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A HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT 
 COUNTRIES. 
 
HISTORY OF xVLONEY IN 
 ANCIENT COUNTRIES 
 
 FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO 
 THE PRESENT. 
 
 BY ALEXANDER DEL MAR, C.E., M.E. 
 
 Formerly Director of the Bureau of Statistics of the United 
 
 States ; Member of the United States' Monetary 
 
 Commission ofi&']6; Author of a 
 
 "History of the Precious 
 
 Metals," &--C. &=<:. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 GEORGE BELL AND SONS, YORK STREET, 
 
 COVENT GARDEN. 
 
 1885. 
 
 A// rigfits resented. 
 
Entered according to Act of Congress in the year ISfS by 
 Ai/EXANDBB Del Mar in the Office of the Litearian of 
 CongrePR at Washington, D.C. 
 
 ic>(oi':iS 
 
 ^:^^^wlc^: prkss : — c. \vHrTTiNr,ii.-i,,\[ and co., tooks coi'rt. 
 
 CHAN'CERY t.ANR. 
 
ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 This volume will be succeeded by one on the " History 
 of Money in Modern CountrieSj" a work already completed 
 and undergoing revision for the press. 
 
 A. D. 
 
The original of tliis book is in 
 tine Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924032520177 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 THE great political revolutions which, during the half- 
 century from 1775 to 1825, destroyed the Colonial 
 governments in America and uprooted the feudal system in 
 Europe, also broke down the most formidable barriers that 
 stood in the way of international commerce. Corn, bullion, 
 and other commodities, formerly forbidden to be shipped 
 from one country to another, are now free to go whither 
 price or profit may determine. 
 
 These radical changes, followed by the extensive applica- 
 tion of steam to water and land transit, and the opening of 
 the Asiatic ports, have ushered in a new era of commerce, 
 which, dealing with an infinite variety of objects, stretches 
 its arms to the remotest corners of the earth. 
 
 Among the notable consequences of this development of 
 commerce has been the creation of a more or less common 
 measure of value. This phrase is not used approvingly, as 
 though a common measure of value were yet desirable ; it 
 is not used in the sense that a geographical mile or a second 
 of time are common measures, because these measures are 
 employed in common and simultaneously by all countries, 
 whereas the gold and silver portion of the world^s stock of 
 money — the only portion used by various nations in com- 
 mon — is used by them, to a certain extent, in turns, whilst 
 the paper and copper portions are not used in common at 
 all. The term common measure of value is employed 
 simply to explain the different status of money, now and 
 formerly. The money metals are no longer sought to be 
 monopolized by means of commercial interdicts. Restraints, 
 indeed, still exist, but they are all solubie in price; and 
 
Viii PREFACE. 
 
 these metalSj wherever they may be, stand ready to become 
 the property of any nation or nations who command the 
 means to purchase them with other commodities. It is in 
 this sense that they and their complementary adjuncts, paper 
 notes, have, as a mass, become in a restricted sense a com- 
 mon measure of value : the metals by means of free export 
 and coinage, and the notes by means of elastic issues and a 
 promised convertibility. As a mass of money, it is really 
 heterogeneous and ill-cemented, but during the intervals 
 when it does hold together it certainly operates as a common 
 measure of value ; a fact abundantly proved by the approxi- 
 mate uniformity of prices in various countries at such 
 periods. 
 
 The European system of money — if indeed that may be 
 called a system which is chiefly distinguished by its lack of 
 system — has thus become not merely the arbiter of the 
 social order in a given state, it has assumed almost univer- 
 sal sway over the destinies of mankind, a sway in one sense 
 more potent, because more palpable and direct, than either 
 politics or religion. Up to the present time, China is the 
 one important country which has not succumbed to its 
 influence. 
 
 The study and regulation of this mighty engine concerns 
 not only the nations to whom particular portions of it may 
 belong ; they are of importance to all the nations whom the 
 new development of commerce has knit together. Nor can 
 this study and regulation be longer conducted on its present 
 loose basis of partial or fragmentary information. Money 
 has a history which is fifty centuries old, and filled with an 
 experience too valuable and too dearly bought to be ignored 
 or thrown away. 
 
 From the fall of the Eoman Commonwealth to the French 
 Revolution, coins, (made partly from old accumulations of 
 metal,) were substantially the only moneys of Europe. 
 During this lengthy period, all general and long-sustained 
 changes in the level of prices are attributed to the changing 
 level of the stock of coins, which slowly but continually 
 
PREFACE. IX 
 
 diminished until the tenth century, and then slowly in- 
 creased until near the nineteenth. So gradual were these 
 changes that it has been remarked that in the first part of 
 the fourteenth century and the last part of the eighteenth 
 identically the same prices prevailed in at least one impor- 
 tant country for all the common necessaries of life and 
 articles of greatest consumption, such as corn and domestic 
 animals and their products. "^ 
 
 But with the introduction of bank and government paper 
 notes, which only became an important part of the monetary 
 systems of the various states of the Western world after 
 the occurrence of the great revolutions above alluded to, this 
 comparative permanency in the value of money has passed 
 away. Paper notes now form an essential portion of the 
 volume of money or Measure of Value in all countries; and 
 in some of them it is, or has been, the only measure of the 
 sort. Viewing the subject from a comprehensive stand- 
 point, it may be stated that, during the past thirty years 
 alone, the proportion of state and bank paper-money which 
 helps to form the Measure of Value employed by civilized 
 nations, has increased from thirty to fifty per cent, of the 
 Entire Measure, and that the tendency — arising from insufii- 
 cient supplies of the coinage metals — is toward a further 
 increase of paper. Not only has the paper portion of money 
 increased, the whole volume of money, comprising both 
 coins and notes, has increased, even when compared with a 
 vastly increased population. The volume of money in the 
 European world, which, thirty years ago, scarcely exceeded 
 nine dollars, or, say, thirty-eight shillings sterling per 
 capita of population, now amounts to fourteen dollars, or, 
 say, sixty shillings per capita.^ 
 
 ' This relates to England. See pamphlet by " A Disciple of Franklin,'" 
 in "Trans, of Am. Philos. Soc," No. 6332 of the Philadelphia Collec- 
 tion. Consult Thorold Rogers on '' Statistics of Agricultural Prices in 
 England." 
 
 2 Del Mar's " Hist. Free. Metals," London, George Bell and Sons, 
 p. 220 n., and M. de Malaroe in " Eeport of the French Academy of 
 Sciences" about 1882. 
 
X PEEFACK. 
 
 This tendency of the volume of money to increase cannot 
 be viewed by Capital but with alarm. It is not as though 
 money consisted, as it did during the Middle Ages, nearly 
 entirely of coins made from a stock of metals which could 
 only be kept up or increased by prodigious exertions and 
 during a long period of time. It now consists very largely 
 of paper notes, which are emitted both by governments and 
 banks without any reference to the Whole Volume of Money, 
 in which volume, alone, is Price susceptible of expression. 
 In consequence of this loose system the measure of value 
 is being continually swollen (this is not stated in reference 
 to any particular country, but to all countries), so that it 
 continually disturbs the natural tendency of prices towards 
 an equilibrium. Barring occasionally brief periods of re- 
 action, the constant tendency of prices during the period 
 adverted to has been upward. The result of this movement 
 is that property has passed and is still passing away, insen- 
 sibly, from the hands of its original possessors and rightful 
 owners, to be distributed among classes who never earned 
 it, and who neither know how to keep it nor to dispose of it 
 economically. 
 
 On the other hand, the interests of Labour forbid the 
 consideration of any policy designed to diminish the Mea- 
 sure of Value. We may with justice oppose further infla- 
 tion, we may put an end to those mischievous agencies 
 which tamper with the Measure of Value ; but we can never 
 dare, we should never wish, to contract it, nor permit it to 
 contract ; for, as history abundantly testifies, a contraction 
 of money, when production is increasing and commerce ex- 
 panding, means the arrest of one and extermination of the 
 other. And it is, perhaps, the conviction of these conse- 
 quences, crudely formed in the popular mind, which lies at 
 the basis of the many illiterate plans and ill-advised clamours 
 for inflation, which, both in Europe and America, mark the 
 financial and political measures of recent years. 
 
 Amid this conflict of interests and the arguments by 
 which the pretensions and claims of each interested class 
 
PREFACE. XI. 
 
 are strengthened, the student, the legislator, the magistrate^ 
 the advocate, seeks in vain for that steady light of recorded 
 experience, those fixed monuments of history, which can 
 alone guide him toward correct theories and practical 
 results. To offer such a guide — howsoever much the exe- 
 cution of the work might fall short of the design — was one- 
 of the principal motives which led to the preparation of the 
 present volume. If we turn from illiterate plans and popu- 
 lar clamours to those teachers whom the world has been led 
 to regard as masters of financial science, instead of obtain- 
 ing from them a ready solution of the difficulties sur- 
 rounding the question of Money, we only encounter dis- 
 cordance, dogmatism, and intolerance, a condition of afiairs 
 which, it is believed, has resulted solely from the want of 
 some general fund of information, open to all, which should 
 embrace the monetary experience of many countries, of 
 many ages, and of many phases of society : for if there is 
 any one great truth which more than another is bound to 
 impress itself upon the student of monetary history, it is- 
 this, that the evolution of money as an institution of law, is 
 inalienably connected with the evolution of society, and that 
 monetary systems which are quite impossible at one period 
 may be entirely practicable at another. 
 
 Many of the prevalent fallacies concerning the nature,, 
 function, and use of money have arisen from the systems 
 now in vogue, all of which are of feudal origin. These fal- 
 lacies are similar in character to those fictions of the Com- 
 mon Law which were only dissipated when the older and 
 clearer light of the Roman Law was brought to bear upon 
 them, and they can only be successfully dealt with in a 
 similar way. To the modern mind, money is a commodity 
 which derives its value from the cost of production. In the 
 free states of antiquity money was a concrete series of num- 
 bers whose value arose from state monopoly, legal limita- 
 tion, and forced currency. The growth, establishment, and 
 decay of this conception of money and its displacement by 
 the feudal conception of it as a commodity, lie at the thres- 
 
3;ii PREFACE. 
 
 hold of all precise inquiries into the science of money, and 
 must be thoroughly mastered by the student who designs to 
 make any practical use of his researches. To afford ample 
 opportunity for the study of this essential feature of mone- 
 tary history, extended space has been accorded to the expe- 
 rience of China and Rome, in which two great states of 
 the ancient world numerical systems of money have left 
 behind them the clearest traces and most important conse- 
 quences. Where the imperfection of existing evidences 
 may lead to doubt concerning the details of the systems 
 •described, it is hoped that the conclusions at which the 
 author has arrived will be found as worthy the scrutiny of the 
 learned as it is confident they must awaken the attention 
 of the curious. 
 
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 Trans. London, 1779. 4 vols. Svo. 
 Reclus : The Earth : The Ocean : by Elisfe Reclus. New York edition. 
 Reid : The Enhancing Value of Gold and the Industrial Crisis, by W. S. Reid. 
 
 London, 1883. 
 
 b 
 
xvili BIBLIOGRAPHY. 
 
 RiCARDO: Principles of Political Economy, by David Rioardo. London, 
 
 1821. 8vo. 
 RiTTEB. Erdkunde. 
 
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 New York, 1S78. 8vo. 
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 1803. 3 vols. 8vo. 
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 R.N. Bedford. 4to. 1834. 
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BIBLIOGRAPHY. Xlx 
 
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 Valleius Paterodlus. 
 
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CHAPTERS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Preface .......... vii 
 
 Chap. I. Supply of Materials suitable for Money, 
 
 AND Development or Coinage and Printing 1 
 
 II. China (History or Money in) ... 14 
 
 III. Japan 49 
 
 IV. India, prior to Alexander the Great . . 57 
 V. India, from Alexander the Great to the 
 
 Mahomedan Conquest .... 83 
 
 VI. India, since the Mahomedan Conquest . . 94 
 
 VII. Ariana, Bactria, Caubul, and Afghanistan . 118 
 
 Vm. Egypt 127 
 
 IX. Persia, Assyria, Babylon, and Palestine . 151 
 
 X. Aboriginal Europe . . . . 157 
 
 XI. Greece and Greek Colonies . . . 161 
 
 XII. Carthage . . 173 
 
 XIII. Etruria .177 
 
 XIV. Rome generally ... . 181 
 XV. Earliest Monetary Systems of Rome . 192 
 
 XVI. The Servian System . . 207 
 
 XVII. The Republican System, e.g. 385-269 . 213 
 
 XVIII. Rise of the Roman Commonwealth . . 242 
 
 XIX. The Patrician SYSTE^L b.c. 269-250 . . 246 
 
 XX. First Punic War System, b.c. 250-216 . 256 
 
 XXI. Second Punic War System, b.c. 216-207 . 261 
 
 XXII. Decay of the Commonwealth . . . 265 
 
 XXIII. The Scipion System, b.c. 207-170 . . 271 
 
 XXIV. Agrarian and Social War Systems, b.c. 
 
 170-49 285 
 
 XXV. Julian System, b.c. 46-31 . . . .299 
 
 XXVI. Augustan System, b.c. 31 to a.d. 41 . . 302 
 
 XXVn. From the Augustan Era to the Dark Ages 313 
 
 XXVin. Ancient generic Terms for Money . . 334 
 
 XXIX. Conception of Money by the Ancients . . 339 
 
 XXX. Conclusion 343 
 
.CONTENTS. 
 
 PAJ3E 
 
 Preface . ,. . . . . . vii 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 Supply or Materials for Money and Development of 
 Coinage and Printing. Money must be made of some tangible 
 and ponderable material of ample and regular supply, capable of 
 standing wear and tear and susceptible of being so marked as to 
 be difficultto counterfeit — Clay — Gold — Its occurrence, diffiisiou, 
 method of extraction — Used in the arts before it was used for 
 money — Placer gold — Quartz gold — The principal gold placers 
 of the world exhausted — The quartz mines usually unprofitable 
 — Present supplies of gold declining — Its production at all periods 
 of history fitful or scfiut — Hence it was never permanently used 
 for money until the period of Julius Cffisar— The ancient supplies 
 were ample at only three notable periods ; the discovery of Europe 
 by the Phcenicians, the plunder of Asia by Darius and Alexander, 
 and the conquest of Europe by the Romans — Copper more abun- 
 dant and the supplies more regular — Hence better adapted for 
 money in ancient times — Most of the Oriental moneys were of 
 copper, indeed it was everywhere the principal money metal until 
 the discovery of America — Silver rarely found native, generally 
 in ores difficult to treat, hence last to be used for money — It is 
 widely diifused, but as silver mines yield no alluvions or other 
 progeny, the finds of silver are more concentrated, therefore its 
 production more fitful than gold — This fact, and the operation of 
 mint laws has continually tended to lower its value — Cessation 
 of these influences — Silver first permanently used for money by 
 the Greeks — Felted paper invented b.c. 177 — First paper money 
 B.C. 140 — Introduction of paper into Europe — Not common until 
 fifteenth century — Social condition of Europe not favourable to 
 paper money at this period — No permanent system of openly 
 overvalued moneys since the Roman Commonwealth — Experi- 
 ments of the Venetian, Dutch, American, and French republics 
 — The establishment of suitable paper manufactures in Europe 
 
XXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 coincident with the influx of precious metals from America — In- 
 fluence in retarding use of paper moneys — Bank and Government 
 notes — Coinage — Cast moneys — Artistic excellence of the Greek 
 coinages — Engraving — Printing with mo^'able types not invented 
 imtil the art of making paper was sixteen centuries old — Its in- 
 fluence in retarding the use of paper moneys . . . ■ 1 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 China. Antiquity of money greater than letters — Gold and 
 bronze moneys of Sung, B.C. 2257 — Tortoise-back, or cowrie 
 moneys — Knife, bell, and wheel-shaped coins — Clay or porcelain 
 moneys — Paper — Various paper moneys from B.C. 140 to a.d. 
 1455 — Present system ; copper " cash" with silver bullion multi- 
 pliers and fractional (provincial) notes — Laws affecting trade in 
 metals — " Cash," formerly numerical — Foreign coins — Carolus 
 dollar — Brick-tea money — Bullion trade — Mines . . 14 
 
 Chapter III. 
 
 Japan. Ancient money — Earliest coins— Gold and Silver — 
 Rice — Paper money — Copper zenni — Feudal period — Copper 
 and Gold mines — Mining laws — Mints — Progressive period — 
 Arrival of the Portugviese ..... .49 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 
 India, prior to Alexander the Great. India never united 
 under one government : hence difficult to describe its monetary 
 systems comprehensively — These systems include several instruc- 
 tive experiments, particularly those of Mahomed-bin- Tuglah, in 
 the fourteenth century of our era — Antiquity of money in India 
 — As ancient as in China — Proofs : from populousness and phase 
 of civilization ; from Code of Manoii ; from the Vedic writings ; 
 from the Buddhic writings ; from numismatic remains ; from lan- 
 guage — Supply of coining metals from the mines, and from foreign 
 commerce — Standard of money at various eras ; the copper stan- 
 dard; the clay standard; the copper standard again — -Silver 
 money not permanently employed until a.d. 1793 ; nor paper 
 money, permanently, until during the present century — Ratios 
 of value between gold and silver, between silver and copper — 
 Review — -Historical eras of India marked by foreign invasions — 
 Sesostris— Darius — Alexander — Seleucus — Embassy of Megas- 
 thenes — Invasion of Antiochus — Mahomedan conquest . . 57 
 
CONTENTS. XXV 
 
 Chapter V. 
 
 India, from Alexander the Great to the Mahomedan 
 doNQUEST. Futility of depending upon Greek or Latin authors 
 for the history of this period — Aid to be derived from Chinese 
 authority — From archseological authority — Character of the In- 
 dian trade with the West — Trifling proportion of silver shipments 
 — Supply of coining metals from the mines — Modem numismatic 
 finds — The topes — Misleading inferences to which such finds may 
 point, unless studied with caution — Ancient Indian custom of 
 coining; 1, gold and silver multipliers of copper money; 2, 
 gold, silver, and other coins for commemorative and procla- 
 matory purposes — These practices found then- way to Rome — 
 Actual standard of money in India during the period under 
 review — This was copper, with gold and silver multipliers, in 
 Northern, and copper, with cowrie divisors, in Southern India — 
 Abnormal camp coinages of invaders — These had no effect upon 
 the copper standard — Rise of the Arabian power in the seventh 
 century — Rapid conquest of Egypt and Persia, and monopoliza- 
 tion of the Indian trade — The Italians carry a portion of the trade 
 through Tartary, and afterwards submit to Mahomedan exactions 
 and trade in Alexandria — The Crusades, and their influence in 
 concentrating the Indian trade at Constantinople — Its engross- 
 ment by the Venetians — The Genoese capture Pera, and compel 
 the Venetians to again trade through Alexandria — Capture of 
 Constantinople by the Turks, and end of the Genoese trade with 
 India — ^ Rivalry for this trade leads to the discovery of the sea 
 route by the Cape, and of America — Silver shipments to India 
 during the Middle Ages — The Mahomedans invade India — Gra- 
 dual progress of their arms, until they completely conquer the 
 country in a.d. 1001 — Imperceptible influence of this conquest 
 upon the monetary system of India — The standard continues 
 to be of copper . . ...... 83 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 
 India, since the Mahomedan Conquest. The Mahomedan 
 Conquest led to attempts at monetary reform and deeper and more 
 systematic mining — Increased, but insufiicient supplies of silver 
 — Billon coins — Method of notation — Liability to error in trans- 
 lating Indian sums into gold or silver moneys — Distinction 
 between the tank and tankah — Minute gold coins shot from 
 catapults for purposes of bribery — Bad state of the roads, and 
 difficulty of gathering the tributes in kind — Attempt of Maho- 
 met-bin-Tuglah to alter the standard from copper to silver — 
 Failure of the scheme — Doubts as to the true date of this experi- 
 
XXVI CONTENTS. 
 
 ment — Apparent adoption of silver payments — Thomas's opinion 
 that the real standard was copper — Decline of power of Pathan 
 kings of Delhi — Invasion and plunder by Timon the Tartar — 
 Renewed scarcity of coinage metals — Efforts of Bahlol Lodi to 
 sustain prices by means of highly overvalued copper coins — The 
 particulars of this experiment not known — Fall in prices — Mi- 
 nute gold coins — Return to copper standard — Advent of the 
 Portuguese — Discovery of America — Influx of silver into India 
 for gold and spices— New stimulus afforded to mining — Gold and 
 silver become more plentifal — Akbar's experiment — Failure — 
 Return to copper standard — Detached portions of the Mongol 
 empire — The Dekkan — ^Bengal — Ceylon — European conquests 
 in India — Continued influx of silver — Invasion and plunder by 
 Nadir Shah — Renewed influx of silver — Establishment of gold, 
 and afterwards of silver standard, by East India Company — Mode 
 of determining weight of sicca rupee same as that adopted for the 
 American dollar — Momentous consequences of changing the 
 Indian standard — Stoppage of Bank of England — These conse- 
 quences still in action — Local systems of money at the beginning 
 of present century — Introduction of paper money — Continued 
 influx of silver recently interrupted by operation of railway sys- 
 tem — Existing monetary system of India — Comparative scarcity 
 of precious metals — Difficulty of maintaining silver standard — 
 Impracticability of gold standard — Estimates of quantity of pre- 
 cious metals in India ........ 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 
 Ariana. Bactria. Caubul. (Kabul.) ArcHAKiJ-T.AN. 
 The boundaries of Ariana as given by ancient writers- — It in- 
 cludes the more modern Bactria, Caubul, and Afghanistan — At 
 present rather an ethnical than political division of the earth — 
 History of money in Ariana connects it with India — Includes the 
 Greco-Baotrian empire — Brief history of Ariana, and its connec- 
 tion with India — Ninus — Semiramis — Darius — Alexander — Its 
 various dynasties, down to modern times — Character of its an- 
 cient population — Development of agriculture and commerce — 
 Ariana the supposed birthplace of the human race — Supplies of 
 precious metals from the mines — From commei'ce — Successive 
 standards of money — Clay — Copper- — Numismatic finds — Excep- 
 tional coins — Experiment of Kanerkes with overvalued coppers 
 — Scarcity of silver after the Grceco-Bactrian monarchy — Nickel 
 coins — Longevity of bad money — Punch-marks on coins . .118 
 
COMTENTS. xxvii 
 
 Chapter VIII. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Egypt. The gold mines of Egypt — Their vast extent — 
 Changes wrought upon the face of the country by mining — The 
 Bisharee region — Origin of Egyptian civilization — Nubia the land 
 of gold — Analogy to Italy, Gaul, and California — The mining 
 districts — The Bisharee mines — Immense excavations — Their 
 antiquity — Probably coeval with the first colonization of Egypt 
 by Indians — Placers impoverished and quartz worked so early as 
 B.C. 2830 — Described by Diodorus — Further mining discouraged 
 by Diocletian — Antiquity of money in Egypt — Probably derived 
 from India — No coins of the early gold period remain — Probable 
 moneys of the period between the decline of the gold mines and 
 conquest of the Persians — The gold rings not money— Nor the 
 gold plates — Scarab money — Stone nummulites — Iron money at 
 Kordofan — Its Sanscrit name — Its resemblance to certain Chinese 
 and Aztec coins — The Persian coinage — Since that period the 
 money of Egypt has been that of its conquerors — Glass coins of 
 the Fatimite caliphs — These in use so late as the eighteenth cen- 
 tury. Originally issued as numerical money, they eventually, 
 from reckless over-emissions, became nearly or wholly worthless . 127 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 
 Persia, Assyria, Babylon, and Palestine. Little known 
 of the monetary histories of these countries — Persia never an 
 important mining country — Darius — The Mahomedan era — 
 Overvalued copper system of Kai Khatu — Its failure — Melting of 
 copper coins mentioned by Tavernier — Assyria has left no numis- 
 matic remains — Babylon — Her moneys of baked clay — Palestine 
 anciently a pastoral country, using cattle for money- — Conjectural 
 system of money during its agricultural and commercial period — 
 No coins struck previous to the Maccabees — The Roman and 
 Mahomedan conquests— Interesting experiment of the Urtuki 
 Turkomans — Silver-plated dii-hems and gilt dinars — Failure of 
 this system, and causes of same — Restoration of the silver dirhem 
 — Merging of Palestine into the Turkish monarchy . . . 151' 
 
 Chapter X. 
 
 Aboriginal Europe. The coasts of Europe discovered by 
 Phoenician gold-hunters — The interior probably colonized from 
 Asia at a later period — Proceedings of the discoverers — Destruc- 
 tion of forests — Derangement of water-courses — Capti-sdty of the 
 natives — Different habits of the mining colonists and the agricul- 
 tural colonists — Traces of these habits to be found in the cha- 
 
xxviii CONTENTS. 
 
 racter of the nations who have sprung from them — The monetary 
 systems of Northern Europe were of the bronze bell and ring 
 types, and came overland from Northern Asia, whilst those of 
 Southern and maritime Europe were based on gold and silver 
 — Introduction of Greek types of moneys about the sixth cen- 
 tury B.C. ......-■•• 
 
 157 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 Greece and Greek Colonies. In Greece generally the sup- 
 plies of the coining metals were always irregular — Gold and copper 
 had to be imported, whilst the silver mines were controlled by 
 Athens — Hence the other Greek states were compelled to em- 
 ploy numerical moneys — PhcKnician commerce and money — Pro- 
 bable antiquity of coined money in Greece — Concededly older than 
 Lycurgus — His memorable system of iron numeraries ; its per- 
 manence ; its beneficial effects — Blunder of Plutarch — Decline of 
 Sparta, and fall of its numerical system — Ionia — System of over- 
 valued iron discs — Byzantium — Iron system — Its decline — 
 Growth of corporations — Marseilles — Athens, first period — The 
 Peloponnesian war — Issue of overvalued coins — These sup- 
 planted by a numerary system of copper discs — Downfall of 
 Athens and of her numerary system — The Thirty Tyrants — Syra- 
 cuse — System of overvalued coins a failure — Due to her inferior 
 civilization and despotic government — Athens, second period — 
 Fall of the Thirty Tyrants — Recovery of Attic liberty, power, and 
 wealth — Rehabilitation of the numerical system — The Social 
 War — "Weakening of the State — Fall of the numerical system — 
 Restoration of cattle, corn, and coin money — Growth of cor- 
 porations — Seeds, leather, and other base moneys — Hopeless con- 
 dition of the State, and final destruction of its free institutions . 161 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 
 Carthage. Foundation and progress of Carthage — Commer- 
 cial enterprise — Settlements and factories on the western coasts 
 of Europe — Trade with Britain and the Orient — Treaty with 
 Rome — Embassy to Athens — Numerary money — Conquest of 
 Spain — Mining fever — Carthage becomes aggressive, and engages 
 in foreign wars — Fall of her numerary money — Her gold and 
 silver excite the cupidity of Rome — Punic wars — Defeat of Car- 
 thage — Her destruction and disappearance from history . . 173 
 
 Chapter XIII. 
 
 Etrdria. Roman accounts of the foundation of Rome fabu- 
 lous — Rome an ancient city of the Etrurians — Origin, grandeur. 
 
CONTENTS. xxix 
 
 PAGE 
 
 and social progress of Etruria — Agriculture, commerce, arts, 
 money — Type of the latter copied by the Romans — Copper coins 
 the principal money — Scarabs — Numismatic remains . .177 
 
 Chaptbk XIV. 
 
 Rome generally. Difficulties in studying the details of the 
 monetary systems of ancient Rome — Destruction of contemporary 
 laws and historical works— Blunders of Pliny — Errors of modern 
 historians and commentators — Common theory of the subject 
 — The historical theory — The legal theory — Reasons for doubt- 
 ing these theories to be adduced farther on — Views herein enter- 
 tained with regard to the true character of the monetary systems 
 of Rome 181 
 
 Chapter XV. 
 
 Earliest Monetary Systems of Rome. Notwithstanding 
 the opinion of Pliny, it is evident that coins and other moneys 
 were used in Rome long before the era of Servius TuUius — The 
 term " pecunia " — The copper ingots ascribed to Servids TuUius 
 were of an earlier or later date, and were not moneys, but com- 
 mercial ingots, and probably Etruscan — The As of copper pro- 
 bably never weighed an As or libra — The pound sterling never 
 weighed a pound, nor the French livre, a livre — No system of 
 money ever existed in which coins permanently passed by weight, 
 because the value of coins is due to their numbers, and not to 
 their weights — The so-caUed As (of the Janus-faced type) was 
 a sesterce, and belongs to the era of Servius Tullius . . 192^ 
 
 Chapter XVI. , 
 
 The Servian System, b.c. 566-385. The large cast coins of 
 Janus-face type formed the basis of the Servian system — These 
 coins were originally but slightly overvalued — Weighing, at first, 
 possibly, so much as nine ounces, they gradually fell, with open 
 coinage, to about one-half or one-third this weight, when their 
 fabrication was limited, and the outstanding pieces rose in value 
 to several times that of the metal they contained — This induced 
 counterfeiting, which imperUled the system and led to the coins 
 being struck instead of cast ....... 207" 
 
 Chapter XVII. 
 
 The Republican System, b.c. 385-269. This system really 
 lasted from b.c. 385 to b.c 207 — Reasons for limiting its dura- 
 tion herein to b.c. 269 — Its characteristics were government 
 
XXX CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 monopolization, and limitation of the emissions of money ; one 
 kind of money ; high overvahiation of the material used for 
 making the symbols ; and security against forgery — Summary of 
 arguments employed to support this view of the system — The 
 arguments stated at length ... . 213 
 
 Chapter XVIII. 
 
 Rise of the Roman Commonwealth. Trifling progress made 
 by Rome during the first few centuries of its existence as an in- 
 dependent power — Its substantial progress only began after the 
 political reforms of e.g. 509 to 408 — These measures greatly in- 
 creased its population and solidified its power — The conquest of 
 Central and Northern Italy which followed, increased its wealth 
 and resources — Expansion of the Republic now rapid — Political 
 reforms and military victories followed incessantly — Progress in 
 agriculture, manufacture, commerce, and the arts — Difference 
 between an expanding and expansive money — The Republican 
 system of money the natural corollary of the expansion of the 
 Roman Republic . ... . 242 
 
 Chaptee XIX. 
 
 The Patrician System, e.g. 269-250. The silver spoil of 
 Southern Italy falling largely into the hands of the Roman com- 
 manders, the latter obtain from the Senate the privilege to coin 
 it into overvalued denarii — The circulation of these pieces as 
 congeners and multiples of the overvalued Ases constituted the 
 Patrician system of money — Details of the system — The As — 
 Reasons for overvaluing the denarius — It was not a forced but a 
 permissory money — Possibly received for taxes, and paid out for 
 supplies and services — Resemblance to the old time American 
 .state-bank notes — Seignorage — Number and rank of gentes 
 coining overvalued denarii — No care taken to guard this privilege 
 from abuse — Reasons for this neglect — Place of coinace the 
 Temple of Juno Moneta ; hence the name, " money " — Effects of 
 the new coinage — Its unexpected extent — Inflation of the cur- 
 rency — Gradual fall of both silver and copper numeraries toward 
 their bullion value — Destruction of the Republican system of 
 money 246 
 
 Chapter XX. 
 
 First Punic War System, e.g. 250-216. Reduction of the 
 copper nummus from two-and-a-half to two ounces, in conformity 
 -with the changed market relation of copper to silver Inflation 
 
CONTENTS. xxxi 
 
 PAGE 
 
 •of the currency, chiefly by means of the overvalued silver denarii 
 coined without limit by the gentes — Probable fall in the value of 
 both silver and copper coins against commodities — Extant coins 
 prove that Pliny's account of the monetary system of this era is 
 wrong as to both fact and inferences. Had the system been 
 " intrinsic," and the state wished to make a financial resource of 
 the coinage, as he supposes, it could have done far better by re- 
 ducing the silver rather than the copper coins . . . 256 
 
 Chapter XXI. 
 
 Second Punic War System, e.g. 216-207. \Veights of the 
 nummus and denarius both lowered, the ratio of value between 
 them altered, a silver sesterce coined worth four copper sesterces, 
 and the coinage of silver probably monopolized by the State — 
 Effects of these measures — Decline in the overvaluation of all 
 money, but particularly of the copper sesterce or nummns — 
 Fluctuations in money occasioned by the war . . . 261 
 
 Chapter XXII. 
 
 Decay of the Commonwealth. The industrial progress of 
 Kome ceased and its social decadence commenced after the first 
 Funic ^Var — Proofs of the correctness of this opinion found in 
 the neglect of the arts and decrease of population which followed 
 this event — The second Punic War left it completely exhausted 
 and without recuperative resources — It had thenceforth either to 
 maintain itself by spoliation or to perish — Its subsequent progress 
 due to its policy of Conquest — Impracticability of maintaining a 
 numerary money under such circumstances — Decline of the nume- 
 rary system ........ 265 
 
 Chapter XXIII. 
 
 The Scipion System, b.c. 207-170. Ambiguity of the Pliniau 
 narrative — Effort to fix the era of the Lex Papirius — Features of 
 the Scipion system — Position of gold — An arithmetical puzzle — 
 M. Parisot's unsuccessful attempt to solve it — A simpler and 
 more rational solution found by admitting the existence of an 
 overvalued sesterce — W^eight of the scruple gold coin unknown — 
 It was coined by gentes, was not a legal tender, and passed by 
 courtesy — Position of silver — Silver coins made full legal tender, 
 for the first time, during this period — This adoption of silver for 
 money due chiefiy to the conquest of Spain and the assurance of 
 ample supplies of silver metal — Abundance of silver in Rome 
 ■derived from spoils of war — Silver coins formerly overvalued as 
 
xxxil CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 against commodities, rapidly fall during this period to their 
 bullion value — Position of copper — The numerical system de- 
 finitely ended — Copper coins, fallen nearly to their ingot value, 
 are shipped away to the provinces in vast numbers — The legal 
 tender function of copper coins probably restricted — They thus 
 become tokens — Recapitulation ...... 271 
 
 Chapter XXIV. 
 
 Agrarian and Social War Systems, e.g. 170-49. Political 
 events which influenced the monetary history of Rome during' 
 this period — Chiefly foreign coins, which brought in vast, though 
 fitfiil, supplies of the precious metals, the working of the Spanish 
 sUver mines, the conquest of the Alpine gold mines, and closure 
 of those of Italy — Position of gold coins : legal tenders only 
 during the two years of Sulla's constitution — Position of copper 
 coins : reduced to tokens — Position of silver coins : interruptions 
 to the supplies of silver : occasional scarcity of silver : emissions 
 of alloyed, debased, plated, and forged denarii : silver eoins full 
 legal tender — Variable value of the denarius in Ases — Lex 
 quadrante — Temporary revival of full legal tender : overvalued 
 copper coins by Sulla — Their speedy downfall — Summary of the 
 period — Its monetary systems varied and conftising — This con- 
 fusion increased by the use of corn money .... 285 
 
 Chapter XXV. 
 
 The Julian System, b.c. 46-31. Gold now becomes the 
 standard of value in Rome — The change of standard probably 
 due to Caesar's desire to monetize his plunder of Gaul — Resem- 
 blance to the monetary position of Germany in 1870 — The 
 position of silver and copper coins. ..... 299 
 
 Chapter XXVI. 
 
 The Augustan System, b.c. 31 — a.d. 41. Exhaustion of the 
 richer portions of the placer mines and falling off of gold and 
 silver supplies — Octavius averts the consequent threatened fall 
 of prices by issuing a new overvalued copper sesterce — Precau- 
 tions taken to secure approval of this measure — Resemblance to 
 Mr. Chase's financial measures — Complete success of Octavius 
 — Scale of values adopted — Gradual rise of gold and silver coins 
 to a premium — Their disappearance from the circulation — 
 Measures of Tiberius — Of Caligula — The latter seizes the muni- 
 cipal and provincial mints, and without consent of the Senate 
 
CONTENTS. XSXUI 
 
 PAGE 
 
 coins an incredible number of overvalued sesterces — It is in the 
 overvalued and redundant sesterces of this period that the stupen- 
 dous sums of money mentioned by Pliny are couched — Difficulty 
 of computing their value in silver — The minute "token" As, a 
 degenerate descendant of the great archaic coin . . . 302 
 
 Chapter XXVII. 
 
 From the Augustan Era to the Dark Ages. The moneys 
 of this era substantially " intrinsic " — Every exchange a barter — 
 Numismatists and numismatics — Growing scarcity of the coinage 
 metals — Debased coins — They form the bulk of the circulating 
 medium — Degradation of coins — The silver denarius dwindles 
 until it becomes too small to handle, and is thereafter made of 
 copper — Though rarely debased, because not lawful money, the 
 aureus continually dwindles — It eventually becomes reduced to 
 less than half its original size — Known as the " solidus," and 
 afterwards the " bezant " — Dwindling and disappearance of the 
 copper As — Dwindling and disappearance of the copper ses- 
 terce — The copper denarius alone survives, and confers its 
 name upon all money in Southern Europe — Legal tender — 
 Revenues in silver ; payments in copper — Imperial plunder of 
 the provinces, the depositories, and the citizens — Position of gold 
 mining — Silver mining — Copper mining — Right of coinage — Ad- 
 ministration of the mines — Counterfeit coins — Difficult to be dis- 
 tinguished from the debased coins of the moneyers — Revolt of 
 the moneyers — Their removal to Gaul and Britain — Seignorage — 
 Decline of the Empire — The Dark Ages — -Review . . . 313 
 
 Chapter XXVIK. 
 
 Ancient Generic Teems for Money. Kasu, Kas, Karsha- 
 pana and cash — Dinar, dinarius, and dinero — Floos, feloos and 
 foUis — Nomisma, nummus and numerary — Pecunia — As — 
 Nummus — Moneta — The last-named term, though it dates back 
 to the Scipion period, did not come into general use until the 
 Dark Ages — Its defects — Specie — Coin — Unit of money — The 
 generic term for money a key to the conception of money . . 334 
 
 Chapter XXIX. 
 
 Conception of Money by the Ancients. The measure- 
 ment of value by means of coins is only a momentary equation ; 
 that by mfeans of a regulated money is an equation in time — 
 This idea was familiar to the republican leaders of antiquity, 
 and; coupled with the violent fluctuations in the value of the 
 coining metals, led to the establishment of numerary systems — 
 
 C 
 
XXXIV CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The ancient conception of money is embodied in the terms 
 " nomisma " and " numerato " — Foreign wars broke down these 
 systems, and lowered the conception of money to that expressed 
 by moneta — The decline of the Roman Empire led to a still 
 lower conception of money • that of ponderata — This was the 
 conception of the Dark Ages, and from it have sprung all modern 
 laws and ideas on the subject — The ponderata has since advanced 
 to the moneta conception, but no farther ..... 339 
 
 Chapter XXX. 
 CoNCLtrsioN ..... ... 343 
 
A HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT 
 COUNTRIES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 SUPPLY OP MATBKIALS POK MONEY AND DEVELOPMENT OP 
 COINAGE AND FEINTING. 
 
 Money must be made of some tangible and poiaderable material of 
 ample and regular supply, capable of standing wear and tear and sus- 
 ceptible of being so marked as to be difficult to counterfeit — Clay — 
 Gold — Its occurrence, diffusion, method of extraction — Used in the 
 arts before it was used for money — Placer gold — Quartz gold — The 
 principal gold placers of the world exhausted — The quartz mines 
 usually unprofitable — Present supplies of gold declining — Its production 
 at all periods of history fitful or scant — Hence it was never permanently 
 used for money until the period of Julius Ctesar — The ancient supplies 
 were ample at only three notable periods : the discovery of Europe by 
 the Phoenicians, the plunder of Asia by Darius and Alexander, and the 
 conquest of Europe by the Romans — Copper more abundant and the 
 supplies more regular — Hence better adapted for money in ancient 
 times — Most of the Oriental moneys were of copper, indeed it was 
 everywhere the principal money metal until the discovery of America 
 — Silver rarely found native, generally in ores difficult to treat, hence 
 last to be used for money — It is widely diffused, but as silver mines 
 yield no alluvions or other progeny, the finds of silver are more con- 
 centrated, therefore its production more fitful than gold — This fact, 
 and the operation of mint laws has continually tended to lower its 
 value — Cessation of these influences — -Silver first permanently used for 
 money by the Greeks — Felted paper invented'E.c. 177 — First paper 
 money B.C. 140 — Introduction of paper into Europe — Not common 
 untU fifteenth century — Social condition of Europe not favourable to 
 paper money at this period — No permanent system of openly overvalued 
 moneys since the Roman Commonwealth — Experiments of the Venetian, 
 Dutch, American, and French republics — The establishment of suitable 
 
 B 
 
2 HISTOKY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 paper manufactures in Europe coincident with the influx of precious 
 metals from America — Influence in retarding use of paper moneys — 
 Bank and Government notes — -Coinage — Cast moneys — Artistic excel- 
 lence of the Greek coinages — Engraving — Printing with movable 
 types not invented until the art of making paper was sixteen centuries 
 old — Its influence in retarding the use of paper moneys. 
 
 WITHOUT entering upon the Doctrine of Money,' 
 and confining ourselves strictly to its History, it 
 may be said that what is commonly understood as Money 
 has always consisted, tangibly, of a number of pieces of 
 some material, marked by public authority and named or 
 understood in the laws or customs : that its palpable cha- 
 racteristic was its mark of authority ; its essential character- 
 istic, the possession of value, defined by law ; and its func- 
 tion, the legal power to pay debts and taxes and the 
 mechanical power to facilitate the exchange of other objects 
 possessing value. 
 
 Whatever view may be held of the value of money — 
 whether it is due to the material of which the pieces are 
 rciade, or to their number, or to the operation of law, or to 
 some other circumstance ^ — it will be admitted that to be of 
 practical use, money must be made of some tangible and 
 ponderous material, as porcelain, glass, copper, gold, silver, 
 wood, clay, leatherj or paper, and that the supply of such 
 material must have had and must continue to have an im- 
 portant influence upon the history of money itself. 
 
 So, in like manner, it must be conceded that whatever 
 marks of authority it bore, it was necessary to affix those 
 marks to it so skilfully as to distinguish genuine money from 
 
 ' This will be fully treated in a volume on the Science of Money. 
 
 ^ The value of money has been attributed to a variety of circum- 
 stances, sometimes to the material of which the pieces were made; 
 sometimes to their number, sometimes to mint, tender, tax, redemp- 
 tion, endorsement, or bank, or to certain sumptuary laws or customs ; 
 sometimes to the laws or customs of foreign countries ; sometimes to 
 the vicissitudes of war, or other causes threatening the subversion 
 of existing laws ; and sometimes to two or more of these causes 
 combined. 
 
SUPPLY OP MATERIALS FOR MONEY. 3 
 
 ialse, and therefore that the development of coining, casting, 
 engraving, stamping, and printing has also had an important 
 influence upon the history of money. 
 
 For these reasons, it will be profitable at the outset of a 
 work which must concern itself with all kinds of money, the 
 practical and impractical, the unsuccessful and successful, to 
 briefly glance at the conditions of production relative to the 
 principal materials of which money, or strictly speaking, its 
 symbols, have been made, and at the progress of invention 
 in the art of fashioning, stamping, or otherwise marking, 
 those materials for the purpose of money. 
 
 Of these materials the principal ones have been clay, 
 copper, gold, silver, and paper. The principal arts relating 
 to its fabrication have been punching, casting, and printing. 
 Of the former, clay is so common a material, and has been 
 so familiar to man from the earliest ages, that nothing 
 further need be said of its production or fabrication than 
 that the one has always been ample and the other facile, 
 and that the art of making and stamping baked clay tablets 
 for money is probably coincident with the earliest period of 
 systematic agriculture. 
 
 Gold was undoubtedly the first metal produced by man. 
 It is more generally diffused than any other. It is always 
 found in a native state, that is to say, but slightly mixed 
 with other metals and rarely in mixed ores. It is therefore 
 easy to detect. It is equally easy to mine; the process 
 for placer gold being washing in a gourd or hand-bowl, and 
 for quartz gold, first, pulverization in a hand mortar, and 
 second, washing in a bowl. 
 
 It would be a grave mistake to suppose that gold was 
 originally procured for use as money symbols or coins. 
 Such was not the case. It was used in the arts long before 
 any kind of money or monetary symbols were invented. 
 Gold arrow-heads, gold knives and swords, gold rings and 
 bracelets, and golden chairs were fabricated, long anterior 
 to the era of money. This is proved not only by such few 
 finds of prehistoric golden objects as the avarice of con- 
 
4 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTBIES. 
 
 querors has left untouched in the old and oft plundered 
 countries of the Orient : it is corroborated by the condition 
 in which the aboriginal inhabitants of Africa, America^ and 
 Australia were found by modern discoverers. The negro 
 King of Dahomey had a golden stool or throne, but no 
 money : the North American Indians had golden ornaments 
 and idolsj but no money: and the Bushmen of Australia 
 used golden arrow-heads, while they were so far removed 
 from the use of money that they were not even familiar with 
 the art of exchange. 
 
 Gold was undoubtedly first used for monetary symbols in 
 the Orient ; and that too, at a period as ancient as that of any 
 extant scriptures or monuments ; but before it was thus 
 used, other moneys must have been long in vogue. It is a 
 substance but poorly adapted for use as money. Although 
 it is so widely diffused by nature that it may be found in 
 almost any kind of volcanic rock or earth, or in any of the 
 drift, washings, or sediments from such rocks, yet it is 
 usually deposited in such fine particles that it is difficult 
 and expensive to collect. Hence its supply is scant and 
 irregular, and these are fatal objections to its use for money. 
 
 Gold is found in two ways. First, in placers or beds of 
 gravel or sand ; second, in rocks, usually quartz gashes or 
 " veins." In all old countries the placers have long since 
 been sifted of the larger pieces or grains of gold which they 
 contained; and nothing is left in them, but those minute 
 and invisible particles of gold which it did not pay, even for 
 slave and captive labour, to collect. Among the exhausted 
 countries are all Asia, except Siberia, all Europe, the coasts 
 of Africa, and the whole of America except the Pacific coast 
 of the United States, and some neglected spots in the interior 
 of South America. It is in these few regions — chiefly Siberia, 
 California, Australia, and the interior of Africa — that any 
 considerable quantity of " pay gold " in placers is left. 
 The combined annual product of these countries now 
 amounts to less than 4,000,000 ounces. It has been de- 
 clining year after year, and in spite of what discoveries of 
 
SUPPLY OF MATERIALS FOR MONEY. 5 
 
 new placers may take place in the interior of Africa^ or 
 what improvements may be invented in the art of mining, 
 this product must continue to decline ; because the African 
 placers, no matter how inaccessible to the white race, have 
 long been worked by the blacks on the basis of nakedness 
 and slavery, and because no method of mining gold is so 
 cheap as that one which only costs the exertion necessary 
 to rob the metal from him who has already produced it. 
 This was the origin of most of the gold now extant. 
 
 As for the gold found in quartz gashes or veins this 
 usually occurs in quantities too minute and in situations 
 too difficult to extract it with profit at the prevailing level 
 of prices ; a level, which, it must be remembered, has been 
 made not by gold money alone, but by the combined influ- 
 ence of gold, silver, copper, nickel, and paper moneys, 
 all more or less interchangeable and all operating together 
 in one volume upon the mass of exchanges. Of course 
 there are exceptional quartz mines which must pay hand- 
 somely, just as there are exceptional placer mines which did 
 pay, and perhaps will pay for generations yet to come. 
 But on the whole, placer mining — except in the few regions 
 alluded to — and quartz mining, everywhere, must continue 
 to decline; it having long been a losing industry. 
 
 If such is the case now, when the various regions of the 
 earth are so widely opened to commerce, that what is pro- 
 duced in one country is free to become the property of any 
 other which may bid the most in exchange for it, it 
 certainly was more than once the case when each country 
 was a world by itself, and held no other relations than 
 those of warfare with the rest of mankind. 
 
 Gold is now scarce and irregular of supply, because the 
 principal gold placers of the world are exhausted, and the 
 quartz mines will not pay to work. In the ancient world, 
 gold — except ,when a new placer was discovered — was 
 scarce, not merely for these reasons, but also for other 
 ones. It could rarely be obtained by foreign commerce ; 
 and when it did come, whether from discoveries of new 
 
6 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 placers at home, or through the opening of a rowboat or 
 caravan commerce abroad, it came suddenly and as sud- 
 denly stopped coming. As a material for coining, it 
 possessed every requisite ; ductility, divisibility, reunite- 
 ability, etc. : as a material for money, it failed in the 
 most important requirements : amplitude and regularity of 
 supply. Hence although gold pieces for use as multiples 
 of money were occasionally employed by the Bast Indians 
 and other nations of high antiquity, gold pieces for use 
 as money itself, were probably unknown until a much later 
 date. 
 
 The inscription on the bronze coins of Sung, B.C. 2257, 
 viz., good for gold, points to the use of this metal for money 
 multiples in China more than a score of centuries before our 
 era, and although the inscription is ambiguous, the sub- 
 stantial correctness of the indication to which it points, is 
 confirmed by the high antiquity of gold multiple moneys in 
 India. These moneys were not in common use : that is to 
 say, no debtor could be compelled to pay with them. 
 
 The common moneys of China were usually made of 
 copper-bronze, and so were those of India. The gold 
 moneys were merely multiples, probably overvalued and 
 certainly used only for convenience in making up large 
 sums. The permanent use of gold as legal money, cannot be 
 positively traced back farther than the time of Julius Csesar, 
 although it may have been used for this purpose by 
 Alexander the Great, by Darius of Persia, by some of 
 the Pharaohs of Egypt, and for brief intervals by other 
 monarchs. 
 
 The ancient method of extracting gold is the same as 
 that still practised, excepting as to the use of mercury for 
 amalgamation ; and even as to this art, there are not want- 
 ing evidences that it was known to the East Indians, the 
 Phoenicians, and the Greeks. The old and the new methods 
 of obtaining gold differ only in details, not in principle. It 
 was separated from the gravel, sand, or pulverized rock, 
 which contained it, by means of water and its own superior 
 
SUPPLY OP MATERIALS FOE MONEY. 7 
 
 gravity ; and auch is still the method in vogue. The 
 mechanical power in ancient times was the labour of starv- 
 ing slaves and captives^ and this was quite as cheap, perhaps 
 cheaper than either steam or water power is now. 
 
 If any era existed when the supplies of gold in Asia 
 were sufficiently ample and regular to warrant its use for 
 money, it must have been long anterior to the historical 
 period, which may be approximately fixed at about thirty 
 centuries B.C. Twelve or fifteen centuries later the coasts 
 of southern and western Europe were explored by the 
 Phoenicians, and the supplies of gold which they obtained 
 from the aborigines were carried to Egypt, there to maintain 
 a system of gold multiple money which had been based upon 
 the at first abundant supplies of her own placers, and the 
 expectation, equally common and fallacious in' all gold 
 countries — that these supplies would last for ever. 
 
 At this period and to the Phoenicians, Europe was, what 
 America at a later period seemed to the Spaniards, the 
 world's Dorado. It was valued chiefly as a source of gold 
 and afterwards silver ; and the various colonies which were 
 founded on its shores were all planted with reference to 
 this expectation. But when these colonies grew, as many 
 of them did, into self-sustaining agricultural communities, 
 the Phoenician domination was thrown off, the search for 
 the precious metals gave place to more necessary and 
 permanent industries, and the supplies of gold to Egypt fell 
 off, so that, eventually, that country was obliged to relinquish 
 the use of gold for money. 
 
 The next period when gold became common enough in 
 any large country to warrant its use as money, was when 
 the Persian and Greek conquerors plundered Asia of its 
 ancient accumulations of this metal ; and the final period 
 (previous to the discovery of America) when a similar 
 condition of affairs existed, was when the Romans plundered 
 Europe, Asia Minor, and the northern coasts of Africa, in 
 like manner. 
 
 Copper was probably the next metal to gold which man 
 
8 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 learnt to extract and reduce. It is often found in a native 
 state, it is very widely diffused, it is quite abundant. The 
 present state of archasological research does not enable us 
 to locate the principal copper mines of the ancients, nor to 
 compute the quantity of metal which they yielded : but it 
 is known that both the Chinese and Bast Indians com- 
 manded supplies sufficiently ample to warrant them in 
 making moneys of this metal at a period which may 
 approximately be fixed at twenty-two to twenty-five cen- 
 turies before our era. From that time down to the Eoman 
 period, the vicissitudes of mining and of wars which altered 
 the possession of mines, were such that copper was often 
 too scarce in one or another country to warrant its use for 
 money ; and other expedients had to be resorted to. But 
 on the whole, it maintained its ground longer and more 
 satisfactorily everywhere than either gold or silver; and 
 until the discovery of America, it was, throughout the 
 entire civilized world, much more truly and essentially the 
 basis of money than either of the other metals or than 
 indeed any other substance. Viewed from this point, its 
 history as one of the precious metals, has not received the 
 attention which its importance deserves. 
 
 Silver is rarely found in a native state, and then only in com- 
 paratively small quantities. It is commonly mingled with 
 other metals and minerals, forming a compound known as 
 ore and presenting none of those attributes, either to the 
 eye or the other senses, which distinguish it when freed 
 from its matrices. Most of the ores of silver are difficult 
 to reduce, a fact that bespeaks a long familiarity with the 
 art of smelting before silver could have become as amenable 
 to treatment as copper. It is therefore deemed quite safe 
 to regard this one as the last of the three great coining 
 metals which came into use. With regard to its diffiision, 
 silver is originally as widely spread as gold, that is to say, 
 it occurs in nearly all the volcanic rocks and always in 
 conjunction with gold. But there is an important diffe- 
 rence in the deposition of the two metals. 
 
SUPPLY OF MATERIALS FOR MONEY. 9 
 
 Gold is usually carried away long distances from its 
 original place of occurrence, by the breaking down of the 
 rocks which contain it, and their formation anew elsewhere 
 either as other rocks, or as placers of gravel or sand, whilst 
 silver is only to be found in the places of its original 
 occurrence. This difference results from the fact, that 
 gold remains unaltered and uninfluenced by the action of 
 the elements, whilst silver is soon driven into new mineral 
 combinations or dissipated and lost to view. A single gold 
 belt, as the mother lode of California, may be the parent 
 of innumerable gold districts and mines, some of them far 
 removed from the mother lode ; but a silver belt, though it 
 be as rich as the Comstock lode of Nevada, produces no 
 progeny. Hence the finds of silver are more concentrated 
 than those of gold, and this fact has had no little influence 
 in determining its relative value. 
 
 Apart from other considerations there can be but little 
 doubt, that the average cost of producing a pound of silver, 
 from the beginning of the world to the present time, has 
 been far greater than that of producing a pound of gold, 
 but silver, when it was produced at all, was produced in 
 such great quantities, all at once, that combined with the 
 operation of seignorage laws — a circunistance explained 
 elsewhere ^ — it fell in value from time to time and continued 
 thus to fall until a very recent date. There are, however, 
 strong reasons to believe that this fall has quite ended, and 
 that hereafter silver will always continue to rise. 
 
 We are left in almost as great doubt with regard to the 
 location and prolificacy of the most ancient silver mines as 
 to those of copper. 
 
 Such information as has trickled down to us through the 
 bewildering ruins of history will be found in the author's 
 work on the Precious Metals. There is no evidence to 
 show that silver was common enough for money in any 
 country previous to the discovery of Europe by the Phoeni- 
 
 ^ " Hist. Precious Metals," by Alex. Del Mar, pp. 229, 233, 238, 
 244. 
 
10 HIST.ORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 cianSj and the silver procured by these Argonauts of the 
 Levant, most of which found its way to India, was insuffi- 
 cient for this purpose. The first great supplies of silver 
 known of with certainty were those from the Greek mines 
 of Laurium, and the first monetary systems positively based 
 upon this metal were those of the Greek states and colonies. 
 Indian silver coins of an undoubtedly far more ancient date 
 than the remotest settlement of Greece by the Phoenicians, 
 are still extant; but they do not bespeak a system of silver 
 money wherein the creditor has the right to demand silver 
 coins at their market value as metal in discharge of his 
 claim. They were used merely as multiples, the essential 
 standard being copper coins, or some numerary system of 
 money, in which the number of pieces emitted, and not the 
 material of which they were made, formed the basis of value. 
 
 Paper (felted) is said to have been invented in China 
 B.C. 177, and pasteboard notes were certainly used for money 
 during the reign of Wu-ti, B.C. 140.^ Judging from the 
 flimsy appearance of a Chinese paper note, which the author 
 has seen, of the Ming dynasty — some fifteen centuries later 
 — this pasteboard, though answering well enough in theory, 
 was found to be practically inconvenient for monetary 
 symbols, on account of its inability to stand the wear and 
 tear of circulation. The ancient Egyptians made a sort of 
 paper from the leaves of the papyrus, but this also, was too 
 flimsy for use as money. That the idea of making paper serve 
 this purpose was not wanting in remote times is proved by 
 the quickness with which the Chinese adapted it for money, 
 and by the fact that numerical money symbols, and also 
 the idea that money of all kinds was symbolical, was familiar 
 to all the nations of antiquity. 
 
 Felted paper was flrst brought into Europe from Asia by 
 the Arabs about the sixth century of our era, but no Euro- 
 pean manufactures of it were established until about the 
 twelfth century, and it did not become common until the 
 fifteenth century. The social condition of Europe was at 
 ' See chapter on China and the several authorities therein quoted. 
 
SUPPLY OP MATERIALS FOR MONEY. 1 1 
 
 that period wholly unfit for the use of any system of money 
 which depended^ as paper notes do, upon the rectitude and 
 permanence of government or the proficiency of the me- 
 chanic arts. Indeed, any sort of overvalued money, unless 
 it was overvalued surreptitiously, was impossible. Such a 
 system had ceased to be openly used when the Roman Re- 
 public merged into an Empire ; it had been repeatedly tried 
 by the feudal lords who at various times ruled the dis- 
 jointed fragments of that empire, and they had always failed. 
 It was eventually to be restored to the service of the world by 
 another republic. Venice had long and successfully main- 
 tained a paper system without notes ; to Holland remained 
 the task of introducing one with notes. 
 
 An emission of pasteboard tablets about the size of a 
 silver dollar, and stamped with somewhat similar designs, 
 was tried in Leyden during the struggles of the Dutch for 
 freedom ; but this, too, failed ; and it was not until the 
 American and French republics were established that 
 systems of this character obtained any footing which lasted 
 longer than a few months. Indeed, no entire system of 
 numeraries, whether of paper or other materials, has ever 
 been openly and avowedly attempted since the fall of the 
 Roman Commonwealth, and it yet remains to be seen, if 
 the power, integrity, and self-restraint of any state and the 
 perfection of the mechanic arts are such as to render such 
 a system as practical, politically and mechanically, as it un- 
 doubtedly is financially. 
 
 The era when the manufacture of paper suitable for cir- 
 culating notes became so common in Europe as to render a 
 system of paper numeraries mechanically possible happened 
 to coincide with the arrival of new and great supplies of 
 the precious metals from America, and this fact, together 
 with the yet feudal condition of the European states, may 
 have had its influence in retarding the use of paper for such 
 a purpose. However, paper soon crept into use for making 
 another kind of money — credit notes. These were first 
 issued at about the same period in the American colonies 
 
12 HISTORY or MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 and in Sweden^ and not long afterward by the Bank of 
 England, since which time their use for this purpose has 
 become common throughout the entire civilized world. 
 India never seems to have used paper notes until the last 
 century ; whilst China and Japan have never ceased to use 
 them from the earliest period when the manufacture of 
 paper was established in those countries. 
 
 With regard to the progress of coinage, or the art of im- 
 pressing emblems and letters upon moneys with a punch 
 (cuneus, whence coin) , the belief prevails that this art arose 
 in Asia Minor about the ninth century B.C., but this belief 
 must give way before the well established greater antiquity 
 of Indian coins ; and if the term coin may be taken to 
 include all kinds of metallic monetary discs with emblems 
 or letters upon them, as, for example the Chinese cast 
 coins, which go back to a period nearly thirty centuries 
 before our era, the prevailing belief is susceptible of being 
 overwhelmingly refuted. However, so much attention is 
 devoted to this subject in the following chapters that no fur- 
 ther allusion to it is necessary in this place. At all periods 
 and in each country where metallic moneys were used, the 
 issuing power — commonly the State — doubtless employed 
 the best workmen to fabricate them, so as to prevent coun- 
 terfeiting ; but it cannot be admitted that their mechanical 
 excellence was ever quite sufScient to attain this object 
 until the era of the later Greek coinages, than which no issues 
 of moneys were more artistic, and therefore none more 
 difficult to imitate. Some of the earliest Chinese cast 
 moneys were exceedingly well done, but it is believed that 
 in spite of this fact they were not hard to counterfeit — so 
 much fewer are the difficulties of imitating cast moneys 
 compared with punched ones. 
 
 For many ages subsequent to its invention, coinage — and 
 this includes both the casting and punching of coins — was 
 invested with a sacred character. The archaic Chinese and 
 Indian, as well as the early Greek coins, were often marked 
 with emblems, which in the former cases are supposed to 
 
SUPPLY OP MATERIALS FOR MONEY. lo 
 
 he, and in the latter case are known to be, religious. The 
 mints were in the temples, and the priests monopolized, or 
 tried to monopolize, the secrets of metallurgy/ This cus- 
 tom may have arisen either from the cupidity of the priest- 
 hood to reap the profits of coinage, or solicitude on the part 
 of the sovereign to prevent counterfeiting or to render it the 
 more heinous. Whichever was the case, the industry and 
 skill of counterfeiters rarely failed to tear these secrets from 
 the temples, and there is scarcely a coinage, however 
 antique, which was not closely imitated by contemporaneous 
 counterfeiters. 
 
 Engraving has rarely been bestowed directly upon 
 moneys. It has rather been reserved for the dies, matrices, 
 types, and plates from which moneys have been punched, 
 cast, or printed, and it will be found that this art — known 
 to the earliest ages of civilized society — -has faithfully kept 
 pace with the opportunities which have been presented for 
 its exercise. 
 
 This is not the case with printing, when this term is con- 
 fined to the use of movable letters. Paper had been known 
 and widely used in the Oriental world for upwards of 
 sixteen, and in the Occidental one for upwards of three, 
 centuries, before printing was invented ; and this circum- 
 stance may not have been without some slight influence in 
 retarding the introduction of paper moneys. 
 
 ' Tract 6332 Am. Phil. Soc. Library. 
 
CHAPTER II. 
 
 CHINA. 
 
 Antiquity of money greater than letters — Gold and bronze moneys 
 of Simg, B.C. 2257 — Tortoise-back, or cowrie moneys — Knife, bell, and 
 wheel-shaped coins — Clay or porcelain moneys — Paper — Various paper 
 moneys, from e.g. 140 to a.d. 1455 — Present system : copper "' cash " 
 with silver bullion multipliers and fractional (provincial) notes — Laws 
 affecting trade in metals — " Cash," formerly numerical — Foreign coins 
 — Carolus dollar — Brick-tea money — Bullion trade — Mines. 
 
 IP history be examined by the discerning eye^ it will 
 not fail to impart this lesson on almost every one of its 
 pageS; that social life at a certain phase of its development 
 cannot go on without commerce or exchange, and that 
 exchange, as it progresses, necessitates the use of money : 
 or to put it in the terse language of Bastiat, society implies 
 exchange, and exchange, money. 
 
 The phase of social life in which the use of money is im- 
 plied is that one which follows after the agricultural state has 
 begun, and before the pastoral state has entirely ceased. A 
 proof of this is derived from the pastoral roots for the names 
 of moneys, as pecus, feoh, etc. When society has passed 
 beyond this phase: when its main support is a varied 
 agriculture, when an extensive commerce and numerous 
 manufactures have grown up on the basis of this agriculture, 
 it is unnecessary to look for evidences as to whether money 
 was in use or not. Money must have been in use, because 
 such a phase of civilization is impossible without it. The 
 niceties of exchange and division of labour which are 
 involved in the conduct of a varied agriculture, the com- 
 bination of capitals, and the partition of profits which result 
 from an extensive commerce, and the still greater refine- 
 ments of efibrt and result which are comprised in the 
 
CHINA. 15 
 
 organization and conduct of manufactures^ all bespeak the 
 employment of that measure of value^ that common 
 denominator of unlike equivalents, which we call money. 
 
 There is little room to doubt that for more than fifty 
 centuries China has enjoyed that phase of social life, and 
 that degree of civilization which implied the use of money. 
 To be convinced of this it is not necessary to scrutinise 
 the regnal marks upon her numismatic remains. Her 
 general history, her religion, her language, her archeeo- 
 logical monuments, all tell the same story of progress in a 
 remote antiquity. To doubt these proofs in favour of an 
 ambiguous passage in a classical writer of a comparatively 
 recent age, to whom Greece or Italy was the centre of the 
 habitable world, and when to go a couple of thousand miles 
 from these countries in any direction, was to walk off into 
 infinite space, is to lend the ear to doubt and close it to 
 conviction.^ 
 
 Another point. Notwithstanding what seems to be 
 asserted by Herodotus that the invention of the alphabet 
 preceded the use of money — I say, seems to be asserted, 
 because perhaps conscious that he was treading on question- 
 able ground, his statements on both of these subjects 
 are loose and ambiguous — it may safely be believed that 
 the facts are precisely the reverse, and that money preceded 
 the use of letters. This not only follows from the necessity 
 of the case — money being of so much earlier and more 
 pressing importance to man than letters — it is proved by 
 two very curious facts : the earliest writings known to 
 man invariably allude to money ; whilst the earliest moneys 
 are invariably destitute of letters. Money is mentioned in 
 the Vedic writings, in the Code of Manou, upon the oldest 
 
 ' Concerning some blunders of classical writers consult Barclay 
 Head on Herodotus, Penardeut on Pliny, Dr. Robertson on Plutarch, 
 &c. Contrariwise see a curious confirmation of the vex-acity of the 
 Chinese annals in Robertson's " History of India," p. 37, and Kote 
 XVI. in connection with the disco\-ery of Greco-Bactrian and Indo- 
 Scythic coins in 1840 and subsequently. 
 
16 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 monuments of Bgypt^ and in the Bible. But neither the 
 Archaic moneys of India, of Egypt, nor of Greece contain a 
 line of writing. 
 
 Among the first forms, perhaps the first permanent form, 
 of money used in China was porcelain tablets or coins. Says 
 Du Halde, on the money that at different times has been 
 current in that country : " There was also money made of 
 tin, lead, iron, and even baked earth, on which figures and 
 characters were imprinted. It is related that after the 
 reign of Han (b.c. 2119), a prince caused money to be made 
 of stamped earth united with a strong glue, and taking it into 
 his head to put down copper money, he gathered as much 
 as he could, buried it very deep in the earth, and killed 
 the workmen that were employed about it, that none might 
 know where it was hidden." ^ 
 
 Clay money was probably used in Archaic India, Babylon, 
 and Egypt, and we know it was used in Siam, Etruria, 
 Rome, Palmyra, Arabia, and other ancient countries. 
 
 Following the era of clay money came that of the per- 
 manent use of copper money, which, in China, has lasted to 
 the present day. 
 
 Nevertheless, at numerous periods in the long history of 
 this extremely ancient country, notable experiments have 
 been made, either with the object of reforming the system 
 of money in the interest of the public, or of subverting it 
 to the necessities or cupidity of the Crown ; and as such 
 experiments are the best guides which the philosopher and 
 legislator can rely upon for correct doctrine and enlightened 
 law, they will be among the chief objects of research and 
 subjects of explanation in this work. 
 
 Owing either to the poverty of her silver mines or the 
 inability of her ancient inhabitants to work silver ores 
 
 ' Du Halde's "History of China," ed. 1736, ii. 288. It is possible 
 that Du Halde alludes to a prince of the dynasty of Han. This began 
 B.C. 206, and ended B.C. 189. But I have preferred the Emperor in- 
 dicated in the text, because the introduction of coins is ascribed to 
 Hoang-ti (b.c. 2687). Ibid. i. 276. 
 
CHINA. 17 
 
 economically, China does not appear to have ever adopted 
 the silver standard for money. At a very remote date she 
 appears to have tried the gold standard, and failed to main- 
 tain it, owing probably to the uncertain and fluctuating 
 supply of the metal from the minesj and the absence of an 
 active foreign commerce to make good a deficiency, or dis- 
 pose of a surplus. This experiment tooV place so early as 
 the reign of Sung, 2257-07 B.C., and is attested by the 
 somewhat ambiguous legend on existing coins which reads 
 " Tong King Fo," or Good for Gold. 
 
 Other notable experiments took place in the second cen- 
 tury B.C., when skin and afterwards pasteboard notes were 
 used as money, and during the ninth, tenth, eleventh, 
 twelfth, thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries of 
 our era, when various emissions of paper notes were used 
 for the same purpose. Of these emissions, that of which 
 we have the most definite information belongs to the reign 
 of Hong-wu, A.D. 1368-99, and will be treated of at length 
 in the following pages.' 
 
 Previous to the era of Fuhi, which, according to Du 
 Halde, commenced about B.C. 2942, the annals of China are 
 mingled with fable. From Fuhi to the present time we 
 possess a complete history of the sovereigns of China, with 
 the details of their reigns, their personal character, and the 
 circumstances of the Empire during their sway.^ 
 
 The commercial character of the Chinese in very remote 
 times, and therefore the use of money at such periods, is 
 established, in one way, by tracing the intercourse which 
 existed between them and the Western world. Small 
 Chinese vases or bottles have been found in Egyptian 
 tombs of the eighteenth dynasty, at Thebes.^ Others are 
 
 ' Facsimiles of the notes are engraved in Du Halde's " China," 
 Yule's " Marco Polo,'' and " Harper's Magazine." The author saw 
 one (of three or four said to survive) in the hands of Mr. Douglass, of 
 the British Museum. He valued it, for the owner, Sir Harry Parkes, 
 at £200. ^ 
 
 ' These wiU be found in Du Halde's " History of China," i. 269-509. 
 
 ^ Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," ii. 237. The eighteenth dynasty 
 
 C 
 
18 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 claimed to have been found by Dr. Schliemann, in the ruins 
 of the Troad ; but the inscriptions on the latter which are 
 alleged, on the authority of the Chinese Ambassador at 
 Berlin/ to be in Chinese, are asserted by Professor James 
 Legge of Oxford, to be in some other language, and that 
 they differ from Chinese writing, in reading from left to 
 right." Certain porcelain seals with Chinese characters, 
 have also been found during the present century in various 
 parts of Ireland, particularly in the Southern counties ; but 
 doubt has been thrown on the antiquity of these monu- 
 ments ; and although the finding of them in so strange a 
 place has not been accounted for, it cannot be asserted that 
 they prove any ancient intercourse between China and 
 Ireland.^ 
 
 China is believed to be alluded to in Isaiah xlix. 12, as 
 the distant " land of Sinim." This was during the eighth 
 century B.C. It is alluded to by Herodotus, B.C. 450 ; by 
 Aristotle, B.C. 350; by Eratosthenes, B.C. 230; by Strabo, 
 d. A.D. 25; and by Pliny, d. a.d. 79, who mentions the various 
 Chinese products and manufactures which were imported 
 into Egypt. 
 
 The Greeks and Carthaginians appear to have occa- 
 sionally traded overland with China, via India, several 
 centuries before our era. At a subsequent date, the latter 
 
 began during the sixteentli and ended during the fourteenth century, 
 B.C. The vases or bottles alluded to appear therefore to have been 
 sealed up in the tombs for upwards of thirty-three centuries. These 
 seals have been since regarded by Wilkinson to be spurious. " The 
 Chinese vases in Egyptian tombs are of recent date," says Wilkinson, 
 in Edition 1878, chap. ix. p. 154. 
 
 ' Li-fang-pao. 
 
 ^ For an allusion to these vases see London " Quarterly Review " for 
 April, 1874 ; and for a detailed account of them, see London " Times " 
 for 1879. Prof. Legge's doubts -with regard to their alleged character 
 are expressed in a letter to me, dated Oxford, July 17th, 1880. 
 
 ' Prof. Legge writes me that about forty of these seals' have been 
 found in different parts of Ireland, that they were not found in burrows 
 or mounds along with Celtic remains, but picked up or dug near the 
 surface. He claims that such seals were first made in China during 
 the twelfth century of our era, but herein he must be mistaken. 
 
CHINA. 19 
 
 maintained regular commercial intercourse with the Chinese. 
 The Romans also maintained a similar intercourse^ which 
 began about the fourth century B.C. In the third and 
 second centuries this trade went through Palmyra^ the Per- 
 sian Gulf, and the Indian ports. A Roman commercial expe- 
 dition to China is mentioned during the reign of Domitian, 
 A.D. 94. Envoys from Marcus Aurelius Antoninus reached 
 China, a.d. 166. An embassy sent by Alexander Severus, 
 reached Canton in a.d. 220 ; other Roman embassies entered 
 China in a.d. 265 and 287.^ After this the Arabians were the 
 first to visit China by sea. See Robertson's "India," p. 102. 
 
 These dates are those which have survived the wreck of 
 time : the absence of earlier ones do not prove that no 
 earlier intercourse existed between Europe and China. The 
 very early use of the Chinese abacus and stove in Rome 
 affords an evidence of this trade ; '' and the imports of silks, 
 presumed to be Chinese, into Rome, and exports of silver to 
 " Seres," mentioned by Pliny, prove that this intercourse, 
 at least in his day, was regular and important.^ 
 
 According to Mr. Medhurst'stranslationof the dictionary 
 or encyclopjBdia, edited by the Chinese emperor Kang-he, 
 A.D. 1722, " in ancient times the money of China was of 
 tortoise-shell." * Kang-he's meaning of " ancient times " 
 is defined by the fact that he himself possessed a cabinet of 
 coins dating from the reign of Yaou, B.C. 2347 to his own 
 time.^ The "ancient times" of tortoise (cowrie ?) money seem 
 to relate to a period anterior to Yaou. The Chinese annals 
 
 ^ For early voyages of Europeans to China, consult Martin's " His- 
 tory of China;" also Appleton's " Cyclopedia," v. 110. 
 
 ^ Martin's " China," i. 244. ' " Natural History," xii. 18. 
 
 * " Five Years in China," by Lieut. F. E. Forbes, R.N., London, 
 1847, p. 57. The author says that Mons. Hager, in his "Numisma- 
 tiques Chinoise,'' translates poei into cowrie shells, but remarks that so 
 far is this from being correct that the cowrie shell is unknown in 
 China. There is an English translation of Kang-he's Dictionary by 
 Morrison, London, five vols., pub. by East India Company. Davis, 
 " China," ii. 388 n., says that cowrie shells, known to the Chinese as 
 hae-fei, or " fat of the sea," are used in Yun-nan and other places 
 bordering on India, for money. " Forbes, p. 58. 
 
20 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 carry this date back six centuries earlier than Yaou, for 
 they state that metallic coins were used in the reign of 
 Fuhi, B.C. 2942, Shin-nung, b.c. 2827, and Hoang-ti, B.C. 
 2687/ and that during the last-named reign, both coins, 
 weights, and measures were employed.'^ There may be 
 some uncertainty in fixing the reign of these monarchs 
 within a century, or even two centuries, but notwithstand- 
 ing the suspicion usually thrown upon the validity of 
 Chinese annals, there can be little doubt that these per- 
 sonages are authentic, and that they were acquainted with 
 the use of coins. 
 
 In addition to the evidence on this head already adduced, 
 we are informed, that during the Hia dynasty, B.C. 2207- 
 1767, the punishment of crime was commuted with metal j ' 
 that coins struck by Tai-Kung or Ching-Wang, B.C. 1120, 
 are mentioned by various European writers on the subject;* 
 and that in B.C. 1000, six taels of " metal ^' would ransom a 
 criminal from mutilation.^ 
 
 These archseological and literary evidences of the early 
 commercial character of the Chinese, and their use of coins, 
 prepare the way for the introduction of that more positive 
 evidence which is to be gathered from the coins themselves. 
 
 I have before me at the moment of writing, twenty trays 
 of coins collected in China by the Rev. Dr. Justus Doolittle, 
 an American missionary at Foo-Ohow. From Dr. Doo- 
 little^s hands they passed in 1872 into those of a merchant 
 of San Francisco, who politely placed them at my disposi- 
 tion for the purposes of this work. 
 
 These trays contains 464 bronze coins, the dates of which, 
 derived from the regnal periods of the monarchs whose 
 mortuary names they bear, range, according to Du Haiders 
 
 ^ Forbes, p. 57. 
 
 ° After trying copper coins, they fell back upon clay. Du Halde, 
 ii. 288. 
 
 ^ Monseigneur Hager, cited in Forbes, p. 58. 
 
 * W. Vessering on " Chinese Currency, Coins, and Paper," Leyden ; 
 Chinese " Repository,'' xx. 290 ; Dickeson, in London " Numismatic 
 Chronicle." ° Forbes, p. 58. 
 
CHINA. 21 
 
 chronology, from B.C. 2257 to the present time. With the 
 exception of seven coins among those of the most ancient 
 dateSj they are all round, with square or round holes, nearly 
 always square ones, in the centre, and they vary in weight 
 from a few grains to half a pound each. 
 
 The seven exceptional coins are of the bell and knife 
 shapes. These are as follows : 
 
 1st. Bronze coin of Sung, B.C. 2257, bell shape ; weight 
 about 325 grains. Inscription in ancient Chinese, as read 
 in China, Tong King Ho. As read by Mr. H. T. Kuen,^ 
 Chinese Vice-Consul at San P^rancisco, an American acade- 
 mician, Tong King Po, For gold good, or Good for gold. 
 
 2nd. Bronze coin of the Chau or Chow dynasty, B.C. 1122 
 to 245. Scimitar or knife-shaped ; length, 5 inches ; weight 
 about 280 grains. Leu To. These coins are called Kin-taou- 
 tseen, or money of the metal knife. Kang-he's dictionary 
 assigns to this type a place among the earliest coinages, that 
 is to say, among coinages that long preceded the Chow 
 dynasty. Such coins, says the imperial writer, vary in length 
 from three to seven inches. Some of the larger ones, he con- 
 tinues, have the characters Yih-taou and Ping-woo-neen, 
 i.e. one knife worth 5000 (Le) of the smaller. He says, 
 there are several kinds of these coins, one of which having 
 the characters Yih and Taou, inlaid of gold, has also the 
 value of 5000 Le.^ The coin before me has none of these 
 peculiarities ; but I have seen others that have. 
 
 3rd, -dith, 5th, and 6th. Pour bronze coins of the Han 
 dynasty, a.d. 9. Two are knife-shaped, rather "Yale lock 
 key'' shaped. Length 2^ and 2| inches; weight 280 to 
 320 grains. Two are bell-shaped, weight 220 and 200 
 grains. Legends : Kie To. Yih Taou. Fo Pu. Pou To. 
 
 Thornton relates that the usurper Wang-Mang, of the 
 Han dynasty, established an innovation by imitating in his 
 coinage the knife-shaped coins of the Chau dynasty. The 
 coins before me prove that the imitation was not a close 
 one. To procure metal for his mints Wang-Mang despoiled 
 ' Or Kwan. ' Forbes, 59. 
 
22 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 the tombs of coins which ancient custom had caused to be 
 buried with the dead. 
 
 Beside the six coins described^ there are twelve others 
 in the collection before me of very ancient date. These 
 are : — 
 
 7th. Half Tael, B.C. 178. Paun Liong. 
 
 8th. Another^ same date. 
 
 9th. Another, B.C. 139. 
 
 10th. Five chue or units, B.C. 139. Ung Chue. 
 
 11th. Fifty chue, a.d. 9. Tai Chuen. 
 
 12th to 18th. Seven coins of same period. 
 
 The last twelve named coins are of the familiar " cash " 
 type, round with square holes in the centre and ^ to 1 inch 
 in diameter. They are smaller than the modern cash and 
 the square holes are larger. 
 
 In addition to these, I have seen in the collection of the 
 Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris, bell- shaped bronze coins, 
 measuring upwards of six inches in length, by four in 
 width, and round bronze coins, fully five inches in diameter, 
 and weighing a pound . 
 
 These ancient coins have been submitted to the inspec- 
 tion of Chinese numismatists and antiquarians, both in 
 China, Europe, and America, and by them pronounced 
 genuine. Among those who have passed this judgment 
 upon them are natives of China who have been educated in 
 European and American colleges. 
 
 In short, there are no reasonable grounds for impeaching 
 their validity, and, until such grounds are discovered, these 
 coins must be accepted as authentic monuments. 
 
 Thus accepted, they open a wide field for the history of 
 money. They prove not only that money was known and 
 used at least twenty-three centuries before Christ, but that 
 even at this remote period representative and probably 
 numerical systems of money were employed. The bell- 
 shaped coin of Sung announces itself as good for gold, im- 
 plying that gold had previously been used as money and 
 that bronze coins were now used to represent it. Coins 
 
CHINA 23 
 
 Nos. 7 and 11 contain the inscriptions " half-tael," and fifty 
 " chuen," or units of account. Chuen are now called "cash." ' 
 Coupled with the fact that these coins are quite light (weigh- 
 ing from 30 to 60 grains each) , the inscriptions prove that 
 their value was many times that of the metal they contained."^ 
 This value was probably maintained by limiting their num- 
 ber. In such case the system was numerical. 
 
 When we come to examine the history of money in other 
 countries of the ancient world, we shall find that owing to 
 the unequal distribution of the precious metals, and the 
 obstacles to foreign commerce, commodity systems of money 
 would have been dangerous to employ, and that, at one 
 time or another, numerical systems were established in all 
 of them. 
 
 That China should have employed a numerical system is 
 therefore no matter for wonder. The same reasons that im- 
 pelled other nations to do so, impelled her likewise.^ The 
 only wonder is that she should have employed one so long 
 ago as the period of Sung ; and that at this period, almost 
 the very outset of monetary history, we are brought face 
 to face with a system whose advocacy and establishment 
 form at the present day the objects of influential political 
 parties in the United States and elsewhere. 
 
 The Chow dynasty lasted during the long period B.C. 
 1122-245. Towards the end of this dynasty the empire 
 fell into decay and feudalism. It was divided into 123 dif- 
 ferent states, each probably with its own system of money.* 
 
 ' Cash is of Indian origin from Karshipana, a certain coin. The 
 coins, tokens, or numeraries, whichever they happened to be at the 
 time, called by the English cash, were termed by the Portuguese 
 traders sapeca and by the French sapeque. The smallest of the modern 
 bronze coins are two-cash pieces. The Chinese name for cash is chue. 
 
 ^ " Copper money of a nominal value has in times of scarcity been 
 made to represent a certain amount of rice or grain, payable at the 
 granaries." Forbes, 63. 
 
 ^ Scarcity of metal is mentioned at numerous periods in Chinese 
 history. See Forbes, 60, 61, 63, 67, etc. 
 
 * Forbes, 64. Du Halde alludes only to the imperial systems of 
 money. 
 
24 HISTORY or MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 The Tsin dynasty began B.C. 245. In the reign of Che- 
 hwang-te or Tsin-chi-hoang-ti, the unity of the empire was 
 restored, and the building of the Great Wall completed ; 
 but this Emperor sullied the lustre of his administration by 
 destroying all the ancient literature upon which his emis- 
 saries could lay hands. It is this destruction of original 
 works that obscures the earlier annals of China and renders 
 her numismatic remains peculiarly valuable. 
 
 The Han dynasty began B.C. 206, with the reign of Lew- 
 pang, otherwise Kaou-tsoo. During the reign of one of 
 this line, Wu-ti or Woo-te, B.C. 140, the ancient literature 
 was restored so far as possible. 
 
 It was during the reign of Wu-ti that the first paper 
 money of which we have an account was issued in China.^ 
 According to Klaproth and Forbes,^ the notes were called 
 p^i pi or skin notes, and they were made of white stag skin, 
 a Chinese foot square, each note representing 40,000 chuen. 
 According to Martin^ there were others of about the same 
 date made of pasteboard ; and it is said that one of the 
 latter, which had been preserved among the relics of a 
 temple of worship, is still in existence.* 
 
 Between the third century of our era and the accession 
 of the Tsuy dynasty which began a.d. 590, with the reign 
 of Yang-keen, we have few accounts either of the money of 
 China or indeed any important circumstances which connect 
 the history of the empire with that of the outer world. 
 
 The first coins extant bearing the actual name of an em- 
 peror are those of Ho-EIing, deposed a.d. 465.* Unless this 
 was the son of Wan-te, who (the son) reigned from 454 to 
 465 and then died, I cannot identify this monarch. In 
 605-618, during the reign of Yang-Kwan of the Tsuy dy- 
 
 ' Nearly three centuries previous to this date, coins covered with 
 leather or parchment were used as money in Carthage. 
 
 ° Klaproth's "Asia," i. 375, quoted in " Chinese Repository," xx. 
 289-95. Forbes, 67. Du Halde. 
 
 ^ Martin's " Hist. China," i. 173. 
 
 * Private information,, considered doubtful. 
 
 ' Forbes, p. 60. 
 
CHINA. 25 
 
 nasty, a period of great confusion and scarcity of metal, 
 round bits of iron, pieces of pasteboard and even articles 
 of wear served as money ^ or media of exchange. 
 
 During the Tang dynasty, a.d. 619-907, the empire seems 
 to have enjoyed the advantages of peace and prosperity. 
 In the reign of Leshimen or that of his immediate successor, 
 Tai-tsung, the Nestorian Christian Olopwen or Olopuen is 
 said, A.D. 636, to have entered China from Judea and 
 preached the religion of Christ ; the emperor having ac- 
 corded him permission to do so, and having even erected a 
 church for his convenience ; but this account, upon the 
 strength of an alleged anachronism, has been regarded by 
 Voltaire as a pious fraud of the Jesuit Kircher.^ 
 
 Tai-tsung was an enlightened prince who gave encou- 
 ragement to science and literature. His successor, Kau- 
 tsung, carried the arms of China into Thibet and Persia. 
 A subsequent emperor of this line, Yiou-tsung, who as- 
 cended thQ throne at some date between a.d. 713 and 757, 
 has been called the Haroun Alraschid of China. During 
 his reign in a.d. 740, a census of the population was taken 
 — of itself no insignificant evidence of national prosperity 
 and growth — the result being 48,143,600 mouths — pro- 
 bably an increase over the population of the preceding era.^ 
 
 In a.d. 807 during the reign of Heen-tsung and in con- 
 sequence of the scarcity of copper at that time, paper notes 
 were issued in place of copper coins. Forbes says that 
 they were issued upon deposits of metal money in the 
 public coffers. They were suppressed within three years.* 
 
 ^ Klaproth in " Chinese Kepository," xx. 289-95. 
 
 ^ Voltaire, " Hist. Europe," English Translation, London, 1754, 
 vol. i. part 1, page 14. 
 
 ^ Populations are rarely counted in periods of decay. Consult 
 Essay on " Population and Specie," by the writer in Rep. U. S. Mone- 
 tary Commission, vol. i. App. p. 70. A census of China was taken 
 during the first century of our era, when the number of mouths proved 
 to be 59,594,978. This number probably fell to something like 
 40,000,000 at more than one period previous to the Tang dynasty. 
 
 * Forbes, 67, and Klaproth in "Chinese Repository," xx. 289-95. 
 
26 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Some Arabian travellers who reached China in the ninth 
 century describe the metallic cash in use at the time.^ 
 
 The Tang dynasty ended in 907 and was succeeded by 
 five dynastiesj the last of which ended in 960. During all 
 this time it has been argued that copper must have con- 
 tinued to become scarcer, or else the copper chuen were con- 
 tinually degraded, for the sake of the profits arising out of 
 the coinage; because, it has been alleged, during the Sung 
 dynasty which began a.d. 960, they became " so small that 
 they were called geese eggs " and so thin that they would 
 " swim upon the water." ^ 
 
 In A.D. 960, reign of Tai-tsu (Sung dynasty) the imperial 
 treasury was constituted a bank of deposit from which notes 
 were issued upon deposits of silver, precious articles, and 
 other merchandise, in government warehouses. 
 
 In A.D. 997 there were 1,700,000 nominal taels of these 
 notes in circulation; in 1021 there were over 3,000,000 
 taels. These notes are described as having been a foot 
 square in size and negotiable.® Metal was scarce at this 
 period.** During this century (the tenth) paper bills of ex- 
 change were employed in China. ^ 
 
 During the early part of the eleventh century, iron chuen 
 were in circulation, whether as numeraries or commodities is 
 not stated. They were probably at first highly over-valued, 
 and being issued redundantly, fell to or near their commo- 
 dity value. It was to represent these coins that the first 
 notes of true (felted) paper were issued in China. These 
 were emitted by a private banker in Sze Chuen province 
 and were made payable in three years. Bach note was for 
 
 ' " Chinese Repository.'' 
 
 ^ jMinister Seward's dispatcli in Rep. U. S. Mon. Com. i. 545. This 
 is an exaggeration, for 1 have over 100 of these cash before me. They 
 are of bronze, measure one inch in diameter, and weigh about 20 to 50 
 grains each. Some of them are very thin ; but neither in this respect, 
 nor any other, do they differ essentially from the cash of the present 
 time. 
 
 '' Klaproth and Martin. * Forbes, 67. 
 
 ° Martin, i. 173. 
 
CHINA. 27 
 
 1,000 chuen or one tael of pure silver. The example of tlie 
 Sze Chuen banker was soon followed by others — some fif- 
 teen in number — and by the year a.d. 1032 more than 
 1,256,340 nominal taels of these notes were in circulation. 
 In that year all the bankers who issued them failed and 
 the notes became discredited. Yet they must have con- 
 tinued in circulation, for we read that in 1068, counter- 
 feits of these notes were current. The notes were called 
 tchilse.^ 
 
 In A.D. 1131, reign of Kau-tsung, according to Du Halde 
 and Klaproth, or of Prin-tsung, according to Martin, paper 
 due-bills were issued by the government for military 
 supplies. 
 
 During the reign of the same monarch a new sort of 
 paper money called hwui tsz or exchanges was put into cir- 
 culation. These notes were at first redeemable. They 
 were in denominations of 1,000 chuen each. Later on 600^s, 
 300's, and 200's were issued. This emission was continued 
 during the reign of Hiao-tsung, which began in -1163. 
 During the five years ending 1167, there were outstanding 
 more than 28,000,000 taels of this paper, and by the end of 
 the same year over 43,600,000 taels.^ Besides these, the 
 provincial governments issued circulating paper of their 
 own."' It is probable that by this time the government had 
 suspended metallic payments and that the notes it issued 
 were irredeemable. 
 
 During the remainder of the Sung dynasty, which con- 
 tinued until the Mongolian invasion, these paper emissions 
 were increased. At the same time the three-year private 
 bank notes which had been issued during the previous 
 century, continued to remain in circulation. After the 
 Mongol dynasty was pretty well established, in 1224, the 
 
 ' Klaproth and Martin. ^ Klaproth. 
 
 ^ Martin. In addition to these emissions we are informed by Kla- 
 proth that in a.d. 1155, in the Tongusian kingdom of Kin, North 
 China, copper being very scarce, paper notes were issued to replace the 
 sopper coins previously in circulation. 
 
28 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 notes of the Sung dynasty were all " suppressed ; " whether 
 by redemption or repudiation is not stated ; probably the 
 latter. 
 
 In A.D. 1215,- Genghis Khan, emperor of the Mongol 
 Tartars, entered China at the head of a vast host, attacked 
 and captured Pekin, and, leaving an army to further reduce 
 the empire, marched to the west and entered upon that 
 series of astonishing conquests which rendered his name a 
 terror to the farthest ends of Europe. Genghis died in 
 1227, leaving the command of his armies to his four sons, 
 under one of whom the conquest of China was completed, 
 his grandson Kublai-khan, otherwise Shi-tsu or Chi-yuen, 
 ascending the throne of that empire in 1281. 
 
 Previous to the submission of the empire, that is to say 
 in February, 1236, the Mongols revived the use of silk or 
 paper money similar to that which had before been used " by 
 Chang-fong, sixth emperor of the Kin " dynasty.-^ 
 
 In 1260-68, and still previous to the submission of the 
 empire, Kublai-Khan then in command of the Mongol 
 army of occupation, issued paper notes and introduced them 
 iuto those parts of China which his forces had subdued. 
 These issues soon became redundant and fell in purchasing 
 power. They will be distinguished herein as the First 
 Mongol Issue. 
 
 Between 1264 and 1290 a Second series of notes were 
 issued. Like their predecessors they were without specific 
 limit as to numbers, and thus became in time depreciated 
 below the level of the coins after which they were named, 
 and for which the law compelled them to pass in the pay- 
 ment of debts. "Pauthier has given, from the Chinese 
 annals of the Mongol dynasty, a complete table of the issues 
 of paper money during every year of Kublai- Khan's reign 
 (1260-94), estimated at their nominal value in ting or tens 
 of silver taels. The lowest (annual) issue was in 1267, of 
 228,960 taels, and the highest was in 1290, of 50,002,500 
 
 ' " Universal History." Modern part, vol. iv. p. 200. This was a 
 dynasty of the kingdom of Kin, referred to in a previous note. 
 
CHINA. 29 
 
 taels, whilst the total amount in 34 years was 249,654,290 
 taels.' A tael really meant 1 ,000 copper " cash " or " chuen/^ 
 
 The depreciation first became rapid in 1287, when the 
 emissions were very extensive. Before this occurred the 
 notes of the First issue of 1260-63 had been exchanged at 
 the rate of five for one of those of the Second. 
 
 It is these notes of the Second issue that are described in 
 the pages of Marco Polo. 
 
 This was the most brilliant period in the history of 
 China. Kublai Khan, after subduing and uniting the whole 
 country and adding Burmah, Cochin-China^ and Tonquin to 
 the empire, entered upon a series of internal improvements 
 and civil reforms, which raised the country he had con- 
 quered, to the highest rank of civilization, power, and pro- 
 gress. Tranquillity succeeded the commotions of the pre- 
 vious period ; life and property were amply protected ; jus- 
 tice was equally dispensed ; and the effect of a gradual 
 increase of the currency, which was jealously guarded from 
 counterfeiting, was to stimulate industry, and prevent the 
 monopolization of capital. It was during this era that the 
 Imperial canal, 1660 miles long, together with many other 
 notable structures, were built. ^ 
 
 There is some little discrepancy in the dates assigned by 
 Du Halde and Pauthier to Kublai Kahn^s reign, which I am 
 not prepared to reconcile. 
 
