 
 erally presided at such meetings), he is reported to have ad- 
 ministered rebuke and instruction in the following impressive 
 manner : 
 
 " Before proceeding to take up our regulai^ febntribution for 
 the heathen," he said, " I would suggest to the congregation — 
 and more especially to those who sit in the gallery — that the 
 practice of putting into the hat commodities which are not 
 money, more especially buttons, shows a degree of ignorance 
 respecting the uses of money on the part of some in this com- 
 munity which I had not supposed possible, after all our recent 
 and varied experience on this subject. But if, through igno- 
 rance or impecuniosity, any should feel obliged to continue 
 to contribute buttons in the place of money, I would request 
 that they do not stamp down or break off the eyes ; inasmuch, 
 as while by so doing they utterly destroy the utility of these 
 commodities as buttons, and do not increase their desirability 
 as money, they also utterly fail to deceive the heathen ; who, 
 although ignorant of the Gospel, and not using buttons for 
 any purpose, are nevertheless, as a general thing, good judges 
 of currency." 
 
38 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 GOLD, AND HOW THEY CAME TO USE IT. 
 
 Finally, time and circumstances helped the islanders to a 
 solution of their difficulties. A man, walking in a ravine one 
 day, picked up a small bright mass of shining metal. Al- 
 though it had evidently lain in the sand, been washed by 
 the water, exposed to the atmosphere, and rubbed against the 
 rocks, nobody knows how long, it had a remarkable brightness 
 and color ; and the more it was rubbed, the brighter and more 
 attractive it became. This little mass of metal, which after- 
 ward came to be designated as gold, the man carried home to 
 his wife, who in turn was so much pleased with it that she 
 hung it by a string about her neck as an ornament. Its at- 
 tractiveness of course excited the desire of every other woman 
 to have the same, and a further search in the ravine resulted 
 in the discovery of other nuggets. Closer examination of the 
 new metal also showed that it possessed many other remarka- 
 ble qualities besides brightness. It was found it could easily 
 be melted and cast, and also be readily molded without heat 
 by hammering and pressing ; and that when so cast, molded, 
 and pressed, it persistently retained the shape and impression 
 that were given it. Further, that it could be drawn into the 
 finest of wire, hammered into the thinnest of plates and leaves, 
 and be bent and twisted to almost any extent without break- 
 ing; that an admixture with it of the slightest impurity 
 or alloy so immediately changed its color, that color became 
 
GOLD, AND BOW THEY CAME TO USE IT. 39 
 
 to a very high degree a test of its purity ;* that fire, water, air, 
 and almost all the agencies destructive to other things, had 
 comparatively little or no effect upon it ; that vsdth the excep- 
 tion of size and weight, every piece, no matter how small, pos- 
 sessed aU the attributes of every other larger piece ; and that 
 when any large piece was divided into a great number of 
 smaller pieces, these last, in turn, could be reunited vsdthout 
 loss or difficulty again into one whole. Of course, the discov- 
 ery of all these remarkable qualities united in one substance 
 not only greatly increased its utihty, but at the same time 
 greatly increased the desire of every body to have it. In 
 place of being worn in a rough state as an ornament, it 
 was converted into rings, bracelets, chains, pins, etc. It was 
 found to be almost indispensable for a great number of me- 
 chanical and chemical purposes ; and, finally, the charm for 
 its possession and desire for its use proved so overpower- 
 
 * In one of the mints there is exhibited as a curiosity a case in which 
 this fact is demonstrated in the most striking manner. It contains some 
 fifty or more very thin ribbons, or strips, of gold, half an inch wide by three 
 inches in length, placed in a row, parallel to, but separated from each oth- 
 er by a slight interval. The first ribbon is composed of gold of the high- 
 est standard of purity ; the second differs from the first to the extent of 
 one per cent, of admixture with a baser metal ; whUe the third contains 
 two per cent., the fourth three per cent., and so on, untU in the last ribbon, 
 or strip, the amount of gold and alloy is equal. The color of the first rib- 
 bon is, in the highest sense of the term, golden or typical. The color of 
 the second differs from the first by a shade, which shade in every success- 
 ive ribbon changes and becomes more and more marked as the proportion 
 of alloy entering into its composition increases : and so peculiar are these 
 differences of color that it is possible for an individual unskilled in metal- 
 lurgy, but having access to the standard, to make a comparatively accu- 
 rate test of the purity of any article of gold in his possession by a simple 
 comparison of color. 
 
40 ROBINSON CSVSOE'S MONET. 
 
 ing that to many it actually became almost an object of wor- 
 ship. 
 
 If a man was a Pagan, he felt that in no way could he so 
 honor and symbolize the god he worshiped as to fashion in 
 gold the image of that which he imagined ; if he was a Chris- 
 tian, he chose gold for the fabrication of his symbolic vessels 
 and ornaments, as, of all material things, the one which was 
 most typical of purity, beauty, durability, and worth. If a 
 great government or a people desired to commemorate the 
 deeds of a hero or statesman, it impressed their effigies in med- 
 als of gold ; if a maxim was enunciated which by general con- 
 sent embodied the best rules of life, it was called golden ; if a 
 law or precept was thought worthy of being kept in ever-pres- 
 ent remembrance before the people, it was emblazoned in let- 
 ters of gold ; while for speech, prophecy, or poetry, this same 
 metal has ever been a never-failing source for the finest of 
 comparisons and the most attractive of figurative illustra- 
 tions. In short, from the time of its first discovery, among all 
 nations, in all countries, with the ignorant and the learned, the 
 savage and the civilized, the rich and the poor, the humble and 
 the powerful, gold has always been, of all material things, the 
 one which most men have desired most; the one for which, 
 under most circumstances, they have been willing to exchange 
 all other material possessions, and for the sake of acquiring 
 which, even part with immaterial things of greater value- 
 honor, creed, morality, health, and even life itself. 
 
 Gold so becoming an object of universal desire to the peo- 
 ple on the island, and made exchangeable for all other things, 
 it soon acquired spontaneously a universal purchasing power, 
 and from that moment became Money. 
 
 This purchasing power was at first by no means fixed or 
 constant. So long as there was but a small quantity of gold, 
 
GOLD, AND HOW THEY CAME TO USE IT. 41 
 
 its purchasing power was large. As the quantity extracted 
 from the rocks or washed from the sands became greater, 
 and the wants of the people became more and more satis- 
 fied, its purchasing power or value decreased ; and if the 
 supply had continued, and the demand had been limited to 
 the wants of the island exclusively, its value in time would 
 have undoubtedly been no greater than copper or iron, and 
 possibly not so great. But, very curiously, an abundant sup- 
 ply did not continue. That which was obtained first and 
 vsdth little labor proved to be the result of the decay and 
 washing of the rocks through long ages ; and when the readily 
 accessible or surface deposits became exhausted, as was soon 
 the case, the conditions determining the supply of gold became 
 altogether different. On the one hand, there was no lack of 
 gold. Instead of being a very scarce metal, as was for a time 
 supposed, it was found to be so widely disseminated that the 
 chemists and metallurgists readily detected traces of gold in 
 almost every extensive bed of clay and sand they examined.* 
 
 * In 1862 Mr. Eckfelt, then principal aasayer at the mint in Philadelphia, 
 communicated to the American Philosophical Society the result of some 
 exceedingly curious examinations demonstrating the very wide distribu- 
 tion of gold. The city of Philadelphia, he stated, was underlaid by a bed 
 of clay having an area of about ten square miles, with an average depth 
 of about fifteen feet. Specimens of this clay — all natural deposits — taken 
 from such localities as might furnish a fair assay of the whole — the cellar 
 of the market on Market Street, near Eleventh, and from a brick-yard in 
 the suburbs of the city — all yielded, on careful analysis, small amounts of 
 gold ; the average amount indicated being seven-tenths of a grain — or 
 about three cents' worth — of gold for every cubit foot of clay. Assuming 
 these data to be correct, the value of the gold, according to Mr. Eckfelt, 
 which lies securely buried underneath the streets and houses of Philadel- 
 phia must therefore be equivalent to $128,000,000 ; or if we include all 
 the clay contained in the corporate limits, the amount of gold contained 
 
42 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 But, on the other hand, experience also proved that to col- 
 lect any very considerable quantity of the metal required the 
 expenditure not only of a vast amount of most disagreeable 
 and exhausting labor, but also of a great quantity of other 
 commodities. So that the people who, at the outset, abandon- 
 ed their various occupations of raising wheat, making coats, 
 building boats, baking bread, and constructing stone walls and 
 chimneys, and betook themselves to digging gold, soon learn- 
 ed that, as a general rule, the results of a day's labor thus em- 
 ployed purchased no more of useful or desirable commodities — 
 meat, drink, clothes, etc. — than the results of a similar amount 
 of labor exerted in the most ordinary occupations ; and not a 
 few even were ready to assert, as the result of their individual 
 experience, that a man could do better for himself in the way 
 of earning a hving by following any and every other occupa- 
 tion rather than that of seeking for gold.* Accordingly, after 
 trying it for a little while, the most skilled laborers left the 
 gold regions and went back to their old occupations; and 
 these, in turn, were followed by the unskilled laborers in such 
 
 in it must be equal to all that has yet been obtained from California and 
 Australia. 
 
 "It is also apparent," says Mr. Eckfelt, "that every time a cart-load of 
 clay is hauled out of a cellar in Philadelphia, enough gold goes with it to 
 pay for the carting ; and if the bricks which front our houses could have 
 brought to their surface, in the form of gold-leaf, the amount of gold which 
 they contain, we should have the glittering show of two square inches on 
 every brick." 
 
 * On the Rhine, near Strasburg, a good able-bodied laborer can earn on 
 an average one franc seventy-five centimes per day, washing gold from the 
 sands of the river ; but, as under most circumstances he can earn ten sous 
 more by working in the fields on the banks of the river, and without so 
 much risk of getting rheumatism, gold-washing on the Ehine is not often 
 adopted as a regular employment. 
 
GOLD, AND SOW THET CAME TO USE IT. 43 
 
 numbers, that had it not been for the encouragement growing 
 out of the hope of suddenly enriching themselves through the 
 chance discovery of a great nugget (as sometimes happened), 
 the mines would have been entirely deserted. As it was, the 
 supply of gold greatly fell off, and, the demand for it remain- 
 ing about the same, the purchasing power of the stock on 
 hand for other commodities gradually increased, until it came 
 about that the result of an average day's labor in digging 
 gold was found to buy more than the result of an average 
 day's labor in other occupations. But as soon as this was ob- 
 served, an additional supply of labor went back to gold-min- 
 ing, and continued to follow it, until an equalization of results 
 from effort in gold-digging and effort in other corresponding 
 employments was again established, as before related. And 
 this interchange of employments and equalization of results 
 from labor went on, year by year, until at last the people, as it 
 were by instinct, found out that a given quantity of gold rep- 
 resented more permanently a given amount of a certain grade 
 or kind of human labor or effort than any other one substance. 
 And the moment this fact became apparent, the people on the 
 island for the first time also clearly perceived that gold, in ad- 
 dition to the universal exchanging quality or purchasing pow- 
 er which it had before naturally acquired, from the circum- 
 stance that every body from the time of its first discovery 
 wanted it, had further acquired two other attributes, which 
 fitted it, above all things else, to serve as money ; namely, and 
 Jirst, that it had become a measure or standard of value, by 
 which, as by a yard-stick, the comparative value of all other 
 commodities might be measured or estimated; and, second, 
 that its value or purchasing power was so constant and contin- 
 uously inherent in itself, even under circumstances when the 
 value of most other commodities would be destroyed, that the 
 
i4 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 greatest security or guarantee which any person owning gold 
 could possibly have of its remaining valuable to him for any 
 length of time was, that the owner should simply keep pos- 
 session of it. 
 
 By no portion of people on the island was this last attribute 
 regarded so much in the light of a blessing as by the poor old 
 men and women. As a general rule, they earned but little 
 more than sufficed to support them, and they were therefore 
 always naturally very anxious lest what little they saved should 
 be impaired in value or made worthless by keeping, before the 
 time when they might especially need it to pay for doctors and 
 medicine, or insure them a decent burial. The cowry money, 
 which had before represented their hard toil and personal depri- 
 vation, had turned out, on keeping, to be only worthless shells ; 
 the bead money had become valueless when it became unfash- 
 ionable ; the cattle money had to be fed every day to keep it 
 from experiencing a heavy discount, and penned up every 
 night to prevent it from walking off ; the wheat money was 
 always liable to be injured by damp or devoured by vermin; 
 while twenty pomids of pig-iron had proved too heavy for 
 their old limbs to carry to the store every time they wanted 
 to purchase a httle cloth or tobacco. But here was some- 
 thing at last which completely satisfied the necessities of their 
 situation, and enabled them to feel certain that, whether they 
 buried it in the ground, where it was always damp and moldy ; 
 or put it in the chimney, where it was always hot and smoky ; 
 or lived at one end of the island among the heathen, or at 
 the other end among the Christians, would always, year in and 
 year out, buy about the same average quantity of all sorts 
 of things; and which, when offered in payment for serv- 
 ices or commodities, to the doctor, lawyer, merchant, druggist, 
 undertaker, mason, or tailor; to the Yankee, Irish, Dutch, 
 
GOLD, AND SOW TSET CAME TO USE IT. 45 
 
 Turk, or Hindoo ; to the governor of Ohio, or a senator from 
 Indiana, did not require any of them to look in a book, exam- 
 ine a law, read the Bible, or hunt up the resolutions of the 
 last Congress or political convention, to tell how much it was 
 worth, or whether it was safe to take and keep it. 
 
 There was a very wise man on the island who objected to 
 the use of gold as money, for the reason that he felt afraid 
 that the poor old women who wanted to feel certain of having 
 always something of reliable value in their possession would 
 fill their old stockings with it and hoard it.* But he was soon 
 shut up by some one asking him, why, if the old women want- 
 ed to keep something by them perfectly secure against a rainy 
 day, and slept better nights because they knew they had it, 
 they shouldn't be allowed that privilege ? and if there could 
 be any possible reason why any one should object to the old 
 women hoarding gold, except that he wanted to cheat and 
 wrong the poor by compelling them to keep their hard-earned 
 savings in something whose value was not certain, and which 
 might have no value whatever when it came time to pay the 
 doctor or the undertaker ? 
 
 "When the people on the island first began to use gold as 
 money, they carried it around with them in the form in which 
 it was first found; the fine dust or scales inclosed in quills, 
 and the nuggets in bags ; or they melted and hammered it into 
 
 * "And wlien the substitution is made" (of a silver for a paper fraction- 
 al currency), "what will be the consequence? The metal currency will 
 have to be considerably debased, or else every old woman in the country 
 wUl fill her stockings with it and bury it. It wiU be hoarded, sir ; hoarded 
 to the extent of removing millions from the currency of the country." The 
 general paused, glared at a village wrapped iu rain, by which we were rat- 
 tling, chewed his cigar vigorously, and lapsed into silence. — A Newspaper 
 Reporter's Interview with General Butler, September, 1875. 
 
46 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 large lumps and bars ;* and, as the purchasing power of the 
 gold was always proportioned to its weight and purity, ev- 
 ery body carried round with him small scales and tests with 
 which he proved the gold before making exchanges with it 
 (the same as is customary at the present day in China). But 
 this method involved great inconveniences; and although 
 the statement of a person of recognized honesty that he had 
 proved the value of the gold he offered in payment was gener- 
 ally accepted, it was nevertheless recognized that there was no 
 more unfairness or discourtesy in the claim of the grocer to 
 test the quality of the money of his customer by scales and 
 acids, than there was in the claim of the customer to test, by 
 tasting, the salt and sugar of the grocer. As might be infer- 
 red, therefore, it often required a good deal of time to com- 
 plete the most ordinary exchanges, and people everywhere 
 complained about it and wrote letters to the newspapers. Mer- 
 chants who were very cautious and particular, irritated their 
 customers, and got the reputation of being very exacting and 
 distrustful ; while merchants who had but little capital and 
 wanted to get business, advertised they would take gold on 
 the simple word of their customers. But it was observed 
 of the last, that, owing to being constantly cheated, they all, 
 sooner or later, failed. At last the difficulty was remedied by 
 a series of happy circumstances. 
 
 Eobinson Crusoe had, some years before this, died, at a good 
 old age, as had also Will Atkins, and all the sailors who had 
 come with him to the island from other countries ; so that 
 there were none now on the island who had ever known any 
 thing about or ever, seen any coined money. In making some 
 
 * Gold in its crude state, and uncoined, was until recently in use as 
 money in some parts of California, Mexico, and on the West Coast of 
 Africa. 
 
GOLD, AND HOW THEY CAME TO USE IT. 47 
 
 public improvements, however, a party of workmen one day 
 broke into the old cave in which Crusoe had first lived when 
 he escaped from the shipwreck, and there, in the dirt beneath 
 the floor, were discovered the three great bags of money which 
 Crusoe had found in the chest, and in his disgust had buried 
 and utterly forgotten. Every body at once recognized the 
 metal to be gold, and was perfectly willing to exchange oth- 
 er commodities for it with the finders, the same as he was 
 willing to do for any other gold. But why it should be in 
 the form of flat round disks, and stamped with inscriptions 
 and images, was something that puzzled every body ; and the 
 Antiquarian and Philosophical Society called a special meet- 
 ing to discuss the subject. Some, looking to only one side of 
 the pieces, thought they were medals struck to commemorate 
 some distinguished man, or a woman, whose name often ap- 
 peared to be " Liberty." Others, who looked only at the oth- 
 er side, thought they were intended to signalize a great con- 
 test between the lion and the unicorn, or to make the peo- 
 ple familiar with the peculiarities of some unnatural bird or 
 beast, which, as it was not hke any thing either in the heavens, 
 or on the earth, or in the waters under the earth, it might not 
 be sinful to worship. 
 
 At last, after the flat disks or coins had been for some time 
 in circulation, and the community had found out, by repeated- 
 ly weighing and testing them, that each disk represented a 
 constant weight of gold of uniform purity, the idea came at 
 once to every one that the only use of the fanciful images 
 and inscriptions on the disks was to oificially testify to the 
 fact of their uniformity of weight and value ; and then every 
 body wondered that he could have been so stupid as not to 
 have before recognized the idea and adopted it, in place of 
 every man weighing, cutting up, and testing his gold every 
 
48 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 time lie desired to part with or receive it in making an ex- 
 change. An arrangement was accordingly at once made for 
 a public establishment — afterward called a mint — to which 
 every person who so desired could bring his gold and receive 
 it back again after it had been divided into suitable pieces 
 of determinate weight and fineness ; the fact that the weight 
 and fineness of each piece had been so .proved being indicated 
 by appropriate marks upon the metal. And in this manner 
 " coined money " first came into use on the island. And by 
 this time, also, the money which Kobinson Crusoe found in 
 the chest, and which, when it first came into his possession, 
 had neither utility, value, nor use as a standard, or measure 
 of value, had gradually acquired all these several attributes : 
 utility, when the material of which it was composed became 
 capable of satisfying some human desire for it, as an orna- 
 ment, as a sjwnbol of worship, or for some mechanical or 
 chemical purpose; value (the sole result of labor), when it 
 became an object of or equivalent in exchange, or acquired 
 a power of purchasing other things; a standard, or meas- 
 ure of value, when its purchasing power, by reason of various 
 circumstances, was found to be, if not absolutely permanent, 
 at least more permanent, on the average, than that of any 
 other commodity. 
 
