STRANGE CURRENCY

Greymouth Evening Star, 30 August 1932, Page 6

STRANGE CURRENCY

WHERE STONES ARE MONEY. . Mr. Walter B. Harris,, in a letter from Tangier to “The Times,” says: In these days of economic confusion and uncertainty it may be interesting to give %. short account of the currency and credit of a very remote island of the Pacific, a spbt difficult of access and almost untouched by foreign influences. I refer to Yap, in the Caroline Archipelago, situated a few degrees north of the equator and 10,000 miles east of the meridian of Greenwich. It was my good, fortune to be able to visit this island a few months ago. Its inhabitants present a very low type of humanity, with their scarred and tattooed bodies and their disfigured features, but they furnish a curious example of the creation of currency and credit that owes its origin to their own retarded intelligence. The islands of the Caroline Archipelago are of either coral or basalt formation and great must have been the surprise of the men of Yap when, ventur-

ing 400 miles to the west in their frail canoes, they came upon an island in the Pelew (Palau) group of entirely different nature —volcanic rock. To them this unknown stone must have appeared of miraculous origin, and they bi’ought back with them to Yap specimens of their discovery. At what period this occurred it is imposible even to surmise. Barter alone existed in the islands. Coconuts were exchanged for taro and fish for breadfruit, and in many places this continues to-day. The arrival, however, of the mysterious stone created a demand. It was of no practical use, no beauty, and no intrinsic value. There was no purpose for which they could employ it, but it became a factor of exchange, a basis for barter, and eventually the standard of all transactions. The islanders had in fact created a currency. Often after long absences and many hardships the men returned having lost their stone. The voyage had been fruitless; the suffering in vain. And

then someone discovered credit! Evidence of the outward voyage, of the cutting of the stone at Palau, of its ar-

rival and shipment on the beach and of the loss at sea sufficed, and the returning islanders who had lost their stone were credited with its possession. Only the material useless object was lost, the effort by which it had been procured remained and the value was in the effort. Every transfer of a stone, or transfer of the credit of a lost tsone, was mentally Registered by the chiefs.

The recent introduction of coinage, though scarcely utilised by the natives, and the monthly passage of a steamer that makes the voyage from Yap to Palau in under two days, have completely upset the currency question in the island, and except in the official “Settlement” the natives have reverted to barter. No more stones come from Palau, but outside the native houses they can still be seen leaning against the walls and are still in use as currency. Shortly before my visit I was told that the authorities were called upon to inscribe in the official folio the dowry given to his daughter by ah island chief—the credit of a stone that had been lost at sea. several generations back by an ancestor; and shortly after the marriage the same non-existing stone was again transferred as the purchase price of a coconut plantation bought by the newlymaiiied couple. I draw no inferences from the economic situation in Yap and I do not know if there are any inferences to be drawn, but comin°- at first hand and so lately on this curious evolution of currency and credit I think it may interest readers of “The Times” to hear of it.