 No specific limits having been assigned to this emis- 
 sion of notes, they fell in value, until in the reign of 
 Woo-tsung, 1309-13, a new emission, which we will call 
 the Third Mongol, was begun. Like the Second series 
 with respect to the First, the Third were now exchanged 
 
 ' Col. Yule's " Marco Polo," London, Murray, 1875. I have not 
 been able to find this table of Pauthier. Col. Yule says that in both 
 issues (those of 1260 and 1287) " the paper money was in official valua- 
 tion only equivalent to half its nominal value in silver ; a circumstance 
 not very easy to understand." The reason may have been that the 
 note represented taels of copper chuen, which themselves were overvalued 
 as against silver. 
 . '' Malte-Brun, ii. 69. 
 
30 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COITNTRIES. 
 
 for the Second at the rate of five of the latter for one of the 
 former. 
 
 Population and trade had greatly increased, but the 
 emissions of paper notes were suffered to largely outrun 
 both, and the inevitable consequence was depreciation. All 
 the beneficial effects of a currency which is allowed to ex- 
 pand with the growth of population and trade were now 
 turned into those evil effects that flow from a currency 
 emitted in excess of such growth. 
 
 These effects were not slow to develop themselves. Ex- 
 cessive and too rapid augmentation of the currency, re- 
 sulted in an entire subversion of the old order of society. 
 The best families in the empire were ruined, a new set 
 of men came into the control of public affairs, and the 
 country became the scene of internecine warfare and con- 
 fusion. 
 
 This condition of things did not occur all of a sudden, 
 but became slowly evolved during the reigns of the five 
 monarchs, between Woo-tsung, 1309-13, and Shun-tee, 
 1333-68. 
 
 It was at this period, viz., a.d. 1330, that the Moorish 
 traveller, Ibn Batuta, reached China, whose paper money is 
 described in his itinerary.^ Sir John Mandeville was also 
 in China at this period (about 1327) ; but whether it is of 
 the reigning monarch of that country or one of his pre- 
 decessors that he speaks in the following extract, is un- 
 certain : — 
 
 " This emperor maketh no money but of leather im- 
 printed or of paper. And of that money is some of greater 
 price and some of lesser price, after the diversity of his 
 statutes. And when the money hath run so long that it 
 beginneth to waste (wear out) then men bring it to the 
 emperor^s treasury, and then they take new money for the 
 old. And that money goeth throughout all the country and 
 
 ^ Ibn Batuta states that gold and silver coins (foreign) were melted 
 down. He instances tlie dirhem. " The Chinese," by John Francis 
 Davis, 2 vols. New York, Harper, 1858, pp. i. 23 ; and ii. 394. 
 
CHINA. 31 
 
 throughout all his provinces. For there and (even) beyond 
 them they make no money neither of gold nor silver." ^ 
 
 During the last days of the Mongol dynasty^ in 1351, an 
 effort was made to reform the currency ; but by this time 
 the evil lay too deep for remedy ; for many kinds of paper 
 money were in circulation — government, provincial, and 
 private — besides many counterfeits; and the government 
 was powerless to limit the circulation. The notes there- 
 fore continued to depreciate. 
 
 In 1368 the Mongol dynasty was overthrown, and the 
 Ming dynasty commenced with the reign of Hung-wu. In 
 the seventh year of his reign (1374) a new issue of govern- 
 ment notes took place, a facsimile of one of which is pub- 
 lished in Colonel Yule's " Marco Polo." It is correct as to 
 colour, but fails to convey a truthful representation of the 
 thin, flimsy silk paper upon which the original notes were 
 printed, one of which, the property of Sir Harry Parkes, 
 the writer inspected in 1883. In 1374 the notes of the 
 Mongol emperors were still in circulation, though at what 
 relation of value to the Ming issue is not stated. 
 
 At a subsequent date during the same reign the Mongol 
 notes were retired from circulation. The new Ming notes 
 read : — " This paper money shall have currency, and be 
 used in all respects as if it were copper money." The de- 
 nominations were from 100 to 1,000 chuen. Martin states 
 that as they were issued redundantly, it was attempted to 
 maintain their value by forbidding the use of gold and 
 silver ; but since, in point of fact, these metals were not 
 then coined or used as money in China, neither their use 
 nor disuse could have had any effect upon the value of the 
 paper notes ; and Martin must be mistaken. Their value 
 could only have been affected by their number and that of 
 any other pieces of money then in circulation, such as 
 copper chuen, private bank notes, counterfeits, &c. 
 
 At the outset of the Ming issues, 17 paper chuen were 
 equal to 13 metallic chuen; by the year 1448, the issues of 
 ' " Travels " of Sir John Mandeville (Ed. 1839), p. 239. 
 
32 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 paper notes having meanwhile been greatly increased, this 
 relation became 1000 paper to 3 metallic chuen. In 1455 
 the government decreed that the taxes should be paid in 
 paper moneyj and forbade the circulation of coins (chuen). 
 The Mings, so far as excessive issues are concerned, were 
 but too clearly following in the worst footsteps of the 
 Mongols. 
 
 Nevertheless, the condition of the empire had greatly 
 improved. Whilst Hung-wu, who reigned 1368-99, was 
 still on the throne, that is to say, in 1393, a census of the 
 population showed 60,545,812 mouths,^ although there had 
 occurred but half a century previously — in 1342 — one of 
 the greatest famines of which mention occurs in history, 
 when no less than 13,000,000 of human beings were de- 
 stroyed in this empire alone.^ But the prosperity which 
 this increase of population evinces, gradually disappeared, 
 and after Hung-wu the empire again fell into decay and 
 was repeatedly subjected to the incursions of the Tartars. 
 
 In 1448, and with a view of improving the credit of the 
 government paper notes, the circulation of metallic chuen 
 was prohibited ; but this measure proved abortive, and by 
 the year 1455 the paper issues appear to have become 
 entirely discredited, and metallic chuen resumed their old 
 place in the circulation. This was the last issue of impe- 
 rial government notes in China.^ 
 
 H. T.Kuen (Chinese vice-consul at San Francisco) states 
 that leather notes were issued by the Ming dynasty during 
 the rebellion of Lee-cheong. Undated porcelain coins are 
 still extant, stamped with Chinese letters signifying 
 " Eternal prosperity." One in the author's possession 
 measures about three-quarters of an inch in diameter and 
 one quarter of an inch thick. Another one, of different 
 type, is in the San Francisco Mint collection. 
 
 Towards the latter part of this century (the fifteenth) 
 the population of the empire had fallen to 53,281,158 
 
 ^ Malte-Brun. ' App. Cyc. 
 
 ' " American Almanac," 1879, pp. 65-68. 
 
CHINA. 33 
 
 mouths.' Even at this figure it was greater than that of 
 all Europe.'' 
 
 We now come to the period when China was opened to 
 the maritime commerce of Europe. This was effected by 
 the Portuguese in 1518."' It would be interesting to know 
 what had been the ratio between gold and silver in China 
 previous to this event, and how such ratio came to be 
 afterwards changed by its influence ; but the data on the 
 subject are too meagre to warrant any definite conclusions. 
 We are informed that at about the beginning of the four- 
 teenth century the ratio was 1 tael of silver equal to 1 mace 
 of gold, or 10 to 1 ; * but there is no other datum for up- 
 wards of three centuries after this date. The ratio was, 
 however, not important. The Chinese coined neither gold 
 nor silver,^ and although the latter is at present used for 
 money, and was probably so used, at least to a small ex- 
 tent, at the date mentioned (1264-94), the national policy 
 of keeping the mines closed, which appears to have been 
 adopted so far back as that period, and perhaps for ages 
 before, must have caused the ratio to depend upon sur- 
 rounding countries rather than the relative abundance of 
 the precious metals within the empire. The countries 
 most likely to have exercised this influence at the date 
 mentioned were those which had then recently been over- 
 run and plundered by Genghis Khan and his successors, to 
 wit, Turkestan, Persia, Asia Minor, and Eastern Europe. 
 
 In 1596 the emperor (contrary to the advice of his 
 ministers, and probably at the instigation of the Portu- 
 guese) ordered the opening of six mines of gold and silver 
 
 ^ Malte-Brun. 
 
 ^ " Discourse on Political Economy," by the writer, delivered before 
 tlie Alumni of the University of California, January, 1879. 
 
 ' " Why Should the Chinese Go ? " by Kwang Chang Ling ; pamphlet. 
 San Francisco, 1878, p. 5. 
 
 * Klaproth in "Chinese Eepository," xx. 289-95. 
 
 " " The government of China issues no other coin but the base metal 
 token, composed of copper and zinc with, perhaps, some lead." Davis's 
 " China," ii. 388. 
 
 D 
 
34 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 in the provinces of Honan^ Chensij and Shansi ; but six 
 years afterwards they were closed.^ 
 
 Mr. Colwell says " that " in China, the skill of counter- 
 feiters is such as wholly to prevent the use of coins (mean- 
 ing gold and silver ones), and that vast population is — for 
 that reason, it is said — confined to the primitive mode of 
 weighing, in payments, all the gold and silver used in com- 
 merce." But this opinion is clearly wrong. It is true the 
 Chinese are skilled in counterfeiting ; but they are more 
 than equally skilled in being able to detect counterfeit 
 coins or even impure metal. The fact is, they do use 
 silver coins, only they are all, with the exceptions men- 
 tioned below, and when not counterfeit, coins of foreign 
 nations. The real reason why gold and silver coins are not 
 fabricated in China is that the money of the country is, and, ex- 
 cept when replaced by paper notes, has always been, " cash," 
 generally copper, but sometimes iron coins. These cash 
 have been issued from time to time, not as commodity but 
 numerary or highly over-valued coins, the value of which is 
 endeavoured to be regulated by laws limiting their issue. 
 Under these circumstances, it is only necessary to say, in 
 reply to Mr. Colwell's theory that the money of the country 
 whether commodity or numerary being made of copper or 
 iron, it is impossible to introduce gold and silver coins 
 into the circulation or to make them legal tender at any 
 fixed ratio of value to the cash ; because the latter are com- 
 posed of metals whose value in gold or silver is subject to 
 violent fluctuations; there being now no great hoarded 
 stock of them on hand in the commercial world, as there is 
 of gold and silver. 
 
 Since the opening of China to maritime commerce the 
 changes in her monetary system have not been important. 
 During the last years of the Ming dynasty, which ended in 
 1645, the empire became the theatre of internecine wars, 
 
 ' Pauthier, " Chine," p. 405, ed. 1835. 
 
 ' " Ways and Means of Payment," p. 109. He gets his infoi-mation 
 from Du Halde, ii. 287. 
 
CHINA. 35 
 
 and the numerary cash being issued without limit both by 
 the imperial and provincial authorities, and largely counter- 
 feited at that, they fell to their commodity value, and, as 
 such, formed, together with the tribute rice, the principal, 
 almost the only, moneys of the empire. 
 
 The Tsin, or Taetsing, or Mantchoo Tartar, dynasty began 
 in 1645 with the reign of Shun-che ; and an era of peace and 
 progress succeeded. The Russians were allowed to trade 
 with the northern parts of the empire. Formosa and Thibet 
 were conquered, and foreign trade was permanently opened 
 at the seaports. A German Jesuit, Adam Schall, was ap- 
 pointed prime minister to the emperor ; the Christian churches 
 were restored to the missionaries (1671), and the country 
 was surveyed and mapped out by Europeans. These re- 
 forms indicate an era of prosperity, which soon demanded a 
 more equitable and efficient currency than copper cash ; 
 and accordingly paper money, at first consisting of private 
 bank notes, followed afterwards by provincial government 
 credit notes, crept into the circulation. 
 
 Towards the end of the eighteenth century the popula- 
 tion of China had grown to perhaps 175,000,000 souls, and 
 notwithstanding current belief to the contrary, and the 
 pretended censuses adduced to support this belief, this 
 must be deemed the greatest number known to have been 
 ever attained in China, and to mark the highest point of its 
 prosperity, which, since the period mentioned, has greatly 
 declined. In 1875, at the beginning of the present reign — 
 that of Kuang-soo, ninth emperor of the Tsin dynasty — the 
 population of the empire could scarcely have exceeded 
 128,000,000.^ These numbers and the condition of pro- 
 gress which they indicate, have, it is thought, lost their 
 previous tendency to retrograde, and at the present time 
 the empire, if not slowly progressive, has at least attained 
 for a time a stationary condition. 
 
 ' Fourth Letter of Kwang Chang Ling in San Francisco " Argo- 
 naut," Sept. 17th, 1878, and the various authorities therein adduced, 
 including the last actual Chinese census (1761). 
 
36 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 The monetary system of China at present consists, and 
 for some time past has consisted, principally of cast copper 
 or bronze cash, of which there are two classes in circulation. 
 The first of these are the large cash, which are cast by the 
 Imperial authorities, and circulated almost exclusively in the 
 city of Pekin and its suburbs, where no other cash is current. 
 
 It is presumed to be these coins whose composition 
 is said to consist of six to eight parts of copper, and from 
 four to two parts of alloy, either lead, zinc, or tin, and 
 whose legal composition is described as follows : copper 
 54, tutenag (zinc) 42, lead 3.4, unenumerated 0.6 ; total 
 100. The ingredients are, however, not always the same.'^ 
 
 Between these cash and silver bullion there is said to 
 be established a legal relation of 1000 cash to the tael 
 of silver.^ But since cash are legal tender and silver 
 bullion is not, this relation cannot be deemed effective.^ 
 
 However this may be, the cash, if composed as above 
 set forth, are, at this relation, undervalued, and silver bullion 
 overvalued. 
 
 The second class of cash consists nearly entirely of copper, 
 and are smaller and lighter, weighing when new, about eight 
 to the ounce avoirdupois, and when worn, say after fifty to 
 one hundred and forty years of use, exactly nine to the 
 ounce. These cash are cast by the provincial authorities 
 or by private parties under their permission.^ 
 
 The market relation between cash and foreign dollars 
 varies from 1200 to 1800 cash to the dollar; the variance 
 being influenced by the local supply and demand of par- 
 ticular coins at the Treaty ports. 
 
 ' Gutzlaffs " China." 
 
 ^ Stanton's "Laws of China," London, 1810, pp. 124-5. 
 
 ^ Farming out the mintage to private parties by the imperial 
 government is mentioned by Torbes, 65. The same author (p. 63) 
 states that companies of merchants have been permitted to issue coins. 
 
 * For size, fineness, and variableness of Chinese cash see Wiley in 
 " Transactions of North China Branch of Eoyal Asiatic Society," for 
 (about) the year 1865. The weights given in the text are from my 
 own experiments. 
 
CHINA. 37 
 
 The laws of Chiua contain provisions designed to pre- 
 vent the exportatioUj sequestration, monopolization or 
 dearth of copper metal or copper cash and the counter- 
 feiting of the latter. Copper metal may be used in the 
 arts only for certain specific purposes. None is to be con- 
 cealedj or sold except to the government.' Copper ore, 
 copper sheathing old, and copper wares, may be exported on 
 payment of export duties,'' but not copper in ingots. 
 
 OflBcers of the Chinese government are forbidden (under 
 pain of sixty blows) from retaining and accumulating coin.^ 
 
 The Penal Code of China provides that when cash is 
 cast it shall be deposited with the Board of Revenue until 
 required for public service. " The quantity of metal coined 
 and the periods of its issue are fixed by the Board of 
 Revenue in order that the successive supplies of coin for 
 the use of the people may correspond with their wants and 
 be regulated according to the market prices of gold, silver, 
 grain, and other articles in general use and consumption." ■* 
 Sir R. Murchison's opinion,* why the gold mines of China 
 were forbidden to be worked, may have been derived from 
 these regulations. 
 
 Copper coin is forbidden to be cast by individuals under 
 pain of death.^ 
 
 Copper cash is forbidden to be exported abroad on penalty 
 (to foreigners) of a sum equal to its value ; ^ but it may be 
 
 ' Stanton's "Laws of China," p. 125, and Chinese "Repository," 
 ii. 68. 
 
 ^ "Treaty between the United States and China," June 18, 1858. 
 "Statutes at Large." Little and Brown, ed. 1862, p. 190. The 
 export duty on copper wares by this Treaty is fixed at 1.15 taels per 
 100 catties. 
 
 ' "Laws of China," Stanton, p. 124. 
 
 * " Chiaese Repository," ii. 68, and Stanton's " Laws of China," p. 124. 
 
 ' Quoted by McCulloch in " Encyc. Brit." 1858, xv. 470. 
 
 '^ Stanton's " Laws of China,'' p. 397. 
 
 ' "United States Treaty with China." Statutes at Large, 1862, 
 p. 194. Similar enactments formerly prevailed in England. Consult 
 the statutes of 28 Edw. III., 38 Henry VIII., and 2 Edw. VI., cited in 
 Calvert's " Gold Rocks of Great Britain," p. 69 
 
38 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 shipped by foreigners under bond, from one seaport of 
 China to another.^ 
 
 No provision appears to be enforced at present against 
 the importation of silver, which in regard to China is unim- 
 portant ; for the relation established by the Chinese law is 
 not between copper coins fabricated by the Chinese authori- 
 ties and silver coins similarly fabricated (of which there 
 are none) , but between copper coins so fabricated and silver 
 bullion. 
 
 Nevertheless, such an interdict was probably enforced in 
 former times, for Postlethwayt, an old author, informs us 
 that silver was imported into China, surreptitiously, in 
 order to counterbalance the export of gold, which, being 
 prohibited, was also effected surreptitiously." 
 
 Martin says that " gold and silver may not be legally 
 exported from China except in limited quantities, and in 
 foreign metal," whilst in another place he says " the Censor 
 of Fuhkein has appealed against this law, (permitting the 
 exportation of the precioiis metals,) saying that the expor- 
 tation of silver 'touches the vitals of the empire.'" 
 
 The fact is that these, in common with most of the other, 
 laws relating to the money of China, are grossly violated. 
 Says Martin : " A large amount is, however, annually taken 
 away (exported) in broken Spanish dollars and sycee silver 
 and gold.'' And in another place : " A Cen:;or from Che- 
 keang complains of the exportation of silver and yellow 
 gold and that there is no law to punish the guilty." ^ 
 
 Copper metal is concealed, copper cash is either de- 
 signedly or unavoidably rendered scarce at times in one 
 place and abundant in another ; * it is largely counterfeited ; * 
 
 ^ " United States Treaty with China." Statutes at Large, 1862, 
 p. 194. 
 
 ^ Postlethwayt's " Die. of Com.," article " Gold." 
 
 ^ Martin's " History of China," i. 178, et supra. 
 
 ^ Dr. Wells Williams's " Middle Kingdom." 
 
 ' Counterfeit cash are so common that it is customary in trade 
 to allow five to ten per cent, of payments in cash to be made in 
 counterfeits. Information from Mr. James White, M.P., long a resi- 
 
CHINA. 39 
 
 and it has been surreptitiously exported by foreigners; 
 sometimes by shiploads.^ 
 
 Another important consideration in this respect is^ that 
 ■whilst the Chinese authorities undervalue copper cash as 
 against silver bullion^ they overvalue cash as against rice 
 exacted as tribute. This grain is so important an article of 
 commerce in China that the over-valuation of copper cash 
 in rice has the effect of over-valuing it in all other com- 
 modities except silver. 
 
 The taxes which are payable in money are collected 
 by the tax farmers or official collectors, as the case may be, 
 in copper cash, and by the latter paid to the Imperial 
 Government in silver. From these transactions the col- 
 lectors derive a considerable profit, for they always charge 
 the people for the exchange more than enough to protect 
 themselves from loss through fluctuations in the value of 
 silver measured by cash. In 1847 it was estimated that 
 eight-tenths of the population paid their taxes in cash, the 
 value of which had to be remitted to the government in 
 silver .° 
 
 It is believed that these arbitrary and complicated regu- 
 lations are somewhat similar to those which prevailed in 
 Eome during the failing periods of the Commonwealth and 
 the Empire. There can be no doubt that the true principles 
 of money, the causes of its value and its relations to the 
 growth of industry, have been more than once caught sight 
 of in China ; nay, even that they have been acted on and 
 put into practice. But owing to the absence of advanced 
 education among the people and of strength in the govern- 
 ment, this never continued long. The theory of money is 
 
 dent in China. Davis, " China," ii. 390, quotes from the " Peking 
 Gazette" of June, 1824, the confession of a forger who counterfeited 
 7000 chue (plural, chuen) by casting them in lead. 
 
 ^ The British commercial returns show something of the export 
 movement in copper from China. 
 
 ^ Consult " Chinese Repository," xvi. 275-277, and Martin's " China," 
 i. 178. 
 
40 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 very correctly outlined in a memorial to one of the emperors 
 of the present century.^ However, it was known in China 
 ages before. At present, it is forgotten. 
 
 The cash of the empire have always been issued as 
 numerary moneys ; several circumstances have at times more 
 or less altered this character. These are the vicissitudes of 
 the government, which have induced it to break down the 
 limits it had set to the emissions ; its inefficiency in guard- 
 ing against counterfeits, which at these or other times have 
 had a similar effect ; and the emission of private bank notes. 
 These circumstances have frequently altered the numerary 
 character of the cash to their commodity value. In other 
 words, they have lowered the value of the cash to that of the 
 metal they contained. Precisely at what several periods 
 this occurred, and therefore at what several periods the 
 cash and their paper representatives possessed a more or 
 less numerical value, and at what periods a merely com- 
 modity value (that of the copper, etc., contained in the 
 cash) it is often difficult to determine. But the general 
 fact that the cash are or have been numerical appears to be 
 beyond dispute. 
 
 This fact is proved by several circumstances. 
 
 I. The government mints for coining cash were stopped 
 in the province of Puhkien for upwards of twenty years, 
 in Chihli for sixteen years ; in Hupeh for upwards of ten 
 years ; and in Hunan for ten years ; and during this time 
 no new cash were coined in these provinces. The motive 
 for this measure was to diminish the number and thus 
 increase the value or purchasing power of the cash already 
 existing. This long continued course of contraction, whose 
 only mitigation arose from the fabrication of counterfeits, 
 must have had a most depressing effect upon industry and 
 population." 
 
 II. It is proved by the enormous profits which, at some 
 
 ^ The " Chinese Kepository," ii. 279, contains the memorial. It is 
 well worthy of perusal. 
 
 " " Chinese Kepository," ii. 279. 
 
CHINA. 41 
 
 not very remote date — not mentioned^ but probably within 
 the present century- — were derived by the government from 
 the fabrication of cash. The metal contained in the cash 
 annually coined in fourteen provinces cost 800,000 taels of 
 silver and was coined into cash amounting by tale or num- 
 ber to 1,200,000 taels, a profit of fifty per cent/ 
 
 III. It is proved by the absence of open and gratuitous 
 coinage in China. This is an institution without which a 
 radically material or commodity system of money is impos- 
 sible. Coins that are not free to be supplied in response to the 
 demand for their use are, or become, necessarily over- valued, 
 and therefore to a more or less extent assume the character 
 of numeraries. 
 
 Turning now from Chinese coins to paper money it 
 must be stated again that no paper money has been issued 
 by the Imperial government since the middle of the fifteenth 
 century, or during the Ming dynasty.^ Other paper money 
 has, however, obtained circulation from time to time, and at 
 present there are vast quantities of it in use. Of the paper 
 money which has circulated in China during the past four 
 centuries, namely, since the last issue of Imperial govern- 
 ment notes, there are three classes, all of which were 
 expressed either in cash, or silver taels at a fixed ratio to 
 cash ; and were therefore in effect, cash. These classes are : 
 
 I. Private bank notes. These are issued by private 
 bankers chiefly in the cities. They are of all denominations 
 from one cash to 1000 taels i They sometimes pass with 
 
 ^ " Chinese Repository," ii. 279. With reference to counterfeit 
 moneys see Martin i. 176 and " Chinese Repository," iv. 344 and 
 xvii. 483. Those mentioned in the passage last referred to were, some 
 of them, light cash, and others made of lead and sand. 
 
 '' Per contra, Mr. Sit Ming Cook, formerly Vioe-Consul of China at 
 San Francisco, informed the author that the Imperial troops were paid 
 in silver, that Imperial government notes were then (1880) afloat and 
 current at 90 per. cent, discoiint in silver, and that these notes were 
 not legal tender, but were receivable in payment for purchased titles of 
 nobility. For this reason they were in demand by money brokers at 
 ten per cent, of their face value in silver. 
 
42 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 an endorsement or "chop;" at others without. Their 
 circulation is strictly local, and as to quantity, it rises and 
 falls with local demand. The notes are payable on demand 
 or in five or ten days, in cash or in taels of cash, that is to 
 say, taels of silver at a fixed relation to cash. Failures of 
 banks or bankers are rare. They have no connection with 
 the government.-' 
 
 These notes are preferred to metallic cash. They are 
 easier to carry and their redeemability is unquestioned. 
 In Foochow in 1845 many of the mercantile firms issued 
 similar notes for 400 cash to 1000 taels. ^ 
 
 Similar notes are issued by banks or bankers payable 
 not on demand, but in five or ten days' time. These pass 
 current as money the same as the others. Demand notes 
 for one, two, and five cash each are also issued by the salt 
 farmers throughout the empire. These also pass as money. 
 The use of cheques is so common that people travel with 
 their blank bank cheque books which can be filled up to any 
 amount.® 
 
 II. Provincial notes. An emission of these during the 
 seventeenth century was alluded to on a previous page. It is 
 not known to the. writer if any have been emitted since.* 
 
 III. Notes for brick tea used near the northern boun- 
 dary. These are unimportant. Being unconnected with 
 the cash system they will be alluded to further on undet' 
 the head of " brick tea money." 
 
 Besides the cash and the various sorts of paper money 
 which have been issued to represent them, other forms of 
 money have been or are used in China ; though only to a 
 limited extent. These will now be briefly treated and in 
 the order of their importance. 
 
 Silver bullion and foreign silver coins. — Neither silver 
 
 ^ Martin's " China," i. 172-3. 
 ° " Chinese Repository," xv. 21 1 and xx. 292. 
 ■* Information from Mr. Jas. White, ]\I.P., and Forbes, p. 71. 
 ' Mr. Sit Ming Cook says there are none of these notes in circula- 
 tion now. 
 
CHINA. 43 
 
 coins nor gold coins are fabricated by the Chinese authori- 
 ties. Private parties have^ however, fabricated foreign 
 coins within the empire, although such an act is contrary to 
 law. This was done at Fuhkien about the year 1834.'- 
 
 At a later date it was reported that a similar illicit fabri- 
 cation was conducted in the district of Shunlih, south of 
 Canton, and that so many as one hundred workmen were 
 employed in a single establishment. They used European 
 dies and other appliances. Furthermore that an English 
 mercantile firm at Canton had a mint there in which Spanish 
 dollars were coined.^ 
 
 Even the Crown has not disdained to engage in this 
 business. In 1845 the reigning Emperor, Taouk-wang, 
 caused silver dollars to be cast at Hangchow and Formosa. 
 They were called " Soldiers' Pay." ^ In the course of time 
 the emissions became debased, when they lost credit and 
 disappeared from circulation.'' 
 
 Silver bullion is generally cast into ingots, in shape 
 rudely resembling shoes ; hence its name of " shoe silver." 
 Native silver is called sycee,^ and, as the means of refining 
 the metal were formerly imperfect, sycee differed in purity 
 with the metal from various mining districts. Altogether, 
 there were five kinds, all of different " touch," or per cent, 
 of purity, " the best, Kwan-heang or Kwan-leang, in which 
 the Imperial duties are paid, being ninety-seven to ninety- 
 nine touch." ^ At present all silver is the same, whether 
 
 ^ " Chinese Kepository," ii. 445. Imitation dollars are mentioned at 
 a later period. They were made of base metal and sometimes plated. 
 Dr. AVells Williams, " Chinese Com. Guide," 134, and Davis, " China," 
 ii. 392. 
 
 ^ Martin's "China,'' i. 178. 
 
 ^ The later Romans called the ancient aureus, the solidus. From 
 solidus are derived sol, sou, etc. 
 
 * Martin's " China," i. 176. 
 
 ' Prom Se-sye, fine floss silk, Forbes, 61. 
 
 " Martin's " China," i. 178, and Forbes, 61. Silver of different kinds 
 reminds one of the copper of different kinds enumerated in Pliny. In 
 modern times all silver and all copper are the same, because they are 
 reduced, in reckoning, to absolute purity. 
 
44 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 from one district or anotlierj or whether native or foreign. 
 The name sycee has^ therefore, a different meaning. It 
 now simply means any silver bullion which is pure or nearly 
 pure. 
 
 The foreign silver coins which circulate in China are 
 chiefly Spanish and Spanish- American pieces-of-eight and 
 dollars and American dollars and trade dollars. As these 
 pass from hand to hand they are " chopped ; " i.e., marked 
 with the seal, device, or stamp of the owner, by way of 
 endorsement; hence the name of "chopped^' dollars. 
 When these chop marks become so numerous that there is 
 no room on the coins for more, the coins are reduced to 
 bullion. The value in cash of the various foreign dollars 
 circulating in China is much subject to local caprice ; a 
 given coin being worth more or less in one city than 
 another. It is also subject to caprice in favour of particular 
 coinages, a dollar of one date being worth more or less than 
 one of another, although both may contain the same weight 
 of silver. Something of what is regarded as caprice is, 
 however, due to difference in weight and also to the presence 
 of a small proportion of gold (from 2f to 5 per cent.) 
 present in some silver coins, particularly the Mexican and 
 old Spanish,^ a fact due to the imperfect assays and mint- 
 ages of Spanish-American silver. The presence of this 
 gold is certain to be detected by the superior acuteness of 
 modern Chinese bullion dealers." 
 
 The most extraordinary anomaly in valuation relates to 
 the Spanish Carolus dollars, or more properly speaking, 
 pieces-of-eight. These coins are no longer fabricated by 
 the Spanish mint. The supply is thus very much limited. 
 
 ' Speech of Senor jM. Romero in the Mexican Congress, reported 
 in the " Diario " (official gazette) October 14, 1876, and quoted in 
 the Report of United States Monetary Commission, vol. i. App. p. 
 393. 
 
 ^ Consult as to all these particulars my Minute on " China " in 
 Appendix to Rep. U. S. Monetary Commission ; also Du Halde, 
 Richtofen and " Chinese Repository," passim. 
 
CHINA. 45 
 
 whilst the demand — due to Chinese habit — being uninter- 
 rupted, it has occurred that they have gone to a premium 
 of 30 to 40 per cent, over Mexican dollars said to contain 
 an equal amount of pure silver.^ Something of this is due 
 to the fact that these pieces-of-eight are old ones, and 
 contain more silver than the modern Mexican dollars. 
 
 Gold Bullion and foreign gold coins. — Gold bullion is 
 used for money to a small extent. It is cast into ingots, 
 several of which, assayed by the TJ. S. Mint in 1858, 
 weighed on the average 11.8 ounces Troy and were 0.966 
 fine, value $235.50. They were intended to represent ten 
 taels (of gold) each, which would make the value of one tael 
 at that date, $23.55.^ 
 
 Gold leaf, thickness not stated, is said to have been used 
 for money in China ; ^ but this use was probably merely 
 local and temporary. 
 
 Bullion Trade. — During the 250 years when plate-ships ■ 
 went direct from Acapulco to Manila, it is stated that 
 $400,000,000 of silver found its way thither, and that one- 
 fourth of this sum was shipped from Manila to China. ^ 
 From 1784 to about the year 1850 (date of Martin's work) 
 $100,000,000 in silver were shipped from the United States 
 to China. Siam and Cochin China were also accustomed to 
 send large quantities of both gold and silver to China. 
 During sixty years of free intercourse between Japan and 
 China, there were shipped from the former to the latter 
 country at least $100,000,000 in the precious metals. 
 Prom all other sources during the past (eighteenth) cen- 
 tury, China received over $50,000,000 in the pi-ecious 
 metals.* 
 
 At one time or another in the long history of this extra- 
 ordinary country, either the importation or exportation, and 
 sometimes both, of silver and the exportation of gold, 
 have been prohibited. It is doubtful, however, how far 
 
 ' Tooke's " Hist. Prices," vi. 680. 
 
 ' United States "Finance Keport," 1868, p. 62. 
 
 ' Martin's " China," i. 175. * Martin's " China," i. 176. 
 
46 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 the government succeeded in practically enforcing these 
 interdicts.^ 
 
 Brick tea money. — Brick tea is a mixture of spoiled leaves 
 and stalks of the tea plant, of leaves of wild plants and of 
 bullocks^ , blood, dried in ovens. These substances being 
 pressed together in the form of bricks receive the name of 
 brick tea. It is manufactured in Southern China. The 
 infusion made from it is mingled with rye meal, mutton fat, 
 and salt, and this mess is used as an article of diet by the 
 inhabitants near the frontier which separates China from 
 the Eussian territory. Bach brick weighs from 3 to 3 5- 
 pounds, and in the year 1851 they were worth about 
 two Russian roubles each, and passed, in the neighbourhood 
 where they were consumed, as money. Written promissory 
 notes payable in brick tea were also employed for the 
 purpose of money .^ 
 
 Mines.— IvL 1838, a memorial addressed to the emperor 
 stated that forty to fifty thousand workmen were employed 
 in silver mining in certain specified districts of the empire ; 
 and that the annual produce was "not far from two million 
 taels of silver." ^ The same memorial adds that there are 
 also other mines in the empire, not so rich as those named, 
 but which probably produce more silver. 
 
 Martin, writing a few years later, says, that the working 
 of some of the silver mines is forbidden ; and that the 
 others employ 20,000 workmen and yield $3,0®0,000 a 
 year. Also that very little gold is obtained.'*' 
 
 Randot says, that " some one has estimated the produce 
 of the Chinese mines at 6000 kilograms of gold and 
 2,000,000 of silver." ° Otreskoff, writing in 1856, is " dis- 
 posed to think that the present production of gold in 
 
 ' Consult Postlethwayt's " Die. of Com.," art. " Gold." 
 ^ " Chinese Repository," xx. 30. 
 
 ' Dr. Williams, "Commercial Guide,'' ed. Hong Kong, 1863, p. 275. 
 * Martin's " Hist. China," i. 177. For quicksilver, see Martin, 
 i. 379. This metal is now obtained from California. 
 
 ° Report of the United States Monetary Commission, i, 560. 
 
CHINA. 47 
 
 China is about £600,000 per annum, and of silver £180,000 
 per annum." ^ Baron Richtofen, writing in 1872, gives a 
 graphic account of the impositions, robberies, and violence 
 to which the miners are subjected, and declares that mining 
 is impossible under such circumstances. The proceeds are 
 divided into three parts, one for the emperor, one for the 
 mandarins, and one for the owner, who rarely succeeds in 
 getting his product to market. Mr. Seward says, that 
 since 1872, the roads are more secure from highway 
 I'obbers, and that it is possible that silver mining may have 
 gained encouragement. 
 
 Baron Richtofen says, that gold is produced in at least 
 sixty-four departments distributed throughout fourteen pro- 
 vinces and always at a loss. "The gold washers probably 
 earn less than they can get for ordinary labour, and take to 
 that occupation only when there is the least demand for 
 field work. We can, therefore, safely assume, speaking 
 generally, that the yield of gold is a measure of the poverty 
 of the province." Mr. Kingsmill says essentially the same 
 thing. ^ 
 
 From these various evidences I have ventured to make 
 the following rough estimate of the production of the pre- 
 cious metals in China at the two periods named. 1838: 
 workmen in silver mines 30,000, annual product of silver 
 $3,000,000. 1856 : workmen in silver mines 10,000, 
 annual product of silver $1,000,000. 1838 : workmen in 
 gold washings 30,000, annual product in gold $3,000,000. 
 The product in gold has since diminished. 
 
 It will probably be safe to assume the production of the 
 precious metals in China at the present time at about 
 $5,000,000, one-half each of gold and silver. 
 
 ^ Tooke's " Hist. Prices," vi. pp. 761-2. 
 
 ^ Mr. Seward's communication. The latest information concerning 
 the gold and silver mines of China is embodied in the following para- 
 graph from "Lloyd's Newspaper " of June 1, 1884: — "The Empress 
 of China has issued a decree ordering the Viceroy and Governor of 
 Yunnan to start public companies, with a view to open all the mines in 
 Yunnan to procure gold, silver, copper, &c." 
 
48 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 I have now brought the Monetary History of China down 
 to the present time. If it appears to have been treated too 
 briefly^ my apology is the difficulty of condensing events, 
 covering fifty-eight centuries of time, into the few pages to 
 which I am limited for the purpose. These events are full 
 of interest to the world; and it is my sincere hope that the 
 course which I have herein so rapidly outlined, may prove 
 sufficiently attractive for other scholars to more thoroughly 
 and definitely trace. 
 
CHAPTBE-III. 
 
 JAPAN. 
 
 Ancient money — Earliest coins — Gold and Silver — Rice — Paper 
 money — Copper zenni — Feudal period — Copper and Gold mines — 
 Mining laws — Mints — Progressive period — Arrival of the Portuguese. 
 
 THE historical period and era of Japan ^ commence with 
 the year B.C. 660. 
 
 Previous to that period its history is obscure. Some 
 native writers are of opinion that the present inhabitants 
 owe their origin to aboriginal Ainos; while others regard 
 the Ainos as the degenerate survivors of an ancient race, 
 which also gave birth to the Japanese, and whose history is 
 lost. 
 
 The curved and perforated pieces of soap-stone occa- 
 sionally dug up in various parts of the country, and ascribed 
 to a pre-historical period, may have been used as money,^ or 
 not J it is difficult to determine. There is little about the 
 appearance of the oldest known coins of Japan to sustain a 
 conjecture that these soap-stone relics were money, unless 
 it be the holes through the middle of them ; and as to 
 drawing any inferences in this connection from the condition 
 of society in the remote times to which the soap-stones 
 belong, the Japanese themselves appear to place too little 
 reliance upon the historical accounts of their own anti- 
 quity, to warrant the act. 
 
 The analogy between the perforations in these Japanese 
 
 ' Known to the natives as Dai-nippou ; corrupted by the medieval 
 Chinese into Shi-pen-kue ; written by Marco Polo as Zipan-gu or 
 Jipan-gu, whence Japan. 
 
 ^ See " The Mikado's ' Empire," by Griffis, New York, 1876, 
 p. 53. 
 
 E 
 
50 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 soap-stones and in the copper coins of a later period on 
 the one hand, and the clay scarabse of Egypt, whose peculiar 
 design or shape was stamped upon the early coins of the 
 neighbouring Greek colonies, on the other hand, is certainly 
 worthy the study of antiquaries and archaeologists. It may 
 lead to a corroboration of the view maintained by Japanese 
 scholars, that there existed in Japan a pre-Aino civilization 
 of a high order. ^ 
 
 Our accounts of money in Japan begin with its earliest 
 historical date. Mr. Titsingh, a Dutch author quoted by 
 Malte-Brun, was said to have possessed a collection of 
 Japanese coins which went back "as far as 600 years 
 before Christ." ^ These coins, if genuine, and if there is no 
 mistake as to the date, are probably all of copper ; for we 
 hear of no gold or silver in Japanese history, either as 
 money or otherwise, until the period of the invasion of 
 Southern Corea, a.d. 203, from which country, it is stated, 
 the Japanese conquerors returned home with " eighty 
 ships well laden with gold, silver, articles of wealth, silk, 
 and precious goods of all kinds." ^ With regard to the 
 metal of which these coins are composed, it is worthy of 
 remark that Mr. Titsingh says that some of the coins 
 were " engraved," a fact that would seem to point to a 
 more valuable metal than copper.* 
 
 The much higher antiquity of money in China, the 
 intimate relations between China and Corea, and the 
 proximity of Corea to Japan, suggest the probability that 
 money was introduced from the first into the last-named 
 
 ^ Mr. Griffis, on the contrary, insinuates that the Ainos, some of 
 whom still dwell in remote parts of the islands, were the aborigines, 
 and preceded all civilization in Japan. 
 
 ^ Titsingh is quoted as the author of " Verhandelingen Van het 
 Bataviaasch genoostchap." Malte-Brun, ii. 61, Philadelphia edition, 
 1827. Sir Stamford Raffles, "Hist. Java," i. xxvii., mentions in the 
 same connection a Mr. C. Tetsingh. 
 
 ' Griffis, 78, 79. 
 
 * Malte-Brun, ii. 59, quoting Titsingh, as cited by Charpentier- 
 Cossigny in his " Voyage to Bengal." 
 
JAPAN. 51 
 
 country at an earlier period than the seventh century B.C., 
 but the writer has met with no historical trace of such an 
 occurrence. 
 
 The next mention of money occurs in the fifth to the 
 seventh centuries of the Christian era. 
 
 In the fifth and sixth centuries the religion, laws, 
 customs, and inventions of China were introduced into 
 Japan, and it seems probable that among the latter were 
 the kinsatsu, or small paper notes. They were emitted 
 exclusively by the feudal lords or daimios.' Until a very 
 recent period they were never issued by either the imperial 
 or shogunatic governments.^ They were probably redeem- 
 able,^ and if so, were redeemed in early times in rice. This 
 grain was the standard of value in the eighth century, and 
 probably earlier. 
 
 It is stated that " silver was first presented to the 
 emperor in a.d. 670." * It is difficult to reconcile this 
 statement with the account of gold and silver captured in 
 Corea, a.d. 203. Surely some of these spoils, if indeed not 
 all of them, were delivered to the emperor. 
 
 Whether we believe that gold or silver pieces were used 
 as money at the time of the Corean invasion, or in the 
 seventh century, or at neither time, but that instead, 
 kinsatsu, representing either copper coins or rice, were 
 used as money at these early dates, it sounds strangely to 
 be informed that in the eighth century "rice was the standard 
 
 '■ " For centuries past every great daimio has issued paper money 
 current only in his han. There are over one hundred local varieties 
 in the empire, of varied colours, values, and sizes." GrifSs, p. 425. 
 
 ° Information communicated by the Japanese Consul at San 
 Francisco. 
 
 ^ " Nanou, Japan, Lat. 37.02 IS., Long. 136.58 E. August 17, 1866. At 
 this place I first learned the fact that the princes issue, each in his own 
 territory, paper money, taking the place of copper and silver. . . . 
 This paper money is redeemed by the prince at his yaski (residence) in 
 his own territory, or at Yeddo." B. B. Van Vlakenburg to the State 
 Department of the United States. 
 
 * Martin's "History of China," chapter on Japan, vol. i. p. 291. 
 
52 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 of value and all taxes were paid in this grain," and that 
 " the treasury consisted of imperial store-houses and 
 granaries, as money was not then in general use." ^ Grain 
 of any kind is greatly inferior as money to either metal or 
 paper. Why, then, should a nation which had once learnt 
 to employ the latter, return to the former ? One answer is : 
 irregular supplies of metal and danger (from counterfeits) 
 of using paper ; but this is not proYod. Another answer 
 is : that during the interval between the ancient times, when 
 metallic money was exclusively employed in Japan, and 
 the mediaeval times, when rice formed some part^ or else 
 the basis for some part, of the currency, the empire sustained 
 a decline of peace, security, and civilization, such as that 
 which befell Europe at about the same period, and that 
 corn-rents in Japan — for, except as to the extent that it 
 was represented by paper-kinsatsu, corn-money seems to 
 have been used only in the payment of agricultural rents — - 
 corn-rents in Japan are explicable upon precisely the same 
 grounds as corn-rents in medieeval Europe.'^ 
 
 A review of the history of money in Japan from the 
 earliest times to the eighth century of our era leads to the 
 following conclusions : — 
 
 It is possible that money formed of perforated pieces of 
 soap-stone was employed at a very remote period, and 
 previous to the era of the Ainos. 
 
 At the beginning of the historical period, viz., in the 
 seventh century B.C., metallic discs were employed. 
 
 In the third century a.d. it seems probable that metallic 
 discs were in use, and that at this date, if not earlier, some 
 of them were of gold and silver. 
 
 In the fifth and sixth centuries a.d. the use of small 
 paper notes emitted by the feudal lords, and, at first, 
 probably redeemable in rice, was introduced from China. 
 
 GrifSs, p. 104. Agricultural incomes bave for centuries past been 
 reckoned in rice ; indeed, they are still reckoned in it. 
 
 " See, on this subject, Adam Smith on Corn-Rents in England, and 
 Hodgskin's " Travels," ii. 84, on Corn-Rents in Germany. 
 
JAFAS. 53 
 
 In the eighth century a.d. corn (rice) rents became 
 common, and rice appears to have been the standard of 
 value in the limited class of large transactions which the 
 times permitted. This currency was probably supplemented 
 by local kinsatsu and copper zenni for small change, the 
 kinsatsu being probably redeemable in rice, and the copper 
 zenni receivable only in retail transactions and at some 
 fixed ratio to rice. . 
 
 The period under review — particularly the last five 
 centuries thereof — seems to have been one of political and 
 social decay. Among the marks and consequences of this 
 decadence were the interruption of commerce with sur- 
 rounding countries,^ the practical overthrow of the imperial 
 government, the destruction of inland commerce from civil 
 war and insecurity, the prostration of credit, the era of 
 feudalism, the emission of kinsatsu by the feudal lords, who 
 at first liquidated them in rice, but afterwards over-issued 
 and failed to redeem them, and paid their debts in this 
 depreciating paper, while they collected their rents in grain. 
 
 Although some of these indications of decay are traceable 
 so late as the eighth century, a contrary movement seems to 
 have begun at an earlier period. Commerce was opened 
 with China in the fifth and sixth centuries, ^nd in the seventh, 
 the central government of Japan resumed its authority,^ and 
 the progress of feudalism was arrested. With these changes 
 commenced another phase in the history of money in Japan. 
 
 During the period a.d. 708-715, copper mines were dis- 
 covered.^ In A.D. 749, gold mines were opened.* The 
 copper obtained from Suruga is said to have contained a 
 considerable admixture of gold, a fact which, in the early 
 days of their intercourse with Europeans, was probably not 
 
 ' " And the stoppage of those supplies of copper from which the 
 circulating zenni had theretofore been fabricated." Martin, i. 291. 
 
 ' Griffis, p. 94. ' Griffis, 111. 
 
 * Ten years before this, to wit, in a.d. 739, a colossal copper figure 
 of Buddha, fifty-three feet high and covered with gilt, was set up in a 
 Japanese shrine. As to date of opening gold mines, see Martin, i. 291. 
 
54 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 known to the Japanese, and of little value to them after it 
 was known, for until quite recently they do not appear to 
 have been acquainted with the art of separating these metals 
 economically.^ These facts will perhaps account for the 
 eagerness of the Dutch to obtain Japanese copper, and for 
 the enormous quantities of this metal which they exported 
 to Holland. 
 
 The mediaeval Japanese mining laws concerning copper 
 are not known. Of the gold produced, two-thirds were 
 claimed as his proportion by the emperor, and only one- 
 third allowed to the proprietor of the land,^ who, in all 
 cases, was the lord of the feud. The actual miner, a serf 
 or villein belonging to the soil, probably received a mere 
 pittance of rice for his labour. No mine could be opened 
 without express permission of the emperor, and there was 
 a prohibition against digging beyond a certain depth.^ In 
 recent times these rules have been greatly modified.* 
 
 The first mints, we are informed, were established in 
 1588, forty and odd years after the arrival of the Portuguese.^ 
 This statement appears to need qualification; for, if the 
 account concerning Mr. Titsingh is to be credited, metallic 
 moneys were fabricated in Japan 600 years before Christ, 
 and, according to other evidence, copper zenni of native 
 fabrication were common, though not plentiful, when the 
 Portuguese arrived. Previous to 1588, the only metallic 
 moneys fabricated were the zenni, and some rude gold and 
 silver pieces ; the former having been cast, and the latter 
 
 ^ Martin, i. 289, and Galownin, p. 165. 
 
 " Malte-Brun, iL 53, and Martin, i. 288. 
 
 ' Malte-Brun, ii. 53, and Martin, i. 289. The former asserts the 
 reason for this rule to have been the desire to steady the value of the 
 metal by regulating its production — a policy not without wisdom in a 
 small and isolated country. The latter asserts the reason to have 
 been the fear that the mines would be too soon exhausted. 
 
 * The existing mining laws of Japan are set forth in Mr. F. R. 
 Plunkett's Report to Sir Harry Parkes, 1876, and summarized in 
 Griffis, 602. 
 
 ' Martin, i. 292, and Griffis, 286. 
 
JAPAN. 55 
 
 hammered. The meaning of the statement quoted from 
 Martin and Griffis may therefore be^ that in 1588 the first 
 coining presses were introduced, and that moneys of gold and 
 silver were first made in considerable quantities, and after 
 some regular system of size, weight, fineness, and designs. 
 Or it may mean that in 1588, metallic moneys were first 
 systematically or exclusively made by authority of the 
 shogunate ; those of a previous date having been fabricated 
 chiefly by the daimios.^ 
 
 From the seventh to the twelfth centuries of our era, the 
 money of Japan appears to have consisted of rice, supple- 
 mented by copper moneys of provincial, or yet more local, 
 fabrication. There are no evidences of paper money during 
 this period ; although, as its history is somewhat obscure, it 
 is not impossible that such money may have been employed. 
 Feudalism was still the characteristic condition of society, 
 but the feudal system was passing away ; at least, it was not 
 gaining ground. The physical resources of the country 
 appear to have increased during the first part of this era 
 and during the last to have diminished. 
 
 From the twelfth century dates the usurpation of the 
 shogun and the establishment of the shogunate as the prac- 
 tical government of Japan. Feudalism was now again 
 repressed — this time with greater energy than before. The 
 daimios were compelled to personally reside at the seat of 
 the shogunate ; the mikado, though respected as the 
 supreme power, was secluded and deprived of all substan- 
 tial part in the afiairs of the empire ; and the usurper exer- 
 cised many centralized functions, and in after years con- 
 ducted all transactions with foreigners and foreign govern- 
 ments. 
 
 During the four centuries from the establishment of the 
 shogunate to the arrival of the Portuguese, the money of 
 Japan differed from what it had been during the previous 
 five centuries. Generally speaking, it consisted chiefly of 
 
 ^ " Japan as it Was and Is," by Richard HUdreth, Boston, 1856, p. 
 200, n., and " Universal History," vol. ix. p. 708. 
 
56 HISTORY OF MONET IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 rice with copper moneys for small change. These may 
 have been supplemented by rude pieces of gold and silver 
 moneyj and kinsatsu.^ I have not been able to determine 
 whether the copper or other metallic moneys (if any) which 
 circulated during this period were emitted by the shogun or 
 by the feudal lords. Probability points to the former. 
 
 This brings the history of money in Japan down to the 
 opening of intercourse with the Portuguese in 1542; an 
 event that has at length had the result of bringing Japan 
 within the family of Modern nations ; while the same events 
 operating upon a different state of affairs in the other 
 countries of Asia, has left them where it found them, be- 
 longing to the Ancient world. 
 
 ' In Japan paper money was emitted from 1319 to 1331 under the 
 dairi Go Daigo No tenoo. It remained in circvilation for sixty or 
 seventy years. " Chinese Repository," vol. xx. pp. 289-295. 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 
 INDIAj PEIOE TO ALEXANDEE THE GEEAT. 
 
 India never united under one government : hence difficult to de- 
 scribe its monetary systems comprehensively — These systems include 
 several instructive experiments, particularly those of Mahomed bin 
 Tuglah, in the fourteenth century of our era — Antiquity of money in 
 India — As ancient as in China — Proofs : from populousness and phase of 
 civilization ; from Code of Manou ; from the Vedic writings ; from the 
 Buddhic writings ; from numismatic remains ; from language — Supply 
 of coining metals from the mines, and from foreign commerce — Stan- 
 dard of money at various eras : the copper standard ; the clay standard ; 
 the copper standard again — Silver money not permanently employed 
 until A.D. 1793 ; nor paper money, permanently, until during the pre- 
 sent century — Ratios of value between gold and silver, between silver 
 and copper — Keview — Historical eras of India marked by foreign inva- 
 sions — Sesostris — Darius — Alexander — Seleucus — Embassy of Megas- 
 thenes — Invasion of Antiochus — Mahomedan conquest. 
 
 LTNLIKB China, India has never been united by one 
 / government ; hence an attempt to describe its nume- 
 rous and varied monetary systems under a single view runs 
 risk of becoming misleading. Notwithstanding the objec- 
 tion to such a course, the paucity of historical materials 
 compels it to be pursued until the period of the Maho- 
 medan conquest, when a consideration of the subject under 
 the three great natural divisions of north-western, north- 
 eastern, and southern India becomes feasible. 
 
 To describe a series of monetary systems extending back- 
 ward for, perhaps, fifty centuries, would appear an idle task 
 in a work which, like the present one, aims to be of prac- 
 tical utility, did not such a retrospect serve to prepare the 
 mind to understand and derive instruction from the more 
 modern systems of the series, among which are the very 
 
58 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 interesting experiments of Mahomed bin Tuglahj a mone- 
 tary reformer of the fourteenth century of our era. 
 
 The antiquity of money in India appears to be as great 
 as in China^ and is susceptible of being traced backward to 
 about thirty centuries before Christ. The proofs of this 
 great antiquity are derived from various sourceSj each of 
 which will be examined in due order. These sources are : 
 (1) The most ancient accounts of the population and con- 
 dition of society in India ; (2) The Code of Manou ; (3) 
 The Vedic writings ; (4) The Buddhic writings ; (5) Nu- 
 mismatic and other archffiological remains; (6) Comparative 
 philology. 
 
 1. Accounts of the 'population and society of ancient 
 India. — It is generally conceded by those who have made a 
 study of the subject, that the race who now form the bulk 
 of the Sudra, or lowest class of persons in India, were very 
 anciently a numerous people, who had " attained to a high 
 condition of civilization, so as to form large communities, to 
 establish kingdoms, and, besides cultivating the soil, to carry 
 on extensive commerce ; " ^ that the Hindoos entered India 
 from a foreign country, and having possessed themselves of 
 the soil, they reduced the Sudra, or aboriginal inhabitants, 
 to serfdom ; that they brought with them the Sanscrit lan- 
 guage ; and that all this happened more than three thou- 
 sand, and possibly more than four thousand five hundred 
 years ago. At later, though still very ancient periods, the 
 populousness and commercial phase of India are proved by 
 Manou, by the Vedic writings, by the Indian remains found 
 in Egyptian tombs of the fifteenth century Bic, and, lastly, 
 by Herodotus.^ 
 
 A people may exist in the pastoral state without the use 
 of money ; it may enter upon the agricultural phase of social 
 
 ' " The Land of the Veda," by Rev. Peter Percival, London, 1854, 
 p. 31. 
 
 ' Lieut.-Gen. Briggs, F.R.S., as quoted in Percival, pp. 29-32. 
 
 ^ See extracts from the Code of Manou further on in the text ; 
 Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians ; " Herodotus, lib. iii. 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 59 
 
 existence before the necessity of employing money becomes 
 overpowering ; but when, as in the present case, the agri- 
 cultural phase has continued so long that manufactures and 
 foreign commerce have begun to develop themselves, it is 
 ventured to be assumed that no large society could long hold 
 together without the agency of money,^ and therefore, that 
 such a society which did hold together, must, of necessity, 
 have employed money of some sort ; not merely commo- 
 dities used in voluntary barter, but money, that is to say, 
 either commodities, symbols, or numeraries, stamped by 
 public authority, and used as the common means of pay- 
 ment and legal or customary expression of price. That 
 India, at the time it was invaded by the Hindoos, contained 
 a population sufficiently dense and civilized to require 
 the use of money, there can be but little doubt, and, upon 
 the strength of the implication which these facts convey, it 
 is regarded as quite safe to date back the use of money in 
 this country to, at least, the period of that event. 
 
 2. The Code of Manou. — Amongst the most ancient lite- 
 rary monuments of India are the civil and religious institutes 
 commonly known as the Code of Manou. The age ascribed 
 to this work — varying usually with the cosmogonal belief of 
 the commentator — is from the sixteenth to the ninth century 
 B.C., the former being the view of Mr. Colebrooke, and the 
 latter that of Sir William Jones and Mr. H. H. Wilson.'' 
 As a mean between these discordant opinions it has been 
 decided to adopt the view of M. Vivien de Ste. Martin, 
 who, after a very careful consideration of the subject, has 
 
 ' "Society implies exchange, and exchange, money." F. Bastiat, "Har- 
 monies of Polit. Econ." This is certainly the case when society, as in 
 India at the period referred to, is not only exceedingly numerous, but 
 advanced in civilization beyond the early agricultural into the manu- 
 facturing and commercial phase. 
 
 " Messrs. Max Miiller and Cowell hold very extreme views on this 
 subject. See Marsden's " Numismata Orientalia," edited by Edward 
 Thomas, London, 1874, p. 5. It is to be remarked that, in the title of 
 the edition of this work published in 1876 the word " Marsden " is 
 replaced by " International." 
 
60 HISTORY OF MONET IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 assigned the era of the extant Code of Manou — not that of 
 Manou himself — to the twelfth or thirteenth century B.c.^ 
 Like all civil and most religious codeSj this one has evi- 
 dently undergone modification, and part of this modification 
 may possibly be traced down to so late a date as that assigned 
 to the entire code by Max Miiller. Among the unmodified, 
 or at least most ancient portions, would however seem to be 
 included all those to which are prefixed such phrases as, " This 
 law was enacted by Manou," chapter viii. section 139 ; " I 
 will next propound the established law concerning assault 
 and battery," viii. 278 ; " The names of copper, silver, and 
 gold weights which are commonly used among men," viii. 
 131, &c." 
 
 That the equivalents alluded to in the last paragraph 
 were handed down from a higher antiquity than that of the 
 extant code appears to be also implied in the fact that while 
 the order of importance in the paragraph is, 1st, copper, 
 2nd, silver, and 3rd, gold, in the table which follows it is 
 Ist, silver, 2nd, gold, 3rd, copper. This bespeaks re- 
 arrangement of some previous table. ^ What is far more 
 certain, however, is that the table relates to moneys as well 
 as weights. 
 
 Omitting the first portion of this table, which relates to 
 minute equivalents of mustard seeds and barley corns, and 
 adapting Marsden^s English equivalents, determined after 
 the studies of several distinguished metrologists, the table 
 stands as follows : * — 
 
 ^ " Clironicles of the Pathan Kings of Delhi," by Edward Thomas. 
 London, Triibner, 1871, 8vo. p. 168. 
 
 ^ "The Code of Manou," trans, by Sir Wm. Jones, ed. by G. C. 
 liaughton, London, 1825. 
 
 ^ Marsden holds that alteration in the Code is implied in the use of 
 two discordant systems of enumeration in the table of weights and 
 moneys, viz., the binary and decimal. There is no doubt that the Code 
 has • undergone many changes ; but this particular reason for thinking 
 so is far from being conclusive. It is possible that the binary and 
 decimal systems were used simultaneously ; and if not, it is probable 
 the change was made long before the era of the Code now extant. 
 
 * Marsden's "Numis. Orient.," p. 13. 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 61 
 
 Code of Manou. 
 
 
 Silver Weights, or Coins. 
 
 
 
 English gi-ai: 
 
 1 Rati 
 
 1.75 
 
 2 Rati = 1 Mashaka .... 
 
 3.50 
 
 32 Rati = 1 Dharana (from dhri, to hold), 
 
 or 
 
 1 Purana (purana, old) 
 
 56.00 
 
 320 Rati = 1 Satamana .... 
 
 . 560.00 
 
 Gold Weights, or Coins. 
 
 
 5 Rati= ] Masha' .... 
 
 8.75 
 
 80 Rati = 1 Suvarna .... 
 
 140.00 
 
 320 Rati = 1 Pala or Nishka . 
 
 . 560.00 
 
 3200 Rati = 1 Dharana .... 
 
 . 5600.00 
 
 Copper Weights, or Coins. 
 80 Rati := 1 Karshapana .... 140.00 
 
 Elsewhere in the Code of Manou there are references to 
 the precious metals, that is to say, gold, silver, and copper, 
 which point to a higher estimation of them than of mere 
 commodities. The italics in the following examples do not 
 appear in the original text : — 
 
 " Of old hoards and precious minerals in the earth, the 
 king is entitled to half, by reason of his general protection 
 and because he is lord paramount of the soil," viii. 39. 
 
 " From a junction (combined use ?) of water and fire, 
 arose gold and silver," v. 113. 
 
 Of a witness it says : " By speaking falsely in a cause 
 concerning gold, he kills the born and the unborn^' — an ex- 
 treme anathema, viii. 99. 
 
 " Let the judge cause ... a merchant to swear by his 
 cattle, grain, and gold," viii. 113. Other classes of persons 
 are to swear by other characteristic or important objects. 
 
 " Day by day must the king, though engaged in forensic 
 
 ^ Silver mdshas are alluded to in the Code, viii. 298 ; " a mdsha of 
 gold," in viii. 319; and a plant called a mdsha, in ix. 39. Wilkinson 
 translates the Egyptian word masha as weights or balances, and mer 
 masha as superintendent of weights or balances. See his "Ancient 
 Egyptians," Scribner's Am. Ed. i. 285. 
 
62 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 business, consider the great objects of public measures, and 
 enquire into the state of his . . . mines of precious metals, 
 &c. viii. 419. The precious metals are meant, of course, 
 to include copper. 
 
 " Eobbing the gold of a priest," ix. 235, and stealing 
 " sacred gold," ix. 237, are classed with the highest crimes. 
 A similar solicitude and high regard for sacred gold occurs 
 in chapter viii. and elsewhere. The words which follow the 
 quoted clauses in chapter ix., namely, " Such is the ordi- 
 nance of Manou," seem to indicate that, whatever may be 
 the date of the Code which has come down to us, gold was 
 held to be " sacred " so far back as the time of Manou him- 
 self. 
 
 " Debasers of metals " are classed with rogues, ix. 258. 
 " The most pernicious of all deceivers is a goldsmith who 
 commits frauds ; the king shall order him to be cut piece- 
 meal with razors," ix. 292. 
 
 We now come to plainer implications of, and allusions to, 
 money. 
 
 " If he speak falsely, through covetousness, he shall be 
 fined a thousand panas," viii. 120. As no reference is here 
 made to gold, silver, copper, clay, wood, or any other sub- 
 stance of which these panas may have been composed, the 
 fact was probably of no importance, and this could only have 
 been the case when the panas were money .^ 
 
 The prices of commodities are to be fixed by the king, 
 viii. 402. This clause not only implies the use of money, 
 but also that the whole sum of money in use, as related 
 to the number of exchanges to be effected by it, had 
 
 ^ The word " money " occurs in many places in tlie English trans- 
 lation of the Code, e.g. viii. 212, 213, &c. This word in any document 
 older than the dedication of the temple of Juno Moneta as a mint in 
 the city of Rome is an anachronism, although an unavoidable one, 
 because in English there is no other well-known term for nummvx, 
 '' numerary " being too technical. For the reason that '' money " in 
 the Code of Manou is an anachronism, and is not warranted by the 
 original Sanscrit text, no attention has herein been paid to its appear- 
 ance in the translation. 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 63 
 
 undergone, or was subject to violent or injurious fluctua-_ 
 tions. There could have been no other reason for the enact- 
 ment of such a law. 
 
 " Usurers " are mentioned in viii. 102, and a tax of 5 per 
 cent, on the profits of sales, in viii. 398 — both of which pas- 
 sages are regarded as implying the use of money. 
 
 The law of usury or interest is set forth at some length 
 in viii. 140, and in the section which follows it. Alluding 
 to the very proper regulation that the scale is " in propor- 
 tion to the risk," the rates are fixed as follows : — on pledges, 
 1^ per cent, a month; without pledges or security, 2 per 
 cent. ; from a priest, 2 per cent. ; a soldier, 3 per cent. ; a 
 merchant, 4 per cent. ; and a mechanic or servile man, 5 per 
 cent. Compound interest is forbidden altogether, viii. 245. 
 While it is true that usury or interest may be a payment in 
 commodities for the loan of other commodities, yet it is held 
 that, where the usurious transactions are so numerous as to 
 call for the use of a refined scale of payments like the above 
 one, and a scale wherein no provision is made for the dete- 
 rioration of the things loaned, they relate not to commodities, 
 but to money. The employment of pledges also indicates 
 the use of money. Whatever doubt there may be on the 
 subject will certainly be dissipated by a subsequent para- 
 graph of the same chapter, which reads as follows : — 
 
 " Interest on money must never be more than enough to 
 double the debt ; " on grain, fruit, wool, animals, or other 
 things in kind (translated "same kind"), "it must never 
 be more than enough to make the debt quintuple." ^ 
 
 Whilst in making this distinction between a just rate of 
 interest on money and on commodities Manou commits an 
 error of principle which is not to be passed unnoticed, it is 
 held that this passage conclusively establishes the inference 
 that, when the extant Code was written, money was, and had 
 been for a long time, in use in India. 
 
 ' This law is repeated in the " Damathat," a commentary on the 
 Code of Manou (" Damathat," Eng. trans, p. 88). There was a similar 
 law in Pharaonic Egypt (Rawlinson's "Herodotus," ii. 136k.). 
 
64 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 3. The Vedic writings. — These scriptures have been as- 
 signed to so remote a period as the thirty- second century 
 B.c.'^ With more moderation they are attributed by Ste. 
 Martin to about the year 1200 b.c.^ 
 
 In the Eig Veda Sanhita^ 4th ashtaka, 7th adhyaya, 
 sukta xlvii. verse 22, an allusion is made to purses of gold. 
 In verse 23^ purses and lumps of gold are mentioned in a 
 connection that appears to indicate money. Marsden, p. 33, 
 supposes that the passage refers to stamped lumps of the 
 value of a suvarna. In another part of the Vedas^ allusion 
 is made to dindra,^ a name long used in India for that of a 
 coin or sum of money. Prom India it made its way to 
 Persia and Arabia as the dinar, and to Rome as the de- 
 narius. From the denarius it became corrupted into the 
 denny and penny, for which coin or sum of money its 
 original initial letter^ d, is still in use in England. 
 
 The Sutras of Panini, a Vedic work which is assigned to 
 a period ranging from the twelfth to the sixth century B.C., 
 speaks very distinctly of coined money, and derives rupya 
 from rupa, i.e. struck, or coined. It is from this word that 
 the modern rupee is derived.* 
 
 The Mahdbhdrata, sometimes called the Fifth Veda, is an 
 epic composition whose subject is a great war that occurred 
 about B.C. 1400. The date of the poem itself is not deter- 
 mined, but it is beyond all doubt earlier than the fifth cen- 
 tury B.C. It makes frequent and unmistakable mention of 
 money.^ 
 
 4. The Buddhic writings. — The next allusions to money 
 in Indian literature occur in the institutes of Buddha. The 
 age of these scriptures is variously ascribed to periods be- 
 tween the eleventh and sixth centuries B.C. The weight of 
 evidence, however, is in favour of the more modern date. 
 
 ' Dow's " Peristah," p. xxvii. 
 
 ^ Marsden, " Numis. Orient.," p. 5. 
 
 ^ Marsden, " Numis. Orient.,'' pp. 34, 35. 
 
 ■' Marsden, "Numis. Orient.," p. 39; Sutra, v. 2, 119. 
 
 ' Some of the passages appear in Marsden's " Numis. Orient." 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 65 
 
 The Sramanas contain an ordinance forbidding the 
 touching of gold or silver/ Whether this singular inter- 
 dict is to be attributed to an observed immoral influence 
 exercised by mining for the precious metals, or was part of 
 a system of clay or copper moneys, the integrity of which 
 demanded the prohibition of all other moneys or materials 
 out of which moneys might be made, or whether it had 
 some other origin or object, is not to be gathered from the 
 account of it before us. Mr. Ball recently noticed that, in 
 Laddak, in the Punjab, the Buddhists, not daring to search 
 for gold, had abandoned the industry to certain Mahomedans 
 from Bali, and, evidently unaware of the interdict in the 
 Sramanas, he ascribes the avoidance of gold mining to a 
 desire not to neglect agriculture.^ 
 
 The Buddhist scriptures, in other places, are full of allu- 
 sions to moneys and coins, many of which allusions have 
 been collected together by M. Burnouf.' 
 
 A commentary on the Vinaya, which (the commentary) 
 is supposed to have been written about the fifth century of 
 our era, mentions gold, silver, copper, wooden, and lacquer 
 moneys, the latter being of lac or resin with a figure stamped 
 upon them ; but, aside from its allusion to these singular 
 moneys, the passage is assigned to too recent a date to have 
 any bearing upon the present inquiry.* 
 
 5. Numismatic Remains. — Modern archaeological dis- 
 covery and research have done much to elucidate the early 
 history of money in India. The credit of the former be- 
 longs chiefly to Englishmen ; of the latter, to the French 
 and Germans.^ 
 
 ' Del Mar's "Hist. Free. Met.," p. 345. 
 
 ^ V. Ball, " Geological Survey of India,'' part iii., on Econ. Geol. 
 London, 1881, p. 213 ; and Cunningham's " Laddak," p. 232. 
 
 ' B'urnouf, " Introduction k I'Histoire de Bouddhisme," Paris, 1844, 
 pp. 91, 102, 103, 146, 147, 236, 238, 243, 245,258 k, 329 n, 597. 
 
 '' Marsden, " Numis. Orient.," p. 42. 
 
 ' "In England the medals (coins) of the East have never been 
 thought worthy of attention. . . . We must seek for information in 
 Continental rather than English publications." Wilson's " Ariana An- 
 
 F 
 
66 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Numbers of ancient Indian coins have been unearthed m 
 various parts of the country, chiefly, however, in Bactria, 
 the Punjab, and generally the more northern regions ; few 
 having been found below AUabahad.^ By far the greatest 
 number of those found in north-western India were of 
 stamped copper, although many were of gold, silver, billon, 
 plated copper,^ bronze, brass, cast copper, nickel, tin, and 
 even lead. In Bengal the principal money finds have 
 been of cowries, the metallic moneys being comparatively 
 few. 
 
 Some of the coins in these various finds belong to an 
 archaic period, one that must have antedated any of the 
 foreign invasions of India. This inference rests upon the 
 rude and unconventional forms and types which the coins 
 present, and upon the absence of symbols belonging to any 
 known political or religious system. Upon first seeing the 
 Behat coins,' the learned Prinsep cautiously ascribed them 
 to the early part of the Christian era ; * but a closer study 
 induced him to attribute them, without reserve, to a period 
 anterior at least to the Greek invasion of the fourth cen- 
 tury B.c.^ They are entirely independent of the Greek type 
 of coins, and undoubtedly preceded them.'' Still later on, 
 
 tiqua,'' p. 27. The principal English contributors to Oriental numis- 
 matics are Masson, Prinsep, Maj . Cunningham, Gen. Ventura, Col. Stacey, 
 Col. Tod, Marsden, Wilson, and Thomas. 
 
 ^ Marsden, " Numis. Orient.," p. 37. 
 
 ^ Plated copper coins of Indo-Soythic kings of the second and first 
 centuries b.o. " Essays on Indian Antiquities of the late James 
 Prinsep," edited by Edward Thomas. London, Murray, 1858, Svo. ii. 
 89, 214. 
 
 ' Pound by Capt. Cautley, in 1833, near Behat, the ancient capital of 
 a district extending down the Doab of the Ganges and Jumna below 
 Hastinapura, and westward along the last-named river, and along the 
 foot of the Himalayas to the Punjab. The coins were of silver and 
 copper, chiefly the former, and belonged to periods beginning with the 
 most ancient archaic time, and ending with that of Buddhism. Con- 
 sult Prinsep's " Essays," i. 204, and Wilson's " Ariana Antiq.," pp. 
 16, 20. 
 
 * Prinsep's " Essays," i. 202. ' Ibid. pp. 208, 209. 
 
 ' Marsden, " Numis. Orient.," pp. 35, 36, 43. 
 
INDIA, PEIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 67 
 
 Prinsep says : " We may infer that at or about the era of 
 Manou, the Hindoos were already in possession of such a 
 scheme of exchange as recognized the use of fixed and de- 
 terminate weights of metal, not only as general equivalents 
 and measures of value, but further, that the system had 
 already advanced so far as to adopt small and convenient 
 sections of metal into the category of current money ; and 
 that the punch-marked pieces may be taken to exemplify 
 the first germs of improved commercial and fiscal aptitude 
 expressed by the transitional movement from normal weights 
 to absolute coins." The view herein assumed by Prinsep, 
 that these coins were the earliest moneys of India, may or 
 may not be correct ; it does not afiect his arguments that 
 they were ante-Grecian, and that they were also ante- 
 Vedic. 
 
 Says Thomas : " They were the produce of purely home 
 fancies and local thought, and have no reference to either 
 the Veda, the doctrines of Buddha, or any other religious or 
 political belief or tradition." ^ 
 
 Says Wilson : " They extend downward from the most 
 ancient period, until that one which immediately preceded 
 Buddhism." ' 
 
 Says Marsden : " We can produce flat pieces of metal, 
 some round, some square or oblong, adjusted with con- 
 siderable accuracy to a fixed weight, and usually of 
 uniform metallic purity, verified and stamped anew with 
 distinctive symbols by succeeding generations, which 
 clearly constituted an efiective currency long before the 
 ultimate date of the engrossment of the Institutes (Code) 
 of Manou." ' 
 
 A large hoard of this class of coins, supposed to have 
 belonged to the remote Pandu race (a sort of Indian 
 Druids), was found in 1807 in Coimbatore.* 
 
 From a careful study of the types of the archaic coins of 
 
 ^ Thomas, in Marsden, pp. 58, 59. 
 
 ' Wilson's " Ariana Antiq." pp. 16, 20. ' Marsden, p. 52. 
 
 * Walter Elliott, "Madras Jour, of Lit. and Science," 1858, p. 227. 
 
68 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 India, from observations based upon the respective methods 
 of coining these coins and those of the western world, and 
 from the fact that the finds of Grseco-Bactrian coins always 
 included some of these dissimilar, and evidently older coins, 
 it was concluded by Marsden that the various steps of the 
 art of coinage in India, both as to stamping and casting, 
 ''must have been effected before the advent of the 
 Greeks." ^ 
 
 Thus much with respect to the numismatic evidences of 
 the antiquity of money in India. With regard to the indi- 
 cations afforded by the relative numbers of coins found of 
 copper, silver, and gold, no safe dependence can be placed 
 upon them. It is well known that where copper coins 
 will corrode and disappear from the action of the elements, 
 silver, and especially gold ones, will survive. Moreover, as 
 it does not appear that either silver or gold coins were ever 
 used as money in India until very recent times, but only as 
 adjuncts to or multipliers for the copper coins, it follows 
 that the silver and gold coins were overvalued, and there- 
 fore that it did not pay to melt them down ; whilst, on the 
 other hand, whenever, indeed, the copper coins themselves 
 were not overvalued — as against commodities, which might 
 have been done by means of limiting their emission, or by 
 an arbitrary regulation of prices — they were worth as much 
 in the melting-pot as in the form of money, and immense 
 numbers of them were doubtless melted from time to time.^ 
 
 6. Comparative philology. — From this source are obtained 
 still further proofs of the antiquity of money in India. 
 
 Among the archaic coins found at Behat, only one pos- 
 sesses what appears to be alphabetical characters, and these 
 resemble the Lat, or most ancient form of Sanscrit.^ 
 
 In allusion to the term kasu, corruptly cash, meaning 
 coins, or coined or cast money, it is stated that the study of 
 
 ^ Marsden, p. 55. 
 An instance of this sort (the melting of copper coins) is supplied 
 by Tavernier, and relates to Persia, a.d. 1664. Marsden, p. 53. 
 ^ Prinsep, i. 210. 
 
 <^ 
 
INDIA, PKIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 69 
 
 Dravidian roots in the existing Tamil language tends to 
 " prove that coined money was in use at the period of the 
 compilation of the text of India's earliest lawgiver." This 
 carries it back to the period of the oldest Veda, and it may- 
 have been in use ages before.^ The occurrence of the word 
 dinwr in both the Vedas and Buddha is another proof of the 
 same character.^ 
 
 We can now advantageously survey the evidences of the 
 antiquity of money in India. They are derived from so 
 many independent sources, and some of them are so strong, 
 that it will be diflB.cult to successfully impugn their validity. 
 They certainly prove the use of money, nay, of coined 
 money, in India, long before the date assigned to it in Asia 
 Minor (Lydia) , a date which, by the way, rests solely upon 
 the testimony of Herodotus, and the conjecture — perhaps 
 well enough founded — that certain unlettered coins dis- 
 covered in Lydia and Greece are those to which the Greek 
 historian refers. That the Lydians and Greeks coined 
 money at the date assigned to them is not what is doubted 
 herein, but that they coined the first moneys known to man. 
 This is an assumption which, in the face of Chinese and 
 Indian history and archeology, should no longer be ac- 
 corded a footing.^ It not only shuts out all the ancient 
 history of money, it asks us to believe that the earliest 
 
 ^ Marsden, p. 22; also see note 2, p. 77 of the present work, on 
 Kdrshapana, or Kaliapanu. 
 
 - Marsden, pp. 84, 35. 
 
 ' Yet this is one of the most recent authoritative opinions on the 
 subject. Says Mommsen : " From all that is to be gathered from the 
 remains of antiquity, both historical and traditional, it is established 
 beyond a doubt that money was first made in Asia Minor, and that the 
 
 first moneys were of gold The most ancient moneys [moniiaies) 
 
 are incontestably the staters of Phocee, of Cyzique, and of Cresus." 
 " Histoire de la Monnaie Romaine," par Theodore Mommsen, traduite 
 de FAllemand par le due de Blacas. Paris, Feuardent, 1865, 3 vols. 8vo. 
 vol. i. p. 1. It is needless to say that this sweeping assertion is over- 
 whelmingly contradicted both by oriental literature, philology, and 
 numismatics. Lenormant blindly follows Mommsen, and with much 
 more heat than becomes a numismatist. 
 
70 HISTORY or MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 moneys were of gold, and that their value was regulated by 
 the cost of producing this metal^ both of which assumptions 
 are quite erroneous. 
 
 Supply of coining metals froyn the mines. — From Mr. 
 Ball's able survey of the economical geology of India it is 
 quite clear that, although indications of gold are to be 
 found all over the country, from Thibet to Malabar, yet 
 that the placer deposits were exhausted at a very early 
 period — probably before that of the Vedic writings — except 
 of what little gold the freshets brought down each year into 
 the river valleys, always an insignificant supply. The gold 
 quartz deposits, if not naturally shallow, which is usually 
 the case,^ were not capable of being worked by the natives 
 to more than a superficial depth. ^ The silver deposits were 
 few and inaccessible to all except the inhabitants of the 
 extreme northern regions.^ The copper deposits of India 
 were more ample and more widely diffused ; yet copper was 
 always scarce in Bengal, and difficult to obtain in the Dekkan : 
 facts which were due to the infrequency of the deposits, to 
 the political disunity of the country, and to the bad state of 
 the roads. 
 
 ^ The author is prepared to assert, after a lifetime of study and 
 practice as a miner, and after having personally inspected nearly every 
 important auriferous region of the world, that it contains but few gold 
 quartz districts which have paid to work at a depth exceeding 300 or 
 400 feet. 
 
 ^ The ancient East Indians worked their quartz mines down from 
 50 to 70 feet, in some instances 100 feet, and in a very few 150 feet. 
 In recently found excavations exceeding this depth, the excess was 
 the work of their successors, the Mahomedans. Allusion is made to 
 ancient gold mines in the ranges of the Hindoo Koosh, Belur Tagh, and 
 Altai, by Heeren, in his " Asiatic Nations, i. 47. 
 
 ^ Sir Roderick Murchison had previously alluded much more favour- 
 ably to the argentiferous resources of India, especially to the "wealth" 
 of the Kulu Valley of the Vasour country, between the Beas, Sainji, 
 and Parbutti rivers, and of the Manikaru mines ; but Mr. Ball's opinion 
 on the subject is entitled to the most weight. An old silver mine was 
 found at Perwan, lat. 35.9, long. 69.16, near the Hindoo Koosh. Others 
 are mentioned by Ouseley, p. 225 ; in Erskine's " Baber," pp. 139, 146 ; 
 and byMasson, iii. 166. 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 71 
 
 Supply of coining metals from foreign commerce. — It has 
 been conjectured by at least one antiquarian that in very 
 remote times commercial intercourse existed between India 
 and the silver-producing countries of America/ Without 
 assenting to an opinion so little susceptible of convincing 
 proof, it is tolerably well settled that commercial intercourse 
 prevailed between India and the silver-producing countries 
 of Europe. Evidences exist of Indian trade with Egypt 
 fifteen centuries b.c. ; ^ with Babylon and Phoenicia, and 
 therefore with Greece and Spain, previous to the seventh 
 century B.C. ; ^ and with all these countries, by way of Pal- 
 myra, at a later, though still very ancient date.* By all 
 these channels of commerce silver was transported from 
 Greece and Spain to India, although in what quantity 
 cannot now even be estimated. In the time of Pliny, the 
 annual shipments of silver to India and China were given at 
 a sum which modern commentators have computed as equal 
 to about three hundred thousand ounces.* Assuming this 
 computation to be correct, and that two-thirds of the silver 
 was destined for India, it yet remains too insignificant in 
 amount to have been of ajry practical assistance towards 
 the maintenance of a system of silver money in any con- 
 siderable portion of India. In the very much more 
 
 ^ Such is the opinion of Mr. Treadwell, of Brooklyn, New York, an 
 antiquarian who has devoted many years to the study of this subject. 
 
 ^ Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," ii. 237. 
 
 " Yeat's " History of Commerce," p. 25. At that period Greece 
 and Spain possessed the only considerable silver mines in the world. 
 
 * Robertson's " India." 
 
 " Pliny, " Nat. Hist." xii. 18 : " Minimique computatione millis 
 centena millia sestertium annis omnibus. India et Seres, peninsulaque 
 ilia (Arabia) imperis nostro adimunt. Tanto nobis delicise et feminse 
 constant." This sum has been variously translated at from ^£70,000 to 
 £800,000. As this equivalent depends upon the value of the numerical 
 sestercium, in metal coins, at a given time, and as both of these 
 factors are undeterminable, the translation is purely chimerical. On 
 this subject, consult Del Mar's " History of the Precious Met.," 
 p. 191. Many of the silver coins exported to India were filled in 
 with iron or lead. Lenormant, "La Monnaie," i. 234. 
 
72 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 ancient period under review the shipments of silver to 
 India must have been even less than they were in the time 
 of Pliny. 
 
 After all conceivable sources of supply^ both domestic and 
 foreign, are considered, there does not appear to have been 
 enough, either of silver or gold, obtainable in India after the 
 period of the Hindoo invasion to have maintained a system 
 of money composed of these metals at cost of production ; 
 and it must be admitted that no such system could have pre- 
 vailed throughout any considerable portion of the country. 
 
 Standard of money in India. — Taking together the 
 various evidences before us, it would appear most likely that 
 the earliest money of India was made of copper. Of this 
 money no traces now remain, except such as are to be found 
 in the archaic languages and literature of the country. The 
 fitful and uncontrollable supplies of copper from the mines, 
 and the difficulties of transport, must however have soon 
 caused it to be abandoned for use as money, and to be sup- 
 planted by some other substance more amenable to control. 
 Before this took place it could hardly fail to have been per- 
 ceived that the number of pieces, rather than the quantity 
 of material in them, was what affected prices, and no 
 doubt many unsuccessful experiments were made with the 
 view of enabling light coins to do the work of heavy ones 
 — unsuccessful, because coins are easily, and at that 
 period were sure to be, counterfeited. The fixing of prices 
 enjoined in Manou, viii. 402, is a proof of such an experi- 
 ment. But even after the adoption of mint monopoly and 
 overvalued copper coins (an expedient which every nation 
 of antiquity has tried at least once), the supplies of copper 
 metal must have been too irregular for a permanent govern- 
 ment to endure, and this must have compelled all such 
 governments to have recourse to some other material for 
 money. 
 
 The material out of which money or monetary symbols 
 can safely be made — no matter in what age or country — 
 must combine the following essential qualities : — 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 73 
 
 1. Abimdance. — -It must be sufficiently abundant to 
 enable a suitable number of pieces to be made from it. 
 
 2. Certainty of Supply. — The supply must be regular, 
 and not subject to interruption from the chances of mining 
 discovery, from private monopoly, the seasons, the condi- 
 tions of transport, nor the vicissitudes of war. 
 
 3. Divisibility. — It must be readily divisible into small 
 pieces of uniform size and appearance. 
 
 4. Plasticity. — It must be sufficiently plastic or impres- 
 sible for the pieces to take suitable marks of authority 
 certifying their legitimacy. 
 
 5. Durability. — It must be capable of standing a consi- 
 derable amount of wear and tear. 
 
 In archaic periods no substance combined these qualities 
 so well as clay, and it is, accordingly, of this substance 
 that all of the earlier moneys of any extended or permanent 
 use were made. 
 
 As it may be difficult for those whose reading has taught 
 them the easy creed that money has always been made of 
 gold, silver, or copper, to believe that populous and civilized 
 countries have ever entirely dispensed with these metals 
 and employed far different materials to embody money, it 
 is deemed essential in this place to adduce those authorities 
 upon the analogy to be derived from whose testimony this 
 assertion is made. 
 
 Says Du Halde : " It is related that after the reign of 
 Han (B.C. 21 19), a prince caused money to be made of stamped 
 earth united with a strong glue, and, taking it into his 
 head to put down copper money, he gathered as much as 
 he could, buried it very deep in the earth, and killed the 
 workmen who were employed about it, that none might 
 know where it was hidden." ^ 
 
 Says Humphreys : " It will be at once obvious that some 
 other species of money preceded the use of coins." 
 
 Stieglitz says that the most ancient moneys of the 
 
 ' Du Halde's " Hist. China," ii. 288. 
 
 ^ Noel Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 15. 
 
74 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 western world were scarabse of clay or stone. ^ In this 
 opinion he is supported by S. Quintino.'^ 
 
 Suidas says that the moneys of the early Romans were 
 scarabse of baked clay.^ 
 
 And to strengthen this testimony it may be added that 
 porcelain coins or moneys of China, clay coins (probably) 
 of Assyria and Babylon, terra cotta coins of Palmyra, and 
 glass coins of Egypt and Arabia, are still extant. They 
 will be described in this work under the heads of the 
 countries to which they severally belong. 
 
 With regard to the aflBnity of clay dies to metal dies, 
 and the derivation of mint stamps from the presumed earlier 
 use of seals, the celebrated Thomas Burgon, in the course 
 of an essay on Representations on (upon) Ancient Moneys, 
 has said : "As the act of impressing a seal or signet was 
 an understood sign of solemn compact from the most early 
 periods, and as engraved seals and signets were un- 
 doubtedly in general use long anterior to the invention of 
 coining, it appears highly probable that the original idea 
 of impressing a stamp on the uncoined lumps of gold or 
 silver was derived from the common application of a seal 
 to wax. The earliest coins " (not moneys, generally, but 
 coins) " may be therefore looked upon as pieces of sealed 
 metal, which in fact they are, it being well known that at 
 first, coins were impressed only on one side." "* 
 
 Marsden, writing on the same subject, has said : " The 
 universal employment of clay for almost every purpose of 
 life naturally led to marked improvements in the processes 
 of stamping and impressing the soft substance nature so 
 
 readily hardened into durability and indestructibility 
 
 Yielding metals were speedily subjected to a similar process ; 
 for the transition from the seal to the die would demand 
 but a single step in the development of mechanical appli- 
 
 ' Stieglitz, " Catalogus Numorum Veterum Grfficorum," Christ. 
 Ludov. Stieglitz, Leipsig, 1837, pp. vi. and 2. 
 
 ^ Humphreys, " Ancient Coins," p. 17. ' Ibid. p. 17. 
 
 ' "London Numismatic Journal," 1837, p. 118. 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 75 
 
 ances. In effect, the first mint stamps were nothing more 
 than authoritative seals." ' 
 
 Both of these writers alluded to Assyria and Babylonia, 
 whose clay seals they knew to be older than the supposed 
 origin of metal coinage in Lydia.' Whilst the affinity of 
 clay and metal moulds or dies alluded to by them is of 
 interest in this connection, the derivation of mint stamps 
 from the assumed earlier use of seals cannot be admitted 
 without reserve. Money and even coined money is pro- 
 bably older than the art of writing, and certainly as old as 
 the use of seals. Many of the supposed seals of Babylon 
 are, in all probability, coins ; but whether they are seals or 
 coins, they are fifteen centuries later than the copper coins 
 of Sung,^ and therefore at least that interval of time later 
 than the origin of stamped money. 
 
 If it be objected to the assumed use of clay coins in 
 ancient India that no such coins have yet been found, it is 
 to be replied th^jt when Henry wrote his " History of 
 Britain " no coins had been found of the Scots, Picts, or 
 Welsh of the Anglo-Saxon period ; yet that the ancient 
 Welsh laws on coinage, which still survived, proved that 
 such coins must have existed.* Similarly, when Mill 
 wrote his " History of India," no coins had been found in 
 that country of a date prior to the Mongol conquest, a fact 
 that led that author into the extraordinary conclusion that 
 none had ever before been used in India. ° Since the 
 publication of MilFs " History," myriads of such coins have 
 been found. 
 
 It remains now to show how it was financially practicable 
 to employ clay coins or tablets for money. With this 
 object in view, it was merely necessary that the state should 
 assume the monopoly of their fabrication, that they should 
 
 ^ Marsden, " Numis. Orient.," p. 56. 
 
 ^ See note 3, p. 69 of the present work. 
 
 ' See chap. ii. herein on the History of Money in China. 
 
 * Henry, " Hist. Britain," iv. 263, 282, 283. 
 
 ' Mill, "Hist. India," ii. 183. 
 
76 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 be rendered an exclusive and unlimited legal tender in all 
 payments^ that their number should be specifically and 
 permanently limited, and that counterfeiting should be 
 successfully kept down. History and analogy combine to 
 a,ssure us that these regulations will confer a value on any 
 money, no matter of what material it may be composed, 
 and that they will sustain that value without any other 
 variation than that which may be occasioned by the greater 
 or less frequency of the exchanges. Practically, and in 
 order to maintain prices at the accustomed level, the 
 number of such coins, tablets, pieces of paper, or what not, 
 should not exceed the number of copper, silver, or other 
 pieces which they may have been made to supplant. 
 
 If such a system of money existed in India — and there 
 can be little doubt that it once did — it remains to show by 
 what means it came to an end. These are to be found in 
 the comparative ease with which clay tablets can be counter- 
 feited and the difiSculty of preventing unlawful additions 
 to the circulation, and in the temptation on the part of a 
 despotic and irresponsible government to surreptitiously 
 increase the emissions of such a highly overvalued money. 
 The inconveniences arising from the weight, cnmbrousness, 
 and liability to breakage of clay tablets, or the discovery 
 of new mines of copper, or of other metals suitable for 
 coinage, or the conquest or re-occupation of old ones, may 
 have hastened its downfall. Whatever the cause or causes, 
 it is quite clear, both from the Veda and Manou, that at 
 the date of those writings the standard of money in India 
 had returned to copper. Says Marsden : " The entire text 
 of Manou proves that the standard of money, when metallic 
 at all, was always of copper, a metal which in remote times 
 was superior to any other for the purpose, on account of its 
 more ample and steady supply — that of gold or silver being 
 deficient and irregular.' 
 
 This view is, no doubt, substantially correct ; yet, con- 
 sidering the long period covered by the mutations through 
 ^ Marsden, p. 53. 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 77 
 
 ■whicli this ancient and probably oft-altered code of Manou 
 has passed, it is reasonable to suppose that more than one 
 experiment was made during this period to economize the 
 use of copper, or avoid the inconvenience of its variable 
 supply, by resorting to the use of overvalued moneys, 
 whether of clay, wood, lacquer,^ or copper itself. In the 
 end, however, these experiments gave way to the copper 
 karshapana standard,^ as set forth in Manou. The scarcity 
 of kdrshapana appears to have been eked out with multipliers 
 composed of overvalued silver and gold coins, and perhaps 
 dividers composed of lead coins, cowries, almonds, or 
 something of the sort ; but the standard in India, as we 
 understand it, was essentially and permanently of copper. 
 
 With certain interruptions occasioned by experiments 
 which will be noticed in their proper place, this system of 
 ancient India, similar to that of Japan previous to 1853, 
 and of China at the present day, continued down to the 
 year a.d. 1766, when it gave way to the regulations intro- 
 duced by the British Bast India Company. 
 
 Before closing this account of the monetary standard in 
 India, it is worth noticing that, except as to the Isle of 
 France, which can scarcely be considered as part of India, 
 no paper money was ever issued in this country until the 
 year 1861 of our era. 
 
 The Hindoos of India had, in this respect, the example 
 of China before them, and the Mahomedans of India that of 
 China, Persia, and other countries ; yet no effort appears 
 
 ^ Wooden and lacquer moneys are mentioned in the present text 
 under the head of Buddhic testimony. 
 
 ^ Karshapana : copper coins which, in the time of the extant Code of 
 Manou, are calculated to have weighed about 140 grains each. Kar- 
 shapana appears to have always meant copper coins, except in Ceylon 
 and on the western coasts of India, where it is applied to gold and 
 silver ones (Marsden, p. 41). This diversity of custom may be ex- 
 plained either by supposing that Karshapana became a generic term 
 for money, or that the copper coins were overvalued. In this respect 
 it will be observed that the gold coin (?) Suvarna, of 140 grains, and the 
 copper coin Karshapana, of 140 grains, were both of the same value, 
 namely, 80 rati. 
 
78 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIES. 
 
 to have been made to utilize printed paper for monetary 
 purposes. This may have been due to frequent wars and 
 changes of administration, to the absence of a suitable 
 material for making paper, or, as is most likely, to the 
 inability of the people to read.^ 
 
 Ratio of value between the coining metals. — The few 
 notices and inferences concerning the ratio of value between 
 the metals, which are to be gleaned from the ancient history 
 of India, are too unreliable for use as the basis of any 
 precise inferences. It is probably safe to assume that, 
 previous to the Phoenician and Babylonian commerce 
 with India, silver was more valuable in that country than 
 gold ; ^ that during that commerce, or at least during the 
 earlier portion of it, silver was exchanged for gold at an 
 equal value, weight for weight; and that, owing to the 
 prolificacy of the Phoenician silver mines in Spain and the 
 Laurium silver mines in Greece, the value of silver continued 
 to fall until at about the period of Alexander's invasion of 
 India, when it stood in India at probably about 2 silver= 
 1 gold. As for the ratio used by Herodotus in computing 
 Darius' spoil in Bactria and the Punjab, this was the ratio 
 prevailing in Greece and not in India. From Alexander's 
 time, owing to the establishment of systematic commerce 
 between the East and West, the ratio in India gradually 
 
 ' In China everybody is compelled to learn the art of reading ; in 
 India it is forbidden by the Brahminical code to instruct the Sutra, or 
 most numerous class of the people. " Land of the Veda," by Eev. Peter 
 Percival, London, 1854, p. 40. 
 