 The conversion of money into coin was something purely 
 artificial, and the result of law, or statute enactments, the sole 
 object of which was simply to make the money (previously in 
 use) true and in the highest degree convenient. But, as has 
 already been pointed out, money came into use in the first in- 
 stance without statute, and was the result, as it were, of men's 
 instincts ; and the subsequent choice by them of gold, in pref- 
 erence to any other commodities for use as money, was for 
 reasons similar to those which induced men to choose silk, 
 
GOLD, AND SOW THEY CAME TO USE IT. 49 
 
 wool, flax, and cotton as materials for clothing; and stone, 
 brick, and timber as materials for bouses. It was tbe thing 
 best adapted to supply the want needed. 
 
 The introduction and use of coined money at once gave an 
 impetus to business, and made the people richer, because it 
 saved time and labor in making exchanges, and relieved ev- 
 ery man from the trouble and expense of buying and carrying 
 round with him scales and other tests. The only persons dis- 
 satisfied were the scale-makers, who found their business al- 
 most destroyed, and they petitioned the authorities to have 
 their interests protected by the enactment of a law compelling 
 all persons to weigh their coins with scales before exchanging, 
 as formerly they did their gold. But, as every body at once 
 saw that the effect of such a law would be equivalent to com- 
 pelling all exchangers to do useless work, the petition amount- 
 ed to nothing. 
 
 For convenience in speaking and writing, also, each piece of 
 gold or coin of determinate weight and fineness regularly is- 
 sued by the mint received a particular name and had a par- 
 ticular device impressed on it. Thus, for example, the piece 
 of lowest denomination, containing 25.8 grains of standard 
 gold, which had on it a likeness of Crusoe's old and faithful 
 servant, was called a " Friday ;" a piece of ten times its weight 
 and value, with a small portrait of the founder of the island 
 community, was called a " Crusoe ;" and a piece of double the 
 weight of the last, or twenty times the weight of the first, with 
 a large portrait on it, was called a " Robinson Crusoe " or a 
 " double Crusoe." Some time after, when the island became 
 generally known to the rest of the world, it was found that 
 these coins exactly corresponded in weight, fineness, and value 
 with those adopted in that foreign country called the United 
 States, and there known under the names of the gold dollar, 
 
 4 
 
50 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 eagle, and double-eagle ; and after a time, for the purpose of 
 favoring the development of civilization and assimilating na- 
 tionaUties by the adoption of a common monetary standard, 
 it was agreed to discard all local sentiments, and to substitute 
 the latter names for the former. 
 
 CHAPTEE VII. 
 
 HOW THE ISLAIJDERS DETEKMINED TO BE AN HONEST 
 AOTD FREE PEOPLE. 
 
 Next came the consideration of the laws regulating the 
 exchanges and the use of money. Some people wanted laws 
 enacted that every person should be obliged to sell and part 
 with any thing he owned, provided a nominal or real equiva- 
 lent in what the State should declare money should be offered 
 him ; and, also, that when any person had bought commodities 
 and services of another, and had promised to pay for them 
 after a time, he might fully discharge the obligation by ten- 
 dering that which the State said was money, no matter wheth- 
 er in the mean time the persons in charge of the mint had, for 
 any reasons, taken out one-half the valuable gold in the coins, 
 and substituted in its place comparatively worthless lead. 
 
 But, to the honor of the islanders, these propositions met with 
 little favor. They said, we mean to be an honest and also a 
 free people ; and, therefore, every one in buying or selling shall 
 do exactly what he has agreed to do ; unless, by reason of 
 some imf oreseen or unavoidable circumstances, he is absolutely 
 unable to perform his agreement or contract. And they said, 
 further, that if any one receives commodities and services, and 
 promises to give, five years or five minutes afterward, in re- 
 
THE SUKVIVAL OF THE iTITEST. 
 
THE ISLANDERS DETERMINED TO BE HONEST. 53 
 
 turn, an agreed-upon quality and quantity of gold, wheat, cod- 
 fish, or cabbages, it shall be considered, as in truth it is, dis- 
 honest to attempt to discharge the obligation by offering pig- 
 iron in the place of gold, pease or beans in the place of wheat, 
 soft-shell crabs in the place of cod-fish, or pumpMns in the 
 place of cabbages; and any community which shall in any 
 way sanction any such evasion of the letter or spirit of its ob- 
 ligations can have no rightful claim to call itself an honest, 
 Christian people ; and if any community enacts and maintains 
 laws coiwpelling any person to receive in exchange, or in pay 
 for his services or products, something which he did not agree 
 to and would not otherwise receive, such a community has no 
 rightful claim to call itself a free community. The people on 
 the island, therefore, decided that they would allow the island 
 authorities to interfere with exchanges to this extent only: 
 that the medium of exchange and measure of values that they 
 had adopted and called a Friday, or a dollar, should always 
 and under all circumstances contain 25.8 grains of standard 
 gold ; that this standard should never be departed from ; and 
 that although no one should be compelled to use it, yet when- 
 ever any one talked about or promised to pay or give money, 
 without specifying whether the money should be wampum 
 money, bead money, cattle money, gold money, or any other 
 particular kind of money, the money issued by the acknowl- 
 edged authorities of the island should be understood and ac- 
 cepted as what was meant. In short, like sensible men, the 
 islanders concluded that as long as they maintained in com- 
 mon use a real, good, and true money, which carried on its 
 face evidence (easily read and known of all men) of its value 
 or purchasing power, there was little use of cumbering up the 
 statute-book with any thing about legal tender. They would 
 leave that to other people wiser than they were, who desired 
 
54: ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 to use money that would not circulate, except it had some arti- 
 ficial power or agency back of it to make it go. 
 
 After this, every thing for a time pertaining to trade and 
 commerce went on very smoothly on the island. It is true 
 there were bad persons who obtained commodities and serv- 
 ices on credit for which they never intended to pay ; careless 
 and extravagant persons who bought more than they were 
 able to pay for; and foolish and oversanguine people who, 
 after having by labor and economy accumulated a good store 
 of commodities, exchanged them for shares in entei-prises 
 which never could pay. And when people by one or more of 
 such methods lost the results of their hard labor and toil, they 
 naturally felt depressed, lost confidence in their fellow -men, 
 and thought times and things might be improved by turning 
 all those in ofiice out, and putting new men in. But no one 
 on the island ever for a moment imagined that there was any 
 way to honestly replace the money they had lost, except by 
 acquiring through industry and economy a new store of use- 
 ful commodities with which to buy money ; and no one who 
 ever had any thing to sell which others in the community 
 wanted, and were able to give in return a fair equivalent, ever 
 found himself in want of money or a market; while, on the 
 other hand, no one who had nothing to sell which the com- 
 munity wanted or were able to pay for ever succeeded in ob- 
 taining either money or a market. 
 
THE PEOPLE SUBSTITUTE CURRENCY FOR MONEY. 55 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 HOW THE PEOPLE ON THE ISLAND CAME TO USE CUEEENCY 
 IN THE PLACE OF MONET. 
 
 As time went on, changes in the method of doing business 
 gradually occurred on the island. Instead of being an isola- 
 ted and unknown community, their existence as an organized, 
 civilized state became generally known to the rest of the world, 
 and a brisk trade and commerce resulted from the exchange 
 of the products of the island for the products of other coun- 
 tries. An excellent harbor existed at each end of the island, 
 and about these points the population naturally aggregated, 
 and built up two very considerable towns. The middle of the 
 island, on the other hand, was elevated into high mountain 
 ranges, covered with dense forests, in crossing which travelers 
 journeying between the two cities were often robbed of all 
 the gold they carried about them. To obviate this danger, and 
 avoid the necessity of carrying gold, persons living at opposite 
 ends of the island, therefore, adopted a system of giving writ- 
 ten orders for money on each other, which each reciprocally 
 agreed to pay to the person whose name was written in the 
 order or draft, and then periodically settled or balanced their 
 accounts by offsetting one order or payment against another. 
 In this way value or purchasing power was transmitted long 
 distances much more cheaply and conveniently than could be 
 effected by the transmission of gold itself ; and also much more 
 safely, inasmuch as the thieves could make no use of the or- 
 ders, even if they obtained them. And thus it was that the 
 
56 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 people on the island became acquainted with and first used 
 what were afterward known as " hills of exchangeP* 
 
 This labor - saving and danger - avoiding device, moreover, 
 proved so useful, that the idea soon suggested itself that by 
 an extension of the principle involved in the bill of exchange 
 the necessity of carrying gold at all in any quantity might also 
 be avoided. A public office was therefore established, where 
 people might deposit their gold under the guardianship of the 
 state, and receive a ticket or receipt for the amount, payable 
 in coin on demand ; which tickets, from the fact that every body 
 knew that they were convertible into gold at will, and that no 
 more tickets were issued than corresponded to gold actually de- 
 posited and retained, soon came to be regarded as equally good 
 and valid as gold itself, and vastly more convenient for the 
 purpose of making exchanges. And thus it was that currency 
 (from the Latin curro, to run) originated and came into use on 
 the island as a substitute and representative of money. •f The 
 
 * Historically, bills of exchange probably originated with the Jews of 
 the Middle Ages, who, ever liable to persecution, adopted a system of 
 drafts, or written orders, upon one another, which each agreed to honor 
 and pay to the person named in the draft. 
 
 t It was in this manner that the first bank of which we have any record 
 originated in 1171, namely, the Bank of the Republic of Venice. Venice 
 in that year was at war and needed money. The Council of Ten, or the 
 Government, called upon the merchants to bring in their gold or coin into 
 the public treasury, and gave credit on the books of the state for the 
 amounts so deposited; which credits carried interest (always promptly 
 paid) at the rate of four per cent, per annum. Soon after the establish- 
 ment of this bank one of the depositors died ; and it becoming necessary 
 to distribute his estate among five children, his bank-credit was divided 
 into five portions and transferred to five new owners. A system of trans- 
 ferring bank-credits was thus introduced, and proved so useful that in a 
 brief time the merchants adopted it very generally as a means of paying 
 
TSE PEOPLE SUBSTITUTE CUEBENCY FOB MONEY. 57 
 
 name originally given to these receipts was first " bank-cred- 
 its," and then " bank-notes," but after a time people acquired a 
 habit of designating them as " paper money." But this latter 
 term was conceded to be but a mere fiction of speech and a 
 bad use of language ; for every intelligent person at once saw 
 that a promise to deliver a commodity, or an acknowledg- 
 ment of the receipt of, or a title to, a thing, could not possibly 
 be the commodity or the thing itself, any more than a shadow 
 could be the substance, or the picture of a horse a horse, or 
 the smell of a good dinner the same as the dinner itself. 
 
 Nevertheless, as an instrumentality for transferring com- 
 modities used for money, and avoiding the loss and waste un- 
 avoidable in handling and transporting such commodities, the 
 currency thus devised was a great invention, and being always 
 represented by, or, as we may express it, covered with, the com- 
 modity — gold — which, of all things, fluctuates least in value, it 
 perfectly answered the purpose of money, without actually be- 
 ing so. It also furnished another striking illustration of the 
 superiority of the commodity gold to serve either as money 
 or as an object of value for deposit, against which receipts or 
 certificates of deposit might be issued to serve as currency; 
 for if other valuable commodities, like cattle, corn, cloth, or 
 coal, had been selected for a like purpose, the bank would 
 have been obliged to erect large pens, sheds, and warehouses 
 for the storing of the deposits ; and, let them be guarded ever 
 so carefully, their value or purchasing power would, after a 
 time, rapidly diminish from natural and unavoidable causes. 
 
 balances in all great business transactions. The banks of Amsterdam and 
 of Hamburg were also subsequently established on substantially the same 
 basis, and are doing business to-day successfully. The Bank of Venice 
 did business for five hundred years ; during which period the state was 
 prosperous, and there were few failures among the mercantile classes. 
 
58 
 
 EOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 A SHADOW IS NOT A SUBSTANCE. 
 
 The value of most commodities, even in a perfect condition, 
 furthermore differs so much by reasons of mere locahty, that 
 there could be no possible uniformity in the value of the re- 
 ceipt for the deposit of one and the same article, issued by 
 banks in different places, to serve as currency ; the value or 
 purchasing power of a ton of coal, or a fat ox, being one thing 
 at the mouth of a coal-mine or on a prairie stock-farm, and 
 
THE PEOPIE SUBSTITUTE CUBBENCY FOB MONEY. 59 
 
 quite a different thing ten, twenty, or a hundred miles distant. 
 But in the case of gold, the space needed to store up what 
 represents a vast value is very small, while the value or pur- 
 chasing power of gold not only is, but is certain to remain, on 
 the average, very constant all the world over.* 
 
 * If to any it may seem puerile and unnecessary to enter into such ex- 
 planations, it may be well to remind them that one of the schemes for a 
 new currency, which has of late found some earnest advocates in the 
 United States, is that of Josiah Warren, of Ohio, who proposed that cur- 
 rency " should be issued by those men, women, and children who perform 
 useful service " — i. e., grow com, mine coal, catch cod-fish, pick up chest- 
 nuts and the like — " but by nobody else ;" such results of service being de- 
 posited in safe receptacles, and having receipts of deposit issued against 
 them to serve as "equitable money." A further axiom of Mr. Warren was, 
 "that the most disagreeable labor" (not the most useful) "is entitled to 
 the highest compensation ;" and, therefore, inferentiaUy entitled to issue 
 the most money. A specimen of this equitable money before the writer 
 reads as follows : 
 
 The moBt dUagreeahU labor is eniithd to the highest compenealion. 
 
 Cincinnati, Ohio, g 
 
 Due to Bearer, 
 
 9 
 
 © . 
 
 ^ EIGHT HOUES' LABOR, 
 *• In Shoe-making, or a Hundred Ibunds of Corn. 
 William Moeton. 
 No. — , P street. 
 
 4 
 
 Of course, to make this money equitable, and its issue, as claimed, " the 
 satisfactory solution of the great problem of labor and capital," there must 
 be some presupposed equitable relation between eight hours of shoe-mak- 
 ing and a hundred pounds of corn. But one hundred pounds of corn in 
 Illinois are the result of only a quarter as much labor as a hundred pounds 
 in New England ; and what comparison is there between eight hours' work 
 of a skilled mechanic and that of a mere cobbler in making shoes ? or of 
 the man who performs a disagreeable, slavish piece of work, and of the 
 
60 
 
 BOBimON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTEE IX. 
 
 WAR WITH THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 
 
 But more serious matters than the making and issuing of 
 money soon claimed the attention of the people of the island. 
 It will be remembered that Friday was first brought to the 
 
 genius who invents or makes a machine that makes this disagreeable 
 work unTiecessary ? 
 
 E. D. Linton, of Boston, one of Warren's most eminent disciples, improves 
 on Warren's ideas, and proposes that the United States Government should 
 prepare and issue a currency, which should read as follows : 
 
 The United States will pay One Dollar to Bearer, on 
 
 demand, in bushels of Illinois Fall Wheat, at United 
 
 States No. 1 Store -house. No. 13 Hiver Street, Chicago, 
 III. 
 
 This note is receivable for all debts due the United States. 
 
 And the same infereutially in respect to pigs, coal, shoes, and the serv- 
 ices of doctors, lawyers, and cooks. So, then, if the note is not to be on its 
 face a lie, and the promise is to be actually performed on demand, the ne- 
 cessity will be absolute on the part of the Government of the United 
 States to have store -houses for wheat at Chicago, pig -pens at Peoria, 
 coal-mines or d6p6ts at Pottsville, and trained professionals ready on call 
 to plead a case, preach a sermon, cure a cold, and cook a dinner ; and all 
 of these last must take their pay in pigs if required. But as a pig has one 
 value at Peoria, and another value at almost every other place, the dollar's 
 worth of pig which the United States would pay might be a whole pig 
 in one place, a half in another, and possibly only the snout in another. 
 
WAR WITS THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 61 
 
 island by the cannibals, for the purpose of being cooked and 
 eaten, and that he was rescued from this fate by the valor of 
 Robinson Crusoe, as was subsequently also Friday's father and 
 others of his countrymen. But the cannibals, although then 
 repulsed, did not at the same time lose their appetites, or the 
 remembrance of the good cheer that had escaped them; and 
 meat becoming scarce in their own country, they projected a 
 grand invasion of the island, with the intent of capturing and 
 cooking Friday, if he was still there, or, in default of Friday, 
 any body and every body they might happen to catch. The 
 islanders all at once, therefore, found themselves precipitated 
 into a terrible war, and were obliged to struggle not only for 
 their homes, but for their individual existence. 
 
 The Government was active and energetic, but to carry 
 on the war a vast expenditure of commodities was necessary ; 
 and as the Government of the island — in common with, all 
 other governments — never had, or could have, any commod- 
 ities or money to buy commodities with, other than what it 
 obtained through loans and taxes, the people, one and all, were 
 called upon to help. There was, however, some fear that if 
 the calls for help were put in the form of taxes, the fires of 
 patriotism might not burn as brightly as was desirable, and it 
 was therefore deemed expedient to say little about taxes at 
 the outset, and rely mainly on loans, to be repaid after the 
 war was over. 
 
 The people, on their side, responded most cheerfully. Some 
 gave one thing and some another. Some gave service as sol- 
 diers, laborers, and artificers; others contributed timber for 
 canoes, cloth for tents, iron for spear-heads and guns, corn and 
 flour, hay, medicines, and money — in short, all sorts of useful 
 things, the results of previous labor and economy on the part 
 of the individual contributors. In return, the contributors re- 
 
62 EOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 ceived back from the Government a promise, expressed on pa- 
 per, to repay the commodities borrowed, or their value in mon- 
 ey. These promises were of two kinds. In one the promise 
 was made definite as to the time of its fulfillment, and the 
 amount or value of the promise carried interest. These were 
 called bonds. In the other, the promise, although definite, 
 specified no particular time for making it good, and its amount 
 or value was not subject to interest. These latter, from the 
 circumstance that they were written on blue paper, were pop- 
 ularly termed " bluebacks." When the people got the bonds, 
 they put them carefully away, for the sake of the interest that 
 woiald accumulate upon them; but when they got the blue- 
 backs, they were at first at a loss to know what to do with 
 them. They were in some respects unlike any thing they 
 had ever seen before ; and yet there was a very close resem- 
 blance between them and the certificates of deposits of gold 
 in the public repository, which they had now been in the habit 
 for some time of using as currency. And as the one prom- 
 ised, on the part of the Government, to pay money equally 
 with the other, there seemed to the public to be no good rea- 
 son why one should not be used as the representative and 
 equivalent of money as readily as the other. 
 
 The real difference was, that their former currency, com- 
 posed of tickets or certificates given in exchange for a de- 
 posit of actual gold, represented an actual accumulation of 
 an equivalent of every thing desirable which labor could 
 produce all the world over ; while, on the other hand, the 
 promises to pay which the island authorities issued in ex- 
 change for the commodities loaned them by the people, and 
 subsequently used up in fighting the cannibals, represented 
 an actual destruction of almost every thing useful and desira- 
 ble in place of accumulation. The people, however, did not 
 
WJB WITH THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 63 
 
 see this ; and by reason of not seeing it they continued to ac- 
 cept and regard the promises to pay, which represented loss 
 and destruction, as the same thing as money, and naturally 
 also as wealth ; and as the creation and issue of this sort of 
 money or wealth increased as destruction increased, they final- 
 ly, one and all, came to the conclusion that the more and fast- 
 er they destroyed, the richer they should all be ; and that, by 
 a happy series of accidents, they had at last solved that great 
 problem which the world had so long been anxious about — 
 namely, " of how to eat your cake and at the same time keep 
 it." And, as a further illustration of the extent to which this 
 idea acquired a hold upon the public mind, it may be mention- 
 ed that some of the most popular books which were published 
 about this time on the island had the following suggestive 
 titles : "A National Debt a National Blessing /" '■'•DorUt Pay 
 as you Go, a sure Way to Get Richf '■'■Pulling at your 
 Boot-straps the best Way to Pise in the World^'' and the like. 
 Undoubtedly one great reason which encouraged the people 
 of the island in their delusion was the circumstance that the 
 Government promises to pay, although they had ceased to rep- 
 resent accumulation, or a definite equivalent of any thing in 
 particular, did not thereby cease to be instrumentalities for ef- 
 fecting exchanges ; but, on the contrary, continued to consti- 
 tute great labor-saving machines, performing a work precisely 
 similar in character to that performed by a ship or a locomo- 
 tive — namely, the removal of obstacles between the producer 
 and consumer. But, in becoming a representative of a debt 
 to be paid in place of representing a means 0/ paying a debt, 
 the new currency lost at once the really most important quality 
 of good money ; inasmuch as it ceased to be a common equiv- 
 alent, or in itself an object of value in exchange, and there- 
 fore became incapable of properly discharging the function of 
 
64 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 a standard, or measure, for estimating the comparative value 
 of other things ; resembling, in this deficiency, a ship without 
 a rudder, or a locomotive without a track to run on. The re- 
 moval of a rudder from a ship, or the taking up the track in 
 front of a locomotive does not impair the capacity of the one 
 for cargo, or the power of the other for pulling. But if it is 
 attempted to use a ship or a locomotive under such circum- 
 stances for the purposes for which they were constructed — i.e., 
 as agencies for effecting and facilitating exchanges — the result 
 of their work will be so uncertain and hazardous that the own- 
 ers of the things to be exchanged would require large insurance 
 against the possible action of the exchanging agencies. And 
 so it was with this blueback currency of the island, which, 
 ceasing to represent or be convertible on demand into a con- 
 stant quantity of any commodity, ceased to be a constant 
 equivalent or measure of value of any thing. 
 
 If the news came one day that the cannibals had been re- 
 pulsed, a given number of the bluebacks would buy a bushel 
 of wheat. If the news came the next day that the black 
 troops, although they had fought nobly, had been driven back, 
 and that there was some prospect that every body, sooner or 
 later, would be cooked and eaten, then the same number of 
 bluebacks bought only half the quantity of wheat. Conse- 
 quently, every body, in selling commodities representing ex- 
 penditure of time and labor, added to the price of the same, 
 in order to insure himself against the fluctuations of the 
 purchasing power of the currency he received; or, in other 
 words, to make sure that what he received should remain, 
 for a greater or less length of time, the equivalent of what 
 he gave. But as no one could tell what the cannibals were 
 likely to do from day to day, and therefore what were to be 
 
WAB WITS THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 65 
 
 the fluctuations in the purchasing power of the currency, ev- 
 ery body in selling any thing felt that he incurred a risk, in 
 addition to the risks usually attendant upon ordinary buying 
 and selling. And as the data for estimating these risks were 
 just as uncertain as the data for estimating the results of dice- 
 throwing, every body guessed at the amount of insurance 
 needed, or, what is the same thing, let on the purchasing pow- 
 er of the currency at future periods. An abnormal gambling 
 character, therefore, necessarily became a part of every busi- 
 ness transaction, and worked to the great detriment of all that 
 class of people on the islands, who had only labor to sell, 
 which loses its entire value for the time, if not bought at the 
 moment it is offered for sale, and the selling price of which, 
 when once established, can only be changed with difliculty. 
 And as this was a very important matter in the financial his- 
 tory of the island, it is desirable to illustrate it by relating the 
 details of what actually happened : 
 
 The people on the island clothed themselves largely in 
 cloth made in foreign countries; and as the island currency 
 was non-exportable, the cloth was paid for by exporting gold, 
 or commodities which could readily be exchanged in other 
 countries for gold. The cloth thus purchased with gold was 
 made up into clothing by the " ready-made " clothing dealers 
 in the cities, and sold in this form for currency, to smaller 
 or retail dealers on a credit of from three to six or nine 
 months. Had the currency involved in this transaction 
 throughout been gold, or certificates representing deposits of 
 gold, the credit price of the ready-made clothing would have 
 been the cash price, with a small amount additional to repre- 
 sent interest on the credit-time, and a possible risk of non- 
 payment; and the seller would never for one moment have 
 taken into consideration the question whether the currency, 
 
 5 
 
66 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 or representation of money in which he was to be paid, three, 
 six, or nine months afterward, would have the same value or 
 purchasing power that it had on the day the debt was con- 
 tracted. He might have doubted whether his customer would 
 pay him at all, but he never would as to the quality of that 
 which he was entitled to receive as payment. But as the 
 currency involved in so much of the transaction as occurred 
 after the cloth was made into clothing was neither gold nor 
 any thing which represented gold, nor any other valuable com- 
 modity, and therefore, like a ship without a rudder, or a loco- 
 motive without a tract, was sure to be unreliable as an ex- 
 changing instrumentality, the seller knew to a certainty that 
 what he was to receive in payment of his goods, three, six, or 
 nine months afterward, would not have the same value or pur- 
 chasing power that it had on the day the debt was contracted. 
 It might be greater, it might be less ; but the seller never bet 
 on the former contingency, or allowed for it by deducting 
 any thing from the time price of his goods, for to do so would 
 be to discard in anticipation a possible incidental profit. But 
 he always, as a matter of safety, felt obliged to bet on the lat- 
 ter contingency, and then cover the bet by adding correspond- 
 ingly to the price of every thing he sold on credit. When, 
 by reason of the disturbed condition of things, the purchasing 
 power of the currency fluctuated greatly in brief intervals, the 
 seller on all his time sales bet in favor of great risks, and bet 
 differently every day, and added ten, fifteen, twenty, or even 
 thirty per cent, to his prices over and above the general ag- 
 gregate representing cost, profit, interest, and ordinary risk, 
 in order to make sure of receiving currency of sufiicient pur- 
 chasing value to enable him to buy back as much gold as he 
 was obliged to give for the cloth originally. 
 When, on the other hand, the fluctuations in the purchasing 
 
WAB WITH THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 67 
 
 power of the currency became limited, the insurance percent- 
 age added to price became also limited, and followed a some- 
 what general rule. Thus, when a clothing-dealer sold goods 
 on three months^ credit, for currency whose purchasing power 
 was so much less than gold that it took one hundred and fif- 
 teen of currency to buy one hundred in gold, he added ^w^er 
 cent, to his sale price, or he bet that the depreciation of cur- 
 rency at the end of three months would be indicated by one 
 hundred and twenty for gold ; while for a credit longer than 
 three months he bet that the risk of depreciation would be 
 greater, and added, to cover this risk, an average of ten jper 
 cent, to his price. If now, at the end of three months, it re- 
 quired one hundred and twenty -five in currency to buy one 
 hundred in gold, the dealer lost five per cent, through the 
 payment of his debt. But if, on the other hand, the fluctua- 
 tion of the purchasing power of the currency was the other 
 way, and it required at the end of the three months only one 
 hundred and ten of currency to buy a hundred in gold, he 
 made ten per cent, over and above his ordinary and legiti- 
 mate profit, while an equivalent burden or loss fell on the 
 consumers.* As the dealers were shrewd, the result of this 
 
 * Although, to all who have investigated the subject, the evidence is 
 conclusive that an irredeemable fluctuating paper money is always made 
 an agency for taxing with special severity all that class of consumers who 
 live on fixed incomes, salaries, and wages, it has, nevertheless, always been 
 a somewhat difficult matter to find illustrations of the fact so clear and 
 simple as carry conviction by presentation that it does thus act to the 
 classes most interested. With a view of obtaining such an illustration, 
 application was made some months since to an eminent American mer- 
 chant, whose large and varied experience abundantly qualified him to 
 discuss the subject ; and the result of the application may be thus stated : 
 
 Q. In buying in gold and selling in currency, what addition do you 
 make to your selling price, in the way of insurance, that the currency re- 
 
68 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 betting and insurance was rarely loss, and bo constantly profit, 
 that some dealers after a while came to regard the obtaining 
 
 ceived will be sufficient — plus profit, interest, etc. — to replace or buy 
 back the gold represented by the original purchase ? 
 
 A. We do but very little of that now ; hardly enough to speali about. 
 
 Q. But stiU you make insurance against currency fluctuations an item 
 in your business to be regarded to some extent ? 
 
 A. Why, yes, certainly ; it won't do to overlook it entirely. 
 
 Q. Well, then, if you have no objections, please tell me what you do 
 allow under existing circumstances ? 
 
 A. I have certainly no objections. We bny closely for cash ; sell largely 
 for cash, or very short credit ; and, within the comparatively narrow limits 
 that currency has iluctuated for the last two or three years, add but little 
 to our selling prices as insurance on that account — say one to two per 
 cent, for cash, or three months' credit ; and for a longer credit — if we give 
 it — something additional. During or immediately after the war, when 
 the currency fluctuations were more extensive, frequent, and capricious, 
 the case was very different. Then selling prices had to be watched very 
 closely, and changed very frequently — sometimes daily. My present ex- 
 perience, therefore, is exceptional ; and to get the information you want, 
 you must look further. I think I can help you to do this. We buy regu- 
 larly large quantities of a foreign product — let us suppose, for illustration, 
 cloth, for the large manufacturers and dealers in ready-made clothing. We 
 buy for gold, and we sell for gold, and do not allow the currency or its 
 fluctuations to enter in any way into these transactions. But how is it 
 with my customers? I allow them some credit; and the amount involved 
 being often very large, I, of course, must know something of the way in 
 which they manage their business. They transform the cloth, purchased 
 with gold, into clothing; and then sell the clothing, in turn, to their cus- 
 tomers — jobbers and retailers — all over the country, for currency, on a 
 much longer average credit than they obtain from me for their raw mate- 
 rial. As a matter of safety and necessity, these wholesale dealers and 
 manufacturers must add to their selling prices a sufficient percentage to 
 make sure that the currency they are to receive at the end of three, six, 
 or nine months will be sufficient to buy them as much gold as they have 
 paid to me, or as much as will buy them another lot of cloth to meet the 
 
WAB WITH THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 69 
 
 of this species of profit as the main thing for which all busi- 
 ness was instituted ; while others, more clear-headed and dis- 
 cerning, concluded that the wisest and easiest way to get rich 
 was to bet directly on the varying quantity of currency which 
 it would tabe from day to day to buy the same quantity of 
 gold, or other valuable commodities, instead of attempting to 
 do the same thing indirectly, through the agencj' of stores, 
 
 further demauds of their business and their customers. How much they 
 thus add I can not definitely say. There is no regular rule. Every man 
 doubtless adds all that competition ■will permit ; and every circumstance 
 likely to affect the prospective price of gold is carefully considered. 
 Five per cent., in my opinion, on a credit of three months would be the 
 average minimum ; and for a longer time, a larger percentage. If compe- 
 tition does not allow any insurance percentage to be added, there is a 
 liability to a loss of capital, which, in the long run, may be most disas- 
 trous — a circumstance that may explain the wreck of many iirms, whose 
 managers, on the old-fashioned basis of doing business, would have been 
 successful. The jobbers and the retailers, to whom the wholesale dealers 
 and manufacturers sell, are not so likely to take currency insurance into 
 consideration in fixing their selling prices ; but to whatever amount the 
 cost price of their goods has been enhanced by the necessity of insurance 
 against currency fluctuations, on that same amount they estimate and add 
 for interest and profits ; the total enhancement of prices falling ultimate- 
 ly on the consumer, who, of necessity, can rarely know the elements of 
 the cost of the article he purchases. 
 
 Q. So Mr. Webster, then, in his remark, which has become almost a 
 proverb, that " of all contrivances for cheating the laboring classes, none 
 has been more effectual than that which deludes them with paper money," 
 must have been thoroughly cognizant of the nature of such transactions ? 
 
 A. Most undoubtedly; for such transactions are the inevitable conse- 
 quence of using as a medium of exchange a variable, irredeemable cur- 
 rency. 
 
 The illustration above given, therefore, in the place of being imaginary, 
 is based on the actual condition of business at the present time — January, 
 1876. 
 
70 
 
 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 ONE WAY OF BLOWING A DISSATISFIED PAETT OUT OP EXISTENCE. 
 
 stocks of goods, clerks, books, credits, and the like. The 
 last, accordingly, wound up their business, and, in the lan- 
 guage of the day, "went on to the street^'' and made their 
 living by selling on time what they did not possess, and buy- 
 ing on time what they never expected to receive, and reckon- 
 ing profit or loss according to the difference in prices grow- 
 
WAR WITH THE CANNIBALS, AND WHAT CAME OF IT. 71 
 
 ing out of the fluctuations of the currency between the day 
 of buying or selling, and the day of receiving or delivering. 
 In short, as with the magic fiddle in the fairy tale, which, 
 when played upon, made every body dance, no matter wheth- 
 er in the brambles or on the plain, so the use on the island of 
 a currency which continually fluctuated in purchasing power, 
 because it was not a constant equivalent of any thing, made 
 every body gamble that could ; some because they liked to, 
 and others because they had to, to protect themselves from 
 losses. The masses who could not conveniently gamble tried 
 to protect themselves by asking high prices in return for their 
 services, or by giving less in proportion to what they received ;* 
 but, in the long run, they learned by hard experience that they 
 were not as well off as they expected to be ; and that if one 
 effect of an overabundant, non-equivalent-to-any-thing curren- 
 cy was to stimulate production, another and greater effect of it 
 was to unequally distribute the results of production, transfer- 
 ring from those who had little to those who had much, and 
 thus making the rich richer, and the poor poorer. 
 
 * In 1864, a ship was built in New York, at the time when labor and ma- 
 terials, rectoned in currency, had touched their highest prices. In 1870, 
 another ship was built in the same place and on the same model — like 
 the former in every particular. It was expected that, as wages and the 
 cost of materials were less in 1870 than in 1864, the cost of the latter ship 
 would be much less than that of the former ; but the result showed that 
 this was not the case. 
 
72 EOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 AFTER THE WAR. 
 
 At last the war ended. The cannibals were utterly re- 
 pulsed ; and the islanders no longer laid awake nights for 
 fear of being roasted and eaten. A vast amount of every 
 thing useful had, however, been necessarily destroyed ; and it 
 would seem as if this admitted fact would have made the 
 people of the island feel poor. But, very curiously, it did not. 
 The promises to pay for the commodities destroyed had all 
 been preserved. They were regarded by almost every body 
 as money ; and if money, then, of course, as every body knew, 
 they were wealth, and wealth so great and superabundant 
 that the one thing especially necessary to do was to devise 
 plans for using it. Every body, therefore, devised plans ; those 
 who had no money more especially devising plans for those 
 who had. All sorts of schemes were accordingly entered 
 upou ; railroads to carry people to the isothermals and ev- 
 ery other place where they didn't want to go ; and oil-wells 
 on Cheat and Al(l)gon(e)quin rivers, and patented inventions 
 for making substitutes for tea and coffee, being especially 
 recommended as permanent investments. John Law, Lem- 
 uel Gulliver, Baron Munchausen, Sir John Mandeville, Juan 
 Ferdinand Mendez- Pinto, and Sindbad the Sailor, all came 
 to town, and were chronicled in the newspapers as having 
 registered at the principal hotels. 
 
 Great and commendable industry was also displayed in 
 replacing the things destroyed by the war, so that, for a time, 
 
AFTER THE WAR. 73 
 
 the societary circulation became more brisk than ever ; while 
 some who had up to this time regarded war as a misfortune 
 and national calamity, now felt that they had made a mistake ; 
 and others who had known all the time that war was a bless- 
 ing, seriously thought of proposing another war as a means of 
 increasing national prosperity.* The large and constant in- 
 vestment of the results of labor and economy in enterprises 
 which never could by any possibility give back any adequate 
 return, was, as every body saw, the next best thing to war ; and 
 on the advice of the most Christian newspapers, very many of 
 the best people made haste to make such use of their little 
 savings ; although, as agriculturists, they were perfectly well 
 aware that to plant seed wheat or corn in soils where it 
 would not come up, or, coming up, bear no fruit, was always 
 very bad business, and did not encourage the sower to hire 
 much additional labor the next year. 
 
 Another idea which about this time had become very popu- 
 lar on the island was, that while it was a very desirable thing 
 to sell as much as possible of the products of the island to peo- 
 ple in other countries, it was not desirable to buy any thing 
 from foreigners in return, and that it was wise to put all pos- 
 sible obstructions in the way of any ill-informed persons who 
 desired to make such exchanges. But as no one can long con- 
 tinue to buy unless he proportionally sells, or sell unless he 
 proportionally buys, the foreign commerce of the island soon 
 came to a stand-still ; and what also notably helped to this 
 result was, that the necessity of insuring all exchanges made 
 through the medium of the unstable currency of the island 
 
 * When the Japanese embassy visited the United States, in 1872, they 
 were seriously advised to create, by some means, a national debt as soon 
 as they returned home, and make use of it as a basis for the creation and 
 issue of currency. 
 
74 MOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 caused all the island products to cost horn, five to ten ov fifteen 
 per cent, more than they otherwise would, and more than they 
 would cost the foreigners to buy elsewhere.* But as every 
 industrious community (especially if it calls in the aid of the 
 forces of nature through machinery) produces more than it 
 consumes ; and as the islanders were both industrious and 
 ingenious, it oddly enough happened that the community be- 
 came sorely troubled by an accumulation of useful things, 
 which the manufacturers would not part with, because they 
 were unwilling to sell at a loss, and which the foreigners 
 would not buy because they could buy cheaper elsewhere, 
 and pay in their own products for what they bought. Then 
 the manufacturers stopped producing, and next the laborers, 
 by lack of employment, being unable to buy a full share of 
 the existing abundance, in turn diminished their consumption ; 
 so that for a time it seemed as though the island would get 
 into the condition of those unfortunate people who die of 
 their own fatness. 
 
 In this way the times gradually "got out of joint." Grad- 
 ually the people on the island came to realize that much 
 which they had considered as wealth was not wealth, and that 
 many influences, befoi'e little regarded, were powerfully act- 
 
 * Maohiavelli, in his " Discourses on the First Ten Books of Livy," book 
 ii., chap, iii., in explaining the great difference in the relative growth of 
 the Roman and Spartan republics, relates that "Lycurgus, the founder of 
 the Spartan republic, believing that nothing could more readily destroy 
 his laws than the admixture of new inhabitants, did every thing possible 
 to deter strangers from flocking thither. Besides denying them intermar- 
 riage, citizenship, and all other companionships (conversationi) that bring 
 men together, lie ordered that in Ms repiMic only leather (non-exportable) 
 money should he used, so as to indispose all strangers to hring merchandise into 
 Sparta, or to exercise any Icind of art or industry there, so that the city never could 
 increase in population." 
 