 ^ The superior value of silver to gold in very ancient times is attested 
 by Boeckh, " Polit. Econ. Athen." i. 6. After any long interruption of 
 commerce between the Bast and West, this superior value asserted 
 itself. The ancient inhabitants of Germany valued silver more than 
 gold. Tacitus, " German." 5. In the time of Nadir Shah, a.d. 1749, the 
 Kurds gave gold for silver, weight for weight. Ritter, " Erdkunde," 395, 
 in Wm. Roscher's " Polit. Econ.," New York, 1878, i. 356, and note 10. 
 He adds " copper," but this appears incredible. A similar ratio of 
 exchange is said to have prevailed in recent times between the Chinese 
 and Indians (Tavernier's " Travels," Eng. ed. ii. 2, 23, -156) ; but this 
 must have been quite local and temporary. 
 
INDIA, PRIOE TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 79 
 
 widened, until in the fifth century of our era it probably 
 stood at 5 or 6 silver =1 gold, and there remained until 
 the opening of the sea route to India by the Portuguese 
 was effected. 
 
 As for the ratio between copper and silver, our informa- 
 tion on the subject is too meagre to warrant any general 
 conclusions. During the Mahomedan domination it is esti- 
 mated by one author to have stood at 60 to 120 for 1 ; but 
 the present writer believes that copper was more valuable — 
 how much more, cannot be determined with precision. "^ 
 
 Reviewing the history of money in India, we find that 
 money was employed by the aborigines prior to the Hindoo 
 invasion ; that it was employed successively by the earliest 
 Hindoos, and by the earliest Brahmins and Buddhists ; and 
 that, in short, there is no period of written history so re- 
 mote that it does not contain allusions to some kind of 
 money. We find that the supplies of the coining metals in 
 India were so irregular and precarious, that overvalued 
 moneys of clay, wood, and other substances were probably 
 experimented with at very remote periods, to give place at 
 last to copper coins ; and that, substantially, copper metal, 
 coined, may be regarded as having been the standard of 
 value from at least the period of the Hindoo invasion to 
 the British conquest. 
 
 In proceeding to divide the further history of money in 
 India into convenient eras, it will be found that these are 
 best determined with reference to the great foreign invasions 
 which from time to time have changed the dynasties and 
 altered the destinies of the country. 
 
 The next after the Hindoo invasion is that one imputed 
 to Seaostris of Egy^^, about B.C. 2000.^ After a careful 
 examination of the subject by Dr. Robertson, that historian 
 was forced into the conclusion that the account of this 
 expedition which has come down to us is apocryphal.^ 
 
 About the year 525 B.C., Darius Hystaspes, King of 
 
 ^ Consult Festus ; Letronne ; Peyron ; Thomas ; and Lenormant. 
 ' Diod. Sic, i. 34. ^ Robertson's "India," p. 7, and note 1. 
 
80 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Persia, appointed Scylax of Caryandra to take command of 
 a squadron of boats fitted out at Caspatyrus, toward the 
 upper part of tlie navigable course of the Indus, and to fall 
 down its stream until he should reach the ocean. This task 
 Scylax performed, though the obstacles he encountered 
 lengthened the period of the expedition to two and a half 
 years. The account he gave of the populousness, fertility, 
 and high cultivation of that region of India through which 
 his course lay, resulted in its being invaded about the year 
 521 by Darius himself; and although his conquests do not 
 appear to have extended beyond the district watered by the 
 Indus, he returned to Persia after having imposed tributes 
 which were equal in amount to nearly a third of the whole 
 revenue of the Persian monarchy.^ 
 
 So far as the conquest of Bactria and Ariana are con- 
 cerned, these tributes may have been paid, as Mr. Mill 
 argues, in graiu.^ Herodotus does not specify the mode of 
 payment. But as to the Indian tribute he is explicit, and 
 says it consisted of 360 talents in " gold dust/' and esti- 
 mates the value of this, according to the Greek ratio, at 
 " thirteen times the value of silver." 
 
 I am inclined to believe that if such a tribute was 
 exacted, it could not have been paid for more than a very 
 short period. Columbus, Cortes, Pizarro, and the other 
 conquerors of America tried the same thing, i.e. to exact a 
 permanent tribute of the precious metals from the peoples 
 whom they had subdued — and they all failed. After the 
 usual preliminary plunder of trinkets and robbery of graves, 
 the gold tribute must have come either from the placers or 
 the river bars. The former are always exhausted of their 
 principal contents when a country is T-rst opened to that 
 phase of civilization which demands the use of metals ; the 
 accumulations of the latter are too meagre to satisfy the 
 requirements of a conqueror. 
 
 The invasion of Alexander the Great occurred about the 
 
 ' "Herod.," iv. 90, 96, aud 166. 
 ^ Mill's "India," ed. 1820, i. 280. 
 
INDIA, PRIOR TO ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 81 
 
 year b.c. 330. This commander crossed the Oxus, subdued 
 and ravaged Bactria, climbed the Hindoo Koosh, descended 
 into the Punjab, defeated Porus on the banks of the 
 Hydaspes (Chelum), and thus made himself master of north- 
 western India, 
 
 Like that of Darius, Alexander's army did not advance 
 far beyond the Indus. On the banks of the Hyphasis 
 (B^yah), his troops, worn out with fatigue, satiated with 
 slaughter, and overladen with spoil, demanded to be led 
 back to Persia ; and their leader was fain to submit to their 
 wishes. He retreated in boats or rafts down the Indus to 
 the ocean, and thence marched overland to Persia ; whilst 
 his fleet, under Kearchus, sailed up the Persian gulf, and re- 
 opened a long forgotten channel of commerce between India 
 and Europe. 
 
 The gold and silver spoil of this expedition, must have 
 consisted of trinkets, jewellery, idols, furniture, and mural 
 ornaments. To appease the clamour of his men for a speedy 
 division, Alexander coined it in his camps.^ Although, on 
 account of the native standard of money being copper, there 
 were probably but few gold or silver coins in this spoil, yet 
 the total quantity of these previously in circulation (as 
 multipliers) , was so small, that there is evidence of an extra- 
 ordinary scarcity of these metals for a long time after the 
 conquest ; an inference gathered from the subsequent use of 
 overvalued nickel coins (about three-fourths copper and one- 
 fourth nickel) by Buthydemus and Agothocles, kings of the 
 Bactrian Greeks.^ These coins were also used as multipliers. 
 About the year B.C. 312, Seleucus Nicator, a Greco-Baby- 
 lonian monarch and one of the successors of Alexander, is 
 said to have conducted an expedition into India, which 
 penetrated further than Alexander's had done ; ^ although 
 this is doubted by Robertson.* Desirous of cultivating 
 
 ^ Marsden. A circumstantial account of Alexander's line of march 
 will be found in Wilson's " Ariana Antiqua," p. 165. 
 
 ' Marsden, 43. ^ Justin xv. 4 ; Pliny vi. 17. 
 
 * Robertson's "India," note 12. 
 
 G 
 
82 HISTORY OF MONET IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 friendly relations with the sovereign of the Gangetic regions, 
 Seleucus accredited to him, as ambassador, one Megasthenes, 
 who, after reaching AUabahad, continued to reside there for 
 several years. He is probably the first European who ever 
 beheld the Ganges.^ His account of the country, published 
 after his return to the West, furnished the source of most of 
 that information concerning India, which Diodorus Siculus, 
 Strabo, and Arrian have transmitted to us. 
 
 About the year B.C. 200, Antiochus the Great of Syria, 
 after subduing Parthia and Bactria, entered India and, con- 
 cluding a peace with one of the sovereigns of the country, 
 received from him a present of elephants and money and 
 retired. 
 
 From this time until the Mahomedan invasions, which 
 commenced during the seventh, and ended with the conquest 
 of the country in the eleventh century, no Western powers 
 acquired any territory or established any dominion in India. 
 
 In view of these various conquests of India and their 
 several degrees of importance, it has been determined to 
 divide the monetary history of the country into two other 
 portions, the first of which will cover the period from 
 Alexander the Great to the Mahomedan conquest, and the 
 second from the latter event to the present time. 
 
 ' Robertson's " India," p. 33. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 INDIA, FROM ALEXANDEE THE GKEAT TO THE 
 MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 
 
 Futility of depending upon Greek or Latin authors for the history of 
 this period — Aid to be derived from Chinese authority — From arohEeo- 
 logical authority — Character of the Indian trade with the West — 
 Trifling proportion of silver shipments — Supply of coining metals from 
 the mines — Modern numismatic finds — The topes — Misleading infe- 
 rences to which such finds may point, unless studied with caution — 
 Ancient Indian custom of coining: 1, gold and silver multipliers of 
 copper moneys ; 2, gold, silver, and other coins for commemorative and 
 proclamatory purposes — These practices found their way to Rome — 
 Actual standard of money in India during the period under review — 
 This was copper, with gold and silver multipliers, in Northern, and 
 copper, with cowrie divisors, in Southern India — Abnormal camp coin- 
 ages of invaders — These had no eSect upon the copper standard — 
 Else of the Arabian power in the seventh century — Kapid conquest of 
 Egypt and Persia, and monopolization of the Indian trade — The 
 Italians carry a portion of the trade through Tartary, and afterwards 
 submit to Mahomedan exactions and trade in Alexandria — The Crusades, 
 and their influence in concentrating the Indian trade at Constantinople 
 — Its engrossment by the Venetians — The Genoese capture Pera, and 
 compel the Venetians to again trade through Alexandria — Capture of 
 Constantinople by the Turks, and end of the Genoese trade \vith 
 India — Rivalry for this trade leads to the discovery of the sea route 
 by the Cape, and of America — Silver shipments to India during the 
 Middle Ages — The Mahomedans invade India — Gradual progress of 
 their arms, until they completely conquer the country in a.d. 1001 — Im- 
 perceptible influence of this conquest upon the monetary system of 
 India — The standard remains of copper. 
 
 THE examination and comparison of the fragments left 
 us by Greek and Latin authors^ or their monkish 
 censors of the Middle Ages, was for a long time ranked 
 among the highest efforts of learning. Modern research 
 
84 HISTORT OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 has done much to overthrow this view by proving that the 
 classical authors, particularly where they treat of affairs in 
 countries other than their own, are often too unreliable to 
 repay the effort to reconcile their discordant accounts.^ 
 
 An instance has already been given where reference to 
 Chinese annals supplied a link in the chain of history, which 
 subsequent numismatic research proved to be authentic.'"^ 
 Archaeology has supplied further information, and the in- 
 dustry and patience of Prinsep and others in deciphering 
 inscriptions in the dead and forgotten languages of India 
 has resurrected a number of philological evidences, which 
 add their testimony to the rest, and, combined with the 
 closer study of Arabian authors, serve to throw a strong 
 light upon the obscure portions of Indian history.' 
 
 From the conquest of Alexander to the Mahomedan in- 
 vasions, several commercial routes were opened between 
 India and the West, among the most important of which 
 were those by the Persian Gulf via Bassora, by the Red Sea 
 via Berenice and Alexandria, and overland by Samarcand 
 and Palmyra, or vi& the Caspian and Eusine Seas. The trade 
 
 ■* Arrian's account (in Greek) and Quintus Curtius' (in Latin) of 
 Alexander's invasion of India both state that money formed part of his 
 spoil. Arrian, vi. 16, 4 ; Quintus Curtius, viii. c. xii. 14, 15 ; see also 
 iii. c. xiii. 16, and v. c. ii. for meaning attached to Signatus (Consult 
 Marsden, 6, 7). On the other hand, Arrian (v. 4) says the Indians 
 with whom Alexander was engaged were without gold ; while Pausanius 
 the traveller, second century a.d., says (iii. c. xii. 3) that no coins 
 were in use in India (trans, of T. Taylor, London, 1 824, vol. i. p. 264) \ 
 Strabo is still more extravagant. " Gorges, the miner of Alexander " 
 is his authority for the statement that " the Indians, unacquainted with 
 mining and smelting, are ignorant of their own wealth." Strabo, xv. i. 
 30 ; see Dr. Robertson's criticism on Plutarch, Robertson's " India," 
 p. 306. 
 
 ^ See chap. ii. p. 15, note 1, of present work. 
 
 ' The principal writers upon the history of India, from Alexander to- 
 the Mahomedan invasions, are Megasthenes, fourth century b.c. ; 
 Diodorus Sioulus, b.c. 44; Strabo, died a.d. 25; Arrian, a.d. 140; 
 Cosmus of Egypt, sixth century a.d. ; and the two Arabian travellers 
 of the ninth century a.d., edited by Abu Zeid al Hasan, of Siraf 
 See Robertson's "India," 331. 
 
INDIA, FROM ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 85 
 
 was successively engrossed by the Egyptians, the Greeks, 
 the Babylonians, the Persians, the Eomans, the Persians 
 again (sixth century a.d.), the Arabians of the seventh and 
 eighth centuries, and the Italian republics. The exports 
 from India were chiefly cottons, spices (mainly pepper), 
 silk, precious stones, ivory, and tortoise-shell. The exports 
 from the West were chiefly woollens, linens, glass vessels, 
 wine, and the precious metals, chiefly silver. Allusion has 
 already been made to the possible quantity of the latter, 
 which, at the utmost, could have been but trifling. 
 
 As to the supply of coining metals from the mines, no 
 change can be discerned from the condition of affairs that 
 existed before Alexander's invasion. Prom Gorges' exag- 
 gerated account it is probable that although the Hindoos 
 were far from being " ignorant " of mining, their mode of 
 treating silver ores was inferior to that which had been ac- 
 quired by the Greeks in dealing with the refractory cala- 
 mine deposits of Laurium. With regard to gold washings, 
 no improvement upon the most ancient method was possible, 
 and as to gold quartz, it was rather a question of ability to 
 excavate the rock below certain depths, and of the con- 
 tinuance of the deposits, than of art in extracting the metal 
 from the ore. In neither of these respects, however, could 
 the Hindoos have learnt anything from contemporaneous 
 nations until after the Mahomedan conquest. 
 
 In dealings with the monetary systems of this period, the 
 most important guides to their proper understanding are 
 the numismatic finds and comparisons, which have rewarded 
 the labours of modern archaeologists. The bulk of these 
 finds are represented in the following list : — 
 
 Era. Dynasty. Character of coins found. 
 
 B.C. about 
 
 330 to 312 Perso-Bactrian Satrapy . . . Gold, Silver, Copper. 
 
 312 Seleucus of Babylon, in Bactria . Gold, Silver, Copper. 
 
 310 Bactrian Gold, Silver, Copper. 
 
 256 to 98 Greco-Bactrian .... Silver, Copper. 
 
 100 to 40 Indo-Scythic G. C. and P. C 
 
 100 to 40 Indo-Parthie G. S. C. and P. C. 
 
 ' Prinsep, ii. 89, 214, and Wilson's " Ariana Antiq." 
 
86 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Era. Dynasty. Character of coins foond. 
 B.C. about 
 
 85 to — Indo-Scythic Kings of Kabul (Kad- 
 
 A D. abont phises and Kanerkes) . . . Gold, Copper. 
 
 161 to 319 Gupta G. S. C. (the latter 
 
 overvalued).' 
 
 226 to 632 Sassanian 6. S. C. Billon. 
 
 6th-8th cent. Gupta 
 
 10th cent. Brahmin kings of Kabul and Punjab Silver, Copper. 
 
 lOth-l 2th cent. Eajput coins, W. and N.W. India . Gold, Silver, Copper. 
 
 1 1th & 12th cent. Kanauj coins Gold, Silver, Copper. 
 
 12th cent. Ghazni, N.W. India . . . G. S. C. and Brass. 
 G., gold; S., silver; C, copper; P. C, plated copper. 
 
 Some of these coins were found in circulation, others in 
 buried hoards, amongst them a single find of 35,000 coins 
 in brass boxes/ whilst others, again, were found in temples, 
 topes, and other secure places of deposit. 
 
 Gold, silver, and copper coins have been secured of all the 
 dynasties mentioned, together with the following excep- 
 tional pieces : a gold slug, weighing 2593^ grains, of 
 Bukratides, Greco-Bactrian line, B.C. 185 ; ' nickel and 
 copper coins of Buthydemus and Agathocles, two other 
 monarchs of the Greco-Bactrian line ; billon coins of the 
 Sassanian dynasty; and cowries; the two last-named speci- 
 mens coming from the Manikyala tope in the Punjab.^ 
 
 A large proportion of all the finds hitherto made in India 
 have been in the Punjab. Whether this resulted from the 
 superior opportunities or industry of the antiquarians 
 stationed in that region, or the comparative scarcity of 
 ancient coins, cannot yet be determined. The period from 
 
 ^ " The Mahdwanso," one of the Buddhist books, states that the 
 Brahman Chanakya, a minister of Chandra Gupta, " with the view of 
 raising revenues, converted (by recoining) each kah^pana into eight, 
 and thus gained eighty kotis of kahipanas. Tumour's " Mah^wanso," 
 Ceylon, 1837, p. xl., and Max Miiller's " Sanscrit Literature," p. 289 ; 
 from Marsden, 45. 
 
 ^ These were found in 1853 at Korch Bahir, three miles south-west 
 of Decahatta on the Dhurla ("P. K. D." 114, 115). 
 
 ' Akber, a.d. 1550, coined a gold slug worth 1000 rupees. 
 
 * In this tope, opened in 1830, were found mingled together cowrie 
 shells, gold coins of the Kadphises and Kanerkes, Roman consular coins 
 shortly before the Christian era, and copper coins of the Sassanian line. 
 Marsden, 35, 36, and " Ariana Antiqua," p. 15. 
 
INDIA, FKOM ALEXANDEE THE GREAT. 87 
 
 the fifth to the tenth century of our era is also but slightly 
 represented. No safe inferences can be drawn from these 
 circumstances. 
 
 The tope was a species of shrine built of solid masonry, and 
 having a small apartment in its remotest interior, to gain 
 access to which the entire pile had to be perforated. The pur- 
 pose of the structure was evidently the preservation of the 
 sacred relics and valuable historical signs found within them. 
 
 From the emblems found in or upon the topes, they are 
 conjectured to be all of Buddhic origin, and from these and 
 other indications, their date is assigned to the period from 
 Buddha until about the fifth century of our era.^ 
 
 Because gold and silver coins, among others, have been 
 found of nearly all the dynastic lines of India, it would be 
 rash to assume that coins of these metals were used by 
 them as money. Many of these coins have been found in 
 the topes, a fact that of itself, and in the absence of contrary 
 evidence, appears to indicate rarity, as is certainly the case 
 with regard to the Roman coins and sacred relics found with 
 them. Others of these gold and silver coins have been 
 mingled in very small numbers with copper coins in vast 
 quantities; and a considerable proportion of them are 
 unique or nearly so. 
 
 Bearing in mind the ancient and long accustomed use of 
 gold and silver coins in India as multipliers for copper 
 moneys, and the comparative scarcity of these metals, 
 whether from the poverty of the mines or the remoteness and 
 difficulty of obtaining further supplies by means of foreign 
 commerce, it is regarded as quite safe to conclude that these 
 coins were either used as multipliers or else for commemora- 
 tive or proclamatory purposes. The entire history of India 
 is a protest against the assumption of their use as money. 
 
 ^ The Ceylon topes are identified as belonging to the fourth, third, 
 second, and first centuries b.c, whilst others belong to later dates — 
 that of Hidda, five miles south of Jelalabad, in Afghanistan, having 
 contained some Roman coins of the Lower Empire, a.d. 407-74. 
 Marsden, 35, 36, 43. 
 
88 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 As the use of coins for multiplying, and also for memo- 
 rial and notarial purposes — the latter would be called medals 
 in modern days — are subjects that have an important bear- 
 ing upon the history of money, it is deemed essential at 
 this point to refer to them more particularly. 
 
 Until the Mahomedan conquest — and then only in those 
 parts of the country completely subjected to the cdnquerors 
 -^the sovereigns of India did not claim or enforce the pre- 
 rogative of coining gold or silver. It was a privilege con- 
 ferred upon anybody who chose to ask for it, and who 
 agreed to fabricate the coins of a given weight and fine- 
 ness.^ This clearly points to their use as merely multipliers 
 of the standard copper moneys fabricated by the State, pre- 
 cisely as Spanish and other foreign coins, having no legal 
 function, are to-day used by the Chinese to multiply sums 
 in their standard copper cash. This custom appears to have 
 found its way from India to Rome, where it appeared in 
 the license accorded to the various gens to coin denarii of 
 silver, having no legal tender function. Whenever these 
 multipliers were overvalued by law, the government, of 
 course, monopolized their coinage. 
 
 At certain periods of the Mahomedan supremacy in India, 
 whilst attempts were being made or contemplated, to 
 change the long time standard of money from copper to 
 gold and silver, the prerogative of coining these metals was 
 asserted and enforced by the sovereign, but this exceptional 
 practice did not long prevail, and the common license of 
 coining gold and silver was resumed. Traces of it are to 
 be found from the remotest era until very recent times.'' 
 The fact that the value of the gold and silver could only be 
 
 ^ Marsden, 57. 
 The sovereigns of the Dekkan and others accorded to village gold- 
 smiths and others the privilege of coining gold and silver with the royal 
 devices. " Pathan Kings of Delhi," p. 344. This custom was noticed 
 by Ferishtah, 1357-74. " Bombay Text," i. 537. And so late as 1832, 
 before the British East India government had been extended to all 
 parts of the country, it was extensively practised in Central India. Sir 
 J. Malcolm, " Central India," 1832, ii. 80. 
 
INDIA, FROM ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 89 
 
 expressed in copper coins is sufficient to prove that they 
 were not the standard money of the country. Their func- 
 tion was simply that of representing large sums of coppers. 
 The most significant evidence of royal accession or conquest 
 in a country whose inhabitants were entirely illiterate, was 
 the appearance of the new sovereign's superscription on the 
 coinsj and as this announcement could not, with conve- 
 nience, be made on the copper coinage, on account of its 
 great extent and diffusion, it was made on the gold and 
 silver multipliers. A curious proof of this custom was 
 afforded by the action of the Persian general of an Indo- 
 Mahomedan army, who having been victorious over the 
 Turks, ajid being suspected of high treason, diverted suspi- 
 cion from himself to the king's son by coining and circula- 
 ting pieces with the latter's superscription.^ This custom 
 can, however, be traced to the earliest period of lettered 
 coins, both from the distinct proofs that copper was always 
 the standard of money, and the rarity of gold and silver pieces 
 and their fineness, which latter quality unfitted them for the 
 wear and tear to which circulating money is subjected.^ 
 
 Says Thomas : Some (perhaps many) of the Mahomedan 
 coinages of India constituted merely " a sort of numismatic 
 proclamation or assertion and declaration of conquest and 
 supremacy." Where printing was rare and reading un- 
 common, a new gold and silver coinage, and a change in 
 the prayers for the royal family were the most efiective 
 and rapid means of proclaiming the accession of a new 
 ruler.' 
 
 This custom also found it way to Eome, and is to be 
 traced in some of the otherwise superfluous coinages of that 
 empire.* 
 
 ' " Pathan Kings of Delhi," p. 34. 
 
 ^ The gold and silver coins of the Korch Bahar find were 981 to 
 990 fine, and in general the Delhi and Calcutta coins of these metals 
 were 990 to 996 fine. " Pathan Kings of Delhi," 114-15. 
 
 ' "P. K. D." 1 and 111. 
 
 * " Were every other record destroyed, the travels of Hadrian might 
 be kno-ivn by his coins alone." Gibbon, " Declii)e and Fall of the Roman 
 
90 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 The standard of money in India during the period under 
 review remained substantially what it had been during the 
 previous one. There are not wanting indications — to be 
 derived from the plated coins of the Indo-Scythic monarchs, 
 the over-valued coppers of the Gupta race, and the billon 
 coins of the Sassanian dynasty — that efforts were made at 
 various times to change the standard from copper to silver, 
 or from copper to a numerical system ; but all these efforts 
 appear to have failed. So few particulars are left to us of 
 these experiments, that the causes of their failure can only 
 be surmised at as having resulted from the insecurity of the 
 governments which tried them, the backwardness of the art 
 of coining, or the absence of any well defined monetary 
 principle to support them. In all cases the standard of 
 money reverted to copper. In Northern India the copper 
 pieces were supplemented by gold and silver multipliers, 
 in Southern India by dividers of cowrie shells ; ^ a fact 
 which, by the way, points very clearly to the higher value 
 of copper in the south, and the proximity of copper mines 
 to the north. 
 
 It is true that certain abnormal coinages of gold and 
 silver took place from time to time as the result of invasions 
 and conquests, and for the purpose of enabling the con- 
 queror the more readily to divide the plunder of the expe- 
 dition among his followers. We know that camp coins 
 were struck by Alexander, by the Greco-Bactrian kings, 
 and by others ; but it must not be forgotten that even these 
 coins, no matter what their number, were only multiply- 
 ing tokens; that they did not derive their value from the 
 materials out of which they were composed so much as from 
 the quality which the law or immemorial custom conferred 
 
 Empire." " With the assistance of coins you teach posterity the events 
 of my reign." Theodoric the Goth, in " Cassiodorus." Humphreys' 
 " Ancient Coins," London, 1850, p. 2. 
 
 ^ " P. K. D." 110. Marsden (37) says that cowries formed the bulk 
 of the currency between the beginning of the Christian era and the 
 Mohamedan dynasty of a.d. 1203. 
 
INDIA, FROM ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 91 
 
 upon them of being exchangeable for a specified number of 
 copper coins or cowries, which formed the real monetary 
 circulation of the country. 
 
 The advent of Mahomet and rise of the Arabian power 
 gave a new direction to the commerce between India and 
 the Westj and eventually subjected the former country to a 
 new set of conquerors, whose dominion lasted until its pre- 
 sent subversion by the British. 
 
 So rapid was the spread of Mahomedanism, that within 
 a few years of the Hegira, Omar, the second in descent from 
 Mahomet, conquered both Egypt and Persia, and thus 
 secured the two principal gates of the lucrative commerce 
 with the East. To obtain the productions of India without 
 being obliged to subject themselves to the humiliating and 
 ruinous exactions of the Arabians, the Christian states of 
 Europe were obliged to conduct their trade through Tartary,, 
 a course that subjected it to great inconvenience, expense, 
 and danger. 
 
 Towards the close of the seventh century the Italians so 
 far conquered their aversion to the Mahomedans, as to 
 purchase Indian products in the markets of Alexandria ; 
 and this city again became the principal emporium of the 
 Indian trade until the occurrence of the Crusades in the 
 eleventh century. At this period, and by assisting the 
 crusaders with sea transportation for their armies, the Italians- 
 secured the valuable privilege of buying in the markets of 
 Antioch and Tyre those products of India which found their 
 way to the West by the Persian Gulf. 
 
 In 1204 the Venetians, by taking part in the reduction 
 of Constantinople, secured the exclusive privilege of the 
 Indian trade which centred at that great city, and acquired, 
 with the Peloponnesus and some of the islands of the Archi- 
 pelago (portions of the Greek empire), a complete chain of 
 settlements from the Adriatic to the Bosphorus. With 
 these advantages the route by Constantinople and the ports 
 of the Euxine Sea became the most economical. The 
 Genoese conquest of Pera in 1261 broke up this trade, andl 
 
l92 HISTORY 0¥ MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 compelled the Venetians to resort once more to Alexandria, 
 -where the duties levied on the transit of Indian goods by 
 the Soldans of Egypt amounted to one-third the value of 
 the commodities. Nevertheless the trade was so lucrative, 
 that the Florentines in 1425 petitioned for and obtained a 
 share of it. At this period the most valuable goods were 
 ■transported by the Persian Gulf, Bussora, and Bagdad, and 
 the heavier ones, including spices, by way of the Red Sea, 
 •the Nile, and Alexandria. In 1453 the Turks conquered 
 Constantinople, and the Genoese trade came to an end. 
 The rivalry for the trade to India had now become so in- 
 tense, that every means were resorted to in order to com- 
 mand it ; and it is to this feeling, far more than to any hope 
 <of glory in the discovery of new lands, or the propagation 
 of religion, that is to be ascribed the patronage of Henry II. 
 to Vasco de Gama, and of Ferdinand and Isabella to the 
 immortal design of Columbus. 
 
 Among the articles of European production which were 
 exchanged for Indian products and fabrics during this 
 period were gold and silver, chiefly the latter, which, being 
 produced from the Saxon and other German mines, and 
 coined by the Easterlings, whence its name of sterling silver, 
 ■made its way from Bruges, the principal entrepot of the 
 Hanseatic League for the trade with Southern Europe, to 
 Italy, and thence to India. The quantity of silver which 
 thus found its way to the East is not susceptible of being 
 ■estimated with accuracy ; but it will probably not be wrong 
 to regard it as having been far too small to have any effect 
 .upon the monetary systems of India, and barely sufficient 
 to eke out the demand in that country for bangles and other 
 .trifling articles of jewelry. 
 
 The conquest of Persia had scarcely been effected by the 
 Mahomedans, when they began that series of incursions 
 into India which ended with the entire conquest of that 
 •country three centuries later. 
 
 Mr. Thomas more than once remarks that the sole object 
 •of the Mahomedan conquest was plunder, an inference which 
 
INDIA, FROM ALEXANDER THE GREAT. 93- 
 
 he derives from the haste of the conquerors^ who coined 
 their gold and silver spoil in camp, and before the metals 
 were properly separated or refined. Nay, that they even 
 coined their copper spoil/ But this may have been said of 
 Darius, of Alexander, indeed of all the conquerors of India ; 
 it may likewise be said of the British. Mr. Thomas also 
 holds that the Mahomedans did not even pretend to con- 
 quer for the sake of religion. Here I think he is mistaken. 
 There was no want of religious pretence in this or any other- 
 conquest of India, iiot even in that by its present masters. 
 With these speculations, however, this history has little to do. 
 The essential point to consider in respect of the Mahomedan. 
 conquest is whether its circumstances were such as to bring, 
 about any change in the monetary system of the country. 
 No indications of any such change are to be perceived. 
 After every conquest, after every expedition for spoil, there 
 was a melting down of jewelry and ornaments, and a fresb 
 coinage of gold and silver multipliers ; but the spasmodic- 
 supplies of metal thus converted from the arts into coins- 
 were more than counterbalanced by the cessation of mining 
 during the prevalence of hostilities; and no addition can 
 be discerned to the quantity of gold and silver in circula- 
 tion. The bulk of the exchanges continued to be made in 
 copper coins, in billon valued in copper coins, and in cow- 
 ries, which latter were used as dividers for copper coins. 
 
 ' "Pathan Kings of Delhi," 169, 174. 
 
CHAPTER VI. 
 
 INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 
 
 The Mahomedan Conquest led to attempts at monetary reform and 
 ■deeper and more systematic mining — Increased, but insufficient supplies 
 of silver — Billon coins — Method of notation — Liability to error in 
 translating Indian sums into gold or silver moneys — Distinction between 
 the tank and tankah — Minute gold coins shot from catapults for pur- 
 poses of bribery — Bad state of the roads, and difficulty of gathering the 
 tributes in kind — Attempt of Mahomet -bin-Tuglah to alter the 
 standard from copper to silver — Failure of the scheme — Doubts as to 
 the true date of this experiment — Apparent adoption of silver pay- 
 ments — Thomas's opinion that the real standard was copper — Decline 
 of power of Pathan kings of Delhi— Invasion and plunder by Timon the 
 Tartar — Renewed scarcity of coinage metals — Efforts of Bahlol Lodi 
 to sustain prices by means of highly overvalued copper coins — The 
 particulars of this experiment not known- — Fall in prices — Minute gold 
 coins — Return to copper standard — Advent of the Portuguese — Dis- 
 covery of America — Influx of silver into India for gold and spices — - 
 New stimulus afforded to mining — Gold and silver become more 
 plentiful — Akbar's experiment — Failure — Return to copper standard 
 — Detached portions of the Mongol empire — The Dekkan — Bengal — 
 Ceylon — European conquests in India — Continued influx of silver- — 
 Invasion and plunder by Nadir Shah — Renewed inflvix of silver — 
 Establishment of gold, and afterwards of silver standard, by East India 
 Company — Mode of determining weight of sicca rupee same as that 
 adopted for the American dollar — Momentous consequences of changing 
 the Indian standard — Stoppage of Bank of England — These conse- 
 quences still in action — Local systems of money at the beginning of 
 present century — Introduction of paper money — Continued influx of 
 silver recently interrupted by operation of railway system — Existing 
 monetary system of India — Comparative scarcity of precious metals- 
 Difficulty of maintaining silver standard — Impracticability of gold 
 standard — Estimates of quantity of precious metals in India. 
 
 THE Mahomedan conquerors of India, after firmly esta- 
 blishing their power, directed their attention to the 
 industrial afiairs of their kingdoms, including the coinage. 
 The invasions and disturbances which had preceded the 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 95 
 
 conquest had laid bare the defects of a system involving 
 gold and silver multipliers. When these were overvalued, 
 as to some extent they generally were when issued by 
 government, they were exposed to the danger of becoming 
 excessive, either from the cupidity of the coining power, or 
 the activity of counterfeiters. When this excess, or the 
 fortunes of war and the coinage of bangles and other spoil, 
 reduced their value to that of the copper coins which they 
 represented, they were liable to be made up into bangles 
 again. In this way, and also from the continually changing 
 ratio between gold and silver, due to the small and fre- 
 quently disturbed stocks of these metals on hand, the various 
 moneys of India had become greatly confused. The Maho- 
 medans would have preferred to change the standard entirely 
 from copper to silver; but this was impracticable, and a 
 half measure which, like most half measures in monetary 
 systems, only engendered doubt and hastened failure, was 
 substituted instead. This was the introduction of a billon 
 jital of a value between the largest copper coin and the 
 smallest silver multiple, and the use of this piece as a com- 
 mon denominator of value. ^ However, the legal ordinances 
 which valued all gold and silver coins in copper, and thus 
 established a copper standard, were not changed : so that the 
 requirement or custom of using the new billon piece as a 
 denominator, while it seemingly did so, did not really 
 change the pre-existing system. 
 
 To substitute a piece even of this base character for copper 
 coins, involved a material increase in the supplies of silver ; 
 and this could only be effected by stimulating the yield of 
 the mines. Accordingly a new impulse to this branch of 
 production is to be observed at this period. The experience 
 gained by the Arabians of the Hedjaz was made use of in 
 India, the excavations both in the silver and gold mines were 
 deepened, improved means of draining them were adopted, 
 
 ' The jital or chital is the common money of Hindostan, says the 
 "Tabakat-i-Nasiri," a Moslem work of the thirteenth century. " Pathan 
 Kings of Delhi, 110. 
 
96 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 and greater care was bestowed upon the treatment of tlie 
 ores.^ These measures may have led, for a time, to an in- 
 creased yield of the precious metals, but it soon relapsed 
 into its former dimensions and silver, at least, became as 
 scarce as before. 
 
 The new coin, known in the Punjab as the dehliwdlla, 
 after the name of the place where it was first fabricated and • 
 elsewhere as the jital or chital, now became the general de- 
 nominator for all sums of money. It was usually composed 
 of about forty-two grains of copper, and from twelve to four- 
 teen grains of silver, and derived its value from the legal 
 regulation which made it equal to a given number of copper 
 coins. 
 
 It was in this billon coin that all sums of money were 
 expressed. For example "a lak" (100,000) meant in India 
 100,000 dehliwallas or chitals; just as "a million" means 
 in France a million francs, in America a million dollars, and 
 in England a million pounds sterling. 
 
 The precise value of the dehliivdlla can neither be deter- 
 mined from the quantity of metal it contained, nor the 
 quantity contained in the copper coins which it represented ; 
 unless it is also known how much the latter were overvalued 
 by the operation of mint, maximum, or 'other sumptuary 
 laws. 
 
 To show the risk of error involved in translating sums of 
 money from one currency to another when the ■ laws upon 
 which they are respectively based are but imperfectly known 
 — a species of error into which, as we shall see further on, all 
 translators of ancient Eoman sums have fallen — it will be 
 interesting to adduce in this place two instances from the 
 history of India during the period under review. 
 
 In the reign of Tiraz III., 1351-88, a certain farmer of 
 revenues, one Imod-ud-din, was said to be worth 13 hross of 
 tankahs. A Tcross is ten millions. The tankah was a silver 
 coin. Originally it weighed about 175 grains of fine 
 
 ' The Arabians were certainly acquainted with the amalgamation 
 process, and perhaps introduced it into Persia and India. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 97 
 
 silver, and in this form it was the type of the modern 
 rupee, which is of about the same weight/ During 
 the early part of the thirteenth century a great portion 
 of the newly coined tanhahs were reduced from 175 to 
 166 grains, and in subsequent issues, under the name of 
 dirhems, the lower weight was more or less closely adhered 
 to/ At this weight, and at the European ratio of silver to 
 gold, 13 'kroBsoitankahs would be worth about £13,000,000 
 sterling, and this is the value given to this sum by Mr. 
 Thomas.^ Such a translation is incredible. Even if the 
 value of silver to gold be assumed at the Indian ratio, the 
 result would be about £6,000,000, which is also incredible, 
 and suggests that the sum meant, if indeed it was not so 
 expressed,* was 13 Ttross of taiiks : the tank having been 
 a copper coin of the same period, weighing about fifty- 
 six grains,^ and worth, if not overvalued, and at the pre- 
 sumed Indian ratio of copper to silver, something like an 
 English halfpenny or American cent. This would make 
 Imad-ud-din's fortune equal to £26,000, or $130,000, and 
 if, as is probable, the tank was overvalued, the equivalent 
 would have probably ranged between £30,000 and £50,000, 
 either of which sums would have been a large fortune at 
 the time. But such speculations are little better than 
 guess-work. 
 
 At a later period, when the effort to keep up the supply 
 of silver was abandoned and the emissions of dehliwallas 
 
 ' Marsden, 36. The tankah, dirhem, and rupee are substantially the 
 same coin. The adali, of 140 grains fine, first minted in the fourteenth 
 century, was a degraded tankah, which, however, subsequently dis- 
 appeared from the coinages of India. 
 
 ' " P. K. D." (Pathan Kings of Delhi), 114. 
 
 " " P. K. D." 296. 
 
 * There was a billon tankah, called tankah sidh or black tankah, to 
 distinguish it from the tankah nukrah, or white tankah, which was of fine 
 silver. In many Indian dialects tank means money in general, and 
 tankasdld, a mint. The Russian word dengi, money, is attributed to 
 the same source. "P. K. D." 47, 117. 
 
 * The copper tank is supposed to be the same with the dharana or 
 purana of Manou. " P. K. D." 363, 408. 
 
 H 
 
98 HISTORY OF MONEY. IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 grew smaller, the copper coins resumed their previous posi- 
 tion in the monetary system, and not only continued to form 
 its basis but again gave to it its denominator. This was 
 either the has ov follis, as Hindoo or Moslem regulated the 
 coinage.^ Under the Mongul kings the common denomi- 
 nator was the dam, an overvalued copper coin of similar 
 character. 
 
 In 1526, Baber or Babar, a Mongul king and conqueror 
 of the Punjab, stated that his revenues amounted to " 52 
 kross." As a hross is ten millions and the dam was the 
 common denominator of the time, this term is assumed to 
 mean ten million dams. Mr. Brskine, in trying to reduce 
 this amount to Enghsh money, "was constrained to leave it 
 an open question between no less than five several amounts 
 ranging from £1,300,000 to £52,000,000." '' A subsequent 
 study of extant coins and contemporary histories, led Mr. 
 Thomas to translate this sum into £2,600,000,^ but the de- 
 termination is by no means satisfactory. 
 
 As for the revenue of Abul Fazl, stated at 3,62,97,55,246 
 dams, Mr. Thomas, after numerous trials, gave it up as quite 
 untranslatable.* 
 
 Going back to the establishment of the Mahomedan con- 
 quest, it is to be observed that a complete series of coins 
 are now extant of all the dynasties up to the present time, 
 and that these more or less all include gold, silver, and copper 
 coins, the former used as multiples and the latter as stan- 
 dards. In many cases the copper coins were overvalued by 
 means of mint and sumptuary laws. 
 
 To extricate the sovereign from the consequences of this 
 overvaluation, it was customary to exact the revenues in 
 kind, an undertaking of no little difficulty in a country where 
 
 ' " The follis or feloos were always the representative of price." 
 Hamilton's " Mussulman Laws of India," ii. p. 563. 
 
 ' Erskine's " History of India," i. 542. ^ " P. K. D." 387. 
 
 " P. K. D." 387. The following specimen of notation is from the 
 reign of Buhlol Lddi, a.d. 1451-88 : 5,84,00,50,000 reads 5 arabs, 
 84 kross, and 50 thousand. "P. K. D." 351. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 99 
 
 almost the only practicable avenues of commerce were the 
 rivers and canals/ 
 
 In Bengal, the system of a copper standard with cowrie 
 dividers and gold and silver multipliers remained unchanged. 
 It unfortunately happens that those who have communicated 
 to us any knowledge of this system have valued the cowries 
 not in the copper coins to which they were the nearest re- 
 lated by law, but either in the silver or gold ones from which 
 they were the farthest removed by law, but which were more 
 familiar to our informants. 
 
 The common " money " of Bengal, says Ibn Batuta, an 
 Arabian traveller of the fourteenth century, is composed of 
 cowries. A bustus is a lah oi cowries, and four laks go to 
 a gold dinar. On other occasions he states the equivalent 
 at 12 laiks of cowries to the g'old dinar. 
 
 In Orissa, which is the next kingdom south of Bengal, 
 the following scale of values prevailed during the early part 
 of the Mahomedan rule : 1 khVans =: 16 to 20, say 20 puns . 
 1 fim rr 4 boories : 1 boory ^z 5 gundas : 1 gundd zr 4 
 cowries; hence 20x4x5x4 ^ 1600 cowries. This was 
 the value of a silver rupee of that period. In 1740, a rupee 
 fetched 2400 cowries; in 1756, 2560 cowries; in 1833, 
 6400 cowries ; in 1845, 6500 cowries. These figures are 
 derived from accidental allusions in books of travel, and not 
 from any systematic averages of values during the years 
 mentioned. Until the entire monetary systems of which 
 these cowries formed a part are rescued from oblivion, par- 
 ticularly their relation to the copper coins, and the relation 
 of the latter to commodities, their value in the silver and 
 gold multipliers of the periods named, can serve no practical 
 purpose. 
 
 Among the many curious monetary phenomena of this 
 period is the following one : 
 
 Alladin, 1295-1315, while besieging Delhi, shot gold 
 
 ' A similar custom prevailed in Sumatra in the early part of the 
 seventeenth century. Beaulieu's Expedition, " Mavor's Voyages," 
 ii. 270. 
 
100 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 coins from his catapults, and thus conquered the city by 
 bribery.^ 
 
 The coins thus shot were said to have been mans and 
 these are explained to have been the same as the more 
 modern /cswams. The /ctwam contained about six grains of 
 gold (similar to the old California 25 cent gold piece). 
 There were also i and 5 fanams ; but whether these were 
 coined in gold is not stated. These minute gold coins 
 were known collectively as " star " or " spangle" gold.^ 
 
 We now come to the first Indian experiment in money 
 of which we have any tolerably explicit account : that of 
 Mahomed-bin-Tuglak, king of Delhi, 1331-51. 
 
 Upon the accession of this sovereign the condition of the 
 roads was so bad that the royal tributes in kind accumulated 
 at Deogir, instead of going on to Delhi, and at Deogir they 
 were captured by insurgents. 
 
 To avoid the recurrence of such a catastrophe and at the 
 same time to unite, by means of a new and uniform mone- 
 tary system, the somewhat disjointed members of his king- 
 dom,' Tuglak appears to have entertained the following 
 scheme of finance : — 1st, to alter the standard from copper 
 to silver ; 2nd, to render money more abundant ; 3rd,' to 
 levy the tributes in money instead of produce. In pursu- 
 ance of this scheme he began operations by debasing the 
 silver coins with copper, not perhaps with the design of cir- 
 culating them at a material overvaluation, but of rendering 
 the silver or quasi-silver pieces more numerous, and with 
 the view of ultimately retiring the copper ones. Finding 
 that the numerical increase of the billon pieces had no other 
 result than to make a given sum of money heavier than 
 before, he had recourse to overvaluation.* This device 
 appears to have succeeded so well that it led to further and 
 further debasement of the silver and billon coins, until 
 
 ' "P. K. D." 157. ^ "P. K. D." 170. 
 
 ^ The kingdom of Delhi at this period was composed of twenty-three 
 feudal provinces, never free from local wars. 
 " "P. K. D." 116. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 101 
 
 finally the silver metal entirely disappeared from every 
 coin below the tankah, and all the minor coins became alto- 
 gether of copper or brass, which by means of maximum laws 
 were highly overvalued.^ 
 
 If no other means of payment had been lawful than these 
 highly overvalued brass coins; if the number issued had 
 been specifically limited, no matter to what extent, and the 
 limit publicly proclaimed and rigidly adhered to ; and if it 
 had been impossible or exceedingly difficult and dangerous 
 to counterfeit them, they would doubtless have fully served 
 the purpose in view. 
 
 But all these circumstances were against Tuglak. He 
 permitted the circulating of gold dinars and coined new 
 ones, and gave them both the function of money at a legal 
 and unchanged ratio to other moneys, as in the previous 
 reigns ; ^ he placed no limit on the coinage of the overvalued 
 brass coins, or if he did, this limit was not proclaimed or 
 not adhered to ; and he took no sufficient guards against 
 counterfeiting. There were no finely-executed vignettes 
 or figures on the coins ; only coarse arabesques and letters, 
 which were easily imitated. 
 
 The consequence is readily foreseen. The number of 
 pieces was so rapidly and enormously multiplied, both by 
 the government mints and by counterfeiters, that in the 
 course of three years they fell to their metallic value, and 
 the whole scheme came to an end. 
 
 It is recorded that when this result seemed inevitable, 
 Tuglak promised to redeem the overvalued coppers in silver 
 at par ; and that he actually carried out this promise, heap- 
 ing the redeemed coins in vast mounds within the fort of 
 Tuglakadad (Delhi) , where they were to be seen a century 
 later.^ 
 
 How the means were obtained to effect this redemption 
 
 ^ " P. K. D." 240. 
 
 ^ The dinar of gold and dirhem of silver were of tte same, or nearly 
 the same, weight, and valued at eight for one. 
 ' " P. K. D." pp. 231, 246. 
 
102 HISTORY OF MONET IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 is not stated. Confiscation of the property of rich offenders 
 and discovery of hidden hoards are alluded to, as where 
 Tuglak obtained 437 million miskals of gold by confiscation 
 and 40 bahars of gold (each of 333 mans) by discovery;' 
 but this is doubtful, first, because the sums, however large 
 they appear, must have been, from the known scarcity of 
 gold, really small j and second, because it was not gold but 
 silver that was needed to redeem the brass coins. The 
 impracticability of suddenly coining an adequate quantity 
 of silver is also overlooked. Possibly a solution of the diffi- 
 culty is to be found in the supposition of redemption, not at 
 par, but at a greatly reduced rate, and in gold coins, not 
 silver ones.^ 
 
 It is to be regretted "that Col. Yule in so popular a work 
 as his superb edition of Marco Polo was bound to become, 
 has thought fit to allude to this notable and instructive 
 monetary experiment in a strain of derision that hardly befits 
 the professed scholar.^ 
 
 From the fact that no notable rise in prices is said to 
 have followed this experiment in money, and that the public 
 works and reforms of this reign were few and unimpor- 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 245. 
 
 ^ The scale of weights used in the reign of Mahomed-bin-Tuglak, 
 said to have been derived from the " Atharva Parisishta," a Vedio 
 work dating " some centuries" B.C., is given by Mr. Thomas, as follows: 
 1 drona = 4 aikam = 16 prastham = 512 palam = 32,768 masha = 
 163,840 ratis ; though it is difficult to see of what possible interest the 
 fact can be in connection with monetary systems, all of which were con- 
 fessedly based more or less upon numbers (m maximum laws, over- 
 valuation, artificial ratios of value, &c.), and very little, if at all, upon 
 weights. 
 
 ^ As might be expected under such circumstances. Col. Yule exhibits- 
 the utmost ignorance, not only of the character of the transaction, but 
 of its particulars. He says that Tuglak's monetary scheme was "in 
 professed imitation " of the Chao notes of Cathay, whereas it had not a 
 single feature in common with them, except overvaluation of some of the 
 pieces — a feature that may be discerned in the monetary system of 
 Col. Yule's own country and time : indeed, of every known monetary 
 system, except those imaginary ones which are to be found depicted in 
 the works of political economy. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 103 
 
 tank/ whilst they were exceedingly numerous and note- 
 worthy in the succeeding reign (that of Firaz Shah, 1351- 
 88)/ it might be suspected that the date of the experiment 
 had been misapprehended. This could easily be the case if 
 the date was derived from numismatic researches ; for it 
 was a common practice at that time — as indeed it is still the 
 practice in some countries — to use old dies in the fabrica- 
 tion of new coins. Numerous instances of this sort are 
 adduced in Mr. Thomas's " Pathan Kings of Delhi/' both 
 before and after Tuglak's reign, the latest one being that of 
 the East India sicca rupees, which were all coined as though 
 they had been issued in 1779. But the true date seems to 
 be well settled by the reference in Ibn Batuta. 
 
 Speaking of a period during the reign of Mohamed-bin- 
 Tuglak before any highly overvalued copper or brass coins 
 formed part of his monetary systems, Mr. Thomas says : — 
 " The standard, if any distinct conception of its meaning, as 
 we understand it, existed at all, seems to have been based 
 upon the primitive copper currency, which was of such uni- 
 versal distribution as to be confessedly less liable to fluc- 
 tuation than gold or silver."^ In another place he says, 
 " The real pervading currency of the realm consisted of 
 billon-money and copper pieces." ^ 
 
 Allusion has already been made to the reign of Firaz 
 Shah, 1351-88, and nothing further appears worthy of note 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 261. ^ " P. K. D." 260. 
 
 ^ "P. K. D." 231, in Marsden, 60. 
 
 * " P. K. D." 53. Shaikh Mubarak, an Egyptian traveller of the 
 fourteenth century, has left us a complete scale of moneys of one por- 
 tion (probably the earlier) of the reign of Mahomed-bin-Tuglak, as 
 follows : — 4 fals of copper = 1 kani, jital, chital, or dehliwalla ; 2 k4ni 
 =1 1 do-k^ni, or sultani ; 6 kini =z I shash-k^ni ; 8 kani zz 1 hasht- 
 kani; 12 kkai =: 1 duwazdah-kani ; 16 kani — 1 shanzdah-kani ; 64 
 kani = I tankah of silver. " P. K. D." 219. It wOI of course be 
 understood that the relation between the shanzdah-kani of copper and 
 tankah of silver is wholly artificial, and has no necessary connec- 
 tion with the commercial relation of value between copper and silver 
 metal. 
 
104 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 concerning it except that at its close the monetary system 
 consisted mainly of copper and billon coins, with a few 
 silver adalis of 140 grains finOj and gold dinars of 175 grains 
 fine, at 8 for 1. The adalis were accorded the same value in 
 gold as the old tankahs of 175 grains, and the ratio between 
 gold and silver in the adalis and dinars was consequently 
 6 J for 1 . The principal billon coin, the dehliwalla, weighed 
 about 50 to 55 grains, of which 12 to 14 grains were of 
 silver; the principal copper coin weighed 66 grains.^ 
 
 Up to about the middle of the fourteenth century the 
 kingdom of Delhi appears to have increased in territorial 
 dominion, population, and industrial resources, and after- 
 wards to have declined. Bengal, the Dekkan, and other 
 tributary provinces, all became independent, until they were 
 united again under the powerful reign of Akbar, 1550. 
 Meanwhile all these provinces established monetary systems 
 and issued coins of their own of gold, silver, and copper." 
 
 Among the Pathan kings of the fourteenth century, the 
 reign of AUadin is distinguished for many fine public works 
 and political reforms ; whilst his plunder of the Dekkan is 
 said to have brought a vast accession of gold to Delhi. It 
 would appear, however, that this gold was coined only to 
 be left a prey to the victorious Timur in 1398.^ 
 
 This conqueror so entirely denuded India of the precious 
 metals that Bahlol Lodi, 1450-88, " was obliged to impro- 
 vise a new compound copper currency to supply the demand 
 for money." * The particulars of this experiment, however, 
 have not been preserved, except that the paisa or buhloli 
 was identical in weight with the double Jcarsha of remote 
 antiquity, namely, 280 grains, and that this piece was equal 
 to five degraded tankahs or dharanas of 56 grains each ; 
 coincidences which, at present, are of merely numismatic 
 
 1 " P. K. D." 174. ' " P. K. D." 330, and onwards. 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 171, 174, 234. By the Code of Manou, the king's share 
 of booty is one-half; among the Maiomedan princes it was one-fifth. 
 Was this the origin of the Spanish Quinto ? 
 
 * Marsden, 16. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 105 
 
 interest.^ Copper and silver in the coinage of this reign 
 appear to Lave been valued at tlie ratio of 64 to 1 ;^ but 
 this may not have been the true value of these metals. 
 
 The scarcity of the precious metals occasioned by Timur's 
 conquest eventually had the effect which Buhlol Lodi had 
 foreseen and tried to prevent by means of an overvalued 
 coinage; it resulted in a general faU. in prices. In the 
 reign of Baber or Babar, a Mongul king of Delhi, a.d. 1526, 
 gold coins weighing not over 10 or 12 grains were put in 
 circulation.^ In the reign of Shir Shah, an Afghan king, 
 who in 1540-45 temporarily regained Delhi from the 
 Monguls, the billon coins were abolished, and a new coinage 
 of copper and silver coins was made at the ratio of 72-6 to 1.* 
 But these measures were of no avail. The country from 
 continual wars and frequent ravages was hopelessly poor in 
 everything, and poorer ia the precious metals than in any- 
 thing else : so that all measures looking toward their pro- 
 motion to the office of money proved so ineffectual that they 
 never reached this stage. 
 
 In 1498 Vasco de Gama rounded the Cape of Good 
 Hope, and reaching India by sea, opened a route for com- 
 merce with that empire, so much easier, cheaper, and safer 
 than any that had previously been used, as to completely 
 change the destinies of the country and its relations to the 
 general affairs of the world. 
 
 Wherever the Portuguese penetrated they found the 
 ancient system or systems of copper money in vogue. A 
 considerable display of gold and silver was made in and 
 about the Courts ;^ but there were few coins of those metals 
 in circulation among the people. The first operation of 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 361. " " P. K. D." 364. 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 7, 378. 
 
 * " P. K. D." 404, 410. For scarcity of gold and silver coins in 
 Dehli at this period, see " P. K. D." 360, 408. 
 
 ^ See Sir Thomas Roe's "Embassy to the Great Mogol," in 1615; 
 Bingley's " Collection," vol. ii. ; and a curious relation of Commodore 
 Beaulieu, in Mavor's " Voyages," ii. 240, which describes the court of 
 the tyrant of Achen in 1619. 
 
106 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 the new-comers was to plunder the coasts ; but after this 
 brigandage had aroused sufficient resistance "to render it 
 dangerouSj they began to trade, at first, by exchanging their 
 stolen silver for gold at the Indian ratio of 6 to 8 for 1, and 
 afterwards by paying for spices in reals of European metal. ^ 
 It was a strange coincidence of affairs that, at this period, 
 opened to Europe a populous country accustomed to the use 
 of the precious metals, and yet comparatiYoly devoid of 
 them, and at the same time another one replete with these 
 metals, but unaccustomed to employ them for money. But 
 for the fortunate discovery of America within a few years 
 after De Gama^s opening of the Cape route to India, the 
 latter would have become of little practical value, and the 
 Indian trade have soon dwindled to the narrow limits which 
 had confined it for upwards of thirty centuries. 
 
 During the first half-century after the discovery of 
 America the shipments of metal from that continent con- 
 sisted chiefly of the gold trinkets, effigies, and furniture plun- 
 dered by the Spaniards from the helpless inhabitants ; but 
 from 1545, when the rich silver mines of Potosi were opened, 
 the shipments became chiefly of silver, and so large a pro- 
 portion of this metal began to be shipped to India that 
 before the close of the century the Spaniards regularly 
 despatched two ships a year laden with £200,000 in silver 
 from Acapulco to Manila, whence it found its way through 
 the Portuguese factories to India. ^ 
 
 One of the results of direct European commerce with 
 India was to impart to the precious metals in the last-named 
 country a commercial value which had hitherto been but 
 imperfectly realized. This not only led to increasing impor- 
 tations of silver, but to a renewed activity in native mining, 
 the combined results of which is seen in, the great develop- 
 
 ' Bills of exchange, locally known as hoondees, were found by the 
 Portuguese in use among the Indians. Raynal, in Ganilh's " Polit. 
 Econ." 324. The ancient Babylonians used them. Lenormant, " La 
 Monnaie," i. 118. 
 
 ^ Del Mar's " Hist. Free. Metals," p. 193. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 107 
 
 ment of coinage which now began, and in the constantly- 
 recurring tendency to abandon the copper standard. A- 
 marked instance of this kind occurred in the reign of Akbar 
 the Great, 1555-1604. 
 
 This monarch, the sixth in descent from Timur, recovered 
 Delhi from the Pathans, conquered the whole of N. W. India 
 to Kabul and Kandahar, and merged all these kingdoms, 
 together with several provinces of the Dekkan, into one 
 great empire. 
 
 Amongst his monetary measures was the creation of thirty- 
 iive mints for gold coins, ten for silver, and numerous ones 
 for copper ; the interdiction of the private coinage of gold 
 and silver, the imposition of a seignorage of 5i per cent, on 
 the coinage of gold and silver, and an attempt by means 
 of billon pieces to bring silver into more common use, 
 preparatory to a change of standard from copper to silver.^ 
 This attempt, however, was a distinct failure ; not so much 
 from a scarcity of silver metal, which now came in more 
 and more freely from America and Europe, as from the 
 difficulty, in so large and yet so dis-united a country as. 
 India, of circulating the new coinages and retiring the old 
 ones without disturbance. The general ignorance and 
 poverty of the people, whose exchanges were few and small,, 
 and who had become so accustomed to measure value by 
 means of a copper denominator, as to regard the introduc- 
 tion of billon and silver coins with indifference, if not 
 distrust, had also much to do with the failure of this 
 experiment. 
 
 The mint regulations of this reign are the earliest ones 
 of which we now possess the entire text, and these enable 
 us to distinctly discern that the real basis of the system 
 was the copper dam, weighing 5 taiiks.^ The old silver 
 
 1 "P. K. D." 421,428. 
 
 ^ "Prinsep, " UseM Tables," p. 69. "Certainly in Akbar's time, 
 when theory was more distinctly applied to the subject (of a monetary 
 standard), copper was established as the authoritative basis of all money- 
 computations." "P. K. D." 231. 
 
108 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 tankah of 173 grains now (a.d. 1543) called the rupee, was 
 valued in the law at 40 clams,^ and when a given sum wa-s 
 expressed in silver rupees, or gold dinars, it essentially 
 meant only so many dams as the law declared these pieces 
 to be worth.^ 
 
 Until the mint regulations of the British East India 
 ■Company swept away the whole of the native monetary 
 systems, and eventually replaced them with a single system 
 based upon the silver rupee, this experiment of Akbar was 
 the last one of any note connected with the indigenous 
 moneys of India. 
 
 Turning from the important kingdom of Delhi, and the 
 almost universal empire of India that grew out of it, to 
 those minor political divisions of whose monetary mea- 
 sures history has preserved some fragments, it is to be 
 observed of the Dekkan, that up to the thirteenth century 
 but few coins of any kind appear to have been minted ; the 
 currency, as shown in previous chapters, appearing to con- 
 sist almost entirely of cowries, which, because they were not 
 marked as money, were probably valued with reference to 
 some marked pieces ; in archaic times, perhaps of clay, in 
 later times probably of copper metal. We hear of the first 
 mints about the year 1300, when they were established in 
 seven leading cities.^ 
 
 Bengal, from about the middle of the thirteenth to the 
 commencement of the fourteenth century, was independent of 
 Delhi; but no essential alteration appears to have been 
 made in the long time monetary system of that kingdom, 
 which was of copper coins with gold and silver multipliers 
 (chiefly the silver tanhah or dirhem of 166 grains), and 
 cowrie dividers.* 
 
 Toward the middle of the fourteenth century, AUadin of 
 Delhi ravaged Bengal and carried to his capital a large 
 booty in the precious metals.^ Notwithstanding this loss, 
 
 ' Prinsep, " U. T." 18, 69. " Marsden, 54. 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 146. ■* " P. K. D." 260. 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 234. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 109' 
 
 the coinage of silver and billon pieces in Bengal appears 
 not to have ever ceased,^ a fact which may be attributed in 
 part to the yield of native gold mines and the proximity of 
 others in Malacca, Sumatra/ &c., and in part to the superior 
 advantages of Bengal as an emporium for exchanging a 
 portion of this gold for Chinese silver. 
 
 Ceylon has yielded to numismatic researches, a few 
 specimens of ancient gold coins and a fragmentary series of 
 gold, silver, and copper ones, which stretch back to about 
 the beginning of our era; but so little is known of the 
 monetary systems with which these coins were connected, 
 that in the present state of our information upon the subject, 
 it would be futile to attempt to draw from them any con- 
 clusions of a practical value .^ 
 
 The hook money of Ceylon, and other maritime portions 
 of the East, all of which kind of money is believed to have 
 originated in Laristan, a desert portion of Persia, deserves 
 some mention in this place. It was first noticed in Persia 
 during the sixteenth century, in Ceylon during the seven- 
 teenth, and in other places during the seventeenth and 
 eighteenth. The pieces are formed of silver wire of a fish- 
 hook shape, stamped with a die and weighing from 72^ 
 to 170 grains each. They are usually called larins ; but in 
 Ceylon are known as ridi, i.e. silver.* 
 
 ' " P. K. D." 261. 
 Beaulieu observes with regard to Sumatra that the natives " have 
 rich gold mines which they know not how to work, and, therefore, 
 satisfy themselves with collecting the particles of that metal deposited 
 by the floods in ditches and trenches." It would be interesting to know 
 what improvement upon this method of placer mining was known to the 
 worthy Commodore. Mavor's " Voyages," ii. 233. 
 
 ^ Consult Prinsep, i. 87, 421, "Jour. Asiat. Soc." "Num. Chron." 
 &c. Except the silver hook money mentioned in the text further on, no 
 silver coins of Ceylon, earlier than the Dutch coinages of the eighteenth 
 century, had been found at the date of Mr. Davids' researches. " Ancient 
 Coins and Measures of Ceylon," by T. W. Khys Davids, in " Interna- 
 tional Num. Orient." 
 
 * Sir John Chardin, "Voyages," Amsterdam, 1835, iii. 128; Robert 
 Knox, " Voyages," London, 1817, p. 197. 
 
110 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Turning now from these detaclied portions of India to 
 India as a whole, it is to be observed that whilst the initial 
 proceedings of the Portuguese and other European adven- 
 turers of the sixteenth century, consisted in plundering or 
 otherwise acquiring so vast a quantity of gold and silver 
 (chiefly gold from Japan), as to set on foot an important 
 movement of these metals from the Orient to Europe,^ it is 
 evident, from its rapid decline, that this movement was 
 chiefly supplied from hoards or from superficial placer mines 
 and unimportant river washings. So far as India is con- 
 cerned, it quite ceased before the opening of the seventeenth 
 century, when the movement in the opposite direction is to 
 be observed in full flow. From this time to the middle of 
 the eighteenth century, India received from Europe several 
 hundred million dollars in bullion, chiefly silver, a move- 
 ment which was afterwards greatly accelerated by Nadir 
 Shaba's invasion and plunder of India in ] 749.^ 
 
 The urgent demand for silver which the movement pre- 
 viously alluded to evinces, also gave rise to renewed efforts 
 to extract the precious metals from the native quartz mines ; 
 but these efforts, notwithstanding the improved methods and 
 appliances introduced by the Europeans, do not appear to 
 have met with results of sufficient importance to arrest the 
 flow of silver from Europe and America. 
 
 These arrivals of foreign silver again and again altered 
 the ratio of value between that metal and gold, and gave 
 rise to recoinages so numerous, as to have caused India to 
 appear to be a country overflowing with the precious 
 metals, whereas in point of fact no large country was so 
 devoid of them.^ 
 
 The year 1766 marks the most important occurrence in 
 
 ' Del Mar's "Hist. Prec. Met." p. 195. 
 The spoil of Nadir Shah, including the Peacock's Throne and 
 Kohinoor diamond, both of which frequently figure in accounts of Indian 
 spoil, is valued in Haydn's "Die. Dates" at the preposterous figure of 
 £625,000,000 ! 
 
 ^ In 1640 goldi pagodas miAfanams were coined in great numbers at 
 Ikkeri, Mysore. Lock, on " Gold," p. 307. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. Ill 
 
 the history of money in India, and one whose practical con- 
 sequences are far from being exhausted at the present time. 
 This was the successful change of the standard of money by 
 the East India Company, from copper to one of the precious 
 metals employed for money in Europe.^ The metal chosen 
 at first was gold, but after a brief experience, which ended 
 in 1793, the company changed the standard from gold to 
 silver, which latter metal has formed its basis substantially 
 ever since. 
 
 In this year the company having determined to adopt the 
 silver rupee as their integer of account and basis of money, 
 weighed a number of those coins which were found in 
 actual circulation, and after determining the average weight, 
 which was found to be 173 grains (or thereabouts), they 
 ordered the mintage of a new rupee, the sicca rupee, of 
 this latter weight.^ This was precisely the same com-se as 
 that which a few years previously had been adopted bj^ 
 Jefferson and Hamilton in determining the weight of the 
 new American dollar.^ The East India Company, however, 
 went further than the American statesmen. Instead of 
 adopting a new design, they (holding in mind the ignorance 
 of the natives) adopted the familiar Mongul type, and even 
 decreed the continued use of Shah Alam's name and date, 
 1779, which was ordered to appear on all the company's 
 mintages, no matter what their real date happened to be.* 
 
 The effect of altering the monetary standard of India 
 was to bring it at once into correspondence with the mone- 
 tary system of Europe ; and it now became only a question 
 of commerce and time, when prices in these two important, 
 but diverse portions of the world should attain to more or 
 less the same level. One of the first and altogether unfore- 
 seen results of this momentous step, was such a drain of 
 bullion from England, that within a few years it caused the 
 most important banking institution in the world to suspend 
 
 ' Marsden, 54. ' " P. K. D." 330. 
 
 ^ Del Mar's " Hist. Prec. Met." Appendix to chap. vi. 
 ' Prinsep's " Useful Tables," p. 24. 
 
112 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 " specie" payments for twenty-four years, and involved a train 
 of other consequences as wide and as deep as the entire 
 ramifications of European commerce and finance. This 
 subject will, however, be treated of in another place. ^ 
 
 At this period (at beginning of the nineteenth century) 
 the monetary system of India may be said to have consisted 
 of: 1. Copper coins [follis), the standard of value to the 
 natives. 2. Silver coins, the principal one of which was the 
 silver sicca rupee, the standard of value to Mahomedans and 
 Christians. 3. Gold coins, minted in very small numbers. 
 The principal one was the mohur of the same weight as the 
 rupee, and valued in rupees according to the European ratio 
 of gold to silver. 4. Inferior commodity moneys in various 
 localities. 
 
 This general system is described in Dr. Kelly's Cambist, 
 published in the early part of the present century. The 
 inferior commodity moneys were as follows : 
 
 Various inferior commodity moneys used in the Indies and Indian Seas. 
 
 Material of Money. 
 
 Cowrie shells. 
 
 Almonds fi'om Persia. 
 
 " Cash " of tutenague. 
 
 Tin (cast) coins. 
 
 Tin (cast) coins of singular 
 shape. 
 
 Pieces of cotton cloth. 
 
 Pieces of silver wire called larin. 
 
 Convertible government paper 
 notes (1820). 
 
 Cotton-cloths with paddy (rice 
 in the husk), for small 
 change. 
 
 Cakes of gum benjamm, buffa- 
 loes, brass wire, beads and 
 salt. 
 
 Cowries (Postlethwayt). 
 
 Persian almonds (Tavemier). 
 
 Place. 
 Calcutta . 
 Cambay . 
 Falfoe . 
 Goa. 
 Junkceylon 
 
 District. 
 Bengal . 
 Malabar Coast 
 Coast Cochin China 
 Malabar Coast 
 West Coast, Malay 
 
 Magindanao 
 Maldive Islands 
 
 Mauritius . 
 
 Philippine Islands . 
 Off Cape Comorin . 
 Isle of France 
 
 Sooloo 
 
 Sunda Islands 
 
 Tappanooly 
 
 Island of Sumatra . 
 
 Various . 
 Various . 
 
 Siam . 
 Gujerat 
 
 ^ For fall description of the present system of money in India, consult 
 Prinsep's "Useful Tables," p. 18. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 113 
 
 In Bombay^ in 1774, the legal ratio of silver to gold was 
 nearly fifteen to one ; afterwards, thirteen to one, and in 
 1800 fifteen to one.' This system lasted until 1835. On 
 September 1st of that year a new silver coin containing 
 165.92 grains of pure silver, and called the Company's 
 rupee, was coined in superoession of the numerous varieties 
 of rupees (Sicca, Surat, &c.,) which were previously current. 
 A gold coin of precisely the same weight was also struck, 
 called the Mohur. But the same law provided that there- 
 after silver should be the sole standard of value. In 1841 
 the double standard was again permitted until December, 
 1852, when it was finally abolished.'^ 
 
 Mr. Newmarch, while conceding that there are no means 
 of ascertaining by any authentic data the amount of silver 
 money in India, deems it " quite conceivable that the mass 
 of silver (so used) may amount to 400 millions sterling," ■* 
 an estimate too guarded for practical use. There is nothing 
 to warrant one-half of this sum. 
 
 In 1835 to 1876 inclusive, there were received into 
 British India, chiefly from Europe, 1,200 million dollars- 
 worth of silver, and 530 millions of gold. Of these sums 
 1,000 millions of silver and 615 millions of gold were re- 
 tained in the country. Of the latter very little or none 
 ($50,000,000) * remains in the form of coin, the rest having 
 been consumed in the arts. Of the silver, about 100 mil- 
 lion dollars are to be counted in treasuries, banks, &c., and 
 there are, perhaps, 100 to 150 millions more in the hands of 
 Europeans ; the natives possessing little or no silver coin. 
 
 Beyond the European settlements and large cities, but 
 little gold or silver was in circulation in 1863 ; nor has this 
 state of affairs materially changed.* 
 
 ' Kelly's " Cambist," i. 94. 
 
 ' Tooke's " Hist. Prices," vi. 722. ' Ibid. 723. 
 
 '' " Br. Pai-1. Report on SUver," Ques. 938, 945, and App. p. 6. 
 
 ' Few or no silver coins outside of cities even as late as 1863. 
 W. Nassau Lee, "Drain of Silver to Bast." Same up to 1876. "Br. 
 Pari. Rep. on SHver," 1876. 
 
 I 
 
114 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 It would, in my opinion, be a liberal estimate to reckon 
 the amount of silver and gold coin in India at the present 
 time at $300,000,000 or £60,000,000, of which not more 
 than one-sixth is gold. 
 
 As for Mr. Daniell's estimate ^ of five hundred million 
 pounds ($2,500,000,000) gold in India, it is simply pre- 
 posterous. The entire stock of gold coins in the world does 
 not equal this sum. 
 
 The systematic introduction of paper money in India 
 dates from 1861. Previous to that year there had been 
 small emissions by the three government banks of Bengal, 
 of Madras, and of Bombay, which circulated rarely elsewhere 
 than in the three cities in which the banks were established. 
 In 1861, by a decree of the British Government of India, 
 the three directors of the mints of Calcutta, Madras, and 
 Bombay were severally made chief commissioners of paper 
 money, charged with the emission of government paper 
 money in exchange against silver in coin or bullion. Of 
 the silver thus to be received, 400 lacs of rupees, or such sum 
 as the government might subsequently decide, were to be 
 invested in government bonds to form a reserve or guarantee 
 for the notes emitted. The notes were declared legal 
 tender money, within their respective presidencies. Those 
 who deposited silver in ingots or foreign coins were to be 
 at the expense of its conversion into rupees. A later 
 decree provided that all persons depositing silver in bars 
 or specie would be given a receipt for the value thereof 
 (deducting in case of bullion the cost of mintage), bearing 
 a date at which the bearer would be entitled to receive 
 notes in exchange. In March, 1862, an engagement was 
 made with the banks mentioned, for a period of five years, 
 giving them, instead of to the commissioners, charge of the 
 emission of paper money and obliging them to establish 
 agencies to that end at the most important points in the 
 three presidencies. Thus, ten centres of emission were 
 
 ' " G-old in the East," by Claremont J. Daniell, of the Bengal Civil 
 Service, London, 1880. 
 
INDIA, SINCE THE MAHOMEDAN CONQUEST. 115 
 
 established, and the notes were of the denominations of 
 five, ten, twenty, fifty, one hundred, five hundred, and one 
 thousand rupees. By 1866, the circulation of these notes 
 had reached the sum of $50,000,000. The following table 
 shows the paper circulation at the periods understated : — 
 
 
 Amount of Paper 
 
 
 Circulation. 
 
 1868 . 
 
 . $45,346,000 
 
 1869 . 
 
 49,798,000 
 
 1870 . 
 
 52,364,000 
 
 1871 . 
 
 52,185,000 
 
 1872 . 
 
 65,535,000 
 
 1873 . 
 
 64,324,000 
 
 1874 . 
 
 55,730,000 
 
 Average $55,040,000 
 
 A review of the history of money in India brings to light 
 certain facts and considerations of present importance. 
 
 It is evident that until the advent of the Portuguese in 
 India, and excepting the Greco-Bactrian coinages, neither 
 gold nor silver was in common use in any part of that vast 
 country for money ; that even at the present time, coins of 
 these metals are for the most part employed only for 
 exchanges between Europeans, and in the largest com- 
 mercial transactions ; and that the entire sum of silver and 
 gold money in India does not exceed one dollar per capita 
 of population. So that if the level of prices in India is 
 ever to approximate the general level of prices in the 
 western world, vast supplies of the precious metals must 
 yet be forthcoming, or else a monetary system must be 
 devised for India which shall be independent of the precious 
 metals. 
 
 It is evident that the native mines cannot be expected 
 to furnish these supplies. Mining can no longer be carried 
 on by slaves, but must be continued, if at all, upon the 
 basis of commercial profit. But whether by slaves or 
 freemen, the silver mines of India are few and unprolific, 
 and have been long since worked out to reasonable depths. 
 
116 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 The gold placers^ the source of her immense supplies of 
 this metal in ancient^ mediaeval^ and modern times, are 
 completely exhausted. The gold quartz mines, as proved 
 by numerous ancient and mediaeval workings, and by the 
 notable failures of 1882,^ are shallow, and have all, been 
 carried below the level of profit. 
 
 Nor can these supplies come from hoards. Whatever 
 gold or silver India has from time to time possessed has 
 been plundered from her. Darius, Alexander, the Maho- 
 medans, the Monguls, the Portuguese, Nadir Shah, and 
 the English,^ have all taken part in this plunder. As for 
 what remains in the form of bangles and trinkets, it is too 
 trifling to consider with reference to money, which, when 
 made of gold or silver, requires not only a large stock of 
 these metals to begin with, but also perennial supplies to 
 make good the losses by abrasion, caprice, or accident. 
 
 As for establishing a monetary system in India which 
 shall be independent of the precious metals, I consider it, 
 for many reasons, quite impossible. Even her partial 
 independency of these metals, which has been contrived 
 through the use of convertible bank and government notes 
 in British India, cannot probably be materially extended 
 amongst so poor and backward a people as the Indians, 
 without grave fisk of failure. 
 
 The only practicable resource which remains for India is 
 to extend her issues of silver and gold coins, and to obtain 
 her supplies of the precions metals (chiefly silver) from the 
 West ; and this policy must continue to exert, as it always 
 has exerted, a powerful influence towards causing an 
 appreciation of silver as compared with gold in the western 
 world. 
 
 ' In 1879 I doubted that the goldmines of the Wynaad would furnish 
 any supplies. "Hist. Pren. Met.," p. 6. In 1880 I predicted their 
 " utter collapse." " N. Y. Mining Record," August 7, 1880. This 
 coUapse occurred in 1883. 
 
 ^ The gold and silver spoil of Hastings, CUve, &c., is included in the 
 commercial movement of the precious metals between India and 
 Europe. 
 
117 
 
 Taking into consideration the fact that the world^s sup- 
 plies of the precious metals are at the present time declining, 
 while its demand for them is increasing,^ the influence 
 of India must also extend beyond the appreciation of 
 silver ; it must tend to appreciate the value of both gold 
 and silver as compared with commodities ; in other words, 
 its tendency is to occasion a gradual and general lowering 
 of the prices of commodities in the western world. Thus 
 far, this tendency has been nullified and overcome by the 
 great expansion of Paper Money in the West ; so that, as a 
 matter of fact, prices have risen rather than fallen ; but un- 
 less new means are devised to still further and safely 
 expand this important portion of the general measure of 
 value, the commercial world must look forward to falling 
 prices and numerous failures. 
 
 Aside from the general supplies of money (not loans of 
 money from one power or country to another, but supplies 
 from mines, mints, and authorized printing presses), and 
 the general demand for its use, which in the western world 
 may be assumed to have attained an equilibrium, the measure 
 of India's future influence upon prices must be the develop- 
 ment of her commercial intercourse with the West, and this 
 may be approximately determined by observing the in- 
 creasing trafiic which flows through the Suez Canal, whose 
 incapacity to accommodate its present volume is attested 
 by the recent very serious discussion of a proposal to con- 
 struct a second water way through the Egyptian isthmus. 
 
 ' " Hist. Free. Metals," p. 182. See also Mr. Gosohen's letter to 
 London " Times," 1883. 
 
 ^ It has been alleged that during the quarter of a century ending 
 with the year 1868, ingots of copper were imported into India and 
 hoarded therein, or used as money ; and that after the opening of 
 California and Australia, this custom ceased. This statement is in- 
 exact, it also lacks confirmation. See J. Ross Browne, " Mineral 
 Resources of the United States," Washington, 1868, p. 207. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 
 AEIANA. BACTfilA. CAUBUL. (KABUL.) AFGHANISTAN. 
 
 The boundaries of Ariana as given by ancient writers — It includes 
 the more modern Bactria, Caubul, and Afghanistan — At present rather 
 an ethnical than political division of the earth — History of money in 
 Ariana connects it with India — Includes the Gi-eco-Bactrian empire — 
 Brief history of Ariana, and its connection with India — Ninus — Semi- 
 ramis — Darius — Alexander — Its various dynasties, down to modern 
 times — Character of its ancient population — Development of agricul- 
 ture and commerce — Ariana the supposed birthplace of the human race 
 — Supplies of precious metals from the mines — From commerce — 
 Successive standards of money — Clay — Copper — Numismatic finds — 
 Exceptional coins — Experiment of Kanerkes with overvalued coppers — 
 Scarcity of silver after the Greco-Bactrian monarchy — Nickel coins — 
 Longevity of bad money — Punch-marks on coins. 
 
 ARIANA was a term used by the Greek writers to mean 
 all that country extending from the Aral on the north 
 to Beloochistan on the south, and from Yezd in Parthia 
 (Persia) on the west to the valley of the Indus on the east. 
 It includes the ancient Greek kingdom of Bactriaj and the 
 more modern empires of Caubul and Afghanistan.^ This 
 country has been so often divided between the contending 
 monarchies which surrounded and composed it, that it must 
 be regarded at present, and for many ages past, rather as 
 an ethnical than a political division of the earth. Numis- 
 matists are asked to look upon it as the habitat of the oldest 
 monuments — the Indian archaic coins — as yet known to 
 man ; archaeologists to recognize it as the seat of the oldest 
 literature, the Vedic scriptures ; and ethnologists to pro- 
 claim it the cradle of the human race. Whether Ariana 
 
 ' H. H. Wilson, "Ariana Antiqua," London, 1841, 4to, pub. by the 
 East India Co., pp. vii. and 214. 
 
ARIANA, BACTEIA, CAUBUL, AFGHANISTAN. 119 
 
 was ever a united empire, inhabited by a homogeneous race 
 or not, is a matter of little consequence in the present rela- 
 tion. From the period of the earliest connected history- 
 known to us, it was the home of several warring races and 
 the theatre of continual conflicts ; it is now a country long 
 since ruined and decayed. 
 
 The principal interest which belongs to the history of 
 money in Ariana connects that country with India, and also 
 with the Greco-Bactrian dynasty. In order that these re- 
 lations may be the more clearly understood, it will be neces- 
 sary in this place to introduce a brief sketch of the history 
 of the country. 
 
 The earliest classical record of Bactria relates to its inva- 
 sion by Ninus, King of Assyria, and the second husband of 
 the famed Semiramis. This event is assigned by chrono- 
 logists to about the year b.c. 1975. It is said that Ninus 
 invaded Bactria with an army of two millions of persons, and 
 after defeating its king, Oxyartes, he annexed it as a de- 
 pendency to his Assyro-Persic empire. Upon the decay of 
 this empire, Bactria regained its independence, which it 
 enjoyed until it was subdued by Cyrus of Persia. Its next 
 rulers were Sphendadates (who falsely impersonated Tany- 
 oxartes, the youngest son of Cyrus) and Darius Hystaspes. 
 This brings it into the domain of accepted history. As for 
 the story of Ninus and Semiramis, though it rests upon as 
 good evidence as any one of the numerous accepted classical 
 predicates about money, the chronologists throw the same 
 sort of doubt upon it as they do upon the story of Sesos- 
 tris. It was too long ago ; therefore it could not have 
 happened.^ 
 
 Both the expeditions of Darius Hystaspes and Alexander 
 the Great connect the history of money in Bactria with that 
 of India and Persia. Upon leaving Bactria Alexander ap- 
 pointed a Persian, one Artabazas, to rule the country as a 
 
 ' Consult Wilson's "Ariana Antiqua," p. 126; Haydn's "Die. 
 Dates;" " The Universal Biography," art. "Ninus;" and Dr. Robertson's 
 " India,'' note vi. 
 
120 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 satrapy in his name. In B.C. 312 this satrapy was over- 
 thrown by Seleucus Nicator, who ruled the country for two 
 years, and then was forced to retire from it, leaving it inde- 
 pendent. In B.C. 256 it fell under the rule of the Greco- 
 Bactrian line, and afterwards under the various dynasties 
 set forth in the note at foot.^ 
 
 ' The following list of the 'dynasties of Baetria also shows the 
 character of the coins issued by each sovereign, which have thus far been 
 found and deciphered : — 
 
 Period. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 330 
 312 
 310 
 
 256 
 240 
 220 
 190 
 181 
 147 
 147 
 135 
 
 140 
 130 
 135 
 125-20 
 126 
 120 
 110 
 100 
 98 
 
 100 
 80 
 75 
 60 
 
 Sovereign or dynasty of Baetria. 
 
 Artabazas . . . . . 
 
 Seleueus Nicator of Babylon 
 Independent sovereigns of Baetria , 
 
 Oreco- Bactrian Line. 
 
 Theodotus I. 
 
 Theodotus II. 
 
 Euthydemus 
 
 Demetrius 
 
 Eukratides . 
 
 Heliokus 
 
 Lysias 
 
 Amyntas 
 
 Queen Agathokleia 
 
 Antimachus 
 
 Philoxemus 
 
 Antialkides 
 
 Archibius . 
 
 JNIenander . 
 
 Pantaleon . 
 
 Apollodotus 
 
 Diomedes . 
 
 Hermseus . 
 
 Indo-Scyth 
 
 Mayes 
 Palirisus 
 Spalyrius 
 Azilises 
 
 ian Line. 
 
 Character of coins 
 found. 
 
 G. S. B.* C. 
 
 G. S. B.* C. 
 
 G. S. C. N.f 
 
 s. c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 c. 
 
 S. C. N.f 
 
 s. c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 c. 
 
 c. 
 
 c. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 * B. Billon coins. 
 
 f N. Nickel-copper coins. 
 
ARIANA, BACTEIA, CAUBUL, AFGHANISTAN. 121 
 
 Although the countries composing Ariana are more 
 familiar to modern readers as pastoral than as agricultural 
 states, it must not be forgotten that this has not always 
 been the case ; and that in ancient times this country was 
 not only famous for its agricultural development, but 
 actually gave its name to the plough (aratrum). 
 
 Mr. Elphinstone estimated the population of Caubul in 
 1809 at fourteen millions, and although this was no doubt 
 an exaggerated number at the time, there are many 
 evidences, both in its archseology and literature, to prove 
 that the population of Ariana in not very remote times 
 greatly exceeded this figure. '^ 
 
 Period. 
 
 B.C. 
 
 Sovereign or dynasty of Bactria. 
 
 Character of coins 
 found. 
 
 50 
 
 Azes ...... 
 
 S. C. P-C* 
 
 
 The " Kings of Kings " 
 
 Indo-Parihic Line. 
 
 s. c. 
 
 30 
 
 Venones ..... 
 
 s. c. 
 
 — 
 
 Undophenes .... 
 Gondophares .... 
 
 c. 
 
 C. P-C* 
 
 
 Abagasus ..... 
 Kodes ..... 
 
 c. 
 
 s. 
 
 
 Indo-Scythic Princes of Caubul and Jelalabad. 
 
 85 
 60 
 24 
 
 Kadphises ..... 
 Kadaphes ..... 
 Kadphises II. . 
 Kanerkes ..... 
 
 G. C. 
 G. C. 
 G. C. 
 G. C. 
 
 — 
 
 Konorano ..... 
 
 0. 
 
 — 
 
 Ooerki ..... 
 
 G. 
 
 — 
 
 Baraoro ..... 
 
 G. 
 
 — 
 
 Sassanicus ..... 
 
 S. C. 
 
 No silver coins of this dynasty until Sassanicus. 
 
 ' For Mr. Elphinstone's computation consult Mr. Greggor's " Geo- 
 graphical Dictionary," ed. 1846, art. " Caubul." 
 
 * P-C. Plated copper coins, from the size of a sixpenny piece to 
 that of a florin, English. 
 
122 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Ariana was also at a very early date a commercial 
 country. This is proved by the Vedic writings and the 
 Code of Manouj both of which are believed to have been 
 brought into India from Ariana ; ^ and by its geographical 
 position. It was the earliest, and for many ages the only 
 route between India and the silver-producing countries of 
 the Westj and what supplies of coining metals it failed to 
 produce from its own mines were afforded by the caravans 
 that passed through the country from Europe to India. 
 
 Gold mining was pursued in Ariana in very remote times. 
 The text of the Vedic writings, the allusions of Herodotus, 
 and the researches of modern geologists and numismatists 
 combine to settle this fact beyond question. Here origi- 
 nated that sacred character of gold mentioned by Manou ; 
 that attribute of royal metal which has clung to it through 
 all the ages, and is found in a charter so late as that of Queen 
 Elizabeth of England; and that fable of the ants with which 
 Herodotus puzzled the learned world until very recently, 
 when it was found that he had stolen it from the Mah4b- 
 harata.^ 
 
 Says Von Humboldt : — " The old Indian mythologists 
 make the ruler of the North (Kuwera) likewise the god of 
 riches ; and it is remarkable that the residence of this deity 
 (Alaka) must be sought for not on the Himalaya itself, but 
 on the Kailasa, beyond the Himalaya, in Thibet. Still further 
 to the north-west, beyond the mountain chain of the Kuen- 
 
 ^ " Land of the Veda,'' and authorities cited therein. 
 
 ^ Amongst the many attempts made by the learned to reconcile this 
 fantastic story of Herodotus with truth, the most ingenious is that by 
 ilr. Ball, who informs us that the " ants " were men clothed in sheep- 
 skins (wool outward) ; the ant-hills, huts, whose lower part is below the 
 ground, and surrounded by a raised hillock of excavated earth ; and the 
 horns pickaxes of buffalo-horns used by the miners ; that the elevation 
 of the place is 16,000 feet above the sea, &c., &c. It is a pity that the 
 discovery of the story in the " Mahabharata " destroyed all this super- 
 structure of " classical learning ; " see " Mahabharata," Sabha " Parva," 
 printed edition, vol. i. p. 375, in "Ariana Antiqua," p. 135. The 
 quotation mentions the " drona " as a gold weight. 
 
ARIANA, BACTEIA, CAUBUL, AFGHANISTAN. 123 
 
 Ian, which separates the districts of Laddakk and Khotan, 
 Heeren places, and I think with much probability, the great 
 golden sand deserts visited by the Indians, bordering on 
 Kaschmir, and containing ants less than dogs, but larger 
 than foxes. It is on the western declivity of Bolor, that 
 the most recent and intelligent explorer of this terra incog- 
 nita — Alexander Burnes — has described the gold-sand beds 
 of Durwazand and the upper course of the Oxus." ^ 
 
 Except of that small quantity of metal with which the 
 annual freshets enrich the valleys of every gold-bearing 
 stream, Ariana has long since been exhausted of its gold 
 deposits, and although not far removed either from the 
 silver mines of the Caucasus or the gold ones of Semirit- 
 chinsk, the country has been remarkable for its poverty in 
 respect of the precious metals ever since the invasion of 
 Alexander the Great, nor is there any evidence to prove 
 that it was rich in them before that time. 
 
 The earliest moneys of Ariana were probably the clay 
 tablets already mentioned, and these were followed by 
 copper coins with gold and silver multiples, a system that, 
 with few breaks, has continued to the present time. 
 
 These breaks are indicated by the exceptional coins of 
 certain reigns : the billon coins of the two Theodotuses, the 
 nickel coins of Buthydemus and Agathokleia, the plated 
 coins of Azes and Gondophares, and the highly overvalued 
 copper coins of Kanerkes. The last-named ones, and the 
 doubtful inscriptions upon them, afford us the only clue to 
 the history of monetary experiments in Ariana. 
 
 These copper coins of Kanerkes are precisely like others 
 of the same monarch of gold, which bear the legend in 
 Greek letters, but in an unknown language, nana (or nanaia) 
 PAG KANHPKi KOPANO. Although NANA (or nanaia) has been 
 conjectured to relate to the name of a tutelary goddess of 
 Armenia (!), ^ it is probably the name of the coins, both 
 because it appears in both the gold and copper coins, and 
 
 ' Baron Von Humboldt, "Fluctuations' of Gold," 1837, p. 26. 
 ^ " Ariana Antiqua," p. 362. 
 
124 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTJRIES. 
 
 because it is alluded to in the Prakrit drama called the 
 " Mrich-chakati " and the Sanscrit " Mitakshara." ' 
 
 These allusions clearly prove that the coins were so 
 highly overvalued as to invite counterfeiting, and this 
 could only have been the case with the copper coins, because 
 they were the only ones in common circulation, the gold 
 ones being necessarily scarce. To overvalue the copper 
 coins, it was necessary to fix a legal scale of prices for com- 
 modities ; but this was common in all eastern countries 
 (see Manou,viii. 402), and probably long precededKanerkes' 
 attempt to fabricate his gold multiplier out of copper. 
 
 No further account of this experiment appears. It need 
 only be observed that the view of it here taken is fully 
 supported by the collateral evidence of the numismatic finds. 
 These indicate great scarcity of the pi'ecious metals, and the 
 almost entire absence of silver after the decline of the Greco- 
 Bactrian monarchy, and the cessation of active intercourse 
 with Greece. Of the Indo-Scythic line, only three kings 
 coined silver, and one of these mingled with it plated coins 
 of copper. Of the Indo-Parthian line only two kings coined 
 silver, whilst another issued plated copper ; and of the Indo- 
 Scythic kings of Caubul no silver coins at all have been 
 found, except one or two of the last one (Sassanicus). It 
 is a curious instance of the longevity of bad money, that 
 many of the (once) silver-plated coins of Kanerkes, of which 
 the original emissions seem to have been very plentiful, 
 
 ' A passage in the " Mrich-chakati " alludes to " this filcher of broad 
 pieces." The accompanying comment calls a Ntoika " a coin with the 
 mark of Siva." "Mrich-chakati," act i. sc. 1. The text of the 
 " Mitakshara" directs that the fabricators of false coins shall be punished, 
 as also the assayer who gives a false valuation. The passage reads : 
 " The falsifier of weights, copper-grants, measures, and also of the 
 Ntoika." And again : " The assayer of Kanakas, who calls that which 
 is genuine an imitation, or fails to detect a counterfeit, is to be punished 
 in the highest degree." "Mit. Vyavahara," p. 80 (Wilson calls this work 
 " Tajnawachya's legal dicta "). These works are ascribed to a remoter 
 period than Kanerkes' coins, so that they must have related to N4n4kas 
 older than his. And he may have got his hint for imitating them in 
 copper from these very works. Consult Wilson's " Ariana Antiqua." 
 
ARIANA, BACTRTA, CAUBUL, AFGHANISTAN. 125 
 
 have been found in active circulation, or in the hands of 
 money-changers in the larger towns of Hindostan.^ Another 
 curious fact in the same connection is that the Mahomedan 
 invaders of the seventh century punched the coins which 
 they found circulating in Afghanistan with their own de- 
 vices, a practice known in China as afExing a " chop 
 mark." ' 
 
 This brief history of money in Ariana would be incom- 
 plete without some further reference to the antiquity of 
 Manou, and the use of the precious metals for money, 
 whether gold, silver, or copper ; because all through the 
 dim lines of remote history there appears to run a thread 
 that points out the Aryan, the follower of Manou, as the 
 gold-hunter, the argonaut, the pioneer, par excellence, of 
 antiquity.^ 
 
 The Code of Manou has already been discussed, but Manou 
 himself has not been. The Arians revered Manu ; the 
 Thibetans, Mani ; the Indians, Manou ; the Siamese, Manu ; 
 the Lydians, Manes; the Phrygians, Manis ; the Egyptians, 
 Menes ; the Cretans, Minas ; the aboriginal Germans, 
 Mannus. All these names are evidently the same. He 
 was always a god, a law-giver, a hero. Dates, eras, epochs, 
 are almost everywhere lost, and where they are not lost 
 they are obscured by prejudice or religious bigotry; but a 
 single positive date relative to Manou has survived. This 
 fixes his era at B.C. 2960, 3643, or 3893, accordingly as 
 
 ^ " Ariana Antiqua." 
 