AFTER THE WAB. 
 
 75 
 
 NOTICE. 
 
 LONG '^ BANKS LOAN TO 
 "S HORT ■"' BROKERS 
 
 
 THIS SCHEME ACCORDINGLT FOUND MANY OPPONENTS, WHO ALLEGED THAT, IP 
 IT WEKE CARRIED OBT, IT WOULD DEPRIVE THEM OF MONET, AND CONSE- 
 QUENTLY OP INSTRUMENTALITIES FOR MAKING THEIK EXCHANGES. 
 
 ing to make and keep them poor. All were satisfied that the 
 currency. which they were using was one prime cause of their 
 difficulties, but in precisely what manner the currency exert- 
 ed an influence few agreed. All were of one mind, that they 
 ought to talk about it continually ; and they accordingly did 
 
76 EOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY, 
 
 SO, those who knew the least talking the most. Some thought 
 that the honest thing to do, and because honest the best, was 
 for the Government of the island to redeem its promises to 
 pay on demand as rapidly as possible ; that where they had 
 borrowed a canoe of one man, cloth of another, spears of a 
 third, or money of a fourth, they should return them, and 
 not keep promising and never doing. But even these did not 
 agree as to the manner of thus paying. Some thought it was 
 best to return the canoes, the iron, the cloth, and the money 
 from day to day as the Government gradually acquired them. 
 Others thought that a better way would be to accumulate 
 each separate thing in a separate warehouse, and then when 
 the warehouses had, after some years, become full, open the 
 doors, and return every man what had been borrowed of him 
 all at once. But, as before pointed out, the Government nev- 
 er had, or could have, any canoes, cloth, iron, or money, except 
 such as it obtained from the people ; and, therefore, payment 
 on the part of the Government was really the same thing as 
 payment on the part of the people. But payment of debts is 
 something to which many people are constitutionally opposed ; 
 and this scheme accordingly found many opponents, wlio al- 
 leged that, if it were carried out, it would deprive them of 
 money, and consequently of instrumentalities for making their 
 exchanges ; while the real trouble with many of this class of 
 people was, that they hadn't any thing useful, the products 
 of their own industry, to exchange, and therefore could get 
 no money, unless they went to work, or, what was preferable, 
 acquired it from somebody without consideration. 
 
 Besides the persons referred to, who either openly or by 
 their indecision opposed fiscal reform, there were various oth- 
 er classes of obstructives. There were those, for example, 
 who, during the war, were always friends of peace, dressed 
 
AFTJES THM WAR. 17 
 
 in broad-brimmed hats and drab coats, and were at any time 
 ready to compromise with the cannibals, on condition that the 
 latter should be satisfied with roasting and eating only the 
 old men, the babies, and an occasional mother-in-law. All 
 such, as a part of their peace policy, opposed the original issue 
 and circulation of the bluebacks as something arbitrary, il- 
 legal, and unnecessary. When, however, the cannibals were 
 driven away, these " friends of peace in time of war " at once 
 changed their Quaker garb ; became " friends of war in time 
 of peace ;" declared earnestly for the enlarged issue and con- 
 tinued nse of the bluebacks, and, as a pretext for so doing, 
 were willing, if necessary, to have another war, or, at least, an 
 annual scare. During the war, these friends of peace were 
 called " copper-heads ;" and after the war, their copper-head- 
 ism, although disguised, was substantially the same thing. 
 For it was apparent that opposition to the issue of the blue- 
 backs, as manifested by the advocates of peace during the 
 war, and opposition to their payment and withdrawal after 
 the war, were only different manifestations of hostility to the 
 Government and to the war itself : inasmuch as failure on the 
 part of the Government to observe its promises, made under 
 such circumstances of extreme peril, would manifestly put it 
 in bad repute, and prevent it from ever resorting to similar 
 measures in like emergencies.* The really intelligent and 
 patriotic men of the island at once saw through this duplicity 
 
 * Examiuation will show that the United States, for one-siKth part of 
 their existence as a federated nation, have been in a state of war ; and, for 
 the future, there is no good reason for supposing that the country is to be 
 any more exempt from the vicissitudes of nations than it has been in 
 the past. With irredeemable paper, violation of plighted faith, gold de- 
 monetized and banished, in what condition is the nation for maintaining a 
 great national struggle? 
 
78 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 and repudiation, advocated under pretense of extreme solicitude 
 for the wants of trade. They remembered the old couplet : 
 " Wlien the devil was sick, the devil a monk would te; 
 Wlien the devil got well, the devil a monk was he;"* 
 
 and thereafter designated the opponents of paying the blue- 
 backs, as inflated, or elongated, copper-heads, by which name 
 they were ever after known in history. 
 
 There were also many well-meaning citizens, who sincerely 
 desired to have the balloon of inflation come down, but stren- 
 uously objected to have this result effected by any diminution 
 of the volume of gas contained in it. All the first-cousins of 
 the man who waited for the river to run by before crossing 
 were certain the balloon would come down, if people would 
 only be patient, keep a sharp lookout, and wait. But to this 
 it was objected, that if people were obliged to consume a 
 large part of their time in watching the balloon, to avoid 
 having their heads smashed by its swayings and fluctuations, 
 there would ultimately be a scarcity of victuals and drink; 
 and that, rendered desperate with watching, and want of em- 
 ployment, food, and clothing, those interested would finally 
 insist on pulling open the valves, and letting the whole vol- 
 ume of gas escape at once. Some proposed to imitate the 
 example of "Peter the Headstrong" in fighting the Yankees, 
 and bring down the balloon by proclamation ; while others 
 professed to have great faith in family prayer. Eminent pa- 
 triotic constitutional lawyers maintained that the military ne- 
 cessity that authorized and created the bluebacks must neces- 
 sarily limit their duration solely to the period of their military 
 
 * In a case often overlooked (Bank m. Supervisors, 7 Wallace), the United 
 States Supreme Court decided that " United States notes are engagements to pay 
 dollars; and the dollars intended are coined dollars of the United States." Ee- 
 fusal to pay such notes in coin is clearly, therefore, repudiation. 
 
AFTEB THE WAR. 79 
 
 necessity ; and that their continued re-issue and use after the 
 repulse of the cannibals was but a prolongation of the war — 
 not against the enemy, but against their own people. The 
 astute elongated copper-head lawyers held, on the other hand, 
 that an instrument of military necessity, once created, remains 
 such an instrumentality for continued use for all time ; and, 
 therefore, that a bullet or shell, once lawfully employed for 
 effecting destruction in time of war, could legitimately be re- 
 issued or reshot in time of peace, without matter as to whom 
 it might hit or what property it might destroy ; and that, in 
 fact, to go on reloading and refiring these instruments, and 
 thereby killing and destroying, were not crimes, but high acts 
 of patriotism. This theory, however, alarmed some timid 
 people, who said that one shell or one bullet thus re-used in- 
 deiinitely might destroy all the property, or kill all the people 
 on the island ; and they rather regretted, in view of such a 
 construction, that they did not at once succumb to the can- 
 nibals, whose appetites, in time, might have become cloyed, or 
 whose diet might have been changed through indigestion or 
 moral suasion. 
 
 In the period of doubt and perplexity which thus came to 
 the community, those fond of precedents carefully searched 
 the old chronicles and records of other nations for lessons of 
 experience; and, among various things which profited them 
 greatly, they found, among the chronicles of the learned Span- 
 ish historian. Fray Antonio Agapida, the following account of 
 what the veteran soldier, Don Inigo Lopez de Mendoza, Count 
 de Tendilla, did, when, besieged by the Moors in the town of 
 Alhama, he had also serious iinancial difficulties to contend 
 with: 
 
 "It happened," says Agapida, "that this Catholic cavalier, 
 at one time, was destitute of gold and silver wherewith to pay 
 
so BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 the wages of his troops; and the soldiers murmured greatly, 
 seeing that they had not the means of purchasing necessities 
 from the people of the town. In this dilemma, what does 
 this most sagacious commander? He takes me a number of 
 little morsels of paper, on the which he inscribes various sums, 
 large and small, according to the nature of the case, and signs 
 me them with his own hand and name. These did he give to 
 the soldiery, in earnest of their pay. ' How !' you will say, ' are 
 soldiers to be paid with scraps of paper?' 'Even so,' I an- 
 swer, 'and well paid, too, as I will presently make manifest; 
 for the good count issued a proclamation ordering the inhab- 
 itants of Alhama to take these morsels of paper for the full 
 amount thereon inscribed, promising to redeem them at a fut- 
 ure time with silver and gold, and threatening severe punish- 
 ment to all who should refuse. The people, having full confi- 
 dence in his word, and trusting that he would be as willing to 
 perform the one promise as he certainly was able to perform 
 the other, took these curious morsels of paper without hesita- 
 tion or demur. Thus, by a subtile and most miraculous kind 
 of alchemy, did this Catholic cavalier turn worthless paper 
 into precious gold, and make his late impoverished garrison 
 abound in money !' 
 
 "It is but just to add," continues the historian, "that the 
 Count de Tendilla redeemed his promises, like a loyal knight ; 
 and this miracle, as it appeared in the eyes of Agapida, is the 
 first instance on record of paper money."* 
 
 It may be also remarked that the island antiquarians did not 
 find any chronicle of any other soldier who imitated Count de 
 Tendilla in issuing "little morsels of paper" to serve as mon- 
 ey, and subsequently did not imitate him in promptl}- redeem- 
 
 * Irving's " Conquest of Granada." 
 
<!>/7c^/ 
 
 AX INSTRUMENT OF MILITARY NECESSITY, ONCE CREATED, REMAINS SUCH AN 
 
 INSTRUMENTALITY FOR CONTINUED USE FOR ALL TIMF • ^nZJ 
 
 T-n »,.^ J?"tt ALiL. TIME: NO MATTER "WHO 
 
 II MAT HIT, OR WHAT PROPEBTY IT MAY DESTROY." 
 
 6 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 83 
 
 ing his promises, who found it easy to obtain again the confi- 
 dence of the soldiers or the people when he again got into 
 similar difiiculties.* 
 
 . CHAPTEK XI. 
 
 THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 
 
 At last there arose a sect of philosophers (calling them- 
 selves Friends of Humanity) who felt confident of settling all 
 diiBculties, and who also aspired to the government of the 
 island. 
 
 Their chief had the reputation of being an ogre. He had 
 served in the war against the cannibals, looked exceedingly 
 fierce, and therefore was accounted brave ; he talked loud 
 and with great assurance, and therefore he was accounted 
 wise; he had acquired great riches without ever doing any 
 thing useful, and therefore he was accounted skilled in busi- 
 ness. 
 
 His principal associates and counselors were two. The 
 first was a great orator, who had spent most of his life as a 
 missionary among an uneducated people who never had any 
 property, and, of course, made no exchanges ; and in this most 
 excellent and practical school had learned all that could be 
 acquired on this complicated subject. The second was a great 
 athlete, who had performed for many years in the national cir- 
 
 * In eyery cabinet of rare coins in Europe there will be found specimens 
 of what are known as " dbsidional " coins, or coins struck in besieged places 
 to supply the place of coined money. These coins appear, in all instances, 
 to have been regarded as obligations sacred in their nature, and their re- 
 pudiation a high crime against morality and patriotism. 
 
84: BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 cus, aud had acquired great reputation by carrying weighty 
 packages on both shoulders, labeled " domestic industry," but 
 which in reality contained only pig-iron. About these two 
 " every one that was in distress, every one that was in debt, 
 and every one that was discontented gathered themselves," so 
 that they soon had a large body of disciples. 
 
 The first thing they did was to abuse poor old Kobinson 
 Crusoe, because he had advised his people, in his life-time, 
 to make their money of gold (which can be only produced by 
 labor, and not by hocus-pocus) ; and their currency of some- 
 thing that represented gold, and this, too, when he must have 
 known that gold " was the machinery and relic of old despot- 
 isms ;"* and they made no account whatever of the fact that 
 he was the father of his country and lived in a cave. Next 
 they declared that all the opinions heretofore accepted on 
 this subject by the rest of mankind were fallacious; that 
 nature had done its best to make the island an isolated com- 
 munity ; that legislation had pretty effectually supplemented 
 whatever in this respect nature had left deficient ; and, there- 
 fore, that the wants of the island, in respect to money, cur- 
 rency, and every thing else, were so exceptional and peculiar 
 that the accumulated experience of all the rest of the world 
 could not be to them either applicable or instructive. All 
 agreed that the pernicious theory taught by Eobinson Crusoe, 
 Friday, and other men of by-gone days and other countries — 
 that monej', to be good, ought to be a universally desirable 
 commodity, and the equivalent of that for which it is ex- 
 changed — was the real source of all financial trouble; for 
 was it not clear, that, if such were the case, those only could 
 ever have money who, like the bloated wheat -holders, pig- 
 
 * Speeoli of General B. F. Butler, United States House of Eepresenta- 
 tives. 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 
 
 85 
 
 THE DOCTOKS PEESCEIBE CONIINTTED LOW (fiSCAI-) DIET. 
 
 holders, cattle -holders, house -holders, or bond -holders, had 
 through labor previously come into possession of some desira- 
 ble things, which they could give in exchange as an equivalent 
 for money ? while the true end of all financial reform, and thp 
 key to the terrible problem of poverty, was obviously to devise 
 and bring into use that kind of money which those who had 
 
86 nOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 no wheat, pigs, cattle, houses, bonds, or other commodities, 
 and were not able or disposed to acquire any through an ex- 
 change of their services, could have without difficulty, and in 
 abundance. "We mean, therefore," said the orator -philoso- 
 pher, speaking for himself and his colleague Friends of Hu- 
 manity, "to have more democracy and less aristocracy in the 
 money market ; more money in every body's reach, and less 
 for the petted few."* In short, the patient having become 
 very sick and attenuated by reason of the low (fiscal) diet upon 
 which he had been fed, the doctors now proposed to resusci- 
 tate him by administering a still thinner gruel. 
 
 All also agreed that the word " money " was a bad name, 
 and that the public would obtain a much clearer idea of the 
 great problems at issue if more intelligible and scientific terms 
 embodying definitions were used. One philosopher accord- 
 ingly proposed that, as they intended to sprout it everywhere, 
 they should go back to the Biblical designation, and call it the 
 " root," at the same time remarking that " the Lord showed 
 what he thought of money by the kind of people he gave it 
 to." Another proposed to call it " the instrument of associa- 
 tion " (Carey) ; a third, the " sign of transmission, of which 
 the material shall be of native growth " (John Law, 1705) ; a 
 fourth, " a sense of value as compared with commodities " 
 (" British Tracts on Money," 1795-1810) ; a fifth, " a standard 
 neither gold nor silver, but something set up in the imagina- 
 tion to be regulated by public opinion " {ibid.). 
 
 As to what money, under the reform system, was, or should 
 be, was also a question in respect to which there was not at 
 first an entire agreement. One idea which found some favor, 
 was, that money ought to be only a token, representative of 
 
 * Letter of Wandell PMlUps to the New York Legal-tender Club, 1875. 
 
THE NEW MILLEimiUM. 87 
 
 services rendered at some indefinite time or place (possibly 
 forgotten or disputed by its recipient), and " for which the 
 holder has not received the equivalent to which he is inher- 
 ently entitled under the system of division of labor."* The 
 best money, therefore, according to the philosophers of this 
 idea, was an evidence that some one person owed some other 
 person ; and, consequently, the more debt, the more money ; 
 and the more money, the more wealth, unless it is to be sup- 
 posed (as is not reasonable) that this sort of money was not to 
 have the first attribute of all other money — namely, purchas- 
 ing power. 
 
 Moreover, although the philosophers did not exactly say so, 
 the inference was also legitimate, that in a community using 
 merely "token" or "remembrance" money, the sm-est way to 
 get rich would be to get in debt, and the best way of carrying 
 on an enlightened system of trade and commerce, to exchange 
 commodities, the results of time and labor, for evidences of 
 debt without interest. It is needless to say that these teach- 
 ings and inferences tended to greatly strengthen the people on 
 the island in the opinion they before entertained, that the cur- 
 rency they already had — namely, evidences of destruction — 
 was the " best currency the world ever saw." 
 
 The three leaders among the philosophers were not, however, 
 men who were going to be contented with any half-way meas- 
 ures. Had they not put their hands to the plow of reform ? 
 and were they, after so doing, to allow the plow to stick fast 
 in the furrow ? They accordingly appealed first to authority, 
 and then to untutored reason. 
 
 The following are some of the authorities to which great 
 weight was given : 
 
 * Charles Moran, New Yorh Commercial Bulletin, October 5th, 1875. 
 
88 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 " Commerce and population, which are the riches and power of the 
 state, depend on the quantity and management of money. — John Law, 
 Memoir to the Duke of Orleans, 1705. 
 
 " Does, or does not, our duty to ourselves and the world at large de- 
 mand that we maintain permanently a non-exportable circulation ? Such 
 is the question which now agitates the nation, and must at no distant day 
 absorb all others. The affirmative of this question is also in perfect har- 
 mony with the practice and experience of leading nations, and in harmony 
 with the teachings of sound economic science." — Letter of Henry C. Carey to 
 Congressman Moses W. Field, of Detroit, September, 1875. Consult also Gov- 
 ernor William Kieft, " On the Use of Wampum Money in New Amsterdam " 
 (large folio, scarce and rare), 1659. 
 
 " Long familiarity with the practice of giving security for loans, and of 
 paying them back at a iised date, has blinded us to the national advan- 
 tages of loans without security and payable at any date." — Kabt. Maex, 
 S&r4taire, Organisation de V Internationale. 
 
 But the thing which the philosophers relied on more than 
 any thing else to sustain their views before the people was a 
 judicial decision recently made in a neighboring country, by 
 its highest court, before whom the question as to what consti- 
 tuted money was officially brought for determination. This 
 decision, expressed in the very peculiar language of the coun- 
 try, was as follows : " What we do assert is, that Congress has 
 power to enact that the Government promises to pay money 
 shall be, for the time being, equivalent in value to the repre- 
 sentative of value determined by the coinage acts, or to mul- 
 tiples thereof." All of which, translated into the language of 
 the island, meant that Government has the power to make a 
 promise to pay, containing an acknowledgment in itself that 
 the promise has not been paid, a full satisfaction that the 
 promise has been paid. That this decision, furthermore, cov- 
 ered no new points of law, was indirectly conceded by the 
 learned judges, inasmuch as, in giving their opinions, they 
 cited, as pi-ecedents worthy of being ever remembered, the de- 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 89 
 
 cisions of that eminent old-time jurist, Cade (Jack), who or- 
 dained that "seven half-penny loaves should be sold for a pen- 
 ny;" and that "the three-hooped pot shall have ten hoops." 
 The same court also strengthened its position by saying that 
 "it is hardly correct to speak of a standard of value. The 
 Constitution does not speak of it. Value is an ideal thing. 
 The coinage acts fix its unit as a dollar ; but the gold and 
 silver thing we call a dollar is in no sense the standard of a 
 dollar. It is a representative of it. There might never have 
 been a piece of money of the denomination of a dollar."* 
 
 [Note. — This last remark of the learned com't embodied a 
 great discovery; for how can there be a representative with- 
 out something to represent ? In the case of Peter Schlemihl, 
 there was a man without a shadow ; but hei'e we have a shad- 
 ow without any substance to make it. A gold dollar is not a 
 specific and mechanically formed coin; but 25.8 grains of 
 standard gold is a dollar. Did the court mean that these 
 grains of gold may never have existed, and yet have represent- 
 atives ? — Author.'] 
 