 ^ Ibid. p. 110. The coins found thus punched were of the Sassanian 
 (Persian) dynasty, a.d. 226-632. 
 
 ' The " Institutes of Timur," which profess to have been written by 
 this conqueror about the beginning of the fifteenth century, very plainly 
 show that at that period the country had long since fallen into a pastoral 
 state. They are written in the Biblical style, and are only fitted for a 
 people of scanty numbers and uncertain habitation. A single ordi- 
 nance, however, might well be re-enacted at the present time : " And I 
 ordained that to every bureau of the departments of government an 
 accountant should be appointed, and that he should keep a journal of 
 the daUy expenses, and of the receipts and disbursements." " Institutes 
 of Timur," Oxford, 1783, p. 307. 
 
126 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIES. 
 
 Manetho^a Egyptian dynasties are computed.^ At a very 
 remote date we find bodies of men — Lydians, Phrygians, 
 Phoenicians^ Greeks, and others belonging to Aryan races 
 — pushing out in all directions into the desert wilds of 
 aboriginal Europe in search of gold, silver, and copper. 
 Inachus, Jason, Cadmus, — all these are evidently treasure- 
 hunters — whose deeds, clothed in the hyperbole of newly- 
 found letters, formed the basis of ancient mythologies. It 
 was the same class of men who subsequently discovered, 
 robbed, and depopulated Spanish America, who ravaged 
 the East Indies, who scoured the high seas for trea- 
 sure-ships, and who, when there was a law even for 
 pioneers, ransacked California and Australia in the name of 
 industry. 
 
 ' Del Mar's " Hist. Precious Metals," p. 3, and authorities therein 
 cited. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 EGYPT. 
 
 The gold mines of Egypt — Their vast extent — Changes wrought upon 
 the face of the country by mining — The Bisharee region — Origin of 
 Egyptian civilization — Nubia the land of gold — Analogy to Italy, Gaul, 
 and California — The mining districts — The Bisharee mines — Immense 
 excavations — Their antiquity — Probably coeval with the first coloniza- 
 tion of Egypt by Indians — Placers impoverished and quartz worked 
 so early as b.c. 2830 — Described by Diodorus — Further mining dis- 
 couraged by Diocletian — Antiquity of money in Egypt — Probably de- 
 rived from India — No coins of the early gold period remain — Probable 
 moneys of the period between the decline of the gold mines and con- 
 quest of the Persians — The gold rings not money — Nor the gold plates 
 — Scarab money— Stone nummulites — Iron money at Kordofan — Its 
 Sanscrit name — Its resemblance to certain Chinese and Aztec coins — 
 The Persian coinage — Since that period the money of Egypt has been 
 that of its conquerors — Glass coins of the Fatimite caliphs — These in 
 use so late as the eighteenth century. Originally issued as numerical 
 money, they eventually, from reckless over-emissions, became nearly or 
 wholly worthless. 
 
 BEFORE proceeding , to discuss the development of 
 money in Egypt, it is important to ascertain with 
 some degree of precision the extent, resources, productive- 
 ness, and conditions of mining for the precious metals in 
 that country, and as these matters have not hitherto en- 
 listed much attention from scholars and miners, and there 
 is therefore no comprehensive literature .on the subject, it 
 becomes necessary to devote some space to it herein. 
 
 It may, perhaps, appear surprising that the Nile, vsrhich, 
 from time immemorial, has been regarded chiefly as a 
 great agricultural stream, should be classed among mining 
 rivers ; yet there is ample warrant for so doing. Not only 
 this ; but its history as a mining river appears to be more 
 ancient, and — considering the geographical changes it has 
 
128 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 brouglit about — it is certainly more important than as an 
 agricultural one. 
 
 In the remotest historical period the Nile, though never 
 a rapid stream below the junction of the Blue River, had, 
 undoubtedly, a greater fall than at present. The country- 
 rock, which appears at numerous places along its bed, did 
 not form, as now, merely rapids, but cataracts. This their 
 ancient names attest. The hills of Sennaar and Nubia, 
 which now are destitute of timber and water, were once 
 wooded; and from their flanks flowed numerous feeders, 
 which, after enriching the soil, added their floods to the 
 Nile. These feeders now flow underground, through the 
 mining debris which underlies the sand of the plains.' 
 
 The Bisharee or gold country was once cultivated,^ and 
 populous.^ Much of it is now, and has been since the 
 time of Cambyses,* a desert of sand and gravel. The Nile, 
 which now washes the Arabian side of the valley, formerly, 
 skirted the Libyan side.® Prom lat. 27° 40' N. to the sea, 
 a portion of Egypt was at one time a morass.^ It was like 
 
 * Klunzinger's " March througli the Desert, from the Nile to the Red 
 Sea," contains many allusions- to these streams, e.g., " Channels are seen 
 on the sides of mountains, traces of brooks, of waterfalls, of the beds of 
 rivers, some of them strewn with wide valleys of embouchure. Nay, 
 along the very summit of the mountain mass runs a regular watershed, 
 from which waters must run either westwards into the Nile valley, or 
 eastwards into the Red Sea," p. 230. " The soil in which we are march- 
 ing is not loose sand, but very solid gravel," p. 216. New York, ed. 
 1878. 
 
 ^ " The soil is naturally black.'' Dio. Sic, iii. 1. 
 
 ^ " That the valley was once a busy scene of life is evidenced by the 
 numerous ruins and ancient Egyptian sculptures hewn on the rocks." 
 Klunzuiger, p. 235. Edrisi, a.d. 1150, calls Wady Al-aki, a " fertile 
 settlement." 
 
 '' Herodotus, iii. 25, alludes to the grassy region followed by the 
 " bare sands." 
 
 * Herodotus in " Euterpe" says this change was effected by a canal 
 cut by King Menes. There are still some traces of an ancient river bed 
 along the western hUls. Consult Rawlinson's " Herod." and Dejardin m 
 Reclus's "Earth," p. 371. 
 
 " Herod, in " Euterpe." 
 
EGYPT. 129 
 
 the delta of the Po,' and covered with trees.^ This was 
 probably during the first era of mining, and before the 
 river was diked by Menes. It is now all dry land and tree- 
 less. The Nile once emptied into the sea, a little below 
 where Cairo now stands. At the present time it runs 
 ninety miles farther, through a Delta whose vast dimensions 
 owe their foundation to the operations of those multitudes 
 who for generations were employed in washing the sands of 
 the Bisharee region for gold.^ 
 
 After the era of mining, which had bestrewed the plains 
 of Lombardy with sand and gravel from the mining regions 
 of Piedmont, the annual floods of the Po were able to cover 
 the mining deposits with layers of loam, which, in the course 
 of ages, became sufficiently deep to restore the ancient 
 agricultural character of the country. 
 
 Not so with the Nile, which, from Fazogle, in lat. 12° N., 
 to the Delta, had scarcely enough fall for this purpose. 
 Consequently, the ruin brought upon Nubia was irre- 
 parable ; and its inhabitants were driven for support to 
 the narrow valley of the Nile proper, where agriculture 
 had to be conducted under conditions that led to the per- 
 manent enslavement of the people and to those extraor- 
 dinary systems of government and religion which have 
 exercised such a potent influence upon the destiny of the 
 world.* 
 
 Next to a comprehensive study of these systems, nothing 
 
 ^ Baird Smith, " Italian Irrigation," p. 134, on the marshes of Lom- 
 bardy during the Middle Ages. 
 
 ^ Marsh, 455 n. 
 
 ^ The certainty that at least a portion of the vast quantities of gravel 
 and sand which can be seen to have been washed down from the Bisharee 
 region, must lie beneath the loam which now covers the Delta, invali- 
 dates all calculations concerning the supposed age of the earth which 
 have been derived from observing the depth of the formation. Indeed 
 the entire topography of the country has been changed, largely by 
 mining ; and this in turn has led to industrial and social consequences 
 which have deeply affected the history and the fate of nations. 
 
 * Buckle, " Hist. Civ.," i. 65. 
 
 K 
 
130 HISTOKY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 ao well marks the uncertain nature of Egyptian agriculture, 
 and the abject and defenceless character of the people who 
 had to depend upon it for support, than the frequency of 
 their subjection to foreign conquerors, and the number of 
 alien dynasties to which Egypt has been compelled to 
 submit.^ 
 
 This furnishes a curious contrast with China, which 
 during forty centuries has not changed the nationality of its 
 dynasties half-a-dozen times. 
 
 The civilization of Egypt, like that of all ancient coun- 
 tries, appears to have begun in the hilly regions, becai se in 
 the early stages of society these portions of a country are 
 the most secure.^ Beside this general theory, there are 
 particular evidences to support such a conclusion in the case 
 of Egypt. Before the Delta assumed its present vast pro- 
 portions, the only considerable agricultural surfaces in 
 Egypt were in the Fork, anciently called the Island of 
 Meroe, and in the plains below the foot-hills of Nubia. The 
 edifices and works of art discovered in Meroe, and else- 
 
 ' The system of culture simply consists of waiting upon the annual 
 overflow of the Nile to fill the irrigating canals, and when the river has 
 subsided, of maintaining the level of the water in the canals and reser- 
 voirs by pumping, bailing, and ladling. This work, and the digging of 
 fresh canals, engrosses the labour of the people for months. Without this 
 incessant struggle with nature the lands would become uncultivable, and 
 even with it the result is doubtful ; for if the next overflow of the river 
 exceeds thirty feet in height, everything on the land is demolished and 
 swept away ; while if it falls short of eighteen feet the harvests fail and 
 famine ensues. Del Mar's "Egypt," p. 11. 
 
 ^ During the course of twenty-six centuries these have been no fewer 
 than sixteen in number, with an average duration to each dynasty of not 
 more than 165 years, as follows: — Conquests of Egypt: B.C. 700-800, 
 Ethiopians; B.C. 525, Persians under Cambyses ; B.C. 411, Independent 
 Egyptian kings ; B.C. 351, Persians ; B.C. 332, Greeks under Alexander ; 
 B.C. 30, Romans under Augustus ; a.d. 616, Persians ; 626, Romans ; 
 639, Arabs; 1171, Turks; 1250, Mamelukes; 1517, Turks; 1798, 
 French under Napoleon I. ; 1801, British protectorate; 1802, Turkish 
 protectorate ; 1804, Independent Pachas, Mahomet Ali ; 1881, European 
 protectorate. 
 
 " Henry C. Carey, " Polit, Econ.," and authorities quoted. 
 
EGYPT. 131 
 
 where in Nubia and Upper Egypt, appear to have preceded 
 those which have been found in the lower country. The 
 Egyptians and Nubians are regarded as of Indian origin, 
 their physical appearance, their complexion,' their pyramids 
 and earliest edifices, their ecclesiastical and political institu- 
 tions, and the origin of some of the plants and many of the 
 articles of commerce found in their tombs, all point to this 
 conclusion.^ 
 
 The term Nubia appears to have originated in Egypt, 
 where Noh or Nub signifies gold, hence Nubia, the land of 
 gold.^ In a similar manner the term China originated in 
 Europe. Malte-Brun regards Nubia as the Ethiopia supra 
 Egyptum of the ancients. It embraces the foot-hills of 
 the mountainous ranges that constitute a great part of 
 Abyssinia, whilst Egypt is a country of low plains bestrewn 
 with sand. The three distinguishing characteristics of all 
 great gold-mining countries are here apparent : the sierras, 
 Abyssinia; the foot-hills. Nubia; the plains, Egypt; the 
 connecting link between them all, the Nile. Analogous 
 geographical surroundings characterize those other great 
 mining rivers, the Po, the Rhone, the Rhine, and the 
 Sacramento. Like Italy and California, Nubia has also 
 its coast range. These mountains separate the Bisharee 
 country from the Red Sea, and rise to an altitude of 6000 
 feet. 
 
 Below the foot-hills of Nubia is a vast expanse of sand and 
 gravel, known as the Bisharee or Great Nubian Desert.'' 
 This, as we shall presently see, was once the centre of the 
 greatest gold-mining works known to the ancient world. 
 According to Diodorus, Book iv., the Pharaohs derived 
 from this region in gold and silver," a sum which Mr. 
 
 ' That they were not black like the Ethiopians is noticed by Pliny. 
 Del Mar's " Egypt," p. 4. On the Nubian origin of Egyptian 
 civilization consult McCuUoch, " Geog. Die," ii. 428, Buckle, " Hist. 
 Civ.," i. 65, and Kawlinson's "Herod.," ii. 30. 
 
 ' "App. Cyc," xii. 438. 
 
 ^ McGreggor, ii. 271 ; McCuUoch; Malte-Brun. 
 
 ' The silver mines appear to have been in the coast range on the 
 
132 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIES. 
 
 William Jacob computes to have been equal to £6,000^000 
 per annum. If this computation can be depended upon, 
 the Nubian mines were as prolific as have since been those of 
 either Italy, Spain, Brazil, Russia, Australia, or California. 
 In Lower Nubia, in or about the same latitude as the 
 Second Cataract of the Nile, lie " vast and fertile, but neg- 
 lected plains, which it is conjectured were, at some remote 
 period, reached by the inundations of the Nile." ^ If the 
 inundations of the main stream could have reached these 
 plains at any former period, they certainly can reach them 
 now that the bed of the river is higher than it ever was 
 before.^ So that the Encyclopedist must be mistaken as to 
 the cause of the desolation noticed. The fact is, that 
 anciently Nubia was watered by numerous small streams 
 that flowed into the Nile, and were employed to irrigate 
 these deserted plains — once the Lombardy of Africa — but 
 which, after they had been diverted by the gold miners, 
 and their sources of supply cut off by the destruction of the 
 forests in the foot-hills for mining timbers, fell into the con- 
 dition of " washes/' which now are only flooded for a brief 
 period during the rainy season, March to May,^ and are dry 
 for the remainder of the year.* These " washes,'' or dried- 
 up water-courses, are called by the Arabs " wadys." ^ 
 Besides these are the underground rivers alluded to in 
 Reclus, 278. Without surface rivers, there are, of course, 
 no irrigating canals.^ 
 
 Red Sea. " App. Cyc," xii. 437. A silver " forge "• — query, furnace — is 
 mentioned as having been found at Shendos, on the Xile. McCulloch, 
 " Geog. Die," ii. 428. 
 
 '- " App. Cyc.,'' article " Nubia.'' 
 
 ^ At Thebes it has been raised seven feet in 1700 years, and at the 
 Delta more than half as much. Marsh, " The Earth as Modified by 
 Man," p. 520. 
 
 ^ Malte-Bruu says the weather is scorching from January to April, 
 and that it rains from June to September. " App. Cyc." says there is no 
 rain in Lower Nubia, and that in Upper Nubia it rains from March to 
 May. 
 
 * Lock on " Gold," p. 6. ' Marsh, 623. 
 
 ° McGreggor, " Statistics," ii. 267. 
 
EGYPT. 133 
 
 Such is Nubia to-day. Its hills have been levelled into 
 a plain of sand and gravel; its alluvial soil has been washed 
 into the Nile^ which has transported it a distance of a 
 thousand miles to fill up the morasses/ and form the Delta 
 of Egypt ; its forests have been cut down ; its rivers have 
 been either dried up or submerged ; and where man has 
 not indeed abandoned it^ he has degenerated to the level 
 of a savage. The Arabs call the natives Berbers, a term 
 equivalent to the Roman word barbarian, and possibly of 
 the same origin. Treachery, dishonesty, drunkenness, and 
 filth characterize the men, and vulgarity and licentiousness 
 the women,^ many of whom are worked as beasts of burden, 
 to plough the land or tow the boats on the Nile.^ Both 
 sexes go naked, and the money of the country is a sort 
 of broom-corn, called dourra.* 
 
 Gold has been found in nearly every region tributary to 
 the Nile, from the Equator to the First Cataract. The 
 following summary of these regions affords a brief 
 view of the information which has been collected on this 
 subject. 
 
 Barfoor. — Hon. Robert Curzon in his " Armenia," Lon- 
 don, 1854, p. 120, says that some years previously he met at 
 Assouan, a European from the mountains beyond Darfoor, 
 lat. 12", long. 26° East, who showed him several strongly 
 made iron-bound chests full of gold from that region. 
 Some of the gold was in nuggets, but most part in the 
 form of rings the size of bracelets, and others of the size of 
 large heavy finger- rings, all of pure gold. These rings 
 were passed in Darfoor as money, and were of the same 
 
 ' Above the Delta Egypt was anciently all morass. Herodotus in 
 " Euterpe," cited in Marsh, 455 n. 
 
 '' The Bisharee are dishonourable, faithless, and vicious. Klunzinger's 
 " Upper Egypt," p. 262 ; Malte-Brun, ii. 470 ; McCulloch, " Geog. Die," 
 ii. 427. 
 
 ' McGreggor, " Stat.," ii. 271. 
 
 ■' McGreggor, " Stat.,'' ii. 267. Belzoni in Malte-Brun, ii. 470, says 
 all commerce is by barter; Malte-Brun, ii. 470, says that tribute is 
 paid in cloth. 
 
134 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 form as those used for a similar purpose by the ancient 
 Egyptians, and of the rings found in Celtic countries, in- 
 cluding ancient Britain/ 
 
 Kordofan. — This region lies between Darfoor and the 
 Nile. It abounds with auriferous placers, which are washed 
 by slaves.^ Thirty years ago the trade in gold was mono- 
 polized by the pasha; but gold was sold clandestinely at 
 the rate of $8 in silver for 430 grains of fine gold, equal 
 to $17.30 per oz. Troy, or about 15 per cent, under the 
 mint value. ^ 
 
 Tahale District, White Nile. — Sheiban, modern Seizaban, 
 on the west bank of the White Nile, within the Takale or 
 Takla district, in the Kordofan country, lat. 12° N., is 
 spoken of by Pinkerton as a placer gold country. At 
 Luca, apparently in the same district, as well as at Shei- 
 ban, gold, probably gold-dust, in quills, is the only money .■* 
 
 SJioa. — Albuquerque, a Portuguese commander, gold- 
 hunter and pirate, landed on the coast of Abyssinia about 
 the year 1510, and at once proceeded to ransack the 
 counti'y for gold. Amongst the means which he employed 
 was to enslave the living in the mines, and plunder the 
 graves of the dead. His rapacity and cruelty left so 
 strong an impression on the natives, that up to a very 
 recent date, 1841, and perhaps even still, the use or pos- 
 session of gold is strictly forbidden in the kingdom of 
 Shoa. The monopoly of the gold trade by the sovereign 
 of that country may have something to do with this inter- 
 dict. In spite of it, however, gold is sold surreptitiously 
 for about nine silver dollars per ounce Troy.^ 
 
 Fazooglu Country on the Blue Nile. — The Suakin mer- 
 
 ^ It is greatly to be regretted that Mr. Curzon's statement is not 
 more definite. The weight of these rings, the marks, if any, upon them, 
 and the equality of weights in rings of like size, would all have been 
 matters of interest in connection with the suspicion that they were used 
 as money. 
 
 ^ Yet it uses an overvalued iron money. See farther on. 
 
 ' McGreggor, " Com. Stat.," ii. 272. * Lock on " Gold," p. 5. 
 
 ^ Hai-ris in McGreggor, " Com. Stat.," ii. 348, 354. 
 
EGYPT. 135 
 
 chants deal in gold brought from this region, which is in 
 lat. 11° N. In October, 1838, Mahomet Ali left Cairo in a 
 steamboat to visit this country. The mines proved to be 
 near the confluence of the Blue Nile and the Fazangoro. 
 After inspecting them, he left a colony to work them for 
 wages, and laid the foundation of a town near by, to con- 
 tain fifteen hundred families ; but the mines failed to pay, 
 and the town has gone to ruins. ^ The previous produc- 
 tiveness was due to the fact that the mines were worked by 
 slaves, who were paid nothing for their labour but blows. 
 
 Kaffa. — In the Kaffa country south of Abyssinia, lat. 7° 
 N., it is said that gold is found so plentifully that it is not 
 much dearer than silver.^ 
 
 Sasu Country on the Takaze. — Adowa is in Abyssinia, 
 about fifty miles from the Takaze, and in lat. 14° N. Gold 
 is one of the principal articles of the transit trade through 
 this place, and of the export trade from Abyssinia gene- 
 rally.' Some of this gold probably comes from the Kaffa 
 country. Cosmos, a Greek writer who visited Ethiopia 
 (Abyssinia) about a.d. 536, gives an account of this trade, 
 which, in his time, appears to have centred at Axum, 
 which was the capital. The gold came from a country 
 called Sasu.* 
 
 Meroe. — Strabo, xvii. 2, 2, while describing Meroe, says, 
 " there are also mines of copper, iron, gold, and various 
 kinds of precious stones." This reference is applicable not 
 merely to Meroe, which is an alluvial plain containing no 
 gold mines, but to the whole of Nubia. The mention of 
 gold mines in connection with Meroe may have been 
 derived from the fact that Shendy, lat. 17° N., was a mart 
 for the gold of the Upper Nile regions. It is so still, the 
 price of gold being $16 an ounce.^ Sennaar on the Blue 
 Nile, lat. 13°, is also one. Price of gold, $12 an ounce.® 
 
 ' McGreggor, ii. 273. 
 
 ^ Herr Camill Russ, in "Lond. Geog. Mag.," 1878, p. 228. 
 ' Lock on " Gold," p. 5. ■* Jacob, 39. 
 
 ° McCulloch, Geog. Die. art. " Nubia." '^ Ibid. 
 
136 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Bisharee Country. — The mines of this region are re- 
 served for a more extended description farther on. 
 
 Below the Qatar acts. — There are no gold mines below 
 the cataracts, says Engelhardt. The first or lowest cata- 
 ract is in lat. 24° N., and this, therefore, is the northern 
 limit to the gold mines of Egypt. 
 
 Somali. — The above list comprises all the gold mines in 
 the valley of the Nile (except the Bisharee) from the 11th 
 parallel, which may fairly be regarded as the extreme 
 southern limit of Egyptian authority, to the 24th parallel, 
 north of which no mines have been found. Besides those 
 of the Nile Valley, there are numerous gold mines in the 
 surrounding countries, other than those mentioned by 
 Herodotus,^ which are supposed by Eawlinson to have been 
 in the Somali country. This is on the south coast of the 
 Gulf of Aden. At the present time there are some small 
 lots of dust shipped from Leila and Berbera, long. 45° B.^ 
 There are gold mines also in the Kaffa country previously 
 noticed, and others in the coast range of the Red Sea. 
 
 We now come to the principal gold region of Egypt, 
 and the greatest of all antiquity. 
 
 The Bisharee Mines. — These auriferous mines are in 
 the Bisharee country, situated in the great Nubian bend of 
 the Nile, between lat. 20° and 22° 40' N., and long. 32° 30' 
 and 35° 20' East.^ The quartz veins have a course N.W.- 
 S.E. In the Pharaonio period the produce of these mines 
 was sent down the Nile.* In the Ptolemaic it was trans- 
 ported to various ports on the Red Sea, among them 
 Berenice, lat. 24° N., a distance of about 260 miles from the 
 most productive mines. This place is now a mere ruin. 
 
 The Bisharee country forms the foot-hills to the sierras 
 
 ' " Thalia," iii. 17, 23. 
 
 ^ Lock on " Gold," and " App. Cyc," article " Berbera." 
 
 '' Lock, pp. 9, 10, fi'ota Linant de Bellefonds' map. 
 
 ■* The shipping port was Edfou, or ApollinopoKs Magna, or Redesiah, 
 in lat. -I-i" 58'. It was ten days' journey N.W. from the mines. Oppo- 
 site to Edfou was Bahayreh. 
 
EGYPT. 137 
 
 of Abyssinia. The sierras are 12^000 to 15^000 feet^ whilst 
 the highest of the hills is about 6,000 feet in altitude. 
 The latter gradually diminish until they melt into the plains 
 ofEgypt.i 
 
 According to Linant de Bellefonds, there are remains of 
 gold mines at the following places in the Bisharee region : 
 
 Oum Guereyatte; Ceiga, 22° 30' N., 33° 60' E. ; Gebel 
 Offene ; Gebel Abdulla ; Gebel Matchouchelennaye ; Gebel 
 om Cabrille ; Tamille ; Gebel Essewed ; and Gebel Tella- 
 tabd. All these are situated in the country of the Cawatil 
 Arabs, between about 21° 30' N. and 32° 50' and 34° 20' 
 B., and were discovered by Linant de Bellefonds. 
 
 Oum Tayour ; Wady Sohone ; Wady Hagatte ; Wady 
 Affawe; Wady Daguena; Wady Camolit ; Derehib, 21° 40' 
 N., 35° E.; and Wady Chawanib. These are in the country 
 of the Mansour Melecat Arabs, lying east of the foregoing 
 and west of 35° 20' E., and were examined by Linant de 
 Bellefonds. At Dershib the quartz excavations are of im- 
 mense extent. 
 
 Raft ; Kelle ; and Absab. These are in the country of 
 the Poukara Arabs, between 20° and 21° N. and about 
 32° 30' E., and were all examined by Linant de Bellefonds. 
 
 Water. — Among the water resources now traceable are 
 the following wadys : ^ Al-aki (anc. Akita) ; Sohone ; 
 Hagatte; Affawe; Daguena; Camolit; and Chawanib. 
 It seems probable that in remote times all these wadys were 
 running streams. There are also numerous small streams 
 that, in flood-time, swell into devastating torrents and lose 
 themselves in the desert, to make their way underground 
 to the Nile.' There are also numerous wells to tap the 
 underground streams. 
 
 ^ " App. Cyc," article "Egypt;" McCuUoch; Reclus, 318. 
 
 ^ " Wady is applied by the Arabs to all torrent courses." Rawlin. 
 Herod., n. to iii. 26. 
 
 " Klunzinger's " Upper Egypt,'' and Lombardini inKeclus, 278. The 
 Arabian geographer Edrisi relates that he saw quicksilver used for 
 amalgamating gold in the mines of Al-aki. Humboldt, " Fluctuations 
 of Gold," p. 11. 
 
138 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 While ^lius Gallus, governor under Augustus, about 
 B.C. 25, was absent on a military expedition against the 
 Arabs, the Ethiopians took Syene, Elephantina, and Philse. 
 On his return the Roman governor forced the enemy back 
 to Pselchis,"^ which place he took, as well as Ibrim,^ after 
 travelling over the same hills of sand that had once over- 
 whelmed Cambyses^ army. After Ibrim, he took the 
 capital, Napata, and razed it.^ 
 
 Antiquity of the Bisharee Mines. — Next to the mines of 
 the Altai mountains of India,^ the Bisharee mines of Egypt 
 are probably the oldest in the world ; and in view of the 
 Indian origin of the Egyptians, and the distant researches 
 and conquests which have been made by the leading 
 nations for the acquisition of gold, it seems not at all im- 
 probable that there existed a close connection between the 
 discovery of the Egyptian mines and the original settle- 
 ment of the country by Asiatic races. 
 
 At what era this occurred cannot be determined with any 
 approach to certainty. Scholars of the present age are no 
 less anxious to find a place in chronology for Adam and 
 Eve, than were Hecateus and Herodotus to assign an actual 
 era to Hercules and Venus ; and the entire current of 
 literary and archEeological research is vitiated by the un- 
 warrantable intrusion of personages whose only legitimate 
 domain lies within the pages of theological and mytholo- 
 gical history. 
 
 If conjecture be admitted where dates are thus confused, 
 it appears likely that the Bisharee mines were worked as 
 early as the era of Menes, which is variously assigned to 
 from twenty-nine to thirty-nine centuries B.C. ; for in the 
 
 ^ Modern Dakkeh. ' Above Meroe. 
 
 ' " It is ueuerally placed at the east extremity of that great head of 
 the Nile which skirts the desert of Bahioiida, and near Mount Brikel. 
 Amongst the ruins which probably cover the site of the ancient Napata 
 are two lions of red granite, one bearing the name of Amneph III., the 
 other Amuntuonch. They were brought to England by Lord Prudhoe, 
 and are now in the British Museum." Note toBohn's ed. of " Strabo." 
 
 ^ Heereu's " Asiatic Nations," i. 47. 
 
EGYPT. 139 
 
 time of that monarch or lawgiver, the Nile was diked, and 
 from the character of this river and its surroundings there 
 could have been no necessity to dike it until mining had 
 surcharged its waters with sediment. 
 
 The supposed antiquity of these mines derives support 
 from the fact that even at the period of Menes gold had 
 been used for money in India ; ^ that Menes was an Indian 
 conqueror and lawgiver ; that the Indian Code of Manou, 
 still extant, and assigned variously to from the fifteenth to 
 the thirty-first century B.C., is evidently re-compiled from a 
 much older code, now lost ; that commerce between India 
 and Egypt existed from the remotest times mentioned in 
 history or derived from archeeological remains ; that an 
 Egyptian expedition to India is attributed to Sesostris, 
 B.C. 2000,^ and from other considerations.^ 
 
 However this may be, the Bisharee mines are known to 
 have been worked for quartz so long ago as the twelfth 
 dynasty,* which Lepsius assigns to the period B.C. 2830. 
 Prom the fact, understood by every miner, that quartz is 
 never worked so long as tlie placers contain the smallest 
 practical quantity of metal, and judging from the experience 
 of Italy, Spain, and Brazil — where extensive placer deposits 
 were worked, as in Egypt, by the hand labour of slaves — 
 the Bisharee placer mines were at least two hundred years 
 old when the quartz was worked under the twelfth dynasty 
 of the Pharaohs. This carries the era of their discovery 
 back to the thirtieth century B.C. ; and they may be much 
 older. 
 
 The next date at which these mines are known to have 
 been worked is under the eighteenth dynasty, about B.C. 
 1548. They were also worked under Thutmes III. of the 
 
 ^ See chap. iv. of present work. 
 
 ^ Diodoi-us Siculus, i. 34. 
 
 ^ Consult Rawl. Herod. App. to Book II. chap. viii. 
 
 * Mariette Bey, "Histoire Ancienne d'Egypt; " " Encyc. Brit." 9th 
 ed., article "Gold," p. 96; Agath. in Dio., iii. 12-15; Jacob's "Hist. 
 Free. Met.," p. 31. 
 
140 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 eighteenth dynasty -j^ under Seti Sethos, or Sethosis, of the 
 nineteenth dynasty, B.C. 1443 ; and Ramses, or RamesesII., 
 son of Sete, B.C. 1324.^ 
 
 All these dates are derived from inscriptions on the 
 neighbouring rocks and temples, and possess the highest 
 archeeological value. 
 
 The vast sum of " silver and gold money " which is said 
 to have been contained in the treasury of Rhamsinitus,^ 
 a monarch whose era is attributed by Rawlinson to the 
 eighteenth dynasty, points both to the working of the 
 Bisharee mines for gold, and to commerce with India for 
 silver.* 
 
 The quantity of gold amongst the spoil (jewellery and 
 works of art, not money) carried away from Egypt by Cam- 
 byses, about B.C. 526, part of which was regained by Ptolemy 
 Bucyetes, B.C. 346 ; the extent of the tribute imposed by 
 Darius, which was 700 talents in gold (?), besides 7,000 
 talents-worth of corn and the produce of Moeris ; ° and the 
 annual revenues of Ptolemy Auletes, the father of Cleopatra, 
 which were " 1 2,500 talents " a year,® imply^ — if these trea- 
 sures are meant to be expressed in gold — the production of 
 this metal upon a large scale. 
 
 In the reign of Ptolemy Philopata, B.C. 180-170, the 
 Bisharee mines were visited by Agatharcides of Cnidus, who 
 has left us a brief account of them.' 
 
 By this time the placers had been thoroughly exhausted 
 and probably re-washed, and the mining was entirely in 
 quartz . 
 
 In B.C. 50 the Bisharee mines were visited by Diodorus 
 
 ' Mines of Derehib. ^ Wilkinson and Rawlinson. 
 
 ' Herodotus, ii. 121. 
 The former are the only mines known to have been worked at that 
 period whence any large supplies of gold could have come ; the latter is 
 the only country which could have supplied any considerable quantity 
 of silver. The Phoenician supplies of silver appear to have come at a 
 later date. 
 
 * Jacob, 30, from Herodotus, iii. 91. " Strabo, xvii. 1, 13. 
 
 ' See Agalh. in Dio. Sic, iii. 12-15 ; Jacob, 31. 
 
EGYPT. 141 
 
 Siculus. He says: — "On the confines of Egypt and the 
 neighbouring countries there are regions full of gold mines, 
 whence, with the costs and pains of many labourers, much 
 gold is dug. The soil is naturally black, but in the body of 
 the earth there are many veins of shining white quartz, 
 glittering with all sorts of bright metals, out of which those 
 appointed to be overseers cause the gold to be dug by the 
 labour of a vast multitude of people. For the i kings of 
 Egypt condemn to these mines not only notorious criminals, 
 captives taken in war, persons accused of false dealings, and 
 those with whom the king is offended, but also all the kin- 
 dred and relatives of the latter. These are sent to this 
 work, either as a punishment, or that the profit and gain of 
 the king may be increased by their labours. 
 
 " There are thus infinite numbers thrown into these 
 mines, all bound in fetters, kept at work night and day, 
 and so strictly surrounded that there is no possibility of 
 their effecting an escape. They are guarded by mercenary 
 soldiers of various barbarous nations, whose language is 
 foreign to them and to each other, so that there are no 
 means either of forming conspiracies or of corrupting those 
 who are set to watch them. They are kept to incessant 
 work by the rod of the overseer, who often lashes them 
 severely. Not the least care is taken of the bodies of these 
 poor creatures ; they have not a rag to cover their naked- 
 ness ; and whoever sees them must compassionate their 
 melancholy and deplorable condition, for though they may 
 be sick or maimed or lame, no rest nor any intermission of 
 labour is allowed them. Neither the weakness of old age, 
 nor the infirmities of females, excuse any from the work, to 
 which all are driven by blows and cudgels ; until, borne 
 down by the intolerable weight of their misery, many fall 
 dead in the midst of their insufferable labours. Deprived 
 of all hope, these miserable creatures expect each day to 
 be worse than the last, and long for death to end their 
 griefs."^ 
 
 * Dio. iii. 1-6. See also Dio. i. 49. 
 
142 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIES. 
 
 After having been worked successively by the Egyptians, 
 Persians, and Greeks, the Romans worked the Bisharee 
 mines ; but by this time even the quartz mines were pro- 
 bably in a very exhausted condition. 
 
 Diocletian, about a.d. 296, issued an edict in Egypt com- 
 mitting to the flames " all the ancient books which treated 
 of the admirable art of making gold and silver," apprehen- 
 sive, as we are assured, " lest the opulence of the Egyptians 
 should inspire them with confidence to rebel against the 
 empire." ^ 
 
 The historian insinuates that the interdicted works were 
 devoted to alchemy, a science whose name appears to indi- 
 cate an Arabian, and therefore a later origin, than the 
 period of Diocletian. Be this as it may, alchemy in its 
 earlier developments included both metallurgy and mining, 
 and there can be no doubt that, assuming the story to be 
 true,^ the interdict of Diocletian was aimed at the delusive- 
 ness of gold mining, and not at the black art. 
 
 During the Roman period the Bisharee mines were 
 visited and described by Cosmos, a Greek writer, a.d. 535.'^ 
 
 During the Arabian period they were visited or described 
 by Bdrisi, a.d. 1099-1164 ; Aboolfidda, King of Hamah in 
 Syria, 1273-1331 ; Ibn-al-Wardy, d. 1358 ; ' Macrizi, 1385 ; 
 and Massandi, of the fourteenth or fifteenth century," all 
 Arabians. These writers allude to the Bisharee country as 
 the " land of Bega." 
 
 In recent times these mines were visited by Belzoni, 
 Linant de Bellefonds, and Mahomet Ali, the last of whom 
 reopened and worked . some of them for a short time, but 
 without success.'' 
 
 Having thus traced, as accurately as the paucity of 
 
 ^ Gibbon, i. 441, from John of Antioch. 
 Crevier, " Hist, des Emp. Rom.," xi. 254, voc. Diocletian, discredits 
 the story entirely, but gives no reason tor so doing. 
 
 ' Jacob's " Hist. Free. Met.," p. 39. * Malte-Bran, ii. 469. 
 
 ° Quatremere in Jacob, 31. 
 
 " McCulIoch, ii. 427, and Rawlinson's " Herod.," note to ii. 23. 
 
EGYPT. 143 
 
 materials permits, the history of gold mining in Egypt, 
 we are now better prepared to follow that of rnoney. 
 
 It has been asserted by competent authority that not a 
 single metallic coin has been found in the ruins of Egypt.^ 
 If the word coin is restricted to a piece of money struck by 
 the cuneus, this assertion must be accepted as correct ; but 
 as a coin is commonly taken to mean any kind of metallic 
 money, the absence of coins in the archaeological remains of 
 Egypt has caused it to be generally believed that the Egyp- 
 tians were ignorant of the use of money, and has furnished 
 an additional ground for the erroneous theory that money 
 was invented by the Lydians or the Greeks. 
 
 The Egyptians were not only familiar with the use of 
 money, they probably had several kinds of it ; and, moreover, 
 possessing the most extensive and productive gold mines 
 which are known to have been worked at any certain period 
 of antiquity, they furnished to other nations, including the 
 Indians, the material out of which they too could make money. 
 
 Egypt derived its civilization from India, and conferred 
 it in turn upon Greece. Both of these countries, the former 
 at a period probably anterior to the settlement of Egypt by 
 an oriental race, were familiar with the use of money. Long- 
 after the settlement of Egypt, an active commerce was 
 maintained between that country and India. This is proved 
 by the presence of indigo, tamarind wood, and other Indian 
 products in the tombs of Egypt, which remained unopened 
 until a recent date.^ At a later period, and before Egypt 
 was invaded by the Persians, an active commerce and social 
 intercourse existed between Egypt and Greece, the latter 
 being a country where it is admitted money was in common 
 use. Under these circumstances, with India behind it and 
 
 ^ Rawlinson's " Herodotus," i. 559. Layard says the same of Assyria. 
 Upon removing the obelisk from Egypt which now stands in Central 
 Park, New York, Commander Gorringe announced that beneath the 
 monolith he had found some ancient Egyptian coins, but he seems to 
 have been mistaken. 
 
 ^ "Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians," ii. 237. Some of these finds date 
 as far back as the eighteenth dynasty, or the fifteenth century B.C. 
 
144 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Greece before it, and both countries using money^ it cannot 
 be supposed that Egypt was without it. 
 
 The state of society in Egypt also bespeaks the use of 
 money. The principal industry of the country was agri- 
 culture ; the arts had reached a high degree of proficiency ; 
 the population was numerous and highly civilized. These 
 are conditions which it is held have never existed, and never 
 could exist, without money. Even the brief and formal 
 literature of the tombs bespeaks the use of money ; for it 
 tells us of contracts for the sale of lands, stipulations for a 
 rate of interest, and prices for the manumission of slaves. 
 Such transactions are inconceivable without money. 
 
 On the tombs at Thebes are sculptured slaves weighing 
 certain rings in a scale, the weights representing, as many 
 ancient weights did, some animal, as a lamb, a lion, a bull, 
 &c. These rings are decided, both upon the evidence of 
 the neighbouring cartouche, and upon analogy derived from 
 the finding in the tombs of numerous plain gold rings, too 
 large for use upon the fingers, and too small for the wrists, 
 to be money. "^ This I cannot admit. The fatal objection to 
 their being regarded as money is that they have no mark of 
 authority, no sign, no symbol, no peculiarity of shape ; 
 nothing to distinguish them from pieces of bullion, or from 
 ornaments of some sort. Moreover, there is no analogy in 
 the types of other moneys to afford strength to the belief 
 that these rings were money. The Indian type of money 
 was a round piece of metal with a square hole in it. The 
 African and Celtic types were pieces of metal of a horseshoe 
 shape, more precisely like the capital letter C. The Indian 
 money was marked, the African and Celtic moneys were 
 not ; but, in the latter case, the peculiar shape was itself the 
 mark, as is proved by the fact that such pieces still circulate 
 in some parts of Africa.^ 
 
 ^ Wilkinson's " Anc. Egypt. ; " Smith's " Die. Bible," art. " Money ; " 
 Dickenson, in " London Num. Chron.'" 
 
 ^ The writer has one of them in his possession. It is ]nade of copper, 
 is 3J in. in diameter, and weighs about five ounces. 
 
EGYPT. 145 
 
 Finally, these pieces are represented as being weighed, 
 and this, perhaps, is the strongest of all arguments that they 
 were not money. Bullion needs to be weighed, for it is its 
 weight that determines its value ; whilst the value of money, 
 provided it is genuine, and not clipped or sweated, is not 
 derived from its weight, but from the whole number of 
 pieces at issue — a fact very much better known to the 
 ancient than to the modern world. Nor can it be argued 
 that the Egyptian rings were being weighed to determine 
 their validity, for this can only be done with one piece at a 
 time; whereas the sculptures represent a number in the 
 scale together. 
 
 " Count Caylus mentions the small pieces of gold some- 
 times found under the tongue and sometimes in folds of the 
 drapery of Egyptian mummies, as possible money." ^ A 
 similar objection to the one first above advanced is to be 
 made against regarding these pieces of gold as money : 
 they have nothing to distinguish them from other pieces of 
 gold, no peculiar type, no mark of authority. 
 
 That gold was once used as a material for money in Egypt 
 is amply attested, by the extent of its placer mines, but I 
 am inclined to put this period back to a very remote date, 
 probably more than thirty centuries B.C. The reasons, already 
 given at length, are briefly these : the diking of the Nile, 
 attributed to the age of Menes, could hardly have been called 
 for unless the regimen of the river had been disturbed by 
 long continued and extensive mining operations. Placer 
 mines are soon exhausted of their coarse gold, and this 
 forms the bulk of the product. Hence it is believed that 
 the main portion of the vast operations which the present 
 remains attest, were conducted at or near the period assigned 
 to Egypt's great law-giver. It is true that the placer mines 
 continued to be worked at later periods, but the close of 
 their most productive era is marked by the prosecution of 
 quartz mining under the twelfth dynasty, which Lepsius 
 assigns to the period b.c. 2830. Quartz mining, even in 
 ' Humphreys' " Ancient Coins,'' p. 19 n. 
 L 
 
146 HISTORV OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 these days of giant powder and compressed air drillsj is 
 rarely attempted whilst the neighbouring placers continue 
 to remunerate the miner. From these considerations it 
 follows that the era of gold money in Egypt had long 
 passed away when the weighing of gold rings was sculp- 
 tured on the tombs of ThebeSj or when any of the gold 
 rings or fiat pieces of gold which have been found in the 
 tombs were deposited therein. If such is the case, it should 
 not be a matter of wonder that no examples of this money 
 have been found. At the period of the gold rings, the ancient 
 tombs and places of deposit had probably been rifled so 
 often of their precious contents that not a piece of the ancient 
 money remained. 
 
 The next appearance of gold money in Egypt was when 
 Cambyses introduced it from Persia, about B.C. 525. But 
 what had happened during the twenty odd centuries inter- 
 vening ? Had the Egyptians continued to till the earth, to 
 fabricate an endless variety of useful objects, to carry on an 
 extensive commerce, to maintain a social order, both indus- 
 trious, peaceful, and refined, without the use of money ? 
 This is not only inconceivable, it is refuted by the evidence 
 of the papyri rolls, which record numerous money transac- 
 tions. The only question is, of what did this money con- 
 sist ? 
 
 The Egyptians possessed several substances out of which 
 they might have made moneys : — 
 
 1. Pasteboard. The cartonage, or case fitting close to 
 the bodies of the mummies, was made of this material. Boats 
 were also made of it.' 
 
 2. Parchment, which was used in Egypt at least 1200 
 years beforethe era of Eumenes of Pergamus.^ 
 
 3. Eolls of leather were used to write upon in consequence 
 of the high price of papyrus.^ 
 
 ' Wilkinson, ii. 396, and ii. 97. 
 Ibid. ii. 99. The word " parchment " is from " Pergamena " or 
 Pergamus. 
 ' Ibid. ii. 99. 
 
EGYPT. 147 
 
 4. Pieces of pottery, woodj and leather were frequently- 
 used to write upon ; also stuccoed cloth.^ 
 
 5. Wooden tablets, covered with wax, were long in use 
 among the Eomans, as well as the papyrus ; and the inner 
 bark of trees and pieces of linen had been previously adopted 
 by them about B.C. 440.^ Why not also the Egyptians ? 
 
 6. Papyrus. It was a government monopoly.^ 
 
 7. Nummulites. Many portions of the limestone rocks 
 through which the Nile cuts its way, and of which the 
 pyramids are constructed, consist of masses of fossil nummu- 
 lites, easily detached from their surrounding matrices. The 
 author has in his possession a number of these interesting 
 stones. They are in shape exactly like a Grecian coin, 
 round, almost flat, and thicker in the centre than at the edge, 
 which is bevelled and, like the rest of the surface, smooth. 
 They range in size from that of an English sixpence to a 
 crown. Nothing could have been more admirably adapted 
 for money than these pieces, a fact which their name 
 sufficiently attests.* They only needed a mark of authority 
 imprinted or cut upon them, and a government virtuous 
 enough to restrict their issue and strong enough to prevent 
 the money mark from being counterfeited. 
 
 8. Scarabsei. The immense number of stones and pieces 
 of baked clay or porcelain which have been found in Egypt, 
 cut or moulded into the shape of beetles and tortoises 
 — known to archaeologists by the name of scarabsei — 
 suggests that these were used in that country as money .^ 
 This view is confirmed by other considerations. The In- 
 dians who traded with Egypt used cowries for money; the 
 Chinese, who also traded with Egypt at a very remote 
 period, used " tortoise " (probably cowrie) shells for money. 
 This system, which dates as far back as the twenty-eighth 
 
 ^ Wilkinson, ii. 99. ^ Ibid. 100. ' Ibid. 99. 
 
 * Nummulite is from nummus, money. 
 
 ° Consult Quintinos, Stieglitz, Humphreys, and the other technical 
 and highly qualified authorities previously quoted. Per contra, see 
 Wilkinson's " Egypt," ii. 341. 
 
148 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 century B.C., and may be earlier, was revived during the 
 Tsin dynasty, which ended b.c. 201,^ and continues in some 
 parts of China to the present day. 
 
 Unless these shells were marked by authority they could 
 only pass at their commercial value ; if marked, their value 
 would be determined by their number. Whether marked 
 or not, they offered a type — that of the tortoise back — 
 which is to be found on many of the Egyptian scarabs and 
 the early Greek coins, and strongly suggest that the former 
 were used as money. I am inclined to the belief that nearly 
 all of these substances were at various times during the 
 period referred to employed in Egypt for money. 
 
 It is evident that after the gold mines ceased to be pro- 
 ductive, the country was left without any certain source 
 whence supplies of the money metals could be obtained ; 
 for the cessation of the gold product must have been soon 
 followed by a cessation of the supplies of silver obtained 
 through commerce with India or Phoenicia. Seven millions 
 of civilized people living within a narrow space of territory, 
 and therefore engaged in constant exchanges, were not going 
 to lie down and submit to commercial decay and social re- 
 trogression simply because the supplies of a particular metal 
 had ceased ; and the suggestion that the nummulites, or the 
 clay scarabs, or some other like objects, were resorted to 
 for the purposes of money, acquires a high probability. 
 
 Overvalued Iron Money of Kordofan. — As going to prove 
 the likelihood that the ancient Egyptians were familiar with 
 numerical money, as well as to preserve in an appropriate 
 place the record of certain interesting coincidences which 
 may yet develop into proofs concerning the migration 
 of races, mention should be made of the iron money still 
 used in Kordofan. 
 
 These pieces vary in weight from 121 to 428 grains 
 
 each, yet they are all of similar value ; a fact which proves 
 
 that the latter is determined by number and not by weight. 
 
 They go at a para each, forty paras making a piastre, and 
 
 1 Kang-he's " Dictionary.'' 
 
EGYPT. 149 
 
 one hundred piastres exchanging for a pound sterling. 
 Each piece will exchange in American money for one and 
 a quarter mills. 
 
 These pieces are called hashasba, a word of Sanscrit 
 origin, whose use suggests intercourse, direct or indirect, 
 between India and Kordofan, and therefore Egypt. 
 
 Their shape is that of a bird on the wing, more exactly 
 like the section of a mushroom. This is the shape of cer- 
 tain very ancient Chinese coins which the author has seen 
 in the numismatic collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale 
 at Paris. It is also the shape of certain tin coins found in 
 Mexico by Cortes, one of which is preserved in the same 
 collection.^ 
 
 Turning away from the interesting speculations suggested 
 by these facts, and resuming the consideration of money in 
 Egypt, that country appears to have conducted its ex- 
 changes with cowries or scarabs, supplemented possibly at 
 later dates by Lydian or Greek coins for foreign commerce, 
 until the Persian conquest, when it was supplied with a 
 national coinage, of probably very limited extent, by Cam- 
 byses and Darius .^ Aryandes, who was governor of Egypt 
 under these reigns, struck silver coins in imitation of the 
 gold darics of his sovereign. For this he was condemned 
 to death. ^ The next coinages in Egypt were executed under 
 the Ptolemies, who struck both gold and silver, chiefly the 
 latter ; the silver mines of Laurium by this time affording 
 steady supplies to the world.* 
 
 From this date forward the money of Egypt has been 
 
 ^ Consult Holroyd in " London Num. Chron.," vol. i. ; Humplrreys' 
 "Ancient Coins," ed. 1850, p. 16; and Wilkinson's "Ancient Egyp- 
 tians," ed. 1878, ch. ix. p. 246. 
 
 ' The earliest certain Egyptian coins commence with Cambyses, 
 although it is likely that copper coins were used prior to the Persian 
 conquest. " Ency. Brit.," ed. 1858, art. " Numismatics." This last, 
 however, though only an opinion, is that of Madden (" Jewish Coinage," 
 p. 9), who founds his opinion on Herod., iv. 166. 
 
 ' Herod., iv. 166. 
 
 * Silver was coined at Athens b.c. 512. Aristot., " Econ.," ii. 
 
150 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 that of her conquerors, and calls for no especial mention 
 except during the reign of the Fatimite caliphs, a.d. 909 — 
 1171. 
 
 This money was made of glass, and was used — possibly 
 continuously, but certainly at intervals — for upwards of 
 six hundred years, for it was current under the Mame- 
 luke sultans so late as the year 1766. It will not be 
 disputed that these pieces derived their value from their 
 number, and not from the worthless material of which they 
 were composed. It is greatly to be regretted that no re- 
 cords have been preserved of the emissions, and the effect 
 of such emissions upon prices. It is possible that the 
 Fatimite caliphs were virtuous or wise enough to restrain 
 these emissions within proper limits, and even to make 
 publicly known what these limits were ; but it is too much 
 to suppose that their successors pursued a like enlightened 
 policy. In all probability, the glass coins of Egypt followed 
 the fate of all overvalued moneys in ill-governed or igno- 
 rant countries ; they were issued without number and with- 
 out limit, until they either fell to the value of the material 
 which composed them, and which, in the case of glass, clay, 
 or paper, would in the end render them useless for money, 
 or were issued to such an excess as to fall to a very low 
 value, and serviceable only in the smallest and least im- 
 portant exchanges.' 
 
 ' Lenormant, " La Monnaie," vol. i., p. 94, contends that the Pha- 
 raonic outen, so frequently mentioned in the papyri, was a copper weight; 
 whereas it is evident from the very examples he gives that it was a coin 
 or sum of money. It is possible that like the French livre and English 
 pound, the Egyptian outen was a weight as well as a sum of money. 
 
OHAPTBE IX. 
 
 PERSIA, ASSTKIA, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 
 
 Little known of the monetary histories of these countries — Persia 
 never an important mining country — Darius — The Mahomedan era — • 
 Overvalued copper system of Kai Khatii — Its failure — Melting of 
 copper coins mentioned by Tavernier — Assyria has left no numismatic 
 remains — Babylon — Her moneys of baked clay — Palestine anciently a 
 pastoral country, using cattle for money — Conjectural system of money 
 during its agricultural and commercial period — No coins struck previous 
 to the Maccabees — The Roman and Mahomedan conquests — Interest- 
 ing experiment of the Urtuki Turkomans — Silver-plated dirhems and 
 gilt dinars — Failure of this system, and causes of same — Restoration 
 of the silver dirhem — Merging of Palestine into the Turkish monarchy. 
 
 ALTHOUGH numerous coins of Persia and a few re- 
 lating to the other countries included in this chapter 
 have been found, so little is known of their monetary histories 
 as scarcely to warrant allusion to them under a separate 
 head. The account here given is, however, furnished in 
 order to provide a suitable place in the work for such future 
 diacoveries aa may occur in connection with the subject. 
 
 Persia, apart from those regions which are supposed to 
 have anciently formed a portion of Ariana, does not appear 
 to have ever been an important mining country ; at least, but 
 little mention ia made of it in this respect in the various 
 worka which have fallen under the author's notice. Strabo, 
 XV. ii. 14, says that one of the rivers of Carmania brought 
 down gold dust, a fact that goes but a small way towards 
 conferring a mining character upon the country. Of similar 
 little import is the statement of a modern German mining 
 engineer, that formations of quartz rock not known to 
 contain any pay gold are to be found near Zengan.^ 
 
 The earliest notice which has come down to us concem- 
 
 ' Lock, on " Gold," p. 366. 
 
152 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COtTNTRIES. 
 
 ing the monetary history of Persia relates to the conquests 
 of Darius Hystaspes and his coinage of the well-known 
 gold darics, an act that implies not only previous familiarity 
 with money, but also with coins. As these events have 
 been treated upon elsewhere at sufficient length, no further 
 allusion to them is necessary in this place. 
 
 Between the era of Darius and that of the Mahomedan 
 princes of the thirteenth century of the Christian era, an 
 infinite number of coinages took place in Persia both of 
 copper, gold, and silver, chiefly the former, but few or no 
 details have reached us concerning the monetary systems to 
 which these coinages pertained. 
 
 In A.D. 1294, one of these princes, Kai Khatu, observing 
 the mischiefs occasioned to his country by the scant and 
 spasmodic supplies of the precious metals, matured a plan 
 which, had the government and social condition of Persia, 
 and the perfection of the mechanic arts, been such as to 
 render it practical, might have greatly promoted the welfare 
 of his subjects. But such was not the case, and in^the 
 course of two brief months the scheme utterly failed. Its 
 main feature was to substitute overvalued copper coins for 
 gold and silver ones. But as no specific limit was assigned 
 to the emission of coppers ; as the latter, in point of execu- 
 tion, were far from being difficult to counterfeit ; as no 
 interdict was enforced against the concurrent circulation of 
 gold and silver coins; and as the government was weak 
 and despotic, and the people enslaved and ignorant, no 
 confidence was felt in the value of the new coins, and they 
 were refused almost as soon as issued. The princess own 
 nephew, Ghazan Khan, governor of Khorasan, openly set 
 the example to his subjects of refusing to accept them, and 
 after this they rapidly fell into disrepute.^ 
 
 ' For details, consult Malcolm's "Persia," i. 430 ; D'Ohsson, iv. 101 ; 
 De Guignes, xvii. 267; Langle's " Mem. de I'lnstitute," iv. 115; Price's 
 " Mahomedan History," ii. 596 ; De Saulcy, in " Journal of the Asiatic 
 Society," 1842 ; and Prof. E. B. Cowell, in " Jour. Asiat. Soc," Bengal, 
 1860, p. 187. 
 
PERSIA, ASSYRIA, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 153 
 
 That numerous other monetary experiments have been 
 made from time to time in Persia, there can be little doubt.^ 
 The country has rarely or never been in a condition to 
 successfully maintain a numerary system, and it has quite 
 as seldom been able to control such adequate supplies of 
 gold, silver, or copper, as would ensure the continuance of a 
 metallic standard, even when the coins were made of copper. 
 No details of these experiments have, however, found their 
 way into western literature. 
 
 Assyria, though one of the oldest of the Asiatic mon- 
 archies between India and the Occident — Oppert assigns the 
 date of its mythical foundation to the thirty-sixth century 
 before Christ, while Clinton dates its real foundation from 
 about the twentieth century B.C. — has left no remains of its 
 doubtless very numerous monetary systems. It was an 
 agricultural and commercial country, its inhabitants were 
 highly civilized, and its annals extend downward to the 
 seventh century B.C., when Nineveh and the Assyrian 
 goveEpment both fell beneath the conquering arms of 
 Babylon. 
 
 Babylon, the ancient Chaldea, was a monarchy of equal 
 antiquity with Assyria, the dates assigned by modern 
 commentators to its foundation varying between the thirty- 
 fifth and twentieth centuries B.C. A more reliable proof of 
 its antiquity is derived from the fact that its astronomical 
 registers, dating back to B.C. 2234, were sent for inspection 
 to Aristotle. The territory of Babylon was under an ad- 
 vanced state of agriculture ; it was a commercial country ; 
 its inhabitants were highly civilized. Although its annals 
 extend downward to the year B.C. 538 or 636, yet only 
 slight and doubtful remains are left to us of any of the 
 numerous monetary systems which so long a history and 
 so highly developed a condition of society imply. 
 
 No coins have ever been found, either of Assyria or 
 
 ' Tavernier, 51, quoted in Marsden, 53, says that in a.d. 1664 the 
 Persians melted down their copper moneys known as cashbekes. There 
 must be a curious history behind so strange a circumstance. 
 
154 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Babylon ; yet mention is frequently made in the clay tablets 
 upon wMcli the public annals of these countries were in- 
 scribed, both of sales of property for money and of loans of 
 money upon interest. It is difficult to escape the convic- 
 tion that the moneys of these empires were made of baked 
 clay, and that many of the exceedingly numerous so-called 
 seals or signets of this material which have rewarded the 
 researches of Layard, Loftus, and Botta, are in fact moneys. 
 Such certainly seems to be the character of some of those 
 found at Nimroud, and now in the British Museum. They 
 are small cylinders of baked clay, about an inch in length, 
 and impressed with the figure of a king slaying a lion. If 
 they were seals and not moneys, they would surely present 
 a greater diversity of type, and have been made of some 
 harder and more valuable material than clay. Their re- 
 semblance to the clay moneys of other countries is a strong 
 argument in favour of attributing this character to them. 
 
 Palestine, whose importance to the world is derived from 
 religious rather than political considerations, is not known 
 to have ever had a monetary system until the era of the 
 Maccabees. It was a pastoral more than an agricultural 
 country, and until a comparatively late period neither its 
 people nor its government were of that settled character 
 which bespeaks the necessity of money. The sums in 
 shekels mentioned with regard to Abraham's purchase of 
 Machpelah, and elsewhere in the earlier history of the 
 Hebrews, were weights or quantities — not coins — of silver. 
 Such infrequent exchanges of property as the inhabitants 
 found it necessary to make, were effected by means of 
 cattle, which, as in all pastoral countries, formed a rude but 
 convenient medium of barter. 
 
 Following this period, several centuries elapsed before 
 the era of the Maccabees ; and during this time the Hebrews 
 had become so much of an agricultural and commercial race, 
 their dynasties had become so well established and their 
 civilization so far advanced, that some form of money more 
 convenient than cattle must have come into use. If con- 
 
PERSIA, ASSYRIA, BABYLON, AND PALESTINE. 155 
 
 jecture may be allowed to fill the place left vacant by history, 
 this money consisted of clay cylinders, after the example of 
 Babylon, with perhaps gold or silver coins or rings from 
 Phoenicia or Egypt as multipliers. Such a theory, however, 
 has to contend against the belief that no Phcenician coins 
 have been found of an earlier date than the Persian rule,"^ 
 and no Egyptian rings with a monetary mark upon them. 
 
 In the mediaeval ages, when Palestine, after a long 
 subjection to Rome, had passed into the possession of suc- 
 cessive races and dynasties of Mahomedans, to become at 
 length an object of regard to the Christian world, it was the 
 scene of a monetary experiment more interesting than any 
 which is known to have preceded it in that country. Dur- 
 ing the period a.d. 1084-1257, Palestine was governed by 
 the TJrtuki Turkomans, who, having commercial relations 
 with the Greek and other Christian peoples of the coasts of 
 Asia Minor, had coined certain of their moneys to suit this 
 trade. These moneys consisted of gold dinars and silver 
 dirhems with Arabian inscriptions on one side., and European, 
 usually Byzantine designs, on the other. Besides these, 
 they coined during the twelfth century a series of over- 
 valued copper fals for domestic circulation. These fals 
 were plated with silver and called dirhems, for which coins 
 they were ordered to pass. With a view to deter the too 
 cautious creditor from testing the thinness of the plating, 
 they bore this inscription : " Cursed be he who tests this 
 dirhem ; " but this device not proving effectual, the plating 
 in subsequent coinages was omitted altogether. In a 
 similar way other copper coins were gilded and ordered to 
 pass as dinars. 
 
 History affords us no information with regard to the fate 
 of this monetary experiment, but it is not difficult to portray 
 it. Neither the character of the government, nor the state 
 of society among these or any other of the Syrian tribes, 
 were such as to render an overvalued money practicable. 
 The emission was made without specific limits, and no 
 ' Madden's " Jewish Coinage," p. 10. 
 
156 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 assurances which their governments were capable of con- 
 veying would have been sufficient to aUay the fear that, 
 whatever the limit, it would not be suddenly and secretly 
 exceeded. 
 
 The condition of the mechanic arts afforded no security 
 against the fabrication of numberless counterfeits, and the 
 inability of the great mass of the people to read lent every 
 facility to the circulation of false money. In short, every 
 circumstance was unfavourable to the maintenance of an 
 overvalued system of money. It was not the outgrowth of 
 an intelligent desire to improve or reform the monetary 
 system, but merely the desperate resource of a monarch 
 whose power rendered him incapable of controlling an 
 adequate supply of the precious metals for his country, or 
 whose poverty or dishonesty drove him to essay an un- 
 timely and disastrous scheme of finance.^ 
 
 No real silver dirhems were minted by this government 
 during the progress of the overvalued copper system, nor 
 until the year a.d. 1200, by which date it is presumed 
 the copper dirhems had fallen to their ingot value. 
 
 From this time forward the monetary history of Pales- 
 tine presents no details of interest, until it came to form 
 part of that pertaining to the Turkish Empire at large. 
 
 The view, taken in the text, that the copper dirhems were ordered 
 to pass for silver ones, is that which is supported by Dr. Karabacek, in 
 the " Numistnatische Zeitschrift" of Vienna; see Bd. i. for 1869, pp. 
 265-300. On the other hand, Mr. Poole, in an essay which appears in 
 the " Numis. Orient.," opposes it, though with singular weakness of 
 argument. He says : " Though the weight of evidence leans heavily to 
 Dr. K.'s side, it must be admitted that his point is not yet absolutely 
 proved ! " 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 ABOEIGINAL EUROPE. 
 
 The coasts of Europe discovered by Phoenician gold-hunters — The 
 interior probably colonized from Asia at a later period — Proceedings of 
 the discoverers — ^Destruction of forests — Derangement of water-courses 
 — Captivity of the natives — Different habits of the mining colonists and 
 the agricultural colonists — Traces of these habits to be found in the 
 character of the nations who have sprung from them — ^The monetary 
 systems of Northern Europe were of the bronze bell and ring types, 
 and came overland from Northern Asia, whilst those of Southern and 
 maritime Europe were based on gold and silver — Introduction of Greek 
 types of moneys about the sixth century B.C. 
 
 THERE is every reason to believe that the discovery 
 and colonization of Europe occurred in nearly the 
 same way as afterwards did that of America. 
 
 Twenty centuries before the Christian era much of the 
 continent of Europe was covered with primeval forests, 
 which man had not as yet learnt to cut down and convert 
 to his use. On the borders of these woods, on the sea 
 shores, the lake shores, and the river banks, roamed tribes 
 of savages similar to those who, thirty centuries later, were 
 found in America, and who, like them, lived on mast and 
 wild animals, painted themselves, scalped one another, and 
 worshipped the devil. Upon the prairie lands, and in 
 regions where the natural clearings were of ample extent, 
 there dwelt a more settled population, whose occupation 
 was pasturage and agriculture, chiefly the former. 
 
 About the seventeenth or eighteenth century B.C., the 
 southern and south-western shores of the continent were 
 first coasted by some Phoenician Eric or Columbus, and 
 settlements were afterwards made in Greece, Btruria, Gaul, 
 and Spain, with the object, not of colonization, but of con- 
 
158 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 quest and trade. Like that of the later Spanish settlements 
 in America, this trade was chiefly for the precious metals, 
 which, in the days of Phoenician empire, meant gold, silver, 
 copper, and tin, and we may reasonably surmise that in 
 their acquisition the Phoenicians paid as little regard to the 
 rights of nature or humanity as the Spaniards afterwards 
 paid to them in America. Forests were hewn or burnt 
 down, rivers were turned or filled with mining gravel, and 
 the land was torn up and ransacked in every direction. 
 Peaceable natives were conquered and entombed alive in 
 their own mines,^ others were slain while defending their 
 homes against the newcomers, and others again captured 
 and led away to a distant and cruel slavery. 
 
 Following these earlier adventurers came regular colo- 
 nists. Both Greece and Etruriawere settled from Phoenicia. 
 These colonists partook to some extent of the character of 
 the discoverers and adventurers who had preceded them. 
 They retained their mining character, they spurned agri- 
 culture, and preferred buying their supplies of food in 
 Egypt to raising it themselves. They were brave, reckless, 
 adventurous, and cruel; they fought one another with 
 ferocity ; they imperilled their lives for the most trifling 
 advantages ; they pushed their way into the forests and 
 explored the newly found continent from the Mediterranean 
 to the Alps ; they forced the natives into their mines and 
 slew them without remorse. On the other hand, they had 
 their own women with them, which their predecessors had 
 not ; they reared legitimate offspring ; they built permanent 
 homes, and they introduced the social influence of the 
 mechanic arts and the refining effects of letters. 
 
 These Phoenician colonists had been slaves in their own 
 country, for such was then the condition of all the peoples 
 of Asia ; they were slaves to nobles and priests — just as 
 the people of India remain to-day. The motive of their 
 voyages to Europe, and of their subsequent settlement 
 therein, was not alone wealth ; it included liberty. Like 
 ' Yeats' " Commerce," p. 20. 
 
ABORIGINAL EUROPE. 159 
 
 the Spaniards who flocked to America in the sixteenth 
 century, they had been either slaves or vassals in the old 
 country ; in the new one they were freemen and lords. 
 With the advancement of agriculture in the new settlements 
 came a more orderly state of affairs, and one that conformed 
 more nearly to that which the colonists had left behind 
 them in Phoenicia. Yet wages were higher, land was 
 much more easily acquired, and exceptional fortunes more 
 frequently made than in the mother country. 
 
 Whilst Phoenicia was founding colonies in Europe, she 
 was trading by sea and land with India. ^ She exchanged 
 her Spanish silver for Indian gold in Babylon, and with 
 this merchandise went the tale of its origin — a tale that, by 
 exciting the cupidity of the Tartars, Indians, and other 
 nations, to whom northern Europe was accessible by land, 
 led to the conquest of the new continent from that direction, 
 and eventually to the subversion of Phoenicia itself. 
 
 The so-called Indo-Germanic emigration could not have 
 been an emigration at all. Europe was undoubtedly 
 approached from the north as it had been from the south, at 
 first by discoverers and explorers, and afterwards by armed 
 colonists, who in the south went to subdue and despoil 
 and in the north to conquer and displace. The same 
 remarkable difference that afterwards distinguished the 
 southern and northern colonists of America, distinguished 
 those of Europe. The southern colonists were adventurers 
 and miners, the northern were conquerors and agriculturists, 
 and while it was the policy of the former to enslave the 
 native races and of the latter to destroy them, precisely 
 opposite effects followed — enslavement ended in destruction 
 and the attempt to destroy in amalgamation. 
 
 There can be little doubt that the original difference 
 herein pointed out between the characters of the northern 
 and southern colonists of Europe has made such marks 
 
 ' Glass beads were made in Sidon for the Spanish trade. Yeats, 17- 
 20. Bactrian gold dust was exchanged by the Phoenicians in Babylon 
 for western silver. Yeats, 25. 
 
160 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 upon the polity, the genius and history of these peoples, 
 that traces of them may be discerned to this day. 
 
 From the number of mines of this era, say B.C. 1700 to 
 800, in the south, and the absence of any in the north of 
 Europe, and from the greater extent to which the northern 
 nations, as compared with the southern and maritime ones, 
 relied for support upon agriculture, it appears probable.that 
 the monetary systems of the former followed types which 
 were introduced from China, Northern India, or Tartary, 
 while those of the latter were based on the more precious 
 metals to whose search they were indebted for the origin 
 of their settlements. Some remains of the bell and ring types 
 of money have been found in the Swiss Lake Dwellings,^ 
 and both of these types are from China and India. 
 
 I have not been able to trace the bell type moneys 
 farther west than is indicated by these instances, but the 
 ring type, which was common in Egypt, has been traced to 
 the western coasts of Africa, where it is still in circulation, 
 and to the confines of Britain, where it was used by the 
 ancient Celts.^ This ring money appears to have circulated 
 throughout aboriginal Europe until the Greek types were 
 introduced, about the sixth century B.C., by the lonians and 
 others, through the various settlements which they founded 
 on the coasts. 
 
 '■ "Smithsonian Report," 1865, p. 376-7, on the palafittes of Lake 
 Neuchatel, by E. Desor, with designs by A. Pavre-Guillarmod. This 
 essay contains a drawing of a piece of bronze bell money found in one 
 of the lake dwellings. 
 
 ^ Noel Humphreys, " Ancient Coins ; " Sir John Lubbock, " Pre- 
 historic Times ; " Napoleon's " Csesar," p. 116. 
 
CHAPTER XL 
 
 GEEECE AND GREEK COLONIES. 
 
 In Greece generally the supplies of the coining metals were always 
 irregular — Gold and copper had to be imported, whilst the silver mines 
 were controlled by Athens — Hence the other Greek states were com- 
 pelled to employ numerical moneys — Phoenician commerce and money 
 — Probable antiquity of coined money in Greece — Concededly older 
 than Lycurgus — His memorable system of iron numeraries; its perma- 
 nence ; its beneficial effects — Blunder of Plutarch — Decline of Sparta, 
 and fall of its numerical system — Ionia — System of overvalued iron 
 discs — Byzantium^ — Iron system — Its decline — Growth of corporations 
 — Marseilles — Athens, first period — The Peloponnesian war — Issue of 
 overvalued coins — These supplanted by a numerary system of copper 
 discs — Downfall of Athens and of her numerary system — -The Thirty 
 Tyrants — Syracuse — System of overvalued coins a failure — Due to her 
 inferior civilization and despotic government — Athens, second period — 
 Fall of the Thirty Tyrants — Recovery of Attic liberty, power, and 
 wealth — Rehabilitation of the numerical system — The Social War — 
 AVeakening of the State — Fall of the numerical system — Restoration of 
 cattle, corn, and coin money — Growth of corporations — Seeds, leather, 
 and other base moneys — Hopeless condition of the State, and final 
 destruction of its free institutions. 
 
 SPEAKING of Greece generally, her supplies of metal 
 for the purposes of coinage were always irregular. 
 The supplies of gold were very scant, and these came mostly 
 from Lydia. Copper had also to be fetched from abroad. 
 There were some unimportant gold mines in Thrace, which 
 were captured by Cimon of Athens about B.C. 464, but these, 
 together with the equally unimportant ones of Thasos, had 
 been worked out in ancient times by the Phoenicians. At 
 about the same time, that is to say in B.C. 467, Athens had 
 a contest with the Edoni for certain gold mines, but without 
 its adding to her metallic resources. In point , of fact, 
 Greece never possessed more than one great deposit of the 
 coining metals, and this consisted of the numerous silver mines 
 
162 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COtJNTEIBS. 
 
 at Laurium. As these mines were monopolized by Athens^ 
 the other Greek states found it more convenient to employ 
 numeraries than to rely on Athens for silver. This expe- 
 dient was resorted to so commonly^ and at so many different 
 timesj as to familiarize the Greek mind s^enerally with the 
 idea that money was an institution of law^ and hence the 
 name of law, prescriptionj limits numbers^ or nomas, was 
 the generic name always conferred upon it. 
 
 The numerary systems of Greece probably began with 
 the overvaluation of silver coins^ a proof of which appears in 
 the countermarks found on some of them. These were 
 designed to give them circulation in other cities than those 
 of their fabrication/ an expedient that would hardly have 
 been necessary if they passed for their bullion value only. 
 The mines of Laurium were the property of the government,^ 
 and the coinage of money, as pointed out in a previous 
 chapter, was conducted in the temples and under the super- 
 vision of the priests. 
 
 In view of the great antiquity of metallic moneys in China, 
 India, and Egypt, and of the extensive and peculiar commerce 
 of the Phoenicians, it is difficult to believe that the last- 
 named people were not acquainted with the use of coins, 
 and equally difficult to believe that the Greeks, who de- 
 scended from them or mingled with them, were not also 
 acquainted with coined money long before the period 
 assigned to its invention by Herodotus and his modern 
 commentators. Julius Pollux does indeed intimate that 
 coins were used by the Greeks fourteen centuries before our 
 era, but this authority has been slighted in favour of the 
 more specific testimony rendered by Herodotus.^ 
 
 It is for this reason that all the archaic Greek coins 
 have been ascribed by the numismatists to a date which 
 
 ' Humphreys' " Ano. Coins," p. 4. 
 
 ^ Xenophon, " De Vectigale." 
 
 '' The learned Boeckh admits gold and silver to have been in use in 
 Greece at the time of the Trojan war — say from B.C. 1200 to B.C. 1400. 
 Boeckh, " Political Economy of the Athenians," p. 766. 
 
GREECE AND GREEK COLONIES. 163 
 
 agrees with the account of this author^ and the oldest of 
 these coins have thus been attributed to Phidon of ArgoSj 
 about B.C. 862. Even this date, however recent it may be 
 with reference to the invention of metallic money in Greece, 
 is nevertheless sufficiently remote to render it probable that 
 coins were known and in use in Greece before the time of 
 Lycurgus. 
 
 Sparta. — The difficulty of obtaining sufficient and regular 
 supplies of the metals for coinage, or else the desire to 
 emancipate his country from the trammels of a metallic 
 basis of valuation, induced Lycurgus, about the ninth cen- 
 tury B.C., to insert a clause in that constitution, whose esta- 
 blishment marked the rise and pinnacle of social progress in 
 Sparta, providing for a system of numerical money, the 
 concrete symbols of which consisted of a limited and speci- 
 fied number of iron discs. These, while red hot, were 
 dipped in vinegar, to render them unmalleable and useless 
 for any other purpose than money. 
 
 In order to prevent the limits of this system from being 
 exceeded, the production and importation of gold and silver 
 and their use as money were absolutely forbidden.^ Such 
 of these metals as the Spartans happened to capture in war 
 or came by in other ways, they deposited with the Arcadians 
 for safe keeping. The danger attending all public accumu- 
 lations of the precious metals is exemplified by what occurred 
 in this instance ; for, says Athenseus, the Arcadians were 
 no sooner entrusted with this treasure, than they picked a 
 quarrel with the LacedEemonians, with the express view of 
 seizing upon it as part of the spoils of war.^ It must not 
 be supposed that the iron discs of Lycurgus passed merely 
 for their value as iron metal, else there would have been no 
 
 ^ Athenanis, vi. pp. 23, 24. 
 
 ^ The discredited story in Herodotus, iii. 56, would imply that gold 
 was used for some purposes by the Lacedoemonians in the time of Poly- 
 crates of Samos (about B.C. 540), or else it could not hare been reported 
 that they had accepted such money from that monarch to raise the siege 
 of Samos. 
 
164 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 good reason for excluding gold and silver adjuncts from his 
 monetary system^ nor any reason whatever for immersing 
 the discs in vinegar to render them useless in the arts. 
 The discs were doubtless highly overvalued, so that each 
 one was capable of purchasing many times its own weight in 
 ingot iron. To maintain this overvaluation, it was necessary 
 to limit the whole number of discs at issue .^ 
 
 To the refined mind of the ancient Greeks, it was not 
 difficult to understand and put in practice such a system of 
 money, and we shall find this system imitated in many of 
 the Greek states and colonies ; but to the honest Plutarch, 
 who appeared nine or ten centuries later, and who could 
 see nothing more in a monetary system than an uncertain 
 and unknown number of ounces of metal to be exchanged 
 as commodities for other commodities, the numerary system 
 of Lycurgus was entirely incomprehensible, and, in order to 
 deride it most efi'ectively, he invented the silly story that it 
 required a cart and a team of oxen to transport the most 
 ordinary sum of the Spartan money. Like many another 
 false thing, this story has passed current for nearly twenty 
 centuries, perhaps for the reason that it has not been worth 
 anybody's while to contradict it. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that the monetary system 
 of Lycurgus maintained its ground for upwards of three and 
 a half centuries, and in fact that it remained in vogue so 
 long as Sparta continued to be a progressive state, and fell 
 into disuse only when, after having long held the hegemony 
 of Greece, the Lacedaemonians were compelled to relinquish 
 it to Athens, B.C. 479. 
 
 After this date the fall of Sparta was so rapid, that 
 although at the period of the Persian war she had eight 
 thousand citizens, to say nothing of her Perioeci and Helots, 
 yet in the reign of Agis IV., B.C. 244-240, she could only 
 boast of seven hundred citizens, of whom one hundred alone 
 possessed most of the landed property of the State. 
 
 ^ Their numerical character is fully recognized by Boeokh, "Political 
 Economy of the Athenians," p. 763. 
 
GREECE AND GREEK COLONIES. 165 
 
 The crime of Gylipus, B.C. 360, and the decree offered 
 upon its exposure, viz., "That no coin of gold or silver 
 should be admitted into Sparta, but that they should use the 
 money that had (formerly) long obtained," shows that as 
 this decay of the State and weakening of credit went on, 
 gold and silver coins at or near their bullion value gradually 
 crept into circulation again as money. The failure of the 
 decree to pass, is conclusive that the iron numerary system 
 was no longer practicable.' 
 
 Ionia was a Greek democratic republic in Asia Minor, 
 founded by Atticans about B.C. 1150, and comprised, among 
 other possessions, the twelve cities of Miletus, Myus, Priene, 
 Bphesus, Lebedus, Colophon, Teos, Brythrse, Clazomens, 
 Phocsea, Chios, and Samos, on the islands of the same 
 names. To these was afterwards added Smyrna. Nume- 
 rous colonies, issuing from the original twelve, built towns 
 along the coast, and in time extended to many parts of the 
 Mediterranean and Euxine. Ionia early" became the rival 
 of Greece in civilization and progress.^ 
 
 It is to this period of progress that must be ascribed the 
 emission of a numerary money in Clazomenae mentioned by 
 Aristotle.^ This money was stamped upon twenty talents- 
 weight of iron discs. The number of the latter is not 
 stated. To each of them was given an arbitrary value, 
 probably equal to that of the same weight of gold. Boeckh 
 says silver, but this would make the total too small.* 
 
 ' As the power and wealth of the State declined, it is probable that 
 excessive and secret emissions of her overvalued iron discs were made, 
 until their value at length fell to that of 'the material which composed 
 them. If there is any truth at all in Plutarch's account, it i-elates to 
 this declining period in the history of the iron money, and not, as he puts 
 it, to their entire history. 
 
 ^ Appleton's Cyc.,art. "Ionia,'' and Putnam's Encyc, art. "Thales." 
 
 ' Aristot., "Economics," ii. pp. 2, 16. 
 
 * " The iroil having been put into circulation, and having thus sup- 
 plied the place of silver, the amount of ready money in the State was 
 not diminished. The iron money performed the same service in the 
 State which silver had previously done, and the silver which remained 
 could be employed for the purposes of foreign commerce. To that 
 
166 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 ClazomenEe was, howeverj not of sufficient commercial im- 
 portance, nor far enough advanced in the scale of civilization, 
 to maintain such a system of money. The pieces were 
 subject to counterfeiting, to the smuggling of foreign-made 
 imitations, and to the influence of powerful citizens who 
 may have caused the emission to be increased or decreased 
 to suit their own interests. We hear of their redemption in 
 silver and the resumption of metallic payments, and this 
 took place doubtless long before the conquest of the Ionian 
 republic by Croesus of Lydia, at which period, if not before, 
 the progress of Clazomente was arrested and its credit 
 destroyed.-' 
 
 Byzantium was originally founded by a band of Megarian 
 colonists, B.C. 658 ; it was destroyed by the Persians about 
 B.C. 500 ; and re-colonized by a body of Dorians and lonians 
 after the battle of Platffi, B.C. 479. At this period the civi- 
 lization of the two parent states to which it owed its origin 
 had attained its highest point. The new colony rose 
 rapidly to affluence and power. . It obtained possession of 
 the grain traffic between the Buxine, Greece, and Egypt ; 
 and its fisheries were so abundant as to procure for its 
 harbour the name of the Golden Horn. It was during this 
 period, B.C. 431-404, that the favourable condition of its 
 civilization and credit enabled it to employ a numerical 
 money. This consisted of discs of sheet iron having an 
 impression on one side and known by the Doric appellation 
 o{ sidareosj' the best substitute for paper notes which the 
 condition of the mechanic arts at that time permitted. 
 
 It is observable that as the resources and credit of the 
 government declined, its money was supplemented by cor- 
 porative issues. A bank was chartered, upon which 
 monopolies and other important powers were conferred ; and 
 
 extent the iron money was identical in its uses with the paper money 
 of modern times." Boeckh, 763. 
 
 ' Croesus reigned B.C. 568 to 554. Eawlinson, in Appletou's Cyc, 
 art. " CrcEsus." 
 
 ^ Boeckh, p. 769, and Heeren, vi. p. 168. 
 
GREECE AND GREEK COLONIES. 167 
 
 it is probable that the issues of this bank, which at first 
 may have consisted of highly overvalued gold or silver 
 coins, and afterwards of similar coins less highly over- 
 valued, gradually usurped the place of the government 
 numeraries as money, "i All persons were prohibited from 
 buying or selling money elsewhere (than with this bank) 
 under penalty of forfeiting the sums thus sold," '- a provision 
 that is deemed to afford ample ground for the foregoing 
 inferences. 
 
 In the course of time, and as the decay of the colony pro- 
 ceeded, the credit of the bank must have fallen, its power to 
 prevent counterfeiting and smuggling must have diminished, 
 and with it the ability to render its issues current at any 
 value above, that of the metal they contained. 
 
 Marseilles was founded by the Ionian Greeks about B.C. 
 1100, and from its situation near the mouth of the Rhone 
 commanded the trade between the towns along that aurife- 
 rous river and the Levant. It is only worth alluding to in 
 this connection as having been the channel through which 
 coins of the Greek type were introduced to the Gaulish 
 tribes.^ 
 
 Athens. First Period. — The hegemony of Greece lost by 
 Sparta and gained by Athens during the period between 
 the battle of Platae, B.C. 479, and the Peloponnesian War, 
 B.C. 431-404, marks the zenith of Attic civilization. This 
 was the era of Pythagoras, ..<5]schyluSj Pindar, Simonides, 
 Sophocles, Plato, Pericles, Thucydides, Euripides, Themis- 
 tocles, Cimon, Aristophanes, Phidias, Anaxagoras, Socrates, 
 Hippocrates,^ Democrates, and Xenophon. It was when 
 Herodotus read his immortal history in the Council, and 
 women hastened to Plato's garden, there to drink of his pure 
 philosophy. 
 
 Although the progress of Athens in letters and arts, 
 
 ' Boeckh, 772. " Martin's " Hist. France." 
 
 ^ Hippocrates lived B.C. 460-359. The progress of medical art 
 
 which his work evinces, betokens refinement, a close observation of 
 
 nature, and comparative freedom from superstition. 
 
168 HISTOEr OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 during the period of her hegemony was regular^ the most 
 brilliant of its ages was that of Pericles^ whose administra- 
 tion, as we may call it, lasted from B.C. 469 to 429. To this 
 age belong the temples of Theseus, the Wingless Victory, 
 the Odeum, the Parthenon, the Propyloea, the Erechtheum, 
 and the magnificent system of public works designed by the 
 sculptor Phidias. 
 
 During this age Athens was so rich that she possessed 
 in her public treasury a sum of silver (Athens first coined 
 silver about B.C. 562) equal to over a million sterling; a sum 
 of gold embodied in the statue of Minerva equal to more 
 than half a million sterling ; annual revenues from tributary 
 states equal to another half million ; besides a sum equal 
 to £700,000 recently expended in public works. ^ 
 
 As the Peloponnesian War went on, the once ample 
 metallic resources of the State became so reduced, chiefly 
 through payments to the troops, who were on foreign ter- 
 ritory, and for whom supplies of metal had to be purchased 
 abroad, that an overvalued system of coins was resorted to. 
 This was during the archonship of Antigenes, B.C. 407.^ 
 These coins were made of the base gold and copper compo- 
 sition contained in the statue of Victory. The credit of the 
 State stood so high that even this base money was lowered 
 without opposition or complaint. In a subsequent year, 
 during the archonship of Callias, about B.C. 405, anumerary 
 money was fabricated of copper discs, highly overvalued. 
 These were the first copper discs or coins of Athens."* They 
 circulated concurrently with the commodity coin called the 
 chalcus, just as the " greenbacks " of the United States 
 circulate side by side with commodity silver coins of like 
 denominations. 
 
 The Peloponnesian War terminated B.C. 404 with the 
 surrender of Athens to the Spartan general Lysander, with 
 the abolishment of her democratic government, and with 
 
 ' These sums are according to Dean Smith, and are given in Jacob, 
 p. 19. 
 
 ^ Boeckh, 765. ^ Matthew Kaper, p. 533. 
 
GREECE AND GREEK COLONIES. 169 
 
 the establishment of the Thirty Tyrants under the control 
 of Sparta. The walls of the city were destroyed, the 
 arsenals and dockyai-ds demolished, and the progress and 
 credit of the State arrested. With the latter fell her nume- 
 rary money, which shortly aft^wards was decried and 
 possibly liquidated, as we hear of no complaint of loss from 
 its employment. This took place probably within the year of 
 its emission. 
 
 Syracuse. — A counterpart of the experiment made at 
 Athens was essayed about the same time at Syracuse, but 
 with both diiferent means and results. Syracuse was a 
 Greek colony founded B.C. 734, and had passed through the 
 political phases of feudal oligarchy and monarchy into that of 
 a republic, when, coming into contact with the overwhelming 
 power of Carthage, it was crushed and reduced to a tyranny 
 under Dionysius, B.C. 405. 
 
 Whether the idea was derived from Plato, who visited 
 the court of Dionysius at this period, or from the frequent 
 trials of numerary moneys which had been made in the Greek 
 states, is not known ; but Dionysius, about B.C. 387, issued 
 tin coins overvalued four times, and, upon another occasion, 
 silver coins overvalued twice. These he compelled to be 
 accepted under penalty of death. 
 
 The inferior civilization of Syracuse, as compared with 
 Athens, is marked by the character and fate of this experi- 
 ment. Had Syracuse possessed the freedom and credit of 
 Athens, it would not have been necessary for any metal pos- 
 sessed of value in the arts to be put into these moneys, nor to 
 have enforced their circulation by a penalty. The complaints 
 to which this tyranny gave rise prove that the fear of even 
 this penalty was insufficient to retain the coins in circulation 
 at their nominal, and they probably soon fell to their com- 
 modity, value, and at a loss to the unfortunate citizens. The 
 difference between the civilization of Athens and Syracuse 
 is sufficient to account for the entire willingness of one to 
 adopt a wholly numerical money, and the reluctance of the 
 other to accept even a partly numerical one. 
 
170 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES, 
 
 Athens. Second Period. — The fall of the Thirty Tyrants 
 occurred during the year of their accession^ B.C. 404, and 
 with their fall the freedom and progress of Athens and the 
 credit of her government and citizens were restored. 
 
 Although deprived of the islands of Lemnos, Imbros, and 
 Scyros, the Athenians gradually acquired new possessions. 
 Ten years later, viz., B.C. 395, the powerful alliance between 
 Athens, Boeotia, Corinth, and Argos, induced some of the 
 allies of Sparta (namely, Buboea and the Chalcidians in 
 Thrace) to revolt and join the former. 
 
 Conon's victory at Cnidus procured them many other tri- 
 butary cities and islands. Thrasybulus conquered Lesbos, 
 restored the power of Athens on the Hellespont, and even 
 the payment of the sound dues levied at Byzantium. Indeed 
 the greater part of the Asiatic Greek coast, the most of the 
 islands, and even distant Rhodes, were once more placed 
 under the rule of Athens. Her former political relations 
 were for the most part restored ; her former tributes were 
 re-exacted ; once more she manifested her naval supremacy, 
 and almost all Greece became subject to her. Although the 
 fatal peace of Antalcidas, B.C. 387, deprived her for a time 
 of some of these possessions, they were all regained by the 
 campaigns of Timotheus, Chabrias, and Iphicrates, and by 
 the civic exertions of Callistratus. 
 
 Notwithstanding the losses which she had sustained by 
 the Peloponnesian War, Athens was still a wealthy state. 
 Twenty-six years after the war, to wit, in B.C. 378, an 
 assessment showed the value of taxable property to be 
 5750 talents.^ Upon this basis Boeckh has calculated the 
 value of all the property of the citizens at not less than 
 30,000 to 40,000 talents,^ or say 30,000,000 to 40,000,000 
 dollars. 
 
 So early as B.C. 371, Sparta conceded to Athens an equal 
 participation in the hegemonia by sea and land, and by the 
 year B.C. 364 her power again extended from the Thracian 
 
 ' Polybius. ' Boeckh, 636. 
 
GREECE AND GREEK COLONIES. 171 
 
 Bosphorus to Rhodes^ over the islands, and over many of the 
 cities on the continent. "^ 
 
 This was the period of DemostheneSj Plato, Socrates, 
 Diogenes, Aristotle, ^schines, Apelles, Calisthenes, the 
 building of the Lyceum, &c. 
 
 During this period, B.C. 390-350, therehabilitated republic, 
 then governed by Timotheus, the son of Conon, issued a 
 numerary money composed of copper discs highly over- 
 valued. These were receivable for all payments, the public 
 dues included, and were nominally redeemable, at an indefi- 
 nite time, in silver, a promise of whose performance we 
 have no record.^ 
 
 The termination of the Social War, B.C. 855, left the pro- 
 gress and credit of Athens again prostrate, to rise no more; 
 and with her power fell her numerary money, and in its 
 place crept the use of coins and other commodities. 
 
 Again it is observable, that as the credit of the State de- 
 clined, there sprung up to supplant it the credit of corpora- 
 tions. We hear of a " State Bank in Ilion, in the third or 
 second century before Christ," ^ probably the former, and of 
 its paying ten per cent, per annum for the use of money. 
 To this bank was probably accorded, in the spirit of such an 
 age, certain privileges, such as the monopoly of exchanges, 
 collection of the revenue, and the minting of coins. These 
 would have afforded it an opportunity of substituting its 
 own overvalued money in place of that of the State. 
 
 The Delian and other temples, acting in their corporate 
 capacity, also became lenders of money,* and still later on, 
 individual bankers and money-changers and lenders are 
 mentioned as being established at Athens,^ all of them, no 
 doubt, patriotically assisting to support the national mone- 
 tary system of corn, cattle, and coins. Even the shop- 
 keepers lent their valuable aid in support of this system, and 
 we read of lead, leather, and other base moneys, which it 
 
 ' Boeckh, pp. 5.37, et seq. ' Ibid. pp. 399, 766. 
 
 ^ Ibid. 182. " Ibid. 415. 
 
 ° Ibid. 176, 196. 
 
172 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 appears were issued by them at this period to eke out the 
 scarcity of silver/ 
 
 But the glory of the State had departed, its liberties had 
 been destroyed, and its monetary system,'^ sharing the fate 
 of its other institutions, had gradually fallen into the same 
 condition that at a later period marked the moneys of the 
 feudal ages. 
 
 ^ Madden, p. 14, and Boeckh, p. 769. 
 
 ' The former numerary system is thus alluded to by Aristotle : — 
 " Xomisma (money) by itself is a mere device whicb has value only by 
 nomos (law) and not by nature ; so that a change of convention between 
 those who use it, is sufficient to deprive it of value and its power to 
 satisfy our wants." — Ai-istotle, "Politica." 
 
 " By virtue of voluntary convention nomisma (money) has become 
 the medium of exchange. We call it nomisma, because its efficacy is 
 due not to nature but to nomos (law), and because it is always in our 
 power to control it." — Aristotle, " Ethica." 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 CARTHAGE. 
 
 Foundation and progress of Carthage — Commercial enterprise — 
 Settlements and factories on the western coasts of Europe — Trade with 
 Britain and the Orient — Treaty with Rome — Embassy to Athens — 
 Numerary money — Conquest of Spain — Mining fever — Carthage be- 
 comes aggressive, and engages in foreign wars — Fall of her numerary 
 money — Her gold and silver excite the cupidity of Rome — -Punic 
 wars — Defeat of Carthage — Her destruction and disappearance from 
 history. 
 
 A RECENT writer^in summing up the few materials 
 -"^"^ which have come down to us of Carthaginian history^ 
 saySj " There are still extant the text of three treaties with 
 Rome, the log-book of an adventurous Punic admiral, some 
 precepts of an African agriculturist, a speech or two of a 
 vagabond Carthaginian in one of Plautus^s plays, a few in- 
 scriptions buried twenty feet below the surface of the ground 
 and lately dislodged by the efforts of archaeologists, and a 
 few coins whose numismatic value is questionable. These, 
 with some aqueducts and substructions too massive to 
 be destroyed, are the only native or semi-native sources 
 from which the story of the great Phoenician empire-city 
 can be constructed." ^ 
 
 It is true that the materials of Carthaginian history are 
 not abundant, but they are by no means so scarce as here 
 portrayed. 
 
 Carthage was founded by the Phoenicians during the 
 ninth century B.C., and before the sixth century, when she 
 made her first treaty of commerce and navigation with 
 Rome, she had explored the coasts of western Europe as 
 
 ^ " North American Review," June, 1879, p. 682. 
 
174 HISTORY 'OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 far as the British Isles, founded numerous settlements or 
 factories in Spain, Gaul, and Britain, and conducted a 
 regular commerce, in which tin figured as a prominent 
 article, between the Cassiterides and the Orient. To these 
 evidences of commercial enterprise is to be added that 
 striking mark of political progress implied in the sending 
 of an embassy to Athens, in the fifth century, for a copy of 
 the renowned Institutes of Solon. 
 
 It is to this progressive period of Carthaginian civilization 
 that with the greatest probability must be ascribed the use 
 of that peculiar money mentioned in the Socratian dialogues, 
 imputed to ^schines : — 
 
 " The Carthaginians made use of the following kind 
 (of money) : in a small piece of leather, a substance is 
 wrapped of the size of a piece of four-drachmae ; but what 
 this substance is, no one knows except the maker. After 
 this, it is sealed (by the State) and issued for circulation.'" ^ 
 
 The era of ^schines is fixed at B.C. 430-350 ; the "leather " 
 may be reasonably conjectured to have been parchment; 
 and the mysterious substance either tin, or a compound of 
 tin and copper. The size of a four-drachma piece was 
 about the same as that of an English penny. 
 
 There can be little doubt that this was a numerical 
 money, one whose value arose from a specifically limited 
 number of pieces in use ; because the substance of which it 
 was made was concealed from view and could only be ascer- 
 tained — if at all — by perforating or removing the parchment 
 enclosure, and thus rendering the pieces worthless. It is 
 evident that their value did not arise from that of the sub- 
 stance which composed them. 
 
 How long and under what circumstances this peculiar 
 money lasted, we have no means of determining, bat it 
 probably went out of use within a half century after the 
 gold and silver mines of Spain were opened, about B.C. 408, 
 and regular supplies of these metals began to make their 
 
 ' " Dialoffue on Riches." 
 
CAETHAGB. 175 
 
 appearance in Carthage. By this time the prosperity of 
 Carthage had made her aggressive. She had invaded and 
 subdued the entire Iberian peninsula; she had attempted 
 the conquest of Sicily ; and she had aroused the enmity of 
 Rome by landing an army in Italy. A numerary money was 
 efficacious enough at home ; it would not serve for foreign 
 wars, nor for the payment of allies, nor the wages of mer- 
 cenaries/ nor for shipments to the Indies. Nor was 
 it deemed worth while to maintain a dual system of 
 money, the numeraries for home use and the precious 
 metals for foreign. The conquest of Spain had bewitched 
 her people, as it afterwards bewitched the Romans, and as 
 that of America, at a later period, bewitched the 
 Spaniards. Nothing was thought of but rich mines, 
 sudden wealth, and the conquest of the world. It was 
 probably at this period, when an eager cupidity had usurped 
 the place of reason, that the Carthaginians abandoned the 
 numerary system which had served them so well, and in its 
 place adopted a coinage of those glittering but delusive 
 metals, whose pursuit was soon to lure them to national 
 extinction.^ 
 
 In less than a century afterwards, the metallic wealth of 
 Carthage began to excite the cupidity of Rome, who had 
 by this time learnt the sources of her rival's riches and the 
 varied and extensive commerce with the Orient to which it 
 had given rise. In B.C. 265 began the First Punic War; 
 in B.C. 207 ended the last one, when Spain and the trade 
 of the Indies fell into the hands of Rome, and the Punic 
 power was definitely overthrown. In B.C. 146, when 
 Carthage was sacked and demolished by Scipio Africanus 
 the Younger, all the silver found in the city amounted to 
 less than two tons in weight ; ^ the net results of an empire 
 
 ' Polybius, i. 164, says the Carthaginian mercenaries were paid in 
 gold. 
 
 ^ The introduction of gold and silver money into Carthage, and its 
 fatal effects, are noticed by Heeren, iv. 144. 
 
 ' Pliny, "Nat. Hist.," vi. 132, gives it at 4370 pounds. 
 
176 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIES. 
 
 which, having attained the ripe age of six centuries, 
 obliterated itself, for ever, through a single mistake of 
 policy/ 
 
 On Carthaginian history, consult Heeren, ^ol. iv. ; R. Bosworth 
 Smith's " Carthage and the Carthaginians ; " Napoleon's " Ca3>ar," pp. 
 106-8 ; Diodorus Siculus, lib. v. chap. 2 ; and Polybius, book i. 
 
CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 ETBTJKIA. 
 
 Roman accounts of the foundation of Rome fabulous — Rome an 
 ancient city of the Etrurians — Origin, grandeur, and social progress of 
 Etruria- — ^Agriculture, commerce, arts, money — Type of the latter 
 copied by the Romans — Copper coins the principal money — Scarabs — 
 Numismatic remains. 
 
 CRITICAL history has long since discarded the fable 
 that Rome was founded by Romulus in the eighth 
 century B.C., and that to forward this enterprise the 
 founder made it a place of refuge for outcasts. That Romu- 
 lus augmented his following by such means is not doubted ; 
 only the outcasts, instead of being invited to build a new 
 city, must have found one already built ; for the Rome that 
 Romulus pretended to have founded was already an ancient 
 city, the capital of Etruria, and known by the name, either 
 of Roma or Pallantium. 
 
 The origin of the Etrurians or Etruscans is involved in 
 much obscurity. Their language, arts, and archaeological 
 remains point to Pelasgian sources. The general outline 
 of their history appears to be connected with that of early 
 Lydia and Greece, and' all these countries seem to have 
 been colonized by related bands of adventurers, who spoke 
 the same or similar tongues, and brought with them from 
 some distant Eastern country a knowledge of mining and 
 of Oriental customs. The date of these colonies or con- 
 quests must be placed somewhere between the eighteenth 
 and fifteenth centuries B.C. In the fourteenth century the 
 Etruscans (Tourshas) invaded Egypt, either on their own 
 account or as the allies of some other Pelasgian race. In 
 the eleventh century (about B.C. 1044), Etruria was overrun 
 
 N 
 
178 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 by the Tyrrhenians — also a Pelasgian race — who, after 
 having amalgamated with the Etrurians, formed that com- 
 posite race which fell beneath the arms of Romulus. 
 
 At the date of the Roman Conquest the Etrurians had 
 long since passed beyond the pastoral state, and were ex- 
 tensively engaged in agriculture, manufactures, and com- 
 merce. They traded with interior Europe, and sent ships 
 to Greece, to Cyprus, to Asia Minor, and to Egypt, whence 
 they conducted a commerce with India, some evidences of 
 which have been found in ancient Etruscan tombs. Many of 
 their works of public improvement evince a high state of civi- 
 lization. They drained lakes by cutting tunnels through the 
 heart of solid mountains ; they constructed maritime canals 
 in Venetia ; they excavated immense numbers of tombs in 
 the rocks ; they sculptured the latter with bold inscrip- 
 tions, to some of which dates were attached ; they diverted 
 the course of rivers, both for irrigation and mining purposes ; 
 they erected imposing public monuments and constructed 
 the Cloaca Maxima, the credit for which has been wrongly 
 given to the Romans; they fashioned works of art of 
 exceeding beauty ; and such of their social institutions as 
 their conquerors have suffered to escape what was intended 
 to be an universal oblivion, point to a degree of advancement 
 which, among contemporaneous nations, had been elsewhere 
 attained by Greece alone. Indeed, the social position of 
 woman — which is always deemed to be a fair test of inter- 
 national progress — was higher in Etruria than in Greece. 
 The Etrurians had a national literature, books, a drama, 
 poetry, and schools. They were eminent in agriculture, 
 military tactics, medicine, metallurgy, and astronomy. 
 
 The story of their overthrow is involved in as much 
 obscurity as their origin. It is supposed that Romulus was 
 a leader of the Alba Longa, a powerful tribe of the Latin 
 aborigines, who, impatient of the restraints imposed upon 
 them by the Etrurians, seized a favourable opportunity to 
 rise and subdue their masters. After Pallantium had been 
 surprised and captured, Romulus reduced the Etruscan 
 
ETRURIA. 179 
 
 inhabitants to an inferior caste, who were permitted, from 
 motives of policy, to nominally participate in the govern- 
 ment, and from whom the conquerors did not disdain to 
 copy many of their social institutions. 
 
 Among the latter, there can be little doubt that the 
 Romans adopted the Etruscan system of money, though pre- 
 cisely what this was at the time of the conquest is not clear. 
 It consisted in part, at least, of large bronze cast pieces ; 
 but whether these were overvalued or not, or were supple- 
 mented by other moneys or not, does not appear from the 
 evidences now extant. 
 
 That the Etruscans employed some sort of money is not 
 only implied by the conditions of their social life ; it is also 
 to be inferred from their mining operations,^ their inter- 
 course with Egypt and India, and their trade with Cyprus ; 
 and, finally, it is proved by their archaeological and numis- 
 matic remains. 
 
 Among the latter are immense numbers of scarabs, 
 which, bearing in mind the use to which these objects are 
 believed to have been put in Egypt, may reasonably be sup- 
 posed to have been used for money in Etruria. So common 
 are these scarabs that even at the present day new ones 
 are continually brought to light, especially near Chiusi and 
 Sarteano, after a heavy rain. 
 
 Owing to the falsification and destruction of Etrurian his- 
 tory and monuments by the Eomans, Etrurian coins are diffi- 
 cult to be distinguished from Roman ones. Ovid (" Fasti," 
 i. 229) ascribes the prow on the Roman coias to Etruria — 
 in itself satisfactory evidence of the use of money by the 
 last-named country. Notwithstanding the confusion pro- 
 duced by this copying of types— indeed, it may have been 
 an adaptation of the coins themselves — many coins have 
 been recognized as belonging to an earlier period than the 
 
 ' Homer mentions the exportation of copper from Temesa. The 
 mines of Enna (the modern Castro Giovanni) in Sicily were worked in 
 very remote times (Humphreys, "Manual," i. 251). The most im- 
 portant copper mines were, however, in Campania and Tuscany. 
 
180 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 Eoman conquest of Pallantium. Among these are said to 
 be a copper quincussis — or what has been taken for such 
 by the numismatists — found in the ApennineSj and a num- 
 ber of copper coins found in the reservoir of the ancient 
 baths of Vicarello.' 
 
 ^ For other information concerning the history and civilization of 
 Etruria, consult the following works : Bureau de la Malle, " Econ. Pol. 
 des Romaines ; " Napoleon's " Csesar," i. 116, 117; Adam's, "Rom. 
 Antiq." p. 503, and Appendix A. ; Geo. Dennis, " Cities and Ceme- 
 taries of Etruria ; " Niebuhr, " Hist. Rome ; " and Miiller, " Hist. 
 Rome." 
 
CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 EOME GENERALLY. 
 
 Difficulties in studying the details of the monetary systems of ancient 
 Rome — Destruction of contemporary laws and historical works — 
 Blunders of Pliny — Errors of modern historians and commentators — 
 Common theory of the subject — The historical theory — The legal 
 theory — Reasons for doubting these theories to be adduced farther on — 
 Views herein entertained with regard to the true character of the 
 monetary systems of Rome. 
 
 ANCIENT history, or so much of it as has survived the 
 wreck of time, presents two glaring defects. It is 
 mainly occupied with the description and fortunes of 
 persons, and the details of battles and sieges. It passes 
 too lightly over the growth of knowledge and invention. 
 These defects are due to various causes. Ancient history 
 has had to pass the barbarous and bigoted censorship of 
 some of its own eras, and later still, of the Dark Ages. The 
 books which contained facts or considerations beyond the 
 comprehension or belief of these ignorant ages were de- 
 stroyed. Thus many of the most important subjects treated 
 by the ancients have failed to be communicated to us in the 
 wrecks of their literature. Another cause of defect arises 
 from the probability that the most important subjects of 
 social life were never fully treated by them at all. This 
 neglect — a natural one — is due to the peculiarities of so- 
 cietary growth and decay. 
 
 The most valuable knowledge is acquired, and the most 
 important discoveries are made in the most progressive 
 countries of each given age, as, for example, Greece and 
 Rome during their republican eras, and Great Britain and the 
 United States at the present time. The means of growth. 
 
182 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 the business of life in such countries, absorb the energies of 
 its inhabitants. Their work is to " make history/' not to 
 write it. Especially was this the case with the progressive 
 countries of ancient times, whose societary organisms were 
 less complex, less differentiated than are similar societies of 
 the present time, and whose inhabitants were less free to 
 gratify their literary tastes. 
 
 In such a country literature met with little encourage- 
 ment, and its pursuit was apt to be unprofitable. It was only 
 when societary growth ceased or paused, that literature and 
 its allied pursuits began to flourish, and it was here that man's 
 record of his own achievements commenced — it is here that 
 written history usually begins. 
 
 But when such time arrives, it is too late for history to 
 be truthful, diffusive, and exact. The most valuable, be- 
 cause the most refined elements of this history are forgotten 
 and wanting, only tlie grosser ones remain, and, in time, 
 these too will be forgotten and lost. Even where no dark 
 ages supervene, where no widespread physical catastrophe 
 occurs, where no destruction of literature takes place, so 
 meagre an account remains of past achievements and their 
 real character, that when a period of growth recurs, nearly 
 the whole course of progress has to be climbed again. 
 Even the knowledge embalmed in unconnected words, the 
 most imperishable of monuments, because the easiest pre- 
 served and the least exposed to accident, is apt to be 
 lost. 
 
 Instances have occurred where the entire language of a 
 people has been corrupted and changed in the course of a 
 single lifetime.^ And even where a written literature pre- 
 serves the use of words, it fails to retain their significance. 
 The words will remain, but the gamut of meanings through 
 which they have passed will have disappeared. Nothing 
 but their latest and most corrupt form and use will survive. 
 The casket will exist, but the precious jewels that it con- 
 tained will have been swept into forgetfulness and oblivion. 
 1 Max Miiller. 
 
ROME GENERALLY. 183 
 
 Hence it is that the history of ancient nations, as that 
 history is written and handed down to posterity, con- 
 tains but little of real value : it is written too late and 
 lacks precision. And hence it is that if we would profit by 
 the experience of nations, we must summon to our aid, not 
 merely the skeleton-like chronicles of the past, we must 
 recall with the help of archaeology and the light of critical 
 reason, the tissue of events that has perished. In a word, 
 we must as nearly as possible resuscitate and rehabilitate all 
 the facts, and not depend upon the few and often unessential 
 ones that have accidentally survived a period of decadence, 
 ignorance, and vandalism. 
 
 In endeavouring to perform this task with regard to the 
 monetary history of Rome, the diflficulties to be overcome 
 are very great. Her laws, as enacted from time to time, 
 are nearly all lost. She has, indeed, left her numismatic 
 remains to guide us, but unfortunately she has also left her 
 postfactum chronicles to mislead us, and such a mass of 
 blind and mistaken commentary rests upon these chronicles, 
 that to sweep both commentation and chronicles aside and 
 reach the truth, but imperfectly established by the frag- 
 ments of her archaeology, is a task of no easy accom- 
 plishment. 
 
 More than this : the peculiar conception of money which 
 we moderns inherit from the Dark Ages, has also assisted to 
 hide the truth from us. This conception has rendered it 
 difficult for us to believe that any system of money radically 
 different from the ones with which we are familiar was 
 possible to be established or maintained in Rome or any 
 other important state. 
 
 The common view of the monetary systems of Rome, 
 founded upon the chronicles of PHny and the views of 
 more modern historians and commentators, is, briefly, as 
 follows : — 
 
 1. That before the time of King Servius TuUius, who 
 reigned b.c. 578-534, the money of Rome consisted of crude 
 copper metal in bars or ingots. Servius was the first to 
 
184 HISTOEY OF MONEY IK ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 make an " impress " upon this metal. The fraction of the 
 monetary system he established was the As, which weighed 
 exactly one Eoman libra or pound and hence went also by 
 this name as well as the other. 
 
 2. That for three hundred years, during which period, 
 according to the same popular belief, most of the sur- 
 rounding nations employed gold and silver coins for money, 
 Rome continued to use copper coins of the weight mentioned 
 above, and at their value as copper, although at that time, 
 so far as we can now determine, that metal bore no higher 
 weight relation to silver metal than it does now.^ At the 
 scale of prices then current this money must have been 
 exceedingly heavy and cumbersome. 
 
 3. That about the year B.C. 269, silver was first coined 
 in Rome ; that the first silver coins were called denarii, 
 weighing each one- sixth of a Roman uneia or ounce, and 
 ordered to pass current with the Ases at the rate of ten 
 Ases for one denarius, which made a weight relation of 
 about seven hundred and twenty to one.^ 
 
 4. That in B.C. 250, the As was degraded to one-sixth of 
 a pound. The weight of the denarius and its tale relation 
 to the As remaining unchanged, the weight relation became 
 changed to about a hundred and twenty to one. 
 
 5. That in B.C. 216, the As was degraded to one-twelfth 
 of a pound, the denarius to one-seventh of an ounce, and 
 the latter ordered to pass for sixteen of the former. This 
 changed the weight relation to about a hundred and twelve 
 to one. 
 
 6. That in e.g. 207, a gold piece was coined called a 
 scripulum or scruple, weighing 18.22916-|- grains, and valued 
 at twenty sestercii, or five denarii, which made a weight 
 
 ' The only instance of this relation — apart from that which is shown 
 in the mooted case of the Roman coinage — which appears to have come 
 down to us from the period in question, is derived from coinages in the 
 time of Aristotle, B.C. 384-322. This relation is 140 of copper to one of 
 silver (Boeckh, "Polit. Econ. Athen." p. 47). 
 
 ^ Arbuthnot, regarding the denarius as one-seventh of an ounce, made 
 the weight relation 840 to 1. Adam ("Roman Antiq.") says 1,000 for 1. 
 
EOME GENERALLY. 
 
 185 
 
 relation of 17.2 of silver in the denarius to one of gold in 
 the scruple.^ 
 
 7. That by the Lex Papirius about B.C. 130, the As was 
 degraded to one twenty-fourth of a pound or half an ounce. 
 The weight of the denarius and its tale relation to the As 
 remaining unchanged, this would make the weight relation 
 of copper to silver about fifty-six for one. 
 
 8, And that in the time of Julius Caesar the gold aureus 
 was coined at the rate of forty to the pound and its legal 
 value fixed at twenty-five silver denarii. 
 
 For the sake of perspicuity these various details will now 
 be arranged in tabular form ; and as they are based chiefiy 
 upon the narrative in Pliny's " Natural History " it has been 
 deemed appropriate to call them collectively the Plinian 
 view of the Roman monetary systems. 
 
 The Plinian Viejc of the Roman Monetary Systems. 
 
 *S d 
 
 Political Indicaa. 
 
 Legal weiglit of 
 
 coins.^ 
 
 Legal 
 
 ratio. 
 
 &S 
 
 Copper Silver 
 
 Gold 
 
 Silver to 
 
 Gold to 
 
 < s 
 
 
 As. 
 
 Denarius. 
 
 Aureus. 
 
 Copper as 
 
 Silver as 
 
 B.C. 
 
 
 Gr. 
 
 Gr. 
 
 Gr. 
 
 1 to 
 
 1 to 
 
 556 
 
 Serviiis Tullius . 
 
 5250 
 
 none 
 
 none 
 
 — 
 
 
 
 269 
 
 Ognlnius and Fabius 
 
 5250 
 
 72-9167 
 
 none 
 
 720 
 
 — 
 
 250 
 
 First Pnnic War . 
 
 875 
 
 72-9167 
 
 none 
 
 120 
 
 — 
 
 216 
 
 Fabius Maximus 
 
 437i 
 
 62-5 
 
 none 
 
 112 
 
 — 
 
 207 
 
 Claudius and Livius 
 
 4371- 
 
 62-5 
 
 131i^ 
 
 112 
 
 17-143 
 
 130 
 
 Lex Papii-ius 
 
 21 Si 
 
 62-5 
 
 131i' 
 
 56 
 
 17-143 
 
 49 
 
 Julius Cfesar . . . 
 
 218i 
 
 62-5 
 
 131i* 
 
 56 
 
 11-9 
 
 ^ Boeckh, " Polit. Econ. Athen." p. 44. 
 
 ' Not the actual weight, which sometimes differed slightly from the 
 legal. 
 
 ^ Deduced from the scruple of this date, weighing 18-23 grains, or 
 7y to the aureus, which latt.er piece was not coined untU a later date. 
 The scruple was coined by fourteen specified gentes or families, who 
 possessed or usurped this right (Colquhoun, " Civil Law," iii. 154). 
 
 * The aureii of this date still extant weigh only 124^ grains, and are 
 believed by some numismatists to have been coined at 125 grains, or 
 
186 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 This is the Roman monetary system as framed by PHny^ 
 and generally accepted by modern historians and commen- 
 tators. A somewhat different view has been expressed by 
 Colquhounj an eminent commentator on the Civil Law. He 
 
 " In the earlier ages of Rome the currency appears to 
 have been exclusively copper, but as the wealth of the new 
 state increased, a silver coinage was introduced, and ulti- 
 mately — though at a comparatively late period — gold 
 pieces ; notwithstanding which, copper — that is to say, an 
 alloy of copper — must be considered as the standard of 
 value." 
 
 Although Colquhoun's language is far from being clear, 
 it appears to mean that copper (or bronze) at its bullion or 
 commodity value was the standard money, with gold and 
 silver coins as auxiliary pieces, having no legal relation to 
 the former, and therefore no legal value or function of legal 
 tender. If this be its meaning, it differs with the Plinian 
 view, for according to the latter a double standard of silver 
 and copper existed from B.C. 269 to B.C. 207, and a triple 
 standard of gold, silver, and copper from the last-named 
 period to that of the Empire. 
 
 But this is saying the least. For reasons which wiU be 
 set forth at length hereinafter, it is maintained that neither 
 of these views, nor, indeed, no view that assumes the 
 Roman monetary system during the period of the Common- 
 wealth to have consisted of metals coined at their commo- 
 dity or bullion value, will stand the test of criticism. It 
 is believed that these reasons, and the arguments accom- 
 panying them, will establish the fact that the Roman mone- 
 tary system was a numerary one, and that the numismatic 
 relics which have been so long regarded by the learned 
 world as copper coins were essentially irredeemable notes 
 
 twice the weight of the denarius. Humphreys, 383, says that the first 
 aureii weighed 130 grains. Colquhoun's " Civil Law," iii. 154, says the 
 most ancient aureus we possess was coined under Julius Caesar, and 
 weighs 121-i grains. 
 
HOME GENERALLY. 187 
 
 stamped (for lack of paper) on copper, and devised and 
 designed to pass in the exchanges for a much greater value 
 than that of the material of which they were composed. 
 
 Moreover, that the silver denarii were (at first) also over- 
 valued, passing for more raw metal, whether silver or copper, 
 than they would have exchanged for had they been re- 
 duced to crude bullion. In other words, that originally 
 the denarii were irredeemable notes passing for other irre- 
 deemable notes, just as in recent years an United States 
 Treasury draft might have been di-awn for a given sum of 
 irredeemable " greenbacks." And, finally, that these mea- 
 sures of ancient Roman finance were maintained by specifi- 
 cally or practically limiting the emission of copper Ases, 
 or nummi. 
 
 This view of the monetary systems of Rome may conve- 
 niently be thrown into the following summary form : — 
 
 I. That Rome possessed several monetary systems before 
 the time of Servius Tullius. 
 
 II. That the system of Servius Tullius, dating from about 
 the year B.C. 556, was based upon large circular Janus-faced 
 coins, specimens of which are still extant, and that these 
 coins were, at first, overvalued, if at all, only to a small 
 extent. 
 
 III. That these coins were gradually lessened in weight 
 without correspondingly increasing their numbers, and thus 
 became highly overvalued, and passed for more than the 
 copper contained in them was worth. 
 
 IV. That from about the year of the Gaulish invasion, 
 B.C. 385, until about the year B.C. 269, the monetary system 
 of Rome consisted of copper nummi, formerly known as 
 Ases ; that the whole number of these nummi was limited 
 by the senate ; that they were a full and exclusive legal tender 
 for all purposes ; and that they were rendered secure from 
 counterfeiting by the artistic beauty and mechanical excel- 
 lence of the pieces and the vigilance of the law officers. 
 
 V. That from B.C. 269 to B.C. 250, the foregoing nume- 
 rical system was modified by the introduction of silver 
 
188 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 multiples, called denarii, overvaluedj and devised to repre- 
 sent groups or sums of copper numeraries. 
 
 VI. That from B.C. 250 to B.C. 216 this modified nume- 
 rical system was altered only by lowering the weight of the 
 nummuSj an alteration altogether nominal, and of no more 
 consequence than could have been a change in the size of 
 the modern American " greenback.^'' 
 
 VII. That from B.C. 216 to 207 the monetary system was 
 again nominally, though not really, modified, by again 
 lowering the weight of the nummus, by recoining the denarii 
 at one-seventh instead of one-sixth of an ounce, and by alter- 
 ing the legal relation between these coins from ten for one 
 to sixteen for one by tale.'' 
 
 VIII. That in B.C. 207 the numerical system was defi- 
 nitely terminated by the free coinage of silver, and its adop- 
 tion as a full legal tender commodity money. The copper 
 nummi were not lowered in weight but degraded in func- 
 tion by reducing them to qualified legal tenders or 
 " tokens.''' They were henceforth, until the Augustan era, 
 known as Ases. A gold multiple was coined called a 
 scruple. 
 
 IX. That about B.C. 170, the assumed date of the Lex 
 Papirius, the weight of the copper As was reduced to half 
 an ounce — a mere nominal change in such a system. The 
 weights, function, and ratios of the. silver and gold pieces 
 were not changed. 
 
 X. That about B.C. 46, Julius Cffisar coined the gold 
 aureus, admitted gold to unlimited coinage, and adopted it 
 as the sole standard of value — the silver and copper pieces 
 remaining at the same weights as before, but restricted in 
 
 ' The Rt. Hon. G. J. Groschen, in an address before the London 
 Institute of Bankers, April 18th, 1883, said (Pamphlet, p. 15) that the 
 reason of the Roman laws for the relief of debtors was that " they never 
 had an expansive currency." During the Rejjublic, the money of 
 Rome, though not an expansive, was nevertheless an expanding one — a 
 difference pointed out farther on (see chapter xviii.), and one which the 
 distmguished gentleman may have held in mind. 
 
ROME GENERALLY. 
 
 180 
 
 coinage and degraded in function to the rank of qualified 
 tenders. 
 
 XI. That in the earlier days of the Empire, probably 
 during the reign of Augustus, a modified numerical system 
 was again introduced by restricting the coinage of gold 
 coins and promoting the copper nummi to full legal tender- 
 ship, and that substantially this system survived, possibly 
 with other modifications, until about the third century, 
 when it was finally destroyed by the adoption of a gold, 
 silver, and copper commodity money; that this last-named 
 system continued until the Dark Ages, and has survived in 
 many countries to the present time. 
 
 It will be convenient to arrange these views also in 
 tabular form : — 
 
 Critical view of the Roman monetary systems from, the earliest period 
 to that of the Empire. 
 
 1 ^' 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Weight 
 
 'm D 
 
 
 Weight 
 
 Copper 
 
 As. 
 Rom. oz. 
 
 Number 
 
 Weight of 
 
 Weight of 
 
 ratio of 
 
 Silver fo 
 
 Copper 
 
 
 Political Era. 
 
 of Ases 
 to one 
 
 Silver 
 Denarius. 
 
 Gold 
 Aureus. 
 
 <l 
 
 
 Dena- 
 
 Troy Gr. 
 
 Troy Gr. 
 
 Metal in 
 Coins as 
 
 B.C. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 1 to 
 
 753 
 
 Early regal ' . . . . 
 
 _ 
 
 _ 
 
 none 
 
 none 
 
 
 556 
 
 Servius Tullius . . 
 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 none 
 
 none 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Uncertain date . . 
 
 
 3'8 = 
 
 — 
 
 none 
 
 none 
 
 — , 
 
 385 
 
 Gaulish invasion . 
 
 
 3-5^ 
 
 — 
 
 none* 
 
 none 
 
 — 
 
 — 
 
 Uncertain date . . 
 
 
 3-0' 
 
 — 
 
 none 
 
 none 
 
 — 
 
 269 
 
 Ogulnius and Fabius 
 
 
 2-58 
 
 10 
 
 72-9167^ 
 
 none 
 
 150 
 
 250 
 
 First Punic War . 
 
 
 2-0 
 
 10 
 
 72-9167 
 
 none 
 
 120» 
 
 216 
 
 Second Punic War 
 
 
 1-0 
 
 16" 
 
 62-5 1° 
 
 none 
 
 112 
 
 207 
 
 Claudius and Livius 
 
 
 1-0 
 
 16 
 
 62-5 
 
 131-25" 
 
 112 
 
 170 
 
 Agrarian and Social Wars 
 
 0-5 
 
 16 
 
 62-5 
 
 131-25 
 
 56 
 
 46 
 
 Julius Gajsar .... 
 
 0.5'^ 
 
 16 
 
 62-5 
 
 125-0 
 
 56 
 
 ^ See next chapter. 
 
 ^ The actual weight of a number of so-called Ases of this period, as 
 given by Humphi-eys, is 3,856-j- grains Troy, or about 8. 8 Roman ounces ; 
 but there is reason to believe that these were sesterces. 
 
 ^ See chapter on " Republican System." 
 
 * According to Colquhoun, silver tri- drachmas coined by gentes were 
 
190 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIES. 
 
 For tlie sake of keeping in mind these systems I have 
 ventured to distinguish them by the following names : — 
 
 circulated in Rome at this period. If so, they could have had no legal 
 value, and passed only as bullion. See Pliny, xxxiii. 3, 40 ; Livv, 
 viii. 11 ; Ep. xv. cited in Adam, 425. 
 
 ° Le Normand suggests about 4 ounces, l,762i grains, for the weight 
 of the As at about this period. 
 
 " Pinkerton on " Medals," i. 162 (ed. 1808) holds that the As of the 
 year when the denarius was first issued weighed 3 Roman ounces, or, 
 say, l,312i grains. I am inclined to the opinion that Ases of this weight 
 were cast previous to this date. 
 
 ^ Gibbon, 4to ed., iii. 460. 
 
 ° Boeckh, 47, says 140 for 1 ; but this is because he reckoned the 
 denarius at 62-i grains, whereas it weighed nearly 73 grains at this 
 period, or 6 to the ounce (Gibbon, iii. 460). 
 
 " The relation of 16 Ases to 1 denarius continued from this date 
 to Justinian's time, perhaps later. For soldiers' pay the relation was 
 10 to 1. Pliny xxiii., 13. But Blatthew Raper, in his "Inquiry," 
 p. 551, advances reasons for the belief that the denarius was again 
 commonly rated at 10 Ases (or nummi) after it had been rated at 16. 
 
 '° From the period of the Second Punic War to that of Nero, the 
 Roman pondo or libra of silver was coined into 84 denarii, equal to 
 62i grains each. About the period of Nero, 96 denarii were coined 
 from a libra (Boeckh, 24). Such, perhaps, was the law ; but it was 
 not the fact. 
 
 '' Adam (p. 428) says the aureus was first called aureus nummus, 
 and " was equal in weight to two denarii and a quinarius." On p. 427, 
 he says a denarius was valued at 10 Ases, and a quinarius at 5 (after- 
 wards 16 and 8 Ases respectively) ; hence 2 denarii and a quinarius 
 equalled 2~ denarii. This would make the weight of the first aureii 
 156^, instead of 131-|- grains each. Yet, on p. 428, he distinctly says 
 that " at first forty aureii were made from a pound of gold." The gold 
 aureii of this period were too pui'e to admit of the explanation that the 
 difference consisted of alloy. The discrepancy must, therefore, remain 
 unexplained. 
 
 '^ It is not improbable that at about this period the As piece went out 
 of circulation. Plumphreys assigns the disappearance of the As to the 
 reign of Augustus. 
 
ROME GENERALLY. 
 
 191 
 
 Veriod B.C. 
 
 753 to 556 
 556 to 385 
 
 385 to 269 
 
 269 to 250 
 
 250 to 216 
 
 216 to 207 
 
 207 to 170 
 
 Name of System. 
 
 170 to 46 
 46 to 31 
 
 Archaic and Regal 
 Servian .... 
 
 Republican . 
 Patrician 
 
 First Punic War . 
 Second Punic War 
 
 Scipion . . . . 
 
 Social ATars 
 Julian . 
 
 Character of System. 
 
 Various systenas, as in next chapter. 
 
 Circular copper coins of indefinite 
 numbersi, i.e. commodity money, 
 cast with a double-faced Janus on 
 one side and the prow of a galley 
 on the other. 
 
 Radical numerary system of limited 
 emission. These numeraries were 
 of bronze, circular in shape, and of 
 superior workmansliip. 
 
 Bronze numeraries. The limits of 
 the emission are now relaxed, and 
 family denarii of silver begin to 
 circulate at the rate of 1 for 10 
 of the numeraries. 
 
 Similar to last. The numeraries are 
 reduced in weight, and their emis- 
 sions increased. 
 
 Similar to last. The numeraries are 
 again reduced in weight, and emis- 
 sions increased. Silver denarii now 
 pass for 16 Ases each. 
 
 The standard is now substantially 
 silver bullion. The bronze coins 
 still pass for something more than 
 their ingot value. A gold mul- 
 tiple, " aureus nummus," is intro- 
 duced. 
 
 Gold, silver, and bronze moneys ; 
 mixed systems. 
 
 Gold standard for money.' The 
 bronze numeraries, after having 
 fallen from excessive emissions to 
 their commodity value, were nciw 
 sent in large quantities to the 
 provinces, there to be recoined at 
 an overvaluation. 
 
 ' The temporary fall of gold in silver which occurred at Rome was 
 induced by the plentifalness of Cesar's spoil in Gaul, coupled with the 
 inability of the Roman mints to coin it with despatch. But for the 
 last-named fact, the former one could not have had the effect imputed 
 to it. 
 
CHAPTER XV. 
 
 EARLIEST MONETARY SYSTEMS OP ROME. 
 
 Notwitlistanding the opinion of Pliny, it is evident that coins and 
 other moneys were nsed in Rome long before the era of Servius Tullius 
 — The term " peounia" — ^The copper ingots ascribed to Servius TuUins 
 were of an earlier or later date, and were not moneys, but commercial 
 ingots, and probably Etruscan — The ses of copper probably never 
 weighed an fes or libra- — ^The pound sterling never weighed a pound, 
 nor the TTrench livre, a livre — No system of money ever existed in which 
 coins permanently passed by weight, because the value of coins is due 
 to their numbers, and not to their weights — The so-called ses (of the 
 Janus-faced type) was a sesterce, and belongs to the era of Servius 
 Tullius. 
 
 " T^ING SERVIUS was the first to make an impress 
 J-^ upon copper. Before this time, according to 
 Timseus, only the raw material was used at Rome (for 
 money) ." 
 
 In this passage Pliny asks us to believe that for a period 
 of nearly two centuries, namely, from B.C. 753 to 566, the 
 Romans used raw copper as a common medium of exchange, 
 and that the idea of casting it into masses of a uniform 
 weight and type, or of stamping it with some conventional 
 mark — either of which acts would have converted it into 
 money — never occurred ' to them, or to those from whom 
 their copper was obtained. 
 
 It has already been shown that money was used by the 
 Phoenicians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Carthaginians, in short, 
 by all the important nations with whom the early Romans 
 were familiar ; it has even been shown that it was used in 
 Italy — and therefore in Rome — during the Etruscan era; 
 the art of casting ingots of a uniform weight and type could 
 not have been unknown to the Etruscans, who produced 
 
EARLIEST MONETARY SYSTEMS OF ROME. 193 
 
 copper from their own mines, and doubtless supplied it to 
 the Romans ; nor could the casting of marked ingots have 
 failed to occur to the Romans themselves, who were workers 
 in bronze implements, vessels, and ornaments, who pos- 
 sessed a system of weights and measures, and prosecuted a 
 foreign commerce important enough to require the building 
 of a new port at Ostia,'^ and the making of commercial 
 treaties with Carthage ; * yet in spite of all this evidence 
 the modern world has deferred to the authority of a care- 
 less and discursive author, who lived upwards of six cen- 
 turies after the era to which he alludes, and whose opinion 
 is derived from a source which was dubious in Pliny^s day, 
 and is wholly beyond modern reach. 
 
 There are, indeed, emergencies in the histories of all 
 countries, when the most uncouth and unsuitable de- 
 vices or substances are used for money, as tenpenny 
 nails in Scotland in 1776, rum in Australia previous to 
 1850, and turnips in Philadelphia in 1865; but these were 
 not lawful moneys, nor did they long remain in use. If 
 Timseus referred to some such exceptional instance in the 
 monetary history of Rome, there can be no objection to the 
 acceptance of his statement ; but if it be regarded as apply- 
 ing to Rome permanently and by force of law or long-estab- 
 lished custom, it must be rejected as untenable. 
 
 That money was used by the Romans long before the 
 period of Servius Tullius there can be no reasonable doubt. 
 It is not only proved by the evidences already adduced, but 
 
 ' Befoi'e the Roman era the seaport of Rome was at Dragoncello, on 
 the Tiber, about twelve miles below the city (Antonio Nibby, in 
 Hare's " Days near Rome," p. 288). In the time of Ancus Martins, B.C. 
 638-614, a new port was built at Ostia, two miles further down the 
 river. 
 
 ^ The first treaty with Carthage was made B.C. 509. " By this 
 treaty the Romans and their allies engage not to navigate beyond the 
 Bonum Promontorium (a cape situated to the north of and opposite 
 Carthage, and now called Porto-Farino). . . . The Carthaginians under- 
 take to respect the Ardeates, Antiates, Laurentes, Circeii, and Tarra- 
 cinii, indeed all the Latin peoples subject to Rome" (Polybius, iii. 3). 
 
 O 
 
194 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 also by others. Several eminent numismatists are of the 
 opinion (based on allusions in classical authors) that the early 
 Romans employed wooden tallies, clay tablets, and stamped 
 discs of leather, for moneys.-^ Suidas even supposes the clay 
 tablets to have been of the scarab type used in Egypt. The 
 isolated position of the early Romans, and their lack of 
 copper mines from whence to procure regular and ample 
 supplies of the material for copper or bronze moneys, render 
 this opinion all the more plausible. Nor was the prevail- 
 ing phase of civilization such as to make a system of over- 
 valued moneys impracticable. The form of government 
 was an aristocratic republic. Under Numa, B.C. 714-675, 
 the lands gained by conquest were parcelled out among the 
 people, instead of only to chieftains, as before. The public 
 works attest great proficiency in the mechanic arts. Among 
 these were the wall of oircumvallation, the Capitol, and 
 the Circus Maximus. The artistic excellence evinced in 
 these works may have had not a little to do with the 
 destruction of the overvalued moneys which are presumed 
 to have been in vogue during a portion of the period under 
 review. Systems of this character are liable to be broken 
 down by counterfeiting, and unless the resources of the 
 government are kept abreast at all times with the progress 
 of the arts among its citizens and in foreign countries, it 
 cannot hope to successfully maintain such systems. That 
 this was the fate of the overvalued moneys, if such existed, 
 of early Rome, is rendered the more probable from the 
 views advanced by the learned Dr. Adam, who supposes 
 the artisans of this period to have consisted of the con- 
 quered Etruscans, aa yet not reconciled to the ascendancy 
 of the Romans. It may therefore be presumed that they 
 were not indisposed to assist in undermining the monetary 
 systems of their conquerors by counterfeiting their over- 
 valued moneys. 
 
 "Many of the fines imposed by ancient laws, even at 
 
 ' Suidas, Stieglitz, Quintinos, Noel Humphreys, &c. The leather 
 moneys are doubted by Boeckh, " Polit. Econ. Athen.," p. 769. 
 
EARLIEST MONETARY SYSTEMS OP ROME. 195 
 
 Rome, were levied in cattle." ' This neither asserts nor 
 proves that the Romans used cattle for money. The an- 
 cient laws of Rome were those of Etruria and, possibly, of 
 archaic Etruria, and old terms and forms were retained long 
 after their usefulness had ceased. The Romans of the 
 regnal period probably construed a fine of an ox to mean so 
 many pieces of money. Pliny proves this himself in his dis- 
 sertation on the survival of words derived from ses and from 
 the formality of using the balance in sales of slaves. 
 
 " The form of a sheep was the first figure impressed upon 
 money, and to this fact it owes its name, ' pecunia.''" " Judg- 
 ing from analogy, pecunia is more likely to have been de- 
 rived from that use of cattle which antedated any kind of 
 money. This is certainly the case with fee, shekel, and 
 other similar terms. If this view be admitted, pecunia 
 gave rise to the sheep rather than the sheep to pecunia. 
 Indeed the word, like saccara canda (sugar candy), damajan 
 (demijohn), and cash, may have come from the most remote 
 eras.^ 
 
 Following too literally the text of Pliny, some numis- 
 matists have regarded as money, and ascribed to the period 
 of Servius Tullius, certain square and oblong masses of 
 copper found in Italy. It wiU be shown herein that these 
 masses are of either an earlier or later date than Servius 
 Tullius, and that they were not moneys, but commercial 
 ingots. 
 
 These masses, of which a few are stiU extant, are of cast 
 copper, and vary in length from one to five inches, and in 
 thickness from a quarter of an inch to an inch. Their 
 weight varies from about half-a-pound to five pounds, 
 Roman.* 
 
 ' Pliny, xxxiii. 3. " Pliny, xxxiii. 13. 
 
 ' Saccara canda is found in the most ancient Sanscrit writings 
 (Draper's " CiTilizatiou "). Damajan, together with the object it repre- 
 sents, is to be found sculptured on the Pharaonic tombs of Thebes 
 (Wilkinson's " Ancient Egyptians "). Cash is from karshapana, a coin or 
 weight in the time of Manou, and mentioned in his " Code." 
 
 * In addition to these pieces, " others are mentioned by ancient authors 
 
196 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Many numismatists have doubted that these ingots were 
 at all Roman, and have ascribed them to neighbouring 
 Italian states/ Indeed, the only reason for ascribing them 
 to Rome is the mischievous passage in Pliny from Timseus. 
 Respect for the antiquity of this literary fragment alone 
 renders it necessary to discuss its credibility. 
 
 It has been noticed by critical observers that the effigies 
 or symbols on these ingots, though apparently rude, are the 
 work of highly finished artists, and are really rude only in 
 the respect that they are designed with a bold and free hand. 
 This circumstance assigns the pieces to a period either long 
 before or long after that of Servius Tullius ; for, although 
 artists of this era evinced skill in some respects, they were 
 wanting in that mastery of delineating human and animal 
 forms which first manifested itself in the Greek schools of 
 the sixth century B.C., and only made its way to Rome at a 
 much later period. The copper masses in question are of 
 this character. No inferior artists could have fabricated 
 them ; they are rude, but it is the rudeness of genius.'' 
 
 The vast size and weight of these masses forbids the 
 belief that they were used as money, or if thus used, in any 
 wider sense than cakes of salt in Abyssinia, or bricks of tea 
 in China are so used at the present time. These commo- 
 dities are indeed used as moneys, but not generally through- 
 out the empires to which they respectively relate, nor exclu- 
 sively, nor by legal provision, but as voluntary and conve- 
 nient media of exchange by the people of remote and sparsely 
 settled districts, to which metallic coins seldom find their 
 way, and where the commodities of which these masses are 
 made are common and indigenous.^ 
 
 As previously stated, the weight of some of the copper 
 masses of Rome which are still extant is not less than five 
 
 of the great weight of one hundred Ases," or libras (Humphreys' 
 " Manual," i. 254). 
 
 ' Humphreys' "Manual," i. 257. 
 
 ^ Le Normand in Humphreys' "Manual," i. 257 and 261. 
 
 ^ See chapter on China. 
 
EARLIEST MONETARY SYSTEMS OF ROME. 197 
 
 pounds.^ It is difficult to believe that such a cumbrous 
 mass of metal was used as money^ and far more easy to sup- 
 pose that it was merely an ingot of copper cast into this- 
 form for commercial convenience;, the effigy being no more nor 
 less than a trade or deposit mark.'* It is not impossible 
 that these masses were used as money ; nay, it is not impro- 
 bable that they were so used, provided the supposed use be 
 limited to the neighbourhood of the copper mines where 
 the ingots were cast, or to the sense in which pig-iron was, 
 and pig-iron " warrants " are stiU, used as a medium of ex- 
 change in the iron districts and markets of England and 
 Scotland. What is disputed is that they were the common 
 or the legal, or the only money of the Roman state, either 
 at the period to which they are erroneously ascribed, or at 
 any other period . 
 
 In certain remote pastoral districts of ancient Italy no 
 doubt but that cattle were employed as money ; in the fishing 
 districts perhaps dried fish were similarly employed, just as 
 seal-skins are still used in some parts of Norway, and cod- 
 fish in Iceland; and in the neighbourhood of the copper 
 mines of Italy it is not unlikely that these great masses 
 were used for a medium of exchange in certain special 
 
 ' The weight of the so-called quincunx in the Earl of Pembroke's 
 collection is 27,662 grains Troy. This may or may not have been a 
 quincunx, indeed there is nothing to prove that it was not a market 
 weight or a mere commercial ingot, or an ingot deposited in the ajrarium. 
 The piece alluded to by Humphreys, i. 253, as having been " seen " by 
 the Due de Luynes, may be mythical, or the duke may have been mis- 
 taken as to its age. 
 
 ^ M. Le Normand, the most recent authority on the subject, is of 
 opinion that these masses should be regarded simply as ingots, bearing 
 a national symbol or seal as a guarantee of their weight. He holds 
 that the square ingots were cast even after the issue of the circular As 
 and for the convenience of stowage in the national serarium. Bronze 
 armour and other spoils of war of this metal were invariably castinto ingots 
 of this form on their transport to Rome. At the triumphs of S. Papirius 
 Cursor over the Samnites, B.C. 295, some 233,000 pounds of bronze were 
 brought to Kome, and only 1,330 pounds of silver, though the Samnites 
 were then a richer and more luxurious people than the Romans 
 (Humphreys, "Manual," i. 255). 
 
198 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 classes of transactions. But for all other transactions it is 
 believed that coins or numerical moneys were used in Italy 
 ■ from the very outset of its historical period. 
 
 The extreme fewness of the specimens extant afford 
 another proof that the copper masses in question were not 
 money. Coins of a far more ancient date, and of a small 
 size, and for both of these reasons much more likely to have 
 been lost, have been found in considerable numbers; 
 whereas but isolated specimens of these great masses re- 
 main, and no assemblage of them has ever been discovered. 
 
 Their irregular weight is another argument against their 
 admission as coins or money. In numerical moneys irregu- 
 larity of weight is unimportant ; because the value of the 
 pieces, whether of metal, leather, glass, clay, or paper, is 
 due to their legal course and limited numbers. In com- 
 modity moneys irregularity of weight is intolerable and 
 impracticable, and unless it is confined within very small 
 limits, must speedily lead to the downfall of the system. 
 One of the essential conditions of a commodity system is 
 that all the pieces of the same denomination shall contain, 
 approximately, a like quantity and quality of the commodity 
 that forms its basis. This is not the case with the copper 
 masses in question. They vary in weight enormously, and, 
 indeed, I have not been able to ascertain that any two of 
 them are alike. Even when coins are clipped, the clipping 
 must proceed with more or less equality, or else there would 
 be too great a choice between the various pieces, to be dis- 
 regarded. In other words, the clipping would naturally 
 come to be general and uniform. Should it prove to be 
 otherwise, the system would fall ; for although in times of 
 a diminishing money people will be less particular than at 
 others as to the kind of money they take, no one would be 
 likely, at any time, to accept half a pound of metal when a 
 full pound was his due, nor to pay a fuU pound if half a 
 pound would answer the same purpose. The discrepancies 
 in the weights of the copper masses under review are even 
 greater than is here supposed, and are far too great to admit 
 
EARLIEST MONETAEY SYSTEMS OF ROME. 199 
 
 of the plea of their having been unlawfully diminished in 
 weight. 
 
 The low value of copper as compared with other com- 
 modities/ coupled with the great weight of the masses under 
 consideration, furnishes another proof that they were not 
 money. The further they were carried from the copper 
 mines or the place where they were fabricated into ingots, 
 the more they would be worth ; thus their value as metal 
 would differ with almost every mile they travelled. In those 
 days of difficult and expensive transportation this difference 
 would be so great, that while in one district they would 
 only pass as coins for their legal value, in the next one they 
 might pass as metal for twice as much. A money of this 
 character would be intolerably inequitable and inconvenient, 
 and it is hardly to be supposed that, with the then recent 
 example before them in Lacedsemonia of the successful 
 use of numerary money, the Eomans would have endured 
 so cumbrous and troublesome a system of money as the 
 one under review, when they had a remedy so close at 
 hand. 
 
 If it be urged in reply to these arguments that in modern 
 countries copper has been used for money at or near its 
 market value as metal, it istobe observed in reply that (1) the 
 ingots were marked, and (2) that all such experiments failed 
 after a trial of brief duration compared with the long period 
 during which the supposed Roman ingot system is assumed 
 to have lasted.'' 
 
 The commentators of Pliny make copper worth in weight 1,000 for 
 one of silver ; but, as shown in another chapter, there are reasons for 
 believing that the true ratio was about 140 for one. This is a low 
 enough value for the present argument. 
 
 ^ The Swedish copper ingot system lasted from 1673 to 1763. 
 During nearly all this time the ingots were deposited in bank, and re- 
 presented by printed paper notes, and during the rest by copper coins 
 overvalued ninety-six times. 
 
 The Weimar copper ingot system of 1715 was introduced by the 
 Swedes, and was similar to their own. 
 
 The Russian copper ingot system lasted but for a single year, 1755-6. 
 Before and after that the copper ingots (roubles) were overvalued. 
 
200 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 With reference to the amorphous copper ingots found in 
 Italy, regarded as money, and ascribed to the ante- Servian 
 period of Rome, such ascription is purely fanciful and 
 erroneous.^ 
 
 At one time, according to Pliny, the As of copper 
 weighed exactly one libra.^ He supports this ^pinion, not 
 by adducing the actual coins and their weights, but by 
 reference to words and phrases employed. in ancient Roman 
 laws and customs.' 
 
 This opinion is easily refuted. There is not a single one 
 of the numerous so-called Ases extant which weigh exactly 
 or nearly exactly one libra, and this assertion includes both 
 the copper masses above referred to and the heavily circular 
 so-called Ases of the Janus-faced type.* 
 
 I say " so-called " Ases because, as will be argued in a 
 future chapter, these last-named pieces were really not 
 Ases, but sesterces of 2^ Ases, the mark 1 upon them 
 signifying one nummus, and not one As, as is commonly 
 supposed. 
 
 Nay more, it may be confidently asserted that no system 
 of money ever existed in which the coins passed by weight 
 instead of tale, or wherein the coins preserved for more than 
 a very brief period the names and weights of well-known 
 measures of weight, as the libra, or pound, or ounce. The 
 object of conferring the names of libra, pound, or ounce 
 upon coins is not to denote, but to misrepresent their true 
 weights. 
 
 I am very well aware that, at least in recent times, it has 
 been proposed by certain thoughtless persons to make coins 
 
 ^ One of these mimismatic stams appeared in Scott's Catalogue of 
 Schieflfelin's coins, Kew York, March 3rd to 8th, 1879. 
 
 '^ The weight libra of archaic and imperial Rome differed. See the 
 Introduction to vol. iii. of Bohn's " Pliny." 
 
 ^ It must be remembered in this connection, that all the public 
 records and books in Rome were destroyed when the Gauls set fire to it. 
 
 * The weights of a great number of these pieces are given by Baper, 
 Le Normand, Humphreys, and others. Some of them in private collec- 
 tions I have myself weighed. 
 
EARLIEST MONETARY SYSTEMS OF ROME. 201 
 
 of even weights, and to call them by the names of such 
 weights, and it may be that similar projects were entertained 
 in ancient times ; although this is doubtful ; because the 
 ancients were far better acquainted with the nature of money 
 than we are, and were not so apt to entertain impracticable 
 ideas on the subject. 
 
 Th6 objection to such a system is two-fold. First, ihe 
 practice would lead to confusion in contracts and exchanges ; 
 for example, as to whether a pound weight of money or a 
 pound weight of something else was meant ; and second, 
 because the value of coins is derived, not from their weight, 
 but their numbers and legal functions — a fact well known to 
 the ancients. Suppose, for the sake of an extreme illustra- 
 tion, that but one hundred coins, each called a " pound," 
 and weighing exactly a pound of gold, were in existence in 
 any important country, and that all debts and contracts in 
 such country were legally dischargeable only in such 
 " pounds," it would follow that each of the coined pounds 
 would rise in value to that of thousands, perhaps millions of 
 pounds of uncoined gold, in deference to the urgent and 
 universal desire to obtain them for the purposes of making 
 payments. Such an extreme case would of course never 
 arise in fact, because a system so limited would be too 
 intolerable to be borne by any people ; but it serves to 
 elucidate the principle that the value of coins arises from 
 their numbers and functions, and not, as is commonly sup- 
 posed, from their weight. Practical examples in point are 
 to be met with in the actual moneys of all countries. The 
 Carolus silver dollar of Spain, now no longer coined, and 
 therefore practically limited in numbers, though it weighs 
 but a few grains more than the recent dollar of the same 
 country, is worth nearly half as much again. ' The American 
 silver dollar of 1804, weighing exactly the same in pure 
 silver as the dollar of to-day, is worth from. $250 to $1,000, 
 
 ' These coins circulate chiefly in the treaty ports of China. The 
 value of the Carolus dollar in Shanghai varies from $1.35 to $1.50 in 
 American silver dollars, which are of like weight. 
 
202 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 or several hundred times as much/ The silver dollar of to- 
 day, of unlimited function and weighing 371* grains in 
 pure silver^ is worth more than the silver trade dollar^ whose 
 weight is 382i grains pure. The legal tender of this coin 
 was formerly limited to five dollars in any one payment, but 
 since 1877 it has been entirely demonetized. 
 
 As this history proceeds, it will be observed that the 
 Romans and Greeks, back to the earliest times, were well 
 aware of this principle of money, and therefore were not 
 likely to have ignored it in practice, except perhaps during 
 some brief interval of time, when war or civil commotion 
 interrupted the ordinary course of affairs, and destroyed the 
 integrity of the government and the mints. It may be 
 confidently assumed that they did not ignore it for so long 
 a time as is inferentially assigned by Pliny to the supposed 
 "As libralis,'' namely, from the foundation of Rome, B.C. 
 753, or from the reforms of Servius Tullius, B.C. 566, to the 
 defeat of King Pyrrhus, B.C. 274. 
 
 As for the notion that the coin or sum livre of France 
 ever weighed a livre weight, or the coin or sum pound 
 sterling of England ever weighed a pound weight, there is 
 no warrant for it in fact, and it merely arises from the same 
 faulty method of reasoning from names, that induced Pliny 
 to connect "stipes pondera," &c., with a supposititious As 
 that weighed exactly one libra. The fact, in all these cases, 
 was, that the name of a superior weight was given to the 
 coins in after times in order to convey an exaggerated 
 notion of their value, and not because they ever actually 
 weighed as much. This is proved by the fact that the 
 names " livre" and "pound," attached to coins or sums of 
 money, are of much later dates than the same names 
 attached to weights, and of later dates than other names* 
 previously used for the same coins or sums. 
 
 The fraction of money in France when the livre weight 
 
 But few of these coins are extant, the majority of the mintage having 
 been lost in the war with Tripoli, where they were sent to pay the 
 crews of the United States' men-of-waar. 
 
EARLIEST MONETARY SYSTEMS OF ROME. 203 
 
 for commodities was established by Charlemagne was the 
 silver denarius, denier, or denny. The fraction of money 
 in England when the pound weight for commodities was 
 adopted by William of Normandy was the silver penny. 
 In both countries the livre or pound employed at the mint 
 was the Easterling or Saxon pound of 5,400 grains Troy. In 
 both countries twelve dennies or pennies in tale equalled 
 one sol, sou, or shilling, and in both countries in after times 
 twenty sols, sous, or shillings in tale equalled a livre or 
 pound (coin or sum).^ Thus 240 pennies (coins) equalled a 
 pound (coin or sum of coins) . From this fact it has been 
 inferred that out of a pound of pure or nearly pure silver 
 were coined 240 pennies, and therefore that the weight of 
 a silver penny was originally 224: grains ; but although so 
 many as 12,000 of these coins have of late years been found 
 in a single place, and the specimens extant are very 
 common, none of them are of this weight. The silver 
 pennies of Charlemagne contained about 20 grains, and of 
 the earliest Anglo-Norman kings about 18 grains;^ and as 
 time went on they weighed less and less. Not one speci- 
 men of the penny has ever been found that weighs 240 to 
 the livre or pound of pure silver, and this is very strong 
 evidence that no livre or pound, coin or sum of coins, 
 ever weighed a livre or pound weight of that metal. 
 
 In like manner the fraction of the monetary system of 
 Eome at the period now under review was the As, and it 
 may have been called the As libralis, though whether this 
 name was attached to it at that time or afterwards is uncer- 
 
 ' Humphreys' " Manual," ii. 428. 
 
 ^ Tooke, vi. 416, bases a lengthy argument on the erroneous assump- 
 tion that the penny of William of Normandy weighed the 240th part of 
 a pound weight of silver .925 fine. Following James on this subject, he 
 also omits the debasement of the silver coinage in a.d.. 1175, quoted by 
 Maddox, i. 278, from the Norman Chronicle, and, in short, blunders in 
 many ways. In this respect, however, he is not without a numerous 
 company among writers on p7-ices. Indeed, since money is always 
 national and prices nearly always local, all general principles of money 
 based on prices in one place are to be accepted with extreme caution. 
 
204 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 tain ; but it can be confidently assumed that the As never 
 weighed a libra. None of the square or oblong Ases (so- 
 caUed) weigh a libra. They vary from about half a libra 
 to about five libras. As to the circular Ases (so-called), 
 Humphreys (i., 257) says that none of them are above 
 9-i- ounces. 
 
 From these various evidences it may be assumed that the 
 copper masses under consideration were not used perma- 
 nently as moneys or media of exchange, and that, if used at 
 all, they were either employed exclusively near the copper 
 mines, or as a temporary device, or, like the Swedish 
 ingots, as bank reserves, which were represented in the 
 circulation by more portable and convenient symbols, as 
 silver coins,^ wooden tallies, or the like. 
 
 Accuracy in relation to the monetary systems of early 
 Rome is not to be expected in such an acoourtt as Pliny has 
 afi'orded us.^ It must not be forgotten that this author 
 wrote under the censorship of a despotic emperor, whose 
 interests might have been averse to any precise recital of 
 the monetary systems that preceded his own,* and that Pliny, 
 in this instance, wrote of events which, in his day, were 
 some six or eight centuries old, and that he was neither a 
 political economist, nor a financier, nor a numismatist. No 
 one would look for accuracy in the description of one of the 
 
 ' Bureau de la Malle, " Econ. Pol. des Romaines," says that there are 
 Roman silver coins which are as old as Servius Tullius, i. 15. 
 
 ^ Copper bronze was employed in early Rome for both arms and 
 tools. It was indispensable in war, and to invite accumulations of it 
 the govei-nment may have received it on deposit at the a^rarium as money 
 and issued M'ooden tallies to represent it'. Similar devices have been 
 tried in modern times. For an extended account of wooden tallies, and 
 the manner of their use in the exchequer of England under the Nor- 
 man kings, see Maddox's "Hist, of the Exch.," ii. 254. 
 
 ^ Bude and other learned critics have pointed out numerous errors 
 in Pliny's account of the moneys of Rome. 
 
 * There is evidence of censorship in Pliny's meaningless invective 
 against the "criminal" who first coined a gold denarius. An instance 
 of censorship in modern monetary history is given by Tooke, vi. 375, 
 with reference to Pauoton's " Metrologie " of France. 
 
EARLIEST MONBTAEY SYSTEMS OF EOME. 205 
 
 monetary systems of the Dark Ages from the pen of a 
 modern naturalist^ however eminent ; and it is difficult to 
 see why accuracy should be expected in the case of Pliny. 
 
 This author may have drawn a part of his scant data on 
 this subject from some old and careless scripture of the early 
 EtruscanSj just as some people to-day infer the use of coins 
 . by the early Hebrews from the English translation of Abra- 
 ham's purchase of Maopelah.-' 
 
 There is no evidence either in the circumstances of, the 
 Roman state, or in the appearance of its numismatic re- 
 mainSj both of which are better known and can be more 
 fully discussed to-day than in Pliny's time, to warrant the 
 belief that any essential change was made by Servius Tullius 
 in the Eoman monetary system ; and the entire foundation 
 for Pliny's statement — if indeed there was any historical 
 foundation for it at all — -may have been that Servius ordered 
 a new coinage or casting of coppers, or subjected the mone- 
 tary system of his day to some new regulation or reform of 
 which no precise information has come down to us. 
 
 Upon a review of the facts and considerations which be- 
 long to the history of money during this period, I am inclined 
 to the opinion that the monetary system of Rome during the 
 Etruscan era consisted of gold, silver, and copper coins, and 
 that this system was continued by Romulus and his successors 
 so long as sufficient supplies of these metals were received 
 from the mines or derived from the operations of commerce. 
 Gold was obtained by washing the sands of the Tiber, and 
 silver from commerce with Greece and Carthage ; but copper, 
 at that period, could only have been obtained from distant 
 Cyprus, or conquered from the Etrurians. The difficulty of 
 procuring supplies of this metal probably led to the use of 
 copper coins, overvalued, like the iron ones of neighbouring- 
 Sparta, or the parchment-covered discs of Carthage. With 
 the growing scarcity of copper, clay, or terra cotta coins, 
 leather discs and wooden tallies may have been tried as 
 moneys. The failure of these systems probably led to re- 
 ' On the Biblical narrative, see Dr. Spiers' " Anachronisms." 
 
206 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 newed efforts to command ample supplies of copper. These 
 efforts resulting successfully, probably led to a copper ingot 
 system, in which the ingots were deposited in the serarium 
 and represented in the circulation by tallies or discs. 
 
 The evidence of their use is so meagre as to suggest only 
 a brief usage of tallies and discs for money. It is, there- 
 fore, not likely that they were twice used, first as numeraries, 
 and afterwards as representatives of copper ingots ; but only 
 once and either in one of these ways or the other. 
 
 The ease with which these numeraries or representatives, 
 whichever they were, could be counterfeited, probably led to the 
 adoption of a copper commodity system of money consisting 
 entirely of the Janus-faced circular coins, of which so many 
 are still extant. These may have been adopted before or 
 after the reign of Servius TuUius — there is no evidence to 
 establish their date, nor is it of material importance. The 
 substantial fact appears to be that they were in use at some 
 time during the era to which the name of that monarch is 
 herein attached, and that they and the silver coins indicated 
 by Bureau de la Malle are the oldest moneys of Rome of 
 which we have any positive knowledge and remains. 
 
CHAPTER XVI. 
 
 THE SERVIAN SYSTEM, B.C. 566-386. 
 
 The large cast coins of Janus-face type formed the basis of the 
 Servian system — These coins were originally but slightly overvalued — 
 Weighing, at first, possibly, so much as nine ounces, they gradually fell, 
 M'ith open coinage, to about one-half or one-third this weight, when 
 their fabrication was limited, and the outstanding pieces rose in value 
 to several times that of the metal they contained — This induced 
 counterfeiting, which imperilled the system and led to the coins being 
 struck instead of cast. 
 
 KING SBRVIUS TULLIUS reigned from b.c. 678 to 
 534. In 566 he promulgated a new code of laws or 
 constitution for the state. It will be convenient to regard 
 this date as that of the commencement of the Servian 
 system of money. ^ Its termination must have occurred at 
 about the period of the Gaulish invasion, B.C. 385. 
 
 The large circular copper pieces (probably sesterces of 
 2i Ases) of the Janus-face type, undoubtedly formed the 
 basis of the Servian system.* The mode of reckoning by 
 Ases belongs to this period, and so does the style of art 
 which characterizes the pieces named. It is entirely want- 
 ing in that excellence which distinguishes the coins of the 
 (later) republican era, when the influence of Greek art of the 
 
 ^ So intimately is a monetary system related to the constitution of a 
 state, that, in modern times, at least, there is scarcely an instance of 
 change in the one without a coincident change in the other, and it is 
 believed that this must have been also the case in ancient times. 
 
 ^ M. Le Normand, as quoted in Humphreys' " Manual," i. 257, 
 ascribes the earliest circular As to b.c. 385, but herein he differs from 
 the majority of numismatists, who recognize it as Etruscan. He has no 
 other warrant for his surmise than a doubtful inference from the unre- 
 liable text of Pliny. 
 
208 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 fiftli and fourth centuries B.C. had had time to make itself 
 felt in Eome. 
 
 The first-named pieces have the double-faced Janus on 
 one side, and the prow of a galley on the other. They are 
 destitute of any other designs than these and the one men- 
 tioned below, and consequently fail to show either their date 
 or denomination. Some numismatists have assumed them 
 to be of a period subsequent to Servius TuUius, because this 
 enables them to ascribe the oblong copper ingots to the era 
 of that monarch, and thus conform to Pliny. They are also 
 assumed to be Ases, because Pliny says that the two-ounce 
 copper pieces of the first Punic War had the Janus face and 
 galley prow. After what has been set forth in the previous 
 chapter, it is perhaps hardly necessary to remark that these 
 assumptions are without sufficient warrant. The figure " 1 ", 
 or upright dash, on the pieces, may mean one sesterce instead 
 of one As as generally assumed. 
 
 Of the many large circular pieces still extant, none have 
 yet been found to exceed nine and a half Eoman (which are 
 assumed to be the same as the modern avoirdupois) ounces 
 in weight. If these pieces or any fraction of them were 
 ever called Ases Ubrales, it was not because they weighed a 
 pound, but because, like the pound sterling and the livre 
 franqaise, they did not weigh one. 
 
 If the Janus-face pieces were indeed Ases, they were 
 overvalued to the extent of the difference between the 
 weights of those now extant, and twelve ounces, and at the 
 Roman mint were delivered to the public in exchange for 
 a pound of raw metal, the difference in weight constituting 
 the seignorage exacted by the government. This hypo- 
 thesis would account for the use of the expression. As 
 libralis. I am inclined, however, to the belief that the 
 seignorage exacted was more moderate, "^ and that these 
 pieces, as will be explained hereafter, were probably not 
 Ases, but sesterces. 
 
 ^ Mebuhr denies and Boeckh affirms the exaction of seignorage by 
 the Romans (Boeckh, 26). 
 
THE SERVIAN SYSTEM. 209 
 
 As time went on, and it was perceived that pieces weigh- 
 ing less than nine and a half ounces ' passed as readily as 
 those of full weight, the suggestion could not have failed to 
 present itself, that copper metal could be economized, and 
 the pieces rendered more portable and handy^ whilst every 
 purpose of money would be subserved by making them 
 lighter. Such a suggestion has only to occur in order to 
 be acted upon ; and accordingly the weight of the coins 
 was repeatedly lowered until, at about the period of the 
 Gaulish invasion, it had fallen to three ounces or there- 
 abouts.^ 
 
 We have the evidence of prices to assure us that, down 
 to about the year B.C. 452, the Ases, though they may have 
 been greatly reduced below their original weight, remained 
 substantially a commodity money. This result would natu- 
 rally have followed from the non-limitation of their coinage. 
 Had there been limitation, the value, instead of depending 
 on that of the commodity of which they were made, would 
 have depended on their number. Indeed, when it is 
 borne in mind that the coins of this period were cast, not 
 struck, it seems improbable that, even were it so designed, 
 their emission at any great rate of overvaluation could have 
 been successfully and permanently limited. This reasoning 
 may not appear to be altogether conclusive. The Chinese 
 have had cast numeraries which lasted for at least twenty 
 years. ^ But these pieces were much superior in execution 
 to the Roman Ases of the period under review. There- 
 fore, the argument that coins rudely cast could not 
 
 ' This is the actual weight of a number of extant pieces examined 
 by Jifoel Humphreys. The weight of a similar piece in an excellent 
 state of preservation, and kindly submitted to the examination of the 
 writer by a coin collector in San Francisco, was 7f ounces Roman. 
 
 ^ Pliny says the As of the first Punic War weighed two ounces ; but 
 it is evident that Phny's information on this subject was secondhand and 
 erroneous. A gradual lowering of the coins previous to the first lowering 
 recorded by Pliny, is admitted by Le Normand, cited by Humphreys, i. 
 258, and by McCulloch, " Encyc. Brit.," art. "Money." 
 
 ' See chapter on China. 
 
 P 
 
210 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 have been permanently highly overvalued, is not without 
 weight. 
 
 To return to the evidence of prices : by the Lex Menenia 
 A.TJ.c. 302 (B.C. 452) it was enacted, that in imposing fines, 
 a sheep should be estimated at ten Ases, and an ox at one 
 hundred.^ If we regard the Ases of this period as weighing 
 about one-third of a Eoman pound, and as but moderately 
 overvalued, the relation between ingot copper and cattle, as 
 indicated by these prices, agrees with their value in silver 
 during the Empire, provided the meanwhile changed rela- 
 tion of copper to silver be taken into account. A conclusion 
 so natural as this one is, appears to confirm the various steps 
 by which it is reached, and amongst these is the valuation of 
 the As at or about that of the metal it contained. 
 
 But this evidence does not stand alone. There is a 
 passage in Livy which runs as follows : — 
 
 " There was as yet (b.c. 406) no coined silver : some of 
 them (the patricians) conveying their weighed (heavy ?) 
 bronze to the treasury in waggons, rendered their contribu- 
 tions very showy." ^ 
 
 This statement, which related to the contributions made 
 to pay the army, is usually held to imply that, at the date 
 referred to, the current money of Rome was so bulky as to 
 need conveyance in waggons ; and that, being bulky, it was 
 not greatly overvalued. 
 
 To this implication it might be replied : — 
 
 1. That money is not mentioned in the passage, but only 
 bronze metal, out of which money would have had to be made, 
 whether it was overvalued or not. 
 
 2. That even if the bronze metal had been bronze money, 
 the fact would not disprove overvaluation ; for a large sum 
 (sufficient to pay off an army) in bronze coins, however much 
 overvalued, would suffice to fill several waggons ; just as a 
 large sum in paper notes of small denominations would re- 
 quire a similar conveyance at the present time. 
 
 ^ Festus in " Peoulatus." Savagner's translation, p. 409, identifies 
 this ordinance with the time of Tarpeia. ^ Livj, iv. 60. 
 
THE SERVIAN SYSTEM. 211 
 
 3. That even if the bronze metal had been non- overvalued 
 coins, the fact would not prove that the money of the time 
 generally was not overvalued ; for this lot of metal might 
 have been coined especially for the army, who could not 
 hope, in the foreign countries to which they might be 
 ordered, to employ overvalued metal as money without great 
 loss. In after times instances occurred in Rome during the 
 existence of both numerical and mixed systems of money, 
 when silver coins non-overvalued, and others of extra- 
 ordinary over-weight compared with their denominations, 
 were struck for " soldiers' pay." 
 
 4 . .Seventeen years later than the date referred to by Livy, 
 a transaction took place which shows that gold was used for 
 a, certain payment and that it was weighed : but these facts 
 ■do not prove the use of non-overvalued gold, nor, indeed, 
 any kind of gold money in Eome, since it is well established 
 by other evidences that the first gold coins employed in that 
 commonwealth were struck so late as B.C. 207. The trans- 
 action refei'red to occurred in B.C. 389. A ransom of one thou- 
 sand pounds of gold was agreed upon between the Romans 
 and Gauls, the latter being under Brennus I., who had be- 
 sieged the capital. This gold was weighed. Whilst it was 
 in the balance Camillus repudiated the bargain, gave battle 
 to the enemy, and saved both capital and ransom.^ ■ This 
 gold had been collected from the temples and the women, 
 and was afterwards restored to its owners. 
 
 5. Livy wrote four centuries after the events alluded to, 
 and should not be held too closely to his text, especially in 
 technical matters, and in relatively unessential particulars. 
 His " treasury waggons " might have been in fact a single 
 chariot, without any damage whatever to his general character 
 for veracity as an historian. 
 
 But notwithstanding all this, I am inclined to regard the 
 passage from Livy as substantially correct, and as meaning 
 that the patricians made their contributions in copper or 
 bronze coins which were but slightly, if at all, overvalued. 
 
 ^ Livy, V. 48. 
 
212 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Accepting the passage as correct^ it enables us to bring 
 down the era of the commodity or else slightly overvalued 
 As to the year B.C. 406.^ 
 
 Between this date and that of the Gaulish invasion must 
 have commenced that high overvaluation of the As of which 
 other evidences will be given as this work proceeds, and of 
 which the first, in order of time, is afforded by the prices of 
 cattle. 
 
 At this period, says Gibbon/ ten Ases would buy a herd 
 of cattle. How many cattle a " herd " consisted of, we can 
 only conjecture, but assuming that it did not include less 
 than ten cattle, and that the As of this period had fallen 
 from a quarter to a sixth of a Roman pound in weight, it ia 
 evident that it was highly overvalued; for if reckoned 
 merely as metal, ten Ases at four ounces each would make 
 but 3y pounds weight : a consideration obviously too small 
 for a herd of cattle, however limited in numbers. It there- 
 fore appears to follow that the As of this period was highly 
 overvalued . 
 
 To render such overvaluation effective, it was only neces- 
 sary to limit the coinage of the pieces, and there can be little 
 doubt that such a measure was in fact adopted at this period, 
 and that, consequently, the purchasing power of the coins 
 rose above that of the metal they contained. 
 
 In the course of time this overvaluation probably led to 
 counterfeiting, and this, again, to the fabrication by the 
 government of improved pieces, of more artistic design, and 
 struck with the cuneus. The period of this last-named 
 reform removes the era of the struck pieces to that of re- 
 publican Rome. 
 
 In B.C. 406 ten Ases were paid for a clay's wages for three foot- 
 soldiers or one cavali-y-man. Consult Merivale, iii. 537 ; Niebuhr, ii. 
 438 ; Momsen, " Rom. Tribus," p. 43, and Del Mar's " Hist. Free. Met." 
 p. 27. 
 
 ^ Gibbon's " Eome," 4to. ed., iii. 419. 
 
CHAPTER XVII. 
 
 THE EEPUBLICAN SYSTEM, B.C. 385-269. 
 
 This system really lasted from b.c. 385 to b.c. 207 — Reasons for 
 limiting its duration herein to B.C. 269 — Its characteristics were govern- 
 ment monopolization, and limitation of the emissions of money ; one 
 kind of money ; high overvaluation of the material used for making the 
 symbols ; and security against forgery — Summary of arguments employed 
 to support this view of the system — The arguments stated at length. 
 
 THE period to which it has been determined to assign 
 the Republican system of money in Rome, commences 
 •with the Gaulish Invasion and ends with the appearance of 
 the Family denarii, the date of which, following the Plinian 
 text, has been fixed by modern numismatists at B.C. 269. 
 Even if this date be correct — we have no reason to doubt it 
 — the Republican system of money was not terminated by 
 the circulation of the Family denarii; because the latter 
 were not legal tenders. The Republican system, therefore, 
 really lasted until B.C. 207, when silver coins were first 
 made legal tenders and a gold scruple was struck ; ^ in 
 
 ' It is perhaps rather to the destruction of the numerary system than 
 the coinage of gold, both of which occurred at the same time, that Pliny 
 referred in this otherwise unmeaning sentence : — " The next crime com- 
 mitted against the welfare of mankind was on the part of him who was 
 the first to coin a denarius of gold, a crime, the author of which is un- 
 known," xxxiii. 13. In chap. 2 he calls gold " a bane for the human 
 race," and in chap. 3 exclaims, " Would that gold could have been 
 banished for ever from the earth, accursed by universal report, reviled 
 by the reproaches of the best of men, and looked upon as discovered 
 •only for the ruin of mankind." The preference which he next atfeots 
 for barter appears to be a veiled satire upon the use of gold for money 
 in the place of nummi, the former being really a barter of one com- 
 modity for another, the latter the determination of relative value by 
 means of numbers. It is evident that Pliny wrote under the surveillance 
 of a censor. 
 
214 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 other words, it lasted continuously and without legal modi- 
 fication for upwards of one hundred and seventy-eight years. 
 It was also maintained in a certain way for a long period 
 afterwards. So far as can be ascertained the Republican 
 nummi were never demonetized nor decried. Beginning 
 with say B.C. 207, their fabrication was arrested, and they 
 were gradually supplanted by other moneys : but they 
 probably continued to remain limited legal tenders until they 
 found their way into the treasury and were melted.^ 
 
 Notwithstanding these facts and inferences, it has been 
 deemed more convenient to confine the duration of the 
 Eepublican system to the, period when it was both un- 
 modified by legal provisions and unaffected by usage. 
 
 The characteristics of this system were the monopoliza- 
 tion of the fabrication of money by the government ; the 
 specific limitation of the emissions ; the singleness of 
 money, there being but one kind for all purposes ; the 
 peculiarity of the material out of which the symbols were 
 fabricated; and the means taken to secure the latter against 
 counterfeiting. 
 
 The material selected was copper, and the means to pre- 
 vent forgery was to strike instead of cast the pieces, to 
 employ the highest resources of art in the preparation of 
 the dies, and to threaten the severest penalties of the law to 
 forgers. The pieces were then overvalued, at first, by 
 denominating each one of them, which, by the way, weighed 
 less than an As of the period, a nummus, equal in law to- 
 2^ Ases.^ This overvaluation was permanently supported 
 by specifying the limit of issue in the law, and maintaining 
 
 ' This conjecture, if well founded, will account for the rarity of the 
 Republican copper nummus in numismatic collections, compared with 
 that of the As which preceded it, and' of the coins which followed. In. 
 1873, the United States Government adopted a similar policy with regard 
 to its silver dollars. Their coinage was stopped, but they remained full! 
 legal tenders, until, by an unwarrantable construction of law, which was 
 incorporated into the Revised Statutes of 1873, their tender was limited 
 to five dollars. Rep. United States Silver Com., vol. i., App. p. 90. 
 
 ^ Matthew Raper. 
 
THE EEPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 215 
 
 siicli limit in the practical operations of the mints. The 
 overvaluation was afterwai'ds enhanced by holding to the 
 limit, after the growth of population and exchanges had 
 called for its enlargement ; in other words, by limiting the^ 
 supply after the demand had increased. 
 
 With regard to the probable origin of this system, some 
 remarks will be offered hereinafter, but it should be stated 
 in this place that the nummi were not obsidional coins, nor 
 coins of necessity. They were evidently instituted and 
 maintained on principle, and with a clear perception that 
 their value depended upon numbers, and not upon the 
 material of which they were coniposed. 
 
 In supporting these inductions the author has a double 
 task to perform : he has not only to consti'uct the true 
 edifice, but at the same time to pull down the false structure 
 which has been erected upon the mischievous text of Pliny. 
 This circumstance will explain the method he has adopted 
 in the following array of arguments, some of which are 
 employed to prove the true theory, and others to disprove 
 the false. 
 
 1. Monopoly, restricted emission, and overvaluation of 
 copper pieces by the state. 
 
 2. Absence of complaints about repeated reductions in 
 the weights of these pieces. 
 
 3. Unrestrained coinage of gold and silver by Roman 
 gentes. 
 
 4. Monopolyof copper mines by the state. 
 
 5 . Restrictions upon commerce in copper. 
 
 6. Varieties of qualities of copper employed in fabri- 
 cating the pieces. 
 
 7. Lack of uniformity in the weights of the pieces. 
 
 8. Abundance and cheapness of copper metal. 
 
 9. Plentifulness of copper implements and utensils in 
 Rome. 
 
 10. Inferiority of copper to gold and silver for com- 
 modity money. 
 
 11. Amplitude of gold and silver supplies to Rome. 
 
216 HISTORY OF MONEr IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 12. Preposterous coinage relation of silver to copper. 
 
 13. Difficulty in accounting for certain mint operations. 
 
 14. Incredibility of prices and sums relating to this 
 period, and mentioned in ancient authors. 
 
 15. The example of other states. 
 
 16. Advice of publicists. 
 
 17. Extreme danger of a commodity system of money at 
 this period. 
 
 18. Allusions to a numerical system in the literature and 
 laws relating to the period. 
 
 19. Generic word for money used by the Romans. 
 These points will now be taken up and briefly treated in 
 
 the order indicated. 
 
 1. Monopoly, restricted emission, and overvaluation of 
 pieces. The fabrication of the pieces of this period was 
 monopolized by the state.' They were all stamped S. C, 
 meaning E:e senatvs consulto^ This expression is trans- 
 lated by Dr. Adam, " by decree of the Senate," and para- 
 phrased by Humphreys as indicating " the act of the 
 Senate which directed the emission."^ Such power was 
 indeed exercised by the Senate up to the last moments 
 when it possessed any power at all.* But in later times it 
 had not the significance which it had during the consular 
 republic ; for then the pieces marked S. C, were the only 
 legal tenders in circulation, whereas, later on, these legal 
 tenders were coupled with others not emitted under restric- 
 
 "^ See Eokhel in Humphreys' ".Ancient Coins," p. 145. 
 
 ^ Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 145 and 150. 
 
 ' Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 145. 
 
 * " Though the emperors coined gold and silver independently, copper 
 could only be coined ex senatus consulto, by decree of the senate." 
 (Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 150.) This mark of the senate will 
 be found on all the copper nummi after the period of the Gallic invasion, 
 B.C. 385. It will rarely be found on silver pieces until after the conquest 
 of Spain, nor upon gold ones until nearly a century later. The As coins 
 were discontinued under Gallienus. " Ency. Brit." p. 383. Consult also 
 Rear-Admiral Smytli, p. 7 ; Humphreys, 127, 145, 150, 162 ; and 
 Gibbon, 121, 270. ' 
 
THE EEPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 217 
 
 tion by the Senate, suet as the silver and gold coins, first 
 of the patricians, afterwards of the Senate, and lastly of the 
 emperors. 
 
 There is no indication in all Eoman history, up to the 
 time of Caligula, that any attempt was made or permitted 
 on the part of any person or corporation, except the Senate, 
 to fabricate the copper pieces which passed as money in 
 Eome. Humphreys' "Manual," i. 269, says: "The great 
 national coinage of copper remained to the end of the 
 empire, in charge of the ancient Senate, while the coinages 
 of gold and silver wore considered prerogatives of the 
 emperor." 
 
 The pieces were of uniform design, and executed with 
 such art and mechanical skill, that they have rarely failed 
 to excite the admiration of numismatists ; facts that of 
 themselves point to monopoly and hmitation of the coinage. 
 
 As to overvaluation we are informed that different pieces 
 were fabricated in each district or colony of the republic, 
 that these pieces were distinguished from others by peculiar 
 mint marks, and the pieces belonging to each place were 
 kept there, probably by being rendered uncurrent or subject 
 to a discount elsewhere.' Such control and restriction 
 would not have been necessary with a commodity system in 
 which the pieces passed at their value in metal. 
 
 According to the advice of Maecenas to Augustus, B.C. 28, 
 it appears that none but Roman coins were permitted to 
 circulate in the provinces.^ Such a regulation could only 
 be of advantage to the state when the coins were over- 
 valued. We are further informed that the Eomans sent 
 their copper coins to displace the gold and silver of con- 
 quered countries.'^ If the copper coins were not over- 
 valued this action would not only have been meaningless, 
 but mischievous. If on the other hand they were over- 
 
 ' Humphreys' "Ancient Coins,'' p. 167. There is an exception to 
 this rule, mentioned on p. 169. 
 
 ^ Adam, 122, who cites Dio, Hi. 29. 
 ^ Humphreys, 127 and 150. 
 
218 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 valued, it would have been a profitable transaction. Spain, 
 which produced enormous amounts of silver for Eome, was- 
 deluged with her copper coins,' and the writer himself saw 
 them in common circulation in the former coantry so late 
 as the year 1847. 
 
 Although these transactions relate to periods subsequent 
 to the Eepublican system of money while it remained un- 
 modified, they belong to what afterwards remained of that 
 system, and therefore are pertinent as proofs of its exis- 
 tence. 
 
 2. Absence of complaints about repeated reductions. 
 According to Pliny, the copper As was reduced three times : 
 according to the evidence of the pieces in the possession of 
 numismatists they were reduced many times. Yet nowhere 
 in Eoman history do there appear any complaints of these 
 redu.ctions, and only in one place, viz., in Pliny's rambling 
 narrative, are any reductions mentioned at all. This singular 
 circumstance is readily accounted for, if we regard the 
 system of money as numerical ; for in that case the reduc- 
 tions had no significance, no more than reducing the length 
 or thickness of a " greenback " note would have had while 
 the latter was irredeemable. But if the system was " in- 
 trinsic," then the reduction of the copper pieces which con- 
 stituted the fractions of the Roman measure of value, was of 
 tremendous importance, and could not have failed to cau.se 
 the most serious revulsions of prices and trade. When the 
 Roman system, during the decay of the Commonwealth and 
 rise of the Empire, did become " intrinsic," and any degra- 
 dation or debasement of the current coin was attempted — 
 as in the time of Livius Drusus, and afterwards under the 
 emperors — history did not fail to record the fact and its 
 consequences.'^ Why, then, should it have failed to do so 
 
 ^ Humphreys, 309. 
 
 " Vopiscus saith : ' The steps by which the (Roman) State descended 
 
 were visible most by the general alteration of their coins ; and there is 
 
 no surer symptoms of consumption in a state than the corruption of 
 
 money.' " — Speech of Sir Thomas Rowe at the Council Table of England,. 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 219* 
 
 with regard to the monetary system of the Commonwealth, 
 unless the same was numerical and the reduction of the 
 copper pieces was of no importance, beyond the saving of a 
 certain quantity of metal to the state ? As, according to 
 the Plinian view, the As still remained a full legal tender,, 
 such an act would have suddenly altered all debts, obliga- 
 tions, and contracts to the extent of five-sixths of their 
 amount, and completely deranged all the relations of society.. 
 It could scarcely have occurred in any country, certainly 
 not in a republic, as Rome then was, without occasioning 
 the most violent commotions. On the contrary, history 
 mentions nothing of the sort. No complaint arises, no 
 protest is made, no outcries are heard. It is left for Pliny,, 
 three hundred years later, to record this momentous fact, 
 which nobody appears to have heard of, and to which none 
 of the myriads who were affected by it offered any objec- 
 tions. The idea is simply incredible. 
 
 3. Unrestricted private coinage of silver and gold by 
 gentes. In the year b.c. 269 there commenced to be- 
 coined in Rome a vast number of silver pieces, and in B.C. 
 207 certain gold pieces, known to numismatists as gentes 
 coins. These pieces were not coined by the state, but by the 
 numerous patrician families, whose names have been ascer- 
 tained, and whose insignia are found upon the coins. It 
 has, moreover, been determined that the state did not coin 
 either silver or gold until some time after these metals had 
 been coined by the gentes, and that the gentes coins were 
 not legal tenders, though it is conceivable that they might 
 have been received by the state for religious or other 
 special dues. Their primal function, however, was to re- 
 ward the retainers of the gentes who served as soldiers in- 
 the armies of the republic. The Roman gens were con- 
 stituted something like the Scottish clans : to each one 
 
 in July, 1640, quoted iu Harris on " Coins," ii. 10. "Antoninus Augustinus 
 rather suspected that money had more to do with the ' distemper ' of the 
 Roman Empire than the Huns and Vandals." Greaves on " Coins,"" 
 317. 
 
■220 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 belonged, not only the patrician whose name it bore, but 
 -also his family, his adherents or retainers, and his slaves. 
 
 When Rome commenced its policy of foreign conquest it 
 'became necessary for the gentes, who alone supported the 
 burden of war,* to pay their adherents in money made of 
 ■a material that would insure its circulation in foreign 
 countries, and light enough to be convenient for transpor- 
 tation abroad. This accounts for the emissions of Family 
 denarii. The origin of their tale relation to the As, as given 
 by Pliny, may be explained by the necessity of devising a 
 portable and exportable equivalent for the As, in which 
 last-named money the rate of soldiers' pay had been ex- 
 pressed in the law of B.C. 406.^ Silver coins were familiar 
 to the Romans since, at least, B.C. 317, for at that date the 
 silver tridrachmas of Magna Grsecia appeared in Rome,* and 
 silver metal was to be obtained, and was obtained, if not 
 from the mines, at least through commerce or conquest. 
 The fact that it was not permitted to form part of the mone- 
 tary system of the republic, and that the gentes were per- 
 mitted to coin it without restraint, is therefore regarded as 
 a proof that the monetary system stood in no need of 
 silver ; and this could only have been the case if the copper 
 pieces were overvalued, and the system was numerical. 
 Otherwise the cumbrousness of the As — no matter whether 
 it weighed three ounces or nine, it would only have passed 
 in a commodity system for its contents of copper metal — 
 would have been intolerable. 
 
 4. Monopoly of copper mines by the state. The restric- 
 tion upon mining, mentioned by Pliny,' is quite sufl&oient to 
 indicate that the mines were under the sole control of the 
 
 ' Napoleon's " Csesar." 
 
 ' Dionysius of Halioarnassus, iv. 20. 
 
 ^ This law first granted them any pay at all. Of course to pay the 
 soldier in overvalued silver denarii was to cheat him, and no doubt this 
 was done. As to date of this law consvdt Adam, 329. 
 
 ' "Festus," in Humphreys, 316. 
 
 ' Plmy, iii, 24, and xxiii. 21. 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 221 
 
 state, and that no mining was carried on without its express 
 permission, and upon such conditions, including that of 
 production, as it might deem proper to dictate. Its plain 
 meaning is that no mining was permitted to private in- 
 dividuals. The state itself could, if it saw fit, mine for the 
 copper that it might have needed for monetary symbols or 
 any other purpose. 
 
 Depping says the mines were first declared government 
 property and taxed during the consulship of Cato the Elder,. 
 B.C. 195.^ The passage of Livy upon which this statement 
 is founded relates to certain mines in Hither Spain, and runs 
 as follows : " Having restored quiet in the province, he 
 (Cato) settled the iron and silver mines on such a footing 
 that they produced a large revenue ; and in consequence of 
 the regulations then made, the province daily increased in 
 riches" (for the Eomans).^ No allusion whatever is made 
 to copper mines either in Spain or elsewhere.^ 
 
 5. Eestrictions upon commerce in copper. It appears 
 from a passage in Cicero that the Romans were not un- 
 familiar with the policy of restricting the commerce in the 
 substances of which the symbols of money were composed.* 
 It is therefore not improbable, though we are without any 
 positive evidence on this point, that they restricted the 
 commerce of copper during the consular republic and the 
 prevalence of the numerical system of money. 
 
 6. Variety of qualities of copper employed in fabricating 
 the pieces. Pliny informs us that sesterces and double Ases '' 
 
 ^ Depping, ii. 75. ^ Livy, xxxiv. 21. 
 
 ^ Jacob's statement, p. 76, that, " There is no information to be gained 
 respecting the mode in which the few copper and iron mines they (the 
 Romans) then possessed (about b.c. 260) were administered," is far too 
 sweeping. The copper mines of the Romans were not few but many 
 (see point 8), and the mode of their administration, as seen in the text, 
 was a monopoly. 
 
 * Orat. pro L. Flaoco, cap. 28. 
 ' ' Were these the " great sesterces '' alluded to in Tacitus, i. 8 ? If 
 so, they belong to the numerical system, and were, properly speaking, 
 not multiples of the As, but of the nummus. 
 
-222 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 ■were made of " aurichalcum," a superior sort of copper, 
 while Ases were made of Cyprian copper, which was of an 
 inferior quality. He assigns no date to this distinction of 
 ooins, but as he informs us that the mines of aurichalcum 
 had been long exhausted, and that this variety of copper had 
 been superseded by the Marian or Corduban (supposed to 
 have been obtained near Cordova, in Spain) , which variety 
 was almost as excellent as aurichalcum, it is to be inferred 
 that it relates to a time which comes within the period now 
 under review.^ Not only this, but assays of the coins still 
 extant show that the material of which the various copper 
 coins of this period were made was different. These in- 
 ferences and facts are fatal to the theory of a commodity or 
 "intrinsic" system of money; for, according to a rule 
 of Aristophanes, erroneously credited to Gresham, a diffe- 
 rence in the standard of intrinsic coins, when the coinage is 
 open or " free," will occasion the melting and disappearance 
 of the more valuable ones. When the coinage is not open 
 or " free," the system is one of monopoly and restriction, 
 and partakes of the numerical character. 
 
 7. Lack of uniformity in the weights of the pieces. Says 
 Humphreys: "No As of the circular form has at present 
 been discovered of the full weight of the oldest described 
 by the ancients, viz. twelve uncia."''' The heaviest pieces of 
 this coinage (known as the uncial) weigh 9|- Roman ounces 
 (3856i grains) .'' These pieces are regarded by Humphreys 
 as Ases, but a comparison of them with the Sicilian cast 
 coins of the same period proves them to be either sestercii 
 of 2i; Ases,* or dupondiarii of 2 Ases. This makes the As of 
 
 ^ Pliny, xxxiy. 2. ^ " Ancient Coins," p. Ii8. 
 
 ■* Ibid. 129. Humphreys adds : this type " appears to have been also 
 the most abundant, as the great majority discovered of the earlier 
 periods are of this weight." 
 
 ' The " Encyc. Brit.," 8th ed., art. "Numismatics,' p. 383, and 
 Humphreys, "Manual," 301, assert that the copper sesterce was not 
 coined in Rome until after the time of Julius Cfesar ; but this is an error. 
 See Pliny, xxxiii. 17. 
 
THE EEPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 223 
 
 the period weigh either 1542|- gi'ains, or else 1 928"12 grains, 
 probably the former. 
 
 Pinkerton asserts that when the denarius was first issued, 
 B.C. 269, the As weighed only 3 uncia, or 1312i. grains.^ 
 
 Anthon says that Ases of 11, 10, 9, 8, 3, 1-|-, and li oz. 
 are still extant. Humphreys says there are circular Ases 
 of 9^, 8, 7^, 7, and 4 oz., and other odd weights. 
 
 If these statements and inferences are to be relied upon, 
 it is impossible that the Roman monetary system of this 
 period could have been " intrinsic." For it is essential to 
 all " intrinsic," or commodity systems of money that evei-y 
 piece of like nominal value shall be of the same weight and 
 fineness of metal or other material.^ 
 
 These data also corroborate a conclusion previously 
 reached herein. Pliny ascribes the first lowering of the As 
 to the year B.C. 269, and says that it was suddenly reduced 
 from one pound to one-sixth of a pound. The coins extant 
 prove that the As was lowered previous to the Gaulish in- 
 vasion to 3'8 oz., and in B.C. 269 to 24 oz.; and there might 
 have been, and probably were, other intermediate reductions. 
 