 The moment this decision was received, all the philosophers 
 got down their dictionaries, and searched for the meaning of 
 the word " ideaV As was anticipated, its definition was found 
 to be "visionary;" "existing in fancy or imagination only" 
 (Webster) ; and from this time forth there was no longer any 
 doubt in the minds of the reformers of the truth and strength 
 of the position they occupied. For, to descend to reasoning, 
 were not two intricate questions definitely settled by the high- 
 est of human tribunals? 1st. That the representative of a 
 thing may be (and if those in authority say so, shall be) equiv- 
 
 * Opinion of the United States Supreme Court, by Justice Strong. — 
 Wallace, 12, p. 553. 
 
90 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 alent to the thicg itself. 2d. That value is an ideal thing, and 
 therefore imagination, which creates all ideal things, can cre- 
 ate value. 
 
 It followed, of course, that to have and enjoy any thing 
 and every thing, it is only necessary to create and use its 
 symbol or representative ; and to pay for value received, it 
 is only necessary to imagine a corresponding and equivalent 
 value, and pass it over in exchange and settlement. On these 
 conclusions of law and reason, then, it was decided by the three 
 leaders of the philosophers and their friends, who had control 
 of the Government, that the future money of the state should 
 be based. The former inscription on the currency in use, 
 "promise to pay," they were clear, was entirely unnecessary; 
 for why promise money when the store on hand of money 
 was to be made practically unlimited, or, at least, always equal 
 to the wants of e\'ery body who desired to have it, wheth- 
 er he traded or not? Mathematical calculations were also 
 made by a scientist, which proved that the amount of labor 
 which would be actually saved to the community, and made 
 available for other purposes, by using something as money 
 which cost little or no labor to produce, in place of gold or 
 commodities which represented much labor, would be so great 
 as to require the immediate enactment of a law prohibiting 
 any one from working over six hours per day, in order to 
 guard against the evil of too great abundance. The same 
 scientist had previously been so carried away by his demon- 
 strations of the utility of a new stove which saved half the 
 fuel, that he had recommended the purchase of two stoves in 
 order to save the whole. 
 
 With few exceptions, to be hereafter noted, the whole pop- 
 ulation of the island were jubilant, and proceeded as rapidly 
 as circumstances would permit to adjust all their commercial 
 
TEE NEW MILLENNIUM. 91 
 
 transactions to the new basis. Eut joy at the prospect of the 
 coming millennium did not extinguish feelings of gratitude 
 in the hearts of the people, and they resolved to send ample 
 testimonials to all, in foreign lands, to whom they had been 
 indebted for wisdom. 
 
 To each of the judges who had so intelligently defined 
 value they accordingly voted an ideal castle and estate, pos- 
 session of the same conf A'ring nobility upon their owner, with 
 the title of ^'^ Baron Ideality^^ to which, by special patent, the 
 recipient was authorized to use (if he pleased) the prefix of 
 " damn" 
 
 To the most notable advocate, in foreign lands, of the idea 
 of non-exportable money a gift of one million of " instruments 
 of association," represented by ideal currency, was voted. But 
 as this currency, both by law and the fitness of things, could 
 not be exported from the island, it became impossible to pay 
 this gift, and in its place a letter was written explaining the 
 circumstances, and requesting that the resolution to pay might 
 be accepted as a " sign of transmission." 
 
 To the eminent financier who defined money, "as a sense 
 of value in reference to currency as compared with commod- 
 ities," there was sent a plaster image of the "What Is It;" 
 while to his colleague, who had given the opinion that " the 
 less costly the material out of which money was made, the 
 better for the community which uses it," was sent a large 
 box, containing contributions of the most worthless things 
 every body could think of, with a polite note requesting the 
 recipient to make his choice out of the collection of what 
 seemed to him best adapted as a token, and forward a detailed 
 report of his experience in attempting to use it as a represent- 
 ative of unrequited service. 
 
 Pending the slow preparations of the Government of the isl- 
 
92 
 
 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 THE AKAB AND THE CAMEL. 
 
 An Arab asked the loaded camel whether he preferred to go up or down hill. " Pray, 
 master," said the camel, dryly, " is the straight way across the plain shut up?" — jEsop. 
 
 and to provide the requisite laws for the issue and use of the 
 new naoney, various enlightened individuals attempted to an- 
 ticipate official legislative action by putting into practical op- 
 eration, on their own account, the principles involved in the 
 new fiscal system. The first of these who thus acted was a sec- 
 retary for the interior part of the island, whose chief business 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 93 
 
 was to supply the heathen — for whom, it will be remembered, 
 Robinson Crusoe took up contributions— with beef. There 
 had been a suspicion for some time past hanging over this of- 
 ficial that the heathen did not get all the beef that they were 
 entitled to ; but the suspicion probably had no further founda- 
 tion than the inability of the heathen to make the sense of 
 completion harmonize with the sign of transmission. To sat- 
 isfy the heathen, and at the same time effectually clear up his 
 character, the official in question now hastened to have pre- 
 pared a large number of pictures of fine, fat cattle, which he 
 dispatched by a Quaker to the heathen, with a request that 
 they would kill and eat, and be satisfied, adding in a post- 
 script that they would do well to begin to learn economy by 
 saving the skins. As the Quaker never came back, it was 
 deemed reasonably certain that, at least, the first part of the 
 request had been complied with. 
 
 The managers of the Island Provident Society also prompt- 
 ly determined to develop and apply the ideal system in their 
 sphere of usefulness to the full extent that circumstances per- 
 mitted. Thus a large part of the business of this old and re- 
 spected society was the distribution of clothing to the desti- 
 tute ; and, as is always the case when times are hard, the ex- 
 tent of the demands made upon it for aid tended to exceed 
 the means of supply contributed by the charitable. The man- 
 agers, however, knew that it never would answer in using the 
 ideal system to subserve the work of charity, to put the local- 
 ly needy on the same footing as the heathen, and in answer to 
 appeals for raiment distribute to them elaborate pictures of 
 fine clothing, cut from the fashion-plates; for there was this 
 essential difference in the situations, that the needy were at 
 their doors, while the heathen were a great way off. They, 
 therefore, hit upon this happy mean : they employed a com- 
 
94: BOBimON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 petent artist, with a full supply of paints and brushes, and 
 when any destitute person applied for clothing, they painted 
 upon his person every thing he desired in way of clothing of 
 the finest and most fashionable patterns, from top-boots to 
 collars, and from blue swallow -tailed coats to embroidered 
 neck-ties, with jewelry and fancy buttons to match. Of course, 
 the first man who appeared in public thus arrayed created a 
 profound sensation. But the idea was so novel, and had ob- 
 viously so many advantages over the old way of clothing one's 
 self, that the supremacy of the ideal over the real was at once 
 greatly strengthened. For example — and here was one of the 
 greatest merits of the new system — it not only symbolized, 
 but practically applied, the views of the most advanced finan- 
 cial philosophers; favored (as the orator-philosopher wished) 
 " more democracy and less aristocracy in the clothes market ;" 
 and encouraged the use of the least costly material out of which 
 the community could make clothes ; while the painted cotton, 
 silk, wool, and leather could be made to look so exactly like 
 the real articles, that it was only when the attempt was made 
 to exchange the representative for the real that the differ- 
 ence was clearly discernible. Furthermore, every garment 
 devised in accordance with the new system was, in all cases, 
 a perfect fit. The plague of buttons was annihilated. Every 
 man could save time enough in dressing and undressing to 
 enrich himself, if he only employed his economized moments 
 usefully. Every man might, without embarrassment, sleep in 
 his clothes; and if he desired to change his monkey-jacket 
 three hundred and sixty-five times in a year for an overcoat, 
 or an overcoat for a monkey-jacket, he could do it most expe- 
 ditiously, without the waste of any raw material more expen- 
 sive than paint ; and thus the system, after a time, by a happy 
 thought, got the name of the "three-sixty-five interchangea- 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 95 
 
 ble.^^ Of course, this answered very well so long as the weath- 
 er continued mild and pleasant ; but later in the season, when 
 it became cool and frosty, experience soon showed that the 
 warming qualities of different kinds of paint were not essen- 
 tially different ; that something more than confidence was nec- 
 essary to keep out the cold ; and that the temperature and cir- 
 culation of the body physical remained unaffected, whether a 
 man painted himself sky-blue one day and pea-green the next.* 
 Again, two shrewd fellows, Peter von Scrapehem and Israel 
 Double, owned each a farm worth ten thousand dollars. Pe- 
 ter sold his farm for its full value to Israel, and took a mort- 
 gage for the total purchase-money ; and Israel, in turn, sold his 
 to Peter, and took a mortgage also for its full value. By so 
 doing, each of these worthy persons clearly doubled the prop- 
 erty in his possession, inasmuch as while each had at the out- 
 set only ten thousand dollars' worth of real estate, each now 
 had ten thousand of real estate and ten thousand of personal 
 property ; or an aggregate of forty thousand between them, in 
 the place of twenty thousand originally. This method of mul- 
 tiplying property by multiplying titles was so easy, and the 
 result so apparent, that the example was very generally fol- 
 lowed ; and when the census came to be taken, a few months 
 afterward, all were amazed at the enormous increase of wealth 
 that had followed the discovery and simple recognition of the 
 true nature and value of titles. 
 
 * The Indians on the Atrato River (Central America), when first visited 
 by one of the recent inter-ocean-canal exploring parties, were found to be 
 unaccustomed to the use of much, if any, clothing ; but after a little inter- 
 course with civilized man, some of the more intelligent of the natives pre- 
 sented themselves with their bodies painted in close imitation of clothes, 
 which they claimed to be superior in every respect to the genuine articles 
 worn by their visitors. 
 
96 ROBINSON CBUSOM'S MONET. 
 
 Up to, this time the supply of milk on the island had been 
 mainly controlled by a single corporation, which, under the 
 name of the " Lacteal Fluid Association," owned all the cows, 
 and, for the purpose of facilitating supply, had long been in 
 the habit of issuing tickets, each good for a pint or a quart 
 of milk, and disposing of milk to those only who had tickets. 
 These tickets revolved perfectly in the closed circle of ex- 
 change between the milk-men and their customers, satisfying 
 all demands, and being accepted as the same thing as milk; 
 for the more tickets, the more milk ; and no tickets, no milk. 
 
 During the war the cannibals, in lack of any other meat, 
 had eaten a large number of the cows belonging to the "Lac- 
 teal Association." Many had been also taken by the Govern- 
 ment for the soldiers; so that after the war was over there 
 were really no more cows than the island absolutely needed. 
 All at once, the " foot-and-mouth disease " invaded the island, 
 and, attacking every cow belonging to the association, render- 
 ed her unable to give milk. Then arose such a piteous cry 
 from every household where there were babies as carried a 
 pang to the stoutest hearts. There was no need of any con- 
 certed action, for the people assembled spontaneously and de- 
 manded action. An immense public meeting was at once or- 
 ganized. A highly popular and humane man, a special friend 
 of children, familiarly known as Uncle Dick, was called to 
 the chair. He was supported by a long list of leading citizens 
 as vice-presidents and secretaries, none of whom, however, had 
 had any practical acquaintance with milk since their child- 
 hood, except in the form of punch. The chairman made an 
 eloquent speech. He did not know whether he was most agi- 
 tated by pity or indignation — pity for the poor babies, whose 
 sufferings had become intolerable ; indignation at the cruelty 
 of the chartered monopolists, who had wantonly refused to is- 
 
MILK-TIOKETS FOK BABIES, IN PLACE OF MILK. 
 
 7 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 99 
 
 sue more tickets at the very time when the demand for milk 
 was most imperative. The assembly was of one mind with 
 the chairman, and unanimously resolved that the Lacteal As- 
 sociation should immediately increase their supply of tickets, 
 and that, in default thereof, their charter should be altered 
 and amended. Unable to resist the storm of popular indigna- 
 tion, the association at once complied, and every patriotic cit- 
 izen went home to the bosom of his afflicted family, carrying 
 an abundant supply of milk-tickets, and feeling conscious that 
 for once at least he had risen to the level of the occasion. 
 
 That night the babies were all supplied with milk-tickets in 
 the place of milk. Milk-tickets hot, milk-tickets cold, milk- 
 tickets sweetened, milk -tickets plain, milk -tickets with their 
 backs printed green, and interchangeable with milk- tickets 
 drawing cream skimmed from other milk-tickets. But, strange 
 to say, the babies, one and all, with that same sort of instinct- 
 ive perversity which induces children of a larger growth to re- 
 fuse to accept shams for reality, and be grateful in addition, 
 refused to take to milk-tickets. The uproar of the night pre- 
 ceding was as nothing to the disturbances of the night follow- 
 ing, and morning dawned upon an unrefreshed and troubled 
 population. 
 
 As soon as the necessary arrangements could be made, an- 
 other meeting assembled. But the meeting this time was 
 composed of babies, backed by their mammas and nurses. 
 There was no theory in their sentiments ; and though young 
 in years, one and all felt that they had lived long enough to 
 know what their fathers apparently did not know — namely, 
 the difference between milk and paper. The resolutions voted 
 were brief, but to the point, and were, substantially, as follows : 
 
 First, that the exigencies of the times demanded more milk, 
 and not more milk-tickets ; second, that the way to get more 
 
100 ROBINSON CBUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 milk was to have more cows ; third, that the way to get more 
 cows was to go to work and raise them, or raise something 
 else equally valuable, and then with this something else buy 
 cows ; fourth, that there are certain eternal verities against 
 which it is useless for either babies or men to contend. A 
 committee was appointed to procure a mill of the gods, to 
 grind up those who disbelieved in the last resolution, and the 
 meeting then adjourned. 
 
 This was the first indication of any thing like popular dis- 
 sent from the views of the Friends of Humanity. Others, 
 however, soon followed. Value having been declared to be an 
 ideal thing, and ideal measures of value having been substi- 
 tuted in the place of the real and tangible measures formerly 
 in use, it had been deemed proper to substitute ideal measures 
 of length, weight, and capacity iij_rt>$^la£^ of the foot-rules, 
 yard-sticks, pound-weights, and^^p^measures formerly era- 
 ployed. Shop-keepers, plunloe^^^^oal - men, gas corpora- 
 tors, and all others who had any th^^to sell accordingly pro- 
 vided themselves with slips of pa(^CT, upon which were print- 
 ed, respectively, " This is a foot," " This is a bushel," " This is 
 a pint," " This is a pound ;" and the services of the arithme- 
 tic-man were again called for, to prove how much more cloth, 
 beer, charcoal, gas, and all other measurable things the com- 
 munity would certainly have by the saving of labor and cap- 
 ital contingent on the avoidance of the necessity of further 
 manufacturing, purchasing, and using the old measures. 
 
 But the new system did not work smoothly. There was no 
 harmony of sentiment between buyers and sellers ; and what 
 was one man's ideal of what he should give or receive in trade 
 was always different from every other man's ; and, before the 
 community were well aware of what they were about, they 
 found themselves drifting back to the adoption of the old sys- 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 101 
 
 tem of barter, which had been tried and abandoned in the 
 early days of the island's history. Instead of one price, every 
 one who had commodities or services to sell adopted a scale 
 of at least four prices : " pay price," " money price," " pay as 
 money price," and a " trusting price ;" and the seller, before 
 fixing his price, invariably asked his customer how he would 
 pay* "Pay price" was barter; "money price" was pay- 
 ment in foreign coin ; "pay as money" was in the ideal money 
 of the island; "trusting" was an enhanced price, according to 
 time. Thus, supposing a customer wanted a knife, its price 
 in " pay " would be a bushel of corn ; in " money price," a 
 fifty-cent gold or silver coin ; in " pay as money," sometimes 
 as much as he could bring in a basket, at other times as much 
 as he could bring in a wheelbarrow ; and before the ultimate 
 abandonment of the use of ideal money, a cart had to be em- 
 ployed to bring the money. Trade in this way became " most 
 intricate." 
 
 News also came, about this time, that the heathen, not be- 
 ing able to stay their stomachs with the pictures of fat cattle 
 that had been so abundantly sent them, and considering them- 
 selves humbugged, were preparing to declare war. To meet 
 a threatened increased expenditure on this account, the Gov- 
 ernment, therefore, levied new taxes ; and as the valuation of 
 the property of the island, under the influence of the new fis- 
 cal system, had, as before stated, enormously increased, it was 
 anticipated that a small rate would yield a large revenue. 
 But as soon as Scrapehem, Double, and their friends, who had 
 been multiplying their property by multiplying titles, found 
 
 * This "svas what actually happened in Connecticut in 1704 and there- 
 abouts. See " Madame Knight's Journal," quoted in Felt and Bronson's 
 "Histories of New England Currencies." 
 
102 
 
 ROBINSON CEUSOM'S MONET. 
 
 AN INFLATION LOOK AHEAD. 
 
 out that the titles were to be valued and assessed as wealth, 
 equally with the property which the titles represented, they 
 hasted to swap back, and cancel their mortgages ; and imme- 
 diately half the reputed wealth of the island disappeared. 
 
 There were some people, it will be remembered, who did 
 not share in the general jubilation which welcomed the dis- 
 covery and adoption of the new monetary system. These 
 
TBE NEW MILLENNIUM. 103 
 
 were the stony-hearted capitalists, meaning thereby persons 
 who had produced by industry and frugality more than they 
 had consumed, and had lent out this surplus in the form of 
 ships, houses, horses and carts, wheelbarrows, coal, iron, and the 
 like, on condition that they should be repaid the value of the 
 several articles as expressed in money, with a portion of the 
 profit that might have accrued to the borrower from their using. 
 There was a popular feeling that all these lenders were 
 " bloated," the degrees of bloat being, of course, different all 
 the way from the man who owned and lent a ship down to 
 the man who owned and lent a cart, or their equivalents in 
 money; and that the best remedy for this frightful disease 
 was tapping, and tapping by tendering in payment the ideal 
 money, which was something very different in value from the 
 money understood at the time the loans were effected. Na- 
 tives of heathen lands, who had never enjoyed the light of the 
 Gospel, called this robbing ; but many on the island who had 
 always been Christians regarded the matter with indifference, 
 and treated it as a purely sanitary measure; and Christian 
 ministers who never preached against such practices, but al- 
 ways did preach against the sins of that ancient people, the 
 Jews, wondered at the low tone of morality that seemed to 
 generally characterize society. As it appears, however, from 
 an examination of the ancient records of the island, that stren- 
 uous exertions were made about this time to interest the Gov- 
 ernment and the people in the momentous question of the 
 reading of the Bible in the public schools, and thus prevent 
 public attention from being diverted to the consideration of 
 any such unimportant and side issues as the nature and obli- 
 gations of promises, it may be that the low tone of morality 
 thus referred to was more apparent than real; no province de- 
 volving upon the historian being more difficult than that of 
 
104 B0BIN80N CIWSOM'S MONEY. 
 
 attempting to reconcile, after a long lapse of years, what ap- 
 pears to be a series of contemporaneous but utterly incongru- 
 ous circumstances. 
 