 8. Abundance and cheapness of copper metal. At this 
 period, if not before, copper was cheap and abundant, and 
 therefore almost as unfit for a commodity system of money 
 as would be the blank paper upon which, at the present date. 
 Government notes are printed. It was' not worth in silver 
 any more per pound than is now the " distinctive " paper 
 upon which such notes are printed. It was abundantly pro- 
 duced in various parts of Italy, in Campania, Tuscany, and 
 Sicily, and many of the mines worked at that period, at 
 first by the Etruscans, and afterwards by the Eomans, re- 
 main productive at the present day. 
 
 However, it was not until long after the commencement of 
 the period, during which, according to the Plinian view, 
 Rome employed copper for money at its ingot value, that 
 
 ' " Essay on Medals," ed. 1808, vol. i. p. 162. 
 Pliny proves himself to have been nwaxe of this principle in the 
 story flhich he narrates in book vi. chapter 24. , 
 
224 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 she conquered the countries which possessed these im- 
 portant and productive mines. It would have been a 
 singular and ruinous policy, had the Romans adopted for 
 money, at that time and at its commodity value, a metal 
 over the production of which they did not exercise sub- 
 stantial control. It can hardly be supposed that they 
 possessed so little foresight as to employ for money copper 
 coins at their ingot value, whilst Etruria and Sicily held 
 control of the principal copper mines of Italy, and would 
 have thus been enabled to withhold from their enemy the 
 material out of which he had obliged himself to coin his 
 monetary symbols. 
 
 9. Plentifulness of copper implements and utensils. 
 Although the art . of reducing iron ores was known to the 
 Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans long previous to the period 
 under review, iron was so rare a "metal, that except for 
 blades and cutting edges, it was not in common use before 
 the second Punic war. The usual material for the fabrica- 
 tion of weapons, tools, implements, utensils, and works of 
 art, was copper or bronze.^ Had the monetary system of 
 this age been " intrinsic,^' an enormous mass of copper or 
 bronze would have stood ready at all times for conversion 
 into money, and this fact would have endangered the 
 steadiness of prices, and exposed to entire subversion all 
 those relations of society which are affected by prices. As 
 history fails to note any such derangement — and it is difficult 
 to believe that it could have occurred without notice — it is 
 reasonable to infer that the monetary system of the Republic 
 was not subject to it, and, therefore, that the coinage was 
 overvalued and monopolized by the state. 
 
 ^ Pliny, in book xxxiv., gives a circumstantial account of several 
 thousand bronze statues in and about Rome, also of bronze furniture, 
 &c. On the hypothesis of a commodity system, these works of art ab- 
 sorbed so vast an amount of the metal by which the value of all pro- 
 perty and debts was measured, that it is inconceivable that it should 
 have been allowed to remain uncoined. Imagine the financial effect at 
 the present time of withdrawing or sequestering a relatively equal mas.s 
 of gold or silver from the circulation of the world ! 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 225 
 
 10. Inferiority of copper for commodity money. Had 
 the money of Rome at this period been " intrinsic/' it 
 would certainly have been made of gold or silver rather 
 than copper; the last-named metal being in many respects 
 inferior to the others, for the purpose mentioned. Chief 
 among these are its liability to corrosion, its relative plenti- 
 fulness, the absence of any great stock on hand, and the 
 difficulty of protecting copper coins from counterfeiting. 
 To meet the difficulties here presented, it has been imagined 
 by Colquhoun that the precious metals were exceedingly 
 scarce in Rome, just as to meet similar difficulties in the 
 case of Sparta, Plutarch imagined that it required a yoke of 
 oxen to haul ten minse in the ancient iron numeraries of 
 that country. So far is Colquhoun from being correct, that 
 Rome, during the period of her copper money systems, 
 possessed no inconsiderable quantity of the precious metals 
 in her public treasury (the aerarium sacrum) ; ^ while both 
 gold and silver coins of foreign fabrication, and numerous 
 silver coins of domestic fabrication, were employed in Rome 
 from hand to hand, either for commercial payments to 
 foreign merchants, or for religious purposes, or the use of 
 soldiers, as previously conjectured. These coins were not 
 money, and their use in Rome, coupled with the fact that 
 at the period in question, gold and silver money was em- 
 ployed by several of the nations with which Rome was then 
 connected by commerce, proves that it was neither scarce 
 nor difficult to procure. 
 
 Says Humphreys : " The Romans adopted copper in con- 
 tempt of the gold and silver of their neighbours, which 
 (metals) they were acquainted with, but would not adopt; for 
 according to Festus, foreign money of gold and silver circu- 
 lated in Rome in the earliest period." ^ These coins were,how- 
 ever, not money in Rome : they were simply merchandise. 
 
 ' " Diet. Universelle du XlXth Siecle," art. " iErarium." 
 
 ^ Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 130. The fac-simile of a silver 
 
 tridrachma, which is believed to have circulated in Kome about B.C. 317, 
 
 is shown on pp. 136 and 137 of the same work. 
 
 Q 
 
226 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 11. Amplitude of gold and silver supplies. Had the 
 Romans of the Commonwealth not purposely designed to 
 avoid the establishment of a commodity system of money, it 
 is natural that they would have selected for their system 
 the best instead of one of the worst materials out of which 
 to fabricate their monetary symbols ; gold or silver, instead 
 of copper. A comparatively small quantity of the precious 
 metals would have enabled them to fabricate coins of con- 
 venient sizes and denominations. Their resources in this 
 respect were ample. They had not restricted their mining 
 supplies as had modern Russia, when the latter resorted to 
 a copper currency ; they had not parted with a long 
 hoarded stock of bullion, as had modern Sweden when the 
 latter resorted to copper ingots and paper certificates. 
 They were not destitute of gold and silver mines, as were 
 the modern North American colonists when they resorted 
 to paper bills. On the contrary, as Pliny testifies, "Italy 
 yields to no country in the abundance of mines of all the 
 several kinds of metals,^' ^ and the mining interdict to which 
 he next alludes, was probably not enacted until the time of 
 Spartacus. Placer gold was obtained from the rich mines of 
 Piedmont, from the Maremma and the valleys of the Tiber 
 and its affluents, and from Aquileia, while quartz gold 
 came from the foothills of both the Alps and Apennines, 
 from the former of which localities it is still produced.^ 
 
 The precious metals were also obtainable by commerce. 
 Greece and Carthage had silver and the Gauls had gold, to 
 spare, at that period ; and Rome traded with aU of these 
 countries. Ample supplies of the precious metals were 
 
 ' Pliny, iii. 24. 
 
 ^ In the author's " Rape of the Earth," the entire history of gold 
 mining in Italy is traced from the operations of the Etruscans down to 
 the present day. The date at which the mining interdict of the Senate 
 was repealed is also fixed in that work. For other i-eferences on this 
 subject, see Livy, xxxiv. 21, and Dapping, ii. 75. On the gold mines of 
 Aquileia, consult Polybius, xxxiv. 10, and Strabo, iy. vi. 12. On the 
 sUyer mines of Italy, consult " Report of the United States Bureau of 
 Statistics," No. 29, for the year 1869, p. 28.3. 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 227 
 
 thus to be procured had Eome needed them for her mone- 
 tary system ; and that she preferred to do without them and 
 to substitute copper in their place, can only be credited 
 upon the hypothesis that the latter was not employed on 
 the level of a commodity, but was highly overvalued, so 
 that comparatively light and small coins were made to 
 answer all the purpose of exchange. To maintain such 
 overvaluation it would have been necessary to limit and 
 perhaps to specifically limit the emissions of coins ; and it 
 is precisely this combination of 'circumstances that con- 
 stitutes a numerary currency. 
 
 12. Preposterous relation of silver to copper. According 
 to Pliny, who evidently derives his opinion from the ety- 
 mology of the word denarius, rather than from any circum- 
 stantial knowledge of the monetary system of the period, 
 the value of the earliest silver denarius was ten Ases. 
 These denarii are said to have been coined at the rate of six 
 to the ounce, or seventy-two to the pound weight of silver. 
 If the Ases weighed a pound each, and ten of them went for 
 a denarius, as Pliny maintains, this would make the relation 
 of value between silver and copper as 1 is to 720. 
 
 The actual average weight of these denarii, as deduced 
 from many thousands of them still extant, prove that they 
 were originally coined seven to the ounce or eighty-four to 
 the pound. Assuming Pliny's tale ratio and weight of the 
 As to be correct, this makes the relation of value between 
 the metals as 1 is to 840. 
 
 The learned Dr. Adam asserts^ that the denarii were 
 " at first " coined one hundred to the pound. Still assum- 
 ing Pliny's tale ratio and weight of the As to be correct, 
 this would make the relation of value between the metals as 
 1 is to 1,000, and such is Dr. Adam's conclusion. 
 
 It will now be shown that the least incredible of these 
 
 three relations of value is quite preposterous, that the 
 
 actual relation of value between silver and copper was about 
 
 140 for 1, and, therefore, that if the denarius passed for ten 
 
 ' " Roman Antiq.," p. 427. 
 
228 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Ases, the latter did not weigh above 2f Roman ounces each, 
 instead of a pound as Pliny states. Moreover, that if the 
 denarius passed for ten Ases, and the As coin had the same 
 value as a pound of uncoined copper, the As coin was over- 
 valued in the coinage laws about five times. 
 
 The first thing to examine is the evidence concerning the 
 actual market relation of silver to copper at the time. This 
 evidence will of necessity have to be obtained from countries 
 other than Rome, because, if the views herein maintained 
 are correct, there was little or no silver in Rome to make a 
 market with, not on account of any difficulty in obtaining 
 it, but for the reason that the monetary system of the 
 Republic did not permit the use of silver coins or bullion 
 for money : it was not legal tender, nobody was obliged to 
 accept it in payment, and there was therefore little or no 
 demand for it.^ 
 
 Says Boeckh, " in the most ancient times (of Greece) the 
 average relation of the value of copper to that of silver 
 was as 300 to 1." ^ This evidence is not applicable to the 
 period under review. The " most ancient times " of Greece 
 was many centuries earlier than the republican period of 
 Rome. It was not until some centuries after these " most 
 ancient times " that any copper coins at all were made 
 in Greece. "In the Greek series the earliest copper (i.e. 
 copper coin extant) is supposed to have been issued in 
 Macedonia by the king ^ropus about the year B.C. 397.^ 
 " The oldest copper coins of Athens do not ascend beyond 
 B.C. 400, although we find copper coins attributed to Gelo 
 of Syracuse, a Greek colony in Sicily, a century earlier." * 
 As copper mines abounded in Greece even so far back as 
 the era of Cadmus, and as down to the fifth century B.C. 
 
 ^ In E.G. 156, the Roman treasury possessed altogether 17,410 pounds 
 of gold bullion, '22,070 pounds of silver bullion, and 6,135,400 in "nume- 
 rate," or bronze sesterces. Pliny, xxxiii. 17. This, however, was after 
 the Republican era. 
 
 ' Boeckh, 47. ^ Humphreys' " Manual," i. 195. 
 
 " Madden's " Jewish Coinage," p. 37 ; Raper ; Boeckh ; Humphreys. 
 
THE EEPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 229 
 
 there existed no such ready market for the metal as there 
 would have been had it been convertible into money, it is 
 not to be wondered if previous to that date it was compara- 
 tively cheap. Hence the extremely low value deduced by 
 Boeckh (and not upon any very sure grounds at that) must 
 not be held to have any pertinence when applied to the 
 period at present under review, and when the use of copper 
 at Rome, both in the coinage and for other purposes, afforded 
 it a ready market. The passage in Boeckh is thus not only 
 inapplicable as regards its date ; it is also inapplicable as 
 regards analogy of surrounding circumstances. 
 
 The next evidence relates to the era of Aristotle : " In 
 Sicily in the time of Aristotle, B.C. 384-322, according to 
 the value of the new talent, the value of copper seems to 
 have been fixed at 140 to 1 of silver." ^ As it is the 
 market value of copper in silver that forms the subject of 
 inquiry, this evidence is also defective ; for it is derived 
 from the Sicilian coinage, in which the value of the two 
 metals was fixed arbitrarily, and it may therefore not indicate 
 their market value. 
 
 " During the dynasty of the Ptolemies (e.g. 322-47), the 
 relation of the value of silver to that of copper in the inexact 
 method of coining which prevailed, seems to have been that 
 of 60 to 1."^ This evidence has the same defect as the 
 last. It relates to the metals in coins, and unless open or 
 free coinage existed for both metals, the relation may have 
 been arbitrary. 
 
 It is also defective in not relating to a sufficiently precise 
 date. 
 
 Upon the basis of a reward ofi'ered for the discovery or 
 remand of two fugitive slaves from Alexandria during the 
 reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus, B.C. 220, Letronne calculates 
 the relation of copper to silver at 60 to 1.'^ This evidence 
 does not relate to the period under review. 
 
 Dr. Arbuthnot was of opinion that at the period of the 
 first Punic War, B.C. 264-41, the relation of copper to silver 
 
 ' Boeckh, 47. ' Ibid. " Letronne, 13. 
 
230 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 •was the same as in 1729 — about 60 to 1. This evidence 
 does not relate to the period under review. 
 
 In choosing between these various imperfect evidences, 
 which are all that appear to be attainable on the subject, 
 the preference is accorded to the second one, or the Sicilian 
 ratio in the time of Aristotle ; and for the following reasons : 
 
 1st. It relates to the period under review. 
 
 2nd. Sicily was much nearer to Eome than Egypt, a fact 
 of no little significance in those days of difficult ocean 
 commerce and frequent piracy. 
 
 3rd. Sicily was a large original producer of copper 
 metal. It is not known how much copper was produced in 
 Egypt. 
 
 4th. Sicily was an ally of Rome : Egypt was not. 
 
 5th. The early monetary systems of Sicily and Rome so 
 closely resembled one another, that some numismatists have 
 supposed the latter to have been borrowed from the former.^ 
 Both systems were at that time "intrinsic." Whilst Rome 
 is believed to have afterwards changed her intrinsic system 
 to a numerical one, that of Sicily, at least in principle, is 
 known to have remained unchanged. It was essentially an 
 intrinsic or commodity system at the period under review. 
 In such a system and in a small and unimportant country, 
 the coinage ratio of the metals cannot be permanently fixed 
 without regard to the market ratio in other countries ; and 
 for this reason the coinage ratio adduced is believed to very 
 closely indicate the market ratio. 
 
 Assuming this view to be correct, it appears that the 
 market ratio of copper to silver in Rome, was about 140 for 
 1, and not 720 for 1, as deduced from the text of Pliny. 
 
 Indeed, if the hypothesis that the copper coins were 
 " intrinsic," is regarded from the most direct point of view, 
 namely, that of the known coinage ratio in Sicily and the 
 coinage ratio in Rome, as deduced from Pliny, it must 
 appear to be untenable : for it requires it to be believed that 
 while the Sicilian mint was exchanging a pound of silver for 
 ' Humphreys and authorities cited. 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 231 
 
 140 pounds of copper^ the Eoman mint, not three hundred 
 miles away, was willing to pay 720 pounds of copper 
 for it. 
 
 So far as the ratio between the silver in the early denarii 
 and the copper coins of the same period is concerned, it is 
 impossible that the coinage ratio of copper to silver should 
 have been higher than the market ratio. The denarii were 
 not legal tenders. To use Pliny^s phrase concerning the 
 lUyricum coins in Rome, they could only be " looked upon 
 as an article of merchandise." ' Hence they could not have 
 been overvalued in the copper coins. Indeed there could 
 have been no overvaluation of silver coins in the copper 
 coins of Rome until the coinage of silver was under- 
 taken by the state, and the coins were declared to be legal 
 tenders. 
 
 But while the silver coins were not overvalued in the 
 copper ones of this era, there can be no doubt that the latter 
 were highly overvalued as against copper metal and all other 
 commodities, except silver, which latter having come into 
 the hands of the patricians, at first from the capture of 
 Tarentum, B.C. 273,^ and afterwards from the conquest of 
 Spain, was coined by them at the same rate of overvalua- 
 tion with reference to other commodities as was the copper 
 of the state. When, in B.C. 207, this, usurped privilege 
 obtained the sanction of law, and the silver denarius became 
 a legal tender, the republican system of money, already 
 handicapped since B.C. 269, came definitely to an end. 
 
 13. Difficulty in accounting for the subsequent opera- 
 tions of Caligula. It is related of Caligula, who reigned 
 A.D. 37-41, that he was the first to break through the re- 
 strictions of the Senate relative to the emission of the copper 
 nummi,^ that he stopped the provincial mints, so as to 
 
 ^ Pliny, xxxiii. 13. 
 
 ^ " Here the Romans found for the first time the plunder of an opulent 
 city . . . carriages loaded with plate and other ornaments of silver and 
 gold." FloTus, in Ferguson's " Hist. Rome," i. 106. 
 
 ^ Humphreys, " Ancient Coins," 155. 
 
232 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 monopolize the coinage of the nummi himself ; ^ and that 
 he proceeded to coin them as rapidly as possible. These 
 proceedings relate to a period long after the assumed rise 
 and fall of the numerary system of Eome ; but they prove 
 that at the time they happened, the nummi must have been 
 again overvalued, or else that Caligula was a fool for his 
 pains ; more likely the former. If the nummi were over- 
 valued in Caligula's time, the fact lends strength to the 
 opinion that they had been overvalued at a previous date, 
 viz., during the Commonwealth, when the power of the 
 Senate to keep the emissions within specific limit was 
 greater than it was during the Empire. 
 
 14. Incredibility of prices and sums mentioned in ancient 
 authors. Augustus is said to have received by the testa- 
 ments of his friends £32,291,666 ; Tiberius left at his death 
 £21,796,875, which sum Caligula lavished away in less than 
 a single year ; Csesar owed £2,018,229 when he set out for 
 Spain; he bribed Curio with £484,373 and L. Paulus 
 with £279,500 ; Antony squandered of the public money 
 £5,651,041 ; Lollia Paulina wore jewels worth £322,916 ; 
 Cleopatra swallowed a pearl worth £80,729 ; Caligula laid 
 out on a supper £80,729 ; Messala bought the house of 
 Antonius for £352,786; the villa of M. Scaurus cost 
 £807,291 ; a fish-pond cost £32,291 ; and the fish of 
 Lucullus a similar sum, &c." 
 
 The Abbe Barthelemy, whose " Travels of Anacharsis " 
 evince a profound critical knowledge of the history and 
 manners of Ancient Greece, spent several years of his life in 
 a study of the coins and prices of that country. The result 
 of these labours is thus summarized : — " J'ai trouv^ tant de 
 variations dans celles d'Athenes, et si peu de secours dans 
 les auteurs anciens, que j'ai abandonne ce travail." ' 
 
 In a similar way the equally learned Marquis de Garnier, 
 after examining the sums and prices in Roman history, as 
 
 ' Humphreys, " Ancient Coins," 163. 
 
 ' Adam's "Roman Antiq.," pp. 4-31-2-3, from Pliny, &c. 
 
 ' Quoted in Jacob, 91. 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 233 
 
 translated upon the hypothesis of a commodity money 
 system in Rome^ declares them to be as little reliable as 
 the Arabian Nights' Tales.^ 
 
 Gibbon and McCuUoch write in the same strain.^ The 
 reader has only to consult the first book of Boeckh's " Poli- 
 tical Economy of the Athenians/' the sixth chapter of Jacob's 
 " History of the Precious Metals/' and Smith's and Adam's 
 works on "Roman Antiquities/' to be convinced of the 
 soundness of these criticisms. For example, we are told 
 that at one period travellers' board cost but a farthing a 
 day ; '' that at one time corn cost ^d. a bushel, at another 
 7s. 6(/., and at a third £6 8s. ; that an ox cost at one period 
 3s., at another £12 10s.; and at another that a herd of 
 cattle sold for ten pounds weight of copper, and so on.* 
 
 These sums and prices are simply incredible, and there is 
 but one way to reconcile with truth the statements from 
 which they are translated. This is to regard the sesterce 
 or nummus as an actual copper coin, once known as the 
 As, then overvalued and afterwards forced down to its 
 commodity value by means of excessive issues. 
 
 15. The example of other states. It has been shown in 
 the preceding chapters of this work that monetary systems 
 of a more or less numerical character had been tried in 
 several of the states with which Rome was connected 
 through commerce, notably in Greece and Carthage. With 
 both of these countries the commerce of Rome was impor- 
 tant and continuous, and it is inconceivable that the 
 Romans should not have become acquainted with their 
 monetary systems, and the principle upon which they were 
 founded — that of numbers. Having learnt this much, it 
 is exceedingly improbable that the Romans should not 
 
 ' " Memoire sur la valeur des Monnaies de Compte chez les Peuples 
 de FAntiquite," par M. le Comte de Garnier, Paris, 1817. 
 
 ' Gibbon, i. 209, ed. 1838. McCuUoch, " Polit. Econ." 
 
 " Boeckh, 86. 
 
 ■* See authorities mentioned in the text, also Jacob, p. 128, and Gibbon, 
 iii. 419. 
 
234 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 have endeavoured to secure for their own rising state th& 
 advantages which these systems afforded. The Romans 
 were quick to follow Greek examples in the other depart- 
 ments of law and administration, and it would have been 
 strange had they neglected to copy them in so important a 
 one as this. They adopted the Greek name for money ; 
 they called it nummus, after the Greek nomisma ; and it is 
 regarded as quite out of the question that they should not 
 have known the meaning, or understood the significance of 
 this term. 
 
 16. The advice of publicists. Moreover the Romans had 
 constantly before them allusions to such systems in those 
 productions of Greek learning which they justly regarded 
 as models of intellectual vigour and refined taste. Socrates, 
 Plato, Aristotle, Zeno, and other great teachers of philo- 
 sophy and politics, had all written of numerical systems of 
 money, and the most revered of them all had recommended 
 such a system for his Ideal Republic. It is difficult tO' 
 imagine that these discourses and recommendations, coming 
 from sources so comparatively recent and so highly re- 
 spected, should have been wholly disregarded by a nation 
 with whom it had become a habit, nay, almost a passion, to 
 be guided by Greek writers in every other department of 
 science and art. 
 
 17. Extreme danger of a commodity system at this 
 period. This point has been alluded to in a previous 
 chapter of the present work. In the ancient times there- 
 was not, as now, a vast stock of any commodity, say of gold 
 or silver, suitable for an " intrinsic " money, and amenable 
 to the demands of all commercial countries. Each country 
 ihen had its own stock, which was therefore comparatively 
 , mall. The influence upon it of any fresh supply of similar 
 jnetals, whether from pillage or from the mines, was so- 
 great, that violent fluctuations of its value at once ensued, 
 and this unfitted it for money. In other words, the unit of 
 value for each country of the modern world employing a 
 commodity system of money is the total stock of the pre- 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 235- 
 
 cious metals in all countries — a fact which, practically, is 
 modified by the quantity of such metals that temporarily 
 remains in each country by itself, as well as by the freedom of 
 trade, by the use of paper adjuncts in each country, and by 
 other considerations not sufficiently important to be men- 
 tioned in this place. Contrariwise, the unit of value for 
 each country of the ancient world which employed a system 
 of money composed of gold or silver coins at their bullion 
 value, was the stock of such metal in that country by 
 itself. 
 
 It is easy to perceive- that such a condition of affairs ex- 
 posed the state to grave dangers, and practically obstructed- 
 its industrial and commercial progress. It was only neces- 
 sary for an enemy to quietly withdraw some of the precious 
 metal in circulation, or as quietly to add illegally fabricated, 
 albeit full-weighted, coins to the circulation, in order to- 
 produce a prolonged financial crisis, and alter the entire re- 
 lations of society. Nay, the vicissitudes of the mines,' or 
 even the caprices of fashion, as the wearing or disuse of 
 gold embroidery or jewellery, might have involved the for- 
 tunes of the state.^ The frequency of wars and interrup- 
 tions to foreign commerce, the great disparity of civiliza- 
 tion between neighbouring countries, and many other 
 circumstances peculiar to ancient times, but greatly modi- 
 fied in modern ones, were all sources of danger in the use 
 of a commodity system of money by the Roman Common- 
 wealth, and they furnish a strong presumption for believing 
 that its system was numerical. 
 
 A commodity system, or a system substantially "in- 
 trinsic,''^ cannot safely be established anywhere unless the 
 commodity adopted as money is in common use throughout 
 the commercial world ; unless its possession is widely 
 
 ' " Certain Italians aiding the barbarians in working the gold diggings 
 of AquUeia, about B.C. 186, in the space of two months the value of 
 gold was diminished throughout the whole of Italy by one-third." Poly- 
 bius, xxxiv. 10 ; Strabo, iv. vi. 12. 
 
 ^ On the use of gold embroidery, jewellery, &c., see Pliny, book xxxiii. 
 
536 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 diflfusedj and freely amenable to commercial demand ; unless 
 the amplitude and steadiness of its future supplies from the 
 mines J or otherwise, is assured ; and unless its coinage is 
 more or less open and gratuitous. All these requirements 
 are fulfilled at the present time by either gold or silver. 
 They were certainly not fulfilled in remote and compara- 
 tively non-commercial ages, either by these commodities or 
 any others, and least of all by copper. The Romans would 
 have exposed their state to speedy ruin if they had opened 
 their mints to the copper bullion of all comers, and under- 
 taken to coin it gratuitously, or for brassage, or any mode- 
 rate rate of seignorage. 
 
 If they levied an immoderate rate of seignorage upon the 
 mintage of their copper pieces, or else procured and coined 
 the metal only for and upon account of the state, and only 
 to the extent that the state decided, in either case the 
 system would have been less " intrinsic " than numerical. 
 That the necessities of their position must have caused 
 them to adopt one or both of these devices, there can be 
 little doubt ; indeed we know, from positive evidence, that 
 they adopted the latter. There was no open and gratuitous 
 coinage of copper. The citizens of Rome never had the 
 right to carry their copper bullion to the public mint to be 
 coined without limit and without expense, as have, at the 
 present time, the citizens of Great Britain, the United 
 States, Germany, and other countries, with respect to gold 
 bullion. They had no right to coin it even upon a seigno- 
 rage. The Roman copper coinage was strictly monopolized 
 by the Senate. All the numismatists and cambists admit 
 this ; and yet, with strange illogicality, they nearly all 
 treat the product of this monopolization as though it had 
 been free. Rome could never have become a great state 
 with "free" coinage laws ; for in those days there was not, as 
 there is now, a vast accumulation of the coining metal on 
 hand to steady its value and lessen the danger of continual 
 revulsions of prices. The only steadiness it could have re- 
 ceived must have come from restriction of the coinage, and 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 237 
 
 there can be little doubt that such was the policy of the 
 republic. 
 
 18. Allusions to a numerical system in the fragments of 
 literature supposed to belong to the period of the Common- 
 wealth, and preserved in the Corpus Juris Civilis. In the 
 Pandects of Justinian, tenth book, occurs this remarkable 
 passage from Julius Paulus, a jurisconsult of the third 
 century of our era : — 
 
 " The origin of buying and selling began with exchange. 
 Anciently money was unknown, and there existed no terms 
 by which merchandise could be precisely valued, but every 
 one, according to the wants of the time and circumstances, 
 exchanged things useless to him, against things which were 
 useful ; for it commonly happens that one is in need of 
 what another has in excess. But, as it seldom coincided 
 in time that what one possessed the other wanted, or con- 
 versely, a device was chosen, whose legal and permanent 
 value remedied, by its homogeneity, the difficulties of barter. 
 This device being officially promulgated, circulated and 
 maintained its purchasing power, not so much from its sub- 
 stance, as from its quantity. Since that time, only one con- 
 sideration in an exchange was called merchandise, the other 
 is called price." 
 
 The Code of Justinian, following this opinion of Paulus, 
 probably without fully understanding him, declares that the 
 power of money resides not in the substance, but in the 
 quantity. This is unquestionably a great truth, but it was 
 no more recognized in practice at the time this code was 
 compiled than it is now. Even in the time of Paulus it 
 was antiquated, and survived only in the letter of a dead 
 law, and the outraged symbol S. C. which still appeared 
 upon the copper sesterce, as if to remind the Senate of the 
 great trust it had betrayed, and the people of the liberties 
 they had lost. 
 
 Paulus probably wrote, as afterwards did Sir Matthew 
 Hale on the same subject, either to sustain a case, or else 
 to follow those ancient models, whose wisdom he had learnt 
 
238 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 i.to revere^ and without stopping to inquire whether history 
 had not reversed their wonted relevancy. 
 
 The ancient authorities of Paulus are quite lost to us. 
 The literature of the Eoman Commonwealth has entirely 
 
 ■perished^ and little remains of the wisdom it embalmed 
 beyond the fragments, which, like the one preserved by 
 Paulus and Justinian, have survived the ruin of time, chiefly 
 because their deep significance has never been noticed, or 
 their practicability demonstrated by an actual test. 
 
 19. The terminology of money. This subject has been 
 so fully treated elsewhere in the present work, that it is 
 only necessary to say here that the generic name for money 
 during the Servian period of Eoman monetary history was 
 
 . aes, referring to the principal material of which money was 
 composed, whilst during the Commonwealth its name was 
 
 ■nummus, which as plainly refers to its numerical character 
 at the last-named period. 
 
 It is not pretended that each and all of these various 
 evidences and considerations prove the existence of a 
 numerical system of money in Rome, although some of 
 them are regarded as being quite conclusive. Others, 
 while perhaps not conclusive by themselves, serve to lend 
 .force to the rest. Taking them altogether, it cannot be 
 denied that they form a mass of evidence and argument 
 which strongly appeals to conviction. 
 
 The details of this extraordinary system are lost. The 
 ^ system jDrobably grew out of the inconvenience of the uncial 
 coins, and the determination of adhering to copper as the 
 most suitable material of indigenous production for money 
 symbols ; but whether the limitation of coinage which 
 forms its essential feature was adopted as a matter of ex- 
 pediency and usage, or was specifically decreed by the 
 Senate, cannot now be determined. The latter seems most 
 probable. " Senatus Consultum was used to denote what 
 . the Senate decreed," ^ and it was evidently not inscribed 
 
 ' Adam, 14. 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 239 
 
 upon the bronze nummi of this period without an im- 
 portant reason. It did not appear upon the Ases of 
 the previous era^ nor upon the Ases of this era, either 
 before or after their name was changed to nummi, nor upon 
 the Ases of subsequent eras.^ The Ases and their frac- 
 tions and multiples were always cast, the nummi, except 
 for a short period after their inception, when old Ases 
 were used for the purpose, were always struck. The sign 
 S. C. does not appear upon any of the cast coins : upon all 
 the struck coins that were legal tender, it does. 
 
 It does not appear what other reason there co.uld have 
 been for thus distinguishing these pieces beside that of 
 denoting their limitation of issue. It was not necessary to 
 thus designate the fact that they were legal tender, for the 
 As and its parts had been legal tenders, and the denarius 
 and its parts were afterwards made legal tenders, without 
 being thus stamped. It was obviously not a mint mark, 
 for the sign varied in form and size, and appeared upon the 
 coinage of numerous mints. It could only have been a mark 
 which served to indicate that this money was different from 
 all others, and such a difference could only have been limi- 
 tation of issue, or, as Paulus expressed it : " This device 
 (money) being officially promulgated, circulated and main- 
 tained its purchasing power, not so much from its substance, 
 as from its quantity." 
 
 The decrees of the Roman Senate, after being written 
 out, were recorded in the Treasury (.^rarium) , where also 
 other writings pertaining to the Republic were kept. The 
 decrees when not carried to the Treasury were considered 
 invalid.^ The Senate had the direction of the Treasury, and 
 distributed the public money at pleasure,^ and although so 
 early as B.C. 448 its authority suffered some diminution,* it 
 
 ' Diminntive Ases were continued to be cast for several centuries 
 afterwards, probably for use as religious offerings. A similar custom 
 still retains in Japan in respect to iron coins, some specimens of which 
 are in the author's possession. 
 
 ' Adam, 15. ^ Ibid. 17. ' Ibid. 15. 
 
240 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 cannot be doubted tliat with regard to money and finance 
 this was not impaired until after the Social Wars. 
 
 Its records^ however^ have perished. Except a few de- 
 crees whichj on account of the lustre they added to some 
 hero's renown^ were committed to brass, not a line of them 
 remains.^ 
 
 The numerary system of Eome was certainly in existence 
 at about the period of the Gaulish invasion. After the capital 
 was saved by Camillus, the citizens " set apart particular 
 funds in the treasury, to be spared in every other jjossible 
 emergency, and reserved for the case of invasion from Gaul 
 alone." ^ These "particular funds" must have been a sort of 
 money which could be useful abroad as well as at home, in 
 other words, gold or silver. In order to spare a special 
 accumulation of these metals at a time when regular supplies 
 of them could not be depended upon, it was certainly safest 
 to demonetize them altogether; to have a money the material 
 for which could always be obtained in sufficient quantity, it 
 became necessary to adhere to copper ; to avoid the incon- 
 venient weight of the uncial coins, it became necessary 
 to overvalue the new copper coins ; to maintain this over- 
 valuation, the emissions had to be restricted by the state ; 
 and to prevent such restriction from being broken down by 
 counterfeiters, the coins had to be struck from dies of the 
 highest artistic value. The Eomans had already, B.C. 452, 
 imported the laws of the Twelve Tables from Greece, and 
 must have been apprised of the Greek system of money 
 which provided numeraries for home use, and the precious 
 metals for foreign service. It seems extremely likely that 
 under such circumstances the Romans should have copied 
 this system. 
 
 If not in existence before the Gaulish invasion, the 
 numerary system must have been established shortly after- 
 ward. The invasion caused them to change many parti- 
 culars of their policy.^ Among these would very likely have 
 
 ^ Adam, 15. ^ Ferguson's " Hist. Rome," i. 75. 
 
 ' Ibid. 
 
THE REPUBLICAN SYSTEM. 241 
 
 been the system of money. The embezzlements charged to 
 Camillus at Veil ^ would have impelled such a change in 
 the monetary system^ as promised to remove in some mea- 
 sure the temptation to repeat such an offence, and no 
 measure could have been more effective than to demonetize 
 the precious metals.^ 
 
 With regard to the downfall of this system, this is to be 
 ascribed, firstly, to the permission accorded to the gentes to 
 coin silver denarii without limit, and at a value recognized 
 in usage, if not conferred by law, which rendered these 
 denarii coadjutors of the overvalued nummi of the state ; 
 and, secondly, to counterfeiting. The introduction of gold 
 coins, as appears to be suggested by the Plinian text, where 
 the circumstance is alluded to as a " crime," may have 
 assisted this downfall, but it is certainly not responsible for 
 its origin. The numerary system lasted for nearly two cen- 
 turies, during which all that was admirable of Roman civi- 
 lization saw its origin, its growth, and its maturity. When 
 the system fell, Rome had lost its liberties. The state was 
 to grow yet more powerful and dreaded, but that state and 
 its people were no longer one. 
 
 ^ Ferguson's " History of Rome," i. 74. 
 
 ^ It will be noticed that in all subsequent accounts of the resources 
 of the Roman treasury appears a given weight of gold and silver, and a 
 sum of money in sesterces. See Pliny, xxxiii. 6, 17. 
 
CHAPTER XVIII. 
 
 EISE OP THE EOMAN COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 Trifling progress made by Rome during the first few centuries of its 
 existence as an independent power — Its substantial progress only began 
 after the political reforms of e.c. 509 to 408 — These measures greatly 
 increased its population and solidified its power — The conquest of 
 Central and Northern Italy which followed, increased its wealth and re- 
 sources — Expansion of the Republic now rapid — Political reforms and 
 military victories followed incessantly — Progress in agriculture, manufac- 
 ture, commerce, and the arts — -Difference between an expanding and 
 expansive money — The Republican system of money the natural corol- 
 lary of the expansion of the Roman Republic. 
 
 ROME owed its origin to a revolt against an old esta- 
 blished and well organized government, from whom 
 it inherited both wealth, religion, and a code of civil laws. 
 Commencing with these advantages, and supplementing 
 them by offering itself as a place of refuge against oppres- 
 sion, it is remarkable what little advance it made as an in- 
 dependent power during the first few centuries of its exis- 
 tence. The explanation of this lies in these self-same inheri- 
 tances from Etruria, whose retention reduced the results of 
 the revolution to little more than a mere change of rulers. 
 The extravagant privileges of rank, the system of slavery, 
 and the inequitable distribution of lands and wealth, which 
 distinguished the Etrurian system of government, likewise 
 marked that of monarchical Rome. It was not until the 
 nation reformed its government and swept away these abuses 
 that any rapidity is discernible in its progress. When it 
 entered upon this phase of its development, not merely 
 a few oppressed but all the oppressed, and all the discon- 
 tented inhabitants of the surrounding states fled to it as a 
 home, and its progress changed at once from slow to rapid. 
 
RISE OF THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 243 
 
 The reforms consisted in the abolition of monarchical and 
 adoption of a republican form of government in B.C. 509 ; 
 the various concessions to the plebs in 493, 473, 472, 461, 
 448, and 445 ; the laws for the division of conquered lands 
 in 486 ; the increase in the number and proportion of tri- 
 bunes, 457 ; the adoption of the Ten ^ (afterwards increased 
 to Twelve) Tables of Solon in 450 ; the creation of quaestor- 
 ships in 421, and the admission of the plebs to these offices 
 in 408. 
 
 These measures invited to Rome a continual accession of 
 inhabitants, whose interests they so enlarged, and whose 
 power they so solidified, that the conquest of all Central^ and 
 Northern Italy soon followed. With the reduction of each 
 important stronghold of the enemy, Rome came into the 
 possession not only of immense wealth in the form of archi- 
 tectural structures, roads, canals, mines, improvements of 
 all kinds, endless works of art, and vast stores of minor 
 commodities, but also of a fertile and cultivated territory 
 which, under juster laws, was soon to be transferred from 
 the few, whose titles were derived from ancient discovery, to 
 the many who founded theirs upon present occupancy and 
 labour. 
 
 It was at this period that the progress of Rome became 
 most rapid. Political reforms and military victories fol- 
 lowed each other incessantly. In B.C. 376 the Licinian 
 laws were passed to equalize the possession of lands, relieve 
 debtors, and open the consulships to the plebs ; in 367 and 
 302 the pontificate, augurate, and other religious offices were 
 opened to the plebs by means of the Sibylline and Ogulnian 
 laws ; ^ in 366 the prsetorship and curule magistracy were 
 established, and in 336 opened to the plebs ; and in 286 was 
 
 ^ The Buddhists (see p. 65, ante), Hebrews, and Greeks, each had 
 their code of Ten Commandments. 
 
 ^ Between b.c. 396 and the year of the Gaulish Invasion, Rome cap- 
 tured and plundered Veii, Falisci, and indeed, nearly all the rich Etru- 
 rian cities of the lower Tiber and foothills. 
 
 ^ On the importance of these laws consult Arnold, App. Gyc, xiv. 
 150. 
 
244 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 enacted the Hortensian law to reduce debtSj divide lands, 
 and confer legislative power upon the people by tribes inde- 
 pendent of the Senate. In 342, by a series of victories 
 over the Samnites, the boundaries of the Republic were 
 extended beyond the Liris ; in 338 the Latins were incorpo- 
 rated; in 310 the Etrurian territory, cities, and mines of the 
 Upper Tiber were conquered, plundered, and annexed ; in 
 304 further extensions of territory were conquered from the 
 Samnites ; in 293 and 292 the rest of Samnium was con- 
 quered and many of its cities plundered; and in 290 the 
 Sabine country was conquered and annexed. 
 
 With this expansion of population, territory, and wealth, 
 occurred a corresponding progress in the arts. After the 
 expulsion of the Gauls, Rome was entirely rebuilt, and upon 
 a far more splendid scale than before ; in 368 the Temple of 
 Concord was erected ; in 812-10 Appius Claudius constructed 
 the great highway and aqueduct which bears his name, 
 erected the public baths, and drained the Pontine Marshes ; 
 in 288 M. Curius cut a canal from Lake Velinas; in 272 a 
 friendly embassy was sent to distant Egypt, and Curii^s 
 Dentatus commenced the construction of the Anio Vetus ; 
 and in 260 a vast fleet was constructed to protect and extend 
 the commerce of the Republic on the Mediterranean. 
 
 These instances are only types of the progress that marks 
 this period. Numerous works of public improvement were 
 constructed in all parts of Italy ; agriculture was prosecuted 
 with ardour ;i commerce was opened with Carthage, interior 
 Europe, Egypt, and India ; local manufactures arose, and 
 Rome emerged from the obscure position of a rebellious 
 province to that of a great nation, whose limits extended 
 from Sicily to the Padus, and whose freedom, energy, in- 
 dustrial resources, and military prowess became known from 
 Carthage to Greece, and from Gaul to China.^ 
 
 An expanding empire needs an expanding money. This 
 is not the same as an expansive money. The former means 
 
 ' Adams, " Kom. Antiq.," pp. 460, 461. ' See p. 19, ante. 
 
RISE OF THE ROMAN COMMONWEALTH. 245 
 
 one that by regulation can be made to keep even pace with 
 increasing exchanges ; whereas the latter is one that in- 
 creases without regulation, either from the adventitious pro- 
 lificacy of mineSj the conquest of the money metal, the un- 
 limited emission of government notes, the licence of private 
 coiners, or the greed of private banks of issue. With the 
 increasing numbers and mobility of her population, with the 
 continual expansion of her territory, and with the growing 
 needs of her commerce and exchanges, it is inconceivable 
 that Rome could have tolerated such a monetary system as 
 careless chroniclers and uncritical commentators, have as- 
 cribed to her ; a system composed of copper cast into great 
 round masses, passing for their value as raw metal, subject 
 to fitful increase of numbers from mines and foundries, and 
 to capricious diminution from the demands of the arts. 
 There is a correspondence in the various institutions of 
 government, money included, and nowhere and at no time 
 would such a correspondence have been more violently and 
 injuriously upset than in compelling Rome in the period of 
 her most substantial and rapid growth to accept the rigid 
 and mischievous conditions of a money composed of a com- 
 modity of which neither that nation, nor any other, pos- ■ 
 sessed any considerable stock, or controlled any assured 
 supplies. 
 
CHAPTER XIX. 
 
 THE PATEICIAN STSTEMj B.C. 269-250. 
 
 The silver spoil of Southern Italy falling largely into the hands of 
 the Roman commanders, the latter obtain from the Senate the privilege 
 to coin it into overvalued denarii — The circulation of these pieces as 
 congeners and multiples of the overvalued Ases constituted the Patrician 
 system of money — Details of the system — The As — Reasons for over- 
 valuing the denarius — It was not a forced but a permissory money — 
 Possibly received for taxes, and paid out for supplies and services — 
 Resemblance to the old time American state-bank notes — Seignorage 
 — Xumber and rank of gentes coining overvalued denarii — No care 
 taken to guard this privilege from abuse — Reasons for this neglect — 
 Place of coinage the Temple of Juno Moneta ; hence the name, "money" 
 — Effects of the nevp coinage — ^Its unexpected extent — Inflation of the 
 currency — Gradual fall of both silver and copper numeraries toward 
 their bullion value — Destruction of the Republican system of money. 
 
 BETWEEN the years B.C. 277, when they took Crotona 
 and Locrij and B.C. 250, when they defeated Hasdrubal, 
 the Romans conquered the whole of Magna Grtecia and 
 Sicily, together with the islands of Sardinia, Corsica, and 
 Malta. The defeat of Pyrrhus and Hasdrubal, both of 
 whom carried valuable military chests, the spoil of the rich 
 city of Tarentum, the plunder of the silver mines in Sar- 
 dinia, and sack of the opulent Carthaginian towns of Sicily, 
 brought a considerable quantity of silver into Rome ; and 
 as this metal seems to have been especially coveted by 
 the victorious commanders for their personal share of the 
 spoil, it fell chiefly into their hands, or that of the patrician 
 families to whom they belonged.^ To these circumstances 
 
 ' For military spoils of this period and their influence upon the stock 
 of silver in Rome, consult D'Avenant's Works, iii. 32 et seq. and 330 ; 
 and Humphreys' " Manual," i. 163 and 269 ; and for the avidity shown 
 by the Roman commanders for silver, see accusations against CamiUus 
 and Scipio, the one before, the other after this period ; also one against 
 Lucullus in Plutarch, " Lucullus," xxxvii. 
 
THE PATRICIAN SYSTEM. 247 
 
 must be ascribed the origin of the Patrician System of 
 money. ^ 
 
 According to Pliny no reduction of the As libralis took 
 place until B.C. 250, while Pinkerton affirms that the As of 
 the year when the denarius was first issued only weighed 
 three Roman ounces.* I am inclined to the opinion that 
 this reduction took place before B.C. 269, and that a further 
 reduction occurred by that year, so that the As only weighed 
 two and a half ounces. But precisely when, and to what 
 extent the As was reduced, provided it was reduced at all — 
 of which there can be no doubt whatever — is of little im- 
 portance. Long before this period the As had become a 
 numerary money, whose emissions were controlled by the 
 Senate, and whose value was determined altogether by the 
 extent of such emissions, and not at all by its weight. As 
 previously shown, this value was many times that of the 
 metal contained in the pieces. The coinage of new pieces 
 of lesser weight, which were issued in place of the heavier 
 ones recalled, provided the whole number of pieces was not 
 increased, could have had no efiect upon the value of the 
 outstanding pieces, and this value must have remained the 
 same as before. That aU of the heavier pieces did not find 
 their way back to the mints is proved by the specimens still 
 extant, but this is a circumstance that will occur in the case 
 of all retirements of large emissions.' Heavy or light, 
 weighing 2i- ounces, or 3 ounces, or even 9i ounces each, 
 as the case may have been, it did not pay to melt them, 
 and they must have continued to circulate at a like value, 
 the heavy pieces being worth no more than the light ones. 
 
 ^ Greaves, p. 238, believes that the patrician or family denarius was 
 copied from a Sicilian coin ; probably forming part of the spoil from 
 which the denarius of this period was coined. 
 
 ^ Pinkerton on " Medals," i. 162. 
 
 ' Of the " fractional " greenbacks of the United States, of which the 
 whole sum emitted was about $45,000,000 and which were recalled 
 many years ago, there are several millions of dollars' worth still out- 
 standing, the main portion of which is supposed to be lost, perhaps 
 destroyed. 
 
248 HISTORY .OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 This resulted from their high overvaluation, which in the 
 case of the light pieces was at least five times, and in that of 
 the oldest As libralis (of 9i ounces), if any such yet re- 
 mained in circulation, at least one-third. 
 
 To this system, which by itself constituted a purely nume- 
 rary one, and which had lasted more than a century, the 
 patricians, about B.C. 269,^ obtained permission, or usurped 
 the right, to add a ten- As piece composed of silver, weighing 
 one-sixth of an ounce, and called a denarius. At this valua- 
 tion, and upon the tolerably safe assumption that raw 
 copper was worth at the time at least the one hundred and 
 fiftieth part of raw silver, these silver coins were overvalued 
 against commodities as much as the newest and lightest 
 copper ones were. In other words, a pound of silver coined 
 into denarii would purchase five pounds of raw silver, just 
 as a pound of copper coined into Ases of 2|: ounces each, and 
 of suitably limited emission, would, and did purchase, at 
 least five pounds of raw copper. 
 
 From what source permission was obtained for the family 
 denarius to circulate as the equivalent of ten Ases, whether 
 it was accorded by the Senate, or followed as a custom 
 derived from usurpation and maintained through ignorance 
 in the popular mind as to the true relation of value between 
 the overvalued national copper coins and the silver bullion 
 of the gentes, cannot be determined. Probability points to 
 the former. The Senate was still largely patrician, and, as 
 the quantity of silver obtained through recent conquests, 
 although considerable, was not so great as to menace the 
 integrity of the numerary system if coined at the proposed 
 rate, and moreover as the population and commerce of Rome 
 were rapidly increasing and needed an augmenting volume 
 
 ' The "Encyc. Brit.," ed. 1858, art. "Numismatics," says that no 
 silver denarii have been found which are ascribed to an earlier date than 
 B.C. 207 ; but Rear-Admiral Smyth ascribes many of the family denarii 
 to from B.C. 280 to 269. See "Descriptive Catalogue of a Cabinet of 
 Koman Family Coins belonging to His Grace the Duke of Northum- 
 berland, K.Gr.," by Rear-Admiral Wm. Henry Smyth. London, 1856. 
 
THE PATRICIAN SYSTEM. 249 
 
 of money to facilitate exchanges and sustain prices, there 
 were not wanting special interests and plausible arguments 
 to urge the adoption of such a measure. Nor were these 
 the only arguments to urge in its behalf. Part of the silver 
 spoil had gone into the public treasury. To leave it there 
 uncoined would be to render it useless for the payment of 
 the' troops on foreign service/ or for other disbursements 
 abroad. To coin, without overvaluing it, would have pro- 
 bably consigned it to the melting-pcSt. To coin and over- 
 value that portion of it which belonged to the people, 
 without according a like privilege to the owners of the 
 remainder of it, would be to reward with a valuable mono- 
 poly those to whom their share of this silver cost nothing, 
 and deny it to those who had won the whole of it by their 
 valour and at the hazard of their lives. Rather should the 
 latter be permitted to coin their share of it first and the 
 state wait to coin its share when occasion called for the use 
 • of it. As for the value of the proposed silver coins, it 
 appeared unjust that it should be rated any lower than that 
 of the outstanding copper coins. 
 
 It is beside the point that these arguments are specious 
 and sophistical : it is enough if they seemed to be fair, for 
 they were addressed to a tribunal, a large portion of whose 
 members were already inclined from personal interest to 
 accord them a favourable consideration. 
 
 Even though the new coins, if coined at their bullion 
 value, failed to be melted, they would have gradually lost 
 value as their coinage went on and as the whole volume of 
 money was increased by their accession. If immediately 
 after the acquisition of the silver spoil an ounce of silver 
 would purchase a given measure of wheat, it surely could 
 not be expected to purchase a similar measure when some 
 millions of such ounces had been added to the circulating 
 
 ^ The Roman troops were first paid in B.C. 406, Pliny, iv. 59 ; but 
 Niebiihr, ii. 438, in a lecture exclusively devoted to this subject, dates 
 it earlier. The original wage was 2 obols a day, which Mebiihr com- 
 putes at 3-1- Ases, or 100 ounces a month, and ten months to the year. 
 
250 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 money of the republic in the form of silver coins. The first 
 coiners would therefore have enjoyed an advantage over the 
 later ones ; and was it fitting that the heroes of wars which 
 had brought such lustre to the Roman arms should be forced 
 into an undignified struggle to get their spoil first to 
 market ? 
 
 The Spanish conquistadores of the sixteenth century 
 were in a similar predicament. They were overloaded with 
 silver spoils which the state^ however^ refused to coin at any 
 other rate than its bullion value, and rather than submit to 
 a regulation which they were aware would rapidly lower the 
 purchasing power of their spoil, ttey resolved not to coin it 
 at once, but to work it into rough plate, and only coin it 
 from time to time as occasion served or their needs de- 
 manded. It is this policy that accounts for the once extra- 
 ordinary accumulations of plate in the leading households 
 of Spain. ^ 
 
 The Roman Senate was more generous to its heroes than 
 the Spanish Crown. Perhaps it did not scrutinize their 
 motives so closely. However this may be, it did not refuse 
 to coin their silver at an overvaluation, but in this respect 
 placed them on a par with the people generally, whose copper 
 was coined at five times its value. I think it must be con- 
 ceded, upon a careful consideration of the subject, that this, 
 or something closely resembling this, was the course pursued. 
 
 The weights and fineness of the coins themselves indicate 
 legal regulation,^ and legal regulation implies permission to 
 circulate. The earliest family denarii are of very irregular 
 weight; those of this period, although struck by many 
 different families, are almost uniform in weight. Their 
 fineness is about '995 or '966,^ which is substantially pure 
 
 ^ The Dukes of Medina- Cceli, Alva, and others are credited with 
 having possessed more than a hundi-ed dozen of silver plates each, be- 
 side dishes and other vessels to match. See chapter on Spain in the 
 " History of Money in Modern Countries." 
 
 2 Sir John Lubbock, in " Nineteenth Century " Magazine for No- 
 vember, 1879. 
 
 ^ Rear-Admiral Wm. H. Smyth's " Catalogue." 
 
THE PATRICIAN SYSTEM. 251 
 
 silver, and probably as fine as the coiners of the time knew 
 how to make the pieces.^ 
 
 Their value, as related to the Ases of the period, is 
 indicated by their name. This name proves that originally 
 they did not circulate for more than ten Ases each, and both 
 probability and Pliny's averment point to their not having 
 passed for less. Relative to commodities, raw copper and 
 raw silver included, this value, as already stated, was over- 
 rated at least five times. 
 
 The probable reasons why they were overvalued at all 
 have already been given at length. The reasons why they 
 were overvalued at this particular rate may have been due 
 to the expectation that at such rate (that at which the copper 
 numeraries themselves were overvalued) , and with but a 
 comparatively unimportant quantity of silver demanding 
 coinage, and in view of the urgent commercial requirements 
 for an increase of circulation, the numerary system would 
 remain intact ; in other words, that no immoderate or 
 injurious rise of prices would follow. 
 
 As to whether the gentes paid anything for the valuable 
 privilege of coining silver at an overvaluation, in other 
 words, whether the state exacted a seignorage from them or 
 not, cannot be determined. The gentes could well afibrd 
 it, and might even have been anxious to pay it, in order the 
 more freely to justify their new privilege, should it ever be- 
 come a question, to the people. 
 
 The names of the gentes who exercised the privilege of 
 coining these overvalued and permissive denarii have not 
 been distinguished by the numismatists from those who 
 coined them when this permission became a right, and the 
 coins were accorded the function of legal tenders, the date 
 
 ^ McCuUoch, in the " Encyc. Brit.," ed. 1858, art. " Numismatics,'' 
 finds fanlt with Greaves for not assaying the family denarii, and with 
 Arbuthnot for assuming them to be as fine as British silver coins, viz., 
 ■916|-. They are in reality much finer. Those examined by Boeckh 
 were regarded to be as fine as the Athenian drachmae, and he says that 
 they passed one for the other. Boeckh, pp. 21, 25. 
 
252 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 of which radical change of system is fixed herein at B.C. 
 207. The whole number of gentes^ names in Rear- Admiral 
 Smyth's Catalogue is 160^ of whom 14 were patrician, 26 
 patrician with plebeian branches, 7 equestrian, 91 plebeian, 
 and 22 unknown. It is probable that of the denarii coined 
 previous to B.C. 207, the majority were struck by patrician 
 families, at least by the families of those who were leaders 
 in the wars through which the silver out of which they were 
 coined, was secured. 
 
 The family denarii were not, however, legal tenders. 
 They circulated, like the old time proprietary or " state- 
 bank" notes in America, because they were convenient, and 
 the circumstances of the times demanded more money, to 
 prevent a fall of prices. No man was obliged to take them ; 
 no sums of taxes, fines, debts, payments, or treasure of the 
 period are stated in denarii. It is possible, again like the 
 old " state-bank •'■' notes of America, that at one time, the 
 Roman treasury received the overvalued denarii for taxes, 
 only to pay them out again at the same overvalued rate for 
 supplies and services ; but of this there is no certain indi- 
 cation. 
 
 It may, perhaps, be imagined that the Senate in granting 
 so important a privilege as the coinage of highly overvalued 
 pieces took care to guard it from abuse ; but this does not 
 appear to have been the case, and no limits are known to 
 have been assigned to the right of coinage. This neglect 
 was, no doubt, due, first, to the limited quantity of silver 
 obtained from the conquest of Southern Italy and the Islands 
 and the seeming improbability, at that time, of capturing 
 further supplies ; and, second, to the practical difiSculty of 
 enforcing such a restriction. The Roman Senate, powerful 
 as it was, could hardly have established such a surveillance 
 over the numerous families who exercised the privilege of 
 coining overvalued silver during this period, as would have 
 prevented them, had they so chosen, from overstepping the 
 limits of the law. A precisely analogous case is afforded 
 by the old proprietary "state-bank" note system of America. 
 
THE PATRICIAN SYSTEM. 253 
 
 TKere was no limit placed upon the emissions of the notes- 
 They were assumed to be issued upon deposits of certain 
 presumably valuable " stocks/^ although these " stocks " 
 were often nothing more than shares in " wild-cat " enter- 
 prises, and entirely worthless, and upon this false assumption 
 and because the quantity of deposit " stocks " was known to 
 be limited, and also because it would have been unconstitu- 
 tional for the United States government to exercise control 
 over abank incorporated underthelaws of a state, and imprac- 
 ticable for a state to maintain so close a surveillance over 
 the operations of such a corporation as to limit its emissions 
 of notes ; the result was that there was no legal restriction 
 to such emissions, except as to the proportion of notes to 
 so-called " stocks," and practically no restriction whatever, 
 beyond the fitful demands of the public for currency on the 
 one hand, and the conservatism or caprice of dealers in un- 
 cxirrent notes on the other. 
 
 The place of coinage for some or all the new pieces, and 
 eventually for all the silver coins of Rome, was the temple 
 of Juno, known as that of Juno Moneta, because the goddess 
 had recently given the Romans a warning (monere) in the 
 field of battle, which had saved them from defeat. Hence 
 pieces of the new coinage came to be known generically as 
 moneta, and this name eventually extended itself to all 
 money, and indeed is the origin of the word by which money 
 is most commonly known to the western world. 
 
 The immediate effect of the coinage privilege granted to 
 the gentes was an increase of the whole sum of money, an 
 "inflation" of the currency, as it is called in modern days. 
 Every time a silver denarius was coined by them, it was as 
 though ten additional copper Ases were fabricated. How 
 far this inflation was counterbalanced by the growing needs 
 of the Republic for money cannot be determined. In B.C. 
 280 the census of Rome returned 278,222 citizens ; in B.C. 
 265 it gave 282,234; and in B.C. 252 it gave 297,797. During 
 this period the whole of Southern Italy, including numerous 
 sea-ports and other centres of commerce, were added to the 
 
254 HISTORY OF -MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Republic, and the new denarii may well have been needed 
 to replace the overthrown or captured moneys of these places, 
 without occasioning the slightest " inflation." 
 
 The ultimate effect of the license to coin denarii was of a 
 far less innocent character. No sooner was it generally 
 known that coined silver was several times more valuable 
 than bullion, than a rage set in to coin it and supplies made 
 their appearance from the most unexpected sources. The 
 patrician class were soon compelled to share their valuable 
 coining privilege with the equestrian, and the latter with 
 the plebeian, until the plebeian coins became more numerous 
 than both of the other classes put together.' Silver not only 
 came in as spoil, it was imported as merchandise, chiefly 
 from Greece, and some of it, in the form of drachmae, even 
 went into the circulation before recoinage, and at the same 
 rate of overvaluation as the denarii.'^ 
 
 The consequence of this continued and unrestricted coin- 
 age was that, after having passed the point at which they 
 could be sustained at their initial overvaluation, they com- 
 menced to decline in value, and each day brought them 
 nearer and nearer to that of the bullion of which they were 
 composed. 
 
 Not only this, the copper nummi fell in like manner, and 
 with the same rapidity. Either law or custom had un- 
 changeably co-related these coins. It mattered not that 
 they were made of different materials. Every denarius was 
 ten nummi and every nummus the tenth of a denarius. 
 When a denarius was added to the circulation it was the same 
 as though ten nummi had been added ; when a nummus was 
 added it was the same as though the tenth of a denarius had 
 been added. Thus they rose and fell in value together: 
 they rose from restriction of the whole numbers of money, 
 
 ^ Overvaluation is the one tiling that accounts for the vast number 
 of gentes coins which have come down to us from this period. 
 
 ^ Boeckh, 21, 25. A parallel case is aflbrded by the present circu- 
 lation of the highly overvalued French two-sous bronze piece, as a 
 penny, in England. 
 
THE PATEICIAN SYSTEM, 255 
 
 they fell as that restriction was removed. Until B.C. 269 the 
 whole numbers of money consisted of nummi^ the coinage of 
 which was limited by the Senate ; after that year the whole 
 numbers consisted of nummi and denarii, the coinage of 
 which was no longer limited. A breach had been made in 
 the Republican system of limited money, and that breach 
 was now to widen every day until the system and all its 
 beneficent consequences were to disappear entirely. 
 
CHAPTER XX. 
 
 PIEST PUNIC WAE SYSTEM, B.C. 250-216. 
 
 Reduction of the copper nummus fi-om two-and-a-half to two ounces, 
 in conformity with the changed market relation of copper to silver — 
 Inflation of the currency, chiefly by means of the overvalued silver 
 denarii coined without limit by the gentes — Probable fall in the value 
 of both silver and copper coins against commodities — Extant coins prove 
 that Pliny's account of the monetary system of this era is wrong as to 
 both fact and inferences. Had the system been " intrinsic," and the state 
 ■\vished to make a financial resource of the coinage as he supposes, it 
 could have done far better by reducing the silver rather than the copper 
 coins. 
 
 THE next change that occurred in the monetary system 
 of Rome was, according to Pliny, " during the first 
 Punic ^ War." As this war lasted from B.C. 264 to 241, the 
 year 250 has been selected to represent the date thus vaguely 
 alluded to. The change consisted in the reduction of the 
 overvalued bronze nummus from 2i oz., its weight during 
 the Republican era, to 2 oz. The nummus still remained 
 the sole legal tender money of the commonwealth, and all 
 sums and prices of the period were couched in it, but a large 
 and increasing coinage of family denarii, or ten-nummi pieces, 
 had been and was still taking place, and at a rate that pro- 
 bably exceeded the increasing wants of the people ; and both 
 nummi and denarii sank more and more toward their bullion 
 value. In other words, the "currency" was being "in- 
 flated," and this inflation was brought about chiefly, if not 
 altogether, by the increased numbers of the overvalued 
 silver denarii coined by the gentes. 
 
 To what degree this inflation lowered the overvaluation 
 
 ^ Punic is from Poenus, the Latin word for Phoenician or Carthaginian. 
 
FIRST PUNIC WAR SYSTEM. 257 
 
 of the "currency" from the assumed rate of five times 
 under the Eepublican era^ can only be conjectured. It 
 could scarcely have lowered it farther than to three times, 
 nor less than to four times, the probability being in favour 
 of the latter. During this era, therefore, it may safely be 
 assumed that both the nummus and denarius coins were in 
 Rome about four times as valuable as the materials of which 
 they were respectively composed, and would exchange for 
 about four times as many or much of commodities as the 
 raw metal would. It is, however, not impossible that this 
 value underwent important fluctuations. 
 
 Another feature of this system invites attention. The 
 respective weights and legal values of the copper nummus 
 and silver denarius (see p. 189) make the ratio of value 
 between copper and silver in these coins as 120 is to 1, and 
 as nearly as can be determined from a comparison of the 
 various imperfect evidences which remain to us on the 
 subject, this was approximately the true market relation in 
 Rome and the neighbouring countries at the time. Indeed, 
 it may be assumed with safety, that no matter how much or 
 little the Romans overvalued their coins as against commo- 
 dities, they seldom ventured to overvalue them in one 
 another. 
 
 Thus, while in one sense (see p. 188) the lowering of the 
 so-called As — really the nummus — to two ounces was of 
 no importance, in another sense it was significant. Con- 
 sidered by itself, it did not matter what was the weight of 
 the nummus, its value being due to the whole number of 
 such nummi which the state emitted. This was the supply. 
 The demand was the need of the public for money where- 
 with to pay debts, fines, and taxes, and to make purchases. 
 The relation between this supply and demand was value — the 
 value of the nummi in commodities, or the value of the com- 
 modities in nummi. When considered with reference to the 
 facts that the law or custom — probably the latter — permitted 
 denarii to pass for ten nummi each, that denarii were made 
 of silver and nummi of copper, and that the market relation 
 
 s 
 
258 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 of value between these metals had been changing, that copper 
 was becoming more valuable in silver, and silver less valu- 
 able in copper, then the weight of the nummi became a 
 matter for careful consideration and adjustment. For it 
 must be remembered that these coins, though overvalued at 
 home, would sink at once to their commodity or bullion 
 value abroad ; and as both the silver and copper coins were 
 needed by the Roman soldiers when they campaigned abroad, 
 and by Roman merchants when they traded abroad — -some 
 foreign nations coining only copper and others only silver 
 — it was desirable that the relation of value between the 
 coins should not depart very much from that of the metals 
 of which they were composed. When war or any other 
 serious obstacle to commerce prevails, the overvaluation of 
 coins will not prevent them from being exported, because 
 coins are always easier to transport than merchandise ; and 
 when the coins are made of two or more different metals, 
 the exporter will naturally prefer the one least overvalued. 
 Hence it has usually been the practice of nations — and the 
 Romans do not seem to have formed an exception to the 
 rule — to make the relation of value between their coins con- 
 form, at least approximately, to that of the various metals of 
 which they were composed, even when all the coins were 
 overvalued in commodities. 
 
 Such is an outline of the Roman system of money during 
 the first Punic War. Respect for the honoured text of 
 Pliny, and for the many eminent scholars who have con- 
 strued it and commented on it, seems to demand that his 
 account should be examined in this place, and with reference 
 to this period. Pliny^s words are as follows : — " The weight 
 of the libra of copper was diminished during the first Punic 
 War, the republic not having the means to meet its expen- 
 diture ; in consequence of which an ordinance was made that 
 the As should in future be struck of two ounces weight. By 
 this contrivance a saving of five-sixths was effected, and the 
 public debt was liquidated." 
 
 There is but one fact alleged here, namely, that the copper 
 
FIRST PUNIC WAR SYSTEM. 259 
 
 libra or As — terms used synonymously — ^waa reduced during 
 the first Punic War from twelve ounces to two. That the 
 republic did not have the means to meet its expenditure, 
 that it saved five-sixthsj or that the public debt was liqui- 
 dated, are inferences, not facts ; and their value rests upon 
 the fact from which they profess to be derived. 
 
 It has been already shown that this alleged fact is no fact 
 at all. Reason and analogy prove that the ees never weighed 
 twelve ounces — the coins themselves prove that it never ex- 
 ceeded nine and a half ; they also prove that the As was re- 
 peatedly reduced in weight previous to the period in ques- 
 tion, and that for many years past it had been coined at 
 three ounces, and probably at two and a half. 
 
 If any corroboration were needed of this most positive 
 sort of evidence, it is to be found in the exceeding unlikeli- 
 hood of a sudden reduction of the As — which Pliny assumes 
 to have been a non-overvalued coin — from twelve to two 
 ounces. Upon his own theory it was the common measure 
 of property, of debts, and of taxes. To have suddenly lowered 
 it five-sixths would not only have reduced the public debt to 
 that extent, it would have also reduced the public income to 
 the same degree. It would also have suddenly voided all 
 contracts, and violently strained many of the numerous re- 
 lations of society. It is impossible to believe that these 
 occurrences could have taken place without making some 
 mark upon the legislation or history of the times. On the 
 contrary, no sign of it, no mention of it, no allusion to it is 
 is to be found anywhere else but in Pliny's "Natural 
 History.'' 
 
 So much for Pliny's fact. As for his inferences, they are 
 hardly worth discussing. It is possible that the republic 
 may have been pushed for means during the war, but this 
 does not prove that it degraded the coinage ; it could not 
 have saved five-sixths if the coins were only reduced from 
 24- ounces to 2 ; while as to liquidating the public debt, 
 there is no intimation from any other source that the re- 
 public was in debt, or that such a thing as a public debt 
 
260 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 was known to the Romans of that period. If the Roman 
 state had already sunk so low that no better resource re- 
 mained to it than that worst of all resources which involved a 
 sudden and great repudiation of all existing contracts between 
 man and man, namely, a degradation of " intrinsic " coins 
 to one-sixth of their previous weight, it might have gained 
 far more, and risked far less, by reducing the silver denarii 
 than the copper seses, because it need only to have handled 
 one-120th of the same weight of metal, and only to have re- 
 coined one-tenth of the same number of pieces. 
 
 Indeed, there was an easier resource than this : the state 
 had only to limit the number of pieces, after reducing their 
 weight, when the lighter pieces would have maintained an 
 equal value with the heavier. In those days of state mining, 
 monopoly, and carefully-guarded commercial intercourse, 
 this device would have been quite practicable ; but neither 
 Pliny, nor any of his numerous commentators have ever 
 supposed its adoption. That it was indeed adopted we have 
 already had ample proofs, but this was done long before the 
 Punic Wars ; and it was those wars which, by opening the 
 silver mines of Spain to Rome, brought into that country 
 sudden and vast supplies of this metal, and broke down the 
 overvalued money system of the commonwealth, instead of 
 furnishing an occasion for its adoption. 
 
CHAPTER XXI. 
 
 SECOND PUNIC WAE SYSTEM, B.C. 216-207. 
 
 A\'eights of the nummus and denarius both lowered, the ratio of value 
 between them altered, a silver sesterce coined worth four copper ses- 
 terces, and the coinage of silver probably monopolized by the State — 
 Effects of these measures — Decline in the overvaluation of all money, 
 but particularly of the copper sesterce or nummus — Fluctuations in 
 money occasioned by the war. 
 
 THE second Punic War lasted from b.c. 218 to 201. 
 Says Pliny, "When Hannibal was pressing hard 
 upon Rome, in the dictatorship of Q. Fabius Maximus 
 (B.C. 216), Ases of one ounce weight were struck, and it 
 was decreed that the denarius should pass for sixteen Ases, 
 the quinarius eight, and the sestercius four. By this reduc- 
 tion of the weight of the As the Republic made a clear 
 gain of one-half. However, so far as the pay of the soldiers 
 is concerned, the denarius has always been paid for ten Ases." 
 There is no reason to doubt the substantial accuracy of 
 this account, albeit it is inexplicit, incomplete, and wrong 
 as to inference. It is inexplicit in failing to notice that 
 the sestercius here alluded to was a silver coin now issued 
 for the first time ; it is incomplete in omitting to state that 
 the denarius was lowered in weight from one-sixth to 
 one-seventh of an ounce, a fact proved by the coins them- 
 selves ; it is wrong in its inference that the Republic made 
 a clear gain of one-half. The Republic made no gain at ail. 
 It simply coined new copper nummi weighing half as much 
 as the old ones ; but it did not, indeed it could not, call the 
 old ones in. Many of them were lost in the towns cap- 
 tured by Hannibal, and the rest must have remained in 
 circulation, for vast numbers of them are still extant. 
 
262 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 There are other defects in Pliny's account; it fails to 
 identify the As of the period (not the As of the old law- 
 books nor the As of account, but the coin As) with the 
 nummus or copper sesterce ; it omits to state which of these 
 various moneys were legal tender ; and it entirely ignores 
 the conditions of coinage. 
 
 With regard to the first of these subjects it has been 
 suflaciently discussed already. The term As was, no doubt, 
 still in use with reference to fines, dues, and emoluments 
 fixed by ancient laws ; it was, perhaps, still used in accounts 
 as a measure of rents or services of ancient origin ; but the 
 copper or bronze coin described by Pliny, and commonly 
 regarded by numismatists as an As, was a sestercius or 
 nummus, and there was no actual As coin of this period, 
 unless it was a minute copper coin employed for religious 
 ofTerings, and practically useless for commercial purposes. 
 
 With reference to legal tender, my impression is that the 
 As, or nummus, or copper sesterce, was a tender by law, 
 and the silver denarius — and by consequence the silver 
 quinarius and sestercius — were tenders by custom, during 
 this period ; and each of them to an unlimited amount. 
 
 As to the conditions of coinage, the State appears to 
 have continued its monopoly of the copper coinage. The 
 conditions under which silver was coined are, however, not 
 so clear. It is diflBcult to believe that, after the great advan- 
 tage the State had already accorded to the gentes by per- 
 mitting them to coin their silver at, say, five times its value, 
 it now gratuitously accorded them the still further advan- 
 tage of rating these coins at sixteen instead of ten Ases or 
 nummi each. In order to gain the assent of the patricians 
 to lower the weight and increase the emissions of the 
 copper nummus it might have been necessary to covertly 
 bribe them by offering to increase the value of their future 
 silver coinages. But this is exceedingly improbable. Far 
 easier is it to suppose that at this juncture the State declined 
 to permit any farther coinages of silver by the gentes, and 
 that the increase in the value of the silver coins only applied 
 
SECOND PUNIC WAR SYSTEM. 263 
 
 to those already in existence and such others as it might 
 itself determine in future to coin. 
 
 The lowering of the weight of the nummus was by itself 
 of no consequence. Hannibal's march through Tuscany 
 had placed the copper mines of that portion of Italy under 
 his control ; copper had become scarce in Rome ; the State 
 was obliged to economize its use ; and as the nummus was 
 already highly overvalued, its weight was a matter of in- 
 difference to the people. The emission of new coins of less 
 weight, provided the old proportion of total money to total 
 exchanges was maintained, could injure nobody. It is not 
 pretended that this proportion was known, or if known, 
 maintained. Indeed the probability is against both suppo- 
 sitions. But as this state of affairs would have been the 
 same whether the nummus was reduced in weight or not, 
 the reduction was of no importance. 
 
 The lowering of the weight of the denarius was of another 
 character. The increasing scarcity of copper had advanced 
 its market value from 160 or 140 to 120 or 110 for one of 
 silver. Had the weight of the nummus been lowered to 
 one ounce without altering the weight or value of the 
 denarius, the relation between copper and silver in the 
 coinages would have been as sixty is to one, and this would 
 have differed so greatly from the market relation as to have 
 dangerously increased the temptation to counterfeit the 
 nummus. To keep the legal and market relations of value 
 between these coins in harmony, it was necessary either to 
 reduce the weight of the denarius nearly down to one- 
 eleventh of an ounce or raise its value to about nineteen 
 nummi. The same result was attained by a compromise 
 between these two extreme measures. The denarius was 
 reduced in weight to one-seventh of an ounce, and raised 
 in value to sixteen nummi, making a weight relation to the 
 new one-ounce nummus of 1 to 112. 
 
 There is every reason to believe that the relation of value 
 between the coins of this period and commodities, sustained 
 a decHne, not so much from any absolute increase in the 
 
264 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 emissions of money as from a relative increase of money to 
 exchanges. Upon the assumption that the overvaluation 
 of money during the Eepublican era proper was about five 
 to one of commodities, it will probably not be far wrong to 
 regard such overvaluation as having fallen during the second 
 Punic War to some point between five and four to one 
 as between silver coin and commodities, and between four 
 and three to one as between copper coins and commodities. 
 I think there can be little doubt that the copper sesterce 
 lost more of its previous overvaluation than the silver de- 
 narius and its parts_, else there would have been no necessity 
 for coining a silver sesterce. A somewhat analogous case 
 occurred in the monetary system of the United States, when 
 the five cent paper greenback overvalued several thou- 
 sand times (the difierence between its value as paper and 
 its value as money) was emitted at the same time with the 
 five cent silver coin, overvalued less than 20 per cent. 
 
 There must, however, have occurred important fluc- 
 tuations in these rates. Hannibal had brought the war 
 to the doors of Rome, and every incident of the conflict 
 must have found its reflex in the value of the fractions 
 of the expiring numerary system. 
 
CHAPTER XXII. 
 
 DECAY OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 
 
 The industrial progress of Eome ceased and its social decadence 
 commenced after the first Punic War — Proofs of the correctness of this 
 opinion found in the neglect of the arts and decrease of population which 
 followed this event — The second Punic War left it completely exhausted 
 and without recuperative resources — It had thenceforth either to main- 
 tain itself by spoliation or to perish — Its subsequent progress due to its 
 policy of Conquest — Impracticability of maintaining a numerary money 
 under such circumstances — Decline of the numerary system. 
 
 IT is not an easy matter to fix with precision the time 
 when societary growth ceases and decay begins. Among 
 those illustrious men who have written upon the history and 
 civilization of Rome, there has been a singular unanimity 
 with reference to the period that marked the summit of 
 Roman progress. The most illustrious of them all, con- 
 fining his work to the decline of the Empire, has opened 
 it with a desci'iption of the Augustan era, and thus by the 
 very limits of the work plainly intimated his opinion with 
 regard to the period when Roman progress ceased and decay 
 commenced. 
 
 This opinion has been that of nearly every other writer 
 on the subject. In one sense it would be rash to contro- 
 vert it. The Roman empire was doubtless more extensive, 
 it was more powerful, it was richer, in the Augustan era, 
 than ever before. In another sense the opinion is open to 
 objection. Was Rome more progressive at this period ; was 
 it more productive ; did its government more efiectively 
 promote the welfare of its citizens ; did the latter enjoy 
 more liberty, more opportunities, more advantages, more 
 happiness, than at other periods ? To these questions there 
 can be but one truthful answer, and that answer is. No. 
 
266 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Perhaps the most reliable indication of the progress or 
 decay of a free state is the movement of its population. So 
 long as the population increases, it is evident that progress 
 in the arts must continuOj for an increasing population be- 
 speaks the command of more food, clothing, shelter, tools, 
 implements, machinery, and luxuries, and these can only 
 be permanently supplied through such progress in the arts 
 as shall outstrip not only the growth of population, but also 
 the growth of the requirements of each individual member 
 of it. When the population begins to diminish, it is equally 
 evident that these arts have decayed, for it is a well-esta- 
 blished fact that the tendency of population to increase is 
 such as always to keep it close to the limits of its produc- 
 tive resources. 
 
 The decrease in the population of the Eoman state was 
 noticed so far back as the time of Polybius, who attri- 
 buted it — and doubtless with entire accuracy — to the 
 ravages occasioned by the Punic wars. When it is remem- 
 bered that in the second of these wars Hannibal maintained 
 a numerous and mercenary army in Italy for sixteen years, 
 that during the whole of this time he received no aid from 
 Carthage, and, therefore, had not only to forage upon the 
 Roman magazines and fields for food, but also to appease 
 the clamours of his soldiers for pay and rewards by sacking 
 every town he could capture, the devastation committed 
 during this war will be realized. The Union army occupied 
 portions of the Confederate States of America during only three 
 years of the recent civil war, yet the mischief it wrought 
 was so great, that, but for the natural advantages which 
 remained, and the conditions of progress which were re- 
 stored, to that portion of the country, its progress and popu- 
 lation would have probably received a permanent check. 
 These advantages never belonged to Rome, and these con- 
 ditions were never restored to it after the first two Punic 
 wars.^ 
 
 ' Polybius, vi. 3, 2, notices that at this period Rome had reached its 
 most prosperous era, and had begun to decline. 
 
DECAY OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 267' 
 
 So long as Rome was confined to Italy it never possessed 
 such a vast area of rich and virgin lands as still await the 
 occupation and industry of the Confederate population of the- 
 United States ; it had no navigable rivers, no railways, nor 
 other means of rapid communication throughout the country; 
 it had but little timber, and no coal, either for building pur- 
 poses, fuel, or motive power ; it had no such correspondence 
 or commerce with other nations as tend to invite the invest- 
 ment of foreign capital in the Confederate States ; it en- 
 joyed no such system of popular education to promote the 
 preservation of liberty, the respect for law, the industrial 
 activity and the continued progress in the arts which dis- 
 tinguish those States ; it was not isolated from the rest of 
 the world as the entire United States are, and consequently 
 it enjoyed neither such natural advantages nor such condi- 
 tions of progress. It had maintained a powerful and de- 
 structive enemy on its soil for sixteen years, its valleys had 
 long since been ruined by the Etruscan miners,' its plains^ 
 had long been stripped of their timber,'^ its people — com- 
 posed of alien and conquered nations, but ill cemented to- 
 gether by its form of government — were exhausted, and 
 their industrial habits destroyed by a long war upon their 
 own soil; its industrial resources were few, scattered, and 
 inadequate; and it was surrounded by hostile nations, ready, 
 upon the slightest pretext or opportunity, to challenge its 
 right to existence. 
 
 Under such circumstances, there was but one course 
 open to Eome. It had either to plunder, or be plundered; 
 to conquer, or be conquered; to domineer, or to die. 
 
 In the first Punic war Rome lost four large naval fleets 
 and one-sixth of its fighting population ; in the second one- 
 its losses were still greater. In addition to these losses, an 
 entire generation of its people had grown up who had never- 
 known Italy to be at peace ; who had lived in daily fear that 
 
 ' See the autKor's " Rape of tlie Earth," chapter on the Tiber. 
 ^ Tuscany formerly abounded in forests. Guazzesi, quoted in Gibbon,. 
 "Misc. Works," ed. 1796, iii. 121. 
 
268 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 their fields would be trodden down by hostile troops, their 
 homes despoiled, their relatives slain, or themselves forced 
 into the hideous slavery of the Carthaginian mines in Spain. 
 The prosecution of industry, the progress of the arts, under 
 such conditions was impossible. Agriculture declined, com- 
 merce declined, manufactures declined, population declined. 
 The progress of the industrial arts was checked, and, as it 
 turned out, permanently. Henceforth Rome was to discard the 
 arts, as a means of progress ; industry was to give place to 
 conquest, and production to spoil. It was to no purpose that 
 the temple of Janus was closed from B.C. 235 to 218. This 
 closure did not mean that peace was to be restored to Rome : 
 it simply meant that for sixteen years Rome failed to find any 
 people it could rob, or any place it could despoil. 
 
 With this new order of affairs arose a new form of govern- 
 ment. The republic decayed, a new aristocracy arose, 
 and following the new aristocrats were yet to come new 
 dictators, and eventually emperors. The liberties of the 
 citizens were lost, and with them their opportunities in life, 
 the advantages which they formerly derived from the nature 
 of the government, and the happiness that resulted from 
 these circumstances. 
 
 Had no increase whatever occurred in the emissions of 
 <;opper nummi and silver denarii during this period, the 
 diminution of the Roman population and commerce within the 
 army lines, to say nothing of that check to the growth of the 
 population and commerce of Italy which is herein assumed 
 to have occurred during this period, would have been suffi- 
 cient to bring these coins nearer and nearer to their bullion 
 value. A diminishing population and commerce need a de- 
 creasing money, and when, in spite of these circumstances, 
 the volume of money remains undiminished, it must neces- 
 sarily decline in purchasing power, and this decline in the 
 power of the whole money must be accompanied by a cor- 
 responding decline in the value of each fraction of it. 
 
 Not only did the Roman money remain undiminished 
 -during the Punic wars, it was possibly increased. Besides 
 
DECAY OF THE COMMONWEALTH. 269' 
 
 large accessions to the volume of copper nummi; the silver 
 coins seem to have been increased with every fresh acces- 
 sion of spoil. Part of the Roman circulation was, no doubt, 
 swept away in every conquest made by Hannibal, but some 
 even of this was recovered and recoined. 
 
 While the sum of money remained thus undiminished, the 
 demand for it declined with the decrease of population and 
 decay of commerce and the arts ; and there can be no doubt 
 that the value of money declined with the demand for it. 
 
 This decline, however, was not the same with the two 
 kinds of money now used in Rome. The copper nummi 
 declined much more than the silver coins, and while the 
 latter, perhaps, still maintained an overvaluation of four or 
 five times as against commodities, the former must have 
 fallen to less than four times, perhaps to scarcely three times 
 their value when melted. 
 
 Nor could it have been otherwise. A state of war is - 
 not favourable to the maintenance of an overvalued money. 
 Every military success will tend to increase its value by pro- 
 mising victory, peace, and a resumption of commercial activity. 
 Every disaster will tend to lower its value by its presage of 
 defeat and the overthrow of the government which alone can 
 maintain the overvaluation. And especially would such in- 
 fluences tend to break down a system based on two different 
 substances, whose respective overvaluations were continually 
 liable to vary from the unequal proportions of the coinages 
 emitted from time to time. War absorbs the national 
 energies and restrains industrial development ; it either 
 puts an end to commerce, or restricts it to very narrow 
 limits, and it weakens that respect for law which lies at the 
 base of all numerical systems. It is not to be wondered, 
 therefore, that the Punic wars put an end, among many 
 other notable institutions, to the peculiar monetary system of 
 republican Rome. 
 
 In abandoning itself to a policy of war, conquest, and 
 rapine, it was fit that Rome should exchange its numerary 
 system for a commodity money. It was henceforth to live,. 
 
270 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 not upon its own resources, but upon the plunder of weak 
 nations and commerce with strong ones ; and no money- 
 could have been so suitable for the purposes of such a 
 <;ommerce than that which, coined or uncoined, stamped 
 with " Eoma," or thrown into the melting pots of Egypt 
 -or India, would pass more or less at the same valuation. 
 
CHAPTER XXIII. 
 
 THE SCIPION SYSTEM, B.C. 207-170. 
 
 Ambiguity of the Plinian narrative — Effort to fix the era of the Lex 
 Papirius — Features of the Scipion system — Position of gold — An 
 arithmetical puzzle — M. Parisot's unsuccessful attempt to solve it — A 
 simpler and more rational solution found by admitting the existence of 
 an overvalued sesterce — Weight of the scruple gold coin unknown — It 
 was coined by gentes, was not a legal tender, and passed by courtesy — 
 Position of silver — Silver coins made full legal tender, for the first time, 
 dux'ing this period — This adoption of silver for money due chiefly to the 
 conquest of Spain and the assurance of ample supplies of silver metal — 
 Abundance of sih'er in Rome derived from spoils of war — Silver coins 
 formerly overvalued as against commodities, rapidly fall during this 
 period to their bullion value — Position of copper — The numerical 
 system definitely ended — Copper coins, fallen nearly to their ingot value, 
 are shipped away to the provinces in vast numbers— The legal tender 
 function of copper coins probably restricted — They thus become tokens 
 — Recapitulation. 
 
 A PARAGRAPH in the Plinian narrative relates that 
 " the first gold coin was struck sixty-two years after 
 that of silver." This fixes the date of an important change 
 in the monetary system of Rome at the year b.c. 207. 
 
 In the preceding paragraph Pliny says : " Shortly after," 
 {i.e. after the reduction of the ees or nummus to one ounce), 
 " in accordance with the Lex Papirius, asses were coined 
 weighing half an ounce only," and he thus indicates the 
 date of' another important change in the Roman money. 
 
 Exactly what this last named date is, there are no means 
 of determining. The name of Papirius among the magis- 
 trates of Rome was very common. Gibbon, viii. 6, doubts 
 the date usually assigned by the commentators of his time, 
 which was about B.C. 167. Adam and Lempriere assign the 
 date B.C. 191 J McCuUoch says B.C. 175. Niebiihr, "Rom. 
 
272 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Geschichte/' i. 257j ascribes the Papirian law to Verres or 
 L. Valerius Flaccus^ b.c. 86. My own researches induce 
 me to place it at about B.C. 130-119^ during the magistracy 
 of Caius Papirius.^ 
 
 But since there intervened between B.C. 207 and B.C. 130- 
 119 an important series of political events which grew out 
 of the agrarian troubles that began in B.C. 170, events which 
 could scarcely have occurred without involving changes in 
 the monetary system of Eome, I am disposed to believe 
 that the system of B.C. 207 did not last until the enactment 
 of the Lex PapiriuSj but was modified during the period of 
 the agrarian commotions. From the name of the most 
 prominent person concerned at the time in the movement 
 and disposition of the precious metals in Rome, if, indeed, 
 he was not himself the sponsor of the system, the latter is 
 herein designated the Scipion. 
 
 In delineating the character of this system I shall begin 
 with the position of gold. 
 
 On this topic, as with many others connected with the 
 monetary system of Rome, the careless narrative of Pliny 
 has only served to obscure the truth. 
 
 Says that author : " The first golden coin was struck 
 sixty-two years after that of silver ; the scruple of gold 
 being valued at twenty sesterces; a computation which 
 gave, according to the value of the sesterce then in use, 
 nine hundred sesterces to each libra of gold." 
 
 This account involves an interesting arithmetical puzzle. 
 
 The scruple weight was the twenty-fourth part of an 
 ounce, and the latter the twelfth part of a libra: hence 
 there were 288 scruples in the libra. If the scruple coin 
 contained a scruple weight of gold and was valued at twenty 
 sesterces — whether of silver or copper it does not matter for 
 the present — the libra of gold was worth 288 times as much, 
 
 1 Caius Papirius Carbo, Roman orator and tribune of the people 
 about B.C. 130; a friend of Tiberius Gracchus; consul after the death 
 of Caius Gracchus, b.c. 120; accused of peculation by the tribune L. 
 Gracchus; commits suicide BC. 119. 
 
THE SCIPION SYSTEM. 273 
 
 or 5,760 sesterces, instead of 900 sesterces, as calculated by 
 Pliny. 
 
 This discrepancy of Pliny's has been noticed by other 
 writers and has given rise to much dispute, a dispute which 
 the English translators of Bohn's edition of Pliny attempt to 
 settle by offering the solution of M. Parisot quoted in the 
 notes to Ajasson's edition, a solution which the translators 
 complacently regard as " equally simple and satisfactory." 
 M. Parisot's solution is as follows : 
 
 " In the As or libra of two ounces there were 288 scruples. 
 Now the scruple remaining the same when the As or libra 
 was reduced to one ounce (b.c. 216), it would contain but 
 144 of these scruples. Then on making the As the sixteenth 
 part of a denarius (B.C. 216) instead of the tenth {as before 
 that date) it would lose three-eighths of its value in scruples, 
 or in other words 54 scruples, thus making it (the libra) 
 worth but 90 scruples. Then again by the Papirian law, 
 the weight or value of the libra was reduced one half, 
 making its value in scruples only 45, or in other words 
 y^nds of its original value, when worth two unciae or 
 ounces." Hence, he concludes, that with 20 sesterces to 
 the scruple and 45 scruples to the libra, there were but 
 900 sesterces to the libra, as stated by Pliny. 
 
 Cast into tabular form, this solution appears as follows : — 
 
 
 No. of 
 
 Weight of 
 
 Libra deduced 
 
 Date. 
 
 scruples 
 
 scruple. 
 
 by Parisot. 
 
 
 to libra. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Grains. 
 
 Before B.C. 216 
 
 . 288 
 
 8 '04 
 
 875-0 
 
 B.C. 216 . . 
 
 . 144 
 
 3-04 
 
 437-5 
 
 B.C. 216 . . 
 
 . 90 
 
 3-04 
 
 273-437 
 
 Lex Papirius . 
 
 45 
 
 3-04 
 
 136-718 
 
 M. Parisot's explanation is ingenious but unsound.^ 
 
 1. He starts with the assumption that in the imagined 
 
 ' Matthew Eaper, in his " Inquiry,'' oflfers another solution of Pliny's 
 puzzle. He says that the latter meant " denarius " where he wrote 
 " sestercius." This solution has not even the merit of being ingenious. 
 
 T 
 
274 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 libra iveigU of two ounces there were 288 scruples. There 
 was no libra iveight of two ounces. There was an As or 
 nummus coin of two ounces^ struck about B.C. 250; but not 
 an As libralis, and the two must not be confounded. The 
 libra weight was always of twelve ounces ; and we have no 
 evidence to show either that this weight or its subdivisions, 
 the ounce, scruple, &c., were ever reduced, except through 
 gradual neglect in long subsequent ages and in the manner 
 and to the comparatively slight extent mentioned in another 
 part of this work. 
 
 2. He next supposes that when the As or nummus coin 
 was reduced to one ounce, B.C. 216, the libra weight was 
 similarly reduced, yet that the scruple weight, a component 
 part of the libra weight, was not reduced, but remained the 
 same as before : neither of which suppositions are warranted 
 by authority, or supported by fact or probability. 
 
 3. He supposes that because the numerical relation of the 
 As or nummus copper coin to the denarius silver coin was 
 changed B.C. 216 from 10 for 1 to 16 for 1, that the libra 
 weight changed its relation in like proportion to the scruple 
 weight, and contained but 90 scruples instead of 288 as be- 
 fore, while the scruple weight remained unchanged ; suppo- 
 sitions which are still more extravagant than the former ones. 
 
 4. He confuses the terms " value," " worth,^' " contents," 
 and " proportions," and so applies to weights changes in 
 relations which were only enacted with regard to coins or 
 sums of money. 
 
 6. He supposes that the Papirian law which reduced the As 
 coin to half an ounce, similarly reduced the libra weight, 
 but left the scruple unaltered : both of which suppositions 
 are gratuitous, unwarranted, and improbable. In short he 
 supposes a number of alterations in Roman weights, which, 
 so far as we know, never took place ; which are not assumed 
 to have occurred simultaneously, but which are made to 
 happen now or then at pleasure of the commentator ; and 
 all of which are extremely improbable. 
 
 6. Both the text which was before him, and the weight 
 
THE SCIPION SYSTEM. 275 
 
 of coins still extant, prove that M. Parisot's views are un- 
 foanded. In the very same paragraph, only a part of 
 ■which has M. Parisot attempted to construe, Pliny says 
 that " in later times an ordinance was made that golden 
 denarii (aureii) should be struck at the rate of forty to the 
 libra." Many of these aureii are now extant and weigh 
 lol-^ grains each, a weight that at the rate of forty to the 
 libra, would make the weight of the libra 5,250 grains. By 
 weighing many thousands of the silver denarii, still extant, 
 Letronne, Greaves, and other metrologists have obtained 
 weights varying from 4,959 to 5,246 grains as that of the 
 libra. These results prove that the libra was not reduced 
 to the extent supposed by M. Parisot, if indeed it was 
 reduced at all until a period long subsequent to the one in 
 question. 
 
 7. M. Parisot's hypothesis makes the relation of silver to 
 gold as 103 to 1, which is absurd. For example : Pliny 
 says that the gold scruple coin was valued at twenty sesterces, 
 and that twenty sesterces were equal to five denarii. The 
 denarii were silver coins, vast numbers of which are still 
 extant, the average weight of those belonging to the period 
 when the gold scruple was first coined being 621: grains. 
 Consequently five denarii (equal in value to twenty sesterces) 
 weighed 31 2i grains, and this, according to Pliny, was the 
 legal equivalent in silver of the gold scruple coin. Now, 
 as the actual twelve-ounce libra weighed 5,250 grains, 
 or thereabouts, M. Parisot's imaginary two-ounco libra 
 weighed only 875 grains, and as the libra contained 288 
 scruples, the weight of each scruple coin, according to 
 Parisot, was only 3'088194 + grains, say 3'04 grains: and 
 this weight of the scruple, he says, remained constant. 
 Hence, according to Parisot, 3'04 grains of gold were equal 
 in value to 312^ grains of silver, a relation of 1 to nearly 
 103 ; which is absurd. 
 
 Another consideration which appears to have been over- 
 looked is that a coin weighing but 3"04 grains of gold, un- 
 alloyed, would be too small to handle. 
 