 But, be this as it may, all who had loaned valuable com- 
 modities desired to avoid tapping, and consequently hastened 
 to demand repayment before the ideal money could be exten- 
 sively issued and put into circulation ; and, having once ob- 
 tained payment, were very cautious how they lent again. All 
 this contributed, in the language of the day, to make money 
 very tight ; but this language had, to a great extent, no mean- 
 ing. The only money that was tight was good money, and 
 this had been gone so long that the younger part of the pop- 
 ulation didn't even know how it looked ; while of the bad 
 money there was a continually increasing quantity. 
 
 Besides good money, all real capital, timber for building 
 ships, factories, and houses, iron for the construction of ma- 
 chinery, cloth for clothes, and grain for food, were tight ; not 
 because there was any lack of all these useful things, but be- 
 cause the owners had all become afraid that if they once loan- 
 ed or parted with them they should never receive back an 
 equivalent. So the island, instead of being lifted up to great 
 prosperity, was plunged into the depths of adversity. There 
 was a general lack of confidence. Societary activity was 
 abated ; production was arrested ; and men desirous of being 
 industrious had no opportunity of following any industry. 
 
 Gold had long disappeared from circulation. Although 
 produced in large quantities on the island, none of it would 
 stay there, but flowed oif to foreign countries in a steady 
 stream. The common explanation of this phenomenon was, 
 that gold had become the cheapest thing the island produced, 
 and was, therefore, the first thing exported. But a majority of 
 those who said and heard this did not clearly see that the av- 
 
THE NEW MILLENNIUM. 105 
 
 erage purchasing power of gold the world over had not varied 
 in any degree ; but that the price of almost every other thing 
 produced on the island had so varied and relatively increased, 
 by reason of domestic fiscal circumstances, that it was far bet- 
 ter for the foreigner to talce pay in gold for all the commodi- 
 ties he sold to the island, and then, with this gold, purchase in 
 other countries the very things which the island specially pro- 
 duced and wanted to sell. As already intimated, the island- 
 ers found great diflSculty in understanding this little arrange- 
 ment; but the foreigners understood it as by intuition, and 
 never failed to act upon it* All of this further contributed 
 to turn upside down and inside out the industries of the isl- 
 and ; and while the Friends of Humanity continued to loudly 
 proclaim that the issue of more money would cure all diffi- 
 culties, the people, sorely distressed, and ready to accept relief 
 from any quarter, began to loudly murmur, in turn, at what 
 seemed an unnecessary delay in making the issue ; the fact 
 being, that although public opinion was nearly unanimous on 
 the subject, the regular time for the Congress of the island to 
 meet and enact the laws had not come round. 
 
 At last, the long-expected day arrived, and Congress assem- 
 bled. All the special and immediate Friends of " More Mon- 
 ey," of " Ideal Money," and of " Plumanity," were members ; 
 and hardly had the presiding officer taken his seat before fifty 
 men sprung for the floor, each with a resolution demanding 
 immediate fiscal legislation. The first resolution adopted was,, 
 that the Government should at once supply all the money 
 
 * Whatever may have been the immediate effect of the gold-discoveries 
 in California and Australia, no economist of repute now holds to the opin- 
 ion that the average purchasing power of gold all the world over is any 
 less than it was in 1849-50 ; or, in other words, that any increase in the 
 quantity of gold since 1849-50 has resulted in any present depreciation. 
 
106 
 
 ROBINSON CBVSOE'S MONET. 
 
 INCEEASING THE VOLUME OP THE OnRKENCT. 
 
 Capital. " By dividing this one dollar it becomes two, •which makes more money. I pay 
 yoQ these ' two dollars ' for wages, yon see." 
 Laiar. " Bat when I go to buy bread I find them only worth one ; so I don't see it." 
 
 which the wants of every body, and every trade and industry, 
 might, could, would, or should require ; and that the money 
 thus issued should be a legal tender for the payment of all 
 debts, past, present, and prospective. 
 
 The next important question was. In what manner should 
 
TBE NEW MILLENNIUM. 107 
 
 the new and unlimited supply of money be distributed ? All 
 saw at once that it would never do to commence on a system 
 of giving unlimited something for unlimited nothing ; and yet, 
 if this was not done, how was it possible for the wants of 
 those who had nothing, and who, of course, wanted money for 
 this reason most imperatively, to be supplied? Besides, to 
 create an unlimited supply of the new money, it would be 
 necessary to have a good many hundreds of thousands of slips 
 of paper with the words, " This is a dollar," " This is ten dol- 
 lars," or " This is — " (some other amount), properly and artist- 
 ically printed on them ; all of which, in turn, would require a 
 great expenditure, not only of ink and paper, but also of time ; 
 while the necessity of the hour was for immediate relief, espe- 
 cially to trade. It was therefore decided to leave the trouble- 
 some question of equal distribution for a time unsettled, and 
 endeavor to first relieve trade by doubling the volume of the 
 currency. And in order to do this at once, and without cost 
 to the Government for engraving, pointing, paper, and ink, it 
 was therefore enacted that every one having legal-tender cur- 
 rency might cut or divide the same into two equal halves or 
 pieces, and that each of these halves or pieces so resulting 
 should be a legal tender to the full amount that the whole had 
 previously been. At first thought, this proposition to exclude 
 all those who had no money from participation in the new 
 supply seemed most palpably unfair and unjust, but a little 
 consideration satisfied to the contrary ; for unless it was pro- 
 posed to give away the new money, it was obvious that those 
 only would get it who had money, and that the proportion 
 which all such would obtain would be in proportion to what 
 money they already had. It was, therefore, deemed wise to 
 anticipate what was certain to be the ultimate result, and dis- 
 tribute it in the manner indicated. 
 
108 ROBINSON CBVSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 GETTING SOBER. 
 
 It was expected that this new and immense volume of cur- 
 rency, poured at once on to the wheels of trade, would imme- 
 diately start the wheels. But, somehow, it didn't seem to have 
 that effect at all. The wheels not only would not revolve, but 
 the friction on them seemed to have become more persistent 
 and chronic than ever. In fact, the doubling the volume of 
 the currency, instead of increasing the before existing instru- 
 mentalities for facilitating exchanges, had really diminished 
 them ; for all who were willing to exchange commodities for 
 the new currency either doubled the price of their commodi- 
 ties, or gave only half the quantity for what they regarded as 
 half of the former money ; so that with all this class the abun- 
 dance of currency was relatively the same as before. But the 
 majority who had any thing to sell would not accept the ideal 
 money in exchange at all. They did not claim, they said, to 
 be financiers, or philosophers, or even special friends of hu- 
 manity ; but they did think that they were not such fools that 
 they could be made to believe that the half of a thing was 
 equal to the whole, or that one bushel of grain could be con- 
 verted into two by putting one bushel into two half-bushel 
 measures. 
 
 The only really positive effect of the doubling of the vol- 
 ume of the currency in the manner authorized by law was, 
 therefore, to scale all debts to the extent of fifty per cent., and 
 in such a manner that creditors were wholly unable to help 
 
GETTING SOBER. 109 
 
 themselves ; for by terms of the act every one ' dollar of old 
 legal tender was now made two for all new legal- tender pur- 
 poses. In this way the people on the island soon learned a 
 most important elementary lesson in finance, which was, that 
 the only one attribute of legal tender which is imperative 
 and unavoidable* is its inherent power of canceling or liqui- 
 dating debts or of tapping creditors — and this, too, irrespect- 
 ive of the endowment of the legal tender with any real or 
 representative value. So that a truthful designation of the 
 act in question would have been "An act to relieve debtors 
 from half of their obligations, and swindle creditors to a cor- 
 responding extent of what was due them by the debtor's ac- 
 knowledgment." 
 
 To the credit of the people of the island it must be record- 
 ed that, as a general rule, they were too honorable to take ad- 
 vantage of the law to do so wrong and mean a thing ;t but 
 the knowledge that every debtor had it in his power to so act, 
 
 * This is the American interpretation. The English interpretation of 
 " legal tender " ■was brought out in a debate in the House of Lords, in 
 June, 1811, when it was shown to mean, in its application to Great Britain, 
 no more than this : that in a suit between creditor and debtor, if a judg- 
 ment went against the debtor, he was allowed to plead a tender of bank- 
 notes in arrest of execution, but he could not claim that the notes should 
 be forced upon the creditor in discharge of the debt. During the long 
 suspension of specie payments in Great Britain, therefore, bank-notes were 
 never made legal tender in the American sense. 
 
 t After the Eevolutionary war it was considered disgraceful to take 
 advantage of the legal-tender character of the depreciated Continental or 
 State paper money to liquidate debts with it ; and the Society of Cincin- 
 nati expelled a member for so doing. The State of Ehode Island also, 
 which longer than any of the other States endeavored to maintain by law 
 the legal-tender character and use of such money, was often spoken of in 
 consequence as "Eogue's" in place of "Ehode" Island. 
 
110 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 and the fear that some would take advantage of their unques- 
 tionable legal privileges, contributed still further to bring all 
 business to a stand-still. 
 
 There was also a curious phenomenon incident to the situ- 
 ation, and pertaining to the rate of interest, which excited no 
 little comment and attention. Every body took it for granted 
 that with an unlimited supply of money a low rate of interest 
 would prevail, and that, however much the financiers and phi- 
 losophers might disagree about other things, this one result 
 would be certain. An eminently practical man in one of the 
 public debating societies of the island thought he had defi- 
 nitely, and for all time, settled the question by authoritatively 
 remarking that " an abundance of money does produce enter- 
 prise, prosperity, and progress ;" " that when money was plen- 
 ty interest would be lower," just as when horses and hogs are 
 abundant, horses and hogs would be cheap. He, for one, " put 
 aside all these old theories, these platitudes of finance." There 
 was " no vitality in them." He preferred " to take the actual 
 results, and the actual condition of the country, and let theory 
 go to the dogs."* 
 
 There was so much of originality and home sense in these 
 remarks, so much of a lordly contemning of the teachings of 
 musty old experience, that the friends of the orator thought 
 him much more worthy than ever of the executive chair for- 
 merly filled by the wise Eobinson Crusoe. But, unfortunately 
 for the orator, he hadn't got far enough along in his financial 
 primer to appreciate the -difference between capital and cur- 
 rency ; and in the simplicity of his heart imagined that it was 
 
 * To any wlio may desire to knoTv how far imagination has been drawn 
 upon for this picture, reference is made to the speech of Hon. 0. P. Morton, 
 United States Senate, " Congressional Record," vol. ii., part i., Forty-third 
 Congress, First Session, p. 669. 
 
GETTINa SOBER. HI 
 
 all the same, whether we had pictures of horses, hogs, and 
 money, or real horses, hogs, and money, which represent and 
 are accumulated by labor. So the things which he thus settled 
 in opposition to theory and experience wouldn't stay settled ; 
 and the islanders in due time came to a realizing sense of the 
 following truths : that the more of a redundant, irredeemable 
 paper that is issued, the more it depreciates, and the more it is 
 depreciated, the more there is required of it to transact busi- 
 ness ; and that if any one borrows depreciated money to do 
 any thing, he has to borrow a greater nominal amount than he 
 would of money that was not depreciated ; and that it is on 
 the number of nominal dollars, and not on their purchasing 
 power, that the rate of interest is always calculated. The in- 
 variable rise in prices consequent on the depreciation of mon- 
 ey (price as already explained being the purchasing power of 
 any commodity or service expressed in money), furthermore 
 stimulates borrowing for the purpose of speculation ; and the 
 more borrowers, the more competition ; and the more the com- 
 petition to obtain an article or service, the higher the price de- 
 manded for it. 
 
 Again, the currency of the island having been made artifi- 
 cially abundant, its exchangeable value was always uncertain ; 
 and capital, therefore, as it always does at such times, locked 
 up its pockets, hesitated to take risks, and, if it consented to 
 loan at all, demanded extra pay by reason of the increased 
 risk or induced scarcity.* 
 
 * The pertinacity with which a mind hefogged on the subject of money 
 and currency holds on to the delusion that the making and issue of prom- 
 ises to pay, and calling the same money, is equivalent to the creation of 
 wealth ; and, vice versd, that the cancellation or withdrawal, by payment, 
 of such promises is the same thing as the destruction of wealth, and also 
 tends to make money — in the sense of capital — scarce, and interest high. 
 
112 BOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 After testing all these principles experimentally for a con- 
 siderable time, the people on the island came to see that the 
 
 finds many amusing illustrations, ■which for educational purposes are bet- 
 ter than arguments. 
 
 For example, we have, first, the assumption of a leading Senator of the 
 United States (already referred to, and which, if not on record, would seem 
 incredible) that because an increased supply of horses and hogs made 
 available to a market make horses and hogs cheap, therefore an increased 
 supply of evidences that capital had been borrowed, used, and never paid, 
 would tend to increase the quantity and rate of interest of loanable capi- 
 tal. A corresponding illustration is also to be found in the case of the 
 member of the Continental Congress mentioned by Pelatiah Webster, who, 
 when the subject of increased taxation for the support of the war was un- 
 der consideration, indignantly asked "if he was expected to help tax the 
 people, when they could go to the printing-office and get money by the 
 cart-load ?" 
 
 The experience of the Irish mob also finds an appropriate place under 
 this head, which made a bonfire of all the notes issued by an obnoxious 
 private banker that they could gather, little imagining, as they shouted 
 and capered with wild delight about the fire that consumed them, that, in 
 place of impoverishing, they were really enriching, their enemy. 
 
 The following story, also illustrative of the same popular fallacy, passes 
 current in one of the towns of Eastern Connecticut : During the severe 
 financial panic of 1857, an honest country farmer and deacon, who, by virtue 
 of being a considerable stockholder in one of the local banks, had been 
 placed as a figure-head on its board of directors, was applied to by a farmer 
 friend to help him in procuring from the bank a small loan. Knowing that 
 the times were hard, and money scarce, the deacon, although desirous of 
 obliging his friend, did not at once commit himself, but promised to go to 
 the bank, and make his action contingent upon the state of affairs which he 
 might there find. The two friends, accordingly, went into town the next day 
 (which happened to be the culminating day of the crisis, when every prom- 
 ise to pay issued by any bank was, in the general distrust, gathered up and 
 rushed in for redemption) ; and, while the applicant for the loan waited 
 outside, the director entered the bank to reconnoitre. Passing into the 
 directors' room, and thence behind the counter, he said little, but, keeping 
 
GETTING SOBER. 113 
 
 possession of money was the consequence rather than the 
 cause of wealth : and that, except under special circumstances 
 and conditions, the rate of interest depends on the abundance 
 or scarcity of that part of the capital of a community which 
 does not consist of money ; and that it can not be permanent- 
 ly lowered by any increase in the quantity of money.* 
 
 In this way, through the school of hard experience, the peo- 
 ple on the island came gradually to understand that there 
 were certain economic truths which had got to be accepted 
 and lived up to in order to insure either individual or nation- 
 al prosperity. They came to understand that property is a 
 
 his eyes wide open, did not fail to notice the extraordinarily large pack- 
 ages of bills, filling safe and drawers, wiiicli, to the annoyance and strain 
 of the bant, had been recently sent in for payment. Seeking no further 
 proof of the financial strength of his institution, he returned to the street, 
 and, informing his friend that every thing was all right, the latter next 
 entered, and confidently asked for his discount. To his great surprise, he 
 received the usual polite answer, that " they would be too glad to oblige 
 him, but that, really, they had no money." " Out of money !" said the dea- 
 con, when the result of the application was made known to him. " Out of 
 money! How can they lie so, when I have just seen the safe and draw- 
 ers full of it? As a Christian man, and an officer of the church, I can't 
 conscientiously be a director and stockholder any longer in such an im- 
 moral institution." And yet, if, on returning home, the good deacon had 
 found in his table-drawer a nnmber of his individual promissory-notes, 
 signed and ready to issue, but not issued, he would not have thought him- 
 self any richer by their existence, but, on the contrary, would have felt 
 much more comfortable at such a time to know that the notes were all un- 
 der double-lock security, or, better, if he saw, them vanishing into ashes. 
 And yet, in the case of the bank-notes, he couldn't understand why they 
 were not money, to be used at all times and under all circumstances ! 
 
 * Between the years 1860 and 1870, the United States doubled the quan- 
 tity of currency available for use by its citizens, and yet the rate of inter- 
 est was as high in the latter year a's in the former. 
 
114 ROBINSON CRUSOE'S MONEY. 
 
 pHysical actuality, the result of some form of labor ; that cap- 
 ital is that portion of the results of production which can be 
 reserved and made available for new and further production ; 
 that money is an instrumentality for facilitating the distribu- 
 tion and use of capital and the interchange of products and 
 services; that production alone buys production; that when 
 one buys goods with a paper representative or symbol of mon- 
 ey, the goods are not paid for until the representative is sub- 
 stituted by a value of some sort in labor, or money, or some 
 other commodity ; and, finally, that a country and its inhabit- 
 ants increase in wealth or abimdance by increasing their prod- 
 ucts, rather than by inordinately multiplying machinery for 
 the exchange of products. They also saw that the promises 
 to pay which they had been using and regarding as money 
 were debts ; and that debts, as well as all other forms of title, 
 are but shadows of the property they represent ; and that, in 
 endeavoring to all get rich by first creating debts, then calling 
 the debts money, and the money wealth, they had been led, 
 successively, into speculation, extravagance, idleness, and im- 
 poverishment ; and, like the dog in the fable, which let go of 
 the meat in crossing a stream for the sake of grasping its shad- 
 ow, they had lost much of real wealth resulting from previous 
 industry by trying to make the shadow of wealth supply the 
 place of its substance. 
 
 Coming to gradually realize, also, that one of the first requi- 
 sites for an increase of trade was that confidence should exist 
 between the buyer and the seller, but that such confidence nev- 
 er would exist so long as the representatives of value, or other 
 intermediate agencies made use of for facilitating exchanges, 
 were of an uncertain, fluctuating character, they also came 
 finally to the conclusion that there was no economy in using 
 cheap money ; or, in other words, that the loss and waste in- 
 
GETXINa SOBER. 
 
 115 
 
 THE HUNGRY DOG AND THE SHADOW. 
 
 Grasp at the Shadow and lose the Substance. 
 
 evitably resulting from the use of poor tools (money being a 
 tool) was many times in excess of the interest accruing from 
 any increased cost of good tools. So reasoning, gold, or un- 
 doubted promises to pay gold, gradually came once more into 
 use as money on the island. 
 
116 SOBINSON CRUSOE'S MONET. 
 
 There were some prophecies, and a good deal of apprehen- 
 sion, that there would be difSculty experienced in obtaining 
 sufficient gold to serve as money or as a basis for currency, 
 especially when it was remembered that the influence of all 
 that had recently happened had been to encourage the export 
 of all the gold that was owned or produced on the island. 
 But as the goldsmiths and the jewelers never experienced any 
 difficulty during the war with the cannibals, or afterward, in 
 obtaining all the gold they wanted, no matter how scarce and 
 valuable it was as compared with currency, and could have 
 had a hundred times more than they actually used, if their 
 customers had been willing to pay for it; so the merchants, 
 traders, and people at large on the island, as soon as they be- 
 came satisfied that it was economical to use gold, and deter- 
 mined to have it, experienced no difficulty in obtaining an 
 ample supply. 
 
 One circumstance which, pending this result, tended to 
 greatly relieve the popular apprehension on this score, was 
 the reading in foreign newspapers that the people in certain 
 comparatively poor countries — as Oregon, Arizona, Nevada, 
 and Washington Territory — had no more difficulty in obtain- 
 ing and retaining all the gold that they found it desirable to 
 use for the purpose of money, than they had in obtaining and 
 retaining all the wheelbarrows and steam-engines that they 
 desired to use in conducting their business; and laughed 
 when any body talked of depriving them of their gold money. 
 
 The first step having been thus taken in the right direction, 
 a sequence of other proper acts occurred as naturally and 
 with the same favorable results as in the celebrated case of 
 the old woman and the kid ; in which it will be remembered 
 that as soon as the water began to quench the fire, the fire 
 
GETTING SOBER. 117 
 
 began to burn the stick, the stick began to beat the dog, the 
 dog began to bite the kid, and, as a consequence of this se- 
 quence and its concluding act, the old woman got safely home 
 with the kid, though at a period of the evening much later 
 than was desirable or proper. And so, by a succession of 
 events, prosperity slowly but surely came back to the island. 
 
 As for the Friends of Humanity, who had been the authors 
 of so much financial and commercial disturbance and national 
 misfortune, they soon ceased to command attention from any 
 one, then became objects of laughter and derision, and finally 
 passed out of the remembrance of the people, who were now 
 all too busy in restoring their fortunes to give a thought to by- 
 gone and mortifying experiences. Some became convinced 
 of their errors, and made good citizens ; but in the case of 
 the majority, the belief that the calling of things of no intrin- 
 sic value by the name of money was equivalent to the creation 
 of wealth, became chronic, and finally developed into a harm- 
 less insanity. On pleasant days they might often be seen on 
 the corners of the streets gathering leaves and bits of sticks and 
 straws, and telling the children that assembled about them 
 that all that was necessary to make these worthless gatherings 
 money was to simply have confidence that they were so. But 
 this was aslving for a simplicity of belief that was a little too 
 much, even for the children. 
 
 It only remains to add that, as memorials of this eventful 
 history, there is still exhibited in one of the public buildings 
 on the island an exact model of the cave in which the vener- 
 able Eobinson Crusoe dwelt, and, what is even more interest- 
 ing, the identical chest which he brought from the ship, and 
 which contained the pins, needles, knives, cloth, and scissors, 
 and the three great bags of what was then useless, but now 
 
118 ROBINSON CBTJSOE'S MONET. 
 
 good and true, money. Numerous specimens of the " ideal 
 money " may also be seen in the same room, together with a 
 picture of the barber who papered his shop with it, and of the 
 dog which the people paraded in the streets covered with a 
 plaster of pitch and currency.* 
 
 * Sucli were some of the uses finally made of the Contineutal currency. 
 See Sumner's " History of American Currency," p. 46. 
 
YALUABLE & INTERESTING WORKS 
 
 FOR PUBLIC AND PRIVATE LIBRARIES, 
 Published by HAEPER & BROTHEES, NbwToek. 
 
 tt^" For a full List of Books suitable for Libraries^ see Hakpkk & BBOTnnns' Teade- 
 LisT and Catalogtte, which may be had gratuitously on application to the 
 Publishers personally, or by letter enclosing Ten Cents, 
 
 SW Haeper & Beotheeb uiill send any of the foUowinxj works by mail, postage pre- 
 paid, to any part of the United States, on receipt of the price. 
 
 SCHWEINFURTH'S HEART OF AFRICA. Tlie Heart of Africa: or, Three 
 Tears' Travels and Adventures in the Unexplored Regions of the Centre of 
 Africa. From 1S6S to tSTl. By Dr. Georg Sohwexnfueth. Translated hy Bl< 
 LEN E. Feewer. With an Introduction by Winwoou Rbade. Illustrated by 
 about 130 Woodcuts from Drawings made by the Author, and with Two Maps. 
 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $8 00. 
 
 FLAMMARION'S ATMOSPHERE. The Atmosphere. Translated from the French 
 of Camille Flammaeion. Edited by James Glaibuee, P.R.S., Superintendent 
 of the Magnetical and Meteorological Department of the Royal Observatory at 
 Greenwich. With 10 Chromo-Lithographs and 86 Woodcuts. 8vo, Cloth, $6 00. 
 
 HUDSON'S HISTORY OF JOURNALISM. Journalism in the United States, from 
 1690 to 18T2. By Feedeeigk Hddson. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 DR. LIVINGSTONE'S LAST JOURNALS. The Last Journals of David Living- 
 stone, in Central Africa, from 1866 to his Death. Continued by a Narrative of 
 his Last Moments and Sufferings, obtained from his faithful Servants Chuma 
 and Susi. By Hoeaob Waller, F.R.G.S., Rector of Twywell, Northampton. 
 With Maps and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $6 00. 
 
 SDR SAMUEL BAKER'S ISMAILIA. Ismailia: A Narrative of the Expedition 
 to Central Africa for the Suppression of the Slave Trade. Organized by Ibmah, 
 Khedive of Egypt. By Sir SamdeeW. Bakee, Pasha, P.R.S., F.R.G.S. With 
 Maps, Portraits, and upward of Fifty full-page Illustrations byZwEOKEE and 
 DuKANB. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 MYERS'S REMAINS OF LOST EMPIRES. Remains of Lost Empires. Sketches 
 of the Ruins of Palmyra, Nineveh, Babylon, and Persepolis, with some Notes 
 on India and the Cashmerian Himalayas. By P. V. N. Myeeb, A.M. Illustra- 
 tions. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $3 60. 
 
 EVANGELICAL ALLIANCE CONFERENCE, 18T3. History, Essays, Orations, and 
 Other Documents of the Sixth General Conference of the Evangelical Alliance, 
 held iu New York, Oct. 2-12, 1873. Edited by Rev. Philip Sohaee, D.D., and 
 Rev. S. Ibem^to Prime, D.D. With Portraits of Rev. Messrs. Pronier, Carrasco, 
 and Cook, recently deceased. Svo, Cloth, nearly 800 pages, $6 00. 
 
 VINCENT'S LAND OF THE WHITE ELEPHANT. The Land of the White Ele- 
 phant: Sights and Scenes in Southeastern Asia. A Personal Narrative of 
 Travel and Adventure in Farther India, embracing the Countries of Burma, 
 Siam, Cambodia, and Cochin-China (18T1-2). By Feank Vincent, Jr. Mag- 
 nificently illustrated with Map, Plans, and numerous Woodcuts. Crown Svo, 
 Cloth, $3 60. 
 
 TRISTRAM'S THE LAND OF MOAB. The Result of Travels and Discoveries on 
 the East Side of the Dead Sea and the Jordan. By H. B. Teistram, M.A., 
 LL.D., F.R.S., Master of the Greatham Hospital, and Hon. Canon of Durham. 
 With a Chapter on the Persian Palace of Mashita, by Jab. Ferodbon, F.R.6. 
 With Map and IllustratiouB. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 
 
 SANTO DOMINGO, Past and Present ; with a Glance at Hayti. By Samuel Hazaed. 
 Maps and Illustrations. Crown Svo, Cloth, $3 60. 
 
 SMILES'S HUGUENOTS AFTER THE REVOCATION. The Huguenots in 
 France after the Revocation of the Edict of Nantes: with a Visit to the Conntry 
 of the Vaudois. By Samuel Smiles. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
2 Harper 6^ Brothers' Valuable and Interesting Works. 
 
 POBTS OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY. The Poets of tke Nineteenth Cen- 
 tury. Selected ana Edited liy the Kev. Kobeet Abis Willmott. With English 
 and American Additions, arranged by Etebt A. Ddyokinok, Editor of "Cyclo- 
 piEdia of American Literature." Comprising Selections from the Greatest Au- 
 thors of the Age. Superbly Illustrated with 141 Engravings from Designs by 
 the most Eminent Artists. In elegant small 4to form, printed on Superfine 
 Tinted Paper, richly bound in extra Cloth, Beveled, Gilt Edges, $5 00 ; Half Calf, 
 $S 60 ; Pull Turkey Morocco, S9 00. 
 THE REVISION OF THE ENGLISH VERSION OP THE NEW TESTAMENT. 
 With an Introduction by the Rev. P. Sohaff, D:D. 618 pp., Crown 8vo, Cloth, 
 $3 00. 
 
 This work embraces in one volume : 
 I. ON A FRESH REVISION OP THE ENGLISH NEW TESTAMENT. 
 By J. B. LiGHTFOOT, D.D., Canon of St. Paul's, and Hulsean Professor of 
 Divinity, Cambridge. Second Edition, Revised. 196 pp. 
 II. ON THE AUTHORIZED VERSION OF THE NEW TESTAMENT i« 
 Connection with some Recent Proposals for its Revision. By Richaeis 
 Chenevix Tbbnoh, D.D., Archbishop of Dublin. 194 pp. 
 ni. CONSIDERATIONS ON THE REVISION OP THE ENGLISH VERSION 
 OF THE NEW TESTAMENT. By J. C. Eixioott, D.D., Bishop of Glou- 
 cester and Bristol. 178 pp. 
 NORDHOFP'S CALIFORNIA. California: for Hualth, Pleasure, and Residence. 
 A Book for Travelers and Settlers. Illustrated. Svo, Paper, S2 00 ; Cloth, $2 60. 
 NORDHOFP'S NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, OREGON, AND THE SANDWICH 
 
 ISLANDS. Illustrated. Svo, Cloth, $2 SO. 
 MOTLEY'S DUTCH REPUBLIC. The Rise of the Dutch Republic. By John Lo- 
 TUKop Motley, LL.D., D.C.L. With a Portrait of William of Orange. 3 vols., 
 Svo, Cloth, $10 60. 
 
 HOTLET'S UNITED NETHERLAND'S. History of the United Netherlands: from 
 the Death of William the Silent to the Twelve Years' Truce— 1609. With a full 
 View of the English-Dutch Struggle against Spain, and of the Origin and De- 
 struction of the Spanish Armada. By John Lotueop Motley, LL.D., D.C.L. 
 Portraits. 4 vols., Svo, Cloth, $14 00. 
 
 MOTLEY'S LIFE AND DEATH OP JOHN OP BARNEVELD. Lite and Death 
 of John of Barneveld, Advocate of Holland. With a View of the Primary 
 Causes and Movements of " The Thirty Years' War." By John Lothbop Mot- 
 ley, D.C.L. With Illustrations. In Two Volumes. Svo, Cloth, $7 00. 
 
 HAYDN'S DICTIONARY OP DATES, relating to all Ages and Nations. For Uni- 
 versal Reference. Edited by Benjamin ViNoent, Assistant Secretary and Keeper 
 of the Library of the Royal Institution of Great Britain ; and Revised for the Use 
 of American Readers. Svo, Cloth, $6 00 ; Sheep, $6 00. 
 
 MACGREGOR'S ROB ROY ON THE JORDAN. The Rob Boy on the Jordan, 
 Nile, Red Sea, and Gennesareth, &c. A Canoe Cruise in Palestine and Egypt, 
 and the Waters of Damascus. By J. Maogeegoe, M.A. With Maps and Illus- 
 trations. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 60. 
 
 WALLACE'S MALAY ARCHIPELAGO. The Malay Archipelago: the Land of the 
 Orang-Utan and the Bird of Paradise. A Narrative of 'Travel, 1864-1862. With 
 Studies of Man and Nature. By Alfeed Russel Wallace. With Ten Maps 
 and Fifty-one Elegant Illustrations. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 60. 
 
 WHYMPER'S ALASKA. Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska, for- 
 merly Russian America — now Ceded to the United States — and in various other 
 parts of the North Pacific. By Feedeeiok Whympee. With Map and IIlustr£v» 
 tions. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 60. 
 
 ORTON'S ANDES AND THE AMAZON. The Andes and the Amazon ; or, Across 
 the Continent of South America. By James Oeton, M. A., Professor of Natural 
 History in Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and Corresponding Member of 
 the Academy of NaturalSciences, Philadelphia. With a New Map of Equatorial 
 America and numerous Illustrations. Crown Svo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 V/INCHELL'S SKETCHES OF CREATION. Sketches of Creation : a Popnlai 
 View of some of the Grand Conclusions of the Sciences in reference to the His- 
 tory of Matter and of Life. Together with a Statement of the Intimations of 
 Science respecting the Primordial Condition and the Ultimate Destiny of the 
 Earth and the Solar System. By Alexanbee Winouell, LL.D., Professor of 
 Geology, Zoology, and Botany in the University of Michigan, and Director of th« 
 State Geological Survey. With Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
Harper &' Brothers'' Valuable and Interesting Works. 3 
 
 LOSSING'S FIELD-BOOK OF THE EEVOLUTION. Pictorial Fi«ld-Book of the 
 Eevolution; or, IllustratioiiB, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography 
 Scenery, Belies, and Traditions of the War for Independence. By Benson j' 
 LosBiMQ. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $14 00; Sheep, $16 00; Half Calf, $18 00- Full 
 Turkey Morocco, $22 00. 
 
 LOSSING'S FIELD-BOOK OF THE WAR OF 1812. Pictorial Field-Book of the 
 War of 1812 ; or, Illustrations, by Pen and Pencil, of the History, Biography, 
 Scenery, Relics, and Traditions of the Last War for American Independence. By 
 Benson J. Lossing. With several hundred Engravings on Wood, byLossing and 
 Barritt, chiefly from Original Sketches by the Author. 1088 pages, 8yo, ClotJi 
 ST 00; Sheep, $S SO; Halt Calf, $10 00. 
 
 ALFOED'S GREEK TESTAMENT. The Greek Testament : with a critically revised 
 Text ; a Digest of Varioas Readings ; Marginal References to Verbal and Idio- 
 matic Usage ; Prolegomena ; and a Critical and Exegetical Commentarv. For 
 the Use of Theological Students and Ministers. By Henky Alfokd, D.!)'., Dean 
 of Canterbury. Vol. I., containing the Four Gospels. 944 pages, 8vo, Cloth, 
 $6 00 ; Sheep, $6 60. 
 
 ABBOTT'S FREDERICK THE GREAT. The History of Frederick the Second, 
 called Frederick the Great. By John S. C. Ahjbott. Elegantly Illustrated. 8vo, 
 Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 ABBOTT'S HISTORY OF THE FRENCH EEVOLUTION. The French Revolu- 
 tion of 1T39, as viewed in the Light of Republican Institutions. By Jorn S. C. Ab* 
 BOTT. With 100 Engravings. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 ABBOTT'S NAPOLEON BONAPARTE. The History of Napoleon Bonaparte. By 
 John S. C. Abbott. With Maps, Woodcuts, and Portraits on SteeL 2 vols., 
 8vo, Cloth, $10 00. 
 
 ABBOTT'S NAPOLEON AT ST. HELENA ; or. Interesting Anecdotes and Remark- 
 able Conversations of the Emperor during the Five and a Half Years of his 
 Captivity. Collected from the Memorials of Las Casas, O'Meara, Montholon, 
 Antommarchi, and others. By John S. C. Abbott. With Illustrations. 8vo, 
 Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 ADDISON'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Joseph Addison, embracing the 
 whole of the *' Spectator." Complete in 3 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $6 00. 
 
 ALCOCK'S JAPAN. The Capital of the Tycoon : a Narrative of a Three Years' 
 Residence in Japan. By Sir RuTHERFoitn Aloooe, K.C.B., Her Majesty's Envoy 
 Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary in Japan. With Maps and Engravings. 
 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. 
 
 ALISON'S HISTORY OP EUROPE. Fikst Seeies : From the Commencement of 
 the French Revolution, in 1789, to the Restoration of the Bourbons, in 1815. [In 
 addition to the Notes on Chapter LXXVL, which correct the errors of the 
 original work concerning the United States, a copious Analytical Index has been 
 appended to this American edition.] Seooni> Series : From the Fall of Napoleon, 
 in 1S15, to the Accession of Louis Napoleon, In 1852. 8 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $16 00. 
 
 BALDWIN'S PRE-HISTORIC NATIONS. Pre-Historic Nations ; or. Inquiries con- 
 cerning some of the Great Peoples and Civilizations of Antiquity, and their 
 Probable Relation to a still Older Civilization of the Ethiopians or Cushites of 
 Arabia. By John D. Baldwin, Member of the American Oriental Society. 
 12mo, Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 EARTH'S NORTH AND CENTRAL AFRICA. Travels and Discoveries in North 
 and Central Africa: being a Journal of an Expedition undertaken under the 
 Auspices of H. B. M.'s Government, In the Years 1849-1865. By Henet Babth, 
 Ph.D., D.C.L. Illustrated. 3 vols., 8to, Cloth, $12 00. 
 
 HENRY WARD BEECHEE'S SERMONS. Sermons by Heney Waed Beeohek, 
 Plvmouth Church, Brooklyn. Selected from Published and Unpublished Dis- 
 courses, and Revised by their Author. With Steel Portrait. Complete in 2 vols.. 
 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 LYMAN BEECHER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY, &o. Autobiography, Correspondence, 
 &c., of Lyman Beecher, D.D. Edited by his Son, Ciiaeles Beeohee. With Thref 
 Steel Portraits, and Engravings on Wood. In 2 toIs., 12mo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 BOSWELL'S JOHNSON. The Life of Samuel JoJinson.LL.D. Including a Joumej 
 to the Hebrides. By James Boswet-l, Esq. A New Edition, with numerouf 
 Additions and Notes. By John Wilson Ceokek, LL.D., F.E.S. Portrait of 
 Boswell. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00. 
 
4 Harper &> Brothers^ Valuable and Interesting Works. 
 
 OKAPEE'S CIVIL WAE. History of the American Civil War. By Johu W. Dha. 
 PEB, M.D., LL.D., Professor of Chemistry and Physiology in the University of 
 New York. In Three Vols. 8vo, Cloth, $3 60 per vol. 
 
 DRAPER'S INTELLECTUAL DEVELOPMENT OF EUROPE. A History of the 
 Intellectual Development of Europe. By Jonu W. Dkapee, M.D., LL.D., Profess- 
 or of Chemistry and Physiology in the University of New York. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 DRAPER'S AMERICAN CIVIL POLICY. Thoughts on the Futnra Civil Policy of 
 America. By Johk W. Deapeb, M.D., LL.D., Professorof Chemistry and Physiol- 
 ogy in the University of New York. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $2 50. 
 
 i)U CHAILLU'S AFRICA. Explorations and Adventures in Equatorial Africa with 
 Accounts of the Manners and Customs of the People, and of the Chase of the Go- 
 rilla, the Crocodile, Leopard, Elephant, Hippopotamus, and other Animals. Bj 
 Paul B. Du Chaillu. Numerous Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 BELLOWS'S OLD WORLD. The Old World in its New Pace : Impressions of Eu- 
 rope in 1867-1868. By Heney W. Bellows. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. 
 
 BRODHEAD'S HISTORY OP NEW YORK. History of the State of New York. 
 By John Eomeym Beodbead. 1609-1691. 2 vols. 8vo, Cloth, $B 00 per vol. 
 