276 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 8. Mr. Anthon states that a gold scruple still extant and 
 deposited in the British Museum^ weighs 17-2 grains. If 
 this coin were really a scruple its weight alone would settle 
 the controversy ; for this weight lacks but a single grain of 
 the scruple weight ; and no matter how carefully it has been 
 preserved, the coin may easily have lost a grain by wear 
 during the twenty centuries since it was struck. But there is 
 no positive proof that it is a scruple coin : on the contrary, 
 its weight rather repels the notion. The doubtful numeral 
 upon it is the only evidence in favour of its being a scruple. 
 
 9. M. Parisot is guilty of an anachronism in employing 
 the Lex Papirius to prove the weight of the scruple during 
 the second Punic War. 
 
 In short, M. Parisot's solution is no solution at all. 
 Indeed it is doubtful whether Pliny^s statement, as it stands, 
 will admit of a solution. If the proportions given at the 
 beginning of the quoted passage are correct, the arithmeti- 
 cal conclusion is wrong : • if the conclusion is corrpct, the 
 proportions given are wrong. We must choose between 
 one or the other, for both cannot be right. According to 
 the conclusion the ratio of silver to gold was 2'678 to 1. 
 For example, 900 sesterces equalled 225 denarii. Bach 
 denarius contained 62i grains of silver. Hence 225 denarii, 
 equal to 900 sesterces, contained 14,062 '5 grains of silver. 
 
 According to Pliny^s conclusion this was the equivalent 
 in silver of one libra of gold. The weight of the libra was, 
 say, 6,250 grains : and as this number goes into 14,062'5, 
 2'678 times, the relative value of silver to gold was as 
 2'678 is to 1 ; an absurd conclusion. For the treaty of 
 the year B.C. 189,^ made it optional for the ^tolians to pay 
 tribute in gold at the weight ratio of 1 to 10 in silver ; and 
 this must have been nearly the true relative value of the 
 metals at the time. 
 
 So much for Pliny's arithmetical error and M. Parisot's 
 attempted solution. 
 
 * Polybius xxii. 15, 8 ; Livy xxxviii. 11 ; Boeckh, 44. 
 
THE SCIPION SYSTEM. 277 
 
 It will be observed that Pliny alludes to " the sesterce 
 then in nse," as though it differed from the sesterce now (in 
 his time) in use. This phrase appears to offer a key to the 
 puzzle. If the text of Pliny were corrected so as to preserve 
 a distinction between the ancient and modern sesterces 
 mentioned by him, it would read as follows : — " The scruple 
 of gold was valued at twenty (copper) sestercesj a compata- 
 tion which gave, according to the value of the sesterce then 
 in use, 900 (overvalued silver) sesterces to each libra of 
 gold." 
 
 And its interpretation would be found in the following 
 scale of equivalents : — 
 
 Weights and coins. Overvalued dopper 
 
 surer sesterces, sesterces. 
 
 1 libra weight of gold . . .900 5,760 
 
 j:V of a libra, or 1 aureus gold coin . 22'5 1,440 
 
 ^fj- of a libra, or 1 scruple gold coin 3" 125 20 
 
 According to this scale the silver sesterce was overvalued 
 6r% times as against the copper sesterce, which must be 
 assumed by this time to have fallen nearly to its bullion 
 value. Such a high rate of valuation at this late period is 
 questionable, but unless it be admitted, Pliny's puzzle must 
 remain as he bequeathed it to us. 
 
 The weight of the gold scruple is not positively known. 
 Following the usual law of coins it was probably called a 
 scruple, not because it weighed a scruple, but because it 
 fell short of one. The small gold coins have been regarded 
 by the numismatists as scruples, chiefly because they weigh 
 about a scruple each. There is no mark upon them to desig- 
 nate their denomination and none to indicate their relation to 
 other coins except the arrow-head and the " XX." In default 
 of possessing the exact weight of the scruple, the disserta- 
 tions which have been written to prove the ratio of silver to 
 gold in the scruple coinage of B.C. 207 lose much of their 
 value. The market ratio was probably 10 to 1.^ 
 
 ' Del Mar's " Hist. Free. Met.," pp. 239-40. To the evidences therein 
 
278 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 The gold scruple was not a legal tender. It was not 
 coined by the State, but by the gentes, of whom Colquhoun, 
 iii. 154, furnishes the following list: — Arria, Calpurnia, 
 Cassia, Cestia, Claudia, Cornelia (the family of the Soipios), 
 Domitia, Julia, Livineia, Mussidia, Numonia, Servilia, 
 Sulpicia, and Vibia. Further proofs of its non-legal tender 
 character are afforded by the fact that so far as we know it 
 was never debased, whereas the silver coins were ; by the 
 implication in the treaty of B.C. 189, that the monetary 
 standard of Eome was silver and not gold; and by the 
 common use of the term sestercius, or its derivatives for 
 expressing large sums of money during this period.^ 
 
 The same considerations which prove that during this 
 period the gold coins of Eome were not full legal tenders, 
 indicate that the silver coins were, and that the copper 
 numeraries had lost this important attribute. These con- 
 siderations are as follows : — 
 
 1 st. Denarii of both the third, second, and first centuries 
 B.C. were coined by gentes,^ and although the number thus 
 coined increased very rapidly after the beginning of the 
 period under review, the coinages of denarii by the State 
 also greatly increased, and their emission began to be 
 regulated. 
 
 2nd. Whether the sesterce, previous to B.C. 216, was a 
 copper coin, or whether, according to Humphreys, it was a 
 
 mentioned should be added the ratio given in Livy, xxxviii. 11, on the 
 occasion of a peace with the JEtolians B.C. 189, which was fixed at 1 to 1 0. 
 Also the ratios in Greaves, 271, 273, 274, and 292. Also in Humphreys' 
 " Manual," i., p. 275, which says that the aureus when first coined was 
 at the ratio of 1 to 10 of silver in the denarius. Upon the assumption 
 that the sci-uple coin weighed a scruple, Boeckh, 44, deduces a ratio 
 of 1 to 17"1, but regards the true ratio as having been about 1 to 13'7. 
 
 ' Humphreys, " Manual," i. 274, is of opinion that in point of fact 
 the gold aureus was first coined at the time that Pliny states the gold 
 scruple was first coined, viz., e.g. 207. Therefore Pliny in giving the 
 relation of the scruple to the sesterce at that date, committed an ana- 
 chronism, unless, indeed, both an aureus and a scruple were coined. 
 
 ^ First gentes coins were issued after B.C. 269 and the last about 
 the middle of Augustus's reign. Humphreys, " Manual," i. 282. 
 
THE SCIPION SYSTEM. 279 
 
 silver coin from the third century B.C. up to the reign of 
 Augustus^ matters not in this connection. The fact remains 
 that during the period under review there was a silver ses- 
 terce, and this name sesterce, or its derivatives, as sestercii, 
 sestercium, sestercia, etc., is almost invariably used for the 
 expression of large sums of money in the documents and 
 other literary fragments belonging to the period under re- 
 view ; ^ a fact that indicates the sesterce to have been a full 
 legal tender. 
 
 3rd. The passages relating to the payment of taxes and 
 tributes in Polybius (xx. 15, 8) and Livy indicate that at 
 this period such contributions were accustomed to be paid 
 in silver coins, an implication that tends to establish for 
 them the character of full legal tenders. 
 
 4th. The official debasements of silver coins at a later 
 period, presently to be noticed, establish an important 
 inference with regard to the Scipion system of money. They 
 prove that the system of the time to which they relate was 
 " intrinsic ; " that silver coins were at that time a full legal 
 tender ; and that this system extended backward from their 
 time to that of Scipio's triumph. 
 
 Says Pliny (xxxiii. 13) : — " Livius Drusus, when tribune 
 of the people (b.c. 91), alloyed the silver with one-eighth 
 part of copper." This was not the act of an individual, but 
 of an official. Drusus was not a forger, he represented the 
 state, which by his act alloyed its own coin. Continues 
 Pliny (xxxiii. 46) : " The triumvir Antonius (b.c. 43) alloyed 
 the silver denarius with iron ... A method was devised of 
 assaying the denarius, the law ordaining which was so much 
 
 ^ In Pliny, xxxiii. 48, there occurs an instance of a popular contri- 
 bution of " the sixth part of an As," to defray the funeral expenses of 
 Agrippa Menennius. If this was an exception to the general rule laid 
 down in the present text it may have been due to the religious cha- 
 racter of the contribution, or from the force of long habit, as the use of 
 the term " dollar " in the accounts of silver bullion in the United States' 
 mints, after the silver dollai- ceased to have a legal existence and before 
 it was remonetized. For an account of this last-named curious circum- 
 stance see " Report United States Monetary Commission," i.. Appendix. 
 
280 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 to the taste of the plebeians^ that in every quarter of the 
 city there was erected a full-length statue in honour of 
 Marius Gratidianus," who was preetor at the time^ about 
 B.C. 80. 
 
 We know from the coins themselves that the denarii, 
 after these events, were made of pure, or nearly pure, 
 silver ; consequently the effect of the law of Marius Grati- 
 dianus was not merely to test the denarius, but also to 
 purify it, and prevent it from being again alloyed. 
 
 The solicitude of the people or the nobles, as the case 
 may have been, for these reforms, as evinced by their grati- 
 tude for their accomplishment, could only have arisen out 
 of the prevalence of a commodity system of money. With 
 a numerical system it is inconceivable ; for with such a 
 system it would have made no difference to them how much 
 or how little silver was put into a denarius. Neither would 
 the purity of the coins have been of any consequence to 
 them, had they been other than full legal tenders, and open 
 to free and ..gratuitous, or nearly gratuitous coinage. For 
 example, it makes no difference to the people of Great 
 Britain or the United States at the present time how much 
 metal is contained in their subsidiary or ''token" coins: 
 they are not full legal tenders, and are not open to unlimited 
 and gratuitous coinage as their gold coins are. Hence, it 
 would appear that the denarius in B.C. 91 and B.C. 80 was a 
 full legal tender in Eome. The treaty and tax law of 
 B.C. 189 carries this characteristic of full legal tendership 
 back to that year, and the enormous influx of silver into 
 Eome which followed the conquest of Spain by Scipio, 
 together with the other changes in the monetary system of 
 Rome which occurred at the same date, to wit, the coinage 
 and use of gold scruples for certain classes of payments, 
 carry it back to B.C. 207, or thereabouts. 
 
 5. The conquest of Spain not only yielded to Rome an 
 enormous mass of silver, part of which was displayed in 
 Soipio's triumph, it insured, for the first time, constant 
 supplies of this metal for the future ; for Spain was at that 
 
THE SCIPION SYSTEM. 281 
 
 period, and it continued for many ages to remain, the 
 principal silver-producing country of the world. 
 
 The Eoman conquest of Spain was like the Spanish con- 
 quest of America, and it led to similar consequences in 
 respect of money. The money of Spain before the conquest 
 of America consisted of copper coins, originally overvalued,^ 
 but eventually reduced by over issues or counterfeiting to 
 their commodity value. The money of Rome before the 
 conquest of Spain also consisted of copper coins, also over- 
 valued and also reduced, by over issues or the success of 
 counterfeiters,^ to or near their commodity value. 
 
 The prevalence of counterfeiting in Rome ; the known 
 amplitude of the silver spoil obtained in .Spain; the well 
 established productiveness of her Spanish silver mines, 
 which could be worked, as the Carthaginians had worked 
 them, with the forced labour of the natives ; the wealth and 
 power of Carthage, so abundantly evinced during the war ; 
 and which in the minds of the Romans might very natu- 
 rally have come to be associated with the use of the 
 silver money that had now obtained currency in that 
 state ; the avarice of the Roman generals, who had appro- 
 priated part of the silver spoil for themselves, and naturally 
 desired to have conferred upon it the function of money ; 
 the influence of the noble families to which many of them 
 belonged, and who with other noble families might hope 
 to, as in fact they afterwards did, obtain leases of the silver 
 mines from the government ; ^ the cupidity of the legions 
 awakened by an ample booty of silver in Spain and else- 
 where J* and the general enthusiasm for the army occasioned 
 
 ' See " History of Money in Modern Countries," chapter on Spain. 
 
 ^ See the " Lex Cornelia nuinmaria " of B.C. 80. 
 
 ^ For taxes on iron, gold, and silver mines in Spain (none mentioned 
 on copper), see Adam's "Rom. Antiq.," p. 61. 
 
 * Says Pliny, xxxiii. 48 : " So abundant was money (Pliny here 
 means silver coins) at that time (he means from about B.C. 206 to 185, 
 consult Livy, book xxxix. 5 to 7) that the people assessed themselves 
 for a contribution to L. Scipio to defray the expenses of the games 
 which he celebrated." Upon the conquest of Macedon, b.c. 168, the 
 
282 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 by the brilliant close of this memorable war — all these cir- 
 cumstances must have combined to bring about a change of 
 the monetary system of Eome from copper numeraries to 
 silver coins. 
 
 For the reasons herein adduced, silver coins must be 
 regarded as the basis of the monetary system of Rome from 
 or about the year B.C. 207. The rate at which these silver 
 coins circulated, was several times their value as bullion. 
 
 This brings us to consider the position of copper in the 
 Scipion system. 
 
 The copper sesterces or numeraries were probably reduced 
 to near their ingot value. This degraded position was pro- 
 bably due as much to counterfeiting as over issues.^ But 
 whatever the cause, the result can scarcely be doubted ; for 
 at this period an enormous export of copper coins occurred 
 from Rome to her provinces, there to be circulated or re- 
 coined ; and it is confidently assumed that such export 
 would not have taken place had they been overvalued ; for 
 the state would have sustained a great loss in buying 
 them up.'' The evidence relied upon to establish the export 
 of copper coins from Rome is as follows : — 
 
 1. Says Humphreys : " As the Roman conquests spread 
 we find the gold and silver coinages of other countries dis- 
 appearing and the Roman coppers with Roman weights and 
 values taking their places, and that with a rapidity truly 
 astonishing. As the several countries were successively 
 brought into Roman subjection by force or diplomacy and 
 
 Romans appropriated to themselves the produce ofall the gold and silver 
 mines of the kingdom, besides levying tribute upon the inhabitants. 
 " Hist. Rome," by Th. Arnold, London, 1857, i. 17. 
 
 ^ A Roman coin-mould for copper coins was found at Wakefield, 
 England, in 1820. Philadelphian " Numismatist," p. 46. It had evi- 
 dently been employed by forgers. Ibid. 157. This mould probably 
 belonged to the Imperial period : but other evidences, already adduced, 
 prove that counterfeiting in Rome was of a much earlier date. 
 
 ^ On the difficulty of maintaining artificial standards or ratios in the 
 presence of many mints, see "Westminster Review," October, 1879, 
 p. 287. Also Daniell's pamphlet on East India and bi-metallism. 
 
THE SCIPION SYSTEM. 283 
 
 formed into Eoman provinces, a governor was appointed 
 over each and a mint established in the chief cities. Of 
 the cities holding the privilege of issuing coins" (these coins, 
 except in a single instance, were always of copper) , " the 
 following provinces or colonies had the number set opposite 
 their names : Phrygia 50, Lydia 30, Cilicia 20, besides 
 Galatia, Cappadocia, Pamphilia, Bithynia, Phoenicia, Gaul,^ 
 Spain, Britain, Carthage, Corinth, and Sicily. Nemansus 
 in Gaul was the only colony permitted to strike silver.^ 
 The quantity of Roman copper money in Spain must have 
 been enormous ; numbers of ancient Roman coins being 
 in circulation even to the present day, — worn, it is true, in 
 most cases to flat pieces of copper." ^ 
 
 2. The Roman copper coins of this period, which have 
 been found, grow less and less numerous : those of Spain 
 and the other provinces more and more numerous. 
 
 3. Rome levied her tributes upon the conquered countries 
 in silver. To supply them with money of some sort she 
 exported her copper coins after they had fallen to near their 
 bullion value, and these she instructed the provincial mints 
 to recoin at a high overvaluation. 
 
 No sooner was silver declared the standard of money in 
 Rome than a rage took place for mining,* one that the ran- 
 sacking of all Spain and Gaul for the precious metals scarcely 
 appeased. Even Italy was now hunted over for gold and 
 silver. 
 
 The Scipion system of money is now before the reader. 
 It was essentially a single silver standard,^ yoked, on the one 
 
 ' Some of the Roman mints of Gaul continued to coin pieces so late 
 as the reign of Louis le Debonnair. Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," 
 p. 164. See also Vaillant on " Eoman Colonial Coins," cited in Hum- 
 phreys' " Manual," i. 308. 
 
 ' " Ancient Coins," pp. 127, 162, 163, 165. 
 
 ^ Humphreys, "Manual," i. 309, and Depping, ii. 112. 
 
 "* A similar rage for gold and silver mining took place in England 
 after the resumption of specie payments in 1824. McCulloch's " Com. 
 Die," art. " Mining Bubbles." Also in the United States after the re- 
 sumption of 1 879. 
 
284 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 side^ with gold coins struck by the gentes, and possibly re- 
 ceivable for certain classes of dues to and from the StatOj 
 and on the other with copper coins, which were being rapidly 
 exported to the provinces. The coinage of silver was pro- 
 bably opened freely to the public, and the silver coins 
 rendered a legal tender for all purposes and to any amount. 
 The copper numerical system was ended : the silver system 
 had begun. 
 
 This change of the monetary system harmonized with the 
 altered phase of society, and the new order of affairs. Since 
 the limits of the numerary system, and its relations to popu- 
 lation and industry had been altered, — whether from the 
 operation of war, over-emissions, or counterfeiting, it mat- 
 tered not, — since all security for the future of prices had been 
 destroyed, since the currency had become the football of 
 politicians and the tool of capitalists, it was better to 
 degrade it to a level upon which, however prejudicial to the 
 higher interests of society, it could rest undisturbed. And 
 this suited the interests of the classes in power, who had 
 amassed fortunes in land, merchandise, and slaves, of which 
 they were unwilling to run the risk of being deprived through 
 the agency of prices which might be legislated to the order 
 of the plebeians. It also suited the interests of the now much 
 diminished commercial class, who were willing to forego the 
 advantages of an equitable currency for the sake of possess- 
 ing one that in times of commotion promised a higher 
 degree of stability. Finally, it contented the people, who, 
 perhaps, fancied that they could add without limit to a 
 commodity money either by the produce of the mines or 
 the spoils of conquest. 
 
CHAPTER XXIV. 
 
 AGEAEIAN AND SOCIAL WAR SYSTEMS. B.C. 170-49. 
 
 Political events wMch influenced the monetary history of Rome 
 during this period — Chiefly foreign coins, which brought in vast 
 though fitful supplies of the precious metals, the working of the 
 Spanish silver mines, the conquest of the Alpine gold mines, and 
 closure of those of Italy — Position of gold coins : legal tenders only 
 dxiring the two years of Sulla's constitution — Position of copper coins : 
 reduced to tokens — Position of silver coins : interruptions to the sup- 
 plies of silver : occasional scarcity of silver : emissions of alloyed, 
 debased, plated, and forged denarii : silver coins full legal tender — 
 Variable value of the denarius in Ases — Lex quadrante — Temporary 
 revival of full legal tender : overvalued copper coins by SuUa — Their 
 speedy downfall — Summary of .the period — Its monetary systems 
 varied and confusing — This confusion increased by the use of corn 
 money. 
 
 THE principal events which probably influenced the 
 systems of money during this disordered period were 
 as follows : — 
 
 I. The Agrarian troubleSj which commenced in B.C. 170/ 
 and ended in 121 with the sumptuary laws and the death 
 of Caius Gracchus. This period also embraces the Mace- 
 donian War, 170 to 168 ; the third Punic War, 149-146 ; 
 the destruction of Carthage and Corinth, 146 ; the Spanish 
 Wars, 146-130 ; the Conquest of the Salassi, 143; the first 
 Servile War in Sicily, 134-132 ; and the enactment of the 
 Lex Papirius, about 130. 
 
 II. The Social Wars, 121 to 80. This period embraces 
 the rule of the oligarchy, 121-91; the Jugurthine War, 
 
 ^ A sumptuary law of B.C. 163, limited the expense of any enter- 
 tainment at table to 120 Ases, and another of the same year limited 
 such expense to 100 Ases. In b.c. 148 Lselius and Scipio .aimUianus 
 proposed agrarian reforms. 
 
286 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 111-107 ; the threatened Teutonic Invasion, 106 ; the second 
 Servile War in Sicily, 102-99 ; the Marsic War, 91-88 ; the 
 first Civil War, 88-86 ; the first two Mithridatic Wars, 88- 
 84 and 83-82 ; the proscriptions of Sulla, 87 ; and the esta- 
 blishment of the SuUan constitution, 82-80. 
 
 III. The Social Wars, 80 to 46. This period embraces 
 the insurrection of Lepidus, 79 ; the insurrection of Serto- 
 rius in Spain, 79-72 ; the insurrection of Spartacus in 
 Italy, 73-71 ; the third Mithridatic War, 74-63 ; the 
 ravages of the Mediterranean pirates, 66 ; the conspiracies 
 of Cataline, 65 and 62 ; the first Triumvirate of Caesar, 
 Pompey, and Crassus, 60 ; the conquest of Gaul and Bri- 
 tain, 58-61; the second Triumvirate of Caesar, Pompey, and 
 Crassus, 56 ; the end of the TriumAdrate, the Dictatorship of 
 Pompey, 52 ; the rupture between Pompey and Caesar, 52 ; 
 the crossing of the Rubicon, 49 ; death of Pompey, 48 ; 
 and appointment of Caesar as permanent Dictator, 46. 
 
 The supplies of the coining metals during the period 
 under review were obtained chiefly by plunder. 
 
 Paulus jiEmilius, after defeating King Perseus, and thus 
 concluding the Macedonian War, 168, brought to Rome, 
 according to Plutarch,'- 2,250 talents of silver coin, and 231 
 talents of gold. Valerias Antias, probably with the most 
 truth, estimated its value at 120 million sesterces, but 
 Livy ^ deemed this computation too low. Valleius Pater- 
 culus valued it at 200 million sesterces.^ Besides this, 
 there were numerous vessels of silver chased and wrought, 
 without reckoning 100 denarii to each foot, and 800 to each 
 horse soldier.* A portion of this booty came from the 
 
 ' Plutarch in " Paul, ^m.," 32, 33. ^ Livy, xlv. 40. 
 
 ^ Val. Pat. i. 9 ; Pliny, xxxiii. 17, says " 300 mUlions of sesterces.'' 
 * The plunder obtained by Paulus .ffimilius, is said to have been so 
 great, as to render it practicable to absolve the citizens of the city of 
 Rome from the payment of taxes for 125 years, viz., until the consul- 
 ship of Hu-tius and Pansa, B.C. 43. Yet in B.C. 88 the state treasury 
 is represented to have been so entirely exhausted, that in order to raise 
 money to equip an army, the Romans had to sell the land in front of 
 the Capitol. Leighton, 240, from Mommsen's " Rome." 
 
AGRARIAN AND SOCIAL WAR SYSTEMS. 287 
 
 native silver mines. ThesOj though small, were monopolized 
 by the state, which, however, permitted its citizens to work 
 those of copper and iron.^ This policy, continued by the 
 Roman conquerors, affords a proof that it was no longer 
 deemed necessary to uphold the value of the bronze 
 coinages of the Roman state by monopolizing the mines of 
 copper.^ Another portion of the Macedonian booty may 
 have come out of Alexander's plunder of Asia, B.C. 326. 
 
 Andriscus, who, it is alleged, was only a pretended son 
 of Perseus, having revolted from their rule, afforded the 
 Romans a long coveted opportunity to destroy Corinth, and 
 thus terminate its commercial importance. This was done 
 by Mummius, B.C. 146, and its works of art and other 
 treasures were removed to Rome. 
 
 Scipio Africanus, the son of Paulus ^milius, ended the 
 third Punic War by destroying the great commercial city of 
 Carthage, from whence he carried to Rome 50,000 captives 
 and an immense booty, B.C. 146. 
 
 This same Scipio substantially closed the Spanish wars 
 by capturing and destroying the important city of Nu- 
 mantia, the capital of the Celt-Iberians, reducing its inha- 
 bitants to slavery, and plundering it of great booty, B.C. 133. 
 
 The Salassi were a tribe of gold nliners, whose works 
 were established in the foot-hills of Piedmont. Upon the 
 pretence — -probably not destitute of foundation — that their 
 mining ditches withdrew water from the streams, particu- 
 larly from the Dora Baltea, which was needed for irrigation 
 by the inhabitants of the plains below, the Romans, under 
 Appius Claudius Pulcher, marched upon this people, whom 
 they defeated and plundered, B.C. 143. 
 
 The wealth of the Alpine mines is to be gathered from 
 Strabo, who tells us that Polybius thus described those of 
 the Taurisci Norici : — 
 
 " Polybius tells us that in his time" (his history was 
 
 1 Livy, xlv. 29. 
 
 ^ Merivale's " Hist. Kome," iii. 544 ; Arnold's " Hist. Rome," i. 17 ; 
 Napoleon's " Csesar," Harper's Ed., i. 119. 
 
288 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 written about the year B.C. 146) , " the gold mines were so 
 rich about Aquileia/ but particularly in the countries of the 
 Taurisci Norici, that if you dug but two feet below the 
 surface you found gold; and that the diggings (generally), 
 were not deeper than fifteen feet. In some instances the 
 gold was found pure, in pellets, about the size of a bean or 
 lupin, which only lost an eighth after melting; in other 
 instances the gold, though requiring more fusion,^ was still 
 very rich. Certain Italians aiding the barbarians in work- 
 ing (the mines), in the space of two months the value of 
 gold was diminished throughout the whole of Italy by one- 
 third. The Taurisci, on discovering this, drove out their 
 fellow-labourers, and only sold the gold themselves."^ 
 
 The expression that "in the space of two months the value 
 of gold was diminished throughout the whole of Italy by 
 one-third," is susceptible of various explanations : — 
 
 1. The gold may have been sold near the mines at a 
 price far below its mint value. This has occurred in 
 modern times in California and Australia.* Such an expla- 
 nation will, however, not cover the assertion that the value 
 of gold fell " throughout the whole of Italy." 
 
 2. The quantity of gold derived from these mines and 
 those of the Salassi was so great, that the Roman mints 
 could not coin it in time to prevent the value of the buUion 
 from falling. Of this I am doubtful. The mines may 
 have been exceedingly rich, but gold from mines comes in 
 gradually ; whereas if it was plundered from the miners, 
 the quantity must have been small, for miners are never 
 rich. 
 
 3. Gold coins were not a legal tender.* Hence any 
 
 ^ Possibly not Aquileia near Trieste, where there was no gold, but 
 Aquil, forty-four miles south-east of Turin. See the author's " Rape 
 of the Earth," chapter on the Padus. 
 
 ^ Probably gold imbedded in quartz " float." 
 
 ' Strabo, iv. vi. 12. 
 
 * For numerous instances of this kind consult the author's "History 
 of the Precious Metals." 
 
 ° Except, perhaps, for two years under the SuUan constitution. 
 
AGRARIAN AND SOCIAL WAR SYSTEMS. 289 
 
 sudden increase of their number would depreciate their value. 
 That this is the true explanation can hardly be doubted. 
 
 To counterbalance these accessions of gold, although not 
 for that reason, the mines of Italy (of the Peninsula only) 
 were closed, not long after, by order of the Senate. There 
 has been much dispute concerning the date of this closare 
 and the reasons that led to it. The author, after visiting 
 the old workings, and observing the influence which they 
 must have had upon the floods of the Tiber, and adding 
 this evidence to what had already been gathered on the 
 subject, concluded to fix the date of the closure during the 
 first century before our era, and he deems it exceedingly pro- 
 bable that the closure was connected with, if indeed it was 
 not directly caused by, the insurrection of Spartaous, B.C. 73. 
 
 After the Etruscans had washed the auriferous gulches 
 in the upper valley of the Tiber and Glanis, the product of 
 this region could not have been important until the second 
 century B.C., when the Roman conquests in the Bast 
 brought to Italy vast hordes of slaves, whose lives their 
 pitiless masters would be only too glad to turn into wealth, 
 by condemning them to the hard task of panning gold in 
 the Maremma. This industry — if such it may be called, 
 whose consequence was the extermination of those em- 
 ployed in it — was at its height at the period when Spartacus 
 and his 200,000 fellow bondsmen cast off their chains and 
 struck for liberty. With this event it suddenly came to an 
 end.i 
 
 " Sulla, B.C. 84,^ and afterwards LucuUus, B.C. 69, and 
 Pompey, b.c. 61,^ each drew from Asia Minor about 20,000 
 talents, besides an equal sum distributed by them to their 
 
 ' See the author's " Rape of the Earth," where the whole subject is 
 considered at length. 
 
 ^ Plutarch in " Sulla," xxv. 
 
 ^ Gibbon's statement, iii. 423, that before the conquests of Pompey 
 there were in the Roman treasury, 1,920,829 pounds of gold, is evi- 
 dently based on Pliny's statement that (in b.c. 91) the treasury 
 possessed, 1,620,831 pounds of gold. The latter is either due to a 
 blunder in notation, or is a gross exaggeration. Pliny, xxxiii. 17. 
 
 U 
 
290 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 soldiers." ^ In the triumph of Lucullus at Rome there was 
 shown a golden statue of Mithridates, six feet high, his 
 shield being set with precious stones; twenty stands 
 covered with silver vessels, and thirty-two others full 
 of gold cups, armour, and money. These stands were 
 carried by men followed by eight mules, loaded with golden 
 couches, and after these fifty-six others carrying ingots of 
 silver, and 107 carrying silver money, amounting to 2,700,000 
 drachmas.^ 
 
 Cato Uticensis plundered Cyprus of about 7,000 talents, 
 B.C. 60. 
 
 Suetonius furnishes the following particulars concerning 
 the spoils acquired by Julius Csesar : — 
 
 " Having renounced all hope of obtaining Egypt," a 
 gold-mining country,^ "for his province, he stood candidate 
 for the office of chief pontiff. At the expiration of his 
 prsetorship he obtained by lot Further Spain, and pacified 
 his creditors, who were for detaining him, by finding sure- 
 ties for his debts." Further Spain was Hispania Boetica. 
 He got this office b.c. 61. According to Appian he owed, 
 when he went thither, to use his own words : — " Bis millies 
 et quingenties centena millia sibi adesse oportere, ut nihil 
 haberet," i.e., he was 2,000,000 and nearly 20,000 sesterces 
 worse than penniless. 
 
 " Being now supported by the influence of his father-in- 
 law, Lucius Piso, and son-in-law, Gneius Pompey, he made 
 choice, among all the provinces of Gaul, of the one most 
 likely to furnish him with means and occasions for triumphs. 
 At first, indeed, he received only Cisalpine Gaul (the gold 
 regions of Italy) with the addition of lUyricum (another gold 
 region), through a decree proposed by Vatinius to the 
 
 ^ Napoleon's " Csesar," 127. In Napoleon's work, the Attic or 
 Euboio talent is reckoned at 26 kilograms 196 grains, and, when of o-old 
 its equivalent at 5,821 francs, or £232 16s. sterling;. From Mommsen's 
 " Romisches Miinzweseu," pp. 24, 26, 55. 
 
 ^ Plutarch in " Lucullus," xxxvii. 
 
 " The vast number and prolificacy of the Egyptian gold mines is 
 described in the author's " Rape of the Earth," chapter on the Nile. 
 
AGEAEIAN AND SOCIAL WAR SYSTEMS. 291 
 
 people ; but soon afterwards obtained also from the Senate 
 G-allia Comata (the gold regions of Prance), the senators 
 being apprehensive that if they should refuse it to him, that 
 province, also, would be granted him by the people. 
 
 It will be observed that Osesar tried to get control of 
 each great gold region successively : 1, Egypt ; 2, Spain ; 
 3, Italy; 4>, Gaul; and that he really got three out of four 
 of them. 
 
 In Gaul he imposed " an annual tribute of forty million 
 sesterces," besides plundering the country of all the treasure 
 it contained. 
 
 " With money raised from the spoils of war, he began to 
 construct a new forum, the ground plot of which cost him 
 above a hundred million of sesterces." Upon entering 
 Rome after the Civil War : — " To every foot soldier in his 
 veteran legions, besides the 2,000 sesterces paid him in the 
 beginning of the Civil War, he gave 20,000 more in the 
 shape of prize money. He likewise allotted them lands, 
 but not in contiguity, that the former owners might not be 
 entirely dispossessed. To the people of Rome, besides 
 10 modii of corn, and as many pounds of oil, he gave 300 
 sesterces a man, which he had formerly promised them, and 
 100 to each for the delay in fulfilling his engagement. He 
 likewise remitted a year's taix due to the treasury for such 
 houses in Rome as did not pay above 2,000 sesterces taxes 
 a year ; and through the rest of Italy for all such as did 
 not exceed in taxes 500 sesterces. To all this he added a 
 public entertainment and a distribution of meat, and — after 
 his Spanish victory, B.C. 46 — two public dinners: because, 
 considering the first one as too sparing, and unsuited to his 
 profuse liberality, he, five days later, added a second one, 
 which was most plentiful. They likewise report that he 
 invaded Britain with the hopes of finding pearls." His 
 favourite mistress was Servilia, the mother of Marcus 
 Brutus, "for whom he purchased, in his first consulship 
 after the commencement of their intrigue, a pearl which cost 
 him six millions of sesterces. But his abstinence did not 
 
292 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIBS. 
 
 extend to pecnniaTy advantages, either in his military com- 
 mands or cavil offices ; for we have the testimony of some 
 writers that he took money from the pro-consul, who was 
 his predecessor in Spain, and from the Roman allies in that 
 quarter for the discharge of his debts, and plundered at the 
 point of the sword some towns of the Lusitanians, notwith- 
 standing they attempted no resistance, and opened their 
 gates to him upon his arrival before them. In Gaul he 
 rifled the chapels and temples of the gods, which were 
 filled with rich ofl'erings,^ and demolished cities oftener for 
 the sake of their spoil than for any ill they had done. By 
 this means gold became so plentiful with him that he ex- 
 changed it through Italy and the provinces of the Empire, 
 for 3,000 sesterces the pound. In his first consulship he 
 purloined from the Capitol 3,000 pounds weight of gold, 
 and substituted for it the same quantity of gilt brass.* 
 He also bartered with foreign nations and princes for gold, 
 the titles of allies and kings ; and squeezed out of Ptolemy 
 alone near 6,000 talents, in the name of himself and 
 Pompey. He afterwards supported the expense of the 
 Civil Wars, and of his triumphs and public spectacles, by 
 the most flagrant rapine and sacrilege." ^ 
 
 Suetonius omits to add that besides the 3,000 pounds 
 weight of gold of which Caesar robbed the treasury during 
 his first consulship, he afterwards plundered it of 15,000 
 pounds weight of gold, 30,000 pounds weight of silver, and 
 300,000 sesterces." 
 
 The position of gold during this period has been already 
 outlined. As a general thing, gold coins were not legal 
 tender, and only passed as merchandise or by courtesy. 
 They were certainly merchandise when Sulla struck aureii 
 
 ^ Cortes afterwards did the same in Mexico. 
 
 ^ These were doubtless aureii made of bronze, and gilded. 
 
 ^ From Suetonius' " Cassar," chapters xviii., xxii., xxv., xxvi., 
 xxxviii., xlvii., 1., and liv. 
 
 * Pliny, xxxiii. 17. D'Avenant (Works, iii. 36), makes it 4,136 pounds 
 of silver and 900,000 pounds of gold ! 
 
AGRARIAN AND SOCIAL WAR SYSTEMS. 293 
 
 weighing thirty to the pound, and they were as certainly 
 legal tender when the Lex Cornelia nummaria was enacted. 
 My impression is that their legal tender attribute only lasted 
 during the two years' existence of Sulla's constitution, and 
 that afterwards they became merchandise, or passed by 
 courtesy. When, at times, gold became unusually plentiful, 
 the gold coins passed at a discount, which, as has been 
 seen in two several instances, amounted to twenty-five per 
 cent. It may fairly be conjectured, that at other times its 
 value in silver — at the nominal and customary ratio of 1 : 10 
 — fluctuated between 25 per cent, discount and par. 
 
 The nominal weight of the aureus was 131-!- grains, or 
 forty to the pound ; but none have been found of this weight, 
 most of them ranging from 117 to 124 grains. "Some of 
 the heavy gold of Sulla weighs 165 grains. This is now 
 thought to be the gold coined for Sulla by Lucullus, and 
 mentioned by Plutarch as the Lucullan money. Bach of 
 these pieces, though passing under the usual name, as an 
 aureus, was expressly made heavier as a covert bribe to the 
 soldiers, who were paid in this coin ; by which means their 
 pay, though nominally the same, was much increased." . . . 
 " Some of the pieces weigh 202 grains. One coin at the 
 British Museum weighs 167i, and another 166to- grains." 
 ..." The gold money issued under Sulla was coined from 
 a fine of 20,000 talents imposed upon Asia after the peace 
 of Mithridates. It appears that Lucullus held under Sylla, 
 in Greece, an office similar to those jointly of questor 
 urbanus, and triumvir monetatis, in Rome itself." ^ 
 
 There are other and easier ways of bribing soldiers than 
 striking for them undervalued coins, which they could only 
 use to advantage by immediately melting down. The 
 heavier gold coins of this period appear rather to embody 
 an effort to make up for that depreciation of gold which 
 had been occasioned by the great and sudden influx of that 
 metal from the wars and the mines. Plutarch, who was 
 
 ' Humphreys, " Ancient Coins," pp. 141, 14-2. 
 
294 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 entirely ignorant of the principles of money, may very 
 naturally have suspected the extra weight to be intended 
 as a bribe to the soldiers. These heavy aureii afford a proof 
 that at the time they were struck, gold coins were not a 
 legal tender in Rome. 
 
 The position of copper can now be described. During 
 the Scipion era, the nummus or overvalued copper sesterce, 
 had been demonetized or degraded in function by reducing 
 it from a full legal tender to the position of a " token." It 
 had lost its name of nummus or numerate, and was again 
 known as the As. During the confusion of the Social Wars, 
 attempts seem to have been made, by enlarging its legal 
 tender function, to reinstate the nummus in its old position, 
 not as before, in order that it might form a unital and regu- 
 lated money which should equitably measure the volume of 
 exchanges in the state, but as a financial resource, to palm off 
 overvalued coins of unlimited issues upon the people. It 
 was as though increased emissions of the existing over- 
 valued British penny or American cent were forced upon 
 unwilling creditors, while the gold and silver coins, operat- 
 ing as multiples for the others, remained in circulation to 
 increase the total volume of money. It is needless to say 
 that the effect of these measures was to render the so-called 
 copper nummi — now really Ases — a drug, and to cause them 
 to be sold at a discount to the money-changers, who pro- 
 bably awaited their opportunity to pass them off again, to 
 the needy, at par. 
 
 Of this character may have been the coinage of half- 
 ounce Ases under the Lex Papirius. These coins, accord- 
 ing to Pliny, were made to weigh only half an ounce each, 
 coins of the same denomination having previously weighed 
 one ounce. This reduction was of the same character as 
 the lowering of the great copper penny of Great Britain to 
 the present lighter bronze coin, or the lowering of the old 
 American copper cent to the present much smaller and 
 more convenient one. Neither of these coins, British or 
 American, were or are legal tenders, except to the extent of 
 
AGRARIAN AND SOCIAL WAR SYSTEMS. 295 
 
 a trifling sum in any one payment^ a position in the laws 
 which has earned for them the soingwei of "tokens." If, 
 when they were lowered in weight, this function of tender 
 had been enlarged bylaw, and they had been made unlimited 
 legal tenders, they would have been in the same position in 
 which some of the copper emissions of the Roman Social 
 Wars were attempted to be placed. 
 
 There is, however, a difference between the position of 
 copper coins during the Roman era and at the present time. 
 Copper metal is never likely to become so scarce nor to 
 appreciate so much in value as compared with silver metal, 
 as to raise the British copper penny or American copper 
 cent to a premium in silver coins ; whereas in ancient Rome, 
 because the supplies of both copper and silver were fitful 
 and uncertain, this may have occurred. Hence the relation 
 of value between them was exposed to violent fluctuations. 
 In fixing their relation in the Lex Papirius at 56 to 1, 
 some respect was doubtless' had to the market relation of 
 the metals at the time, which, it may be presumed, was 
 about 60 to 1 ; but as this relation was apt to fluctuate, 
 say, between 60 and 100 to 1, it might have happened, 
 at times, that the copper coins were not sufiiciently over- 
 valued to prevent their being purchased at a slight pre- 
 mium and melted. It will be seen, therefore, that there 
 were influences in operation which, at one time, may 
 have rendered the copper coins redundant, and at another, 
 scarce. 
 
 The position of silver was of importance during this era, 
 for it formed the basis of all the monetary systems. Beside 
 what she received from spoliation, Rome now possessed the 
 means of obtaining ample and perennial supplies from the 
 mines of Spain, into which it was her atrocious design to 
 thrust the prisoners whom her marauding armies might 
 capture in Gaul, Asia Minor, and Africa. But the agrarian 
 tcoubles and social and servile wars of this period must 
 have greatly interfered with or postponed the execution of 
 this design, for there are not wanting evidences that the 
 
296 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 supply of silver occasionally ran short. These evidences 
 are found in the emission of alloyed, debased, plated, and 
 forged coins, numerous examples of which now occurred for 
 the first time in the history of Eome. 
 
 In B.C. 91 Livius Drusus, the tribune, authorized the 
 coinage of silver denarii "875 fine, or alloyed with " one- 
 eighth part of copper." ^ Some authorities have held 
 that he went so far as to issue " copper denarii plated to 
 resemble those of silver." ^ 
 
 Some of the denarii of the social (Marsic) war were 
 valued at ten Ases, others at sixteen.^ As the legal value 
 of the denarius was now, so far as we know, sixteen Ases, 
 the practice of valuing it sometimes at ten may have arisen 
 from its being alloyed or debased. 
 
 It is possibly to some of these debased or plated pieces 
 that Sallust alludes when he says that, by a law of Valerius 
 Flaccus, the interrex, under Sulla, B.c, 86, "argentum sere 
 solutum est," silver was paid with brass.** Valleius Pater- 
 culus explains the operation of this law by saying that it 
 " obliged all creditors to accept a fourth part of what was 
 due to them."^ Watson's (Bohn's) " Sallust," p. 39, explains 
 that it enabled an As to be paid for a sestercius. Dr. 
 Arnold says that this law only applied to the creditors of 
 insolvent debtors." None of these explanations are alto- 
 gether satisfactory. It is quite evident that SuUa always 
 meant to assert the right of the state to make money of 
 whatever material it pleased, and he was not the man to 
 stop short at making it of overvalued brass. This was 
 good enough for the despised people. For his soldiers he 
 coined silver pieces of extra weight, and when Marius 
 Gratidianus, B.C. 84, attempted to enforce the old law by 
 instituting a trial of the pix, he annulled his decrees, pro- 
 
 ' Pliny, xxxiii. 13. ' Leighton, 234. " Humphreys, 140. 
 
 * Sallust, Cataline, xxxiii. Vel. ii. 23 ; Caes. Bell. Civ. iii. ; Suetonius, 
 " Julius Caesar," 14. ° Val. Pat. ii. 23. 
 
 " Arnold's " Rome," i. 205. Insolvent debtors had already been fa- 
 voured by a law of the consul, A. Sempronius Asellio, B.C. 90. Ibid., 181. 
 
AGRARIAN AND SOCIAL WAR SYSTEMS. 297 
 
 scribed him, and handed him over to the ferocious Cataline, 
 who slew him barbarously.^ It is only when the matter is 
 regarded from this point of view that the extravagant 
 honours which the people conferred upon Gratidianus can 
 be accounted for. 
 
 After Sulla had distributed all the silver of the state to 
 his soldierSj and thus employed it to complete the degrada- 
 tion of his countrymen/ he compelled the latter, with grim 
 irony, to do homage to the instrument of their own enslave- 
 ment by introducing into his short-lived constitution the 
 most severe penalties against debasing or counterfeiting the 
 gold or silver coins. 
 
 His Lex Cornelia nummaria applied to " false money, 
 and punished, by the interdiction of fire and water, those 
 who adulterated the gold and silver coin by sweating, 
 smelting, clipping, or defacing it, or bought tin or leaden 
 money and fraudulently sold the same, to which provisions 
 others were added, either by scta or imperial constitutions." 
 ..." The severity of the law of Sylla did not, however, 
 suffice to deter persons from this sedixctive offence, for we 
 learn from Paulus that the better class were transported and 
 the baser condemned to the mines or crucified, and manu- 
 mitted slaves capitally punished on admission of their guilt 
 for this offence, in his time.® " 
 
 Of this period generally it may be said that the monetary 
 systems were varied and confusing. Cicero evidently 
 alludes to this condition of affairs when, in connection with 
 
 '■ In B.C. 80. Pliny, xxxiii. 46, and xxxiv. 12 ; Cicero, " De Off.," iii. 
 20, 80 ; Matthew Raper. 
 
 ^ In B.C. Ill, the Roman consul, L. Calpurnius Bestia, and presi- 
 dent of the Senate, M. .aimilius Scaurus, proceeded to Africa ostensibly 
 to carry on the war in Numidia, but really with the purpose of being 
 bribed by Jugurtha. Leighton's " Hist. Rome," 217. This degrada- 
 tion of the Roman character offers a striking contrast to its dignity in 
 B.C. 280, when Pyrrhus vainly tried to bribe the magistrates of Rome 
 by the hands of Cineas. Napoleon's " Ca3sar,'' 226-7. 
 
 ^ Colquhoun's " Civil Law," § 2412. There appears to have been 
 little choice between these various modes of punishment. 
 
298 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Marius Gratidianus, he says : " At that time the currency- 
 was in such a fluctuating state that no man knew what he 
 was worth." ^ There were silver and gold and copper 
 moneys^ both "intrinsic" and overvalued ; the tale relations 
 between all of these moneys were exposed to continual 
 changes ; there were moneys coined by the state^ others by 
 the gentes/ and still others by forgers ; there were coins of 
 pure metal and others of alloyed ; and as if to render the 
 measure of value of still more uncertain limits, a portion of 
 it consisted of grain, which was paid to the state for tithes, 
 and sold to the people of Rome at a loss, to appease their 
 clamours, and purchase their suffrages.'^ 
 
 ' Cicero, " De Off.," L. iii. § 20. 
 
 ^ Most of the family coins (extant) belong to a comparatively late 
 period of the republic, ranging from less than a century previous to 
 the time of Julius C;esar, to shortly after the time of Augustus. They 
 consist principally of silver denarii, and, more rarely, of gold." 
 Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," 143. 
 
 ' This is mentioned in the Lex frumentaria, one of the Sempronian 
 laws of B.C. 123-2. Livy, ep. 60 ; Leggett, 209 ; Peter, " Gesch. 
 Roms." ii. 32 n. 
 
 If it seems strange that the Gracchi and other agitators during this 
 disordered period failed to refer to the condition of the currency, and 
 to propose its reform, it should be remembered that at the present 
 time, though reform in the institution of money would remove many 
 causes of popular discontent, it is never referred to by agrarian " re- 
 formers." The fact is that money is a recondite subject, one usually 
 beyond the scope of popular agitators, who moreover may fear to risk 
 the popularity of their own remedies by alluding to the existence of 
 others. 
 
CHAPTER XXV. 
 
 THE JULIAN SYSTEM, B.C. 46-31. 
 
 Grold now becomes the standard of value in Rome — The change of 
 standard probably due to Cfesar's desire to monetize his plunder of 
 Gaul — Resemblance to the monetary position of Germany in 1870 — 
 The position of silver and copper coins. 
 
 FROM the year that Julius Csesar was proclaimed Dic- 
 tator, B.C. 46, commenced a new and memorable 
 change in the monetary system of Rome. While there does 
 not appear to have been any formal annunciation that 
 henceforth gold instead of silver coins were to form the 
 standard of value in Rome, yet a change of this character 
 seems to have been practically adopted. This may have 
 arisen from the tamperings with the silver coins which 
 occurred during the social wars and continued even into this 
 era ; -^ or it may have grown out of the fact that, under the 
 influence of large accessions of silver spoil and of supplies 
 from the mines, prices had greatly risen, until it was no 
 longer convenient to couch in silver coins the larger sums 
 in ordinary use ; or it may have been due to the impression 
 that the supplies of silver were more fitful than those of 
 gold, and that the latter would, therefore, prove a safer 
 measure of value. Whatever the cause, it now became the 
 custom, for the first time, to express large sums of money 
 in gold aureii. All large sums were not thus expressed ; 
 on the contrary, most of them were couched in silver de- 
 narii or silver sesterces, but many such sums were ; whereas 
 this had never been the case before. This custom continued 
 
 ' Debased silver coins were emitted during the consulship of CEesar. 
 They were said to have been alloyed with iron. Adam's " Rom. Ant." 
 
300 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 to groWj until it at length received the sanction of law in 
 the dictatorship of Ceesar. 
 
 With the exception, perhaps, of two years under the 
 Sullan constitution, gold, coins had hitherto not been coined 
 by the state, but, like the earlier silver coins, by the gentes. 
 In the same manner that the state eventually subjected the 
 silver coinage to its control, so it now subjected the gold. 
 
 It has been shown that, according to Suetonius, Caesar 
 sold the gold proceeds of his forays in Gaul for 3,000 ses- 
 terces the pound. These are taken to mean silver sesterces, 
 each one-fourth of a denarius, with twenty-five — instead of 
 twenty, as formerly ^ — of the latter as the equivalent of the 
 gold aureus and forty aureii to the pound ; in short, 4,000 
 silver sesterces to the pound of coined gold. To receive 
 but 3,000 sesterces for the pound of bullion, was to lose 
 one-fourth of its value, either because gold coins were 
 not legal tender, or because the state was not prepared to 
 coin gold bullion with sufiicient despatch. The valuation of 
 the aureus at twenty-five denarii settles this question. It 
 proves that gold coins were already legal tender either by 
 law or custom, and renders it all but certain that, assuming 
 the account of Suetonius to be correct and precise, the mint 
 could not yet coin it fast enough. 
 
 With all his prodigality, Caesar was not the man to put 
 up with losses of this character longer than he could help 
 it. 'No sooner did he succeed in grasping political power 
 than he got control of the mint; and it may be safely sur- 
 mised that after this time no gold bullion of his was sold 
 at less than its full value for lack of coinage facilities.^ 
 
 This measure was either adopted by Pompey, whose denarii weigh 
 but 60-6 grains, or Caesar, whose first weigh 60-4, and later ones 54-9 
 grains. Consult Rear- Admiral Smyth and Greaves, p. 309. It in- 
 dicates that the state recognized the gold aureus as money, and perhaps, 
 also, coined it. 
 
 "He appointed to the management of the mint and the public 
 revenue of the state some servants of his own household; and entrusted 
 the command of three legions which he left at Alexandria to an old cata- 
 mite of his, the son of his freedman Rufinus." Suetonius, " Cfesar," Ixxvi. 
 
THE JULIAN SYSTEM. 301 
 
 Indeed he began to coin it at the ratio of forty-two aureii 
 to the pound/ thus making the ratio of weight between his 
 gold and silver coins about one to eleveUj instead of one to 
 ten, as formerly. 
 
 That in the face of a recent and large increase of the 
 supply of gold^ an enhancement of its value in silver 
 should have been adopted in the mint laws, is regarded as 
 additional proof that the first-named metal had now become 
 the practical standard of value. 
 
 The position of silver coins during this era is not alto- 
 gether clear, but I am confirmed in the suspicion that their 
 previously full legal tender character was impaired, by the 
 fact that the silver mines were farmed to individuals, whilst 
 those of gold were monopolized by the state.^ 
 
 The j3opper coins were merely tokens, overvalued, but 
 possessing only a limited legal course. Shortly after this era, 
 to wit, in the reign of the Emperor Octavius, we learn that 
 the copper mines, formerly so jealously monopolized by the 
 state, had fallen into the hands of individuals. The copper 
 mine of Oorduba in Spain was named after and probably 
 owned by the consul Marius; that of Savoy belonged to 
 Sallustius Crispus, the historian, one of the secretaries of 
 Octavius, while the copper district of Livia in Gaul was 
 owned by Livia, the Emperor's wife.* 
 
 ^ Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," 143. 
 
 ^ It is a singular coincidence that the plunder of Gaul in e.g. 54, and 
 its plunder again in a.d. 1870, should have led to similar results in the 
 legislation of the conquering nation : the establishment of gold as the 
 standard of value in place of a previously existing double standard. 
 This was the case both in the Roman and German empires. 
 
 ' Strabo, iii. 2, 9. 
 
 ' Pliny, vi. 149, and note b, Bohn's ed. 
 
CHAPTER XXVI. 
 
 THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM. B.C. 31 A.D. 41. 
 
 Exhaustion of the richer poi'tions of the placer mines and falling oiF 
 of gold and silver supplies — -Octavius averts the consequent threatened 
 fall of prices by issuing a new overvalued copper sesterce — Precautions 
 taken to secure approval of this measure — Resemblance to Mr. Chase's 
 financial measures — Complete success of Octavius — Scale of values 
 adopted — Gradual rise of gold and silver coins to a premium — Their 
 disappearance from the circulation- — Measures of Tiberius — Of Caligiila 
 — The latter seizes the municipal and provincial mints, and without con- 
 sent of the Senate coins an incredible number of overvalued sesterces — 
 It is in the overvalued and redundant sesterces of this period that the 
 stupendous sums of money mentioned by Pliny are couched — Difficulty 
 of computing their value in silver— The minute " token " As, a de- 
 generate descendant of the great archaic coin. 
 
 ^'^HIS period embraces the reigns of the emperors 
 Octavius^ Tiberiusj and Caligula — altogether eighty 
 years. 
 
 The vast supplies of comparatively easily-found placer 
 gold, which had been obtained during the previous era — 
 chiefly by Julius Csesar, in Spain and Gaul — were now ex- 
 hausted. The precious metal was no longer to be wrung 
 from the natives, or found in nuggets by scratching the 
 surface of the auriferous fields. It was only to be procured 
 in minute grains and by means of large works ^ and a mul- 
 titude of slaves. In other words, the placer mines had 
 been worked down to the productive level of rock mines. 
 
 ' The author has examined a number of these works in Asturias, 
 Gallicia, Leon, and Lugo, and can bear witness to the character of the 
 auriferous gravels in which the Romans of this age delved, and to the 
 grandeur of the hydraulic works they erected to assist them. They will 
 be found described in his " Rape of the Earth," chapter on the Minho. 
 
THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM. 303 
 
 There was plenty of gold yet in them, but it henceforth 
 could only be obtained — like gold from quartz, or silver 
 from ores — with great pains and expense. Like the pro- 
 duct of California and of Australia after 1860, that of Gaul 
 and Spain must have suddenly fallen off after the Julian 
 period, and the Roman government found itself obliged to 
 depend for supplies of the precious metals upon the slow 
 and precarious yield of elaborate hydraulic and subterranean 
 works throughout its remote and widely scattered provinces. 
 
 At a later period, and under the reigns of ignorant 
 tyrants and greedy usurpers, this diminution of supplies 
 would have been met by ruinous debasements of the 
 coinage. Octavius was not a monarch of this character. 
 His public works, his measures of administration, his 
 postal system, his lost statistics of the empire, all prove, 
 that his government was far-seeing, wise, and benig- 
 nant, while his treatment of the senate, his disposition of 
 religious matters, and numerous other political arrange- 
 ments indicate an intimate knowledge of the history and 
 traditions of his country. 
 
 It is therefore not at all surprising to find that in this 
 emergency he resorted to that device which had served the 
 country so well during the republican era. Octavius was 
 fond of restoring old forms and institutions. He repaired 
 the old temples to the gods, he erected new ones, he had 
 the Sibylline books revised, he filled up the priestly 
 offices — some of which had remained vacant since the time 
 of Marius — he issued edicts to restrain luxury, he limited 
 the expense of the public games, he enforced the laws 
 against bribery and corruption, he discouraged celibacy, he 
 fostered commerce, and he greatly strengthened the eques- 
 trian order,^ which consisted chiefly of bankers and merchants. 
 Necessity impelled him to meet the failing supplies of those 
 materials out of which money had come to be made, by 
 substituting in their place a material of which the supply 
 
 ' Those who possessed 400,000 sesterces, and were born of free 
 parents. Leighton, 428. 
 
304 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 was ample and assured. Inclination induced Mm to rein- 
 state all those measures of tlie old republican system which 
 did not appear to threaten the permanence of the empire 
 he had established. Among these was the copper nume- 
 rary system of B.C. 385-269. 
 
 But here a great difficulty confronted him. If he restored 
 the numerary system^ either the senate or himself would 
 have to regulate the entire volume and emissions of money. 
 To entrust the senators with this tremendous power j, would 
 be to deliver up the government to them. The power 
 wovdd probably be abused, the country would again be 
 plunged into civil dissensions, and the empire which he had 
 striven and risked so much to erect, would speedily fall to 
 pieces. To regulate the currency himself would expose 
 him to the attacks of every dissatisfied class. A purely 
 numerary money is inconsistent with a despotic govern- 
 ment ; and, if Octavius was not wise enough to perceive 
 this, his friend and counsellor, Msecenas, to whom he 
 deferred in measures of this character, certainly was. 
 
 ISTor was this the only difiiculty. Vast numbers of gold 
 and silver coins were in the coffers of bankers and mer- 
 chants, in the hands of the people, and scattered through- 
 out the provinces. To demonetize these coins and offer 
 overvalued copper pieces in exchange for them, would be 
 to array the whole empire against himself. 
 
 The commerce of Rome extended to the Indies, and in 
 modern times silver coins of the early Roman emperors 
 have been found entombed in the Buddhist topes of that 
 country.'- Pliny, who wrote shortly after this era, says : 
 " India, China, and Arabia withdraw from our empire, one 
 hundred million of sesterces annually," ^ meaning, probably, 
 one hundred million sesterces' worth of silver. Then as 
 now Oriental commerce consisted chiefly in an exchange of 
 spices, silks, and gold, for silver ; but the profits then were 
 much greater than now, and often amounted to many times 
 the original cost of the merchandise exchanged. The de- 
 ^ See chapter on "India." " Pliny, xii. 18. 
 
THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM. 305 
 
 monetization of silver by suddenly throwing a vast quantity 
 of it on the Roman market as buUionj would have engen- 
 dered great competition in the Oriental trade, and greatly 
 reduced its extravagant profits ; and the demonetization of 
 gold would have put a stop to one of the most lucrative 
 branches of this commerce. Either measure would have 
 arrayed against the government the influential classes who 
 engrossed the advantages of the traflic. 
 
 The systematic mining of silver in Spain had also be- 
 come an important industry, and one that was managed by 
 classes of citizens whose loyalty the newly-established 
 government could hardly afford to alienate. It employed 
 an army of slaves whose return to Rome would have ren- 
 dered them an intolerable burden to their owners, and an 
 additional source of danger to the government, and who, if 
 left to shift for themselves in Spain, were numerous and 
 desperate enough to have torn this coveted province from 
 the empire. 
 
 In short, the demonetization of the precious metals, 
 however practicable it may have been to the Republic, was 
 out of the question for the Empire, and Octavius was 
 obliged to take that same middle course, to adopt that same 
 sort of mixed system of money, which nearly every govern- 
 ment of the world at the present time finds itself compelled 
 to accept ; a system consisting partly of highly overvalued 
 pieces, and partly of coins at their bullion value. In 
 modern days the overvalued pieces are made of paper, 
 and usually promise something. In the Augustan era the 
 overvalued pieces were made of bronze, and promised 
 nothing. The modern systems and the Augustan system 
 possessed one great feature in common. The volume of 
 money had no specific limit. To the overvalued portion 
 there was a certain and foreseeable limit. To the "intrinsic" 
 portion, and therefore to the whole volume of the measure 
 of value, there was none. The limit was whatever the 
 vicissitudes of conquest, mining, and demands for the 
 metals in the arts and for foreign commerce chanced to 
 
 X 
 
306 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 make it. In this most important of all the features of a 
 monetary system^ that of Republican Rome differed from 
 all of those alluded to ; its entire limit or volume was 
 regulated from time to time by the Senate, and being known 
 to the citizens afforded them an equitable measure by which 
 they might compute value and compare services and wealth. 
 
 In carrying out the important resolution to which these 
 various circumstances impelled him, the first care of Octa- 
 vius was to improve the personnel of the mint. This 
 office was originally in charge of quaestors, whose probity — 
 they being of the patrician class — was assured by their pride 
 of ancestry and love of fame. During the administration 
 of Julius Ceesar no qu^stors were elected, and the mint 
 was filled with the Dictator's servants. In B.C. 28 Octavius 
 committed the treasury and mint to the preetors, and thus 
 restored these important of&ces to a class of men who 
 might be relied upon to fill them with intelligence and 
 honour. This year has accordingly been fixed upon as 
 that in which the new sj^stem was begun. 
 
 The principal features of this system were the coinage of 
 a distinctive sesterce- — known to modern numismatists as 
 first bronze — composed of bronze, and weighing about two 
 ounces. This coin was made legal tender to any extent 
 and for all purposes. A scale of relative value was also 
 enacted, which, as nearly as can be gathered from existing 
 evidences, was as follows : — 
 
 1 aureus of gold, 120 grains^ ir 25 denarii of silver,^ each 
 60 grains, "940 fine^ zr 4 great sesterces of copper, each 
 of nearly 2 oz.,* or 4 small sesterces of silver, each of 
 about 14 grains. There were also subsidiary coins of the 
 As series, which, like the copper coins of modern monetary 
 systems, could only be tendered in payment to a trifling 
 amount. Four of these Ases went to the sesterce.''' 
 
 ^ Greaves and Smyth. ^ Bolm's " Pliny,'' note 45 to xxxiii. 13. 
 
 •* The extant coins weigh 59-8 grains, and contain 56-2 grains of 
 fine silver. (Rear-Admiral Smyth's " Catalogue.") 
 
 " " Encyc. Brit.," ed. 1858, art. " JCumismatics." ' Ibid. 
 
THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM. 307 
 
 Before tlie emissions of the new sesterces proved to be 
 «o great as to seriously influence prices, Octavius became 
 anxious to conciliate the class whose privilege to coin gold 
 and silver under the regulation of the senate would cease 
 to possess any advantage {e.g., that of freedom from a 
 seignorage) when these coins were driven out of circulation, 
 as they were soon certain to be. Accordingly the families 
 privileged to coin the precious metals were appointed 
 nioneyers to strike the new bronze coins, and for this service 
 were paid by the state. "^ In a similar way, during the 
 establishment of the greenback system in the United 
 States, the secretary of the treasury, Mr. Chase, conciliated 
 the retiring " state-banks," by granting them equally valu- 
 able privileges as " national banks.'" 
 
 In order to secure for the state a quantity of gold and 
 silver for use in foreign wars or commerce, Octavius, acting 
 under the advice of Maecenas, forbade the circulation in the 
 provinces of any coins but those minted by or under the 
 authority of the Roman state.^ In like manner Mr. Chase 
 borrowed $50,000,000 or £10,000,000 in gold coins from 
 the " state-banks," and then procured the passage of an act 
 taxing the circulation of their notes out of existence. 
 
 Proceeding with great caution, Octavius caused the 
 effigy of Julius Csesar to be stamped upon his first emission 
 of sesterces.^ Mr. Chase, with less prudence, caused his 
 own portrait to be printed upon the one dollar " green- 
 backs," and thereby incurred the rebuke of Congress, which 
 ordered that thereafter the portrait of no living person should 
 appear upon the national money. 
 
 As the emission of overvalued sesterces went on, it was 
 inevitable that the gold and silver coins not overvalued 
 
 ' Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 144. 
 
 ^ Dio. Hi. 29, cited in Adam, 122. The revenues were, however, 
 ordered to be paid by the provinces in silver. Jacob, 108. 
 
 ^ The " Encyc. Brit.," ed. 1858, art. " Numismatics," makes the 
 ■mistake of supposing that these coins were issued by Julius Csesar 
 bimself. This mistake is corrected by Francis Hobler in his " Eoman 
 <Coins," London, 1860, vol. i. p. 7. 
 
308 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 would first rise to a premium and afterwards disappear from 
 circulation, and this is really what happened/ Indeed the 
 bronze sesterce became "nearly the only monetary unit 
 (fraction) used in calculation in Roman pecuniary affairs^ 
 though the As yet continued nominally in use in fines and 
 other matters connected with ancient law.'' ^ 
 
 Continues Humphreys (p. 150) : — " As the noble copper 
 coinage of the early Republic, the grandiose As and its 
 parts, had distinguished the coinage of Rome from that of 
 all other nations, whose standards were gold or silver, 
 though they had subordinate copper money; so, at the 
 period of the establishment of the empire, when the gold and 
 silver of the world had flowed into the cofi'ers of all-powerful 
 Rome, copper was still maintained as the material of the 
 national monetary standard; and though the As and its 
 parts began to disappear, a new and noble form replaced it, 
 that of the great First Bronze, as it is termed, or rather, in 
 other words, the sestercius, of which a magnificent series 
 exists from Augustus to Gallienus, containing monuments 
 magnificent both as works of art and as historic records. 
 Thus, as I have said, copper was still the great national 
 coinage of the Empire, as it had been of the early Republic ; 
 and though the emperor coined gold and silver inde- 
 pendently, copper could only be coined ex senatus consulto, 
 by decree of the Senate." 
 
 Such was the system of money established by Octavius 
 Augustus throughout the Roman dominion, and it was 
 during the virtual " suspension of specie payments " which 
 it involved, that the Saviour of the World first saw the light.^ 
 
 To what extent the bronze sesterce of Octavius was over- 
 
 ' Humplireys, 302, attests the disappearance of the silver sesterce 
 and smaller silver coins. On p. 143 he says the emissions of " silver 
 denarii, more rarely of gold," also ceased. 
 
 ^ Humphreys, 301. 
 
 ' The birth of Christ is fixed by the Benedictine authors of " L'art 
 de Verifier les Dates" at b.c. 7, and by Lydiat at a.d. 4. There are 
 numerous authorities for each one of the several years between. 
 
THE AUGUSTAN SYSTEM. 309 
 
 valued as against commoditieSj it is difficult to determine. 
 It may have been, and probably was, overvalued many 
 times, until the continually increased emissions of this coin 
 under the emperors Tiberius and Caligula reduced its pur- 
 chasing power to little more than that of the metal it 
 contained. 
 
 Upon the accession of Tiberius, a.d. 14, the weight of 
 the bronze sesterce was lowered, and new emissions took 
 the place of the old ones, and perhaps augmented them. No 
 material alteration is to be observed in the weights of the 
 gold aureus or silver denarius, though each was a grain or 
 two lighter than before. It is probable that neither of 
 them were in circulation except for the pay of the army 
 and for foreign commerce. 
 
 With the reign of Caligula, a.d. 37, commenced a new 
 and alarming augmentation of the overvalued bronze cur- 
 rency,^ and prices rose to an unprecedented height. Upon 
 the " adlocutio " coins of this emperor, or those which 
 represent him as addressing the cohorts, the customary 
 S.C. does not appear; from which it would seem that the 
 coinage was carried on without the consent of the senate.^ 
 Upon Caligula's death the senate ordered a recoinage of the 
 sesterce series. Humphreys, who never wholly gets rid of 
 the erroneous notion that these coins were "intrinsic," 
 gives as the reason of this recoinage " that the odious name 
 of Caligula might be forgotten." The true reason was of a 
 far different character. If the sesterces were " intrinsic," 
 why should Caligula have hastened to coin them in such 
 numbers, and why should the senate have decided to con- 
 tract the currency by melting down especially Caligula's 
 coins ? Surely they gained nothing by exchanging Caligula 
 for Claudius, or the latter for Nero. The pretence of 
 effacing his name or efSgy on the coins is absurd, first, 
 'because these did not appear on all of his coins ; and, second, 
 
 ' Even at the present time these coins are far from uncommon. 
 Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 155. 
 '' Ibid. 
 
310 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTEIES. 
 
 because from the numbei' of them still left from his short 
 reign of four years, it appears probable that if the currency 
 was contracted at all, it was done by melting, not parti- 
 cularly Caligula's coins, but any that could be conveniently 
 retired from circulation. 
 
 Besides the imperial and licensed mints in Eome, there- 
 were several hundred others in the various provincial cities,, 
 all of which during this era and up to Caligula's time were- 
 employed in striking moneys under the regulation of the 
 central government. In furtherance of the financial re- 
 source of which the tyrant had begun to avail himself in 
 Rome, he is said to have suddenly withdrawn from the 
 provincial cities the privilege of striking their own 
 coins. ^ 
 
 If these coins were " intrinsic," why should Caligula have 
 stopped the provincial and colonial cities from coining ? If 
 it was merely the designs on the coins that he wished to- 
 change, if he merely wished his own name or effigy to be- 
 placed upon them, this could easily have been done by 
 sending the cities new dies, without stopping them from 
 coining. The fact that he desired to himself control the 
 coinage shows that it was overvalued and not intrinsic. The 
 vast number of coins issued during his short reign proves 
 also that although he may have withdrawn the privilege of 
 coining from the provinces and colonies, he did not shut up 
 their mints. If he did, it is difficult to see by what means he 
 could have coined so many pieces. He probably seized the 
 provincial mints, and turned them to his own uses." 
 
 It is through the medium of this system, and the remote 
 relation which its overvalued portions bore to silver metal,, 
 that we are to read the stupendous sums in " sesterces " 
 
 " Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 163. 
 Among the monetary measures of this reign are the emission of a 
 debased denarius, which may have been intended to represent the true 
 value, at some given moment, of four copper sesterces ; but this is^ 
 doubtful, because the depreciation of the sesterce -was probably far 
 greater than the debasement of the denarius. 
 
THE AUGUST AK SYSTEM. 311 
 
 handed down to us by Pliny and others ; and not upon the 
 false assumption that these sesterces were of silver. What 
 this relation of value was cannot be determined even approxi- 
 mately until an entire re- arrangement of the monetary 
 symbols of this era is made by numismatists. When this 
 is done a clearer light will have been shed upon the whole 
 subject, and safer inductions can be made. 
 
 It will be found, no doubt, that this relation was incon- 
 stant ; that the value of the sesterce fluctuated with every 
 occurrence or rumour that threatened the peace of the 
 empire ; that it rose when Druses marched through Germany, 
 and Tiberius subdued it ; fell when Pannonia and Dalmatia 
 revolted ; and rose again when Tiberius revenged the bloody 
 defeat of Varus. But these fluctuations of value, which are 
 inseparable to all moneys, must have been subordinate to 
 that continual decline in the value of the sesterce which 
 arose from the increasing emissions of that monetary 
 symbol and the existence of an unknown number of gold 
 and silver coins, that stood ready at all times to increase 
 the general volume of money. 
 
 Of the copper tokens or Ases,' which, continued from a 
 preceding era, were coined during a portion of the reign of 
 Octavius, a new emission was authorized by that monarch,^ 
 which were much lighter than previously, and made with 
 more artistic skill. Concerning these coins Humphreys 
 remarks : — " It is singular that the last copper coinage of 
 the empire, tottering to its fall, was a reproduction in a 
 minute form of the As, which in its grand original propor- 
 tions had been the first coin of the Republic in its hercu- 
 lean youth. So that the As . . . forms at once the Alpha 
 and Omega of the long and splendid series of the Roman 
 coinage." '^ But such coincidences have a merely rhetorical 
 value. It was equally singular that the principal coin of the 
 republic was the nummus, and the last one of the empire, 
 
 ' Known to numismatists as Second Brass. 
 ' Known as Third Brass. 
 ■' " Ancient Coins," p. l36. 
 
312 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 the noumia ; ^ and still more singular that both the first and 
 last of the long line of Roman monarchs had the same 
 name.^ 
 
 ' Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," 379. 
 One Romolus founded the empire, e.g. 753 ; the other one, Romolus 
 Augustulus, disappeared with it, a.d. 475. 
 
CHAPTER XXVII. 
 
 FROM THE AUGUSTAN EEA TO THE DARK AGES. 
 
 The moneys of this era substantially " intrinsic " — Every exchange a 
 barter — Xumismatists and numismatics — Growing scarcity of the coin- 
 age metals — Debased coins — They form the bulk of the circulating 
 medium — Degradation of coins— The silver denarius dwindles until it 
 becomes too small to handle, and is thereafter made of copper — Though 
 i-arely debased, because not lawful money, the aureus continually 
 dwindles — It eventually becomes reduced to less than half its original 
 size — Known as the "solidus," and afterwards the "bezant" — Dwindling 
 and disappearance of the copper As — Dwindling and disappearance of 
 the copper sesterce — The copper denarius alone survives, and confers 
 its name upon all money in Southern Europe — Legal tender — Revenues 
 in silver ; payments in copper — Imperial plunder of the provinces, the 
 depositories, and the citizens — Position of gold mining — Silver mining 
 — Copper mining — Right of coinage — Administration of the mines — 
 Counterfeit coins — Difficult to be distinguished from the debased coins 
 of the moneyers — Revolt of the moneyers — Their removal to Gaul and 
 Britain — Seignorage — Decline of the Empire — The Dark Ages — 
 Review. 
 
 THE monetary systems of Rome which succeeded that 
 of the Augustan age, were all of a class that comes so 
 entirely within the comprehension of the average numis- 
 matist, that they have been very fully and satisfactorily 
 described in their works. There is, therefore, little left 
 for explanation or elucidation. All these systems were 
 '"intrinsic." Generally speaking, money consisted of an 
 indefinite number of pieces of various commercial com- 
 modities, gold, silver, billon/ copper, bronze, potin,^ lead, 
 etc., and its value was that of the substances of which it 
 was made. This was a system easily grasped by the modern 
 
 ' Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," p. 362. " LenoiTuant. 
 
314 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 coin collector. He had only to assay and weigh the sub- 
 stances brought to his notice, and the whole institution 
 of money to which they belonged stood revealed. The 
 symbols or inscriptions had next to be deciphered, and 
 the era of the system was fixed. His function was then 
 ended. The economical conditions — for example, spoliation, 
 or mining — under which the substances were produced, the 
 laws of legal tender, the rights of coinage, the conditions of 
 seignorage, the number of pieces emitted from time to time, 
 or in circulation at any given period, the obscure problems 
 of price — these were subjects which no longer required to 
 be considered. The system of money had become, sub- 
 stantially, one of barter. Certain metals, the whole 
 quantity of which was unknown and unknowable, were 
 exchanged for certain other things, the whole number or 
 quantity of which was equally impossible of ascertainment. 
 The expression of these exchanges was in prices which, 
 under the conditions of such exchanges, could have no pos- 
 sible relation to prices resulting from exchanges under 
 other conditions, conducted elsewhere, and at other periods 
 of time. The entire subject lay within a nutshell, and 
 the numismatists found no difficulty in comprehending it. 
 
 But the science of numismatics has a higher function 
 than this petty one. It has something more to do than to 
 decipher inscriptions, explain symbols, and fix dates. It 
 has to deal with the law (nomos) ; it relates not merely to a 
 collection of toys, but to monuments of legal institutions, 
 whose establishment, growth, and decay, have never failed 
 to keep even pace with the other phases and marks of 
 national civilizations ; it thus holds the key to the study of 
 these civilizations, and forms an integral part of that body 
 of knowledge or experience, without which every new 
 legislative or administrative measure of the modern world, 
 would be a step in the dark. 
 
 This higher function has not yet been so fully recognized 
 and discharged by numismatists, as the interests of histori- 
 cal research and progress in administrative measures seem 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 31 Tv 
 
 •to demand. As a rule they have stuck too closely to 
 Budelius, and the narrow views of a school whose foundation 
 was laid in the gross materialism of the Dark Ages, and 
 whose only logical consequence has been the plunder of 
 Aboriginal America, the establishment of the Mercantile 
 system, and the Devastation of those newly-found countries, 
 so unfortunate as to possess soils impregnated with the 
 precious metals. 
 
 How long the monetary system established by Octavius 
 continued to maintain its integrity, and precisely when it 
 ended, cannot be satisfactorily determined. It was pro- 
 bably greatly weakened by the excesses of Caligula, and 
 fell into decay in the reign of Vespasian. 
 
 From the Augustan era to the time of Nero, the use of 
 nummus as a generic word for money became less and less 
 common, and Pliny, whose " Natural History " was written 
 at this period, shows himself to have been either unaware 
 of the history of this most significant term, or else com- 
 pelled, in deference to the existing monetary system and 
 the instructions or bias of the imperial censors,^ to pass it 
 over and dwell upon the traditionary and exceedingly 
 doubtful ^.s libralis.''' Tacitus, who wrote toward the end of 
 the first century, evidently marks the distinction between 
 the overvalued copper and " intrinsic " silver sesterce, by 
 designating the former as "great" and the latter as 
 
 The crime of majestas was established by Saturninus, B.C. 100, in 
 order to guard the champions of the plebeians. Sulla applied it to acts 
 against the State. Under Caesar the law remained the same, but 
 Octavius extended it to writings intended to bring the emperor into 
 contempt. Tiberius still further widened its scope. Not only acts, but 
 even words, which could be construed to threaten the emperor's safety, 
 or question the wisdom of his public measures, were declared to be em- 
 braced in the law, and gave rise to a host of informers (delatores), who 
 often became the instruments of private revenge. It was as dangerous 
 to be silent as to speak, as dangerous to speak as to write, and as 
 dangerous to write as to commit an overt action. 
 
 ^ Pliny may have been a " bullionist." His shot at the Republic — 
 that she repudiated five-sixths of her debts — proves, at least, that he- 
 was a monarchist. 
 
-316 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 "small." About half a century later, in the reign of 
 Antoninus Pius, a.d. 138-161;, a congiarum was given of 
 eight aureii per head, and Gains, an author of this period, 
 alludes to " pecunia numerata et ponderata," a distinction 
 that suggests the destruction of the old numerical system/ 
 
 Henceforth the money of Eome consisted invariably of 
 commodities, that is to say, of coins of gold, silver, or 
 copper, having permanently no other value than that of the 
 metal they contained. Various emissions were made of 
 •overvalued coins, both of gold, silver, billon, and copper, not 
 upon any system of numbers, nor usually with the view of 
 benefiting the public, but to enrich the emperor, or those 
 whom he permitted to enjoy the valuable privilege of coin- 
 ing. Sooner or later the coins thus issued fell to their 
 commodity value, and the profits of the emissions came to 
 an end. 
 
 While in many cases the emission of overvalued pieces 
 was surreptitious, and was employed as a financial. resource, it 
 •cannot be doubted that in others it was superinduced by the 
 increasing and observed scarcity of the coinage metals, 
 whose effects it was ignorantly hoped might thus be reme- 
 died or palliated. It is impossible to distinguish these two 
 ^classes of emissions from one another : indeed it is not 
 known how many of them were made nor of how many coins 
 any one of them consisted, nor precisely in what proportion 
 the coins were debased. Little more is known than that 
 coins of gold and silver have been found with certain 
 regnal marks upon them, which coins were alloyed, debased, 
 ;stuffed, or plated. The following is a list of them : — 
 
 Regnal 
 years. 
 
 A.D. 
 
 37-41 
 41-54 
 .54-68 
 
 Monarch. 
 
 Table of Debased Coins. 
 Coins. 
 
 Authority 
 
 Caligula . 
 Claudius . 
 Xero . . 
 
 Debased denarii . 
 . Iron denarii, plated . 
 Debased denarii 
 
 . Jacob. 
 Wright. 
 Jacob. 
 
 ' " Commentaries on Gains," by Tomkins and Lemon, London, 1869, 
 J). 492. 
 
FEOM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 317' 
 
 Regnal 
 years. 
 
 69-79 
 81-96 
 98-117 
 117-138 
 117-138 
 138-161 
 180-193 
 193 
 193-211 
 211-217 
 218-222 
 222-235 
 263-268 
 254-263 
 258-267 
 270-274 
 476-492 
 
 Monarch. 
 
 Vespasian 
 Domitian 
 Trajan 
 Hadrian . 
 Hadrian . 
 Antoninus 
 Commodus 
 Didius Julian 
 Sept. Severus 
 Caraoalla . 
 Heliogabalus 
 Alex. Severns 
 Gallienus 
 Valerian 
 Postumus 
 Aurelian . 
 Odoacer . 
 
 Coins. 
 
 Debased denarii . 
 Debased and false denarii 
 Iron denarii, plated 
 Denarii of potin 
 Stuffed aureii . 
 Debased denarii 
 Stuffed aureii . 
 Debased denarii 
 Debased denari 
 Denarii, over half lead 
 Denarii, ^ths base 
 Denarii, |-rds copper . 
 Copper denarii, plated ' 
 Copper denai'ii, plated . 
 Debased denarii . 
 Revolt of moneyers 
 Copper denarii. Silver dis- 
 appears 
 
 Authority. 
 
 Jacob. 
 
 Humphrey'-. 222. 
 Wright. 
 
 Humphreys, 164. 
 Lenormant. 
 Biblio. Xationale. 
 Lenormant. 
 Montesquieu. 
 Humphreys. 302. 
 Xiphilinus. 
 Smyth. 
 Jacob, 125. 
 Humphreys, 381. 
 Humphreys, 381. 
 Wright. 
 Humphreys, 362. 
 
 Humphreys, 367. 
 
 This list is very imperfect. It can scarcely be doubted 
 that after the first century of our era the practice of alloy- 
 ing and afterwards of debasing ^ the gold and silver coins of 
 the Roman Empire^ became general. The proportions of 
 &ne, alloyed^ and debased coins which have come down to 
 us do not represent the proportions of these various classes- 
 of coins in circulation. The former were coined for expor- 
 tationj for soldiers^ pay^ and for other special purposes, and 
 have survived the wreck of time ; the latter were coined for 
 general oirculationj and were melted and recoined by one 
 emperor after another, as the process of debasement and 
 
 ^ Plated copper denarii and quinarii have been found both of about 
 the same size. The former have the "X," the latter the " V" mark. 
 These marks may be fallaciously interpreted ; but whether they are or 
 not, it is an important fact that the emissions of these pieces, judging 
 from the number and variety (in small details of minting) of those 
 extant, must have been very great. 
 
 " When the introduction of silver into gold coins, or of base metal 
 into silver ones, does not exceed those proportions which better fit 
 these coins for wear — say from one-twelfth to one-eighth — they are- 
 regarded as having been alloyed ; after that they become " debased." 
 
318 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 degradation^ went on. This subject will receive additional 
 illustration further on. 
 
 The degradation of the Roman coins kept even pace 
 with their debasement. The silver denarius of Rome was 
 originally copied, both as to material and weight, from the 
 Greek drachma. This coin is conjectured to have weighed 
 from the time of Solon to that of Alexander 67 grains, and 
 from that of Alexander to the Roman conquest of Greece 
 65 grains, fine. It was during the last-named period that 
 the denarius was coined first at Capua and afterwards by 
 the Roman gentes, and for a long time both the heavier 
 Greek drachma and the lighter Roman denarius circulated 
 side by side at the same value. The denarius was first 
 coined in Rome at six to the ounce; afterwards, in B.C. 216, 
 at seven. In 45 both Csesar and Brutus coined it at eight 
 to the ounce. Thereafter, the contents of fine silver in the 
 coins which have come down to us were as follows : — Octa- 
 vius, 59'5 troy grains; Caligula, 58'0; Claudius, 56'12; 
 Nero, 57'3 ; Vespasian, 54"9 ; Domitian, 53"0; Hadrian, 
 52-7 ; Heliogabalus, 44-2 ; Gallus, 34-0 ; Gallienus, 37-5 ; and 
 so on downward, until in the reign of Romolus Augusta- 
 bulus, who was expelled by Odoacer, a.d. 475, it contained 
 no silver at all, but was made entirely of copper.^ 
 
 In the Eastern Empire, however, the silver denarius 
 maintained a longer footing, and in the reign of HEeraclius, 
 A.D. 609-640, during which occurred the Mahometan Hegira, 
 it still contained 10 grains of silver, about the same as the 
 existing debased three cent {l^d. sterling) silver coin of 
 the United States of America.^ 
 
 Denarii have been found of Sept. Severus and Gordianus 
 containing 62^ grains of fine silver; but they were evidently 
 coined for special purposes, perhaps for exportation to 
 India.* They could not have been in general circulation, 
 
 ^ Degradation, as applied to coins, means a reduction of weio-ht. 
 Humphreys' " Ancient Coins," 367. 
 
 ' Humphreys' " Manual," 382. 
 
 ' Perhaps it was the "full weight" of this class of denarii rather than 
 the grandeur of Roman institutions which so much excited the admira- 
 tion of the East Indian potentate alluded to in Pliny. 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAN EEA TO THE DARK AGES. 319 
 
 and must have passed in Rome for more than a denarius 
 (of the time) each. 
 
 The fact that but few attempts were made to debase the 
 gold coins is sufficient evidence that except in the rare 
 instances presently to be mentioned they were not legal 
 tender. The stuffed aureii of Hadrian and Commodus have 
 already been alluded to. A portion of the gold was re- 
 moved from the interior of these coins, and the space filled 
 with base metal; but it does not appear that they were 
 issued authoritatively. Gilded denarii with the effigy of 
 Domitian, and evidently intended to pass as aureii, have 
 been preserved;^ but these, too, may have been issued 
 surreptitiously or by counterfeiters. 
 
 The degradation of the aureus went on steadily. The 
 coins of Octavius contained about 120 troy grains ; Tiberius, 
 Caligula, and Claudius, 118; Nero and Galba, 115; Otho, 
 109; Vitellius and Vespasian, 112; Titus, 110; Domitian, 
 Nerva, Trajan, and Hadrian, 112i to UOJ;''' Antoninus 
 Pius and Marcus Aurelian, 120 to 119 ; Lucius Verus, 114 ; 
 and so on downwards to Macrinus, 90 ; ^ HeRogabulus, 80 ; 
 Gallus, 68 ; Gallienus, 75 ; Constantino, 73 ; Majorium and 
 Heraclius, 68 ; and Nicephore Phocase, a.d. 963-69, 64-75. 
 This coin was known as the solid us,* and later as the 
 bezant. 
 
 We now come to the principal money of the Roman 
 Empire — the copper sesterces. 
 
 The As series of coins, though long since degraded to the 
 
 ' Hobler, i. 222. 
 
 ' Some of Hadrian's aureii weigh 122 grains. Greaves. 
 
 ^ " About ten years before the accession of Artaxerxes, there had 
 been a sudden influx into Western Asia of Roman gold, in consequence 
 of the treaty concluded between Artabanus and Macrinus, a.d. 217, 
 whereby Rome undertook to pay to Parthia an indemnity of above a 
 miUion and a half of our (sterling) money; see Dio Cassius, Ixxviii. 
 27 ; compare the author's ' Sbcth Monai-chy,' p. .360. It is probable 
 that the payment was mostly made in aureii." " The Seventh Great 
 Oriental Monarchy," by Geo. Rawlinson, London, 1876, pp. 69, 70. 
 
 " On the origin of " solidus " see p. 43, note 3, ante. Raper (" In- 
 quiry," p. 562) says it was first named by Alex. Severus to distinguish 
 it from his half and third aureus pieces. 
 
320 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 function of tokens, continued to be fabricated until the 
 reign of GallienuSj when they entirely disappeared. 
 
 The bronze sesterce of Octavius, overvalued and main- 
 tained at such overvaluation by limiting the emissions, 
 gradually lost its superior value, and fell to that of the 
 copper it contained. It was, thereupon, gradually degraded, 
 until it became too small in size for practical use, and dis- 
 appeared. Meanwhile the silver denarius had gradually 
 iisurped its place, each denarius being counted as four 
 sesterces. The various debasements and degradations of 
 the denarius brought this coin also to be made of copper. 
 It was made of about the same size as the Augustan ses- 
 terce, but was called a denarius, and passed for four " ses- 
 terces " of account.^ This copper denarius, denny, or penny 
 survives to the present day in the coinage of Great Britain, 
 but only as a " token." The letter " d," which represents 
 it, is the initial of its ancient name. It also survives in the 
 generic term for money used in Italy, Spain, Portugal, and 
 the colonies, namely, danaro, dinero, dinhiero, &c. In 
 fact the copper denarius had become the only money of the 
 Eoman Empire in its decline. The few silver and gold 
 pieces upon which, unfortunately, the numismatists have 
 centred their attention, were currency only in a few great 
 marts and sea-ports. They had no more connection with 
 the measure of value throughout the empire than Carolus 
 dollars have with that of China to-day. 
 
 It is difficult to specify what was legal tender money 
 during the decline of the Roman Empire.^ Generally speak- 
 
 * In A.D. 553 Procopius alludes to bronze coins that were equal in value 
 to silver. Humpkreys' " Ancient Coins," 374. 
 
 M. Leuormant's opinions on this subject are : — 1, That Octavius 
 established a single gold standard (vol. i., p. 183) ; 2, that HeKogabalns 
 and Alex. Severus demanded treasury payments in gold, in order " to 
 secure the fixity of the public revenues " (i. 185) ; 3, yet that soon 
 afterwards the value of the aureus varied monthly (i. 185) ; 4, that the 
 result was a virtual demonetization of gold (i. 185) ; and, 5, that cold 
 is unheard of in history for a century after this (i. 185). In all of which 
 opinions, as well as where he says the ancients never established a 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 321 
 
 ing, copper coins only were legal tender, and these were 
 nearly always issued at an overvaluation. Various restric- 
 tive measures, other than limitation of issue, were enforced 
 from time to time to maintain such overvaluation. Some- 
 times the copper coins were restricted in circulation to 
 certain cities or provinces ; ^ at others they were counter- 
 marked to pass in other certain cities or provinces, but not 
 generally throughout the Roman dominions ; and in some- 
 instances they were refused to be received for certain classes 
 of payments. 
 
 Some of the emperors, while they only transmitted over- 
 valued copper coins for governmental disbursements in the 
 provinces, required the revenues to be collected in silver, 
 while others demanded payments into the treasury to be 
 made in gold;^ but these measures were soon abandoned 
 as impracticable. So long as they could, the silver-pro- 
 ducing provinces were compelled to pay silver, and the 
 gold-producing ones gold. Where it was known that any 
 considerable quantity of these metals were collected together, 
 either in the provinces or in Rome, the Emperor used the 
 taxing power to despoil the owners of them.' But, after 
 that, neither legal tender laws nor robbery could bring forth 
 gold or silver. There was none to be had. The aborigines 
 had been stripped and worked to death, the mines were 
 worked down to the last phase of Roman mechanical and 
 metallurgical resource ; the depositories in Rome had been 
 plundered; the bulk of the precious metals had gone to 
 
 bi-metallio or double standard (i. 173, 296), the author is obliged to 
 differ with him. 
 
 ' M. Lenormant, i. 239-50, includes among this class of coins certain 
 copper ones, issued mainly during the second century at the mines of 
 Dalmatia, Mesie Superior (Bosnia), Norica (Carinthia and Austrian 
 Tyrol), and Pannonia (Styria and Camiola). Although many of these 
 were issued from Imperial mines, they have no "S. C." on them, which 
 the distinguished numismatist regards as a certain sign that they enjoyed 
 only "local circulation." 
 
 ^ M. Lenormant, i. 185, mentions, in this connection, Heliogabalus 
 and Alex. Severus. 
 
 ^ " The government lay in wait for all savings.'' Leighton, p. 486. 
 
 T 
 
322 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 Asia. There was nothing left to make money of but copper, 
 and towards the fourth or fifth century even this metal had 
 become scarce. 
 
 The progress and condition of gold placer mining has 
 already been described. All the easily-found gold had long 
 since been obtained, and the placers had next been worked for 
 fine gold by gangs of slaves, employing ground and board 
 sluices and blankets. The modern adjuncts of iron pipes 
 for a head of water to break down the gravel, and of quick- 
 silver to secure the gold, were not employed at this period. 
 The breaking down was done by hand, assisted, in some 
 instances, by streams of water, without pressure, which 
 were conducted to the top of the gravel bank and some- 
 times in tunnels through it. When the produce became 
 too meagre to pay for the bare subsistence of the slaves, 
 the gravel mines were abandoned, and many of them can be 
 seen to-day in precisely the condition in which they were 
 left nearly twenty centuries ago. 
 
 The Romans met with little success as gold quartz 
 miners.' Veins of this material, usually imbedded in hard 
 slate, are commonly narrow and expensive to work, on 
 account of the great extent of excavation needed in order 
 to secure a comparatively small quantity of auriferous rock. 
 Thus if the passages are made high enough for a man to 
 walk through and wide enough for two men to pass each 
 other, they must be seven by four feet in dimensions, and if 
 the quartz vein is but one foot wide (the average), it follows 
 that twenty-eight cubic feet of rock have to be excavated, in 
 order to secure seven cubic feet of quartz, to say nothing of 
 shafts, winzes, adits, cross-cuts, and other " dead-work." 
 When this work has to be done as the Roma;ns did it, with- 
 out the aid of gunpowder, it becomes exceedingly toilsome 
 and expensive, and only the richest class of quartz veins — 
 of which the number was exceedingly limited — and these 
 only for a short distance downward, paid to work.^ 
 
 ' This fact is noticed by Strabo, Bolin's ed., i. 219. 
 
 ' This follows for two reasons — 1, as a rule, most of the sold in a 
 
FEOM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 323 
 
 With regard to silver minesj the principal ones worked 
 by the EomanSj previous to the removal of the capital to 
 Byzantium, were in Spain and Gaul ; afterwards in Thracia, 
 Dacia, Germany, &c.' 
 
 It was the opinion of Depping,''^ and has been the result 
 of my own researches in the ancient quartz mines of Europe, 
 that the Romans opened but few new mines of this class, 
 but, for the most part, only improved, extended, and 
 deepened those which had been previously opened by the 
 Etruscans, Carthaginians, Thracians, &c. The difference 
 between the character of the work done by these nations 
 often enables this fact to be decided with ease. For ex- 
 ample, the Carthaginian shafts and galleries were irre- 
 gular, while the Roman shafts were round and the galleries 
 smooth and sometimes even lined with cement.^ Gene- 
 rally speaking, their mining work was more perfectly and 
 neatly done than that of either their predecessors or suc- 
 cessors. It is a curious fact that some of the silver ores 
 were carried to the city of Rome, there to be crushed and 
 treated.* 
 
 The number of slaves employed in certain of these mines 
 and their product, compared with the necessary cost of 
 their subsistence, enables it to be affirmed with great con- 
 fidence that but few of them paid to explore.^ 
 
 So little attention has been paid by historians, arch^olo- 
 gists, and miners to the copper mines of the Romans, that 
 but little certain information is to be gathered on the sub- 
 ject. Besides those in the Peninsula and the islands already 
 
 quartz vein lies near the surface of the earth ; 2, the deeper a mine is 
 worked, the more it costs to hoist rock, pump water, &c. 
 