 BROUGHAM'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY. Life and Times of Hehet, Loed Beouqham. 
 Written by Himself. In Three Volumes. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol. 
 
 BULWER'S prose WORKS. Miscellaneous Prose Works of Edward Bnlwer. 
 Lord Lytton. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. 
 
 BULWER'S HORACE. The Odes and Epodes of Horace. A Metrical Translation 
 into English. With Introduction and Commentaries. By Lord Lvtton. With 
 Latin Text from the Editions of Orelli, Macleane, and Yonge. 12mo, Cloth, $1 T5. 
 
 BULWER'S KING ARTHUR. A Poem. By Eael Lytton. New Edition. 12mo, 
 Cloth, $1 75. 
 
 BURNS'S LIFE AND WORKS. The Life and Works of Robert Burns. Edited 
 by RoBEKT Chambeeb. 4 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $6 00. 
 
 REINDEER, DOGS, AND SNOW-SHOES. A Journal of Siberian Travel and Ex- 
 plorations made in the Years 1865-'67. By Riohaet* J. Busn, late of the Eusso- 
 American Telegraph Expedition. Illustrated. Crown 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 
 
 CARLYLB'S FREDERICK THE GREAT. History of Priedrich II., called Pi-ederick 
 the Great. By Thomas Caelyle. Portraits, Maps, Plans, &c. 6 vols., 12mo, 
 Cloth, $12 00. 
 
 CARLYLE'S FRENCH REVOLUTION. History of the French Revolution. Newly 
 Revised by the Author, with Index, &c. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. 
 
 CARLYLE'S OLIVER CROMWELL. Letters and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, 
 With Elucidations and Connecting Narrative. 2 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $3 50. 
 
 CHALMERS'S POSTHUMOUS WORKS. The Posthumous Works of Dr. Chalmers. " 
 Edited by his Son-in-Law, Rev. Williaju Hanna, LL.D. Complete in 9 vols., 
 12mo, Cloth, $13 60. 
 
 COLERIDGE'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Complete Works of Samuel Taylor 
 Coleridge. With an Introductory Essay upon his Philosophical and Theological 
 Opinions. Edited by Professor Suedd. Complete in Seven Vols. With a fincj 
 Portrait. Small 8vo, Cloth, $10 50. 
 
 DOOLITTLE'S CHINA. Social Life of the Chinese : with some Account of their Re- 
 ligious, Governmental, Educational, and Business Customs and Opinions. With 
 special but not exclusive Reference to Fuhchau. By Rev. Justus I)oolittl.-5, 
 Fourteen Years Member of the Fuhchau Mission of the American Board. Illus- 
 trated \vith more than 150 characteristic Engravings on Wood. 2 vols., 12mo, 
 Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 GIBBON' S ROME. History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By Er. 
 ward Gibbon. With Notes by Rev. H. H. Milman and M. Guizot. A new cheap 
 Edition. To which is added a complete Index of the whole Work, and a Portrait 
 of the Author. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. 
 
 HAZEN'S SCHOOL AND ARMY IN GERMANY AND FRANCE. The School 
 and the Army in Germany and France, with a Diary of Siege Life at Versaillcfi. 
 By Brevet Major-General W. B. Hazen, U.S.A., Colonel Sixth Infantry. Crov.-E 
 670, Cloth, $2 50. 
 
Harper 6^ Brothers' Valuable and Interesting Works. 5 
 
 HAKPBE'S NEW CLASSICAL LIBHAEY. Literal Tranelations. 
 
 The following Volumes are now ready. Portraits. 12mo, Cloth, $1 60 each. 
 
 C^SAB. — ViEGIL. — SaLLUBT. — HoitAOE.— ClCEEO'S OeATIONS CiOEEO'B OfFIOESi 
 
 &c. — CioERO ON Oratory and Orators.— Taoittjs (2 vols.). — Teeenoe. — 
 
 SopuooLEB. — Juvenal. — Xenopuon — Homer's Iliai> Homer's Odyssey.— 
 
 Herodotus. — Demosthenes. — Thuoydideb. — ^Ebohylub.- Euripides (2 vols > 
 — LrvY (3 vols.). 
 
 DAVIS'S CARTHAGE. Carthage and her Eemains : being an Account of the Bxca- 
 vations and Researches on the Site of the Phoenician Metropolis in Africa and other 
 adjacent Places. Conducted under the Auspices of Her Majesty's Government. 
 By Dr. Davis, F.R.G.S. Profusely Illustrated with Maps, Woodcuts, Chrome 
 Lithographs, &c. 8vo, Cloth, $4 00. 
 
 EDGEWOETH'S (Miss) NOVELS. With Engravings. 10 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $15 00. 
 
 GEOTE'S HISTORY OP GREECE. 12 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $18 00. 
 
 HELPS'S SPANISH CONQUEST. The Spanish Conquest in America, and its Eela- 
 tion to the History of Slavery and to the Government of Colonies. By ARTiiua 
 Helps. 4 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $6 GO. 
 
 ;liLE'S (Mrb.) WOMAN'S EECORD. Woman's Eecord ; or. Biographical Sketches 
 of all Distiuguished Women, from the Creation to the Present Time. Arranged 
 in Four Eras, with Selections from Female Writers of each Era. By Mrs. Saeau 
 JoBEPHA Hale. Illustrated with more than 200 Portraits. 8vo, Cloth, $6 00. 
 
 HALL'S AECTIC RESEARCHES. Arctic Researches and Life among the Esqni. 
 maux ; being the Narrative of an Expedition in Search of Sir John Franklin, in 
 the Years 1800, 1861, and 1862. By Charles Fkanois Hall. With Maps and 100 
 Illustrations. The Illustrations are from Original Drawings by Charles Parsons, 
 Henry L. Stephens, Solomon Eytinge, W. S. L. Jewett, and Granville Perkins, 
 after Sketches by Captain Hall. Svo, Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 HALLAil'S CONSTITUTIONAL HISTORY OF ENGLAND, from the Accession of 
 Henry VII. to the Death of George IL Svo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 HALLAM'S LITERATURE. Introduction to the Literature of Europe during the 
 Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries. By Henry Hallam. 2 vols., 
 Svo, Cloth, $4 00. 
 
 HALLAM'S MIDDLE AGES. State of Europe during the Middle Ages. By Heney 
 Hallam. Svo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 HILDEETH'S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES. First Series : From the 
 First Settlement of the Country to the Adoption of the Federal Constitution. 
 Second Series : From the Adoption of the Federal Constitution to the End of 
 the Sixteenth Congress. 6 vols., Svo, Cloth, $18 00. 
 
 mMB'S HISTOET OF ENGLAND. History of England, from the Invasion of Ju- 
 lius Csesar to the Abdication of James IL, 16SS. By David Hume. A new Edi' 
 tion, with the Author's last Corrections and Improvements. To which is Prefix- 
 ed a short Account of his Life, written by Himself. With a Portrait of the Au- 
 thor. 6 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. 
 
 JAY'S WOEKS. Complete Works of Rev. William Jay : comprising his Sermons, 
 Family Discourses, Morning and Evening Exercises for every Day in the Year, 
 Family Prayers, &c. Author's enlarged Edition, revised. 3 vols., Svo, Cloth, 
 $6 00. 
 
 •lEFFERSON'S DOMESTIC LIFE. The Domestic Life of Thomas Jefferson : com- 
 piled from Family Letters and Reminiscences by his Great-Granddaughter, 
 Sarah N. Randolph. With Illustrations. Crown Svo, Illuminated Cloth, Bev- 
 eled Edges, $2 50. 
 
 JOHNSON'S COMPLETE WOEKS. The Works of Samuel Johnson, LL.D. With 
 an Essay on his Life and Genius, by Arthur Murphy, Esq. Portrait of Johnson. 
 2 vols., Svo, Cloth, $4 00. 
 
 EINGLAKE'S CRIMEAN WAR. The Invasion of the Crimea, and an Account of 
 its Progress down to the Death of Lord Raglan. By Alexander William KinO' 
 LAKE. With Maps and Plans. Three Vols, ready. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00 per vol. 
 
 KINGSLEY'S WEST INDIES. At Last: A Christmas in the West Indies. By 
 Charles Kingsley. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1 60. 
 
6 ' Harper dr* Brothers' Valuable and Interesting Works. 
 
 KEUMMACHEE'S DAVID, KING OF ISRAEL. DaTid, the King of Israel: a Por- 
 trait drawn from Bible History and the Book of Psalms. Bj Feedeeiok William 
 KECMMAonEE, D.D., Author of "Elijah the Tishbite," &c. Translated under the 
 express Sanction of the Author by the Rev. M. G. Easton, M.A. With a Letter 
 from Dr. Krummacher to his American Readers, and a Portrait. 12mo, Cloth, 
 $176. 
 
 LAMB'S COMPLETE WORKS. The Works of Charles Lamb. Comprising his Let- 
 ters, Poems, Essays of Elia, Essays upon Shakspeare, Hogarth, &c., and a Sketch 
 of his Life, with the Final Memorials, by T. Noon Talfoued. Portrait. 2 Tols., 
 12mo, Cloth, $3 00. 
 
 LIVINGSTONE'S SOUTH AFRICA. Missionary Trayels and Researches in South 
 Africa : including a Sketch of Sixteen Years' Residence in the Interior of Africa, 
 and a Journey from the Cape of Good Hope to Loando on the West Coast ; thence 
 across the Continent, down the River Zambesi, to the Eastern Ocean. By Davii> 
 Livingstone, LL.D., D.C.L. With Portrait, Maps by Arrowsmith, and numerous 
 Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $4 60. 
 
 LIVINGSTONES' ZAMBESL Narrative of an Expedition to the Zambesi and its 
 Tributaries, and of the Discovery of the Lakes Shirwa and Nyassa. 1858-1864. 
 By David and Chaeies Livingstone. With Map and Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, 
 $S00. 
 
 M'CLINTOCK & STRONG'S CYCLOPEDIA. Cyclopedia of Biblical, Theological, 
 and Ecclesiastical Literature. Prepared by the Rev. John M'Clintook, B.D., 
 and James Steong, S.T.D. 6 «o?s. now ready. Royal 8vo. Price per vol.. Cloth, 
 $5 00; Sheep, $6 00; Half Morocco, $8 00. 
 
 MARCY'S ARMY LIFE ON THE BOEDER. Thirty Years of Army Life on the 
 Border. Comprising Descriptions of the Indian Nomads of the Plains; Explo- 
 rations of New Territory; a Trip across the Rocky Mountains in the Winter; 
 Descriptions of the Habits of Different Animals found in the West, and the Meth- 
 ods of Hunting tbem ; with Incidents in the Life of Different Frontier Men, &c., 
 &c. By Brevet Brigadier-General R. B. Maeot, U.S.A., Author of "The Prairie 
 Traveller." With numerous Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, Beveled Edges, $3 00. 
 
 MACAULAY'S HISTORY OF ENGLAND. The History of England from the Ac- 
 cession of James II. By Thomas Babington Maoaulay. With an Original Por- 
 trait of the Author. 5 vols., Svo, Cloth, $10 00; 12mo, Cloth, $T 50. 
 
 MOSHEIM'S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, Ancient and Modern ; in which the 
 Rise, Progress, and Variation of Church Power are considered in their Connec- 
 tion vrith the State of Learning and Philosophy, and the Political History of Eu- 
 rope during that Period. Translated, with Notes, &c., by A. Maolaine, D.D. 
 A new Edition, continued to 1826, by C. Coote, LL.D. 2 vols., 8vo, Cloth, $4 00. 
 
 NEVTUS'S CHINA. China and the Chinese : a General Description of the Country 
 and its Inhabitants ; its Civilization and Form of Government ; its Religious and 
 Social Institutions ; its Intercourse with other Nations ; and its Present Condition 
 and Prospects. By the Rev. John L. Nevifs, Ten Years a Missionary in China. 
 With a Map and Illustrations. 12mo, Cloth, $1 T5. 
 
 THE DESERT OF THE EXODUS. Journeys on Foot in the Wilderness of the 
 Forty Years' Wanderings ; undertaken in connection with the Ordnance Survey 
 of Sinai and the Palestine Exploration Fund. By E. H. Palmeb, M.A., Lord 
 Almoner's Professor of Arabic, and Fellow of St. John's College, Cambridge. 
 With Maps and numerous Illustrations from Photographs and Drawings taken 
 on the spot by the Sinai Survey Expedition and C. F. Tyrwhitt Drake. CrOiwn 
 Svo, Cloth, $3 00. 
 
 OUPHANT'S CHINA AND JAPAN. Narrative of the Earl of Elgin's Mission to 
 China and Japan, in the Years 185T, '58, '59. By Laueence Oliphant, Private 
 Secretary to Lord Elgin. Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $8 50. 
 
 OLIPHANT'S (Meb.^ LIFE OF EDWARD IRVING. The Life of Edward Irving, 
 Minister of the National Scotch Church, London. Illustrated by his Journals and 
 Correspondence. By Mrs. OnirnANT. Portrait. Svo, Cloth, $3 50. 
 
 BAWLINSON'S MANUAL OP ANCIENT HISTORY. A Manual of Ancient His- 
 tory, from the Earliest Times to the Fall of the Western Empire. Comjirising 
 the History of Chaldsea, Assyria, Media, Babylonia, Lydia, Phoenicia, Syria, Ju- 
 deea, Egypt, Carthage, Persia, Greece, Macedonia, Parthia, and Rome. By 
 Geobge Eawlenson, M.A., Camden Professor of Ancient History in the Univer- 
 sity of Oxford. 12mo, Cloth, $2 50. 
 
Harper dv Brothers' Valuable and Interesting Works. 
 
 EBCLUS'S THE EARTH. The Earth: a Descriptive History of the Phenomena 
 and Life of the Globe. By Eusee Keolos. Translated by the late B B Wood- 
 ward, and Edited by Henry Wood ward. With 234 Maps and IllUBtratious, and 
 23 Page Maps printed in Colors. 8vo, Cloth, $6 00. 
 
 EECLUS-S OCEAN. The Ocean, Atmosphere, and Life. Being the Second Series 
 of a Desonptiye History of the Life of the Globe. By EusiSh: Eeomb. Pro- 
 S^o! Cloth $(f 00 "" '^^ "'■ ^'Sares, and 27 Maps printed in Colors. 
 
 SHAKSPEARB The Dramatic Works of William Shalcspeare, with the Correc- 
 tions and Illustrations of Dr. Jounson G. Steetuns, and others Revised bv 
 Isaac Reed. Engravings. 6 vols., Royal 12mo, Cloth, $9 00. 
 
 SMILBS'S LIFE OP THE STEPHENSONS. The Lite of George Stephenson, and 
 of his Son, Robert Stephenson ; comprising, also, a History of the Invention 
 and Introduction of the Railway Locomotive. By Samdel Smiles. With Steel 
 Portraits and numerons Illustrations. 8vo, Cloth, $3 00. 
 
 SMIIES'S HISTORY OP THE HUGUENOTS. The Huguenots : their Settlements, 
 Churches, and Industries in England and Ireland. By Samuel Smiles. With an 
 Appendix relating to the Huguenots in America. Crown Sto, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 SPEKE'S AFRICA. Journal of the Discovery of the Source of the Nile By Cap- 
 tain John HANKiNa Speke. With Maps and Portraits and numerous Illustra- 
 tions, chiefly from Drawings by Captain Gkant. Svo, Cloth, uniform with Liv- 
 ingstone, Barth, Burton, &c., $4 00. 
 
 STRICKLAND'S (Miss) QUEENS OF SCOTLAND. Lives of the Qneens of Scot- 
 land and English Princesses connected with the Regal Succession of Great 
 Britain. By Agnes Steioklanu. 8 vols., 12mo, Cloth, $12 00. 
 
 THE STUDENT'S SERIES. 
 
 France. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Gibbon. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Greece. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Hume. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Rome. By Liddell. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Old Testament History. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 New Testament History. Engravings, tamo. Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Strickland's Queens of England. Abridged. Engravings. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Ancient History of the East. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Hallam's Middle Ages. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Hallam's Constitutional History of England. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 Lyell's Elements of Geology. 12mo, Cloth, $2 00. 
 
 TENNYSON'S COMPLETE POEMS. The Complete Poems of Alfred Tennyson, 
 Poet Laureate. With numerous Illustrations by Eminent Artists, and Three 
 Characteristic Portraits. Svo, Paper, 75 cents ; Cloth, $1 25. 
 
 THOMSON'S LAND AND THE BOOK. The Laud and the Book; or. Biblical 
 Illustrations drawn from the Manners and Customs, the Scenes and the Scenery 
 of the Holy Land. By W. M. Thomson, D.D., Twenty-five Years a Missionary 
 of the A. B. C. P.M. in Syria and Palestine. With two elaborate Maps of Pal- 
 estine, an accurate Plan of Jerusalem, and several hundred Engravings, repre- 
 senting the Scenery, Topography, and Productions of the Holy Land, and the 
 Costumes, Manners, and Habits of the People. 2 large 12mo vols., Cloth, $5 00. 
 
 TYERMAN'S WESLEY. The Life and Times of the Rev. John Wesley, M.A., 
 Pounder of the Methodists. By the Rev. Luke Tyekman. Portraits. 3 vols.. 
 Crown Svo, Cloth, $7 50. 
 
 TYERMAN'S OXFORD METHODISTS. The Oxford Methodists : Memoirs of the 
 Rev. Messrs. Clayton, Ingham, Gambold, Hervey, and Broughton, with Bio- 
 graphical Notices of others. By the Rev. L. Tyeeman. Crown Svo, Clotli, $2 60. 
 
 VjCMBfiRY'S CENTRAL ASIA. Travels in Central Asia. Being the Account of 
 a Journey from Teheran- across the Turkoman Desert, on the Eastern Shore of 
 the Caspian, to Khiva, Bokhara, and Samarcand, performed in the Year 1863. 
 By Akminius VXmb^et, Member of the Hungarian Academy of Pesth, by whom 
 he was sent on this Scientific Mission. With Map and Woodcuts. Svo, Cloth, 
 $4 50. 
 
 WOOD'S HOMES WITHOUT HANDS. Homes Without Hands : being a Descrip- 
 tion of the Habitations of Animals, classed according to their Principle of Con- 
 struction. By J. G. Wood, M.A., P.L.S. With about 140 Illustrations. Svo, 
 Cloth, Beveled Edges, $4 60. 
 
HARPER'S CATALOGUE. 
 
 Harper's Catalogue comprises a large proportion of the standard and 
 most esteemed works in English and Classical Literature — comprehend- 
 ing OVER THREE THOUSAND VOLUMES— which are offered, in most in- 
 stances, at less than one half the cost of similar productions in England. 
 
 To Librarians and others connected with Colleges, Schools, &c., who 
 may not have access to a trustworthy guide in forming the true estimate of 
 literary productions, it is believed this Catalogue, with its classified and 
 analytical Index, will prove especially valuable for reference. 
 
 To prevent disappointment, it is suggested that, whenever books can 
 not be obtained through a bookseller or local agent, applications with 
 remittance should be addressed direct to Harper & Brothers, which will 
 receive prompt attention. 
 
 Sent by mail on receipt of Ten Cents. 
 
 Address 
 
 HARPER & BROTHERS, Franklin Square, N. Y.