 ^ A gold quartz mine was worked by the Romans in Carmarthenshire, 
 Wales. "Encyc. Brit," 9th ed., art. " Gold." 
 
 ^ Depping, i. 76. 
 
 ^ Depping, i. 76. 
 
 ' See a passage in Martial (about a.d. 93). on the noise of the stamp 
 mills in Rome, cited in Del Mar's " Hist. Prec. Met.," 29 n. 
 
 " Jacob, " Hist Prec. Met," p. 101. Del Mar, " Hist Preo. Met," 
 p. 28. 
 
324 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 alluded to in the present work, there were others in Gaulish 
 Italy/ Gaul, Spain, Thracia, Dacia, Germany, and, indeed, 
 in almost every province of the empire. As with very few 
 exceptions these mines have never since been opened, it is 
 impossible to know the condition they were commonly in when 
 they were abandoned. If conjecture, based on a general 
 knowledge of the conditions of copper mining, be allowed 
 to eke out this paucity of information, it may be assumed 
 that the copper mines began to show signs of exhaustion 
 during the first century. Before the end of the third century 
 the increasing scarcity of copper attracted attention in 
 Eome, and by the fifth or sixth century that scarcity was 
 known to be irremediable. 
 
 It is an inference of the numismatists that the coinage of 
 copper was always controlled by the senate, while that of 
 gold and silver was reserved by the emperors, and this 
 opinion has been expressed so often and with so much con- 
 fidence, that it has almost passed into history as a fact. 
 Such, however, is not the case.^ The senate was composed 
 as the emperor willed ; it exercised such prerogatives as 
 he chose ; it was little more than an echo or a registry of 
 his wishes or actions. Had gold or silver been the stan- 
 dard of the imperial systems of money, it is very likely that 
 the emperors would have monopolized their coinage, and 
 relinquished to the senate the valueless but showy preroga- 
 tive of coining copper tokens ; but such was not the fact. 
 These supposed tokens were really the basis of the whole 
 monetary system. They were not tokens, but full legal 
 tenders. Their value never fluctuated in denarii or aureii, 
 while that of the latter usually rose and fell in copper 
 sesterces in which all contracts were made and all prices 
 expressed. 
 
 With regard to the administration of the mines during 
 the period under review, the gold mines seem to have been 
 
 ' An auriferous copper vein was worked by the Romans at OUomont 
 in the Val d'Aosta. 
 
 ' This has been noticed by Gibbon, vi. 536. 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 325 
 
 monopolized by the emperors from the time of Julius Caesar 
 onward ; ^ during the same period the silver mines which had 
 previously been worked by the state, were owned or leased 
 by private parties ; " and the copper mines, which had 
 been worked by the state until about the period of Nero, 
 were afterwards leased to private parties.^ Livy mentions a 
 tax on the gold, silver, and iron mines of Spain, but none 
 on those of copper.* Depping says, that under the last 
 pagan emperors (third century), the number of mine lessees 
 greatly diminished ; the mines became less productive ; 
 many of them were abandoned ; and a law, censoria, was 
 passed, restricting the number of workmen whom the 
 lessees might employ, so that the exhaustion of the mines 
 might be less rapid .^ 
 
 Beside the base and false coins issued by the emperors, 
 provincial governors, military commanders and others, 
 some were fabricated by counterfeiters, and it is not 
 always possible to distinguish one class from the other. 
 On this subject Mr. Wright has afforded some interesting 
 details. 
 
 " We have no traces of a Roman mint in Britain until 
 the reign of Dioclesian and Maximian. ... It is, however, 
 far from certain that Roman money was not coined in the 
 island before it was thought necessary to indicate the cir- 
 cumstance, and we cannot but be astonished at the extra- 
 ordinary activity of the Roman mints in Britain during the 
 usurpation of Carausius, a.d. 287, and Allectus, a.d. 293. 
 The great mass of their coins appear to have been struck in 
 Britain. 
 
 " It is to be remarked that the insular coins of Carausius 
 are not in general inferior in purity of metal and in execu- 
 tion, to the contemporary coinage of the continent. But 
 it is no less true that among the Roman money found in 
 this country we find a great mass of debased or adulterat^ed 
 
 1 Strabo, Bohu's ed., i. 222. ' Depping, ii. 75. 
 
 1 Ibid. * Livy, xxxiv. 21, and xlv. 29. 
 
 ' Depping, ii. 75. 
 
326 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTKIES. 
 
 coinage, and, wMch is still more curious, that very extensive 
 manufactures of spurious money have been traced. 
 
 " A few years ago, during the excavations for laying the 
 foundations of King William Street, in the city of London, 
 a considerable quantity of coins made of iron, plated with 
 silver, intended to pass as silver, were found packed up in 
 tiers, as they had been imported into Britain, probably to 
 pay the troops. The latest of them were of the emperor 
 Claudius, which was, perhaps, the time when they were 
 brought over hither. Most of these coins are in the cabinet 
 of Mr. Roach Smith, who also possesses a number of Roman 
 forged coins cast in lead, found chiefly in the Thames. 
 Amongst the numerous coins found at Maryport, in Cum- 
 berland, were a great quantity of forged denarii of Trajan 
 and Hadrian, mostly, like those in Mr. Smith's museum, 
 cast in lead. It has been remarked that genuine coin 
 must have been exceedingly scarce among the soldiers of 
 this camp, and their credulity very great, to allow of the 
 circulation of such base imitations. 
 
 "Extensive remains of the manufactures of spurious money 
 under the Romans have been found in several places in this 
 island, but more especially at Lingwell Gate, near Wake- 
 field, in Yorkshire ; at Edington, in Somersetshire ; at 
 Ruyton and Wroxeter, in Shropshire ; and at Castor, in 
 Northamptonshire. The last three places were the sites of 
 well-known Roman towns, Rutunium, TJriconium, and Duro- 
 brivse. The manner of casting the coins was a very simple 
 process. A fine clay, found in the locality, was formed into 
 small round tablets of uniform size and thickness. A coin 
 of one of the emperors was pressed between each two tablets, 
 so as to leave a perfect impression; and the latter were then 
 arranged upon one another in files or columns, the upper 
 and lower tablets being impressed only on one side. A 
 notch was broken into the side all the way down, which 
 admitted the metal into each impression. Two or three of 
 these columns, as the case might be, were placed side by 
 side, with the side notches joined together; and these were 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO*THE DARK AGES. 327 
 
 enclosed in a clay case, with a hole at the top, through 
 which the melted metal ran down the opening left by the 
 notches, by which it entered into all the impressions. This 
 arrangement was observed in the moulds found at Lingwell 
 Gate. It was only necessary that care should be taken to 
 place the tablets on one another, so that the reverse might 
 correspond with the head belonging to it. Their misplace- 
 ment would produce those wrong reverses which are some- 
 times found among ancient Eoman coins, and which iave 
 often puzzled the numismatist. 
 
 " From the number of these moulds, which are found on 
 the sites where they occur, we might imagine that, after 
 being used two or three times, they were thrown aside as 
 waste, and new ones formed. In an account of those found 
 at Edington, in Somersetshire, printed in the fourteenth 
 volume of the ' Archseologia,' the writer informs us that 
 ' the field in which they were found is a meadow that bears 
 no mark of ever having been ploughed ; which accounts for 
 the moulds remaining so long undiscovered. It is situated 
 at the north edge of Polden Hill, at about a quarter of a 
 mile to the north of the village at Chilton. We were led to 
 this particular spot by a person who had some time before 
 cut through a bed of them in digging a drain. They were 
 lying promiscuously scattered over a space about four feet 
 square, and from six inches to a foot below the surface of 
 the ground.' He adds that in the space of an hour they 
 picked up several hundred moulds. They are found also 
 scattered about very plentifully at Lingwell. In some in- 
 stances pieces of metal have been found ; and at Lingwell 
 Gate an earthen crucible for melting it was met with. Some 
 moulds have even been found to contain the forged coins as 
 the metal had been poured in, which had never been taken 
 out. 
 
 " Moulds of the same kind have been found in France, 
 especially in Lyons, and at Damery, near Epernay, in the 
 department of the Marne. This latter place occupied the 
 site of a Roman station. Excavations made there in the 
 
328 HISTORY OF MOlffiY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 winter of 1829, brought to lightj under a heap of burnt 
 matter, the remains of extensive buildings, which had appa- 
 rently been destroyed by fire, and appeared to have con- 
 sisted of baths and a moneyer's workshop. In some of the 
 apartments were found vases full of coins. The first con- 
 tained at least two thousand pieces of base silver, more than 
 fifteen hundred of which bore the head of Postumus, the 
 remainder presenting the series which is generally found 
 from the elder Philip down to that reign. The fabric was 
 bad, and the metal much alloyed. Another vase contained 
 a silver coin of Antoninus ; five small brass of the imoney 
 of Treves, with the types of Rome and Constantinople ; a 
 hundred other small brass of the money of Treves, Lyons, 
 Aries, Aquileia, and other towns, with the heads of Constans 
 and Constantius, sons of Censtantine ; and nearly four 
 thousand pieces in small brass of the fourth size, all of the 
 same emperors, Constans and Constantius. All these coins 
 were so fresh that it seemed evident they had been made in 
 the place where they were found, and that they had never 
 been in circulation. This circumstance was soon explained 
 by the discovery in an adjoining room of a manufactory of 
 money which, at the time the buildings were destroyed, 
 must have been in full activity. ' There, under a heap of 
 ashes and tiles, were found together, shears and the remains 
 of other instruments suitable for the making of money ; and 
 several collections of moulds of baked earth, still containino' 
 the pieces, which had been cast in them, and the ingot 
 formed by the superfluous metal. These moulds were 
 moulded from the money which they were intended to re- 
 produce, by pressing the models between discs of worked 
 clay of larger diameter, in order to form ledges, and were 
 then placed one upon another, so that, with the exception 
 of the first and last, they received on the two faces the stamp 
 of the obverse and the reverse of a piece. The cavities and 
 impressions being obtained by this process, both easily and 
 accurately, the discs composing the moulds were notched in 
 order to form a passage for the fused metal ; they were then 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAK ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 329 
 
 hardened in the fire, and replaced one another, notch over 
 notch, in the same order as when moulded.' 
 
 " It has been a question rather learnedly and warmly- 
 discussed, whether these workshops were those of private 
 forgers, or whether they were establishments under the 
 direction of the imperial government. The latter supposi- 
 tion seems to be authorized by the fact that they are found 
 in large towns, and apparently in some instances in public 
 buildings. The moulds found at Polden Hill, in Somerset- 
 shire, were of Severus and his wife Julia, of Caracalla, 
 Geta, Macrinus, Heliogabalus, Julia Paula, Alexander Seve- 
 rus, Maximinus, Maximus, Plautilla, and Julia Mammoea. 
 These, compared with other circumstances, seem to show 
 that the forgeries were carried on after the reign of Severus, 
 and that it was probably one scheme of the fiscal administra- 
 tion to raise money by the issue of debased coin, which, to 
 protect the reigning emperor from odium, was cast from 
 moulds of previous emperors. Of course, it does not follow 
 necessarily that some of the moulds which have been 
 found in other places may not have belonged to private 
 forgers, who thus enriched themselves by defrauding the 
 public." ^ 
 
 "In the reign of Aurelian, a.d. 270-74, occurred the 
 celebrated Revolt of the Moneyers. These persons had 
 taken advantage of the troubles of the empire during the 
 last fifty years to coin base money ; and finding that Aure- 
 lian was determined to reform this abuse, they, with their 
 chief, Felicissimus, took arms, and assembled on Mount 
 Coelius. There they resisted with such fury the troops sent 
 against them, that seven thousand soldiers are said to have 
 fallen before the rebels were subdued." ^ 
 
 ^ " The Celt, the Koman, and the Saxon," by Thomas "Wright, Phila- 
 delphia, 1875, 430-35. A Roman coining press, found in England, is 
 also mentioned in " Notes relating to the Gold and Silver Coinage," by 
 a Disciple of Franklin, in the collection of " Tracts on Banks and 
 Currency," No 6332 in the library of the Philosophical Society of 
 Philadelphia. 
 
 ^ Humphreys" "Ancient Coins," p. 175. 
 
330 HISTOEY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 To account for a force so great as to create this havoc, 
 Humphreys reminds us that " it was not Rome^ but the 
 world, that had to be supplied with its circulating medium, 
 the hulk of which was copper." 
 
 The remark italicized is important ; the explanation is in- 
 sufScient. Though " they had not invented the screw press, 
 but struck up each piece by means of repeated blows with 
 the hammer," the number of workmen at base money alone 
 could hardly have been sufficient to maintain so formidable 
 a revolt. The moneyers had evidently not been coining 
 " base " money, but additional money. They probably had 
 some colour of authority for this, or could scarcely have got 
 so many workmen into the business. They had usurped or 
 persisted in retaining a valuable privilege ; and the revolt 
 was in all probability occasioned by an attempt of Aurelian 
 to monopolize the coinage himself. 
 
 These various facts and considerations, particularly where 
 they are coupled with the previous ones, relative to the ex- 
 tensive coining arrangements and numerous base coins 
 found in France, very clearly establish the practice of 
 seignorage in copper, as well as silver coins^ the difference 
 between the weight or purity of the "base" coins and those 
 which they simulated, constituting the exorbitant profits of 
 the Crown, part of which were shared by the moneyers, who 
 paid' for the privilege, and were sometimes, as in the present 
 case, robbed of it before it expired. There is but slight 
 difference in principle between this episode and the " fight ■'■' 
 which the American " state-banks " once made against the 
 Federal government. They both ended the same way — the 
 moneyers were crushed.'' 
 
 But the defeat of the moneyers in Italy only led to their 
 removal to France, Britain, and the other provinces of the 
 empire, where they could purchase their coveted privilege 
 
 ' Lenormant, 248, regards the emission of symbolic money as an 
 economical error, and as having led to the "great monetary crisis of the 
 third oenti^ry " ! 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 331 
 
 from the local governor or military commander, and enjoy it' 
 with less fear of molestation. The evils of an unlimited 
 and continually debased coinage were no longer to be 
 remedied or palliated. The empire had long been in a 
 declinej and the operations of the moneyers represented 
 only one of those many disorders which invaded and assisted 
 the dissolution of the falling state. 
 
 Soon this state was to split into many fragmentSj each one 
 having its obscure moneys and monetary history, daily 
 growing more and more " intrinsic," until, in the gloom of 
 the Dark Ages, corn, and cattle, and even human beings filled 
 that place in the law which once had been occupied by the 
 refined nummus of the Roman republic. 
 
 Looking back, now, upon the monetary systems of Rome 
 as they have herein been resuscitated from her numismatic 
 remains and the few and disjointed fragments she has left 
 us of her laws and history, it appears : — 
 
 1. That about the period when the Gauls were expelled 
 from Rome the Roman republic deliberately and purposely 
 adopted what we should now call an irredeemable paper 
 currency, only that instead of being printed upon paper, 
 printing being then unknown, and paper flimsy,^ it con- 
 sisted of numerals stamped upon bronze, whose emission 
 was controlled and regulated by the senate, who jealously 
 maintained and guarded this privilege, only yielding it 
 when the constitution was overturned and the senate itself 
 had sunk to the condition of a mere registrar of the edicts 
 of ephemeral tyrants. 
 
 2. That gold and silver coins had previously long been 
 in common use among all the nations surrounding Rome ; 
 that gold and silver in ample quantities were easily obtain- 
 
 ' Papyrus was not used in Rome until after the time of Alexander 
 the Great ; nor parchment until the Ptolemies began to reign in Egypt. 
 They were both unsuited for money symbols. See Adam's " Roman. 
 Antiquities," pp. 4-38-40. 
 
^83 2 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 able by the republic had it seen best to use them for 
 coins ; that these metals were bought and sold in republican 
 Rome as commodities ; that they were stored as bullion in 
 vaults for use in foreign wars, and shipped to India in 
 exchange for merchandise ; that they were allowed to be 
 •coined by Eoman families long before they were used as 
 money in Rome ; and that in choosing to adopt an irre- 
 deemable currency the Roman senate did so from a convic- 
 tion that at that time gold and silver were an insecure 
 foundation upon which to rest the industrial and social 
 superstructure of a great state, and not because of any 
 inability on its part to command what would, at that period, 
 have been ample supplies of these metals. 
 
 3. That so long as the Roman numerical system was 
 preserved intact, the state continued to increase in popu- 
 lation and productive resources ; that long before the nume- 
 'rical system was abandoned it was encroached upon by 
 silver, and afterwards also by gold, in the legal use given 
 to these metals for the payment of troops, who having 
 themselves been the means of capturing large quantities of 
 bullion from the enemy refused to receive their pay in 
 tokens which had no value beyond the confines of the re- 
 public, and whose patriotism was thus corrupted by the 
 spoil of battle ; and that from the time of this introduction 
 of silver and afterwards gold into the currency, and perhaps 
 partly in consequence thereof,^ the state began to decay, 
 because prices came to be based upon the bullion value of 
 the precious metals, instead of the legal value of bronze, 
 and with this change, prices immediately began to fall, and 
 continued to do so for over ten centuries. The tremendous 
 social consequences of this continued fall of prices has 
 already been fully depicted by David Hume ^ and Sir Archi- 
 bald Alison.^ Whether this picture is exaggerated or not, 
 it is no part of the author's design to discuss in this 
 .place ; but certain it is that, as Antoninus Augustus said 
 
 ' Jacob, 122. = Hume's " Essays." 
 
 ' Alison's " Essays." 
 
FROM THE AUGUSTAN ERA TO THE DARK AGES. 333 
 
 " Money had more to do with the distemper of the Roman. 
 Empire than the Huns and the Vandals." ^ 
 
 ^ After the Augustan era, the Roman institution of money lost the 
 power which it had 6nce possessed to assist the development of the 
 State. The refined conceptions of the Commonwealth had disappeared. 
 Law had in great measure resigned the paternity of money. Number 
 had ceased to form its essence ; nummi no longer was its name. Hence- 
 forth its paternity was in the mines of distant countries, or the spoil of 
 conquered nations ; its essence was commodities ; its name moneta, from> 
 the place where these commodities were fabricated into coins. 
 
CHAPTER XXVIII. 
 
 ANCIEXT GENERIC TEEMS FOE MONET. 
 
 Kasu, Kas, Karsliapana and cash — Dinar, dinarius, and dinero — 
 rioos, feloos andfoUis — Nomisma, nummus, andnumerary — Pecunia — 
 As — Nummus — Moneta — The last-named term, though it dates back 
 to the Scipion period, did not come into general use untU the Dark 
 Ages — Its defects — Specie — Coin — Unit of money — The generic term 
 for money a key to the conception of money. 
 
 THE most ancient generic term for money of which 
 we possess any certain knowledge at the present 
 time appears to be the Tamil word kasu^^ which in Todu is 
 rendered as kas/ in Sanscritj karshapana or karsha/ in 
 SingalesBj kahapana/ in Hebrew fiDD (caseph), in Kordo- 
 fanesGj kashasba, in modern Persian, cashbekes, and in Eng- 
 lishj cash." The probable origin of this word is alladed to 
 in other parts of this work.* It appears to date from certain 
 copper moneys which were in use at the period when the 
 extant code of Manou was compiled. Whether it had or 
 had not some remoter origin cannot be determined. 
 
 Another very ancient term is dinar, which is used in the 
 Indian Vedas/ and meant a certain coin. From this word 
 seems to have sprung the Arabian dinar/ and the Eoman 
 word denarius ; although Pliny traces the latter to dena- 
 
 ' Thomas' " Pathan Kings of Delhi," p. 361. " Ibid. 
 
 "• Ibid, and Marsden, 22. * P. K. D., 361. 
 
 Cash is used in the seaports of China, meaning the small copper 
 coins that constitute the principal money of that empire. I am doubt- 
 ful about its Indian origin, but believe it was introduced into China by 
 Europeans from India. Tseen is the Chinese word for money. 
 
 " See p. 69, note 1, and pp. 77, 149, 153, ante. 
 
 ' See p. 69, ante. « See p. 99, ante. 
 
ANCIENT GENEEIC TEEMS FOE MONEY. 335 
 
 aerisj and modern numismatists the thing it represents, to 
 the Greek drachma. However this may be, either the 
 Indian dinar or the Eoman denarius, has survived to the 
 present day in the generic term for money employed in 
 Italy, Spain, Portugal, Mexico, and South America. 
 
 Follis seems to have come from Arabia. It appears in 
 that country and Ethiopia as floos, in Mongul India as 
 feloos or follis,^ and in Byzantine Rome as fal or follis, plural 
 foUes.^ I am not aware that it survives in any of the 
 Western languages. 
 
 Nest to the Hebrew (originally Indian) word caseph, the 
 oldest word for money which survives in modern languages, 
 is the Greek nomisma, which the Romans translated num- 
 mus, the French use as numeraire, and the English as 
 numerary. Numbers, numismatics, numismatist, and other 
 words are derived from the same root. Nomisma was 
 from nomos, which was a Dorian word, and therefore of 
 Pelasgian or Phoenician origin, and was probably introduced 
 into Greece before the alphabet.^ 
 
 In the classical Greek, nomos meant law, it also meant 
 numbers, numbers being ideal relations which are made 
 visible by signs or symbols instituted by law, or recognized 
 by convention. Nomos meant anything assigned, distri- 
 buted, or dealt out; nomizo related to customs, usages, 
 institutions ; nomihos meant of or for the law, resting on 
 the authority of law, learned in the law ; nomimos meant 
 lawful, legal, conformable to prescription; and nomisma 
 meant anything established by law, or usage, as numbers, 
 weights and measures, institutions, customs, &c. Nomis- 
 Tnena was translated by the Romans as instituta, and no- 
 misma as nummus. 
 
 It seems very evident from these cognate terms, all of 
 
 ' See p. 98, ante. 
 
 ^ Matthew Raper, in his " Inquiry,'' pp. 570, et svpra, defines it as a 
 little bag or purse, whence it came to be used (in Byzantium) for a 
 sum of money. 
 
 " On the precedence of the use of money before letters, see p. 15, ante. 
 
336 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 whicli were used by the commercial classes of Athens 
 during the fifth and fourth centuries B.C., and are to be found 
 ascribed to them in the literature of the period, that the 
 conception of money was inseparably connected with the 
 powers and limitations afiixed to it by law; that money was 
 regarded as an institution of law or custom, and one that 
 upon the withdrawal of this support would become 
 valueless/ 
 
 In Rome the generic terms for money seem to have been 
 successively pecunia, As, nummus, and moneta. Pecunia 
 appears to have come from the period previous to the use of 
 the Etruscan bronze money ; and ses from the use of that 
 money. Nummus, as already mentioned, followed the 
 adoption of the Greek system of money, either when the 
 laws of Solon were introduced, or after the expulsion of the 
 Gauls. From nummus there flowed nummus seris, bronze 
 money ; aureus nummus, gold money ; nummus asper, 
 newly -coined money ; nummularii, bankers or money- 
 lenders ; nomen, a debt ; nomnia facere, to contract debt ; 
 appelare de nomine, to pay, &c. 
 
 The origin of moneta has already been given. It is 
 derived from the name of the temple in which, or in a 
 building attached to or next to which the money of Eome 
 was coined after the defeat of Pyrrhus, B.C. 275, more pro- 
 bably after the capture of Tarentum by the Romans, B.C. 
 272.^ It probably did not come into use until after the era 
 of Scipio, and then was only used occasionally until the 
 period of the Empire, when it and its derivatives became 
 more common. Nummus, nevertheless, continued to hold 
 its ground until towards the decline of the Empire, when it 
 went entirely out of use, and moneta and its derivatives 
 
 ' See opinion of Aristotle in a previous part of this work. 
 On the origin of this term I like the account of Suidas best. He 
 says that during their war with the Tarentines the Romans, beinw in 
 • want of money, prayed to Juno, and were assured by the goddess that 
 so long as they observed the principles of equity, money would always 
 be within their reach. 
 
ANCIENT GENERIC TERMS FOR MONEY. o37 
 
 usurped its placOj which it has continued to hold ever 
 since. ^ 
 
 Moneta is therefore substantially a term of the Dark 
 Ages. It has never been applied to a numerary^ because 
 there has been no radically numerary system in use since 
 moneta originated. The idea associated with moneta is 
 coinSj whose value was derived mainly from that of the 
 material of which they were composed; whilst the idea 
 associated with nummus is a system of symbols whose 
 value was derived from legal limitation. From the fact 
 that our language sprang from the Dark Ages, we have no 
 generic word for money other than moneta, which only 
 relates to one kind of money. ^ For a similar reason, the 
 comparative newness of the English tongue, we have no 
 word for a piece of money except coin, which, properly 
 speaking, only relates to one kind of piece, namely, that 
 which is struck by the cuneus. " Numerary " is hardly in 
 common use as yet ; and " a piece of money" would not be 
 understood to include castings. For want of more com- 
 prehensive terms, it has been found necessary throughout 
 this work to employ "moneys" to embrace numeraries, and 
 " coins" to embrace castings. 
 
 The term money has yet another defect. It is sometimes 
 used to mean the whole volume of money, and at others 
 a portion or fraction of that volume, as a piece of money, 
 and is therefore ambiguous in several ways; but there 
 seems to be at present no help for this except by means of 
 new and uncouth terms. 
 
 " Unit of money,'" meaning a fraction of the whole 
 volume of money, is erroneous. There can be but one 
 unit of money, and that is the whole of it. Anything less 
 than the whole must be a fraction, and not a unit. How- 
 
 ^ For numberless derivatives from moneta, see Du Cange's Glossary, 
 art. "Moneta." 
 
 ^ The words "specie" and "species," sprang from the very depths- 
 of these ages, probably from the custom of paying in kind. They are 
 too ambiguous for modern use, and should be permitted to drop. 
 
 Z 
 
338 HISTOET OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 ever^ these are refinements of language whicli it is not 
 necessary to enlarge upon in this place. They belong less 
 to the history of money^ than to the science or principles - 
 which are to be deduced from that history. "^ 
 
 Although the various shades of meaning through which 
 words run from their origin to their extinction, is often 
 misleading with regard to their application at particular 
 eras of time, yet, viewing the matter broadly, it may be 
 assumed that the generic term commonly employed for 
 money, in any given age, aflFords a key to the conception of 
 money which that age entertained. It is not an indication 
 to be relied upon entirely, but when corroborated by other 
 circumstances, it affords a very safe guide. Confirmed by 
 the explicit words of Plato and Aristotle, there is no more 
 doubt that by nomisma the Greeks understood a whole 
 money, whose value depended upon the law, than that by 
 species our English forefathers meant a piece of money, 
 the only measure of whose value was to be found in another 
 piece of the same kind. 
 
 ^ See the author's " Science of Money," for a full discussion of this 
 subject. 
 
CHAPTER XXIX. 
 
 CONCEPTION OF MONEY BY THE ANCIENTS. 
 
 The measurement of value by means of coins is only a momentary 
 equation ; that by means of a regulated money is an equation in time — 
 This idea was familiar to the republican leaders of antiquity, and, coupled 
 with the violent fluctuations in the value of the coining metals, led to 
 the establishment of numerary systems — The ancient conception of 
 money is embodied in the terms "nomisma" and "numerate" — Foreign 
 wars broke down these systems, and lowered the conception of money 
 to that expressed by moneta — The decline of the Roman Empire led to 
 a still lower conception of money : that of ponderata — This was the 
 conception of the Dark Ages, and from it have sprung all modern laws 
 and ideas on the subject — The ponderata has since advanced to the 
 moneta conception, but no farther. 
 
 DURING the progressive eras of the nations of antiquity- 
 it seems to have been observed that the exchange of 
 commodities and services by means of " intrinsic " coins 
 was merely ah indirect barter^ and that no greater advan- 
 tage was gained by it over direct barter than the con- 
 venience of subdividing the things exchanged ; whilst the 
 higher function of money — that of rendering each exchange 
 an equitable one — was not fulfilled by such coins at all. 
 Their total number was not amenable to control. It was 
 subject to increase or diminution from success in war and 
 mining discoverieSj from the operations of commercOj the 
 requirements of the arts^ the designs of counterfeiters, and 
 even the caprices of fashion. And the use of such coins for 
 measuring value had resulted in fluctuations so sudden and 
 enormous as to antagonize the interests of classes, and en- 
 danger the security of the state. 
 
 The earliest efforts to overcome these defects are traceable 
 backward almost to the first employment of money in the 
 Orient. The earliest effort made in the Western world was, 
 
340 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIKNT COUNTRIES. 
 
 so far as we know^ in Laconia or Sparta. From the iron 
 numerary of that country doubtless sprang those of the 
 various Greek states and colonies^ as well as those of Car- 
 thage and Rome ; and from this frequent and common use 
 of numerary systems resulted that general conception of 
 money throughout the ancient world, which is embodied in 
 its classical names of nomisma and numerate/ 
 
 Polybius attributes the abandonment of the numerary 
 system of Sparta to the lust of foreign conquest." And this 
 seems to have also been the cause of its relinquishment in 
 Carthage and Rome. All of these nations grew richer and 
 more powerful in after times; but they never were more 
 progressive than during the period when these systems were 
 in vogue. Wealth was more fairly divided ; the opportuni- 
 ties of life were more evenly distributed ; each citizen was 
 filled with ardour for the welfare of the state ; the various 
 orders of society were bound together by common interests 
 and aspirations ; there was no fear of the future, no hatred 
 of classes, no social discontent, no civil commotion.^ 
 
 With the subsequent decline of these great states, and 
 the systems of money which had served to equitably 
 
 1 Consult Colquhoun's "Commentaries on the Civil Law,'' § 1825, on 
 " Solutio ; " also the " Pandects," book x. 
 
 ^ " So long as they confined their views of conquest to the neigh- 
 bouring' states, and to the limits of Peloponnesus, they were able to 
 draw from Laconia itself such supplies as were sufficient for the accom- 
 plishment of their designs, as all things that were necessary were col- 
 lected within then- reach, and as the distance was commodious for their 
 return back again to their country, and for transporting all their stores. 
 But when they attempted to maintain fleets upon the sea, and to send 
 theu- armies beyond the bounds of Peloponnesus, it very soon was seen 
 that neither their iron money, nor the exchange of their own natm-al 
 commodities that was permitted by Lyom-gus, was capable of supplying 
 all their wants, but that stores drawn fi-om foreign countries and money 
 of a common value were needed to support such enterprises." Polybius, 
 book vi., extract iii., chap. i. 
 
 ^ Polybius bears direct testimony to this : " At the time of the 
 invasion of Hannibal ... the government of Carthage . . . had de- 
 clined from its highest point of vigour and perfection ; whereas the 
 Romans at this very time had just raised their constitution to the most 
 perfect and flourishing state." Book vi., extract iii., chap. ii. 
 
CONCEPTION OP MONEY BY THE ANCIENTS. 341 
 
 measure the capital, labour, productions, and social rights 
 of their intellectual and industrial classes, the conception of 
 money underwent a change. The lure of spoil, the attrac- 
 tive hazards of gold and silver mining, the fascination of 
 possessing these beautiful metals, rendered the governing 
 classes blind to the influence which their adoption as money 
 was exercising upon the welfare of the state. The old 
 aphorisms concerning money were forgotten. Money was 
 no longer an institution of the state which connected every 
 exchange, both with the past and the future; it was no 
 longer an idea, it was a fact ; it was no longer a symbol, but 
 a thing ; and to that thing, as it came, radiant and glisten- 
 ing, from the temple of Juno, cleansed of the blood of 
 innocents, and the sweat of captives that had won it, was 
 given the name " moneta." 
 
 Prom this time forward money ceased to be looked at 
 from a comprehensive point of view. There was no such 
 thing as a system of money ; there was no attempt to ascer- 
 tain, much less to regulate the volume of money ; there was 
 no law of money. The unit of money was no longer all 
 money, but any one portion of it, provided it had upon it 
 that mark of authority which certified its validity. 
 
 This conception of money lasted until about the third or 
 fourth century of our era ; then it took another step toward 
 materialism. It had fallen from numerata to moneta; it 
 was now to fall from moneta to ponderata.^ The mark upon 
 pieces of money was no longer an assurance of their 
 validity. It was now necessary to weigh them.^ It was no 
 longer coins that people were dealing in : it was quantities 
 of gold, silver, or copper. Everybody was a buyer and 
 seller of junk. 
 
 The ponderata conception of money continued substan- 
 
 ^ The distinction between numerata and ponderata will be found in 
 Gains, a.d. 138-178. " Commentaries on Gains," by Tomkins and 
 Lemon; London, 1869, p. 492. 
 
 ^ During the decline of the Empire the laws provided that contracts 
 might be made in coins of a specified weight and fineness of metal. 
 "Modern Koman Law," by Tomkins and Jencken; London, 1870, 
 p. 305. 
 
342 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COUNTRIES. 
 
 tially until the re-opening of commerce by the Venetians. 
 It was the conception, par excellence, of the Dark Ages. 
 Breaks took place now and then, exceptions occurred here 
 and there; but this was the general view of money from the 
 fourth to the eighth centuries, and in some countries until a 
 much later period.^ Money was not the only institution of 
 government that had perished: all institutions had perished. 
 There was no government, except the sword. There was no 
 money. Exchanges were made in kind, or for slaves, or for 
 bags of corn, or lumps of metal, which men weighed to one 
 another. 
 
 From this degraded posture of money have sprung all 
 modem laws and ideas on the subject. When the decline of 
 European civilization was arrested by the establishment of 
 stable governments in Asia, and the re-opening of commerce 
 with that continent, and when its stationary condition was 
 changed again to one of progress by the discovery of 
 America and a sea-route to the Indies, the practice and 
 conception of money advanced from its position of pon- 
 derata to moneta, and there it has substantially remained 
 ever since,^ notwithstanding the decisions of Sir Matthew 
 Hale, or of the Supreme Court of the United States.^ 
 
 ^ In Maddox's " History of the Exchequer " there will be found 
 numerous instances of the practice of weighing and assaying pieces of 
 money, trying by " combustion," &c. 
 
 ^ Sir Edward Coke had laid it down (2 Instit. 577) that " the money 
 of England must either be of gold or silver," when Sir Matthew Hale 
 decided (Davies' Reports, 48) that a promise of £100 sterling was pay- 
 able with £100 of the overvalued moneys issued by Queen Elizabeth. 
 The Supreme Court of the United States has recently decided that a 
 promise of $100 was payable with the overvalued and irredeemable 
 greenback notes issued by the government, under the Act of Feb. 25, 
 1862. Sir Matthew Hale's decision was certainly out of keeping with 
 the times in which he lived. The progress of events can alone deter- 
 mine the congriiity of the Supreme Court's decision with the spirit of the 
 present age. 
 
 " " The most carefully framed Constitutions are worthless unless they 
 be embodiments of the popular character ; and governmental arrange- 
 ments in advance of, or behind the time, will inevitably lapse into 
 congruity with the time." Herbert Spencer's " Essays." 
 
CHAPTER XXX. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 IN a previous work the author showed that the world's 
 supplies of the precious metals were diminishing, and 
 that there appeared no prospect that these supplies would 
 be augmented; that, contrariwise, the demand for these 
 metals was daily increasing ; that of the stock on hand in 
 the commercial world a large proportion had originally been 
 obtained through conquest and slavery — a circumstance that 
 had lowered its purchasing power and raised the prices of 
 commodities ; that this enhancement of prices had been 
 maintained by the gradual introduction of paper notes, 
 which now formed one-half of the entire volume of money, 
 with a tendency to increase still further ; that all the known 
 placers had been exhausted of their easily-found gold, and 
 that both placer and quartz and silver mining had hence- 
 forth to be conducted upon an economical basis ; and that 
 at the existing level of prices it was impossible to produce 
 these metals at a profit (except in a comparatively few and 
 unusually rich mines) , so long as the old and cheaply ac- 
 quired stock of precious metals remained unconsumed, and, 
 especially, so long as the level of prices which that stock 
 had created was maintained by means of paper notes. 
 
 Now that the days of conquest are virtually over, and, 
 nations can no longer hope to recruit their supplies of 
 metal through the spoils of war; now that the days of 
 slavery are ended and such supplies can no longer be 
 obtained by forcing captives into the exterminating labours 
 of impoverished mines, it results from the foregoing pre- 
 mises, that unless the proportion of paper to gold and 
 
344 HISTORY OF MONEY IN ANCIENT COXJNTEIES. 
 
 silver in the moneys of the world is still further increased, 
 we must be prepared to witness a permanent and indefinite 
 fall of pricesj and to incur that era of commercial depression 
 and industrial distress, and, perhaps, those political com- 
 motions which have ever proved to be the concomitants of 
 such a state and tendency of affairs. 
 
 The author is not at present prepared to say whether or 
 not a further extension of convertible paper would be safe 
 or desirable. Nor is he yet prepared to examine and dis- 
 cuss those other features of a monetary system, which relate 
 to its bearing upon the welfare and progress of society. 
 These are questions for the legislator and moralist ; not for 
 the historian. His object in the present work has been to 
 place before the reader as much as possible of the experience 
 of the ancient world regarding the institution of money, with 
 the view of enabling him to form his own opinion concerning 
 such measures as the present exigency may bring forth. 
 There his design has ended. 
 
 The efforts which he has made to explain and elucidate 
 the monetary systems of antiquity, and the ideas that con- 
 trolled them, must not be mistaken for an advocacy of any 
 of those systems or ideas. He has failed to be understood 
 by the reader, unless he has conveyed the conviction, which 
 with him is a very strong one — that monetary systems, 
 however well adapted to the requirements of one age or 
 country, may be wholly unfitted for another, and that upon 
 this subject, perhaps above all others, each nation must be 
 a law to itself. It does not follow, because Greece or Rome 
 adopted numerary systems, that modern nations must 
 follow them. Their circumstances were quite different from 
 ours. Apart from all other considerations, the institution 
 of money is of so complex a nature, that unless a state is 
 virtually composed of a ruling aristocracy as in Greece or 
 Eome, or a highly intelligent people as in Great Britain or 
 the United States, a numerary system would enjoy no op- 
 portunity of being considered, much less adopted. 
 
 The change to such a system from a commodity or mixed 
 
CONCLUSION. 345 
 
 system of money, such as is that of the countries last named, 
 is a grave subject for consideration ; and nothing but the 
 conviction that all other remedies for falling or violently 
 fluctuating prices are futile, is ever likely to induce these 
 important states to enter upon it. 
 
 The author cannot part with his reader without disclaim- 
 ing any pride of opinion on this recondite subject. That 
 which has engaged the attention without harmonizing the 
 convictions of such master minds as Aristotle, Plato, Tycho 
 Brahe, Copernicus, Locke, Newton, Smith, Mill, and 
 Spencer, is surely a study which no man can afford to 
 approach with rashness nor leave with complacency. 
 
 When the principles which underlie it are thoroughly 
 understood, money is, perhaps, the mightiest engine to 
 which man can lend his guidance. Unheard, unfelt, almost 
 unseen, it has the power to so distribute the burdens, 
 gratifications, and opportunities of life, that each individual 
 shall enjoy that share of them to which his merits entitle 
 him, or to dispense them with so partial a hand as to violate 
 every principle of justice, and perpetuate a succession of 
 social slaveries to the end of time. 
 
INDEX, 
 
 Aboolfidda, his description of Egypt, 
 142. 
 
 Aboriginal Europe, moneys of, 157. 
 
 Abraham's purchase of Machpelah, 
 154, 204. 
 
 Abyssinia, gold mines of, 134. 
 
 Acapulco, silver shipments from, to 
 Manila, 106. 
 
 Adali, a silver coin of India, 97. 
 
 JErarium, power of senate over, 239. 
 
 ^tolians, Roman treaty with the, 276. 
 
 Afghanistan, moneys of, 1 18. 
 
 Africa, plunder of by Romans, 7. 
 
 Africa, types of money in, 144. 
 
 Agatharchides of Cnidus, his descrip- 
 tion of Egypt, 140. 
 
 Agi'arian agitations, 298. 
 
 Agrarian and social war systems, 285. 
 
 Agriculture and commerce infer the 
 use of money, 14, 59. 
 
 Agriculture in Egypt, character of, 
 130. 
 
 in Italy, decline of, 268. 
 
 Akbar the Great, his monetary mea- 
 sure.5, 107. 
 
 Albuquex-que's operations in Abys- 
 sinia, 134. 
 
 Alexander the Great, invasion of India 
 by, 80. 
 
 his plunder of Asia, 287. 
 
 Alloy of Roman coins, 251, 296, 317. 
 
 Almond moneys, 77, 112. 
 
 Alps, gold mines of the, 226. 
 
 Altai mountains of India, gold mines 
 of the, 138. 
 
 Amalgamation process, antiquity of, 
 96, 137. 
 
 America, conjectured intercourse with 
 ancient India, 71 ; plunder of aboi-i- 
 ginal,315; Spanish conquest com- 
 pared with Roman conquest of Spain, 
 281 ; what led to discovery of, 92. 
 
 Ameiican civil war, its influence, 266. 
 
 credit notes, 11. 
 
 American silver dollar, 201, 214. 
 " State Bank" notes, restrictiuns 
 
 upon, 252, 307 ; suppression of tlie, 
 
 330. 
 Antiochus the Great, invasion of India 
 
 by, 82. 
 Antiquity of money in Greece, 162; 
 
 in Italy, 197. 
 Apennines, gold mines of the, 226. 
 Aquil, gold mines of, 288. 
 Aquileia, gold mines of, 226, 234, 288. 
 Arabia, glass moneys of, 16. 
 Arabian conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 Argonauts of antiquity, 125. 
 Ariana, moneys of, 118. 
 Aristotle, views on money, 346. 
 Arts, progress of, in Rome, 244. 
 Aryan, the gold hunter of antiquity, 
 
 125. 
 As, a Roman copper coin, 184 ; coin- 
 cidences relating to the, 3H ; its 
 
 degradation, 319 ; its reduction, 
 
 247 ; its weight, 200, 204, 222, 223, 
 
 259. 
 Asia Minor, plunder of, by Romans, 7. 
 Asia, plunder of, by Persians and 
 
 Greeks, 7. 
 Asiatic ports, opening of, \u. 
 Assyria, moneys of, 151. 
 Athens, silver mines of, 162. 
 Aureus, degradation of the Roman, 
 
 319 ; its weight, 293. 
 '• Aurichalcura," a peculiar copper, 
 
 iised for making sesterces, 221. 
 Augustan monetary system, 302. 
 Australia, argonauts of, 126. 
 exhaustion of the richer placer 
 
 deposits in, 302. 
 Australian .gold, sales of, under the 
 
 mint price, 288. 
 Aztec tin moneys, 149. 
 
 Babylon, moneys of, 151. 
 Bactria, moneys of, 118. 
 
348 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bungles, coinage of, in India, 95. 
 
 Banknotes, 12, 27. 
 
 Bank of England, suspension of the, 
 
 111. 
 Banks, ancient, 26. 
 
 in ancient Byzantium, 166. 
 
 in ancient Greece, 171. 
 
 Barter, use of commodity money essen- 
 tially a, 339. 
 Bellefond's (Linant de) description of 
 
 Egypt, 142. 
 Bell-shaped coins, 22, 160. 
 Belzoni, his description of Egypt, 142. 
 Bengal, monetary systems of, 99, 
 
 108. 
 Berbers, the, of Egypt, character of 
 
 the, 133. 
 Billon money, 86, 90, 93, 95, 120, 123, 
 
 313. 
 Bill of exchange, 26, 106. 
 Bisharee gold mines of Egypt, 128, 
 
 136, 137, 138. 
 Blunders of classical writers, 15, 122, 
 
 164, 204, 211, 261, 271,272,293, 
 
 315. 
 Bribery to Roman soldiery, 293 ; 
 
 official, 297. 
 Bi-ick tea money in China, 42, 46, 
 
 196. 
 Britain inraded by C»sar for its 
 
 pearls, 291; Roman mints in, 325. 
 British conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 Buddhic Topes, 87. 
 
 writings, 64. 
 
 Bullion, restrictions on trade in, vii. 
 Byzantium, iron money of, 166. 
 
 CfEsar, his spuil in Gaul, 191 ; in- 
 stances of his liberality, 291. 
 
 California, argonauts of, 126. 
 
 exhaustion of the richer placer 
 
 deposits ill, 303. 
 
 Californian gold sold below the mint 
 price, 288. 
 
 Caligula, coinage operations of, 231, 
 309. 
 
 Cambyses, Egyptian spoil of, 140. 
 
 Camp coinages, 81, 90, 93. 
 
 Carolus dollar of Spain, 201. 
 
 Carthage, metliod of opening mines, 
 323 ; moneys of, 173 ; Roman mo- 
 ti\e for its destruction, 287 ; sack 
 of, by Scipio, 175; treaty with 
 Rome, 193. 
 
 Cash, origin of the term, 23, 68, 195, 
 334, 
 
 Cattle money, 195, 197, 331. 
 
 Caubul, moneys of, 118 ; population, 
 
 121. 
 Caucasus, gold mines of the, 123. 
 Celtish types of money, 160. 
 Censorship of books under imperial 
 
 Rome, 204, 213,315. 
 Censuses, rarely taken in periods of 
 
 social decay, 25. 
 Ceylon, hook moneys of, 109. 
 
 ■ monetary systems of, 109. 
 
 Chaldea, supposed clay moneys of, 
 
 154. 
 Change to silver of monetary standai'd 
 
 in India, 111, 113. 
 Charlemagne, silver pennies of, 203. 
 Chase (Salmon F.), monetary system 
 
 established by, 307. 
 Chinaand Europe, early trade between, 
 
 IS. 
 China, origin of the name, 131. 
 
 true population of, 35. 
 
 Chinese annals, authenticity of, 17, 84. 
 
 bank notes, 12. 
 
 coins, singular types of, 21. 
 
 relics in Egypt, 17. 
 
 relics in Ireland, 18. 
 
 relics in the Troad, 18. 
 
 Chital, the, a billon coin of India, 95. 
 Chop marks, explanation of Chinese, 
 
 42, 44. 
 
 on moneys, 125. 
 
 Chuen, the Chinese word for cash, 22. 
 Cicero's opinion of Roman money, 
 
 298. 
 Civilization and money, 14, 194, 245. 
 Civilization of Egypt, Nubian origin 
 
 of, 130. 
 Civilization, origin of, in hilly regions, 
 
 130. 
 Classical wi-iters, blunders of, 15, 122, 
 
 164, 204, 211, 261, 271, 272,293, 
 
 315. 
 Clay money, 16, 73, 74, 75, 76, 108, 
 
 122, 147, 194, 205. 
 Clazomenfe, iron money of, 165. 
 Clipped coins, conditions of, 196. 
 Closure of Italian mines by the Roman 
 
 senate, 289. 
 Coal, absence of, in Italy, 267. 
 Coelius, Mount, secession to, 329. 
 Coinage, origin of, 74; prerogatives 
 
 of the Roman senate, 324. 
 Coining facilities of the Romans, 300. 
 Coins, capricious value of certain, 44 ; 
 
 irregular in weight, 198, 223 ; issues, 
 
 a sign of royal accession or conquest, 
 
 89 ; local fluctuations in value, 36 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 349 
 
 origin of cast and punched, 12 ; 
 their sacred character, 12 ; used for 
 shot, 99 ; why exported in prefe- 
 rence to merchandise, 242. 
 
 Coins and weights, general relation of, 
 200. 
 
 of ancient Egypt, none found, 
 
 143. 
 
 Coke (Sir Edward), his opinion upon 
 money, ,342. 
 
 Colonization of Europe, 157. 
 
 Commerce and money, 268. 
 
 in Italy, decline of, 268. 
 
 of Kome with India, 304. 
 
 Commercial depressions, probability 
 of future, 344. 
 
 routes to India, 84, 91. 
 
 Commodity money, conditions of, 198, 
 235 ; dangers of, 23 ; systems of 
 Rome, 316. 
 
 Commonwealth, rise of Roman, 242. 
 
 Complexity of subject of money, 344. 
 
 Composite moneys, 305. 
 
 Conception of money, ancient, 335, 
 339; modern, 183. 
 
 Confiscation, acquisition of precious 
 metals by, 102. 
 
 Congruity of law and popular cha- 
 racteristics nece-ssary, 342. 
 
 Conquests by the Romans, 242-4, 246. 
 
 Conquests of Egypt, 130. 
 
 Constantinople, conquest of, 92. 
 
 Convertible paper, its further exten- 
 sion considered, 344. 
 
 Copernicus, his views on money, 345. 
 
 Copper. The common money metal 
 of antiquity, 225 ; enormous exports 
 from Rome, 282 ; early employment 
 for coins, 7 ; fluctuations in its 
 value, 103; gold contained in, 54; 
 ingots formone^', 195, 199 ; Indian 
 supplies of, 72 ; inferior to gold and 
 silver for money, 224 ; its legal 
 status during the social wars, 294 ; 
 its position under Julius Csesar, 
 301 ; its scarcity in Rome, 324 ; 
 scarcity of, 25, 27 ; the standard for 
 money in India, 72, 107 ; supplies 
 to Rome fitful, 295 ; when first 
 coined in Athens, 171. 
 
 Copper and silver, ratio of value be- 
 tween, 105. 
 
 Copper coins, corrosion of, 68. 
 
 Copper mines, monopoly of, 220 ; of 
 Etruria, 193; of Italy, 179, 263; 
 of Rome, 194, 197, 221, 223, 230, 
 323. 
 
 Corinth, motive for its destruction by 
 
 the Romans, 287. 
 Corn and grain moneys, 32, 39, 51, 52, 
 
 80, 112, 133, 298, 331, 342. 
 Corn, restriction on commerce in, vii ; 
 " Corpus Jui'is Civilis," quoted, 237. 
 Cosmos, description of Egypt, 142. 
 Counterfeit coins, method of making, 
 
 326. 
 Counterfeit money, 13.27, 34, 38, 4(i, 
 
 76, 101, 124, 152, 156, 166, 194, 
 
 212, 281, 282, 296, 297, 298, 317, 
 
 319,325, 326. 
 Cowries, 19, 66, 77, 86, 90, 93, 99, 
 
 108, 112, 147, 149. 
 
 value of, in coins, 99. 
 
 Credit notes, 11. 
 
 Croesus, his conquest of Ionia, 166. 
 
 " Damathat," the, quoted on usury 
 
 laws, 63. 
 Danger of commodity moneys, 234. 
 Darfour, gold mines of, 133. 
 Darius Hystaspes, invasion of India 
 
 by, 79. 
 Dark ages, conception of money during 
 
 the, 341. 
 Debased coins, 290, 299, 310. 316,317, 
 
 326, 328. 
 Debasers of metals, 62. 
 Debtors, relief of, in Rome, 243. 
 Decay of the Roman commonwealth, 
 
 265. 
 Decay of Sparta, 164. 
 Decay, indications of social, 266. 
 Decline of the Roman Empire, first 
 
 evidences of the, 265. 
 Decline of Rome, influence of money 
 
 upon, 332. 
 Degi-adation of coins, explained, 318. 
 Degradation of the Roman as, 218. 
 Dehliwalla, a billon coin of India, 96. 
 Dekkan, monetary systems of, 108. 
 Delhi, monetary systems of, 99. 
 Delos, temple of, lends money, 171. 
 Delusiveness of gold mining, 142. 
 Demijohn, origin of the term, 195. 
 Denarius, a Roman silver coin, 184 : 
 
 degradation of the, 318; etymology 
 
 of the word, 227, 334 ; lowering of 
 
 the, 261 ; significance of term, 251. 
 
 dinaa-, dinara, origin of, 64, 69. 
 
 Dengi, the Russian term for money, 
 
 its origin, 97. 
 Destruction of ancient money, 75. 
 Devastation by miners in Egypt, 
 
 128. 
 
350 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Devastation of auriferous countries, 
 
 315. 
 Dinar, a gold coin of India, 99. 
 
 etmology of the word, 334. 
 
 dinara, and denarius, origin of, 
 
 64, 69. 
 Dies, old, used for new coins, 103, 
 
 111. 
 Dinero, tlie generic name for money 
 
 in Spain, 320. 
 Diocletian's interdict of mining, 142. 
 Diodorus Siculus, his description of 
 
 Egypt, 140. 
 Dionysius of Syracuse, his monetary 
 
 experiment, 169. 
 Dirhem, a silver coin of India, 97. 
 Disafforestation of Europe by miners, 
 
 158. 
 Discovery of America, influence of 
 
 upon India, 106. 
 
 what led to the, 92. 
 
 Dividers for money, 77. 
 
 Dollar, origin of the weight of the 
 
 American, 111. 
 Dora Baltea, mining ditches of the, 
 
 287. 
 Dragoncello, the ancient seaport of 
 
 Kome, 193. 
 Durwazand, gold sands of the, 123. 
 
 Early moneys of Rome, 117. 
 
 East India Company, its monetary 
 measures. 111. 
 
 Easterlings, coinages of the, 92. 
 
 or Saxon pound, 203. 
 
 Edrisi, his description of Egypt, 142. 
 
 Effigies upon coins and bank notes, 
 307, 309, 310. 
 
 Egypt, a gold-mining country, 290 ; 
 monej'S of, 127; Koman embassy 
 to, 244 ; usury laws of, 63. 
 
 Egyptian agriculture, its character, 
 130. 
 
 Egyptian tariff on Indian trade, 92. 
 
 Elizabeth of England, overvalued 
 moneys of, 342. 
 
 Embezzlements by Roman com- 
 manders, 241, 246. 
 
 England, banknotes of, 12. 
 
 Bank of, suspension of the, 111. 
 
 Coke's opinion upon the money 
 
 of, 342. 
 
 Engraved moneys, 13, 50. 
 
 Equity, relation of money to, 340. 
 
 Ethiopian conquests of Egypt, 130. 
 
 Etruria, conquest of, 157, 242, 243 ; 
 copper mines of, 193 ; its civilization 
 
 bequeathed to Rome, 242 ; moneys 
 of, 177. 
 
 Etrurian civilization, origin of, 177._ 
 
 Etruscan invasion of Egypt, 177; 
 moneys, 192, 205, 207 ; trade with 
 interior Europe, 178 ; trade with 
 the Orient, 178. 
 
 Europe, colonization of, 157 ; early 
 voyages to, 7 ; Roman plunder of, 
 7 ; moneys of aboriginal, 157. 
 
 European civilization, arrest in decline 
 of, 342. 
 
 former stationary condition of, 
 
 342. 
 
 Exchanges and money,correspondence 
 between, 245, 248, 249, 253, 263. 
 
 Exchequer notes, Chinese, 27. 
 
 Expanding and contracting moneys, 
 244. 
 
 Exportation of coining metals regu- 
 lated, 37, 38, 45. 
 
 Ex senatus consulto, its meaning, 216. 
 
 Fal, etymology of, 335. 
 
 Eall in value of gold, 300. 
 
 Family coins of India, 88. 
 
 Fatimite caliphs, glass money of the, 
 150. 
 
 Fazangoro, gold mmes of the, 135. 
 
 Fazooglu mines in Egypt, 134. 
 
 Eeristah on antiquity of Vedas, 64. 
 
 Feudal condition of India, 100. 
 
 Feudal origin of modern monetary 
 systems, xi. 
 
 Feudalism in Japan, 55. 
 
 First Punic War system, 256. 
 
 Fish money, 197. 
 
 Florentine trade with India, 92. 
 
 Flow of precious metals from Europe 
 to Orient, 113. 
 
 fi-omthe Orient to Europe, 110. 
 
 Fluctuating prices, remedies for ad- 
 verted to, 345. 
 
 value of Roman money, 298. 
 
 Follis, fal, &c. , a copper coin of several 
 ancient countries, 98, 112 ; etymo- 
 logy of, 335. 
 
 Forced money c(mti-asted with per- 
 missory money, 248. 
 
 Forests, destruction of, in Nubia, 133. 
 
 in Europe, destruction of, by 
 
 miners, 168. 
 
 Forged Roman coins, 296. 
 
 Fraction of money, meaning of the 
 phrase, 337. 
 
 France, gold regions of, 291. 
 
 Free coinage, 88, 188, 236, 284. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 351 
 
 rrencli conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 French revolution, viii. 
 
 Gaul, gold mines, 226 ; mines of con- 
 trolled bj^ Cfesar, 290; Roman 
 mints in, 283, 327. 
 
 Genghis Khan, invasion of Europe by, 
 28. 
 
 Genoese trade with the Orient, 91. 
 
 Gentes, coinage of gold and silver by, 
 219 ; coinage privileges of, 262, 278 ; 
 coins, 298 ; number who coined 
 denarii, 252. 
 
 Germany, silver mines of, 92. 
 
 Roman precedents for its modern 
 
 monetai"}' laws, 301. 
 
 Gilded coins, 155, 319. 
 
 Glass moneys, 150. 
 
 Gold, advantages and disadvantages 
 for coinage, 6 ; cost of producing, 
 9 ; decrease in supply, 4 ; early use 
 of, 3 ; exhaustion of supplies by 
 Romans, 302 ; fall of value in Italy, 
 292 ; first used for money, 4 ; how 
 found, 4 ; irregular supplies, 5 ; its 
 price in Egyptian marts, 134 ; 
 method of extracting, 6 ; superficial 
 character of quartz veins, 5, 70 ; 
 the standard of value under Caesar, 
 299 ; sudden fall in value, 191, 235, 
 288 ; sacred character, 61 ; scarcity 
 in India, 72. 
 
 Gold and silver coins in India, sub- 
 stantially modern use of. 111. 
 
 Gold and silver, Buddhic prohibition 
 of, 65 ; irregular supplies, 76 ; 
 supply of, to Rome, 226. 
 
 Gold coins, first permanent use of, 6 ; 
 first struck in, 271- ; remarkably 
 heavy ones, 86. 
 
 dust used as money in Egypt, 
 
 13i. 
 
 mines of Greece under the Ro- 
 mans, 281. 
 
 of Spain under the Romans, 281. 
 
 Gold-mining countries, characteristics 
 of, 131. 
 
 delusiveness of, 142. 
 
 ■ in Ariana, antiquity of, 122. 
 
 in Egypt, 128. 
 
 Gold standard, brief trial of, in India, 
 111. 
 
 Governmental control of mines, 162. 
 
 Grain and corn money, 23, 39, 51, 52, 
 80, 112, 133, 298, 331, 342. 
 
 Graves, plunder of, 80, 134, 146. 
 
 Great and little sesterces, 221. 
 
 Greece, antiquity of money in, 162. 
 
 copper mines of, 228. 
 
 influence of, upon Rome, 233. 
 
 ratio in ancient, 228. 
 
 Greek colonies, moneys of, 161. 
 
 conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 
 Greeks, the, not the inventors of 
 
 coins, 143. 
 " Greenbacks," 187, 188, 264, 307. 
 Gresham, his monetary theory, 221. 
 
 Hadrian, purposes of his frequent 
 
 coinages, 89. 
 Hale, Sir Matthew, quoted on money, 
 
 237, 342. 
 Hamilton, Alexander, his determina- 
 tion of the weight of the American 
 
 dollar. 111. 
 Hannibal's campaign against Rome, ' 
 
 261. 
 Hanseatic league, commerce of, 92. 
 Hedjaz, mines of the, 95. 
 Herodotus, his fable of the gold ants 
 
 explained, 122. 
 History, defects of ancient, 181. 
 Holland, pasteboard tablets of, 11. 
 Hortensian laws passed by Rome, 
 
 243. 
 
 Ibn-al-Wardyjhisdescription of Egypt, 
 142. 
 
 Ibn Batuta on Chinese paper money, 
 30. 
 
 lUyricum, the gold mines of, 290. 
 
 Importation of coining metals regu- 
 lated, 37, 38, 45. 
 
 Incredible prices mentioned by ancient 
 writers, 232. 
 
 India, ancient intercourse with Baby- 
 lon, Egypt, Greece, and Phoenicia, 
 71 ; antiquity of money in, 58, 79 ; 
 commerce with Rome, 244, 304 ; 
 commercial routes to, 84, 91 ; early 
 trade of Europe with, 18 ; esti- 
 mated volume of money in, 113; 
 Florentine trade with, 92 ; invasions 
 of, 79. 
 
 Indian mines, exhaustion of, 116. 
 
 origin of Egyptian and Nubian 
 
 civilization, 131. 
 
 products found in Egyptian 
 
 tombs, 143. 
 
 trade, loss of by Carthage, 175. 
 
 Indo-Germanic, the, emigration ; its 
 character, 159. 
 
 Industrial distress, probability of 
 future, in modern world, 344. 
 
352 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Inflation, instance of, produced by 
 coins, 256. 
 
 Ingot, copper, supposed recent use of 
 for money in India, 117. 
 
 Ionia, iron money of, 165. 
 
 Insolvency in Kome, relief of, 296. 
 
 Interdiction of gold mining, 142. 
 
 of mining in Italy, 226. 
 
 Interest and usury, 63. 
 
 " Intrinsic " systems of money, cha- 
 racter of, 314. 
 
 Invasion fund of Rome, 240. 
 
 Invasions of India, 79. 
 
 Iron money, 16, 25, 26, 34, 148, 164, 
 165, 205, 239, 316, 317, 326, 340. 
 
 mines of Rome, 221. 
 
 mines of Spain under the Romans, 
 
 281. 
 
 ores, early knowledge of work- 
 ing, 224. 
 
 warrants for money, 197. 
 
 Irredeemable money, 186. 
 
 Italian mines, closed by the Roman 
 senate, 289. 
 
 Italy, antiquity of money in, 197. 
 
 copper mines of, 179, 263. 
 
 decline of commerce in, 268. 
 
 decline of population, 268. 
 
 its mineral resources, 226. 
 
 Janus, closure of the temple of, 268. 
 
 Japan, bank notes of, 12. 
 
 historical epochs of, 49. 
 
 Japanese iron coins, 239. 
 
 Jefferson, Thomas, his determination 
 of the weight of the American dollar, 
 111. 
 
 Jital, the, a billon coin of India, 95. 
 
 Jugurtha, bribery of the Roman ma- 
 gistrates by, 297. 
 
 Julian system, the, 299. 
 
 Julius Caesar, his cruelty, 292. 
 
 Julius Paulus quoted, 237. 
 
 Juno Moneta, temple of, used as a 
 mint by the Romans, 253. 
 
 Justinian, pandects of, quoted, 237. 
 
 Kabul, moneys of, 118. 
 
 Ivaffa country, gold mines of the, 136. 
 
 Kai Khatu, monetary experiment of, 
 
 152. 
 Karsliapana, a copper money of India, 
 
 77. 
 Knife-shaped coins, 21. 
 Kohinoor diamond, seizure of the, by 
 
 Nadir Shah, UO. 
 Kordofan, gold mines of, 134. 
 
 Kordofan, iron money of, 148. 
 Ki'oss, explanation of term, 96. 
 
 Lac, explanation of term, 96. 
 Laconia, causes of the decay of its 
 
 numerary system, 340. 
 
 iron money of, 163. 
 
 Lacquer moneys, 65. 
 Language, ephemeral character of un- 
 written, 182. 
 Laristan, hook moneys of, 109. 
 Laurian, the mines of, 10, 78, 162. 
 Law (constitutional) and money, rela- 
 tion between, 207. 
 Law, influence of, upon money, 162, 
 
 314. 
 
 Roman, of money, 237. 
 
 terms often refer to obsolete 
 
 moneys, 262. 
 Laws enacted by Rome, 242, 243, 244. 
 Lead moneys, 16, 66, 77, 171, 313, 
 
 317, 326. 
 Leatlier moneys, 30, 32, 146, 147, 171, 
 
 174, 194. 
 Legal tender, function of certain 
 
 moneys, 252, 292, 320. 
 Leyden, pasteboard tablets of, 11. 
 Lex Cornelia nummaria, 293, 297. 
 Lex Papirius, 271, 294, 295. 
 Licinian laws passed by Rome, 243. 
 Limitation of numbers, the essence of 
 
 money, 101, 253. 
 Literature neglected in progressive 
 
 countries, 182. 
 Livius Drusus, alloyage of coins by, 
 
 279. 
 Livre of France, and pound sterling 
 
 of England, 202, 208. 
 Locke, John, his views on money, 345. 
 Lombardy, plains of, strewn with sand 
 
 by miners, 129. 
 Lucullan money coined for Sulla, 293. 
 Lycurgus, iron money of, 163. 
 Lydians,not the inventors of coins, 143. 
 
 Maccabees, coins of the, 154. 
 Macrizi, his description of Egypt, 142. 
 Magna GriEcia, 220, 247. 
 Mahabharata, fable of the gold ants in 
 
 the, 122. 
 MahAwanso, a Buddhist book, 86. 
 Mahomed-bin-Tugluk, his monetary 
 
 experiment, 100. 
 Mahomedan conquest of the Orient, 
 
 motives of, 92. 
 Mahomedan Hegira, 91. 
 Mahomedan invasion of India, 82. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 353 
 
 Mahomet, advent of, 91. 
 
 Mahomet Ali, his mining operations, 
 in Egypt, 135. 
 
 Malacca, gold mines, 109. 
 
 Majestus, law of, under Roman Em- 
 perors, 315. 
 
 Mameluke conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 
 Mandeville, Sir John, on Chinese 
 paper money, 30. 
 
 Manila, silver trade of, 106. 
 
 Mauou, code of, 15, 59, 60 et seq., 122, 
 125. 
 
 Manu. See Manou. 
 
 Manufactures in Italy, decline of, 268. 
 
 rise of, in Rome, 244. 
 
 Marco Polo, cited, 29. 
 
 Maremma, gold mines of the, 226, 
 289. 
 
 Marius Gratidianus, abolition of alloy- 
 age by, 280. 
 
 — — establishes trial of the pix, 296. 
 
 Mark Anthony, alloyage of coins by, 
 279. 
 
 Marks of authority upon money, 144. 
 
 Marseilles and the gold trade of the 
 Rhine, 167. 
 
 Masha, an ancient money and weight 
 of India and Egypt, 61, 102. 
 
 Massandi, his description of Egypt, 
 142 
 
 Materials for money, necessary cha- 
 racteristics of, 72. 
 
 supply of, 2. 
 
 Mauritius, the, paper money of, 112. 
 
 Maximum laws, 101, 124. 
 
 Measure of value, definition of, vii. 
 
 Mechanic arts, Roman progress in, 266. 
 
 Melting of copper moneys, 153. 
 
 Menes. See Manou. 
 
 Mercantile system, establishment of 
 the, 315. 
 
 Meroe, gold mines of, 135. 
 
 Metrical system of ancient India, 61. 
 
 Mexican tin moneys, 149. 
 
 Middle ages, conception of money dur- 
 ing, 342. 
 
 Mill (J. S.), views on monej', 345. 
 
 Mines, a government property of the 
 Romans, 221 ; closure of, by the 
 Senate, 289 ; mints at the Roman, 
 321 ; of Tuscany, then* conquest by 
 the Romans, 243, 244; policy of 
 closing, 35, 37, 54 ; produce of 
 Chinese, 46, 47 ; Roman adminis- 
 tration of, 281, 301, 324. 
 
 Mine slavery, 268, 295, 302, 305, 323. 
 
 Mining, conditions of in India, 115; 
 
 A 
 
 details of ancient Egyptian, 141 ; 
 destructive effects in Egypt, 128; 
 destructive effects in Italy, 267; 
 ditches of the Salassi, 287 ; influence 
 of paper notes upon, 343 ; influence 
 of stock of precious metals upon, 
 343 ; necessary future bases of, 
 343 ; unprofitable character of, 343. 
 
 Mining fever in ancient Rome, 283. 
 
 of 1824, 283. 
 
 Ming paper money of China, 31. 
 
 Mints, control taken by Csesar, 300 ; 
 farmed to private persons, 36 ; great 
 number in the Roman Empire, 310; 
 in temples, 13; officers clianged by 
 Octavius, 306. 
 
 Minute gold coins, 100. 
 
 Mithridates, plunder obtained from, 
 290, 293. 
 
 Mixed systems of money, 305. 
 
 Mohur, gold, of India, 112, 113. 
 
 Moneta, etymology of, 336; use of 
 the term, 333. 
 
 Moneta, Juno, temple of used as a 
 mint, 253. 
 
 Monetary systems peculiar to their 
 countries and eras, 344. 
 
 Roman Imperial, 313. 
 
 Money, always national, 203 ; ancient 
 conception of, 335, 339 ; ancient 
 generic tei-ms for, 334 ; coined in 
 temples, 13; complexity of, 344; 
 composite, 305 ; definition of, 2 ; 
 earliest forms of, 16, 69 ; effects of 
 increasing and decreasing, x ; Euro- 
 pean systems, viii ; exciiange and 
 society, 14; its convenience over 
 barter, 339 ; its obvious charac- 
 teristics, 144 ; its recondite nature, 
 298 ; lent by ancient temples, 171; 
 modern conception of, 183 ; multi- 
 pliers, 6 ; not used by savage tribes, 
 4; older than letters, 14, 15, 75 ; 
 one of the most potent of human in- 
 stitutions, 345; overvalued, 11; 
 proportion lost by wear and tear, 
 247 ; received for taxes not always 
 a legal tender, 252 ; supply of mate- 
 rials for making, 2 ; tendency to 
 increase, x ; theories of, xi, 2, 39 ; 
 value, what due to, 2. 
 
 Money and civilization, 14, 245. 
 
 Money and constitutional law, relation 
 between, 207. 
 
 Money and exchanges, correspondence 
 between, 245, 248, 249, 253. 
 
 Money or moneta, origin of term, 62. 
 
 A 
 
354 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Money, population and trade, 30. 
 Money-changers of antiquity, 171. 
 Moneyers, revolt of the Roman, 317, 
 
 329. 
 Monej'ers under the Empire, 307. 
 Money-lenders of antiquity, 171. 
 Mongol invasion of Europe, 28. 
 Mongol paper money, 28, 29. 
 Monoply of coinage by Koman senate, 
 
 216. 
 Mould for coins, ancient, found at 
 
 Wakefield, 282. 
 Multipliers for money, 6, 77, 87, 88, 
 
 90, 99, 123, 124, ISS. 
 
 Nadir Shah's plunder of India, 110. 
 
 Neuchatel, Lake, supposed ancient 
 money found in, 160. 
 
 Newton, Isaac, views on money, 345. 
 
 Nickel moneys, 66, 81, 120, 123. 
 
 Nile, the, alteration in its course, 128 ; 
 composition of the Delta, 129 ; dik- 
 ing by Menes, 145; inundations, 
 130 ; rise in the bed, 132 ; a mining 
 river, 127. 
 
 Nimroud, supposed clay moneys of, 
 154. 
 
 Ninus' invasion of Bactria, 119. 
 
 Nomisma, the classical name for 
 money, 162, 172. 
 
 — — etymology of, 335. 
 
 North American colonial bills, 226. 
 
 Notation, Indian mode of, 98. 
 
 Nubia, resemblance to California, 131. 
 
 origin of the name, 131, 
 
 Nubian Desert, ancient fertility of, 
 132. 
 
 Number, the essential characteristic of 
 money, 162. 
 
 Numeraries, value of due to numbers, 
 not to weight, 247. 
 
 Numerary moneys, 11,23,43, 163,165, 
 166,168, 170, 171, 172, 174,186; 
 inconsistent with despotic govern- 
 ments, 304 ; theory of, 75. 
 
 system of Home, 331 ; causes of 
 
 its decline, 255 ; end of, 241 ; tem- 
 porary revival of, 303. 
 
 Numismatists, higher function of, 314 ; 
 re-arrangement of coins required by, 
 311. 
 
 Numismatic shams, 200. 
 
 Nummus, a Koman copper coin, 187 ; 
 coincidences relating to the, 311 ; 
 etymology of the word, 335 ; first 
 employment by Rome, 214 ; use of 
 the term, 315, 333. 
 
 Nummulite fossils used for money, 
 147. 
 
 Obsolete money, law terms often refer 
 to, 262. 
 
 Octavius, administrative measure of, 
 303. 
 
 Ogulnian laws passed by Eome, 243. 
 
 Orient, opening of sea route to the, 33. 
 
 Oriental commerce, enormous profits 
 of, 304. 
 
 Origin of Greek civilization, 143. 
 
 of Egyptian civilization, 143. 
 
 Ostia, a port of Rome, 193. 
 
 Oxus, gold sands of the river, 123. 
 
 Overvaluation of coins against mer- 
 chandise, 231, 257, 269, 277. 
 
 Overvalued moneys, influence of war 
 upon, 269. 
 
 systems of modern Spain, 281. 
 
 Pallantium, another name for ancient 
 Rome, 177. 
 
 Palestine, moneys of, 151. 
 
 Palmyra, clay moneys of, 16. 
 
 Pandects of Justinian quoted, 237. 
 
 Paper in Rome, use of, 331. 
 
 invention of, 1 0. 
 
 moneys, ix, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 
 
 41, 42,51, 112, 114. 
 
 money in India, 77. 
 
 money in western world, 117. 
 
 money, proportion of to coin, ix. 
 
 notes, influence on mining, 343. 
 
 notes, influence upon prices, 343. 
 
 notes, jwoportion of to total vo- 
 lume of money, 343. 
 
 notes of Venice, 11. 
 
 Papyrus, parchment, and paper in 
 Rome, 331. 
 
 Parchment-covered moneyof Carthage, 
 205. 
 
 in Eome, use of, 331. 
 
 Pasteboard moneys, 11, 24, 25, 146. 
 
 tablets of Holland, 11. 
 
 Pastoral origin of money, 14, 58. 
 
 Patrician coins of Rome, 219. 
 
 system of monej', 246. 
 
 Paulus Emilias, his plunder of Mace- 
 donia, 286. 
 
 Peacock throne, seizure of the, by 
 Nadir Shah, HO. 
 
 Pecunia, origin of the term, 195. 
 
 Pennies in England, French coppers 
 
 received as, 254. 
 Penny or Denny, its origin, 203. 
 the English, origin of, 320. 
 
INDEX. 
 
 355 
 
 Permissory money contrasted with 
 forced money, 248. 
 
 Persia, moneys of, 151. 
 
 Persian conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 
 Phoenicians, mining explorations of, 7, 
 157 ; their avidity for the precious 
 metals, 126. 
 
 Pig iron for money, 197. 
 
 Pix, trial of, instituted by Marius 
 
 Gratidianus, 297. 
 -Placer mines, exhaustion of the Eo- 
 naian, 322 ; Roman method of work- 
 ing, 322; modern exhaustion, 343. 
 
 mining at present a losing indus- 
 try, 5. 
 
 mining, peculiarity of, 1 45. 
 
 Plate, melting of, in India, 93. 
 
 owned by Spanish grandees, 250. 
 
 Plated copper moneys, 66, 120, 121, 
 123, 124, 155,296, 317. 
 
 Plato, his views on money, 345. 
 
 Plebs, concessions to the Roman, 243. 
 
 Pliny's account of Roman moneys, 113. 
 
 Plough, origin of the word, 121. 
 
 Plunder obtained by Roman armies, 
 286, 287. 
 
 Po, delta of the river, 129. 
 
 Political commotions, probability of 
 futiire, 344. 
 
 economy, blunders of, respecting 
 
 monetary theories, 102. 
 
 Politics of money, 176. 
 
 Policy of Rome after Punic wars, 267. 
 
 Polybius on the decay of Rome, 266. 
 
 Ponderata, or weighed money, 145 ; 
 alluded to by Gaius, 316 ; ponderata 
 conception of money, 341. 
 
 Population and money, 245, 248, 26S. 
 
 and progress, 266. 
 
 of Caubul, 121. 
 
 of Italy, decline of, 268. 
 
 of Rome, 253. 
 
 Populations, rarely counted in periods 
 of social decay, 25. 
 
 Porcelain moneys, 16, 32. 
 
 Portuguese, plunder of India by, 105. 
 
 Potin money, 313, 317. 
 
 Potosi, silver mines of, 106. 
 
 Precious metals, diminishing supplies, 
 117, 343; influence upon mining, 
 343 ; increasing demand, 343 ; scar- 
 city in India, 105, 316, 321 ; sup- 
 plies to Rome, 205 ; unequal distri- 
 bution of the, 23. 
 
 Prerogatii e of coinage, 88. 
 
 Prices, ix, established by precious 
 metals, 343 ; in Rome, 209, 210, 
 
 212,231,233, 299 ; influences which 
 determine equalization of. 111, 115, 
 117; explanation of those mentioned 
 by ancient authors, 310 ; modified 
 by paper notes, 343 ; nearly always 
 local, 203 ; probable future decline 
 of, 343 ; relation of under different 
 moneys, 314. » 
 
 Printing, 13. 
 
 Private coinage, pernicious effects of, 
 241, 245, 252. 
 
 Proclamations by means of coins, 89. 
 
 Progressand decay of Carthage, Rome, 
 and Sparta, 340. 
 
 Progress and population, 266. 
 
 Progress, indications of social, 266. 
 
 Progressive countries, characteristics 
 of, 181. 
 
 periods of Rome, 242. 
 
 Provincial coins (Roman), restriction 
 upon fabrication of, 307. 
 
 Ptolemaic coinages, ratio of copper to 
 silver in, 229. 
 
 Punic war system, the first, 256 ; the 
 second, 261. 
 
 Punic wars, the, 175 ; their fatal in- 
 fluence upon Rome, 266. 
 
 Purse of money, etymology of, 335. 
 
 Quartz mines, method of working the 
 
 Roman, 322. 
 Quartz mining, peculiarity of, 1 45 . 
 Quinto, or tax on mining produce, 54, 
 
 61; its origin, 104. 
 
 Rapine committed by Caesar, 292. 
 
 Ratio of value between coining metals, 
 33, 78, 79, 80, 105, 106, 110, 113, 
 134, 135, 184, 199, 227, 228, 229, 
 230, 248, 251, 257, 275, 277, 292, 
 293, 295, 301. 
 
 Regulation of moneys, 76 ; by the Ro- 
 man senate, 306 ; implies privilege 
 of circulation, 250. 
 
 Religious offerings, money for, 239. 
 
 Reopening of commerce with the 
 Orient, 91. 
 
 Republican, Roman, system of money, 
 213. 
 
 Restriction on mining, Roman, 220, 
 221. 
 
 upon commerce in copper, 221. 
 
 Revenues in kind, 98, 100. 
 
 — — Roman imperial, how paid, 321. 
 
 Revolutions, eighteenth century, vii. 
 
 Rhamsinitus, the gold treasure of, 140. 
 
 Rhine, the, a mining river, 131. 
 
356 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ehone, the, a mining river, 131. 
 
 Eing money, 133; of aboriginal Eu- 
 rope, 160 ; of Egypt, 144. 
 
 Eise of Eoman commonwealth, 242. 
 
 Eoman coins found in India, 87. 
 
 — — commanders, embezzlements by, 
 241, 246. 
 
 ■ commerce with Mercia, 304. 
 
 commonwealth, rise of, 242. 
 
 conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 
 — — copper money in modern Spain, 
 283. 
 
 — — - empire, first evidence of the de- 
 cline of, 265. 
 
 ■ generals, avarice of the, 281. 
 
 gold coins in Asia Minor, 319. 
 
 imperial monetary systems, 313. 
 
 - — - law of money, 237. 
 
 mints, capacity of, 288. 
 
 money, fluctuating value of, 298 ; 
 
 generally, 181 ; tabular view of, 
 189. 
 
 nnmerary, downfall of, 241. 
 
 numerical system, influence of, 
 
 upon industry, 332. 
 
 provincial money, 217. 
 
 treasury, deposits in, 228, 289 ; 
 
 its resources, how computed, 241 ; 
 plundered by Caesar, 292. 
 
 Eome, an ancient Etrurian city, 177 ; 
 earliest monetary systems, 192; its 
 progi-essive period, 241 ; population, 
 253. 
 
 Eowe, Sir Thomas, on the corruption 
 of money in England, 218. 
 
 Royal metals, antiquity of term, 122. 
 
 Rum for money in Australia, 193. 
 
 Rupee, a silver coin of India, 97, 107, 
 111 ; its origin, 64. 
 
 Russia, copper ingot system of, 199. 
 
 S. C. on Eoman coins, meaning of, 239. 
 Sacramento, the, a mining river, 131. 
 Sacred character of coinage, 162. 
 Salassi, a tribe of gold miners in the 
 
 Alps, 287. 
 Salt money of Abyssinia, 196. 
 Sasu county, gold mines of the, 135. 
 Saxony, silver mines of, 92. 
 Scarabs used for money, 74, 147, 149, 
 
 179, 194. 
 Scarcity of the precious metals in 
 
 Ariana, 124 ; in Mexico, 84, 107. 
 Science of money, 337. 
 Seipion system of money, the, 271. 
 Scruple, a Roman gold coin, 184 ; its 
 
 weight discussed, 272. 
 
 Seals or signets, origin of, 74. 
 
 Seignorage upon moneys, 40, ] 07, 208, 
 236, 251, 330. 
 
 Seleucus Nicatur, invasion of India by, 
 81, 120. 
 
 Semiramis, story of, 119. 
 
 Semiritchinsk, gold mines of, 123. 
 
 Senate, coinage prerogatives of the 
 Roman, 324. 
 
 Servius TuUius, his monetary system, 
 207. 
 
 Sesostris' invasion of India, 79. 
 
 Sesterce, a Roman money, 184, 277. 
 
 Shekel, the, originally a weight, 154. 
 
 Shoa, gold trade of, 134. 
 
 Siam, clay moneys of, 16. 
 
 Sicilian coinage, ratio of copper to 
 silver in the, 229. 
 
 Sidareos, Byzantine iron money, 166. 
 
 Silver, cost of producing, 9 ; exports 
 to India, 71 ; fitful supplies to 
 Rome, 295, 298 ; first great supplies, 
 10 ; how found, 8 ; legal status dur- 
 ing the social wars, 293 ; more 
 valuable than gold, 78 ; position 
 under Julius Csesar, 301 ; scarcity 
 in India, 70; supplies to Rome, 
 from time to time, 246. 
 
 Silver mines of Egypt, 131 ; few 
 opened by Romans, 323 ; of Greece 
 under the Romans, 281, 287 ; of 
 Spain, 78, 260, 261, 305; Roman 
 method of working, 323. 
 
 ores, Indian mode of treating, 85. 
 
 Silver plate owned by Spanish gran- 
 dees, 250. 
 
 Skin moneys, 17, 24, 197. 
 
 Slave money, 332, 342. 
 
 Slaves, Roman, condemned to the 
 mines, 289. 
 
 Slavery, its influence upon supplies of 
 precious metals, 343. 
 
 Smith, Adam, views on money, 345. 
 
 Social characteristics of Phoenician 
 miners, 158. 
 
 Social condition of ancient Egypt, 1 44. 
 
 Socrates on Carthaginian money, 174. 
 
 Sol, sou, or shilling, the, 203. 
 
 Soldiers pay, 220, 249, 261, 296, 317. 
 
 Solon's laws adopted by Eome, 243. 
 
 Somali country, gold mines of, 136. 
 
 Spanish mines, influence of, in Car- 
 thage, 174. 
 
 silver dollar, 201. 
 
 conquerors of America, silver 
 
 spoil of, 250. 
 
 Spain, Caesar appointed prsetor, 290 ; 
 
INDEX. 
 
 357 
 
 its mines controlled by Casar, 290 ; 
 
 predous metals obtained by Romans 
 
 in, 280 ; Roman copper coins in 
 
 modern, 218 ; Roman gold coins in, 
 
 302. 
 Sparta, causes of the decay of its 
 
 numerary system, 340 ; iron money 
 
 of, 163. 
 Spartans, insurrection of, 289. 
 Special contract law of money, 341. 
 '' Specie," ambiguity of the term, 337. 
 Spencer, Herbert, views on money, 
 
 345. 
 Spoils obtained by Cato Uticensis, 
 
 290 ; by Julius fesar, 290 ; by 
 
 Lucullus, 289, 290 ; by Pompey, 
 
 289 ; by Sulla, 289. 
 Stamp mills in Rome, 323. 
 Sterling, origin of the term, 92. 
 Stock of coining metals, influence of^ 
 
 245. 
 of the precious metals, origin of 
 
 the present, 343. 
 Stone money, 49, 74. 
 Stuffed coins, 317, 319. 
 Suakin, gold trade of, 134. 
 Sudden fall in value of gold, 191, 235, 
 
 288. 
 Sugar candy, origin of the term, 195. 
 Sulla, legal status of gold coins under, 
 
 292. 
 Sumatra, gold mines of, 109. 
 Supreme court of United States, its 
 
 opinion upon money, 342. 
 " Suspension of specie payments " in 
 
 Rome, 308. 
 Suspension of Bank of England, 111. 
 Suez Canal, its influence on the equali- 
 zation of prices, 117. 
 Swedish bank notes, 12. 
 
 copper ingot system, 199, 204. 
 
 Swiss lake dwelling, supposed money 
 
 found in a, 160. 
 Sycee silver, 43. 
 Syracuse, overvalued coins of, 169 ; 
 
 copper coins of, 228. 
 
 Tacitus, his guarded use of the term 
 
 "sesterce," 315. 
 Takale district mines of Egypt, 134. 
 Takaze, the, gold mines of, 135. 
 Tank, a copper coin of India, 97. 
 Tankah, a silver coin of India, 96. 
 Tarentum, plunder of, by the Romans, 
 
 231,247. 
 Taurisci Norici, a mining tribe of the 
 
 Alps, 287. 
 
 Taxation in Rome, suspension of, 286. 
 
 Taxation on mines, 221. 
 
 Taxes in kind, 98, 100. 
 
 Ten Commandments, Buddhic, Greek, 
 
 and Hebrew, 243. 
 Tenpenny nails used for money in 
 
 Scotland, 193. 
 Terminology of money, 238, 334. 
 Terra-cotta moneys, 205. 
 Thrace, gold mines of, 161. 
 Tiber, the, floods, 289 ; gold sands, 
 
 205 ; gold mines, 226. 
 Tiberius, last issue of copper sesterces 
 
 by, 309. 
 Timber, destruction of, in Egypt, 
 
 129 ; in Italy, 267. 
 Timur the Tartar, conquest of India 
 
 by, 104. 
 Tin moneys, 16,66, 112, 149, 169, 174. 
 Token coins, 280, 294, 295. 
 Topes, Indian, description of, 86. 
 Tortoise and cowi4e shell types, 19. 
 Tourshas. See Etruscans. 
 Trade with India, character of early, 
 
 85. 
 Treasury (Roman), deposits in, 228 ;, 
 
 power of the senate over, 239 ; rob- 
 beries of, 321. 
 Tributes of the precious metals, 80. 
 Turkish conquest of Egypt, 130. 
 Turkomans in Palestine, monetai-y 
 
 experiment of the, 155. 
 Turnips for money in Philadelphia, 
 
 193. 
 Tuscany, ancient forests of, 267. 
 Twelve Tables, adoption of, in Rome, 
 
 240. 
 Tycho Brahe, views on money, 345. 
 Tyrrhenian invasion of Etruria, 178. 
 
 Underground streams of Egypt, 137. 
 Unit of money, meaning of the phrase, 
 
 337, 341. 
 Unit of value, its signification, 234. 
 United States mint, singular practice 
 
 of the, 279. 
 Urtuki Turkomans. See Turkomans. 
 Usury and interest, 63. 
 
 Valerius Elaccus, monetary law of, 
 
 296. 
 Value due to quantity, 45, 72, 201. 
 Value, theory of, 201. 
 Value and worth, distinction between,. 
 
 274. 
 Vedaic writings, antiquity of, 64. 
 Venetia, ancient canals of, 178. 
 
358 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Venetian trade with the Oi'ient, 91. 
 Venice, paper notes, 11. 
 Veil, capture of, by Komans, 243. 
 Vicarello, baths, coins found in, 180. 
 Vohime and value of money, 305. 
 Vopiscus, on corruption of money, 
 218. 
 
 Wady, an Arabian name for a water- 
 course, 132, 137. 
 
 War, its influence upon the value of 
 money, 296, 311. 
 
 its influence upon supplies of 
 
 jirecious metals, 343. 
 
 Weahh of Athens, 170. 
 
 Wear and tear of moneys, 247. 
 
 Weighing money, practice of during 
 
 the Dark Ages, 342. 
 Weimer, copper ingot system of, 199. 
 " Wild-cat " banks of the American 
 
 states, 253. 
 Wooden moneys, 65, 147, 194, 264. 
 World, estimated quantity of gold 
 
 coins in the, 114. 
 
 Yule, Colonel, his misconception of 
 Indian moneys, 1 02. 
 
 Zeno cited concerning numerary 
 
 moneys, 234. 
 Zinc, or Tutenague, moneys, 113. 
 Zingis Khan. Hce Genghis Khan. 
 
LIST OF MR. DEL MAR'S WRITINGS. 
 
 I. Gold Money and Paper Money — New York, A. D. F. Randolph, 
 1862. Pamphlet. 
 
 II. History and Principles of Taxation — Xew York Social Science 
 Review, 1865. 
 
 III. Es.iays in Political Economy — New York Social Science 
 Review, 1866. 
 
 IV. Statistics of the World — A^'ashington, Government Press, 1866. 
 Pamphlet. 
 
 V. What is Free Trade ? — Kew York ; G. P. Putnam and Son, 
 1867. 12mo. 150 pp. 
 
 VI. Decadence of American Shipbuilding — Washington, Govern- 
 ment Press, 1867. Pamphlet. 
 
 VII. The Whiskey Tax for 100 Years — Published by Congressional 
 Sub-Committee on Retrenchment, 1868. 
 
 Vin. Monthly Statistical Reports on the Commerce, Na'rigation, 
 Trade, Resources, &c., of the Various Counti-ies of the World, from 
 November, 1866, to January, 1869. Washington, Government Press. 
 26 vols. Quarto pamphlets. 
 
 IX. Annual Reports on the Commerce and Navigation of the 
 United States of America, 1865, 1866, 1867, 1868. Washington, 
 Government Press. 4 vols. 8vo. 700 to 800 pp. each. 
 
 X. Operation of the Tariff Laws — Familiarly known as the Sup- 
 pressed Report. Washington, Government Press, 1868 ; Reprint, 1879. 
 
 XI. Letter on the Finances — New York ; Doiiglass Taylor, 1868 
 Pamphlet. 
 
 XII. Seven Essays on the Treasury — New York ; Citizen office, 
 1869. Pamphlets. 
 
 XIII. Finances of the United States — Columbus, Ohio, Statesman 
 oflace, 1870. Pamphlet. 
 
 XIV. Life Lnsurance for Women — New York; Underwriter o^Qe,\S^\. 
 
 XV. History of the Rate of Interest — New York ; Proceedings of 
 the National Insurance Convention, 1872. Pamphlet. 
 
 XVI. Progress of Life Insurance — St. Petersburgh ; Imperial 
 Press, 1872. 
 
 XVII. A Summer Tour in High Latitudes, or Travels in Scandi- 
 navia, Finland, and Russia — New York; AppletorCs Journal, 1873. 
 
 XVIII. Recollections of the Civil Service — New York ; Appleton's 
 Journal, 1874. 
 
 XIX. Agriculture of the World, by Countries — Chicago Times and 
 Inter-Ocean, 1874. 
 
 XX. Resources of Egypt — Philadelphia ; McCalla and Staveley, 
 
 1874. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXI. Resources of ^S^jai'ra^Philadelphia ; MoCalla and Staveley, 
 
 1875. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXII. Agriculture of Prussia — New York ; Wm. Barnes and Co., 
 1875. Pamphlet. 
 
XXIII. Productive Forces of Bavaria — New York; "Win. Barnes 
 and Co., 1875. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXIV. Famishing Portugal — Philadelphia ; Lippincott s Magazine, 
 1876. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXV. Production of Silver in the United States — Washington, 
 Government Press, 1876. 
 
 XXVI. First List of all the Merchant Vessels of the United 
 States of America, with name, rig, tonnage, hailing port, and signal 
 number of each one. Washington, Government Press, 1866 8vo., 300 pp. 
 
 XXVII. Report on the Mines of the Comstock Lode — Washington, 
 Government Press, 1876. 
 
 XXVUI. Essays on the World's Production of Gold and Silver; 
 Relative Value of Gold and Silver; Population and Money ; Demoneti- 
 zation of Silver in Germany ; The French War Lndemnity : Movement 
 of Silver to India ; Metallic Standard of Money in the United States ; 
 Coinage of the United States ; Metallic Standard of Money in the United 
 Kingdom ; Monetary System of Austria- Hungary, and Monetary System 
 of China — Printed in the Report of the U. S. Monetary Commission ; 
 "Washington; Government Press, 1877. 
 
 XXIX. Real History of the Big Bonanza Mines — San Francisco ; 
 Argonaut print, 1878. 
 
 XXX. Bill to Regulate Mining Companies — Argument in California 
 Senate Committee — Sacramento, 1878. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXXI. Insanity and Crime in Mining Countries — San Francisco ; 
 Milling and Scientific Press, 1878. 
 
 XXXII. Usury and the Jews — San Francisco ; I. IST. Choynski, 
 
 1879. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXXni. Theory of Value — San Francisco ; Mining and Scientific 
 Press, 1879. 
 
 XXXIV. The Principles of Imnrance — Argument in California 
 Senate Committee on Corporations — San Francisco ; Bosqui and Co., 
 
 1880. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXXV. History of dioney in Chii/ii—San Francisco ; J. R. Brodie 
 and Co., 1880. Pamphlet. 
 
 XXXVI. History of the Precious Metals — from the Earliest 
 Times to the Present. London; Geo. Bell and Sons, 1880. 8vo., 373 pp. 
 
 XXXVII. Impeachment of the Treasury — New York Sun, October 
 1880. 
 
 XXXVIII. The Gold Drain and Impending Panic — New York 
 Sun, March 15th, 1884. 
 
 XXXIX. Rape of the Earth — or Travels and Researches in the 
 principal Mining Districts of North and South America, Europe, and 
 Africa. In Press. 
 
 XL. Essay on Corporations— San Francisco; Printed by the 
 Mechanics' Institute, 1884. Pamphlet. 
 
 XLI. History of Money in Ancient Countries — from the Earliest 
 Times to the Present. London; Geo. Bell and Sons, 1885. Svo 400 pp 
 
 XLII. The Science of Money. In Press. ' 
 
 XLIII. The Politics of Money. In Press.